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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1302 ***
+
+THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS
+
+By William Blades
+
+
+_Revised and Enlarged by the Author_
+
+SECOND EDITION
+
+LONDON ELLIOT STOCK, 62 PATERNOSTER ROW
+
+1888
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+  ae, L, e, <_:>, OE, <_/_>, '0, and n  "Larsen" encodes.
+  eS = superscripted e (16th cent. english on p9 needs proofed!)
+  <oe > denotes words in 'olde englishe font'
+  "Emphasis" _italics_ have a * mark.
+  Footnotes [#] have not been re-numbered, they are moved to EOParagraph.
+  Greek letters are encoded in <gr > brackets, and the letters are
+  based on Adobe's Symbol font.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+  CHAPTER I.
+
+  FIRE.
+
+  Libraries destroyed by Fire.--Alexandrian.--St. Paul's destruction
+  of MSS., Value of.--Christian books destroyed by Heathens.--Heathen
+  books destroyed by Christians.--Hebrew books burnt at Cremona.--Arabic
+  books at Grenada.--Monastic libraries.--Colton library.--Birmingham
+  riots.--Dr. Priestley's library.--Lord Mansfield's books.--Cowper.
+  --Strasbourg library bombarded.--Offor Collection burnt.--Dutch
+  Church library damaged.--Library of Corporation of London.
+
+  CHAPTER II.
+
+  WATER.
+
+  Heer Hudde's library lost at sea.--Pinelli's library captured
+  by Corsairs.--MSS. destroyed by Mohammed II--Books damaged by
+  rain.--Woffenbuttel.--Vapour and Mould.--Brown stains.--Dr.
+  Dibdin.--Hot water pipes.--Asbestos fire.--Glass doors to bookcases.
+
+  CHAPTER III.
+
+  GAS AND HEAT.
+
+  Effects of Gas on leather.--Necessitates re-binding.--Bookbinders.--Electric
+  light.--British Museum.--Treatment of books.--Legend of Friars and
+  their books.
+
+  CHAPTER IV.
+
+  DUST AND NEGLECT.
+
+  Books should have gilt tops.--Old libraries were neglected.--Instance
+  of a College library.--Clothes brushed in it.--Abuses in French
+  libraries.--Derome's account of them.--Boccaccio's story of
+  library at the Convent of Mount Cassin.
+
+  CHAPTER V.
+
+  IGNORANCE AND BIGOTRY.
+
+  Destruction of Books at the Reformation.--Mazarin library.--Caxton
+  used to light the fire.--Library at French Protestant Church,
+  St. Martin's-le-Grand.--Books stolen.--Story of books from Thonock
+  Hall.--Boke of St. Albans.--Recollet Monks of Antwerp.--Shakespearian
+  "find."--Black-letter books used in W.C.--Gesta Romanorum.--Lansdowne
+  collection.--Warburton.--Tradesman and rare book.--Parish Register.--Story
+  of Bigotry by M. Muller.--Clergymen destroy books.--Patent Office sell
+  books for waste.
+
+  CHAPTER VI.
+
+  THE BOOKWORM.
+
+  Doraston.--Not so destructive as of yore.--Worm won't eat
+  parchment.--Pierre Petit's poem.--Hooke's account and image.--Its
+  natural history neglected.--Various sorts--Attempts to breed
+  Bookworms.--Greek worm.--Havoc made by worms.--Bodleian and Dr.
+  Bandinel.--"Dermestes."--Worm won't eat modern paper.--America
+  comparatively free.--Worm-hole at Philadelphia.
+
+  CHAPTER VII.
+
+  OTHER VERMIN.
+
+  Black-beetle in American libraries.--germanica.--Bug Bible.--Lepisma.
+  --Codfish.--Skeletons of Rats in Abbey library, Westminster.--Niptus
+  hololeucos.--Tomicus Typographicus.--House flies injure books.
+
+  CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  BOOKBINDERS.
+
+  A good binding gives pleasure.--Deadly effects of the "plough" as used
+  by binders.--Not confined to bye-gone times.--Instances of injury.--De
+  Rome, a good binder but a great cropper.--Books "hacked."--Bad
+  lettering--Treasures in book-covers.--Books washed, sized, and
+  mended.--"Cases" often Preferable to re-binding.
+
+  CHAPTER IX.
+
+  COLLECTORS.
+
+  Bagford the biblioclast.--Illustrations torn from MSS.--Title-pages
+  torn from books.--Rubens, his engraved titles.--Colophons torn out of
+  books.--Lincoln Cathedral--Dr. Dibdin's Nosegay.--Theurdanck.--Fragments
+  of MSS.--Some libraries almost useless.--Pepysian.--Teylerian.--Sir
+  Thomas Phillipps.
+
+  CHAPTER X.
+
+  SERVANTS AND CHILDREN.
+
+  Library invaded for the purpose of dusting.--Spring clean.---Dust to be
+  got rid of.--Ways of doing so.--Carefulness praised.--Bad nature of
+  certain books--Metal clasps and rivets.--How to dust.--Children
+  often injure books.--Examples.--Story of boys in a country library.
+
+  POSTSCRIPTUM.
+
+  Anecdote of book-sale in Derbyshire.
+
+  CONCLUSION.
+
+  The care that should be taken of books.--Enjoyment derived from them.
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+  SERVANT USING A "CAXTON" TO LIGHT THE FIRE --- _Frontispiece_,
+
+  PIRATES THROWING LIBRARY OVER-BOARD ---------- page 19
+
+  FRIARS AND THEIR ASS-LOAD -------------------- 35
+
+  BRUSHING CLOTHES IN A COLLEGE LIBRARY -------- 45
+
+  BOOKWORMS ------------------------------------ 73
+
+  RATS DESTROYING BOOKS ------------------------ 99
+
+  HOUSEHOLD FLY-DAMAGE ------------------------- 102
+
+  BOYS RAMPANT IN LIBRARY ---------------------- 141
+
+
+
+
+
+THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. FIRE.
+
+THERE are many of the forces of Nature which tend to injure Books; but
+among them all not one has been half so destructive as Fire. It would
+be tedious to write out a bare list only of the numerous libraries and
+bibliographical treasures which, in one way or another, have been
+seized by the Fire-king as his own. Chance conflagrations, fanatic
+incendiarism, judicial bonfires, and even household stoves have, time
+after time, thinned the treasures as well as the rubbish of past ages,
+until, probably, not one thousandth part of the books that have been are
+still extant. This destruction cannot, however, be reckoned as all loss;
+for had not the "cleansing fires" removed mountains of rubbish from our
+midst, strong destructive measures would have become a necessity from
+sheer want of space in which to store so many volumes.
+
+Before the invention of Printing, books were comparatively scarce; and,
+knowing as we do, how very difficult it is, even after the steam-press
+has been working for half a century, to make a collection of half a
+million books, we are forced to receive with great incredulity the
+accounts in old writers of the wonderful extent of ancient libraries.
+
+The historian Gibbon, very incredulous in many things, accepts without
+questioning the fables told upon this subject. No doubt the libraries
+of MSS. collected generation after generation by the Egyptian Ptolemies
+became, in the course of time, the most extensive ever then known;
+and were famous throughout the world for the costliness of their
+ornamentation, and importance of their untold contents. Two of these
+were at Alexandria, the larger of which was in the quarter called
+Bruchium. These volumes, like all manuscripts of those early ages, were
+written on sheets of parchment, having a wooden roller at each end
+so that the reader needed only to unroll a portion at a time. During
+Caesar's Alexandrian War, B.C. 48, the larger collection was consumed
+by fire and again burnt by the Saracens in A.D. 640. An immense loss was
+inflicted upon mankind thereby; but when we are told of 700,000, or even
+500,000 of such volumes being destroyed we instinctively feel that such
+numbers must be a great exaggeration. Equally incredulous must we be
+when we read of half a million volumes being burnt at Carthage some
+centuries later, and other similar accounts.
+
+Among the earliest records of the wholesale destruction of Books is that
+narrated by St. Luke, when, after the preaching of Paul, many of the
+Ephesians "which used curious arts brought their books together, and
+burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and
+found it 50,000 pieces of silver" (Acts xix, 19). Doubtless these books
+of idolatrous divination and alchemy, of enchantments and witchcraft,
+were righteously destroyed by those to whom they had been and might
+again be spiritually injurious; and doubtless had they escaped the fire
+then, not one of them would have survived to the present time, no MS. of
+that age being now extant. Nevertheless, I must confess to a certain
+amount of mental disquietude and uneasiness when I think of books worth
+50,000 denarii--or, speaking roughly, say L18,750,[1] of our modern
+money being made into bonfires. What curious illustrations of early
+heathenism, of Devil worship, of Serpent worship, of Sun worship, and
+other archaic forms of religion; of early astrological and chemical
+lore, derived from the Egyptians, the Persians, the Greeks; what
+abundance of superstitious observances and what is now termed
+"Folklore"; what riches, too, for the philological student, did those
+many books contain, and how famous would the library now be that could
+boast of possessing but a few of them.
+
+
+[1] The received opinion is that the "pieces of silver" here mentioned
+were Roman denarii, which were the silver pieces then commonly used in
+Ephesus. If now we weigh a denarius against modern silver, it is exactly
+equal to ninepence, and fifty thousand times ninepence gives L1,875.
+It is always a difficult matter to arrive at a just estimate of the
+relative value of the same coin in different ages; but reckoning that
+money then had at least ten times the purchasing value of money now, we
+arrive at what was probably about the value of the magical books burnt,
+viz.: L18,750.
+
+The ruins of Ephesus bear unimpeachable evidence that the City was very
+extensive and had magnificent buildings. It was one of the free cities,
+governing itself. Its trade in shrines and idols was very extensive,
+being spread through all known lands. There the magical arts were
+remarkably prevalent, and notwithstanding the numerous converts made by
+the early Christians, the <gr 'Efesia grammata>, or little scrolls upon
+which magic sentences were written, formed an extensive trade up to
+the fourth century. These "writings" were used for divination, as a
+protection against the "evil eye," and generally as charms against all
+evil. They were carried about the person, so that probably thousands of
+them were thrown into the flames by St. Paul's hearers when his glowing
+words convinced them of their superstition.
+
+Imagine an open space near the grand Temple of Diana, with fine
+buildings around. Slightly raised above the crowd, the Apostle,
+preaching with great power and persuasion concerning superstition, holds
+in thrall the assembled multitude. On the outskirts of the crowd are
+numerous bonfires, upon which Jew and Gentile are throwing into
+the flames bundle upon bundle of scrolls, while an Asiarch with his
+peace-officers looks on with the conventional stolidity of policemen
+in all ages and all nations. It must have been an impressive scene, and
+many a worse subject has been chosen for the walls of the Royal Academy.
+
+Books in those early times, whether orthodox or heterodox, appear to
+have had a precarious existence. The heathens at each fresh outbreak of
+persecution burnt all the Christian writings they could find, and the
+Christians, when they got the upper hand, retaliated with interest upon
+the pagan literature. The Mohammedan reason for destroying books--"If
+they contain what is in the Koran they are superfluous, and if they
+contain anything opposed to it they are immoral," seems, indeed,
+_mutatis mutandis_, to have been the general rule for all such
+devastators.
+
+The Invention of Printing made the entire destruction of any author's
+works much more difficult, so quickly and so extensively did books
+spread through all lands. On the other hand, as books multiplied, so did
+destruction go hand in hand with production, and soon were printed books
+doomed to suffer in the same penal fires, that up to then had been fed
+on MSS. only.
+
+At Cremona, in 1569, 12,000 books printed in Hebrew were publicly burnt
+as heretical, simply on account of their language; and Cardinal Ximenes,
+at the capture of Granada, treated 5,000 copies of the Koran in the same
+way.
+
+At the time of the Reformation in England a great destruction of books
+took place. The antiquarian Bale, writing in 1587, thus speaks of the
+shameful fate of the Monastic libraries:--
+
+
+"A greate nombre of them whyche purchased those superstycyouse mansyons
+(_Monasteries_) reserved of those librarye bookes some to serve their
+jakes, some to scoure theyr candelstyckes, and some to rubbe theyr
+bootes. Some they solde to the grossers and sope sellers, and some they
+sent over see to yeS booke bynders, not in small nombre, but at tymes
+whole shyppes full, to yeS, wonderynge of foren nacyons. Yea yeS.
+Universytees of thys realme are not alle clere in thys detestable fact.
+But cursed is that bellye whyche seketh to be fedde with suche ungodlye
+gaynes, and so depelye shameth hys natural conterye. I knowe a merchant
+manne, whych shall at thys tyme be namelesse, that boughte yeS contentes
+of two noble lybraryes for forty shyllynges pryce: a shame it is to be
+spoken. Thys stuffe hathe heoccupyed in yeS stede of greye paper, by
+yeS, space of more than these ten yeares, and yet he bathe store ynoughe
+for as manye years to come. A prodygyous example is thys, and to be
+abhorred of all men whyche love theyr nacyon as they shoulde do. The
+monkes kepte them undre dust, yeS, ydle-headed prestes regarded them
+not, theyr latter owners have most shamefully abused them, and yeS
+covetouse merchantes have solde them away into foren nacyons for
+moneye."
+
+
+How the imagination recoils at the idea of Caxton's translation of the
+Metamorphoses of Ovid, or perhaps his "Lyf of therle of Oxenforde,"
+together with many another book from our first presses, not a fragment
+of which do we now possess, being used for baking "pyes."
+
+At the Great Fire of London in 1666, the number of books burnt was
+enormous. Not only in private houses and Corporate and Church libraries
+were priceless collections reduced to cinders, but an immense stock
+of books removed from Paternoster Row by the Stationers for safety was
+burnt to ashes in the vaults of St. Paul's Cathedral.
+
+Coming nearer to our own day, how thankful we ought to be for the
+preservation of the Cotton Library. Great was the consternation in the
+literary world of 1731 when they heard of the fire at Ashburnham House,
+Westminster, where, at that time, the Cotton MSS. were deposited. By
+great exertions the fire was conquered, but not before many MSS. had
+been quite destroyed and many others injured. Much skill was shown
+in the partial restoration of these books, charred almost beyond
+recognition; they were carefully separated leaf by leaf, soaked in a
+chemical solution, and then pressed flat between sheets of transparent
+paper. A curious heap of scorched leaves, previous to any treatment, and
+looking like a monster wasps' nest, may be seen in a glass case in the
+MS. department of the British Museum, showing the condition to which
+many other volumes had been reduced.
+
+Just a hundred years ago the mob, in the "Birmingham Riots," burnt the
+valuable library of Dr. Priestley, and in the "Gordon Riots" were burnt
+the literary and other collections of Lord Mansfield, the celebrated
+judge, he who had the courage first to decide that the Slave who reached
+the English shore was thenceforward a free man. The loss of the latter
+library drew from the poet Cowper two short and weak poems. The poet
+first deplores the destruction of the valuable printed books, and then
+the irretrievable loss to history by the burning of his Lordship's many
+personal manuscripts and contemporary documents.
+
+      "Their pages mangled, burnt and torn,
+          The loss was his alone;
+      But ages yet to come shall mourn
+          The burning of his own."
+
+
+The second poem commences with the following doggerel:--
+
+      "When Wit and Genius meet their doom
+          In all-devouring Flame,
+      They tell us of the Fate of Rome
+          And bid us fear the same."
+
+
+The much finer and more extensive library of Dr. Priestley was left
+unnoticed and unlamented by the orthodox poet, who probably felt a
+complacent satisfaction at the destruction of heterodox books, the owner
+being an Unitarian Minister.
+
+The magnificent library of Strasbourg was burnt by the shells of the
+German Army in 1870. Then disappeared for ever, together with other
+unique documents, the original records of the famous law-suits between
+Gutenberg, one of the first Printers, and his partners, upon the right
+understanding of which depends the claim of Gutenberg to the invention
+of the Art. The flames raged between high brick walls, roaring louder
+than a blast furnace. Seldom, indeed, have Mars and Pluto had so dainty
+a sacrifice offered at their shrines; for over all the din of battle,
+and the reverberation of monster artillery, the burning leaves of the
+first printed Bible and many another priceless volume were wafted into
+the sky, the ashes floating for miles on the heated air, and carrying
+to the astonished countryman the first news of the devastation of his
+Capital.
