sh Museum excepted;
and is kept in excellent order." Mr. Pinkerton's preface, p.
vii., to _Ancient Scottish Poems from the Maitland
Collection, &c._, 1786, 8vo., 2 vols. I wish it were in my
power to add something concerning the parentage, birth,
education, and pursuits of the extraordinary collector of
this extraordinary collection; but no biographical work,
which I have yet consulted, vouchsafes even to mention his
name. His merits are cursorily noticed in the _Quarterly
Review_, vol. iv., p. 326-7. Through the medium of a friend,
I learn from Sir Lucas Pepys, Bart., that our illustrious
bibliomaniac, his great uncle, was President of the Royal
Society, and that his collection at Cambridge contains a
_Diary_ of his life, written with his own hand. But it is
high time to speak of the black-letter gems contained in the
said collection. That the PEPYSIAN COLLECTION is at once
choice and valuable cannot be disputed; but that access to
the same is prompt and facile, is not quite so indisputable.
There is a MS. catalogue of the books, by Pepys himself,
with a small rough drawing of a view of the interior of the
library. The books are kept in their original (I think
walnut-wood) presses: and cannot be examined unless in the
presence of a fellow.--Such is the nice order to be
observed, according to the bequest, that every book must be
replaced where it was taken from; and the loss of a single
volume causes the collection to be confiscated, and
transported to Benet-college library. Oh, that there were
_an act of parliament_ to regulate bequests of this
kind!--that the doors to knowledge might, by a greater
facility of entrance, be more frequently opened by students;
and that the medium between unqualified confidence and
unqualified suspicion might be marked out and followed. Are
these things symptomatic of an iron or a brazen age! But the
bibliomaniac is impatient for a glance at the 'forementioned
black-letter treasures!--Alas, I have promised more than I
can perform! Yet let him cast his eye upon the first volume
of the recent edition of _Evans' Collection of Old Ballads_
(see _in limine_, p. ix.) and look into the valuable notes
of _Mr. Todd's Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer_,--in
which latter, he will find no bad specimen of t