resume it. I am, in the mean
time, your affectionate friend and brother, WH. PETESBOR."]

[Footnote 372: It is unnecessary for me to add any thing
here to the copious details respecting these eminent
bibliomaniacs, AMES and HERBERT, which have already been
presented to the public in the first volume of the new
edition of the _Typographical Antiquities_ of our own
country. See also p. 66, ante; and the note respecting the
late GEORGE STEEVENS, post.]

By mentioning Herbert in the present place, I have a little inverted
the order of my narrative. A crowd of distinguished bibliomaniacs, in
fancy's eye, is thronging around me, and demanding a satisfactory
memorial of their deeds.

LOREN. Be not dismayed, Lysander. If any one, in particular, looks
"frowningly" upon you, leave him to me, and he shall have ample
satisfaction.

LYSAND. I wish, indeed, you would rid me of a few of these
book-madmen. For, look yonder, what a commanding attitude THOMAS
BAKER[373] assumes!

[Footnote 373: THOMAS BAKER was a learned antiquary in most
things respecting _Typography_ and _Bibliography_; and seems
to have had considerable influence with that distinguished
corps, composed of Hearne, Bagford, Middleton, Anstis, and
Ames, &c. His life has been written by the Rev. Robert
Masters, Camb., 1784, 8vo.; and from the "Catalogue of
forty-two folio volumes of MS. collections by Mr.
Baker"--given to the library of St. John's College,
Cambridge--which the biographer has printed at the end of
the volume--there is surely sufficient evidence to warrant
us in concluding that the above-mentioned Thomas Baker was
no ordinary bibliomaniac. To Hearne in particular (and
indeed to almost every respectable author who applied to
him) he was kind and communicative; hence he is frequently
named by the former in terms of the most respectful
admiration: thus--"Vir amicissimus, educatus optime,
emendatus vita, doctrina clarus, moribus singularis et
perjucundus, exemplum antiquitatis, cujus judicio plurimum
esse tribuendum mecum fatebuntur litterati:" _Vita Mori_, p.
XVIII. In his preface to the _Antiquities of Glastonbury_,
p. CXXX., Hearne calls him "that great man;" and again, in
his _Walter Hemingford_, vol. i., p. XVII.--"amicus
eruditissimus, mihi summe colendus; is nempe, qui e scriniis
suis MS