consider the purchase by the nation of Dr. Burney's library. There being a vacancy in the representation of Oxford in 1821, he again became a candidate, and was elected member for the university against Sir J. Nicholl (Lord Colchester, Diary, ii. 234). In the same year he served as sheriff of Shropshire (J. B. Blakeway, Sheriffs of Shropshire, 1831, p. 242). J. L. Adolphus addressed to him his ‘Critical Remarks on the “Waverley Novels,”’ 1821. Heber was created D.C.L. by his university, 19 June 1822. In 1824 he was one of the founders of the Athenæum Club. Although a silent member of parliament, he was constant in attendance and in his duties on committees, but while at Brussels in 1826 he resigned his seat. He remained abroad until 1831, when he returned to England; with the exception of visits to sale-rooms and booksellers' shops, he lived secluded at Hodnet or Pimlico. He died at his house at Pimlico, 4 Oct. 1833, in his sixty-first year, and was buried at Hodnet on 16 Nov. following.
In person Heber was tall, strong, and well made, and until his last illness he was of robust health. He was very near-sighted. In general society, as well as in familiar company, his manners were most winning. His literary and bibliographical knowledge was equalled by few of his contemporaries, and he had a marvellous memory. He travelled extensively, mainly in search of books. His correspondence with booksellers and auctioneers both at home and abroad was very great; but he purchased in all methods, at one time a whole library of thirty thousand books at Paris. He detested large-paper copies, as taking up too much room on the shelves. He was a born book-collector. Dibdin saw a catalogue of his books compiled at the age of eight. When ten years old he requested his father to buy some volumes at a certain sale, where ‘there would be the best editions of the classics.’ His neatly written flyleaf memoranda are familiar to all book-buyers. Specimens of his notes may be seen in a ‘Terence,’ 1567, and Daniel's ‘Poeme on the Earle of Devonshyre’ [1606], at the British Museum. He was in the habit of buying copy after copy of works which took his fancy, and was unusually generous in lending his treasures. ‘No gentleman can be without three copies of a book’ was his saying, ‘one for show, one for use, and one for borrowers.’ ‘The fiercest and strongest of all the bibliomaniacs,’ as Campbell called him (Life by Beattir, ii. 305), with ‘volumes open as thy heart’ (Scott, Introduction to Marmion), was described by Dibdin as Atticus who ‘unites all the activity of De Witt and Lomenie, with the retentiveness of Magliabecchi and the learning of Lelong’ (Bibliomania, i. 131).
He was unmarried, although there was a talk of a match between him and Miss Frances Mary Richardson Currer [q. v.] It was thought probable that a portion at least of his literary treasures would have been left to some public institution. After a long search, his will, dated 1 Sept. 1827, was found by Dibdin (see Reminiscences, i. 440–5) hidden away on a shelf. The will disposed of property valued at 200,000l., but not a word was said about the books. Yet when he died he possessed eight houses full of them, overflowing all the rooms, chairs, tables, and passages—two in London, one at Hodnet, one in the High Street of Oxford, others at Paris, Brussels, Antwerp, and Ghent, besides numerous smaller hoards in other parts of the continent. Heber's enormous collections were dispersed in a memorable series of sales lasting over three years. The books in England were sold by Sotheby & Son, Evans, & Wheatley, under the superintendence of Payne & Foss, and fetched 56,774l. The catalogue is in twelve parts, 8vo, 1834–6. The fourth part contained the greater portion of his English poetry and works connected with the progress of the English language and literature. This was the feature of his library of which he was most proud. Some copies of this part were issued with a separate title and preface in 1834; the notes were written by J. P. Collier. There was also a sale at Ghent in 1835 of the books, mostly in fine condition, housed by Heber in that city. The catalogue of this sale (Gand, 1835, 8vo), and those describing the books sold at Paris in 1834 and 1835, compiled by Silvestre, are necessary to complete the set of the ‘Bibliotheca Heberiana.’ The books sold on the continent, the coins and drawings, brought about 10,000l. The total cost to Heber of all his purchases is supposed to have been about 100,000l. Dibdin estimated the total number of Heber's collections in England to have amounted to 127,500 vols. Allibone calculated more precisely that the books in England numbered 113,195 volumes, those brought from Holland 3,632 volumes, while Boulard's library, purchased and kept in Paris, included 30,000 volumes, making a total of 146,827 volumes (Critical Dictionary of English Literature, 1859, i. 816). This does not include an immense number of pamphlets and an unknown quantity of books stowed away in all quarters of Europe. Perhaps no man ever collected such vast accumulations of choice volumes.
The following were edited by him: 1. ‘Auli
