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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th 8. XL APRIL is, 1903.

BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES.

INTEREST in other items in the latest catalogue of Mr. Arthur Reader is eclipsed by the presence in it of an edition of Milton's ' Poems, English and Latin,' 1674, wholly unknown to bibliographers. Upon discovering this item we wished to secure it, but found ourselves an hour too late. It is now in the possession of Mr. W.Aldis Wright, Vice-Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, by whom it will be duly prized. It differs from the 1673 edition in being, so far as we can learn, 12mo instead of small 8vo, and has a portrait. The 1673 edition we possess, and are sorry to have missed that of 1674. Many other items of interest are there, including an 'Annales de la Cour de Paris,' 1697-8, which obtained for its author nine years in the Bastille. The author in question is Courtilz de Sandras, to whom is owing the famous ' Vie de M. D'Artagnan,' on which Dumas founded his immortal ' Trois Mousquetaires.' This and a few other curious items we were fortunate enough to secure.

The latest catalogue (No. 262) of Mr. Francis Edwards is almost entirely topographical, and includes many scarce and costly works. To be specially noted are BoydelFs ' Scenery and History of the Thames,' 1791-6; Kip's 'Britannia Illus- trata,' 1714 ; a complete set of the Harleian Society publications ; a set of publications of the Huguenot Society; a complete set of ' N. & Q.,' with the indexes (39Z. ); Wood's 'Athense Oxonienses,' ed. Bliss; Lipscomb's 'Buckingham'; Ackermann's 'Cambridge University'; Ormerod's 'Chester'; Hutchins's 'Dorsetshire'; Atkyns's 'Gloucester- shire ' ; Clutterbuck's ' Hertfordshire ' ; Hasted's 'Kent'; Ackermann's 'Microcosm of London'; and Sowerby's ' Botany.'

Mr. W. J. Smith, of Brighton, has original draw- ings by Rowlandson, Howitt's 'Northern Heights,' Thoms's 'Early English Prose Romances,' 3 vols., 1828, interesting to our readers, many startling articles under Charles Lamb, and another long list under London. He has some valuable mezzotint portraits. Under Thackeray, &c., may be found articles of importance.

Messrs. Ellis & Elvey, of Bond Street, preface their admirable catalogue with a history of their firm and its various members. It seems to have been started by John Brindley in 1728. James Robson, publisher of Burney's ' History of Music,' ioined it, and the firm, after other mutations, became Boone & Sons, who disposed of the business in 1872 to Mr. F. S. Ellis, the spirited publisher of Rossetti. Other changes followed, and the house is now Ellis & Elvey, though apparently no bearer of either name is contained in it. Incunabula, with which the catalogue opens, include the first German Mandeville, c. 1475. A Beaumont and Fletcher, 1647, follows, and is succeeded by a Fourth Quarto Shakespeare. In addition to these come Young's 'Night Thoughts,' with the illustrations of Blake, coloured by the artist ; a large-paper ' Bibliotheca Spenceriana' ; a MS. on vellum, ' Glanvilla de Pro-

B'ietatibus Rerum ' ; autograph letters of Lord eathfield, illustrating the celebrated siege of Gib- raltar ; and a rare collection of books on music. Many reproductions of bindings and plates are supplied.

^ The catalogue of A. Maurice & Co., of Bedford Street, contains a series of Horse, on vellum, one of the fifteenth century being priced 40W. and others at three figures. Facsimiles of some of the illustra-

tions to these are given. A second collection consists wholly of books on the drama, and has some scarce items, while a third, with many extra- illustrated books, has a tine Boswell's ' Johnson,' extended to ten volumes ; ' Her Majesty's Tower,' by Hepworth Dixon, in four volumes ; a ' Table Talk' ascribed to Foote ; a Bewick's 'British Birds ' ; a Pennant's ' London ' ; a Crabb Robin- son's 'Diary,' with 150 portraits; and works of Leigh Hunt, Hogarth, and others.

The catalogue of Messrs. Deighton, Bell & Co., of Cambridge, has some rare and out-of-print books, including ' Le Cabinet de Choiseul' and ' Le Cabinet de Poullain,' French illustrated books of the eigh- teenth century; a translation of the 'Ethiopica' of Heliodorus : works of King James I. ; a Villon illustrated by Robida ; and some works of Uzanne. There are some good entries under ' Oriental Litera- ture,' ' Assyriology,' and ' Egyptology,' and a scarce collection of pamphlets. Some costly works in art are catalogued on the cover, besides an edition of the works of Martin Luther in 20 vols.

In the catalogue of Mr. James Roche, of New Oxford Street, are to be noted many Dickens items, including an extra-illustrated ' Master Humphrey's Clock,' and other works, first editions ; a series of articles contributed by the novelist to Hell's Life; a first series of 'Sketches by Boz,' first edition, uncut and finely bound, with Cruikshank's illus- trations ; Wilkinson's ' Londina Illustrata ' ; some Bartolozzi illustrations; H. B.'s 'Political Carica- tures'; coloured Cruikshank plates; a Staunton's Shakespeare, Edition de luxe; David Roberts's ' Views in the Holy Land ' ; and a collection of works concerning India and the East, together with a large variety of other illustrated works.

Messrs. J. & J. Leighton issue a large and richly illustrated catalogue of works of highest mark. A description of the contents of this might well occupy all the space we can devote to the subject. Among items of high interest, mostly in finest bindings, are ' The Gardener's Labyrinth ' ; a series of works by Gerson, printed by Ulrich Zell and others ; Ghisi's ' Laberinto ' ; Gower's 'Confessio Amantis,' 1554; a thirteenth-century MS. of 'Gratiani Decretum'; Grisone on horse- manship, in fine Lyons binding ; a splendid ' Giraldus de Deis Gentium ' ; some superbly illus- trated editions of the ' Hortus Sanitatis'; many rare books by or concerning Hieronymus ; Books of Hours in various languages ; early Horaces, &c. The catalogue, for the letters G and H only, has very numerous reproductions of old woodcuts.

Mr. Thomas Thome, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, has a full set of Ballad Society's publications, so far as these have extended (Mr. Ebsworth's fine work keeps up its price); a 'Bibliotheca Spenceriana' of Dibdin ; Gardiner's large-type ' History of Eng- land ' ; a long set of Archceoloyia ; scarce works of Dickens ; a cheap copy of the ' Encyclopaedia Bri- tannica' ; and another of " The Gentleman's Maga- zine Library."

Messrs. Henry Young & Sons, of Liverpool, announce ' The Antiquities of England and Wales 'j some fine books on architecture; Yarrell's 'Birds'; a large collection of Burnsiana ; Wild's ' Cathe- drals ' ; a Japanese-vellum copy, on large paper, of Gardiner's ' Cromwell ' ; an 1863 record of Hercula- neum and Pompeii; a Milman's Horace, 1849; and a unique Whitaker's ' Loidis and Elmete.'