hand which undertook so Herculean a task--and
with a truth, delicacy, and finish of execution, which have
been rarely equalled! These magnificent volumes (being the
folio edition printed by Bulmer) are at once beautiful and
secured by green velvet binding, with embossed clasps and
corners of solid silver, washed with gold. Each volume is
preserved in a silken cover--and the whole is kept inviolate
from the impurities of bibliomaniacal miasmata, in a
sarcophagus-shaped piece of furniture of cedar and mahogany.
What is the pleasure experienced by the most resolute
antiquary, when he has obtained a peep at the inmost
sarcophagus of the largest pyramid of Egypt, compared with
that which a tasteful bibliomaniac enjoys upon contemplating
this illustrated Shakespeare, now reposing in all the
classical magnificence and congenial retirement of its
possessor?--But why do I surpass Lysander in the warmth and
vehemence of narration! And yet, let me not forget that the
same noble owner has _another_ illustrated copy of the SAME
BARD, on a smaller scale, of which mention has already been
made in my account of the donor of it, the late George
Steevens. Turn, gentle reader, for one moment, to page 428,
ante. The illustrated CLARENDON, above hinted at by
Lysander, is in the possession of Mr. H.A. Sutherland; and
is, perhaps, a matchless copy of the author: every siege,
battle, town, and house-view--as well as portrait--being
introduced within the leaves. I will not even hazard a
conjecture for how many _thousand pounds_ its owner might
dispose of it, if the inclination of parting with it should
ever possess him. The British Museum has recently been
enriched with a similar copy of PENNANT'S _London_, on large
paper. Prints and drawings of all descriptions, which could
throw light upon the antiquities of our metropolis, are
inserted in this extraordinary copy, which belonged to the
late Mr. Crowles; who expended 2000_l._ upon the same, and
who bequeathed it, in the true spirit of _virtu_, to the
Museum. Let CRACHERODE and CROWLES be held in respectful
remembrance!]

There is another mode of _illustrating copies_ by which this symptom
of the Bibliomania may be known; it consists in bringing together,
from different works, [including newspapers and magazines,