It is most fitting that the book holding these Scottish bookplates is a fine copy of the first edition of the great Montrose’s Book, the book which the canting Covenanters hung round that hero’s neck as he proudly trod the bloody scaffold. It is clothed in fine contemporary morocco, richly gilt.
A modern bookplate with nice mantling is that of “Charles Lilburn.” The family hails from the county of Durham. The arms argent, three water-bougets sable. Crest, a dexter arm in armour proper, holding a truncheon or. The motto is “Vis viri fragilis.”
This is in a copy of Montrose Redivivus, or the Portraicture of James, late Marquess of Montrose, ... London: Printed for Jo. Ridley at the Castle in Fleet Street, near Ram-alley, 1652. The water-bouget was a mediæval vessel for carrying water, and was made of two leather pouches appended to a yoke or crossbar.
The “Hampson” plate is, in its way, as good a bookplate as one need wish to see. The clearly cut mantling is tastefully decked with light sprigs of evergreen. The arms are argent, three hemp-brakes sable. The crest is out of a mural crown argent, a greyhound’s head sable collared of the first, rimmed or. Motto: “Nunc aut nunquam.”
Thomas Hampson, the son of Sir Robert Hampson, Knight, and Alderman of the City of London, was created a baronet on June 3rd, 1642. He died in 1655, leaving four sons and five daughters.
The hempbrake, or hackle, was an instrument used for bruising hemp.
The royal plate of Charles I. needs some explanation, as it is not a bookplate. It occupies the first leaf in the full-sized octavo issues in 1649 of Eikon Basilike. In photographing the Throckmorton bookplate the photographer, seeing this also at the beginning of the book, not unnaturally thought that it was a bookplate, and to be illustrated. This need not be regretted. It is a characteristic copy of an Eikon. The surrounding lines are old red ink, and the old ownership signature—
