The finest and most select, and perhaps the most extensive, collection of books owned by any member of the Roxburghe Club is the noble library of Mr. Huth, whose father, the late Henry Huth, founded it. A very interesting account of this library, from two points of view—Mr. F. S. Ellis's and Mr. A. H. Huth's—appears in Part II. of Quaritch's 'Dictionary of English Book-collectors,' whilst the fullest account of all the rarities which it contains is comprised in the catalogue in five imperial octavo volumes. It is impossible to do justice to it in the brief space at our disposal. But a few rarities may be enumerated as showing its extremely varied nature. Nearly all the early printers are represented in the Huth Library—there are the Gutenberg and Fust and Schœffer Bibles; the Balbi Catholicon, 1460; there are over seventy Aldines, including the rare Virgil of 1501, with the bookplate of Bilibald Pirkheimer. There are no less than a dozen fine examples of Caxton's press; the only known copy on vellum of the 'Fructus Temporum' of the St. Albans press; about fifty works from the press of Wynkyn de Worde, of which several are unique; and sixteen works printed by Richard Pynson. Of Shakespeare quartos the late Mr. Huth secured a very fine series at the Daniel sale in 1864, including 'Richard II.,' 1597; 'Henry V.,' 1600; 'Richard III.,' 1597; 'Romeo and Juliet,' 1599; 'Midsummer Night's Dream,' 1600; 'Merchant of Venice,' 1600; 'Merrie Wives of Windsor,' 1602; 'Othello,' 1622; 'Titus Andronicus,' 1611; and 'Pericles,' 1609. The library is equally rich in the production of Elizabethan and Jacobean literature, many of the items being either unique or very nearly so; it is especially rich in first editions of the English poets from the earliest times down to Goldsmith, Keats, Shelley, etc. Indeed, the collection seems to contain the first or best editions of every English work of note; there are many fine manuscripts, and some highly interesting autographs. Mr. Ellis tells us that Mr. Huth always bought on his own judgment, without consultation and without hesitation, 'and I believe it may be safely affirmed that it would be difficult to name any collector who made fewer errors in his selection. He was never known to bargain for a book or to endeavour to cheapen it. The price named, he would at once say 'Yea' or 'Nay' to it, and though it was supposed at the time that he paid high prices for his books, it may be confidently asserted that as a whole they are worth very much more than he paid for them, which, I think, could not have been much less altogether than £120,000.' Joseph Lilly is said to have sold to or purchased for Mr. Huth books to the value of over £40,000. Mr. Huth was born in 1815, and died in 1878. The library is, as we have said, now the property of his son, Mr. Alfred H. Huth, who has made a number of important additions to it, and who is as ardent and as genuine a bibliophile as his father.
Without approaching either in size or interest to that of Mr. Huth, the choice collection of books formed by Mr. Henry Hucks Gibbs, and lodged at his town-house at St. Dunstan's, Regent's Park, is full of attraction to the student of English literature. Early in the present century St. Dunstan's was inhabited by the Lord Steyne of Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair,' and it was here that the orgies took place which resulted in the sensational trial of Nicholas Suisse, the confidant of Lord Hertford. The library at St. Dunstan's is a lofty, well-lighted room of about 28 feet by 20 feet, and the bookcases are made of Thuya wood from Australia, a wood which is exceedingly beautiful when polished. Mr. Gibbs's first book of note was purchased at Bright's sale in 1845, and was St. Augustine's 'De Arte Predicandi,' a volume of twenty-two leaves, and of well-known interest to students of early typography. Of Bibles there are over fifty examples, including Coverdale's, 1535, Matthew's, 1537, Cromwell's, 1539, a very large copy, and Cranmer's, 1540. The fine series of Prayer-Books comprises forty-seven in English, from the time of Edward VI. (1549) to that of Queen Victoria, whilst thirty-five others are in foreign languages. There are nine Primers from the time of Henry VIII. to Elizabeth; and there are no fewer than thirty-one editions of the New Testament. Examples of some of the choicest known Books of Hours and Missals are also in this collection, whilst among the six editions of the 'Imitatio Christi' there is a sixteenth-century manuscript on two hundred and forty-seven folios of paper, written by Francis Montpoudie de Weert, for the use of Bruynix, Priest, Dean of Christianity. Among the incunabula there is a very large copy of the 'Chronicon Nurembergense,' 1495, and two Caxtons: first, the 'Polychronicon' of Ralph Higden, 1482; and, secondly, the 'Golden Legend,' 1483, which latter was successively in the Towneley and the Glendening collections. The other more notable articles include fine copies of the four Folio Shakespeares, first editions of Milton's 'Comus,' 'Lycidas,' 'Eikonoklastes,' 'Paradise Lost,' and 'Paradise Regained,' several Spensers, and very complete sets of the privately-printed books edited by the Rev. A. B. Grosart, Halliwell-Phillipps, H. Huth, E. Arber, and E. W. Ashbee. A very interesting catalogue raisonné of Mr. Gibbs's choice library has been printed, to which the reader is referred for further particulars.