+
+When the Offor Collection was put to the hammer by Messrs Sotheby and
+Wilkinson, the well-known auctioneers of Wellington Street, and when
+about three days of the sale had been gone through, a Fire occurred in
+the adjoining house, and, gaining possession of the Sale Rooms, made a
+speedy end of the unique Bunyan and other rarities then on show. I was
+allowed to see the Ruins on the following day, and by means of a ladder
+and some scrambling managed to enter the Sale Room where parts of the
+floor still remained. It was a fearful sight those scorched rows of
+Volumes still on the shelves; and curious was it to notice how the
+flames, burning off the backs of the books first, had then run up behind
+the shelves, and so attacked the fore-edge of the volumes standing upon
+them, leaving the majority with a perfectly untouched oval centre of
+white paper and plain print, while the whole surrounding parts were but
+a mass of black cinders. The salvage was sold in one lot for a small
+sum, and the purchaser, after a good deal of sorting and mending and
+binding placed about 1,000 volumes for sale at Messrs. Puttick and
+Simpson's in the following year.
+
+So, too, when the curious old Library which was in a gallery of the
+Dutch Church, Austin Friars, was nearly destroyed in the fire which
+devastated the Church in 1862, the books which escaped were sadly
+injured. Not long before I had spent some hours there hunting for
+English Fifteenth-century Books, and shall never forget the state of
+dirt in which I came away. Without anyone to care for them, the books
+had remained untouched for many a decade-damp dust, half an inch thick,
+having settled upon them! Then came the fire, and while the roof was
+all ablaze streams of hot water, like a boiling deluge, washed down upon
+them. The wonder was they were not turned into a muddy pulp. After all
+was over, the whole of the library, no portion of which could legally be
+given away, was _lent for ever_ to the Corporation of London. Scorched
+and sodden, the salvage came into the hands of Mr. Overall, their
+indefatigable librarian. In a hired attic, he hung up the volumes that
+would bear it over strings like clothes, to dry, and there for weeks and
+weeks were the stained, distorted volumes, often without covers, often
+in single leaves, carefully tended and dry-nursed. Washing, sizing,
+pressing, and binding effected wonders, and no one who to-day looks
+upon the attractive little alcove in the Guildhall Library labelled
+<oe "Bibliotheca Ecclesiae Londonino-Belgiae"> and sees the rows of
+handsomely-lettered backs, could imagine that not long ago this, the
+most curious portion of the City's literary collections, was in a state
+when a five-pound note would have seemed more than full value for the
+lot.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. WATER.
+
+NEXT to Fire we must rank Water in its two forms, liquid and vapour, as
+the greatest destroyer of books. Thousands of volumes have been actually
+drowned at Sea, and no more heard of them than of the Sailors to whose
+charge they were committed. D'Israeli narrates that, about the year
+1700, Heer Hudde, an opulent burgomaster of Middleburgh, travelled for
+30 years disguised as a mandarin, throughout the length and breadth of
+the Celestial Empire. Everywhere he collected books, and his extensive
+literary treasures were at length safely shipped for transmission to
+Europe, but, to the irreparable loss of his native country, they never
+reached their destination, the vessel having foundered in a storm.
+
+In 1785 died the famous Maffei Pinelli, whose library was celebrated
+throughout the world. It had been collected by the Pinelli family for
+many generations and comprised an extraordinary number of Greek, Latin,
+and Italian works, many of them first editions, beautifully illuminated,
+together with numerous MSS. dating from the 11th to the 16th century.
+The whole library was sold by the Executors to Mr. Edwards, bookseller,
+of Pall Mall, who placed the volumes in three vessels for transport from
+Venice to London. Pursued by Corsairs, one of the vessels was captured,
+but the pirate, disgusted at not finding any treasure, threw all the
+books into the sea. The other two vessels escaped and delivered
+their freight safely, and in 1789-90 the books which had been so near
+destruction were sold at the great room in Conduit Street, for more than
+L9,000.
+
+These pirates were more excusable than Mohammed II who, upon the capture
+of Constantinople in the 15th century, after giving up the devoted city
+to be sacked by his licentious soldiers, ordered the books in all
+the churches as well as the great library of the Emperor Constantine,
+containing 120,000 Manuscripts, to be thrown into the sea.
+
+In the shape of rain, water has frequently caused irreparable injury.
+Positive wet is fortunately of rare occurrence in a library, but is very
+destructive when it does come, and, if long continued, the substance of
+the paper succumbs to the unhealthy influence and rots and rots until
+all fibre disappears, and the paper is reduced to a white decay which
+crumbles into powder when handled.
+
+Few old libraries in England are now so thoroughly neglected as they
+were thirty years ago. The state of many of our Collegiate and Cathedral
+libraries was at that time simply appalling. I could mention many
+instances, one especially, where a window having been left broken for
+a long time, the ivy had pushed through and crept over a row of books,
+each of which was worth hundreds of pounds. In rainy weather the water
+was conducted, as by a pipe, along the tops of the books and soaked
+through the whole.
+
+In another and smaller collection, the rain came straight on to a
+book-case through a sky-light, saturating continually the top shelf
+containing Caxtons and other early English books, one of which, although
+rotten, was sold soon after by permission of the Charity Commissioners
+for L200.
+
+Germany, too, the very birth-place of Printing, allows similar
+destruction to go on unchecked, if the following letter, which appeared
+about a Year ago (1879) in the _Academy_ has any truth in it:--
+
+
+"For some time past the condition of the library at Wolfenbuttel has
+been most disgraceful. The building is in so unsafe a condition
+that portions of the walls and ceilings have fallen in, and the many
+treasures in Books and MSS. contained in it are exposed to damp and
+decay. An appeal has been issued that this valuable collection may not
+be allowed to perish for want of funds, and that it may also be now at
+length removed to Brunswick, since Wolfenbuttel is entirely deserted as
+an intellectual centre. No false sentimentality regarding the memory of
+its former custodians, Leibnitz and Lessing, should hinder this project.
+Lessing himself would have been the first to urge that the library and
+its utility should be considered above all things."
+
+
+The collection of books at Wolfenbuttel is simply magnificent, and I
+cannot but hope the above report was exaggerated. Were these books to
+be injured for the want of a small sum spent on the roof, it would be a
+lasting disgrace to the nation. There are so many genuine book-lovers
+in Fatherland that the commission of such a crime would seem incredible,
+did not bibliographical history teem with similar desecrations.[1]
+
+
+[1] This was written in 1879, since which time a new building has been
+erected.
+
+
+Water in the form of vapour is a great enemy of books, the damp
+attacking both outside and inside. Outside it fosters the growth of a
+white mould or fungus which vegetates upon the edges of the leaves, upon
+the sides and in the joints of the binding. It is easily wiped off, but
+not without leaving a plain mark, where the mould-spots have been. Under
+the microscope a mould-spot is seen to be a miniature forest of lovely
+trees, covered with a beautiful white foliage, upas trees whose roots
+are embedded in the leather and destroy its texture.
+
+Inside the book, damp encourages the growth of those ugly brown spots
+which so often disfigure prints and "livres de luxe." Especially
+it attacks books printed in the early part of this century, when
+paper-makers had just discovered that they could bleach their rags,
+and perfectly white paper, well pressed after printing, had become the
+fashion. This paper from the inefficient means used to neutralise the
+bleach, carried the seeds of decay in itself, and when exposed to any
+damp soon became discoloured with brown stains. Dr. Dibdin's extravagant
+bibliographical works are mostly so injured; and although the Doctor's
+bibliography is very incorrect, and his spun-out inanities and
+wearisome affectations often annoy one, yet his books are so beautifully
+illustrated, and he is so full of personal anecdote and chit chat, that
+it grieves the heart to see "foxey" stains common in his most superb
+works.
+
+In a perfectly dry and warm library these spots would probably remain
+undeveloped, but many endowed as well as private libraries are not in
+daily use, and are often injured from a false idea that a hard frost and
+prolonged cold do no injury to a library so long as the weather is dry.
+The fact is that books should never be allowed to get really cold, for
+when a thaw comes and the weather sets in warm, the air, laden with
+damp, penetrates the inmost recesses, and working its way between the
+volumes and even between the leaves, deposits upon their cold surface
+its moisture. The best preventative of this is a warm atmosphere during
+the frost, sudden heating when the frost has gone being useless.
+
+Our worst enemies are sometimes our real friends, and perhaps the best
+way of keeping libraries entirely free from damp is to circulate our
+enemy in the shape of hot water through pipes laid under the floor. The
+facilities now offered for heating such pipes from the outside are so
+great, the expense comparatively so small, and the direct gain in the
+expulsion of damp so decided, that where it can be accomplished without
+much trouble it is well worth the doing.
+
+At the same time no system of heating should be allowed to supersede the
+open grate, which supplies a ventilation to the room as useful to the
+health of the books as to the health of the occupier. A coal fire is
+objectionable on many grounds. It is dangerous, dirty and dusty. On the
+other hand an asbestos fire, where the lumps are judiciously laid,
+gives all the warmth and ventilation of a common fire without any of its
+annoyances; and to any one who loves to be independent of servants, and
+to know that, however deeply he may sleep over his "copy," his fire will
+not fail to keep awake, an asbestos stove is invaluable.
+
+It is a mistake also to imagine that keeping the best bound volumes in
+a glass doored book-case is a preservative. The damp air will certainly
+penetrate, and as the absence of ventilation will assist the formation
+of mould, the books will be worse off than if they had been placed in
+open shelves. If security be desirable, by all means abolish the glass
+and place ornamental brass wire-work in its stead. Like the writers of
+old Cookery Books who stamped special receipts with the testimony of
+personal experience, I can say "probatum est."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. GAS AND HEAT.
+
+WHAT a valuable servant is Gas, and how dreadfully we should cry out
+were it to be banished from our homes; and yet no one who loves his
+books should allow a single jet in his library, unless, indeed he can
+afford a "sun light," which is the form in which it is used in some
+public libraries, where the whole of the fumes are carried at once into
+the open air.
+
+Unfortunately, I can speak from experience of the dire effect of gas
+in a confined space. Some years ago when placing the shelves round the
+small room, which, by a euphemism, is called my library, I took the
+precaution of making two self-acting ventilators which communicated
+directly with the outer air just under the ceiling. For economy of space
+as well as of temper (for lamps of all kinds are sore trials), I had a
+gasalier of three lights over the table. The effect was to cause great
+heat in the upper regions, and in the course of a year or two the
+leather valance which hung from the window, as well as the fringe which
+dropped half-an-inch from each shelf to keep out the dust, was just like
+tinder, and in some parts actually fell to the ground by its own weight;
+while the backs of the books upon the top shelves were perished, and
+crumbled away when touched, being reduced to the consistency of Scotch
+snuff. This was, of course, due to the sulphur in the gas fumes. I
+remember having a book some years ago from the top shelf in the library
+of the London Institution, where gas is used, and the whole of the back
+fell off in my hands, although the volume in other respects seemed quite
+uninjured. Thousands more were in a similar plight.
+
+As the paper of the volumes is uninjured, it might be objected that,
+after all, gas is not so much the enemy of the book itself as of its
+covering; but then, re-binding always leaves a book smaller, and often
+deprives it of leaves at the beginning or end, which the binder's wisdom
+has thought useless. Oh! the havoc I have seen committed by binders.
+You may assume your most impressive aspect--you may write down your
+instructions as if you were making your last will and testament--you may
+swear you will not pay if your books are ploughed--'tis all in vain--the
+creed of a binder is very short, and comprised in a single article, and
+that article is the one vile word "Shavings." But not now will I follow
+this depressing subject; binders, as enemies of books, deserve, and
+shall have, a whole chapter to themselves.
+
+It is much easier to decry gas than to find a remedy. Sun lights require
+especial arrangements, and are very expensive on account of the quantity
+of gas consumed. The library illumination of the future promises to be
+the electric light. If only steady and moderate in price, it would be a
+great boon to public libraries, and perhaps the day is not far distant
+when it will replace gas, even in private houses. That will, indeed, be
+a day of jubilee to the literary labourer. The injury done by gas is so
+generally acknowledged by the heads of our national libraries, that
+it is strictly excluded from their domains, although the danger from
+explosion and fire, even if the results of combustion were innocuous,
+would be sufficient cause for its banishment.
+
+The electric light has been in use for some months in the Reading Room
+of the British Museum, and is a great boon to the readers. The light is
+not quite equally diffused, and you must choose particular positions
+if you want to work happily. There is a great objection, too, in the
+humming fizz which accompanies the action of the electricity. There is a
+still greater objection when small pieces of hot chalk fall on your
+bald head, an annoyance which has been lately (1880) entirely removed
+by placing a receptacle beneath each burner. You require also to become
+accustomed to the whiteness of the light before you can altogether
+forget it. But with all its faults it confers a great boon upon
+students, enabling them not only to work three hours longer in the
+winter-time, but restoring to them the use of foggy and dark days, in
+which formerly no book-work at all could be pursued.[1]
+
+
+[1] 1887. The system in use is still "Siemens," but, owing to long
+experience and improvements, is not now open to the above objections.
+
+Heat alone, without any noxious fumes, is, if continuous, very injurious
+to books, and, without gas, bindings may be utterly destroyed by
+desiccation, the leather losing all its natural oils by long exposure
+to much heat. It is, therefore, a great pity to place books high up in
+a room where heat of any kind is as it must rise to the top, and if
+sufficient to be of comfort to the readers below, is certain to be hot
+enough above to injure the bindings.
+
+The surest way to preserve your books in health is to treat them as
+you would your own children, who are sure to sicken if confined in an
+atmosphere which is impure, too hot, too cold, too damp, or too dry. It
+is just the same with the progeny of literature.
+
+If any credence may be given to Monkish legends, books have sometimes
+been preserved in this world, only to meet a desiccating fate in the
+world to come. The story is probably an invention of the enemy to throw
+discredit on the learning and ability of the preaching Friars, an Order
+which was at constant war with the illiterate secular Clergy. It runs
+thus:--"In the year 1439, two Minorite friars who had all their lives
+collected books, died. In accordance with popular belief, they were at
+once conducted before the heavenly tribunal to hear their doom, taking
+with them two asses laden with books. At Heaven's gate the porter
+demanded, 'Whence came ye?' The Minorites replied 'From a monastery of
+St. Francis.' 'Oh!' said the porter, 'then St. Francis shall be your
+judge.' So that saint was summoned, and at sight of the friars and their
+burden demanded who they were, and why they had brought so many books
+with them. 'We are Minorites,' they humbly replied, 'and we have brought
+these few books with us as a solatium in the new Jerusalem.' 'And you,
+when on earth, practised the good they teach?' sternly demanded the
+saint, who read their characters at a glance. Their faltering reply
+was sufficient, and the blessed saint at once passed judgment as
+follows:--'Insomuch as, seduced by a foolish vanity, and against your
+vows of poverty, you have amassed this multitude of books and thereby
+and therefor have neglected the duties and broken the rules of your
+Order, you are now sentenced to read your books for ever and ever in
+the fires of Hell.' Immediately, a roaring noise filled the air, and a
+flaming chasm opened in which friars, and asses and books were suddenly
+engulphed."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. DUST AND NEGLECT.
+
+DUST upon Books to any extent points to neglect, and neglect means more
+or less slow Decay.
+
+A well-gilt top to a book is a great preventive against damage by dust,
+while to leave books with rough tops and unprotected is sure to produce
+stains and dirty margins.
+
+In olden times, when few persons had private collections of books, the
+collegiate and corporate libraries were of great use to students.
+The librarians' duties were then no sinecure, and there was little
+opportunity for dust to find a resting-place. The Nineteenth Century
+and the Steam Press ushered in a new era. By degrees the libraries which
+were unendowed fell behind the age, and were consequently neglected.
+No new works found their way in, and the obsolete old books were left
+uncared for and unvisited. I have seen many old libraries, the doors of
+which remained unopened from week's end to week's end; where you inhaled
+the dust of paper-decay with every breath, and could not take up a book
+without sneezing; where old boxes, full of older literature, served as
+preserves for the bookworm, without even an autumn "battue" to thin the
+breed. Occasionally these libraries were (I speak of thirty years ago)
+put even to vile uses, such as would have shocked all ideas of propriety
+could our ancestors have foreseen their fate.
