[88] As for the "singeing."--or the reputed story of the greater part of them having been burnt--my opinion still continues to be as implied above: I will only now say that FORTUNATE is that Vendor who can obtain 25l. for a copy--be that copy brown or fair.
[89] [My friend, the late Robert Lang, Esq. whose extraordinary Collection of Romances was sold at the close of the preceding year, often told me, that THE ABOVE was the only Romance which he wanted to complete his Collection.]
[90] Page 164, ante.
[91] [Because I have said that M. FLOCON was "from home" at the time I visited the library, and that M. Le CHEVALIER was rarely to be found abroad, M. Crapelet lets loose such a tirade of vituperation as is downright marvellous and amusing to peruse. Most assuredly I was not to know M. Flocon's bibliographical achievements and distinction by inspiration; and therefore I hasten to make known both the one and the other--in a version of a portion of the note of my sensitive translator: "M. Flocon is always at work; and one of the most zealous Librarians in Paris: he has worked twenty years at a Catalogue of the immense Library of Ste. Geneviève, of which the fruits are, twenty-four volumes--ready for press. Assuredly such a man cannot be said to pass his life away from his post." CRAPELET, vol iv. p. 3, 4. Most true--and who has said that HE DOES? Certainly not the Author of this Work. My translator must have here read without his spectacles.]
[92] Editiones Italicæ; 1793. Præf.
[93] Vol. i. p. 63-7. It is there observed that "there does not seem to be any reason for assigning this edition, to a Roman press."
[94] See page 116 ante
[95] See page 139 ante.
[96] See page 145 ante.
[97] [Now the property of the Right Hon. T. Grenville; having been purchased at the sale of Mr. Dent's Library for 107l.]