for "_Gosson's School of Abuse, against
Pipers and Players_," or L3. 3_s._ for a clean copy of
"_Recreation for Ingenious Head Pieces_, or a _Pleasant
Grove for their Wits to walk in,"_ and grudge the like sum
for a dozen handsome octavo volumes of the finest writers of
his country.]

[Footnote 14: About twelve years ago I was rash enough to
publish a small volume of Poems, with my name affixed. They
were the productions of my juvenile years; and I need hardly
say, at this period, how ashamed I am of their author-ship.
The monthly and Analytical Reviews did me the kindness of
just tolerating them, and of warning me not to commit any
future trespass upon the premises of Parnassus. I struck off
500 copies, and was glad to get rid of half of them as waste
paper; the remaining half has been partly destroyed by my
own hands, and has partly mouldered away in oblivion amidst
the dust of Booksellers' shelves. My only consolation is
that the volume is _exceedingly rare_!]

If ever there was a country upon the face of the globe--from the days
of Nimrod the beast, to Bagford[15] the book-hunter--distinguished for
the variety, the justness, and magnanimity of its views; if ever there
was a nation which really and unceasingly "felt for another's woe" [I
call to witness our Infirmaries, Hospitals, Asylums, and other public
and private Institutions of a charitable nature, that, like so many
belts of adamant, unite and strengthen us in the great cause of
HUMANITY]; if ever there was a country and a set of human beings
pre-eminently distinguished for all the social virtues which soften
and animate the soul of man, surely OLD ENGLAND and ENGLISHMEN ARE
THEY! The common cant, it may be urged, of all writers in favour of
the country where they chance to live! And what, you will say, has
this to do with Book Collectors and Books?--Much, every way: a nation
thus glorious is, at this present eventful moment, afflicted not only
with the Dog[16], but the BOOK, disease--

Fire in each eye, and paper in each hand
They rave, recite,----

[Footnote 15: "JOHN BAGFORD, by profession a bookseller,
frequently travelled into Holland and other parts, in search
of scarce books and valuable prints, and brought a vast
number into this kingdom, the greatest part of which were
purchased by the Earl of Oxford. He had been in his younge