+
+I recall vividly a bright summer morning many years ago, when, in search
+of Caxtons, I entered the inner quadrangle of a certain wealthy College
+in one of our learned Universities. The buildings around were charming
+in their grey tones and shady nooks. They had a noble history, too, and
+their scholarly sons were (and are) not unworthy successors of their
+ancestral renown. The sun shone warmly, and most of the casements were
+open. From one came curling a whiff of tobacco; from another the hum
+of conversation; from a third the tones of a piano. A couple of
+undergraduates sauntered on the shady side, arm in arm, with broken caps
+and torn gowns--proud insignia of their last term. The grey stone walls
+were covered with ivy, except where an old dial with its antiquated
+Latin inscription kept count of the sun's ascent. The chapel on one
+side, only distinguishable from the "rooms" by the shape of its windows,
+seemed to keep watch over the morality of the foundation, just as the
+dining-hall opposite, from whence issued a white-aproned cook, did
+of its worldly prosperity. As you trod the level pavement, you passed
+comfortable--nay, dainty--apartments, where lace curtains at the
+windows, antimacassars on the chairs, the silver biscuit-box and the
+thin-stemmed wine-glass moderated academic toils. Gilt-backed books on
+gilded shelf or table caught the eye, and as you turned your glance from
+the luxurious interiors to the well-shorn lawn in the Quad., with its
+classic fountain also gilded by sunbeams, the mental vision saw plainly
+written over the whole "The Union of Luxury and Learning."
+
+Surely here, thought I, if anywhere, the old world literature will be
+valued and nursed with gracious care; so with a pleasing sense of the
+general congruity of all around me, I enquired for the rooms of the
+librarian. Nobody seemed to be quite sure of his name, or upon whom the
+bibliographical mantle had descended. His post, it seemed, was honorary
+and a sinecure, being imposed, as a rule, upon the youngest "Fellow."
+No one cared for the appointment, and as a matter of course the keys
+of office had but distant acquaintance with the lock. At last I was
+rewarded with success, and politely, but mutely, conducted by the
+librarian into his kingdom of dust and silence. The dark portraits of
+past benefactors looked after us from their dusty old frames in dim
+astonishment as we passed, evidently wondering whether we meant "work";
+book-decay--that peculiar flavour which haunts certain libraries--was
+heavy in the air, the floor was dusty, making the sunbeams as we passed
+bright with atoms; the shelves were dusty, the "stands" in the middle
+were thick with dust, the old leather table in the bow window, and
+the chairs on either side, were very dusty. Replying to a question,
+my conductor thought there was a manuscript catalogue of the Library
+somewhere, but thought, also, that it was not easy to find any books
+by it, and he knew not at the minute where to put his hand upon it. The
+Library, he said, was of little use now, as the Fellows had their own
+books and very seldom required 17th and 18th century editions, and no
+new books had been added to the collection for a long time.
+
+We passed down a few steps into an inner library where piles of early
+folios were wasting away on the ground. Beneath an old ebony table were
+two long carved oak chests. I lifted the lid of one, and at the top
+was a once-white surplice covered with dust, and beneath was a mass of
+tracts--Commonwealth quartos, unbound--a prey to worms and decay. All
+was neglect. The outer door of this room, which was open, was nearly on
+a level with the Quadrangle; some coats, and trousers, and boots were
+upon the ebony table, and a "gyp" was brushing away at them just within
+the door--in wet weather he performed these functions entirely within
+the library--as innocent of the incongruity of his position as my guide
+himself. Oh! Richard of Bury, I sighed, for a sharp stone from your
+sling to pierce with indignant sarcasm the mental armour of these
+College dullards.
+
+Happily, things are altered now, and the disgrace of such neglect no
+longer hangs on the College. Let us hope, in these days of revived
+respect for antiquity, no other College library is in a similar plight.
+
+Not Englishmen alone are guilty, however, of such unloving treatment
+of their bibliographical treasures. The following is translated from an
+interesting work just published in Paris,[1] and shows how, even at this
+very time, and in the centre of the literary activity of France, books
+meet their fate.
+
+
+[1] Le luxe des Livres par L. Derome. 8vo, Paris, 1879.
+
+M. Derome loquitur:--
+
+
+"Let us now enter the communal library of some large provincial town.
+The interior has a lamentable appearance; dust and disorder have made it
+their home. It has a librarian, but he has the consideration of a porter
+only, and goes but once a week to see the state of the books committed
+to his care; they are in a bad state, piled in heaps and perishing in
+corners for want of attention and binding. At this present time (1879)
+more than one public library in Paris could be mentioned in which
+thousands of books are received annually, all of which will have
+disappeared in the course of 50 years or so for want of binding; there
+are rare books, impossible to replace, falling to pieces because no care
+is given to them, that is to say, they are left unbound, a prey to dust
+and the worm, and cannot be touched without dismemberment."
+
+"All history shows that this neglect belongs not to any particular age or
+nation. I extract the following story from Edmond Werdet's Histoire du
+Livre."[1]
+
+
+[1] "Histoire du Livre en France," par E. Werdet. 8vo, Paris, 1851.
+
+
+"The Poet Boccaccio, when travelling in Apulia, was anxious to visit the
+celebrated Convent of Mount Cassin, especially to see its library, of
+which he had heard much. He accosted, with great courtesy, one of
+the monks whose countenance attracted him, and begged him to have the
+kindness to show him the library. 'See for yourself,' said the monk,
+brusquely, pointing at the same time to an old stone staircase, broken
+with age. Boccaccio hastily mounted in great joy at the prospect of a
+grand bibliographical treat. Soon he reached the room, which was
+without key or even door as protection to its treasures. What was his
+astonishment to see that the grass growing in the window-sills actually
+darkened the room, and that all the books and seats were an inch thick
+in dust. In utter astonishment he lifted one book after another.
+All were manuscripts of extreme antiquity, but all were dreadfully
+dilapidated. Many had lost whole sections which had been violently
+extracted, and in many all the blank margins of the vellum had been cut
+away. In fact, the mutilation was thorough.
+
+"Grieved at seeing the work and the wisdom of so many illustrious men
+fallen into the hands of custodians so unworthy, Boccaccio descended
+with tears in his eyes. In the cloisters he met another monk, and
+enquired of him how the MSS. had become so mutilated. 'Oh!' he replied,
+'we are obliged, you know, to earn a few sous for our needs, so we cut
+away the blank margins of the manuscripts for writing upon, and make of
+them small books of devotion, which we sell to women and children."
+
+As a postscript to this story, Mr. Timmins, of Birmingham, informs me
+that the treasures of the Monte Cassino Library are better cared for now
+than in Boccaccio's days, the worthy prior being proud of his valuable
+MSS. and very willing to show them. It will interest many readers to
+know that there is now a complete printing office, lithographic as well
+as typographic, at full work in one large room of the Monastery, where
+their wonderful MS. of Dante has been already reprinted, and where other
+fac-simile works are now in progress.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V. IGNORANCE AND BIGOTRY.
+
+IGNORANCE, though not in the same category as fire and water, is a great
+destroyer of books. At the Reformation so strong was the antagonism of
+the people generally to anything like the old idolatry of the Romish
+Church, that they destroyed by thousands books, secular as well as
+sacred, if they contained but illuminated letters. Unable to read, they
+saw no difference between romance and a psalter, between King Arthur
+and King David; and so the paper books with all their artistic ornaments
+went to the bakers to heat their ovens, and the parchment manuscripts,
+however beautifully illuminated, to the binders and boot makers.
+
+There is another kind of ignorance which has often worked destruction,
+as shown by the following anecdote, which is extracted from a
+letter written in 1862 by M. Philarete Chasles to Mr. B. Beedham, of
+Kimbolton:--
+
+
+"Ten years ago, when turning out an old closet in the Mazarin Library,
+of which I am librarian, I discovered at the bottom, under a lot of old
+rags and rubbish, a large volume. It had no cover nor title-page, and
+had been used to light the fires of the librarians. This shows how great
+was the negligence towards our literary treasure before the Revolution;
+for the pariah volume, which, 60 years before, had been placed in the
+Invalides, and which had certainly formed part of the original Mazarin
+collections, turned out to be a fine and genuine Caxton."
+
+
+I saw this identical volume in the Mazarin Library in April, 1880. It is
+a noble copy of the First Edition of the "Golden Legend," 1483, but of
+course very imperfect.
+
+Among the millions of events in this world which cross and re-cross one
+another, remarkable coincidences must often occur; and a case exactly
+similar to that at the Mazarin Library, happened about the same time
+in London, at the French Protestant Church, St. Martin's-le-Grand. Many
+years ago I discovered there, in a dirty pigeon hole close to the grate
+in the vestry, a fearfully mutilated copy of Caxton's edition of the
+Canterbury Tales, with woodcuts. Like the book at Paris, it had long
+been used, leaf by leaf, in utter ignorance of its value, to light the
+vestry fire. Originally worth at least L800, it was then worth half,
+and, of course, I energetically drew the attention of the minister in
+charge to it, as well as to another grand Folio by Rood and Hunte, 1480.
+Some years elapsed, and then the Ecclesiastical Commissioners took the
+foundation in hand, but when at last Trustees were appointed, and the
+valuable library was re-arranged and catalogued, this "Caxton," together
+with the fine copy of "Latterbury" from the first Oxford Press, had
+disappeared entirely. Whatever ignorance may have been displayed in the
+mutilation, quite another word should be applied to the disappearance.
+
+The following anecdote is so _apropos_, that although it has lately
+appeared in No. 1 of _The Antiquary_, I cannot resist the temptation of
+re-printing it, as a warning to inheritors of old libraries. The account
+was copied by me years ago from a letter written in 1847, by the Rev. C.
+F. Newmarsh, Rector of Pelham, to the Rev. S. R. Maitland, Librarian to
+the Archbishop of Canterbury, and is as follows:--
+
+
+"In June, 1844, a pedlar called at a cottage in Blyton and asked an old
+widow, named Naylor, whether she had any rags to sell. She answered, No!
+but offered him some old paper, and took from a shelf the 'Boke of St.
+Albans' and others, weighing 9 lbs., for which she received 9_d_. The
+pedlar carried them through Gainsborough tied up in string, past a
+chemist's shop, who, being used to buy old paper to wrap his drugs in,
+called the man in, and, struck by the appearance of the 'Boke,' gave him
+3_s_. for the lot. Not being able to read the Colophon, he took it to an
+equally ignorant stationer, and offered it to him for a guinea, at which
+price he declined it, but proposed that it should be exposed in his
+window as a means of eliciting some information about it. It was
+accordingly placed there with this label, 'Very old curious work.'
+A collector of books went in and offered half-a-crown for it, which
+excited the suspicion of the vendor. Soon after Mr. Bird, Vicar of
+Gainsborough, went in and asked the price, wishing to possess a very
+early specimen of printing, but not knowing the value of the book. While
+he was examining it, Stark, a very intelligent bookseller, came in, to
+whom Mr. Bird at once ceded the right of pre-emption. Stark betrayed
+such visible anxiety that the vendor, Smith, declined setting a price.
+Soon after Sir C. Anderson, of Lea (author of Ancient Models), came in
+and took away the book to collate, but brought it back in the morning
+having found it imperfect in the middle, and offered L5 for it. Sir
+Charles had no book of reference to guide him to its value. But in the
+meantime, Stark had employed a friend to obtain for him the refusal of
+it, and had undertaken to give for it a little more than any sum Sir
+Charles might offer. On finding that at least L5 could be got for it,
+Smith went to the chemist and gave him two guineas, and then sold it to
+Stark's agent for seven guineas. Stark took it to London, and sold it at
+once to the Rt. Hon. Thos. Grenville for seventy pounds or guineas.
+
+"I have now shortly to state how it came that a book without covers of
+such extreme age was preserved. About fifty years since, the library
+of Thonock Hall, in the parish of Gainsborough, the seat of the Hickman
+family, underwent great repairs, the books being sorted over by a most
+ignorant person, whose selection seems to have been determined by
+the coat. All books without covers were thrown into a great heap, and
+condemned to all the purposes which Leland laments in the sack of the
+conventual libraries by the visitors. But they found favour in the eyes
+of a literate gardener, who begged leave to take what he liked home.
+He selected a large quantity of Sermons preached before the House of
+Commons, local pamphlets, tracts from 1680 to 1710, opera books, etc.
+He made a list of them, which I found afterwards in the cottage. In
+the list, No. 43 was 'Cotarmouris,' or the Boke of St. Albans. The old
+fellow was something of a herald, and drew in his books what he held
+to be his coat. After his death, all that could be stuffed into a large
+chest were put away in a garret; but a few favourites, and the 'Boke'
+among them remained on the kitchen shelves for years, till his son's
+widow grew so 'stalled' of dusting them that she determined to sell
+them. Had she been in poverty, I should have urged the buyer, Stark, the
+duty of giving her a small sum out of his great gains."
+
+Such chances as this do not fall to a man's lot twice; but Edmond Werdet
+relates a story very similar indeed, and where also the "plums" fell
+into the lap of a London dealer.
+
+In 1775, the Recollet Monks of Antwerp, wishing to make a reform,
+examined their library, and determined to get rid of about 1,500
+volumes--some manuscript and some printed, but all of which they
+considered as old rubbish of no value.
+
+At first they were thrown into the gardener's rooms; but, after some
+months, they decided in their wisdom to give the whole refuse to the
+gardener as a recognition of his long services.
+
+This man, wiser in his generation than these simple fathers, took the
+lot to M. Vanderberg, an amateur and man of education. M. Vanderberg
+took a cursory view, and then offered to buy them by weight at sixpence
+per pound. The bargain was at once concluded, and M. Vanderberg had the
+books.
+
+Shortly after, Mr. Stark, a well-known London bookseller, being in
+Antwerp, called on M. Vanderberg, and was shown the books. He at once
+offered 14,000 francs for them, which was accepted. Imagine the surprise
+and chagrin of the poor monks when they heard of it! They knew they had
+no remedy, and so dumbfounded were they by their own ignorance, that
+they humbly requested M. Vanderberg to relieve their minds by returning
+some portion of his large gains. He gave them 1,200 francs.
+
+The great Shakespearian and other discoveries, which were found in a
+garret at Lamport Hall in 1867 by Mr. Edmonds, are too well-known and
+too recent to need description. In this case mere chance seems to have
+led to the preservation of works, the very existence of which set the
+ears of all lovers of Shakespeare a-tingling.
+
+In the summer of 1877, a gentleman with whom I was well acquainted took
+lodgings in Preston Street, Brighton. The morning after his arrival,
+he found in the w.c. some leaves of an old black-letter book. He asked
+permission to retain them, and enquired if there were any more where
+they came from. Two or three other fragments were found, and the
+landlady stated that her father, who was fond of antiquities, had at one
+time a chest full of old black-letter books; that, upon his death, they
+were preserved till she was tired of seeing them, and then, supposing
+them of no value, she had used them for waste; that for two years and
+a-half they had served for various household purposes, but she had
+just come to the end of them. The fragments preserved, and now in my
+possession, are a goodly portion of one of the most rare books from the
+press of Wynkyn de Worde, Caxton's successor. The title is a curious
+woodcut with the words "Gesta Romanorum" engraved in an odd-shaped black
+letter. It has also numerous rude wood-cuts throughout. It was from this
+very work that Shakespeare in all probability derived the story of the
+three caskets which in "The Merchant of Venice" forms so integral a
+portion of the plot. Only think of that cloaca being supplied daily with
+such dainty bibliographical treasures!
+
+In the Lansdowne Collection at the British Museum is a volume containing
+three manuscript dramas of Queen Elizabeth's time, and on a fly-leaf
+is a list of fifty-eight plays, with this note at the foot, in the
+handwriting of the well-known antiquary, Warburton:
+
+
+"After I had been many years collecting these Manuscript Playes, through
+my own carelessness and the ignorance of my servant, they was unluckely
+burned or put under pye bottoms."
+
+
+Some of these "Playes" are preserved in print, but others are quite
+unknown and perished for ever when used as "pye-bottoms."
