FOOTNOTES:
[97] Athenæum, February 17, 1872.
REV. THOMAS CORSER, 1793-1876
The Rev. Thomas Corser was the third son of George Corser, banker, of Whitchurch, Shropshire. He was born at Whitchurch in 1793, and received his early education first at the school of his native place, and afterwards at the Manchester Grammar School, from whence he was admitted a commoner of Balliol College, Oxford. He took the degree of B.A. in 1815 and that of M.A. in 1818. In 1816 Corser was ordained to the curacy of Condover, near Shrewsbury, and after filling several other curacies he was appointed in 1826 to the rectory of All Saints' Church, Stand, Manchester, which living he held, together with the vicarage of Norton-by-Daventry in Northamptonshire, for nearly half a century. He died, after a long illness, at Stand Rectory on the 24th of August 1876.
The Rev. T. Corser was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1850, and he was one of the founders of the Chetham Society, for which he edited four works: Chester's Triumph, James's Iter Lancastrense, Robinson's Golden Mirrour, and Collectanea Anglo-Poetica. The last-named work, of which a portion was written by Corser and the remainder by James Crossley, is an elaborate account of Corser's splendid collection of early English poetry.
Corser was one of the most learned and enthusiastic book-collectors of his day, and his noble library contained, besides a wonderful collection of unique and rare editions of the works of the early English poets and dramatists, a fine block-book, 'Apocalypsis Sancti Johannis,' seven Caxtons, and a large number of books printed by Machlinia, Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson, Notary, Redman, and other early English printers. The library also comprised a large number of books of emblems, drolleries, jest-books, garlands, and many other scarce and curious works in all classes of literature. Mr. Corser also possessed a few choice manuscripts.
In 1868 Mr. Corser, in consequence of ill health and failure of his eyesight, which precluded him from the further enjoyment of his books, determined to part with his library, and it was sold in eight parts by Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge. The first portion was sold on the 28th of July 1868, and two following days; and the last portion on June the 25th, 1873, and three following days. There were six thousand two hundred and forty-four lots in the eight sales, and the total amount realised was nineteen thousand seven hundred and eighty-one pounds. Catalogues, with the prices, of all the sales are preserved in the British Museum. The sums obtained for the books were not large. The block-book sold for four hundred and forty-five pounds, and the seven Caxtons—the first edition of the Dictes or Sayings, Tully of Old Age, Knight of the Tower, Golden Legend, Life of Our Lady, Speculum Vitæ Christi, and Fayts of Arms—realised but thirteen hundred and forty-three pounds; the Knight of the Tower and Fayts of Arms fetching the highest prices—five hundred and sixty pounds, and two hundred and fifty pounds. Several of the Caxtons were, however, imperfect. The Dyalogue of Dives and Pauper, 1493, until recently believed to be the first dated book printed by Pynson, brought one hundred and four pounds, and The Recuyles of the historyes of Troye, 1503; Bartholomæus de proprietatibus rerum, about 1495; and The Example of Vertue, 1530, all printed by Wynkyn de Worde, one hundred and fourteen pounds, sixty pounds, and fifty-eight pounds. Mr. Corser's four Shakespeare folios sold for one hundred and sixty pounds, forty-nine pounds, seventy-seven pounds, and twelve pounds, while the first edition of the Sonnets realised forty-five pounds, and the 1636 edition of Venus and Adonis fifty-five pounds. Some other rare books, and the prices obtained for them, were the Sarum Missal, printed at Paris in 1514, eighty-seven pounds; Biblia Pauperum (A. Verard, Paris, about 1503), ninety-nine pounds; Guy de Waruich (Paris, 1525), two hundred and eighty-two pounds; unique copy of an edition of Huon of Bordeaux, thought to have been printed by Pynson, eighty-one pounds; Nurcerie of Names, by Guillam de Warrino (William Warren) (London, 1581), one hundred pounds; Daye's Daphnis and Chloe (London, 1587), unique, sixty pounds; The Three Ladies of London, by W.R. (London, 1592), seventy-six pounds; The Phœnix Nest (London, 1593), sixty-four pounds, ten shillings; Chute's Beawtie Dishonoured (London, 1593), one hundred and five pounds; Maroccus Extaticus, or Bankes Bay Horse (London, 1595), one hundred and ten pounds; the first five editions of Walton's Compleat Angler, one hundred and forty pounds; and twenty early ballads in black letter, bound in a volume, eighty-nine pounds.
The more important manuscripts in the collection were Le Romant des Trois Pelerinages, by Guillaume de Guilleville, written on vellum in the fourteenth century, and ornamented with many illuminations and drawings, two hundred and ten pounds; Bartholomæus De Proprietatibus Rerum, vellum, richly illuminated, fourteenth century, ninety-one pounds; a Poem on the Lord's Prayer, by John Kylyngwyke, vellum, fourteenth century, seventy pounds; Lyf of Oure Lady, by John Lydgate, fifteenth century, written and illuminated on vellum, forty-six pounds; and Officium Beatæ Mariæ Virginis, fifteenth century, illuminated, sixty-four pounds.
Some additional manuscripts and books which had belonged to Mr. Corser were sold after his death, at Manchester, by Capes, Dunn and Pilcher on December the 13th, 1876, and two following days. These realised one thousand four hundred and eight pounds, sixteen shillings and sixpence. Among them was the original manuscript of Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, which fetched sixty guineas.
