Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/91

 9'" S. V. FEB. 3, 1900.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

83

that date. Knox, in his 'Journal of Cam- paigns, 1757-60,' mentions a case of its in- fliction within that period, and such works as 'Cautions and Advices,' 1761, speak of the punishment as still in use.

Smollett makes Crabshaw exclaim : " And yet I Ve been worse mounted, that I have I'd like to have rid a horse that was foaled of an acorn " (' Sir Launcelot Greaves,' vol. i. chap. viii. p. 166, London, 1762). This passage must have been in Scott's mind when he wrote of the " colt foaled of an acorn " (' Old Mortality,' chap. iv.). W. S.

THE LATE MR. BERNARD QUARITCH.

As no formal notice has appeared in ' N. & Q.' chronicling the death, on 2 Dec. last, of the " Napoleon of booksellers," be it my privilege to put one on record. The note will also serve as a pendant to my recent article on ' Some Record Book-Prices ' culled from his penultimate circular. My sole literary intercourse with the deceased biblio- phile was in 1889, when, in reply to a query of mine anent an early copy of the ' Legenda Sanctorum ' belonging to a friend, I received the following courteous letter, which explains itself :

22 August, 1889.

SIR, The 'Legenda Sanctorum' mentioned in your letter is probably one of the numerous editions of the Latin text which were printed on the Continent between 1470 and 1490, and which are not in request unless when illustrated with wood- cuts. I should not care for the book at all unless it be in English and printed by Caxton.

Your obedient servant,

BERNAKD QUARITCH.

The book was afterwards disposed of for II.

The subjoined leaderette is worthy of reproduction here :

"The death of the Napoleon of booksellers has aroused world-wide regret and interest. The announcement that Mr. Quaritch was in his eighty- second year has also caused considerable surprise. For so daring were his plans of campaign, and so energetic were his methods of carrying them out, that it was difficult to realize that he was not youthful as well as enthusiastic. Yet it is a far cry to the year 1847, when this naturalized British subject, hailing from Prussian - Saxony, left the service of the late Mr. H. G. Bohri and began busi- ness on his own account. His little shop in an alley off Leicester Square speedily became famous, for 'Mr. Quaritch was not only a Nimrod in the hunting of rare books, but by his catalogues he showed how thoroughly he understood the art oi displaying his wares. Nor will lovers of Victorian poetry ever forget that Mr. Quaritch was the publisher of the early editions of FitzGerald's ' Omar Khayyam,' a poem which is only now 'coming to its own.' About 1860 he removed to Piccadilly, but his operations were limited to no

jity or country. He had the art of selecting men as well as books, and became the most noted book- myer in the world, eclipsing all previous names. The French booksellers found their Waterloo at the famous Didot sale, when he met and beat them. And if he could give nearly 5,000^. for one volume, le in 1882 expended 32,000/. when the Sunderland Library was sold, and about the same time was ^he largest purchaser at the Hamilton and Beck- r ord sales. At the recent Ashburnham sale his bill amounted to nearly 40,000^. Apart from his par- He was the founder or the Society of Bibliophiles known as ' Ye Sette of Odde Volumes,' and his triends included all book-lovers from princes and princesses to the humblest of students. What sffect his disappearance from the auction-room will have upon book - prices remains to be seen. Of Late his presence at a sale cheered the heart of sellers of rare books. For if he had not a com- mission to purchase, he was always willing to ' buy and hold, and practically every copy of the Mazarin or Gutenberg Bible has for many years past fallen to his bid. In some special depart- ments his knowledge may be equalled, but it will be almost impossible to find a successor who shall possess that combination of qualities which rendered Mr. Quaritch the despair of his rivals, the marvel of his epoch."
 * icular vocation, Mr. Quaritch was a notable man.

Amongst Mr. Quaritch's book-loving and book-buying friends could be numbered Prince Leopold, Mr. Gladstone, and Lord Rosebery. But was he himself an author? Did he combine the not unusual rdles of bookmaker and bookseller? A book publisher he was, for, in addition to the work alluded to in the above excerpt, he also issued Anglo- Turkish and Anglo-Arabic dictionaries and manuals ; but beyond his valuable and in- teresting notes to his circulars, I know of no original production of his pen, nor am I aware that he ever contributed a line to ' N. & Q.' Curwen's ' History of Booksellers ' will for ever remain incomplete until some editorial hand adds a chapter on the prince of modern booksellers. J. B. McGovERN.

St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester.

THE TAXES ON KNOWLEDGE. (See ante, p. 79.) The review of Mr. Collet's book in the Athenaeum of 20 January and Notes and Queries of the 27th has brought to my recollec- tion the prosecution in 1836 of John Cleave, who had a shop in Shoe Lane, not far from Hatton Garden, where I carried on my busi- ness as news vendor. John Cleave published Cleavers Police Gazette^ and for some time, as I remember, the shop was watched by the police. None of the papers was to be seen, and the officers had great difficulty in tracing the plan of Cleave in getting his publication into the country. Next door to his shop was an undertaker's, and by a friendly arrangement made with him Cleave used to have the