f Heber the range of knowledge was
immense; and he was equally at home with all departments and all
periods. He had his modern side and his interest in current affairs,
and a scholarly insight into the vast literary and bibliographical
accumulations which it was his bent and pride to form, beyond any one
whom we can call to mind. We do not include in this sort of category
the Harley, Roxburghe, Grenville, Spencer, Blandford, Ashburnham, and
Huth libraries, whose owners were collectors pure and simple.

Of the Grenville Catalogue, as an independent work, it is less usual
to think and speak, because the library which it describes has long
formed part of the British Museum, and very few are now living who can
remember it under the roof of its excellent founder in Hamilton Place.
The books have now during some years constituted an integral part of
the New General Museum Catalogue; there is scarcely any department of
literature in which they did not contribute importantly to enrich and
complete the national stores. But Mr. Grenville was particularly
strong in early typography and Irish and English history.

The catalogue of Mr. George Daniel's singular and precious collection,
disposed of in 1864, was an ordinary auctioneer's compilation; except
that many of the owner's MSS. notes written on the fly-leaves were
introduced by way of whetting the appetites of competitors; and to say
that a vein of hyperbole pervaded these remarks is a mild expression;
they emanated, we have to remember, from an accountant. The books,
however, spoke for themselves. The printed account of them, viewed as
a work of reference, must be read _cum grano salis_--_cum multis
granis_. The sale was the starting-point of a new epoch and school in
prices. Nothing of the kind on so extended a scale in that particular
way had so far been seen before.

Collier's _Bibliographical Catalogue_, 1865, is an enlargement of his
Bridgewater House Catalogue, 1837, without the illustrations. The two
volumes are full of curious and readable matter, and as they usually
deal with the _libri rarissimi_, we have to accept the accounts and
extracts in the absence of the originals. To many this may be
indifferent; to a few it may be a serious drawback, since, rightly or
wrongly, the fidelity and accuracy of the editor have been more than
once called in question. Mr Collier's book, however, is merely
serviceable as a guide to the character of the works described; he
does no