VOL. IV.

MR. LOCKER'S BOOKS

AT ROWFANT

BALLADE EN GUISE DE RONDEAU.

(The following verses are prefixed to the catalogue of Mr. Locker's Rowfant Library, published by Mr Quaritch.)

The Rowfant books, how fair they shew,
The Quarto quaint, the Aldine tall,

Print, autograph, portfolio!

Back from the outer air they call,
The athletes from the Tennis ball,
This Rhymer from his rod and hooks,
Would I could sing them, one and all,
The Rowfant books!

The Rowfant books! In sun and snow
They're dear, but most when tempests fall;
The folio towers above the row

As once, o'er minor prophets,-Saul!
What jolly jest books, and what small
"Dear dumpy Twelves" to fill the nooks.
You do not find on every stall
The Rowfant books!

The Rowfant books! These long ago
Were chained within some College hall;
These manuscripts retain the glow
Of many a coloured capital;

While yet the satires keep their gall,
While the Pastissier puzzles cooks,

Theirs is a joy that does not pall,
The Rowfant books!

ENVOY.

The Rowfant books,-ah magical

As famed Armida's golden looks, They hold the Rhymer for their thrallThe Rowfant books!

ANDREW LANG.

I love my books as drinkers love their wine;
The more I drink, the more they seem divine;
With joy elate my soul in love runs o'er.
And each fresh draught is sweeter than before!
Books bring me friends where'er on earth I be,
Solace of solitude,-bonds of society!

FRANCIS BENNOCH.

NO. 37.

A POET'S TREASURES.

THE LIBRARY OF FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON.

The following highly interesting account of Mr. Frederick Locker's newly published catalogue is slightly condensed from Mr. Smalley's articles in The Tribune. Mr. Locker's Library of old English Poetical and Dramatic Literature is perhaps the richest and choicest in England, and the catalogue of which only two hundred copies have been printed will be a valuable Hand-book of Reference. The full title and collation of every book are most carefully given. The catalogue is a Royal 8vo, Roxburgh binding, and is published by Mr. Quaritch, at the moderate price of a guinea.

To the ordinary reader as well as to the bibliophile a catalogue, be it of books or pictures, is at all times interesting, and the projectors of catalogues have for a long time vied with each other in the production of something rather better than what had gone before by the addition of illustrations, etchings, photographs, etc. Of the fine individual libraries in existence we have had only a few catalogues raisonnés-i. e., catalogues with comments, collations and annotations made by a bibliophile. That of the late Andrew J. Odell, whose books were sold in 1880, was a marvel in its way; but it was so beautifully done by George Philes that the results hardly paid for the cost of cataloguing. "La Bibliothèque d'un Bibliophile" is the title of a small privately printed book, dedicated to the "Amis des Livres" (the French society of that name), by Henri Biraldi. This is a catalogue of books belonging to Eug. Paillet, president of the above-mentioned society, a legal luminary of the French Court of Appeals and a recognized authority on books. This little volume M. Biraldi has made most attractive by adding notes relative to the book-lovers of Paris, especially those who congregate in M. Paillet's library. Their hobbies and idiosyncrasies are freely discussed and commented upon, and queer stories are told of each and all of them. He tells how the books were found and where; what was paid for them, and what the world said about them; he gives minute descriptions of the more important books and falls into ecstatic enthusiasm over a Tratuz Bauzonnet binding.