286
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. OCT. 12, 1907.
or indeed were actually writing, those works which
were to earn for them immortal fame. Byron
Shelley, Keats, Carlyle, Maeaulay, and Borrow
were then in early youth or childhood, while the
great Victorian writers FitzGerald, Tennyson,
Browning, Ruskin, Thackeray, Dickens, and the
Brontes were not yet born. In the world 01
art and book illustration Bartolozzi, Rowlandson,
Gillray, Turner, Stothard and Smirke were pro-
ducing those illustrations which have never since
ceased to interest or charm, and some of which
.are now valued by the collector at many times the
prices obtained in 1807."
Cruikshank was then only fifteen years oJ
A glance at a few of the London publish-
ing houses of that date shows us Thomas
Norton Longman the third, reigning at
-"The Black Swan" and "The Ship" in
Paternoster Row, his firm, in addition to
publishing, then engaging extensively in
the old-book trade. A near neighbour of
Edmund Hodgson, at 32, Fleet Street, was
" a very excellent and gentlemanly man
^albeit a bookseller," and one of whom Scott
-wrote as " a young bookseller of capital and
enterprise, and with more good sense and
propriety of sentiment than fall to the share
of most of the trade."
This very excellent and gentlemanly man was John Murray the first, then twenty-five years of age. He had married the year previously Miss Elliot of Edinburgh, and among his publications was Scott's new poem ' Marmion,' of which he held a fourth share, which had been offered to him by Constable. Another near neighbour of Hodgson, at 43, Fleet Street, was Joseph Butterworth, the extensive publisher of law- books, and one of the founders of the British and Foreign Bible Society. It is curious to note that, in the old catalogues of the Hodgsons, solicitors whose libraries were sold anonymously were invariably de- scribed as "respectable " a practice which was discontinued about 1852, when the epithet " eminent " was generally adopted. Another firm of the time was the Rivingtons. In 1807 this was represented by Francis and Charles, the grandsons of the original founder ; they had not then moved into the handsome premises they occupied for many years at 3, Waterloo Place, opposite Smith & Elder's. James Nisbet, the founder of the Berners Street firm, came two years later (1809); he rigidly excluded every publica- tion that was not of a religious character.
Mr. Sidney Hodgson rightly considers that the avidity with which Americans catch up book rarities is largely responsible for the advance in price of choice works in English literature. Well can I remember, as far j
back as 1854, the large purchases made by
them, both for their own private libraries
and for the purposes of sale. British book-
lovers were slow to recognize this, and many
a choice treasure, which should have found
its home either in the private libraries of the
wealthy or in the British Museum, got
shipped off to the United States. Although
we may lament this, we can at the same time
feel proud that the literature of the old
home is so highly valued by our relatives
across the sea.
I have been comparing prices, and, thanks to my friend Mr. Francis Edwards, I am able to quote a few. I have taken the catalogue of Messrs. Willis & Sotheran of 1862 (in the compilation of which Mr. Charles Edmonds, as Mr. Henry Cecil Sotheran in- forms me, took an important share), and compared the prices with those in Mr. J. H. Slater's invaluable ' Book-Prices Current,' 1905-6. The conditions of the works are as nearly as possible the same ; the first price quoted is that of 1862, and the second that of 1905-6.
A fine copy of the First Folio, 1623, the text perfect, but the letterpress title and verses in admirable facsimile, 53Z. ; a copy sold in June, 1906, wanting title, portrait, and verses opposite, and other defects, not subject to return, 24:51. A Second Folio, a good sound copy, 18Z. ; an inferior copy, March, 1906, 40Z.
As regards the original Quarto editions of Shakespeare's works, only two copies of the first separate edition of ' Hamlet ' are known, so that it lies quite beyond the reach of money. The rise in Shakespeare Quartos is well illustrated by ' Henry IV. [Part 1).' This fetched at the Steevens Sale 3Z. 10s., and at the Roxburghe Sale 61. 6s. In 1856 it realized 211. 10s. ; and u the following year the Halliwell copy commanded 75Z. In the sixties Mr. George Daniell valued his copy at 200L ; and if a fine example occurred for sale at the Dresent period, it would probably fetch
- hat sum.
The best Quarto edition of ' Henry V.' is
- hat issued in 1608. At the dispersal of
Steevens's library a copy was knocked down for the insignificant sum of a guinea, but a hundred times that sum might fail to secure a fine example to-day. But the rise in value is shown in a far more marked degree in the case of ' Henry IV. (Part II.).' This was first published in 1600, by Andrew Wise and William Aspley. About a century ago copies could be bought in the saleroom for 2L or 3Z. ; but in 1904 an example was
