Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/38

 28 The Library. The Guildhall Library and its Work. By Charles Welch, F.S.A. An Address delivered at a meeting of the Library Associa- tion, held in the Guildhall in April, 1889. It appears now with additions, illustrations, and an appendix. Begin- ning with the formation of the Library in 1425, the author traces its growth and development up to 1888, when the number of books amounted to over 40,000 works, contained in 57,116 volumes, besides 27,075 pamphlets. The following paragraph shows the character of the books read : " It is gratifying to observe that fiction amounts to only 16.56 per cent., history and magazines each 7.04, theology 6.6, biography 5.37, useful arts 5.28, science 4.58, poetry 4.49, topography 4.4, philology 3.34, foreign literature 3.25, genealogy 3.17, Encyclopaedia Britannica2.73, fine arts 2.64, travels 2.46, philosophy 2.37, Greek and Latin classics 2.20, music 2. 02, archaeology 1.49, politics 1.32, commerce 1.23, drama 1.14, law 10.6 and bibliography 0.35." (Printed under the direction of the Library, Committee.) IRecorfc of Bibliograpbp ant> OLibrat^ ^Literature. English Book-plates, ancient and modern. By Egerton Castle, M.A., F.S.A. London: George Bell & Sons, 1893. Svo. pp. 352. Price los. 6d. nett. In this new edition of Mr. Egerton Castle's interesting handbook of the history of English Book-plates, Messrs. Bell and Sons have literally outdone themselves in the liberality of their illustrations. In the first edition, as we noted at the time, these were plentiful enough, but their number must now be augmented by more than a half. It is true that a few notable plates have been withdrawn ; the beautiful specimens of Sherborn's work, executed for Mr. and Mrs. Cyril Flower (now Lord and Lady Battersea) being the most to be regretted. Mr. Sherborn, however, is well represented in the present edition by copies, struck from the original coppers, of his plates for Mr. William Robinson (show- ing a portrait of Erasmus, and much fine foliage- work), for Mr. Thomas Swanbrook Glazebrook (a good example of a heraldic plate), for Lord Wolseley (a fine piece of work, but too crowded), and for Lord de Tabley, the last being hardly in his best style. A novel feature has been intro- duced into the present edition by three examples of eighteenth century plates (those of Edgerton Smith of Preston, ca. 1725 ; of John Henslow, ca. 1780 ; and the son of Captain Cook, ca. 1785) ; all of them printed from the original coppers. Two interesting portrait plates are also now given, both originals ; the first, an etching by Paul Avril, executed for Mr. H. S. Ashbee ; the second, " a photo-etching from a pen-drawing by Agnes Castle," showing Mr. Walter Herries Pollock in a forest, apparently wait- ing to fight someone. The new illustrations in the text, as opposed to these more important plates, are so numerous that we cannot notice them individually. Some of them are excellent in every respect ; others too deliberately fantastic for a design which ex hypothesi is to stare its owner in the face from the covers of some hundreds of volumes. All of