ARQUIS OF BLANDFORD inherits, in no small
degree, the book-collecting spirit of his illustrious
ancestor. He is making collections in those departments of
literature in which the Blenheim Library is comparatively
deficient; and his success has already been such as to lead
us to hope for as perfect a display of volumes printed by
_Caxton_ as there is of those executed by foreign printers.
The Marquis's collection of _Emblems_ is, I believe, nearly
perfect: of these, there are a few elegantly printed
catalogues for private distribution. Lysander, above,
supposes that Marlborough caught the infection of the
_book-disease_ from PRINCE EUGENE; and the supposition is,
perhaps, not very wide of the truth. The library of this
great German prince, which is yet entire, (having been
secured from the pillage of Gallic Vandalism, when a certain
emperor visited a certain city) is the proudest feature in
the public library at Vienna. The books are in very fine old
binding, and, generally of the largest dimensions. And,
indeed, old England has not a little to boast of (at least,
so bibliomaniacs must always think) that, from the recently
published _Memoirs of Eugene_ (1811, 8vo., p. 185), it would
appear that the prince "bought his fine editions of books AT
LONDON:"--he speaks also of his "excellent French, Latin,
and Italian works, well bound"--as if he enjoyed the
"arrangment" of _them_, as much as the contemplation of his
"cascades, large water-spouts, and superb basins." _Ibid._
Whether Eugene himself was suddenly inflamed with the ardour
of buying books, from some lucky spoils in the pillaging of
towns--as Lysander supposes--is a point which may yet admit
of fair controversy. For my own part, I suspect the German
commander had been straying, in his early manhood, among the
fine libraries in _Italy_, where he might have seen the
following exquisite _bijous_--

_In St. Mark's, at Venice._

Apuleius 1469 }
Aulus Gellius 1469 } PRINTED UPON VELLUM.
Petrarca 1479 }

_In the Chapter House at Padua._

Ciceronis _Epist. ad Atticum_ _Jenson_ 1470 }
Quintilian _Jenson_ 1471 }
Macrobius 1472 }
Solinus _Jenson_ 1473 } PRINTED