is relatives will part with none of his
books. I mean, by his raising the price of books no higher now; so that,
in probability, this commodity may fall in the market, and any gentleman
be permitted to buy an uncommon old book for less than forty or fifty
pounds.'

BRIAN FAIRFAX, 1676-1749

Brian Fairfax, who was the eldest son of Brian Fairfax, author of the
_Life of the Duke of Buckingham_ and other works, was born on the 11th
of April 1676. He received his early education at Westminster School,
where he entered as a Queen's Scholar, and from whence he went to
Trinity College, Cambridge, taking the degrees of B.A. in 1697 and M.A.
in 1700. He became a Fellow of his College in 1698. In 1723 he was
appointed a Commissioner of the Customs, a post he held until his death
on the 9th of January 1749.

Fairfax collected in his house in Panton Square a very valuable library,
which, together with a considerable fortune, a gallery of pictures, a
fine collection of Greek, Roman, and English coins and medals, and other
curiosities, he bequeathed to his relative, the Hon. Robert Fairfax, of
Leeds Castle, Kent, afterwards seventh Lord Fairfax. Robert Fairfax
intended to sell the library by auction on the 26th of April 1756, and
the seventeen following days; but after having advertised it, he
privately disposed of it for two thousand pounds to his kinsman, Mr.
Francis Child,[64] of Osterley Park, Isleworth, Middlesex, and the
printed catalogues, with the exception of twenty, were suppressed.[65]
The title to the catalogue of the intended sale reads: 'A Catalogue of
the Entire and Valuable Library of the Honourable Bryan Fairfax, Esq.,
one of the Commissioners of His Majesty's Customs, Deceased: which will
be sold by Auction, by Mr. Prestage, at his great room the end of Savile
Row, next Conduit Street, Hanover Square. To begin selling on Monday,
April 26, 1756, and to continue for seventeen days successively.
Catalogues to be had at the Place of Sale, and at Mr. Barthoe's,
Bookseller in Exeter Exchange in the Strand. Price Six-pence, pp. 68.
8 deg..' In a copy of the catalogue mentioned by Dibdin in his
_Bibliographical Decameron_, the price at which each article was valued
is given for the express purpose of the purchase of the whole by Mr.
Child. Among the prices thus noted are those of the nine Caxtons which
the library contained, which altogether amounted to thirty-three pounds,
four shillings. _The Recuyell of the Hi