Just as the minds of no two men run in precisely similar grooves, so no two libraries are found to be identical. Many bear a very striking resemblance to one another, but in more than one respect they will be found to differ. The splendid library formed by Mr. R. Copley Christie, the president or past-president of quite a number of learned societies, is altogether unique, so far as this country is concerned, and his library in a garden—truly the summum bonum of human desires!—at Ribsden, near Bagshot, is certainly one of the most remarkable which it has been our privilege to examine. Mr. Christie has not endeavoured to collect everything, but he has no rival in the specialities to which he has devoted his particular attention. He is the author of the only complete monograph on Etienne Dolet, which has been translated into French, and of which M. Goblet, when Minister of Public Instruction, caused 250 copies to be purchased for distribution among the public libraries of France. Of the eighty-four books (many of which are now lost) printed by Dolet, there are three collections worthy of the name, and the relative value of these will be seen when we state that Mr. Christie possesses copies of forty-four, the Bibliothèque Nationale thirty, and the British Museum twenty-five. Mr. Christie's collection of the editions of Horace is probably the finest in existence outside one or two public libraries; he has about 800 volumes, and among these are translations into nearly every European language. He has upwards of 300 Aldines, nearly forty of which are editiones principes. The works of the early French printers generally are objects of special interest; he has, for example, about 400 volumes printed by Sebastian Gryphius, at Lyons, from 1528 to 1556. Mr. Christie's library is also very rich in works of or relating to Pomponatius, Hortensio Landi, Postel, Ramus, J. Sturm, Scioppius, Giulio Camillo, and particularly Giordano Bruno.
A considerable number of the members of the Roxburghe Club come in the category of book-lovers rather than book-collectors. The Earl of Rosebery is understood to possess many valuable books and manuscripts relating to Scottish literature, particularly in reference to Robert Burns; but beyond this he has no fixed rule regarding additions to his library, 'except his course of reading for the moment.' The father of the present Lord Zouche formed a small but valuable library, which is now at Parham Park, Steyning, Sussex; it consists of some rare Syriac, Greek, Coptic, Bulgarian, and other manuscripts, of a Biblical nature, some of which are now on loan to the British Museum. In addition to these, there are a good many early printed books, first editions, and so forth, and also an extensive reference library, to which the present Lord Zouche has made some important additions. The extensive library of the Marquis of Bath, at Longleat, Warminster, has been formed at different times and by different persons; and what the present holder of the title has added has been bought without any method on various subjects in which his Grace happened to take an interest at the time. Sir John Evans's library is for the most part comprised of archæological, numismatical, and geological publications, with a certain number of old volumes 'which, though of intrinsic interest, cannot be regarded as bibliographical treasures.' Both Sir William Reynell Anson and the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, M.P., possess good working libraries, but disclaim the possession of what are known as 'collector's' books. The present Marquis of Bute possesses several extensive libraries of books at his various seats, and chiefly composed of works relating to Scottish history, to liturgical, philological, and archæological subjects. The first Marquis of Bute formed an excellent collection of Spanish, Italian, and French classics, of books of memoirs, and of works relating to the English Reformation. The third Marquis formed another library, chiefly of a historical character, an exceedingly important portion of it being an extensive series of books and pamphlets relating to the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune. The Duke of Buccleuch has also several fine libraries at his various seats, the chief collections being at Dalkeith and Bowhill, Selkirk; his Grace keeps very few books in London. The books at Dalkeith have been catalogued by Mr. A. H. Bullen, who proposes to print some notes on the subject.
The Duke of Devonshire's library at Chatsworth is one of the most varied and extensive in the kingdom. An admirable catalogue of it was printed in four volumes in 1879, and its value as a bibliographical compilation may be estimated by the fact that the only copy which occurred in the market during the past eight years fetched £10. The library has been formed by the taste and learning of several generations of the Cavendish family, from the middle of the sixteenth century to the present day. The rarest book which it contains is the 'Liber Veritatis,' or collection of original designs of Claude Lorraine. The greatest additions were made to the library by William Spencer, sixth Duke, who, indeed, may be called its founder in its present form. This nobleman, on the advice of Tom Payne, offered £20,000 for the purchase of Count McCarthy's celebrated collection. The offer was declined, but the Duke was a purchaser to the extent of £10,000 of the choicer portions of the library of Thomas Dampier, Bishop of Ely, composed, for the most part, of Greek and Latin classics. The Duke bought largely at the Stanley, Horn Tooke, Towneley, Edwards, and Roxburghe sales. The library possesses the unique collection of plays formed by John Philip Kemble, and for which £2,000 were paid in 1821. The chief features of the library comprise a fine series of the editions of the Bible and of Boccaccio; there are also twenty-three works of Caxton, the most extensive in private hands, now that the Althorp collection has, or is about to, become public property. There are two dozen books from the press of Wynkyn de Worde, and no less than 200 editions of Cicero, including a magnificent copy of the editio princeps.
