g announcement, by way of apology. 'It hath not been,' he
says, 'usual here in England to make sale of books by way of Auction, or
who will give most for them; but it having been practised in other
Countreys to the advantage of Buyers and Sellers, it was therefore
conceived (for the encouragement of learning) to publish the sales of
these books in this manner of way; and it is hoped that this will not be
Unacceptable to Schollars; and therefore we thought it convenient to
give an advertisement concerning the manner of Proceeding therein.' The
second sale, comprising the library of Mr. Thomas Kidner, was held by
Cooper three months after, _i.e._, February 6, 1676-77. On February 18,
1677-78, the third sale by auction was held, and this, as Mr. Lawler has
pointed out, is the first 'hammer'[100:A] auction, and was held at a
coffee-house--'in vico vulgo dicto, Bread St. in AEdibus Ferdinandi
stable coffipolae ad insigne capitis Turcae,' the auctioneer in this case
being Zacharius Bourne, whilst the library was that of the Rev. W.
Greenhill, author of a 'Commentary on Ezekiel,' and Rector of Stepney,
Middlesex. The fourth sale was that of Dr. Thomas Manton's library, in
March, 1678. From 1676 to 1682, no less than thirty sales were held, and
these included, in addition to the four already mentioned, the libraries
of Brooke, Lord Warwick, Sir Kenelm Digby (see p. 120), Dr. S. Charnock,
Dr. Thomas Watson, John Dunton, the crack-brained bookseller, Dr.
Castell, the author of the 'Heptaglotton,' Dr. Thomas Gataker, and
others. The business of selling by auction was so successful that
several other auctioneers adopted it, including such well-known
booksellers as Richard Chiswell and Moses Pitt. At a very early period a
suspicion got about that the books were 'run up' by those who had a
special interest in them, and accordingly the vendors of Dr. Benjamin
Worsley's sale, in May, 1678, emphatically denied this imputation, which
they described as 'a groundless and malicious suggestion of some of our
own trade envious of our undertaking.' In addition to this statement,
they refused to accept any 'commissions' to buy at this sale.

[Illustration: _John Dunton, Book-auctioneer in 1698._]

The dispersal of books by auction developed in many ways. It soon
became, for example, one means of getting rid of the bookseller's heavy
stock, of effecting what is now termed a 'rig.' Its popularity was
extended to the provinces, for from 1684 and o