+
+Mr. W. B. Rye, late Keeper of the Printed Books at our great National
+Library, thus writes:--
+
+
+"On the subject of ignorance you should some day, when at the British
+Museum, look at Lydgate's translation of Boccaccio's 'Fall of Princes,'
+printed by Pynson in 1494. It is 'liber rarissimus.' This copy when
+perfect had been very fine and quite uncut. On one fine summer afternoon
+in 1874 it was brought to me by a tradesman living at Lamberhurst. Many
+of the leaves had been cut into squares, and the whole had been rescued
+from a tobacconist's shop, where the pieces were being used to wrap up
+tobacco and snuff. The owner wanted to buy a new silk gown for his wife,
+and was delighted with three guineas for this purpose. You will notice
+how cleverly the British Museum binder has joined the leaves, making it,
+although still imperfect, a fine book."
+
+
+Referring to the carelessness exhibited by some custodians of Parish
+Registers,
+
+Mr. Noble, who has had great experience in such matters, writes:--
+
+
+"A few months ago I wanted a search made of the time of Charles I in
+one of the most interesting registers in a large town (which shall be
+nameless) in England. I wrote to the custodian of it, and asked him
+kindly to do the search for me, and if he was unable to read the names
+to get some one who understood the writing of that date to decipher the
+entries for me. I did not have a reply for a fortnight, but one morning
+the postman brought me a very large unregistered book-packet, which I
+found to be the original Parish Registers! He, however, addressed a note
+with it stating that he thought it best to send me the document itself
+to look at, and begged me to be good enough to return the Register to
+him as soon as done with. He evidently wished to serve me--his ignorance
+of responsibility without doubt proving his kindly disposition, and on
+that account alone I forbear to name him; but I can assure you I was
+heartily glad to have a letter from him in due time announcing that
+the precious documents were once more locked up in the parish chest.
+Certainly, I think such as he to be 'Enemies of books.' Don't you?"
+
+
+Bigotry has also many sins to answer for. The late M. Muller, of
+Amsterdam, a bookseller of European fame, wrote to me as follows a few
+weeks before his death:--
+
+
+"Of course, we also, in Holland, have many Enemies of books, and if I
+were happy enough to have your spirit and style I would try and write
+a companion volume to yours. Now I think the best thing I can do is
+to give you somewhat of my experience. You say that the discovery of
+printing has made the destruction of anybody's books difficult. At this
+I am bound to say that the Inquisition did succeed most successfully, by
+burning heretical books, in destroying numerous volumes invaluable for
+their wholesome contents. Indeed, I beg to state to you the amazing fact
+that here in Holland exists an Ultramontane Society called 'Old
+Paper,' which is under the sanction of the six Catholic Bishops of the
+Netherlands, and is spread over the whole kingdom. The openly-avowed
+object of this Society is to buy up and to destroy as waste paper all
+the Protestant and Liberal Catholic newspapers, pamphlets and books,
+the price of which is offered to the Pope as 'Deniers de St. Pierre.'
+Of course, this Society is very little known among Protestants, and
+many have denied even its existence; but I have been fortunate enough
+to obtain a printed circular issued by one of the Bishops containing
+statistics of the astounding mass of paper thus collected, producing in
+one district alone the sum of L1,200 in three months. I need not tell
+you that this work is strongly promoted by the Catholic clergy. You can
+have no idea of the difficulty we now have in procuring certain books
+published but 30, 40, or 50 years ago of an ephemeral character.
+Historical and theological books are very rare; novels and poetry of
+that period are absolutely not to be found; medical and law books are
+more common. I am bound to say that in no country have more books been
+printed and more destroyed than in Holland. W. MULLER."
+
+The policy of buying up all objectionable literature seems to me, I
+confess, very short-sighted, and in most cases would lead to a greatly
+increased reprint; it certainly would in these latitudes.
+
+From the Church of Rome to the Church of England is no great leap, and
+Mr. Smith, the Brighton bookseller, gives evidence thus:--
+
+
+"It may be worth your while to note that the clergy of the last two
+centuries ought to be included in your list (of Biblioclasts). I have
+had painful experience of the fact in the following manner. Numbers of
+volumes in their libraries have had a few leaves removed, and in many
+others whole sections torn out. I suppose it served their purpose thus
+to use the wisdom of greater men and that they thus economised their own
+time by tearing out portions to suit their purpose. The hardship to the
+trade is this: their books are purchased in good faith as perfect, and
+when resold the buyer is quick to claim damage if found defective, while
+the seller has no redress."
+
+
+Among the careless destroyers of books still at work should be classed
+Government officials. Cart-loads of interesting documents, bound and
+unbound, have been sold at various times as waste-paper,[1] when modern
+red-tape thought them but rubbish. Some of them have been rescued and
+resold at high prices, but some have been lost for ever.
+
+
+[1] Nell Gwyn's private Housekeeping Book was among them, containing
+most curious particulars of what was necessary in the time of Charles I
+for a princely household. Fortunately it was among the rescued, and is
+now in a private library.
+
+
+In 1854 a very interesting series of blue books was commenced by the
+authorities of the Patent Office, of course paid for out of the national
+purse. Beginning with the year 1617 the particulars of every important
+patent were printed from the original specifications and fac-simile
+drawings made, where necessary, for the elucidation of the text. A
+very moderate price was charged for each, only indeed the prime cost
+of production. The general public, of course, cared little for such
+literature, but those interested in the origin and progress of any
+particular art, cared much, and many sets of Patents were purchased by
+those engaged in research. But the great bulk of the stock was, to some
+extent, inconvenient, and so when a removal to other offices, in 1879,
+became necessary, the question arose as to what could be done with them.
+These blue-books, which had cost the nation many thousands of pounds,
+were positively sold to the paper mills as wastepaper, and nearly 100
+tons weight were carted away at about L3 per ton. It is difficult to
+believe, although positively true, that so great an act of vandalism
+could have been perpetrated, even in a Government office. It is true
+that no demand existed for some of them, but it is equally true that
+in numerous cases, especially in the early specifications of the
+steam engine and printing machine, the want of them has caused great
+disappointment. To add a climax to the story, many of the "pulped"
+specifications have had to be reprinted more than once since their
+destruction.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. THE BOOKWORM.
+
+      THERE is a sort of busy worm
+      That will the fairest books deform,
+          By gnawing holes throughout them;
+      Alike, through every leaf they go,
+      Yet of its merits naught they know,
+          Nor care they aught about them.
+
+      Their tasteless tooth will tear and taint
+      The Poet, Patriot, Sage or Saint,
+          Not sparing wit nor learning.
+      Now, if you'd know the reason why,
+      The best of reasons I'll supply;
+          'Tis bread to the poor vermin.
+
+      Of pepper, snuff, or 'bacca smoke,
+      And Russia-calf they make a joke.
+          Yet, why should sons of science
+      These puny rankling reptiles dread?
+      'Tis but to let their books be read,
+          And bid the worms defiance."
+                              J. DORASTON.
+
+A most destructive Enemy of books has been the bookworm. I say "has
+been," because, fortunately, his ravages in all civilised countries have
+been greatly restricted during the last fifty years. This is due partly
+to the increased reverence for antiquity which has been universally
+developed--more still to the feeling of cupidity, which has caused
+all owners to take care of volumes which year by year have become more
+valuable--and, to some considerable extent, to the falling off in the
+production of edible books.
+
+The monks, who were the chief makers as well as the custodians of books,
+through the long ages we call "dark," because so little is known of
+them, had no fear of the bookworm before their eyes, for, ravenous as
+he is and was, he loves not parchment, and at that time paper was not.
+Whether at a still earlier period he attacked the papyrus, the paper of
+the Egyptians, I know not--probably he did, as it was a purely vegetable
+substance; and if so, it is quite possible that the worm of to-day, in
+such evil repute with us, is the lineal descendant of ravenous ancestors
+who plagued the sacred Priests of On in the time of Joseph's Pharaoh, by
+destroying their title deeds and their books of Science.
+
+Rare things and precious, as manuscripts were before the invention of
+typography, are well preserved, but when the printing press was invented
+and paper books were multiplied in the earth; when libraries increased
+and readers were many, then familiarity bred contempt; books were packed
+in out-of-the-way places and neglected, and the oft-quoted, though
+seldom seen, bookworm became an acknowledged tenant of the library, and
+the mortal enemy of the bibliophile.
+
+Anathemas have been hurled against this pest in nearly every European
+language, old and new, and classical scholars of bye-gone centuries have
+thrown their spondees and dactyls at him. Pierre Petit, in 1683, devoted
+a long Latin poem to his dis-praise, and Parnell's charming Ode is well
+known. Hear the poet lament:--
+
+ "Pene tu mihi passerem Catulli,
+ Pene tu mihi Lesbiam abstulisti."
+
+and then--
+
+ "Quid dicam innumeros bene eruditos
+ Quorum tu monumenta tu labores
+     Isti pessimo ventre devorasti?"
+
+while Petit, who was evidently moved by strong personal feelings against
+the "invisum pecus," as he calls him, addresses his little enemy as
+"Bestia audax" and "Pestis chartarum."
+
+But, as a portrait commonly precedes a biography, the curious reader
+may wish to be told what this "Bestia audax," who so greatly ruffles
+the tempers of our eclectics, is like. Here, at starting, is a serious
+chameleon-like difficulty, for the bookworm offers to us, if we are
+guided by their words, as many varieties of size and shape as there are
+beholders.
+
+Sylvester, in his "Laws of Verse," with more words than wit, described
+him as "a microscopic creature wriggling on the learned page, which,
+when discovered, stiffens out into the resemblance of a streak of dirt."
+
+The earliest notice is in "Micrographia," by R. Hooke, folio, London,
+1665. This work, which was printed at the expense of the Royal Society
+of London, is an account of innumerable things examined by the author
+under the microscope, and is most interesting for the frequent accuracy
+of the author's observations, and most amusing for his equally frequent
+blunders.
+
+In his account of the bookworm, his remarks, which are rather long
+and very minute, are absurdly blundering. He calls it "a small white
+Silver-shining Worm or Moth, which I found much conversant among books
+and papers, and is supposed to be that which corrodes and eats holes
+thro' the leaves and covers. Its head appears bigg and blunt, and its
+body tapers from it towards the tail, smaller and smaller, being
+shap'd almost like a carret.... It has two long horns before, which are
+streight, and tapering towards the top, curiously ring'd or knobb'd and
+brisled much like the marsh weed called Horses tail.... The hinder part
+is terminated with three tails, in every particular resembling the two
+longer horns that grow out of the head. The legs are scal'd and hair'd.
+This animal probably feeds upon the paper and covers of books, and
+perforates in them several small round holes, finding perhaps a
+convenient nourishment in those husks of hemp and flax, which have
+passed through so many scourings, washings, dressings, and dryings as
+the parts of old paper necessarily have suffer'd. And, indeed, when I
+consider what a heap of sawdust or chips this little creature (which is
+one of the teeth of Time) conveys into its intrals, I cannot chuse but
+remember and admire the excellent contrivance of Nature in placing in
+animals such a fire, as is continually nourished and supply'd by the
+materials convey'd into the stomach and fomented by the bellows of the
+lungs." The picture or "image," which accompanies this description, is
+wonderful to behold. Certainly R. Hooke, Fellow of the Royal Society,
+drew somewhat upon his imagination here, having apparently evolved both
+engraving and description from his inner consciousness.[1]
+
+
+[1] Not so! Several correspondents have drawn my attention to the
+fact that Hooke is evidently describing the "Lepisma," which, if not
+positively injurious, is often found in the warm places of old houses,
+especially if a little damp. He mistook this for the Bookworm.
+
+
+Entomologists even do not appear to have paid much attention to the
+natural history of the "Worm." Kirby, speaking of it, says, "the
+larvae of Crambus pinguinalis spins a robe which it covers with its own
+excrement, and does no little injury." Again, "I have often observed the
+caterpillar of a little moth that takes its station in damp old books,
+and there commits great ravages, and many a black-letter rarity, which
+in these days of bibliomania would have been valued at its weight in
+gold, has been snatched by these devastators," etc., etc.
+
+As already quoted, Doraston's description is very vague. To him he is
+in one verse "a sort of busy worm," and in another "a puny rankling
+reptile." Hannett, in his work on book-binding, gives "Aglossa
+pinguinalis" as the real name, and Mrs. Gatty, in her Parables,
+christens it "Hypothenemus cruditus."
+
+The, Rev. F. T. Havergal, who many years ago had much trouble with
+bookworms in the Cathedral Library of Hereford, says they are a kind of
+death-watch, with a "hard outer skin, and are dark brown," another sort
+"having white bodies with brown spots on their heads." Mr. Holme, in
+"Notes and Queries" for 1870, states that the "Anobium paniceum" has
+done considerable injury to the Arabic manuscripts brought from Cairo,
+by Burckhardt, and now in the University Library, Cambridge. Other
+writers say "Acarus eruditus" or "Anobium pertinax" are the correct
+scientific names.
+
+Personally, I have come across but few specimens; nevertheless, from
+what I have been told by librarians, and judging from analogy, I imagine
+the following to be about the truth:--
+
+There are several kinds of caterpillar and grub, which eat into books,
+those with legs are the larvae of moths; those without legs, or rather
+with rudimentary legs, are grubs and turn to beetles.
+
+It is not known whether any species of caterpillar or grub can live
+generation after generation upon books alone, but several sorts of
+wood-borers, and others which live upon vegetable refuse, will attack
+paper, especially if attracted in the first place by the real wooden
+boards in which it was the custom of the old book-binders to clothe
+their volumes. In this belief, some country librarians object to opening
+the library windows lest the enemy should fly in from the neighbouring
+woods, and rear a brood of worms. Anyone, indeed, who has seen a hole
+in a filbert, or a piece of wood riddled by dry rot, will recognize a
+similarity of appearance in the channels made by these insect enemies.
+
+Among the paper-eating species are:--
+
+1. The "Anobium." Of this beetle there are varieties, viz.: "A.
+pertinax," "A. eruditus," and "A. paniceum." In the larval state they
+are grubs, just like those found, in nuts; in this stage they are too
+much alike to be distinguished from one another. They feed on old dry
+wood, and often infest bookcases and shelves. They eat the wooden boards
+of old books, and so pass into the paper where they make long holes
+quite round, except when they work in a slanting direction, when the
+holes appear to be oblong. They will thus pierce through several volumes
+in succession, Peignot, the well-known bibliographer, having found
+27 volumes so pierced in a straight line by one worm, a miracle of
+gluttony, the story of which, for myself, I receive "_cum grano salis_."
+After a certain time the larva changes into a pupa, and then emerges as
+a small brown beetle.
+
+2. "Oecophora."--This larva is similar in size to that of Anobium, but
+can be distinguished at once by having legs. It is a caterpillar, with
+six legs upon its thorax and eight sucker-like protuberances on its
+body, like a silk-worm. It changes into a chrysalis, and then assumes
+its perfect shape as a small brown moth. The species that attacks books
+is the OEcophora pseudospretella. It loves damp and warmth, and eats any
+fibrous material. This caterpillar is quite unlike any garden species,
+and, excepting the legs, is very similar in appearance and size to the
+Anobium. It is about half-inch long, with a horny head and strong jaws.
+To printers' ink or writing ink he appears to have no great dislike,
+though I imagine that the former often disagrees with his health, unless
+he is very robust, as in books where the print is pierced a majority of
+the worm-holes I have seen are too short in extent to have provided food
+enough for the development of the grub. But, although the ink may be
+unwholesome, many grubs survive, and, eating day and night in silence
+and darkness, work out their destiny leaving, according to the strength
+of their constitutions, a longer or shorter tunnel in the volume.
+
+In December, 1879, Mr. Birdsall, a well-known book-binder of
+Northampton, kindly sent me by post a fat little Worm, which had been
+found by one of his workmen in an old book while being bound. He bore
+his journey extremely well, being very lively when turned out. I placed
+him in a box in warmth and quiet, with some small fragments of paper
+from a Boethius, printed by Caxton, and a leaf of a seventeenth century
+book. He ate a small piece of the leaf, but either from too much fresh
+air, from unaccustomed liberty, or from change of food, he gradually
+weakened, and died in about three weeks. I was sorry to lose him, as I
+wished to verify his name in his perfect state. Mr. Waterhouse, of the
+Entomological department of the British Museum, very kindly examined him
+before death, and was of opinion he was OEcophora pseudospretella.
