1,700 folios. Edwards, in
his most valuable work on libraries, mentions yet a third list, which is
anonymous, and is apparently almost contemporaneous with Bagford's. The
list is introduced with the remark that 'the laudable emulation which is
daily increasing amongst the nobility of England, vying with each other
in the curiosities and other rich furniture of their respective
libraries, gives cheerful hope of having the long-hidden monuments of
ancient times raised out of their present dust and rubbish,' and then
makes special mention of the libraries of the Duke of Kent, Lords Derby,
Denbigh, Longueville, Willoughby de Broke, Sunderland, Somers, and
Halifax.

When good Mr. Evelyn described Sir Kenelm Digby's library as 'of more
pomp than intrinsic value,' and as 'chiefly consisting of modern poets,
romances, chemical and astrological books,' he did not contemplate the
future possibility of such despised trifles becoming fashionable and in
greater request than the accumulations of the collectors to whom the
classics were daily food. As Edwards has pointed out, the portion which
Digby gave to the Bodleian was in reality the fruit of the researches of
his tutor, Thomas Allen. The portion which was of his own collecting,
and consequently the only portion which accurately mirrored his own
tastes, he took with him to France when driven into exile. When he died
there, it apparently passed into the possession of Digby, Earl of
Bristol, on whose account it was sold in London in 1680, fifteen years
after its owner's death. The catalogue enumerated 3,878 items, of which
69 were manuscripts, the total of the sale being L904 4s.

Among the most famous of the seventeenth-century collectors were the two
brothers Francis, Baron Guilford, Lord Keeper (1637-1685), and Dr. John
North, master of Trinity College (1645-1683). Of these two there are
some very entertaining facts in Roger North's 'Lives of the Norths'
(1742-44). Dr. John North, we are told, 'very early in his career began
to look after books and to lay the foundation of a competent library
. . . buying at one lift a whole set of Greek classics in folio, in best
editions. This sunk his stock [of money] for the time; but afterwards
for many years of his life all that he could (as they say) rap or run
went the same way. But the progress was small, for such a library as
he desired, compared with what the pittance of his stock would
purchase, allowing many years to the gathering,