get another little
peep at this momentous dinner-party. "On the clearance of the
Gottingen-manufactured table-cloth, the Roxburghe battle formed the
subject of discussion, when I proposed that we should not only be all
present, if possible, on the day of the sale of the Boccaccio, but that
we should meet at some 'fair tavern' to commemorate the sale thereof."
They met accordingly on the 17th of June, some eighteen in number, "at
the St Albans Tavern, St Albans Street, now Waterloo Place." Surely the
place was symbolical, since on the 18th of June, two years afterwards,
the battle of Waterloo was fought; and as the importance attributed to
the contest at Roxburghe House on the 17th procured for it afterwards
the name of the Waterloo of book-battles, it came to pass that there
were two Waterloo commemorations treading closely one on the other's
heels.

The pecuniary stake at issue, and the consequent excitement when the
Valdarfer Boccaccio was knocked off, so far exceeded all anticipation,
that at the festive board a motion was made and carried by acclamation,
for meeting on the same day and in the same manner annually. And so the
Roxburghe Club, the parent of all the book clubs, came into existence.

It must be admitted that its origin bears a curious generic resemblance
to some scenes which produce less elevating results. On the day of some
momentous race or cock-fight, a parcel of sporting devotees, "regular
bricks," perhaps, agree to celebrate the occasion in a tavern, and when
the hilarity of the evening is at its climax, some festive orator,
whose enthusiasm has raised him to the table, suggests, amidst loud
hurrahs and tremendous table-rapping, that the casual meeting should be
converted into an annual festival, to celebrate the event which has
brought them together. At such an assemblage, the list of toasts will
probably include Eclipse, Cotherstone, Mameluke, Plenipo, the Flying
Dutchman, and other illustrious quadrupeds, along with certain bipeds,
distinguished in the second degree as breeders, trainers, and riders,
and may perhaps culminate in "the turf and the stud all over the world."
With a like appropriate reference to the common bond of sympathy, the
Roxburghe toasts included the uncouth names of certain primitive
printers, as Valdarfer himself, Pannartz, Fust, and Schoeffher,
terminating in "The cause of Bibliomania all over the world."[68]

[Footnote 68: As of other influential documents, there have be