DAVID LAING, 1793-1878
David Laing, the eminent Scottish antiquary, was the second son of William Laing, a bookseller in Edinburgh, and was born in that city on the 20th of April 1793. He was educated at the Canongate Grammar School, and afterwards attended the Greek classes of Professor Dalzel at the Edinburgh University.[98] At an early age he was apprenticed to his father, and in the year 1821 he entered into partnership with him. His father died in 1832, and David Laing continued to carry on the business until 1837, when, having been elected librarian to the Society of Writers to H.M. Signet, he gave it up, and disposed of his stock by public sale. Laing was Honorary Secretary of the Bannatyne Club from its foundation by Sir Walter Scott in 1823 to its dissolution thirty-eight years later, and himself edited a large number of its publications. He also edited papers for the Spalding, Abbotsford, and Hunterian Clubs, and the Shakespeare and Wodrow Societies; while his contributions to the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, of which he was elected a Fellow in 1826, consisted of upwards of one hundred separate papers. In 1864 the University of Edinburgh conferred on him the degree of LL.D. He died unmarried on the 18th of October 1878.
Laing's life was one of great literary activity, and although he did not produce any large original work, he edited many of the writings of the old Scottish authors. His acquaintance with the early literary and ecclesiastical history, as well as the art and antiquities, of Scotland was very extensive; and Lockhart, in Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk, states that he possessed a 'truly wonderful degree of skill and knowledge in all departments of bibliography.' A list of the various publications issued under his editorial superintendence from 1815 to 1878 inclusive, together with his lectures on Scottish art, appear in a collection of privately printed notices of him edited by T.G. Stevenson, Edinburgh, 1878.
Laing availed himself of his exceptional opportunities to form a very large and fine library, which was particularly rich in books illustrative of the history and literature of Scotland, many of which were of excessive rarity, and several unique. Nearly every publication relating to Mary Queen of Scots was to be found in it. After Laing's death his library, with the exception of his manuscripts, which he bequeathed to the University of Edinburgh, was sold in four portions by Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge.
First Sale—
December 1st, 1879, and ten following days. Three thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine lots = thirteen thousand two hundred and eighty-eight pounds, eight shillings and sixpence.
Second Sale—
April 5th, 1880, and ten following days. Four thousand and eighty-two lots = one thousand seven hundred and thirty-eight pounds, three shillings.
Third Sale—
July 20th, 1880, and four following days. Two thousand four hundred and forty-three lots = seven hundred and seventy-one pounds, nine shillings and sixpence.
Fourth Sale—
February 21st, 1881, and three following days. One thousand four hundred and nineteen lots = seven hundred and thirty-eight pounds, eighteen shillings.
Large prices were obtained for many of the books, especially for the early ones printed in Scotland.
The following are a few of the rarest of the volumes, together with the amounts for which they were sold:—
A Roman Breviary on vellum, printed by N. Jenson at Venice in 1482, and ornamented with borders to the pages, drawn by a pen, ninety-three pounds; Lo Doctrinal de Sapiensa, in the Catalan dialect, by Guy de Roye, printed about 1495, one hundred pounds; Missale pro usu totius Regni Norvegiæ (Haffniæ, 1519), with the arms and cypher of the King of Denmark on the back of the binding, one hundred and thirty-two pounds; The Falle of Princis, etc., by Boccaccio, translated by John Lydgate, and printed by Pynson in 1527, seventy-eight pounds; The Catechisme of Archbishop Hamilton, printed at 'Sanct Androus' in 1552, one hundred and forty-eight pounds; Tractate concerning ye Office and Dewtie of Kyngis, etc., written by William Lauder, and printed by John Scott at Edinburgh in 1556, seventy-seven pounds; Confessione della Fede Christiana, by Theodore Beza, printed in 1560, containing the autograph of Sir James Melville, and having MARIA R. SCOTOR[=V] stamped in gold on each cover, one hundred and forty-nine pounds; The Forme and Maner of Examination before the Admission to ye Tabill of ye Lord, usit by ye Ministerie of Edinburge (Edinburgh, 1581), seventy pounds; the first edition of the author's corrected text of Don Quixote (Madrid, 1608), together with the first edition of the second part (Madrid, 1615), one hundred and ninety-two pounds; dedication copy to King Charles II. of the Institutions of the Law of Scotland, by Sir James Dalrymple of Stair, afterwards Viscount Stair, two volumes (Edinburgh, 1681), in a remarkably fine contemporary Scotch binding, with the royal arms in gold on the covers, two hundred and ninety-five pounds; a first edition of Robinson Crusoe, three volumes (London, 1719-20), thirty-one pounds; one of the twelve copies, printed at a cost of upwards of ten thousand pounds, of the Botanical Tables of the Earl of Bute, nine volumes, with the arms of the Earl impressed in gold on the bindings, seventy-seven pounds; the first edition of Burns's Poems (Kilmarnock, 1786), with lines in the autograph of Burns, and a letter from J.G. Lockhart, ninety pounds; and a fine collection of Scots Ballads and Broadsides, one hundred and thirty in number, issued between 1669 and 1730, many of great rarity, one hundred and thirty-three pounds. Laing left a collection of drawings to the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, of which he had been elected Honorary Professor of Ancient History and Antiquities in 1856. His prints were sold by Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge on the 21st of February 1880, in two hundred and thirteen lots, and realised two hundred and seventy pounds, thirteen shillings.