+
+In July, 1885, Dr. Garnett, of the British Museum, gave me two worms
+which had been found in an old Hebrew Commentary just received from
+Athens. They had doubtless had a good shaking on the journey, and one
+was moribund when I took charge, and joined his defunct kindred in a
+few days. The other seemed hearty and lived with me for nearly eighteen
+months. I treated him as well as I knew how; placed him in a small box
+with the choice of three sorts of old paper to eat, and very seldom
+disturbed him. He evidently resented his confinement, ate very little,
+moved very little, and changed in appearance very little, even when
+dead. This Greek worm, filled with Hebrew lore, differed in many
+respects from any other I have seen. He was longer, thinner, and more
+delicate looking than any of his English congeners. He was transparent,
+like thin ivory, and had a dark line through his body, which I took
+to be the intestinal canal. He resigned his life with extreme
+procrastination, and died "deeply lamented" by his keeper, who had long
+looked forward to his final development.
+
+The difficulty of breeding these worms is probably due to their
+formation. When in a state of nature they can by expansion and
+contraction of the body working upon the sides of their holes, push
+their horny jaws against the opposing mass of paper. But when freed from
+the restraint, which indeed to them is life, they CANNOT eat although
+surrounded with food, for they have no legs to keep them steady, and
+their natural, leverage is wanting.
+
+Considering the numerous old books contained in the British Museum, the
+Library there is wonderfully free from the worm. Mr. Rye, lately
+the Keeper of the Printed Books there, writes me "Two or three were
+discovered in my time, but they were weakly creatures. One, I remember,
+was conveyed into the Natural History Department, and was taken into
+custody by Mr. Adam White who pronounced it to be Anobium pertinax. I
+never heard of it after."
+
+The reader, who has not had an opportunity of examining old libraries,
+can have no idea of the dreadful havoc which these pests are capable of
+making.
+
+I have now before me a fine folio volume, printed on very good
+unbleached paper, as thick as stout cartridge, in the year 1477, by
+Peter Schoeffer, of Mentz. Unfortunately, after a period of neglect in
+which it suffered severely from the "worm," it was about fifty years ago
+considered worth a new cover, and so again suffered severely, this time
+at the hands of the binder. Thus the original state of the boards is
+unknown, but the damage done to the leaves can be accurately described.
+
+The "worms" have attacked each end. On the first leaf are 212 distinct
+holes, varying in size from a common pin hole to that which a stout
+knitting-needle would make, say, <1/16> to <1/23> inch. These holes run
+mostly in lines more or less at right angles with the covers, a very few
+being channels along the paper affecting three or four sheets only. The
+varied energy of these little pests is thus represented:--
+
+    On folio 1 are 212 holes.  On folio 61 are 4 holes.
+        "   11  "   57   "         "    71  "  2   "
+        "   21  "   48   "         "    81  "  2   "
+        "   31  "   31   "         "    87  "  1   "
+        "   41  "   18   "         "    90  "  0   "
+        "   51  "    6   "
+
+
+These 90 leaves being stout, are about the thickness of 1 inch. The
+volume has 250 leaves, and turning to the end, we find on the last leaf
+81 holes, made by a breed of worms not so ravenous. Thus,
+
+      From end                |         From end.
+ On folio 1 are 81 holes.     |    On folio 66 is 1 hole.
+     "   11 "   40   "        |         "   69   "   0   "
+
+
+It is curious to notice how the holes, rapidly at first, and then slowly
+and more slowly, disappear. You trace the same hole leaf after leaf,
+until suddenly the size becomes in one leaf reduced to half its normal
+diameter, and a close examination will show a small abrasion of the
+paper in the next leaf exactly where the hole would have come if
+continued. In the book quoted it is just as if there had been a race. In
+the first ten leaves the weak worms are left behind; in the second ten
+there are still forty-eight eaters; these are reduced to thirty-one in
+the third ten, and to only eighteen in the fourth ten. On folio 51 only
+six worms hold on, and before folio 61 two of them have given in.
+Before reaching folio 7, it is a neck and neck race between two sturdy
+gourmands, each making a fine large hole, one of them being oval in
+shape. At folio 71 they are still neck and neck, and at folio 81 the
+same. At folio 87 the oval worm gives in, the round one eating three
+more leaves and part way through the fourth. The leaves of the book are
+then untouched until we reach the sixty-ninth from the end, upon which
+is one worm hole. After this they go on multiplying to the end of the
+book.
+
+I have quoted this instance because I have it handy, but many worms
+eat much longer holes than any in this volume; some I have seen
+running quite through a couple of thick volumes, covers and all. In the
+"Schoeffer" book the holes are probably the work of Anobium pertinax,
+because the centre is spared and both ends attacked. Originally, real
+wooden boards were the covers of the volume, and here, doubtless, the
+attack was commenced, which was carried through each board into the
+paper of the book.
+
+I remember well my first visit to the Bodleian Library, in the year
+1858, Dr. Bandinel being then the librarian. He was very kind, and
+afforded me every facility for examining the fine collection of
+"Caxtons," which was the object of my journey. In looking over a parcel
+of black-letter fragments, which had been in a drawer for a long time, I
+came across a small grub, which, without a thought, I threw on the floor
+and trod under foot. Soon after I found another, a fat, glossy fellow,
+so long ---, which I carefully preserved in a little paper box,
+intending to observe his habits and development. Seeing Dr. Bandinel
+near, I asked him to look at my curiosity. Hardly, however, had I turned
+the wriggling little victim out upon the leather-covered table, when
+down came the doctor's great thumb-nail upon him, and an inch-long smear
+proved the tomb of all my hopes, while the great bibliographer, wiping
+his thumb on his coat sleeve, passed on with the remark, "Oh, yes! they
+have black heads sometimes." That was something to know--another fact
+for the entomologist; for my little gentleman had a hard, shiny, white
+head, and I never heard of a black-headed bookworm before or since.
+Perhaps the great abundance of black-letter books in the Bodleian may
+account for the variety. At any rate he was an Anobium.
+
+I have been unmercifully "chaffed" for the absurd idea that a
+paper-eating worm could be kept a prisoner in a paper box. Oh, these
+critics! Your bookworm is a shy, lazy beast, and takes a day or two to
+recover his appetite after being "evicted." Moreover, he knew his own
+dignity better than to eat the "loaded" glazed shoddy note paper in
+which he was incarcerated.
+
+In the case of Caxton's "Lyf of oure ladye," already referred to, not
+only are there numerous small holes, but some very large channels at the
+bottom of the pages. This is a most unusual occurrence, and is probably
+the work of the larva of "Dermestes vulpinus," a garden beetle, which is
+very voracious, and eats any kind of dry ligneous rubbish.
+
+The scarcity of edible books of the present century has been mentioned.
+One result of the extensive adulteration of modern paper is that the
+worm will not touch it. His instinct forbids him to eat the china clay,
+the bleaches, the plaster of Paris, the sulphate of barytes, the scores
+of adulterants now used to mix with the fibre, and, so far, the wise
+pages of the old literature are, in the race against Time with the
+modern rubbish, heavily handicapped. Thanks to the general interest
+taken in old books now-a-days, the worm has hard times of it, and
+but slight chance of that quiet neglect which is necessary to his,
+existence. So much greater is the reason why some patient entomologist
+should, while there is the chance, take upon himself to study the habits
+of the creature, as Sir John Lubbock has those of the ant.
+
+I have now before me some leaves of a book, which, being waste, were
+used by our economical first printer, Caxton, to make boards, by pasting
+them together. Whether the old paste was an attraction, or whatever the
+reason may have been, the worm, when he got in there, did not, as usual,
+eat straight through everything into the middle of the book, but worked
+his way longitudinally, eating great furrows along the leaves without
+passing out of the binding; and so furrowed are these few leaves by long
+channels that it is difficult to raise one of them without its falling
+to pieces.
+
+This is bad enough, but we may be very thankful that in these temperate
+climes we have no such enemies as are found in very hot countries, where
+a whole library, books, bookshelves, table, chairs, and all, may be
+destroyed in one night by a countless army of ants.
+
+Our cousins in the United States, so fortunate in many things, seem very
+fortunate in this--their books are not attacked by the "worm"--at any
+rate, American writers say so. True it is that all their black-letter
+comes from Europe, and, having cost many dollars, is well looked after;
+but there they have thousands of seventeenth and eighteenth century
+books, in Roman type, printed in the States on genuine and wholesome
+paper, and the worm is not particular, at least in this country, about
+the type he eats through, if the paper is good.
+
+Probably, therefore, the custodians of their old libraries could tell
+a different tale, which makes it all the more amusing to find in
+the excellent "Encyclopaedia of Printing,"[1] edited and printed by
+Ringwalt, at Philadelphia, not only that the bookworm is a stranger
+there, for personally he is unknown to most of us, but that his
+slightest ravages are looked upon as both curious and rare. After
+quoting Dibdin, with the addition of a few flights of imagination of his
+own, Ringwalt states that this "paper-eating moth is supposed to have
+been introduced into England in hogsleather binding from Holland." He
+then ends with what, to anyone who has seen the ravages of the worm in
+hundreds of books, must be charming in its native simplicity. "There is
+now," he states, evidently quoting it as a great curiosity, "there is
+now, in a private library in Philadelphia, a book perforated by this
+insect." Oh! lucky Philadelphians! who can boast of possessing the
+oldest library in the States, but must ask leave of a private collector
+if they wish to see the one wormhole in the whole city!
+
+
+[1] "American Encyclopaedia of Printing": by Luther Ringwalt. 8vo.
+Philadelphia, 1871.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. OTHER VERMIN.
+
+BESIDES the worm I do not think there is any insect enemy of books worth
+description. The domestic black-beetle, or cockroach, is far too modern
+an introduction to our country to have done much harm, though he will
+sometimes nibble the binding of books, especially if they rest upon the
+floor.
+
+Not so fortunate, however, are our American cousins, for in the "Library
+Journal" for September, 1879, Mr. Weston Flint gives an account of a
+dreadful little pest which commits great havoc upon the cloth bindings
+of the New York libraries. It is a small black-beetle or cockroach,
+called by scientists "Blatta germanica" and by others the "Croton
+Bug." Unlike our household pest, whose home is the kitchen, and whose
+bashfulness loves secrecy and the dark hours, this misgrown flat
+species, of which it would take two to make a medium-sized English
+specimen, has gained in impudence what it has lost in size, fearing
+neither light nor noise, neither man nor beast. In the old English Bible
+of 1551, we read in Psalm xci, 5, "Thou shalt not nede to be afraied
+for eny Bugges by night." This verse falls unheeded on the ear of the
+Western librarian who fears his "bugs" both night and day, for they
+crawl over everything in broad sunlight, infesting and infecting each
+corner and cranny of the bookshelves they choose as their home. There
+is a remedy in the powder known as insecticide, which, however, is very
+disagreeable upon books and shelves. It is, nevertheless, very fatal to
+these pests, and affords some consolation in the fact that so soon as
+a "bug" shows any signs of illness, he is devoured at once by his
+voracious brethren with the same relish as if he were made of fresh
+paste.
+
+There is, too, a small silvery insect (Lepisma) which I have often
+seen in the backs of neglected books, but his ravages are not of much
+importance.
+
+Nor can we reckon the Codfish as very dangerous to literature,
+unless, indeed, he be of the Roman obedience, like that wonderful
+Ichthiobibliophage (pardon me, Professor Owen) who, in the year 1626,
+swallowed three Puritanical treatises of John Frith, the Protestant
+martyr. No wonder, after such a meal, he was soon caught, and became
+famous in the annals of literature. The following is the title of a
+little book issued upon the occasion: "Vox Piscis, or the Book-Fish
+containing Three Treatises, which were found in the belly of a Cod-Fish
+in Cambridge Market on Midsummer Eve, AD 1626." Lowndes says (see
+under "Tracey,") "great was the consternation at Cambridge upon the
+publication of this work."
+
+Rats and mice, however, are occasionally very destructive, as the
+following anecdote will show: Two centuries ago, the library of the Dean
+and Chapter of Westminster was kept in the Chapter House, and repairs
+having become necessary in that building, a scaffolding was erected
+inside, the books being left on their shelves. One of the holes made in
+the wall for a scaffold-pole was selected by a pair of rats for their
+family residence. Here they formed a nest for their young ones by
+descending to the library shelves and biting away the leaves of various
+books. Snug and comfortable was the little household, until, one day,
+the builder's men having finished, the poles were removed, and--alas!
+for the rats--the hole was closed up with bricks and cement. Buried
+alive, the father and mother, with five or six of their offspring, met
+with a speedy death, and not until a few years ago, when a restoration
+of the Chapter House was effected, was the rat grave opened again for a
+scaffold pole, and all their skeletons and their nest discovered. Their
+bones and paper fragments of the nest may now be seen in a glass case in
+the Chapter House, some of the fragments being attributed to books from
+the press of Caxton. This is not the case, although there are pieces of
+very early black-letter books not now to be found in the Abbey library,
+including little bits of the famous Queen Elizabeth's Prayer book, with
+woodcuts, 1568.
+
+A friend sends me the following incident: "A few years since, some rats
+made nests in the trees surrounding my house; from thence they jumped on
+to some flat roofing, and so made their way down a chimney into a
+room where I kept books. A number of these, with parchment backs, they
+entirely destroyed, as well as some half-dozen books whole bound in
+parchment."
+
+Another friend informs me that in the Natural History Museum of the
+Devon and Exeter Institution is a specimen of "another little pest,
+which has a great affection for bindings in calf and roan. Its
+scientific name is Niptus Hololeucos." He adds, "Are you aware that
+there was a terrible creature allied to these, rejoicing in the name
+of Tomicus Typographus, which committed sad ravages in Germany in
+the seventeenth century, and in the old liturgies of that country is
+formally mentioned under its vulgar name, 'The Turk'?" (See Kirby and
+Spence, Seventh Edition, 1858, p. 123.) This is curious, and I did not
+know it, although I know well that Typographus Tomicus, or the "cutting
+printer," is a sad enemy of (good) books. Upon this part of our subject,
+however, I am debarred entering.
+
+The following is from W. J. Westbrook, Mus. Doe., Cantab., and
+represents ravages with which I am personally unacquainted:
+
+
+"Dear Blades,--I send you an example of the 'enemy'-mosity of an
+ordinary housefly. It hid behind the paper, emitted some caustic fluid,
+and then departed this life. I have often caught them in such holes.'
+30/12/83." The damage is an oblong hole, surrounded by a white fluffy
+glaze (fungoid?), difficult to represent in a woodcut. The size here
+given is exact.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII. BOOKBINDERS.
+
+IN the first chapter I mentioned bookbinders among the Enemies of Books,
+and I tremble to think what a stinging retort might be made if some
+irate bibliopegist were to turn the scales on the printer, and place HIM
+in the same category. On the sins of printers, and the unnatural neglect
+which has often shortened the lives of their typographical progeny, it
+is not for me to dilate. There is an old proverb, "'Tis an ill bird
+that befouls its own nest"; a curious chapter thereupon, with many
+modern examples, might nevertheless be written. This I will leave, and
+will now only place on record some of the cruelties perpetrated upon
+books by the ignorance or carelessness of binders.
+
+Like men, books have a soul and body. With the soul, or literary
+portion, we have nothing to do at present; the body, which is the outer
+frame or covering, and without which the inner would be unusable, is the
+special work of the binder. He, so to speak, begets it; he determines
+its form and adornment, he doctors it in disease and decay, and, not
+unseldom, dissects it after death. Here, too, as through all Nature, we
+find the good and bad running side by side. What a treat it is to
+handle a well-bound volume; the leaves lie open fully and freely, as
+if tempting you to read on, and you handle them without fear of their
+parting from the back. To look at the "tooling," too, is a pleasure, for
+careful thought, combined with artistic skill, is everywhere apparent.
+You open the cover and find the same loving attention inside that has
+been given to the outside, all the workmanship being true and thorough.
+Indeed, so conservative is a good binding, that many a worthless book
+has had an honoured old age, simply out of respect to its outward
+aspect; and many a real treasure has come to a degraded end and
+premature death through the unsightliness of its outward case and the
+irreparable damage done to it in binding.
+
+The weapon with which the binder deals the most deadly blows to books
+is the "plough," the effect of which is to cut away the margins, placing
+the print in a false position relatively to the back and head, and often
+denuding the work of portions of the very text. This reduction in size
+not seldom brings down a handsome folio to the size of quarto, and a
+quarto to an octavo.
