f
binding?"[477] observed I. "Who BUT John Clarke?"--replied the
Bibliopole.

[Footnote 477: Good binding--even Roger-Payne-binding--is
gadding abroad every where. At Oxford, they have "a spirit"
of this description who loses a night's rest if he haplessly
shave off the sixteenth part of an inch of a rough edge of
an uncut Hearne. My friend, Dr. Bliss, has placed volumes
before me, from the same mintage, which have staggered
belief as an indigenous production of Academic soil. At
Reading, also, some splendid leaves are taken from the same
_Book_. Mr. Snare, the publisher, keeps one of the most
talented bookbinders in the kingdom--from the school of
Clarke; and feeds him upon something more substantial than
rose leaves and jessamine blossoms. He is a great man for a
halequin's jacket: and would have gone crazy at the sight of
some of the specimens at Strawberry Hill. No man can put a
varied-coloured morocco coat upon the back of a book with
greater care, taste, and success, than our Reading
Bibliopegist.]

PART V.

THE DRAWING-ROOM.

This Part is a copious continuation of the History of Book Collectors
and Collections up to the year 1810. There is nothing to add in the
way of CHARACTER; and the subject itself is amply continued in the
tenth day of the _Bibliographical Decameron_. In both works will be
found, it is presumed, a fund of information and amusement, so that
the Reader will scarcely demand an extension of the subject. Indeed, a
little volume would hardly suffice to render it the justice which it
merits; but I am bound to make special mention of the untameable
perseverance, and highly refined taste, of B.G. Windus, Esq., one of
my earliest and steadiest supporters; and yet, doth he not rather take
up a sitting in the ALCOVE--amongst _Illustrators of fine Works_?

[Illustration: THE CAVE OF DESPAIR.

_Drawn by J. Thurston.--Engraved by Robert Branston._]

PART VI.

THE ALCOVE.

A word only:--and that respecting _Illustrated Copies_. Leaving Mr.
Windus in full possession of his Raphael Morghens, William Woollets,
William Sharpes, &c.--and allowing him the undisturbed relish of
gazing upon, and pressing to his heart's core, his _grey_ TURNERS--let
me only introduce to the reader's critical attention and admiration
the opposite subject, executed by the late Mr. Branston, and
exhibiting _The Cave of D