an eminent author
supposed to have perished, or for a precious relic such as the Manesse
MS., presented by the German Emperor Frederic to the library at
Heidelberg, from which it had been taken by the French during the wars
of the Revolution. But the Parisian _gout_ is less intent on such
matters than on flimsy and effeminate specialities. A copy of a book,
it does not signify how valuable intrinsically it may be, is worth
nothing in the eyes of _Monsieur_ and _Monsieur d'Angleterre son ami_,
unless it is in a particular vesture, with a particular _ex libris_,
and of a particular measurement in _millesimes_. _MM. les amateurs_
reject not merely calf, but that vellum wrapper and that stitched
paper envelope so dear to us English--so dear that when one of us has
given hundreds of pounds for a book thus clothed, rather than commit
it to a binder, we employ him to make us a case for the gem. The
volume of tracts which Charles I. borrowed of Thomason the stationer,
and let fall in the mud, what could Monsieur do with it? Absolutely
nothing. But the British Museum cherishes the relic, and would not on
any account, we solemnly believe, suffer the stains to be removed.
They are the credentials, the link between the king and ourselves.

On the subject of French books in regard to their bindings we shall
have more to say below.

FOOTNOTES:

[2] _Four Generations of a Literary Family_, 1897, ii. 371.

CHAPTER XI

The extrinsic features in
books--Autographs--Inscriptions--Various classes of them and of
interest in their subject-matter--The Henry VIII. _Prayer-Book_
of 1544--Some account of it--Gabriel
Harvey--Spenser--Evelyn--Milton--Hypothetical _grands
prix_--Classification of
inscriptions--Examples--Dramatists--Poets--Jonson, Massinger,
Drayton, Wycherley, Killigrew--Mere signatures--Shakespeare's
copy of Florio's _Montaigne_, 1603--The Earl of Essex's copy of
Drayton's _Eclogues_, 1593--Humphrey Chetham--Strays from his
library--Beau Nash as a collector--Sir Joshua Reynolds--William
Beckford and his _Vathek_--Foreign autographs and memoranda--A
whimsical note in a copy of Shakespeare's _Passionate Pilgrim_,
1599--Interesting MS. matter in a copy of Stow's _Survey_,
1633--Pepys's binder--Dr. Burney and his verses in _Sandford and
Merton_--Napoleon and Josephine--The Lutheran Testament given by
the latter to General Buonaparte--A c