+
+With the old hand plough a binder required more care and caution to
+produce an even edge throughout than with the new cutting machine. If a
+careless workman found that he had not ploughed the margin quite square
+with the text, he would put it in his press and take off "another
+shaving," and sometimes even a third.
+
+Dante, in his "Inferno," deals out to the lost souls various tortures
+suited with dramatic fitness to the past crimes of the victims, and
+had I to execute judgment on the criminal binders of certain precious
+volumes I have seen, where the untouched maiden sheets entrusted to
+their care have, by barbarous treatment, lost dignity, beauty and value,
+I would collect the paper shavings so ruthlessly shorn off, and roast
+the perpetrator of the outrage over their slow combustion. In olden
+times, before men had learned to value the relics of our printers, there
+was some excuse for the sins of a binder who erred from ignorance which
+was general; but in these times, when the historical and antiquarian
+value of old books is freely acknowledged, no quarter should be granted
+to a careless culprit.
+
+It may be supposed that, from the spread of information, all real danger
+from ignorance is past. Not so, good reader; that is a consummation as
+yet "devoutly to be wished." Let me relate to you a true bibliographical
+anecdote: In 1877, a certain lord, who had succeeded to a fine
+collection of old books, promised to send some of the most valuable
+(among which were several Caxtons) to the Exhibition at South
+Kensington. Thinking their outward appearance too shabby, and not
+knowing the danger of his conduct, he decided to have them rebound
+in the neighbouring county town. The volumes were soon returned in a
+resplendent state, and, it is said, quite to the satisfaction of his
+lordship, whose pleasure, however, was sadly damped when a friend
+pointed out to him that, although the discoloured edges had all been
+ploughed off, and the time-stained blanks, with their fifteenth century
+autographs, had been replaced by nice clean fly-leaves, yet, looking at
+the result in its lowest aspect only--that of market value--the books
+had been damaged to at least the amount of L500; and, moreover,
+that caustic remarks would most certainly follow upon their public
+exhibition. Those poor injured volumes were never sent.
+
+Some years ago one of the most rare books printed by Machlinia--a thin
+folio--was discovered bound in sheep by a country bookbinder, and cut
+down to suit the size of some quarto tracts. But do not let us suppose
+that country binders are the only culprits. It is not very long since
+the discovery of a unique Caxton in one of our largest London libraries.
+It was in boards, as originally issued by the fifteenth-century binder,
+and a great fuss (very properly) was made over the treasure trove. Of
+course, cries the reader, it was kept in its original covers, with
+all the interesting associations of its early state untouched? No such
+thing! Instead of making a suitable case, in which it could be preserved
+just as it was, it was placed in the hands of a well-known London
+binder, with the order, "Whole bind in velvet." He did his best, and
+the volume now glows luxuriously in its gilt edges and its inappropriate
+covering, and, alas! with half-an-inch of its uncut margin taken off all
+round. How do I know that? because the clever binder, seeing some MS.
+remarks on one of the margins, turned the leaf down to avoid cutting
+them off, and that stern witness will always testify, to the observant
+reader, the original size of the book. This same binder, on another
+occasion, placed a unique fifteenth century Indulgence in warm water,
+to separate it from the cover upon which it was pasted, the result being
+that, when dry, it was so distorted as to be useless. That man soon
+after passed to another world, where, we may hope, his works have not
+followed him, and that his merits as a good citizen and an honest man
+counterbalanced his de-merits as a binder.
+
+Other similar instances will occur to the memory of many a reader, and
+doubtless the same sin will be committed from time to time by certain
+binders, who seem to have an ingrained antipathy to rough edges and
+large margins, which of course are, in their view, made by Nature as
+food for the shaving tub.
+
+De Rome, a celebrated bookbinder of the eighteenth century, who was
+nicknamed by Dibdin "The Great Cropper," was, although in private life
+an estimable man, much addicted to the vice of reducing the margins of
+all books sent to him to bind. So far did he go, that he even spared
+not a fine copy of Froissart's Chronicles, on vellum, in which was the
+autograph of the well-known book-lover, De Thou, but cropped it most
+cruelly.
+
+Owners, too, have occasionally diseased minds with regard to margins. A
+friend writes: "Your amusing anecdotes have brought to my memory several
+biblioclasts whom I have known. One roughly cut the margins off his
+books with a knife, hacking away very much like a hedger and ditcher.
+Large paper volumes were his especial delight, as they gave more paper.
+The slips thus obtained were used for index-making! Another, with the
+bump of order unnaturally developed, had his folios and quartos all
+reduced, in binding, to one size, so that they might look even on his
+bookshelves."
+
+This latter was, doubtless, cousin to him who deliberately cut down all
+his books close to the text, because he had been several times annoyed
+by readers who made marginal notes.
+
+The indignities, too, suffered by some books in their lettering! Fancy
+an early black-letter fifteenth-century quarto on Knighthood, labelled
+"Tracts"; or a translation of Virgil, "Sermons"! The "Histories of
+Troy," printed by Caxton, still exists with "Eracles" on the back, as
+its title, because that name occurs several times in the early chapters,
+and the binder was too proud to seek advice. The words "Miscellaneous,"
+or "Old Pieces," were sometimes used when binders were at a loss for
+lettering, and many other instances might be mentioned.
+
+The rapid spread of printing throughout Europe in the latter part of
+the fifteenth century caused a great fall in the value of plain
+un-illuminated MSS., and the immediate consequence of this was the
+destruction of numerous volumes written upon parchment, which were used
+by the binders to strengthen the backs of their newly-printed rivals.
+These slips of vellum or parchment are quite common in old books.
+Sometimes whole sheets are used as fly-leaves, and often reveal the
+existence of most valuable works, unknown before--proving, at the same
+time, the small value formerly attached to them.
+
+Many a bibliographer, while examining old books, has to his great
+puzzlement come across short slips of parchment, nearly always from some
+old manuscript, sticking out like "guards" from the midst of the leaves.
+These suggest, at first, imperfections or damage done to the volume; but
+if examined closely it will be found that they are always in the middle
+of a paper section, and the real reason of their existence is just the
+same as when two leaves of parchment occur here and there in a paper
+volume, viz.: strength--strength to resist the lug which the strong
+thread makes against the middle of each section. These slips represent
+old books destroyed, and like the slips already noticed, should always
+be carefully examined.
+
+When valuable books have been evil-entreated, when they have become
+soiled by dirty hands, or spoiled by water stains, or injured by
+grease spots, nothing is more astonishing to the uninitiated than the
+transformation they undergo in the hands of a skilful restorer. The
+covers are first carefully dissected, the eye of the operator keeping
+a careful outlook for any fragments of old MSS. or early printed books,
+which may have been used by the original binder. No force should be
+applied to separate parts which adhere together; a little warm water
+and care is sure to overcome that difficulty. When all the sections are
+loose, the separate sheets are placed singly in a bath of cold water,
+and allowed to remain there until all the dirt has soaked out. If not
+sufficiently purified, a little hydrochloric or oxalic acid, or caustic
+potash may be put in the water, according as the stains are from grease
+or from ink. Here is where an unpractised binder will probably injure a
+book for life. If the chemicals are too strong, or the sheets remain too
+long in the bath, or are not thoroughly cleansed from the bleach before
+they are re-sized, the certain seeds of decay are planted in the paper,
+and although for a time the leaves may look bright to the eye, and even
+crackle under the hand like the soundest paper, yet in the course of a
+few years the enemy will appear, the fibre will decay, and the existence
+of the books will terminate in a state of white tinder.
+
+Everything which diminishes the interest of a book is inimical to its
+preservation, and in fact is its enemy. Therefore, a few words upon the
+destruction of old bindings.
+
+I remember purchasing many years ago at a suburban book stall, a perfect
+copy of Moxon's Mechanic Exercises, now a scarce work. The volumes were
+uncut, and had the original marble covers. They looked so attractive in
+their old fashioned dress, that I at once determined to preserve it. My
+binder soon made for them a neat wooden box in the shape of a book,
+with morocco back properly lettered, where I trust the originals will be
+preserved from dust and injury for many a long year.
+
+Old covers, whether boards or paper, should always be retained if in
+any state approaching decency. A case, which can be embellished to any
+extent looks every whit as well upon the shelf! and gives even greater
+protection than binding. It has also this great advantage: it does not
+deprive your descendants of the opportunity of seeing for themselves
+exactly in what dress the book buyers of four centuries ago received
+their volumes.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. COLLECTORS.
+
+AFTER all, two-legged depredators, who ought to have known better, have
+perhaps done as much real damage in libraries as any other enemy. I do
+not refer to thieves, who, if they injure the owners, do no harm to the
+books themselves by merely transferring them from one set of bookshelves
+to another. Nor do I refer to certain readers who frequent our public
+libraries, and, to save themselves the trouble of copying, will cut out
+whole articles from magazines or encyclopaedias. Such depredations are
+not frequent, and only occur with books easily replaced, and do not
+therefore call for more than a passing mention; but it is a serious
+matter when Nature produces such a wicked old biblioclast as John
+Bagford, one of the founders of the Society of Antiquaries, who, in the
+beginning of the last century, went about the country, from library to
+library, tearing away title pages from rare books of all sizes. These
+he sorted out into nationalities and towns, and so, with a lot of
+hand-bills, manuscript notes, and miscellaneous collections of all
+kinds, formed over a hundred folio volumes, now preserved in the British
+Museum. That they are of service as materials in compiling a general
+history of printing cannot be denied, but the destruction of many
+rare books was the result, and more than counter-balanced any benefit
+bibliographers will ever receive from them. When here and there
+throughout those volumes you meet with titles of books now either
+unknown entirely, or of the greatest rarity; when you find the Colophon
+from the end, or the "insigne typographi" from the first leaf of a rare
+"fifteener," pasted down with dozens of others, varying in value, you
+cannot bless the memory of the antiquarian shoemaker, John Bagford. His
+portrait, a half-length, painted by Howard, was engraved by Vertue, and
+re-engraved for the Bibliographical Decameron.
+
+A bad example often finds imitators, and every season there crop up for
+public sale one or two such collections, formed by bibliomaniacs, who,
+although calling themselves bibliophiles, ought really to be ranked
+among the worst enemies of books.
+
+The following is copied from a trade catalogue, dated April, 1880, and
+affords a fair idea of the extent to which these heartless destroyers
+will go:--
+
+"MISSAL ILLUMINATIONS.
+
+FIFTY DIFFERENT CAPITAL LETTERS _on_ VELLUM; _all in rich Gold and
+Colours. Many 3 inches square: the floral decorations are of great
+beauty, ranging from the XIIth to XVth century. Mounted on stout
+card-board_. IN NICE PRESERVATION, L6 6_s_.
+
+
+ These beautiful letters have been cut from precious
+     MSS., and as specimens of early art are extremely
+     valuable, many of them being worth 15_s_. each."
+
+
+Mr. Proeme is a man well known to the London dealers in old books. He is
+wealthy, and cares not what he spends to carry out his bibliographical
+craze, which is the collection of title pages. These he ruthlessly
+extracts, frequently leaving the decapitated carcase of the books, for
+which he cares not, behind him. Unlike the destroyer Bagford, he has
+no useful object in view, but simply follows a senseless kind of
+classification. For instance: One set of volumes contains nothing but
+copper-plate engraved titles, and woe betide the grand old Dutch folios
+of the seventeenth century if they cross his path. Another is a volume
+of coarse or quaint titles, which certainly answer the end of showing
+how idiotic and conceited some authors have been. Here you find Dr.
+Sib's "Bowels opened in Divers Sermons," 1650, cheek by jowl with the
+discourse attributed falsely to Huntington, the Calvinist, "Die and
+be damned," with many others too coarse to be quoted. The odd titles
+adopted for his poems by Taylor, the water-poet, enliven several pages,
+and make one's mouth water for the books themselves. A third volume
+includes only such titles as have the printer's device. If you shut
+your eyes to the injury done by such collectors, you may, to a certain
+extent, enjoy the collection, for there is great beauty in some titles;
+but such a pursuit is neither useful nor meritorious. By and by the end
+comes, and then dispersion follows collection, and the volumes, which
+probably Cost L200 each in their formation, will be knocked down to a
+dealer for L10, finally gravitating into the South Kensington Library,
+or some public museum, as a bibliographical curiosity. The following has
+just been sold (July, 1880) by Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge, in
+the Dunn-Gardinier collection, lot 1592:--
+
+"TITLEPAGES AND FRONTISPIECES.
+
+
+_A Collection of upwards of_ 800 ENGRAVED TITLES AND FRONTISPIECES,
+ENGLISH AND FOREIGN (_some very fine and curious) taken from old books
+and neatly mounted on cartridge paper in 3 vol, half morocco gilt. imp.
+folio_."
+
+
+The only collection of title-pages which has afforded me unalloyed
+pleasure is a handsome folio, published by the directors of the Plantin
+Museum, Antwerp, in 1877, just after the purchase of that wonderful
+typographical storehouse. It is called "Titels en Portretten gesneden
+naar P. P. Rubens voor de Plantijnsche Drukkerij," and it contains
+thirty-five grand title pages, reprinted from the original seventeenth
+century plates, designed by Rubens himself between the years 1612 and
+1640, for various publications which issued from the celebrated Plantin
+Printing Office. In the same Museum are preserved in Rubens' own
+handwriting his charge for each design, duly receipted at foot.
+
+I have now before me a fine copy of "Coclusiones siue decisiones antique
+dnor' de Rota," printed by Gutenberg's partner, Schoeffer, in the year
+1477. It is perfect, except in a most vital part, the Colophon, which
+has been cut out by some barbaric "Collector," and which should read
+thus: "Pridie nonis Januarii Mcccclxxvij, in Civitate Moguntina,
+impressorie Petrus Schoyffer de Gernsheym," followed by his well-known
+mark, two shields.
+
+A similar mania arose at the beginning of this century for collections
+of illuminated initials, which were taken from MSS., and arranged on
+the pages of a blank book in alphabetical order. Some of our cathedral
+libraries suffered severely from depredations of this kind. At Lincoln,
+in the early part of this century, the boys put on their robes in the
+library, a room close to the choir. Here were numerous old MSS.,
+and eight or ten rare Caxtons. The choir boys used often to amuse
+themselves, while waiting for the signal to "fall in," by cutting out
+with their pen-knives the illuminated initials and vignettes, which they
+would take into the choir with them and pass round from one to another.
+The Dean and Chapter of those days were not much better, for they let
+Dr. Dibdin have all their Caxtons for a "consideration." He made
+a little catalogue of them, which he called "A Lincolne Nosegaye."
+Eventually they were absorbed into the collection at Althorp.
+
+The late Mr. Caspari was a "destroyer" of books. His rare collection of
+early woodcuts, exhibited in 1877 at the Caxton Celebration, had been
+frequently augmented by the purchase of illustrated books, the plates
+of which were taken out, and mounted on Bristol boards, to enrich
+his collection. He once showed me the remains of a fine copy of
+"Theurdanck," which he had served so, and I have now before me several
+of the leaves which he then gave me, and which, for beauty of engraving
+and cleverness of typography, surpasses any typographical work known to
+me. It was printed for the Emperor Maximilian, by Hans Schonsperger, of
+Nuremberg, and, to make it unique, all the punches were cut on purpose,
+and as many as seven or eight varieties of each letter, which, together
+with the clever way in which the ornamental flourishes are carried above
+and below the line, has led even experienced printers to deny its being
+typography. It is, nevertheless, entirely from cast types. A copy in
+good condition costs about L50.
+
+Many years since I purchased, at Messrs. Sotheby's, a large lot of MS.
+leaves on vellum, some being whole sections of a book, but mostly single
+leaves. Many were so mutilated by the excision of initials as to be
+worthless, but those with poor initials, or with none, were quite good,
+and when sorted out I found I had got large portions of nearly twenty
+different MSS., mostly Horae, showing twelve varieties of fifteenth
+century handwriting in Latin, French, Dutch, and German. I had each sort
+bound separately, and they now form an interesting collection.
+
+Portrait collectors have destroyed many books by abstracting the
+frontispiece to add to their treasures, and when once a book is made
+imperfect, its march to destruction is rapid. This is why books
+like Atkyns' "Origin and Growth of Printing," 4o, 1664, have become
+impossible to get.
