, his sombre suit of business-cloths, could put
on his velvet coat and bag-wig, and receive his concert visitors, at
the stair-head, with the politeness of a Lord of the Bedchamber!

LOREN. In truth, a marvellous hero was this _Small-Coal Man_! Have you
many such characters to notice?

LYSAND. Not many of exactly the same stamp. Indeed, I suspect that
Hearne, from his love of magnifying the simple into the marvellous,
has a little caricatured the picture. But Murray seems to have been a
quiet unaffected character; passionately addicted to old books of
whatever kind they chanced to be; and, in particular, most
enthusiastically devoted to a certain old English Chronicle, entitled
_Rastell's Pastime of (the) People_.

PHIL. I observed a notification of the re-appearance of this Chronicle
in some of the Magazines or Reviews: but I hope, for the benefit of
general readers, the orthography will be modernized.

LOREN. I hope, for the sake of consistency with former similar
publications,[369] the ancient garb will not be thrown aside. It would
be like--what Dr. Johnson accuses Pope of having committed--"clothing
Homer with Ovidian graces."

[Footnote 369: The ANCIENT CHONICLES of the history of our
country are in a progressive state of being creditably
reprinted, with a strict adherence to the old phraseology.
Of these Chronicles, the following have already made their
appearance: HOLINSHED, 1807, 4to., 6 vols.; HALL, 1809,
4to.; GRAFTON, 1809, 4to., 2 vols.; FABIAN, 1811, 4to. This
latter is not a mere reprint of the first edition of Fabian,
but has, at the bottom, the various readings of the
subsequent impressions. The index is copious and valuable.
Indeed, all these re-impressions have good indexes. The
public will hear, with pleasure, that ARNOLD, HARDING, and
LORD BERNERS' translation of FROISSARD, and RASTELL, are
about to bring up the rear of these popular Chroniclers.]

LYSAND. Much may be said on both sides of the question. But why are we
about to make learned dissertations upon the old English Chronicles?

LIS. Proceed, and leave the old chroniclers to settle the matter
themselves. Who is the next bibliomaniac deserving of particular
commendation?

LYSAND. As we have sometimes classed our bibliomaniacs in tribes, let
me now make you acquainted with another _Trio_, of like renown in the
book-way: I mean Anstis, Lewis, and Ames. Of these in their