Haslewood, Thomas Park, E. V. Utterson, and
others, if they are of minor substantial value to us at present,
demonstrate the keen appetite for bibliographical information and
anecdote in the first quarter of this century. The _Censura
Literaria_, extending to ten octavo volumes, passed through two
editions, and, in common with other similar works, till recently
commanded a heavy price. That they have fallen into neglect is due to
the necessity, on the part of buyers and sellers of early literature,
of studying only the latest authorities.

At the same time, from a literary point of view, the _Restituta_ and
_Censura Literaria_ (2nd edit. 1815) of Brydges, and many members of
the same group and period, will always be worth consulting, and will
be found to yield a vast store of interesting and instructive matter.

Such works may at present be sterile enough, but yet we are bound to
recollect on their behalf that on their first appearance they were
revelations and pioneers. It is where a book at the outset is behind
the knowledge of the day, or indeed rather not in advance of it, that
it seems to be disentitled to respect.

Not only have more modern labours superseded the Brydges, Park,
Haslewood, and other series, which till of late years held the market
firmly enough, but the Rev. Dr. Dibdin, whose sumptuously printed and
illustrated productions long remained such prime favourites at heavy
prices, both at home and in the United States, has been overtaken by a
general neglect, and the Americans, who were once so enthusiastic and
generous as bidders for these books, will at present scarcely agree to
acquire them at a fifth of their appreciation in the height of the
Dibdinomania.

Many of the gems which have passed through the hands of successive
owners are known to have once formed part of the _Bibliotheca
Anglo-Poetica_, a famous--almost historical catalogue of old
literature on sale in 1815 by Longmans, when that firm dealt in such
commodities, and imported largely from the Continent in response to
the keen and hungry demand on the part of the school created by the
Roxburghe sale and the Roxburghe Club, Heber its greatest disciple and
ornament, Heber a colossus in himself. Many are the traditional
anecdotes of the wonderful bargains which Longmans' agent secured for
his principals in all sorts of places, whither he resorted in quest of
prey--of the romances in folio in the virgin stamped Spanish
bindings, which they