+
+When issued, Atkyns' pamphlet had a fine frontispiece, by Logan,
+containing portraits of King Charles II, attended by Archbishop Sheldon,
+the Duke of Albermarle, and the Earl of Clarendon. As portraits of
+these celebrities (excepting, of course, the King) are extremely rare,
+collectors have bought up this 4o tract of Atkyns', whenever it has been
+offered, and torn away the frontispiece to adorn their collection.
+
+This is why, if you take up any sale catalogue of old books, you are
+certain to find here and there, appended to the description, "Wanting
+the title," "Wanting two plates," or "Wanting the last page."
+
+It is quite common to find in old MSS., especially fifteenth century,
+both vellum and paper, the blank margins of leaves cut away. This will
+be from the side edge or from the foot, and the recurrence of this
+mutilation puzzled me for many years. It arose from the scarcity of
+paper in former times, so that when a message had to be sent which
+required more exactitude than could be entrusted to the stupid memory of
+a household messenger, the Master or Chaplain went to the library, and,
+not having paper to use, took down an old book, and cut from its broad
+margins one or more slips to serve his present need.
+
+I feel quite inclined to reckon among "enemies" those bibliomaniacs and
+over-careful possessors, who, being unable to carry their treasures into
+the next world, do all they can to hinder their usefulness in this. What
+a difficulty there is to obtain admission to the curious library of old
+Samuel Pepys, the well-known diarist. There it is at Magdalene College,
+Cambridge, in the identical book-cases provided for the books by Pepys
+himself; but no one can gain admission except in company of two Fellows
+of the College, and if a single book be lost, the whole library goes
+away to a neighbouring college. However willing and anxious to oblige,
+it is evident that no one can use the library at the expense of the
+time, if not temper, of two Fellows. Some similar restrictions are in
+force at the Teylerian Museum, Haarlem, where a lifelong imprisonment is
+inflicted upon its many treasures.
+
+Some centuries ago a valuable collection of books was left to the
+Guildford Endowed Grammar School. The schoolmaster was to be held
+personally responsible for the safety of every volume, which, if lost,
+he was bound to replace. I am told that one master, to minimize his risk
+as much as possible, took the following barbarous course:--As soon as
+he was in possession, he raised the boards of the schoolroom floor, and,
+having carefully packed all the books between the joists, had the boards
+nailed down again. Little recked he how many rats and mice made their
+nests there; he was bound to account some day for every single volume,
+and he saw no way so safe as rigid imprisonment.
+
+The late Sir Thomas Phillipps, of Middle Hill, was a remarkable instance
+of a bibliotaph. He bought bibliographical treasures simply to bury
+them. His mansion was crammed with books; he purchased whole libraries,
+and never even saw what he had bought. Among some of his purchases was
+the first book printed in the English language, "The Recuyell of the
+Histories of Troye," translated and printed by William Caxton, for the
+Duchess of Burgundy, sister to our Edward IV. It is true, though almost
+incredible, that Sir Thomas could never find this volume, although it
+is doubtless still in the collection, and no wonder, when cases of books
+bought twenty years before his death were never opened, and the only
+knowledge of their contents which he possessed was the Sale Catalogue or
+the bookseller's invoice.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X. SERVANTS AND CHILDREN.
+
+READER! are you married? Have you offspring, boys especially I mean, say
+between six and twelve years of age? Have you also a literary workshop,
+supplied with choice tools, some for use, some for ornament, where you
+pass pleasant hours? and is--ah! there's the rub!--is there a special
+hand-maid, whose special duty it is to keep your den daily dusted and
+in order? Plead you guilty to these indictments? then am I sure of a
+sympathetic co-sufferer.
+
+Dust! it is all a delusion. It is not the dust that makes women anxious
+to invade the inmost recesses of your Sanctum--it is an ingrained
+curiosity. And this feminine weakness, which dates from Eve, is a common
+motive in the stories of our oldest literature and Folk-lore. What made
+Fatima so anxious to know the contents of the room forbidden her by
+Bluebeard? It was positively nothing to her, and its contents caused not
+the slightest annoyance to anybody. That story has a bad moral, and it
+would, in many ways, have been more satisfactory had the heroine been
+left to take her place in the blood-stained chamber, side by side with
+her peccant predecessors. Why need the women-folk (God forgive me!)
+bother themselves about the inside of a man's library, and whether
+it wants dusting or not? My boys' playroom, in which is a carpenter's
+bench, a lathe, and no end of litter, is never tidied--perhaps it can't
+be, or perhaps their youthful vigour won't stand it--but my workroom
+must needs be dusted daily, with the delusive promise that each book and
+paper shall be replaced exactly where it was. The damage done by such
+continued treatment is incalculable. At certain times these observances
+are kept more religiously than others; but especially should the
+book-lover, married or single, beware of the Ides of March. So soon as
+February is dead and gone, a feeling of unrest seizes the housewife's
+mind. This increases day by day, and becomes dominant towards the middle
+of the month, about which period sundry hints are thrown out as to
+whether you are likely to be absent for a day or two. Beware! the fever
+called "Spring Clean" is on, and unless you stand firm, you will rue it.
+Go away, if the Fates so will, but take the key of your own domain with
+you.
+
+Do not misunderstand. Not for a moment would I advocate dust and dirt;
+they are enemies, and should be routed; but let the necessary routing be
+done under your own eye. Explain where caution must be used, and in
+what cases tenderness is a virtue; and if one Eve in the family can
+be indoctrinated with book-reverence you are a happy man; her price is
+above that of rubies; she will prolong your life. Books MUST now and
+then be taken clean out of their shelves, but they should be tended
+lovingly and with judgment. If the dusting can be done just outside the
+room so much the better. The books removed, the shelf should be lifted
+quite out of its bearings, cleansed and wiped, and then each volume
+should be taken separately, and gently rubbed on back and sides with a
+soft cloth. In returning the volumes to their places, notice should be
+taken of the binding, and especially when the books are in whole calf
+or morocco care should be taken not to let them rub together. The best
+bound books are soonest injured, and quickly deteriorate in bad company.
+Certain volumes, indeed, have evil tempers, and will scratch the faces
+of all their neighbours who are too familiar with them. Such are books
+with metal clasps and rivets on their edges; and such, again, are those
+abominable old rascals, chiefly born in the fifteenth century, who are
+proud of being dressed in REAL boards with brass corners, and pass their
+lives with fearful knobs and metal bosses, mostly five in number, firmly
+fixed on one of their sides. If the tendencies of such ruffians are not
+curbed, they will do as much mischief to their gentle neighbours as when
+a "collie" worries the sheep. These evil results may always be minimized
+by placing a piece of millboard between the culprit and his victim. I
+have seen lovely bindings sadly marked by such uncanny neighbours.
+
+When your books are being "dusted," don't impute too much common sense
+to your assistants; take their ignorance for granted, and tell them at
+once never to lift any book by one of its covers; that treatment is sure
+to strain the back, and ten to one the weight will be at the same time
+miscalculated, and the volume will fall. Your female "help," too, dearly
+loves a good tall pile to work at and, as a rule, her notions of the
+centre of gravity are not accurate, leading often to a general
+downfall, and the damage of many a corner. Again, if not supervised and
+instructed, she is very apt to rub the dust into, instead of off, the
+edges. Each volume should be held tightly, so as to prevent the leaves
+from gaping, and then wiped from the back to the fore-edge. A soft brush
+will be found useful if there is much dust. The whole exterior should
+also be rubbed with a soft cloth, and then the covers should be opened
+and the hinges of the binding examined; for mildew WILL assert itself
+both inside and outside certain books, and that most pertinaciously. It
+has unaccountable likes and dislikes. Some bindings seem positively to
+invite damp, and mildew will attack these when no other books on the
+same shelf show any signs of it. When discovered, carefully wipe it
+away, and then let the book remain a few days standing open, in the
+driest and airiest spot you can select. Great care should be taken not
+to let grit, such as blows in at the open window from many a dusty road,
+be upon your duster, or you will probably find fine scratches, like an
+outline map of Europe, all over your smooth calf, by which your heart
+and eye, as well as your book, will be wounded.
+
+"Helps" are very apt to fill the shelves too tightly, so that to extract
+a book you have to use force, often to the injury of the top-bands.
+Beware of this mistake. It frequently occurs through not noticing that
+one small book is purposely placed at each end of the shelf, beneath the
+movable shelf-supports, thus not only saving space, but preventing the
+injury which a book shelf-high would be sure to receive from uneven
+pressure.
+
+After all, the best guide in these, as in many other matters, is "common
+sense," a quality which in olden times must have been much more "common"
+than in these days, else the phrase would never have become rooted in
+our common tongue.
+
+Children, with all their innocence, are often guilty of book-murder. I
+must confess to having once taken down "Humphrey's History of Writing,"
+which contains many brightly-coloured plates, to amuse a sick daughter.
+The object was certainly gained, but the consequences of so bad a
+precedent were disastrous. That copy (which, I am glad to say, was
+easily re-placed), notwithstanding great care on my part, became soiled
+and torn, and at last was given up to Nursery martyrdom. Can I regret
+it? surely not, for, although bibliographically sinful, who can weigh
+the amount of real pleasure received, and actual pain ignored, by the
+patient in the contemplation of those beautifully-blended colours?
+
+A neighbour of mine some few years ago suffered severely from a
+propensity, apparently irresistible, in one of his daughters to tear his
+library books. She was six years old, and would go quietly to a shelf
+and take down a book or two, and having torn a dozen leaves or so down
+the middle, would replace the volumes, fragments and all, in their
+places, the damage being undiscovered until the books were wanted for
+use. Reprimand, expostulation and even punishment were of no avail; but
+a single "whipping" effected a cure.
+
+Boys, however, are by far more destructive than girls, and have,
+naturally, no reverence for age, whether in man or books. Who does not
+fear a schoolboy with his first pocket-knife? As Wordsworth did not
+say:--
+
+              "You may trace him oft
+     By scars which his activity has left
+     Upon our shelves and volumes. * * *
+     He who with pocket-knife will cut the edge
+     Of luckless panel or of prominent book,
+     Detaching with a stroke a label here, a back-band there."
+                             _Excursion III, 83_.
+
+Pleased, too, are they, if, with mouths full of candy, and sticky
+fingers, they can pull in and out the books on your bottom shelves,
+little knowing the damage and pain they will cause. One would fain cry
+out, calling on the Shade of Horace to pardon the false quantity--
+
+     "Magna movet stomacho fastidia, si puer unctis
+     Tractavit volumen manibus."  _Sat. IV_.
+
+
+What boys CAN do may be gathered from the following true story, sent me
+by a correspondent who was the immediate sufferer:--
+
+One summer day he met in town an acquaintance who for many years had
+been abroad; and finding his appetite for old books as keen as ever,
+invited him home to have a mental feed upon "fifteeners" and other
+bibliographical dainties, preliminary to the coarser pleasures enjoyed
+at the dinner-table. The "home" was an old mansion in the outskirts
+of London, whose very architecture was suggestive of black-letter and
+sheep-skin. The weather, alas! was rainy, and, as they approached the
+house, loud peals of laughter reached their ears. The children were
+keeping a birthday with a few young friends. The damp forbad all outdoor
+play, and, having been left too much to their own devices, they had
+invaded the library. It was just after the Battle of Balaclava, and the
+heroism of the combatants on that hard-fought field was in everybody's
+mouth. So the mischievous young imps divided themselves into two
+opposing camps--Britons and Russians. The Russian division was just
+inside the door, behind ramparts formed of old folios and quartos taken
+from the bottom shelves and piled to the height of about four feet.
+It was a wall of old fathers, fifteenth century chronicles, county
+histories, Chaucer, Lydgate, and such like. Some few yards off were the
+Britishers, provided with heaps of small books as missiles, with which
+they kept up a skirmishing cannonade against the foe. Imagine the
+tableau! Two elderly gentlemen enter hurriedly, paterfamilias receiving,
+quite unintentionally, the first edition of "Paradise Lost" in the
+pit of his stomach, his friend narrowly escaping a closer personal
+acquaintance with a quarto Hamlet than he had ever had before. Finale:
+great outburst of wrath, and rapid retreat of the combatants, many
+wounded (volumes) being left on the field.
+
+
+
+POSTSCRIPTUM.
+
+ALTHOUGH, strictly speaking, the following anecdote does not illustrate
+any form of real injury to books, it is so racy, and in these days of
+extravagant biddings so tantalizing, that I must step just outside the
+strict line of pertinence in order to place it on record, It was sent
+to me, as a personal experience, by my friend, Mr. George Clulow,
+a well-known bibliophile, and "Xylographer" to "Ye Sette of ye Odde
+Volumes." The date is 1881. He writes:--
+
+"_Apropos_ of the Gainsborough 'find,' of which you tell in 'The Enemies
+of Books,' I should like to narrate an experience of my own, of some
+twenty years ago:
+
+"Late one evening, at my father's house, I saw a catalogue of a sale of
+furniture, farm implements and books, which was announced to take place
+on the following morning at a country rectory in Derbyshire, some four
+miles from the nearest railway station.
+
+"It was summer time--the country at its best--and with the attraction
+of an old book, I decided on a day's holiday, and eight o'clock the next
+morning found me in the train for C----, and after a variation in
+my programme, caused by my having walked three miles west before I
+discovered that my destination was three miles east of the railway
+station, I arrived at the rectory at noon, and found assembled some
+thirty or forty of the neighbouring farmers, their wives, men-servants
+and maid-servants, all seemingly bent on a day's idling, rather than
+business. The sale was announced for noon, but it was an hour later
+before the auctioneer put in an appearance, and the first operation in
+which he took part, and in which he invited my assistance, was to make
+a hearty meal of bread and cheese and beer in the rectory kitchen. This
+over, the business of the day began by a sundry collection of pots,
+pans, and kettles being brought to the competition of the public,
+followed by some lots of bedding, etc. The catalogue gave books as the
+first part of the sale, and, as three o'clock was reached, my patience
+was gone, and I protested to the auctioneer against his not selling in
+accordance with his catalogue. To this he replied that there was not
+time enough, and that he would sell the books to-morrow! This was too
+much for me, and I suggested that he had broken faith with the buyers,
+and had brought me to C---- on a false pretence. This, however, did not
+seem to disturb his good humour, or to make him unhappy, and his answer
+was to call 'Bill,' who was acting as porter, and to tell him to give
+the gentleman the key of the 'book room,' and to bring down any of the
+books he might pick out, and he 'would sell 'em.' I followed 'Bill,' and
+soon found myself in a charming nook of a library, full of books,
+mostly old divinity, but with a large number of the best miscellaneous
+literature of the sixteenth century, English and foreign. A very short
+look over the shelves produced some thirty Black Letter books, three or
+four illuminated missals, and some book rarities of a more recent date.
+'Bill' took them downstairs, and I wondered what would happen! I was
+not long in doubt, for book by book, and in lots of two and three, my
+selection was knocked down in rapid succession, at prices varying from
+1_s_. 6_d_. to 3_s_. 6_d_., this latter sum seeming to be the utmost
+limit to the speculative turn of my competitors. The _bonne bouche_ of
+the lot was, however, kept back by the auctioneer, because, as he said,
+it was 'a pretty book,' and I began to respect his critical judgment,
+for 'a pretty book' it was, being a large paper copy of Dibdin's
+Bibliographical Decameron, three volumes, in the original binding.
+Suffice it to say that, including this charming book, my purchases did
+not amount to L13, and I had pretty well a cart-load of books for my
+money--more than I wanted much! Having brought them home, I 'weeded them
+out,' and the 'weeding' realised four times what I gave for the whole,
+leaving me with some real book treasures.
+
+"Some weeks afterwards I heard that the remainder of the books were
+literally treated as waste lumber, and carted off to the neighbouring
+town, and were to be had, any one of them, for sixpence, from a cobbler
+who had allowed his shop to be used as a store house for them. The news
+of their being there reached the ears of an old bookseller in one of
+the large towns, and he, I think, cleared out the lot. So curious an
+instance of the most total ignorance on the part of the sellers, and
+I may add on the part of the possible buyers also, I think is worth
+noting."
+
+How would the reader in this Year of Grace, 1887, like such an
+experience as that?
