offered.[55] Luttrell, who, Dibdin says, was
'ever ardent in his love of past learning, and not less voracious in his
bibliomaniacal appetites,' formed an extensive library at Shaftesbury
House, Little Chelsea, where he resided for many years in seclusion.
Hearne speaks of it 'as a very extraordinary collection,' and adds that
'in it are many manuscripts, which, however, he had not the spirit to
communicate to the world, and 'twas a mortification to him to see the
world gratified without his assistance.' A special feature of the
library was the large and interesting collection of fugitive pieces
issued during the reigns of Charles II., James II., William III., and
Anne, which Luttrell purchased day by day as they appeared. Sir Walter
Scott found this collection, which in his time was chiefly in the
possession of the collectors Mr. Heber and Mr. Bindley, very useful when
editing the _Works_ of Dryden, published in eighteen volumes at London
in 1808. In the preface he remarks that 'the industrious collector seems
to have bought every poetical tract, of whatever merit, which was hawked
through the streets in his time, marking carefully the price and date
of purchase. His collection contains the earliest editions of many of
our most excellent poems, bound up, according to the order of time, with
the lowest trash of Grub Street.' On Luttrell's death, which took place
at his residence in Chelsea on the 27th of June 1732, the collection
became the property of Francis Luttrell (presumed to be his son), who
died in 1740. It afterwards passed into the possession of Mr. Serjeant
Wynne, and from him descended to Edward Wynne, his eldest son, the
author of _Eunomus, or Dialogues concerning the Law and Constitution of
England; and a Miscellany containing several law tracts_, published at
London in 1765. He died a bachelor in 1784, and the library, which had
been considerably enlarged by its later possessors, was inherited by his
brother, the Rev. Luttrell Wynne, of All Souls' College, Oxford, by
whose direction it was sold by auction by Leigh and Sotheby in 1786. The
sale, which consisted of two thousand seven hundred and fifty-six lots,
commenced on March 6th, and lasted twelve days. It is stated in the
catalogue that 'great part of the library was formed by an Eminent and
Curious Collector in the last Century, and comprehends a fine Suite of
Historical, Classical, Mathematical, Natural History, Poetical and
Miscellaneous Books, in a