by hard
years of privation; it was in my first youth that I found it easiest to
spend money on my books.' Renouard began life as a manufacturer. His
father made gauze stuffs, and kept a shop in the Rue Apolline. In 1787
the Abbe le Blond, the librarian of the College Mazarin, heard that
Molini had sold a fine Aldine Horace to a shopkeeper. 'The next day,'
says Renouard, 'Le Blond came into my library. "Oh! I shall not have the
book," he exclaimed, and when I looked round, he said, "I beg your
pardon, I hoped to tempt you with a few _louis_ for your bargain, but I
have given up the idea at once, and I only ask the double favour of
seeing the book and of being allowed to make your acquaintance."'
Renouard was the historian of the House of Aldus, and naturally became
the possessor of some of Grolier's finest books. During his career as a
bookseller he parted with most of them; and at the sale of his library in
1854 the 'Lucretius,' the 'Virgil,' and the 'Erasmus,' were all that
remained in his collection.

CHAPTER XVI.

LATER ENGLISH COLLECTORS.

In describing the English collections of the eighteenth century we have
the advantage of using the memoranda of William Oldys for the earlier
part of the period. D'Israeli deplored the carelessness which led the
'literary antiquary' to entrust his discoveries and reminiscences to the
fly-leaves of notebooks, to 'parchment budgets,' and paper-bags of
extracts. He expressed especial disappointment at the loss of the
manuscript on London Libraries, with its anecdotes of book-collectors and
remarks on booksellers and the first publishers of catalogues. The book
has come to light since his time, having been discovered among the
important collections bequeathed by Dr. William Hunter to the University
of Glasgow; it was published by Mr. W. J. Thoms about the year 1862 in
_Notes and Queries_, and was afterwards printed by him in a volume
containing a diary and other 'choice notes' by Oldys and an interesting
memoir of his life. 'In his own departments of learning,' says Mr. Thoms,
'Oldys exhausted all the ordinary sources of information,' and adds that
'his copious and characteristic accounts of men and books have endeared
his memory to every lover of English literature.'

Oldys had some special advantages as a collector of old English poetry.
He knew, as no one else at that time knew, the value of the plays and
pamphlets that encumbered the stalls; he had no competitor to fea