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+IT is a great pity that there should be so many distinct enemies at
+work for the destruction of literature, and that they should so often be
+allowed to work out their sad end. Looked at rightly, the possession of
+any old book is a sacred trust, which a conscientious owner or guardian
+would as soon think of ignoring as a parent would of neglecting his
+child. An old book, whatever its subject or internal merits, is truly
+a portion of the national history; we may imitate it and print it in
+fac-simile, but we can never exactly reproduce it; and as an historical
+document it should be carefully preserved.
+
+I do not envy any man that absence of sentiment which makes some people
+careless of the memorials of their ancestors, and whose blood can
+be warmed up only by talking of horses or the price of hops. To them
+solitude means _ennui_, and anybody's company is preferable to their
+own. What an immense amount of calm enjoyment and mental renovation
+do such men miss. Even a millionaire will ease his toils, lengthen his
+life, and add a hundred per cent. to his daily pleasures if he becomes
+a bibliophile; while to the man of business with a taste for books,
+who through the day has struggled in the battle of life with all its
+irritating rebuffs and anxieties, what a blessed season of pleasurable
+repose opens upon him as he enters his sanctum, where every article
+wafts to him a welcome, and every book is a personal friend!
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+   _Academy, The_, 23.
+   Acanis eruditus, 77, 78.
+   Acts of the Apostles, quoted, 4.
+   Aglossa pinguinalis, 76.
+   Albermarle (Duke of), portrait by Logan, 126.
+   Althorp library, 124.
+   Anderson (Sir C.), 55.
+   Anobium paniceum, 77, 78.
+   Anobium pertinax, 77, 78, 87, 88.
+   Antiquary, The, 54.
+   Antwerp, Monks at, 57, 58.
+   Asbestos fire, 27.
+   Ashburnham House, Westminster, 10.
+   Asiarch, an, 7.
+   Athens, Bookworm from, 81.
+   Atkyns' Origin and Growth of Printing, 126.
+   Auctioneer, story of, 145.
+   Austin Friars, 15.
+   Bagford (John), the biblioclast, r: 18.
+   Balaclava, battle of, 143.
+   Bale, the antiquary, 9.
+   Bandinel (Dr.), 87, 88.
+   Beedham, B., 52.
+   Bible, the first printed, burnt at Strasbourg, 13.
+    -- the "bug" edition, 95.
+   Bibliophile, pleasures of a, 153.
+   Bibliotaph, a, 129.
+   Bibliotheca Ecclesiae Londino-Belgicae, 16.
+   Binder's creed, 31.
+    -- plough, 105.
+   Binding, care to be taken of, 134.
+    -- quality of good, 104.
+   Bird (Rev. -), 55.
+   Birdsall (Mr.), bookbinder, 80.
+   Birmingham Riots, 11.
+   Black-beetles, enemies of books, 94.
+   Black-letter books in United States, 91.
+   Blatta germanica, 65.
+   Boccaccio, 48-50.
+   Bodleian, hookworms at, 87.
+   Bookbinders as enemies of books, 103.
+   Books, absurd lettering, 111.
+    -- burnt at Carthage; at Ephesus, 4.
+    -- burnt in Fire of London, 10.
+    -- burnt by Saracens, 3.
+    -- captured by Corsairs, 18.
+    -- cleaning of, 114.
+    -- deprived of title pages, 118, 119.
+   Books destroyed at the Reformation, Si.
+    -- dried in an attic, 16.
+    -- examination of old covers, 116.
+    -- how to dust them, 134.
+    -- injured by hacking, i x i.
+    -- lost at sea, 17, 18.
+    -- margin reduced to size, 111.
+    -- mildew in, 136.
+    -- from monasteries destroyed, 9.
+    -- restoration when injured, 114.
+    -- restored after a fire, 15.
+    -- scarce before printing, 2.
+    -- sold to a cobbler, 52, 149.
+    -- too tight on shelves, 137.
+    -- their claims to be preserved, 151.
+    -- used to bake "pyes," 10.
+    -- which scratch one another, 134.
+   Book-sale in Derbyshire, 145.
+   Bookworm, the, 67-93.
+    -- attempt to breed, 81-3.
+    -- from Greece, 82.
+    -- in paper box, 89.
+    -- in United States, 91.
+   Bookworms' progress through books, 84.
+    -- race by, 86.
+   Bosses on books, 135.
+   Boys injuring books, 139.
+    -- in library, story of, 140.
+   Brighton, black letter fragments, 59.
+   British Museum, Boccaccio's Fall of Princes, 61.
+   British Museum free from the "worm," 83.
+    -- burnt book exhibited at, 11.
+   Brown spots in books, 24.
+   Bruchium, 3.
+   Burckhardt's Arabic MSS., 77.
+   "Bug" Bible, 95.
+   Burgundy (Duchess of), 130.
+
+   Cambridge Market, 97.
+   Caskets (the three), Shakspeare, 60.
+   Caspari (Mr.), a collector, 124.
+   Cassin (Convent of Mount), 49.
+   Caxton, William, 130.
+    --his use of waste leaves, 90.
+    --Canterbury Tales, used to light a fire, 53.
+    -- Golden Legend, ditto, 52.
+    --Lyf of oure Ladye, 89.
+   Caxtons saturated by rain, 22.
+    --spoilt in binding, 107.
+    --discovered in British Museum, 108.
+   Charles II, portrait by Logan, 126.
+   Chasles (Philarete), 52.
+   Child tearing books, 139.
+   Children as enemies of books, 138.
+   Choir boys injuring MSS., 124.
+   Christians burnt heathen MSS., 7.
+   early, 6.
+   Clarendon (Earl of), portrait by Logan, 126.
+   Clasps on books, injury from, 135.
+   Clergymen as biblioclasts, 64.
+   Clulow (Mr. George), 144.
+   Coal fires objectionable in libraries, 27.
+   Codfish, book eaten by a, 96.
+   Cold injures books, 26.
+   Collectors as enemies of books, 117.
+   College quadrangle, 41.
+   Colophon in Schoeffer's book, 123.
+   Colophons (collections of), I IS.
+   Commonwealth quartos, 44.
+   Communal libraries in France, 48.
+   Cotton library; partially burnt, 10.
+   Cowper, the poet, on burnt libraries, 12.
+   Crambus pinguinalis, 76.
+   Cremona, books destroyed at, 8.
+   Croton bug, 95.
+
+   Damp, an enemy of books, 24.
+   Dante, 50.
+    -- The Inferno, 106.
+   Derbyshire, book sale in, 145.
+   Dermestes vulpinus, 89.
+   De Rome, the binder, 47, 48, 110.
+   De Thou, 110.
+   Devil worship, 5.
+   Devon and Exeter Museum, 101.
+   Diana, Temple of, 6.
+   Dibdin (Dr.), 110.
+    --sale of his Decameron, 148.
+    --his books, 25.
+   D'Israeli (B.), 17.
+   Doraston (J.), Poem on Bookworne, 67, 76.
+   Dust, an enemy of books, 39.
+    -- and neglect in a library, 39-50, 133.
+   Dusting books-how to do it, 136.
+   Dutch Church burnt, 15.
+    -- library at Guildhall, 16.
+
+   Ecclesiastical Commissioners, 53.
+   Edmonds (Mr.), bookseller, 58.
+   Edward IV, 130.
+   Edwards (Mr.), bookseller, 18.
+   Electric light in British Museum, 32.
+   Ephesus, 5.
+   "Eracles," 111.
+   "Evil eye," the, 6.
+   "Excursion, The," 139.
+
+   Fire, an enemy of books, 1-16.
+    -- of London, 10.
+   Flint (Weston), account of black-beetles in New York
+   libraries, 95.
+   Folklore, ancient, 5.
+   "Foxey" books, 25.
+   Francis (St.) and the friars, 37.
+   French Protestant Church, 53.
+   Frith (John), 96.
+   Froissart's Chronicles, 110.
+   Frost in a library, 26.
+
+   Garnett (Dr.), 81.
+   Gas injurious, 29-38,
+   Gatty's (Mrs.) Parables, 76.
+   German Army at Strasburg, U.
+   Gesta Romanorum, 66.
+   Gibbon, the historian, 2.
+   Glass cases preservative of books, 27.
+   Golden Legend, by Caxton, 52.
+   Gordon Riots, 11.
+   Government officials as biblioclasts, 65.
+   Grenville (Rt. Hon. Thos.), 56.
+   Guildford, library at school, 129.
+   Guildhall, London, library at, 0.
+   Gutenberg, 123.
+    -- documents concerning, burnt, 13,
+   Gwyn, Nell, housekeeping book of, 65.
+   "Gyp" brushing clothes in a library, 44.
+
+   Hannett, on bookbinding, 76.
+   Havergal (Rev. F. T.), 76.
+   Heathens burnt Christian MSS., 7.
+   Heating libraries, 27.
+   Hebrew books burnt, 8.
+   Hereford Cathedral library, 76.
+   Hickman family, 56.
+   Histories of Troy, 111.
+   Holme (Mr.), 77.
+   Hooke (R.), his Micrographia, 71-75.
+   Horace's Satires, 140.
+   Hot water pipes for libraries, 26.
+   House-fly, an enemy of books, 102.
+   Hudde, Heer, a story of, 17.
+   Hwqhrey's History of Writing, 138.
+   Hypothenemus eruditus, 76.
+
+   Ignorance and Bigotry, P-66.
+   Illuminated letters fatal to books, 51.
+    -- initials, collections of, 123.
+   Indulgence of 15th Century spoilt by a binder, 109.
+   Inquisition in Holland, 63.
+
+   Kirby and Spence on Entomologists, 75, 101.
+   Knobs of metal on bindings, 135.
+   Koran, The, 7.
+
+   Lamberhurst, 61.
+   Lamport Hall, 58.
+   Lansdowne Collection of MSS., 60.
+   Latterbury, copy of, at St. Martin's, 54.
+   Leather destroyed by gas, 30.
+   Lepisma, 96.
+    -- mistaken for bookworm, 75.
+   Libraries
+    burnt: by Caesar, 3.
+     --- at Dutch Church, 15.
+     --- at Strasbourg, 13.
+    neglected in England, 15, 22, 40.
+    at Alexandria, 3.
+    of the Ptolemies) 3.
+   Library Journal, The, 94.
+   Lincoln Cathedral MSS., 124.
+   Lincolne Nosegaye, 124.
+   London Institution, 31.
+   Lubbock (Sir J.), 90.
+   Luke's, St., account of destruction of books, 4.
+   Luxe des Livres, 47.
+   Luxury and learning, 42.
+
+   Machlinia, book printed by, 106.
+   Magdalene College, Cambridge, 128.
+   Maitland (Rev. S. R.), 54.
+   Mansfield (Lord), ij.
+   MS. Plays burnt, 60.
+   Manuscripts, fragments of, 126.
+   Margins of books cut away, 49, 127.
+   Maximilian (The Emperor), 125.
+   Mazarin library, Caxton in, 52.
+   Metamorphoses of Ovid, by Caxton, 10.
+   Micrographia, by R. Hooke, 71.
+   Middleburgh, 17.
+   Mildew in books, 136.
+   Minorite friars, 37.
+   Missal illuminations, sale of, 119.
+   Mohammed's reason for destroying books, 7.
+   Mohammed II throws books into the sea, 21.
+   Monks at Monte Cassino, 49.
+   Mould in books, 24.
+   Mount Cassin, library at, 50.
+   Moxon's Mechanic Exercises, 115.
+   Muller (M.), of Amsterdam, 62.
+
+   Newmarsh (Rev. C. F.), 54.
+   Niptus Hololeucos, 101.
+   Noble (Mr.), on Parish Registers, 61.
+   Notes and Queries, 77.
+
+   Oak Chest, 44.
+   OEcophora pseudospretella, 79.
+   Offer Collection of Bunyans, 14.
+   On, Priests of, 69.
+   Overall (Mr.), Librarian at Guildhall, 16.
+   Ovid, Metamorphoses by Caxton, 10.
+   Oxenforde, Lyf of therle, 10.
+
+   Paper improperly bleached, 25.
+   Papyrus, 68.
+   Paradise Lost, 142.
+   Parchment, slips of, in old books, 112.
+   Parish Registers, carelessness, 62.
+   Parnell's Ode, 70.
+   Patent Office, destruction of literature at, 65.
+   Paternoster Row, io.
+   Paul, St., 6.
+   Pedlar buying old books, 54, 55.
+   Peignot and hookworms, 79.
+   Pepys (Samuel), his library, 128.
+   Petit (Pierre), poem on bookworm, 70.
+   Philadelphia, wormhole at, 92.
+   Phillipps (Sir Thos.), 129.
+   Pieces of silver or denarii, 5.
+   Pinelli (Maffei), library of, 18.
+   Plantin Museum, 122.
+   policemen in Ephesus, 7.
+   Portrait collectors, 127.
+   Priestley (Dr.), library burnt, 11, 12.
+   Printers, the first, 13.
+   Printers' marks, collection of, 119.
+   -- ink and bookworms, 80.
+   Probrue (Mr.), 120.
+   Ptolemies, the Egyptian, 3.
+   Puttick and Simpson, 15.
+   Pynson's Fall of Princes, 61.
+
+   Queen Elizabeth's prayer-book, 98.
+   Quaint titles, collections of, 121.
+   Quadrangle of an old College described) 41.
+
+   Rain an enemy to books, 21.
+   Rats eat books, 97.
+   Recollet monks of Antwerp, 57.
+   -Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, 130.
+   Reformation, destruction of books at, 9.
+   Restoration of burnt books, 11.
+   Richard of Bury, 47.
+   Ringwalt's Encyclopaedia, 92.
+   Rivets on books, 135.
+   Rood and Hunte, 53.
+   Rot caused by rain, 21.
+   Royal Society, London, 71.
+   Rubens' engraved titles in Plantin Museum, 122.
+    -- autograph receipts, 122.
+   Ruins of fire at Sotheby and Wilkinson's, 14.
+   Rye (W. B.), 61, 83.
+   St. Albans, Boke of, 54.
+   St. Martin's-le-Grand, French church, 53.
+   St. Paul's Cathedral, books burnt in vaults of, 10.
+   Sale catalogues, extracts from, 119.
+   Schoeffer (P.), 123.
+   Schonsperger (Hans), 125.
+   Schoolmaster and endowed library, 129.
+   Scorched book at British Museum, 11.
+   Scrolls of magic, 6.
+   Serpent worship, 5.
+   Servants and children as enemies of books, 131-144.
+   Shakesperian discoveries, 58.
+   "Shavings" of binders, 31.
+   Sheldon (Archbishop), portrait by Logan, 126.
+   Sib's Bowels opened, 121.
+   Smith (Mr.), Brighton bookseller, 64.
+   Sotheby and Wilkinson, 125.
+    -- fire at their rooms, 14.
+   Spring clean, horrors of, 133.
+   Stark (Mr.), bookseller, 55-58.
+   Stealing a Caxton, 54.
+   Steam press, 40.
+   Strasbourg, siege of, 13.
+   Sun-light of gas, 29, 32.
+   Sun worship, 5.
+   Sylvester's Laws of Verse, 71.
+
+   Taylor, the water-poet, 121.
+   Teylerian Museum, Haarlem, 128.
+   Theurdanck, prints in, 125.
+   Thonock Hall, library Of, 56.
+   Timmins (Mr.), 50.
+   Title-pages, collections sold, 122.
+    -- volumes of, 118.
+   Title-pages, old Dutch, 120.
+   Tomicus Typographus, iox.
+
+   Utramontane Society, called "Old paper," 63,
+   Unitarian library, 13,
+   Universities destroy books, 9.
+
+   Value of books burnt by St. Paul, 4.
+   Vanderberg (M.), 57.
+   Vermin book-enemies, 94-102.
+   Pox Piscis, 96.
+
+   Washing old books, x6.
+   Water an enemy of books, 17-28.
+   Waterhouse (Mr.), Si.
+   Werdet (Edmond), 48, 57.
+   Westbrook (W. J.), 102.
+   Westminster Chapter-house, 97.
+    -- skeletons of rats, 97.
+   White (Adam), 83.
+   Wolfenbuttel, library at, 23.
+   Woodcuts, a Caxton celebration, 124.
+   Wynken de Worde, fragment, 59.
+
+   Ximenes (Cardinal) destroys copies of the Koran, 8.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Enemies of Books, by William Blades
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1302 ***