Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/642

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. n. DEC. si, im.

I remember Wyld's "Great Globe" being erected in 1851 in the centre of the square, and according to Wyld's lease or agreement it had to be removed in 1861 or 1862, when the bronze figure was again replaced. I have often wondered what became of it. I have heard that when taken down the pieces were numbered ready to be replaced in some other locality. As an educational medium it was invaluable. The Times, 30 May, 1851, says: "On the importance of this remarkable work as a means of instruction to those bent upon the acquisition of solid knowledge it would be superfluous to expatiate."

CHAS. G. SMITHERS.

47, Darnley Road, N.E.

Illustrated articles on the old Coliseum, Regent's Park, will be found in the Mirror of 17 and 31 January and 14 February, 1829. There is also a good engraving of the building and a long account, containing details of its progress and construction, in 'Metropolitan Improvements ; or, London in the Nineteenth Century,' by Thos. H. Shepherd and James Elmes (1827). In each of the above-named volumes the name of the place is given as " The Colosseum." JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

It would be a matter for regret if * N. & Q.' were to appear as an authority for any incorrect statement as to the old Coliseum in Regent's Park. I can say from personal recollection that neither of the panoramas in the upper part of the building was ' Lisbon at Night ' ; though one was 4 Paris,' but whether by night or by day I cannot remember. Lisbon appeared in the lower part of the house, in the exhibition which reproduced the earthquake of Lisbon as it happened in which the tossing of the ships, the noise of the sea, and other elemental phenomena, used to terrify us children.

E. DYSEY.

SOUTHEY s ' OMNIANA,' 1812 (10 th S. ii. 305, 410). In reply to MR. JOHN T. CURRY, I may say that there can be no possible doubt about the back labels on the two volumes of ' Omniana ' which I described in my formei note being the original ones. The omission of Southey's name by the binder of MR. CURRY s copy cannot be accepted as a "proof that the work was published anonymously

What the binder did " is no better evidence than "what the soldier said." No biblio- grapher would ever think of collating a book from a "bound" copy so long as it was possible to examine one in its original con dition. The copy I described is a very fine one

n the original boards, and was formerly in the possession of Canon Ainger. The binder of MR. CURRY'S copy is shown by that gentle- man to have been a careless one, as he is said to have bound up the "Contents" of both volumes in the second volume, and very likely
 * he copy which he bound had lost its back

abel, and he merely lettered it from the title-page. Any one who has had experience of binders knows that (to vary MR. CURRY'S Elabakkuk simile) they are in one respect .ike the British army : if not always ready " to go anywhere," they will at any rate "do anything." Many years ago, when in my oibliophilic infancy, I entrusted a set of Dickens first editions to a binder to be put into uniform "jackets." When they were returned, I discovered that all the half-titles had been carefully cancelled, whereby the set was ruined from a collector's point of view. But the absence of the half-titles in my volumes was no " proof " that they never existed. On, later occasion I handed an old black-letter opy of the romance of ' Valentine and Orson ' to the great Francis Bedford to be bound. _ It was returned in a beautiful coat, but the title was lettered on the back 'Valentine and Arson.' After this, I no longer wondered at the frequent fires that take place in book- binders' establishments. As to the question of anonymity, I have been favoured by an esteemed correspondent of ' N. & Q.' with a sight of Messrs. Longman's list of publications fpr March, 1813, which contains the names, &c., of books then in print. In this list 'Omniana' is plainly entered as being " by Robert Southey." It would therefore appear that Southey decidedly claimed the collection as his own, although, as MR. CURRY points out, he acknowledged the collaboration of *'a different writer."

Through the courtesy of Messrs. Longman, I am enabled to state that the edition of 'Omniana' consisted of 1,500 copies, and that it was not exhausted till 1829. It did not receive the honours of a reprint. Messrs. Longman paid the printing charges, and there is nothing in their ledgers to show that they took over the sheets from any other publisher or printer. The profits arising from the sale of the book were equally divided between Southey and Messrs. Long- man. All this, I admit, militates against my position ; but it is not entirely con- vincing, as, with the exception of a few letters from Southej 7, the correspondence which passed between him and the firm at that date no longer exists, and the points which I raised in my former note, and with which your correspondent GRETA does not deal,