te in learned
Billingsgate, to divert the Coffeehouse, and entertain the assemblys at
Booksellers' shops, or the more airy Stalls of inferior book-retailers.'

Bookstalls or barrows have been for nearly a century a feature of the
East End of London, more particularly of Whitechapel Road and
Shoreditch. The numbers of barrows have increased, but the locality is
practically the same. Many useful libraries have been formed from off
these stalls, and many very good bargains secured. Excellent collections
may still be formed from them, but the chances of a noteworthy 'find'
are indeed small. The book-hunter who goes to either of these places
with the idea of bagging a whole bundle of rarities is likely to come
away disappointed; but if he is in a buying humour the chances are ten
to one in favour of his getting a good many useful books at very
moderate figures. We have heard of a man who picked up a complete set of
first editions of Mrs. Browning in Shoreditch, but no one ever seems to
have met that lucky individual; and as the story is retailed chiefly by
the owner of the barrow from which they were said to have been
rescued--the said owner apparently not in the least minding the
inevitable conclusion at which the listener will arrive--the story is
not repeated as authentic. One of the last things which has come out of
Shoreditch lately is a copy of the first edition of Gwillim's 'Display
of Heraldry' (1610), in excellent condition, and which was purchased for
a few pence. An East End book-hunter tells us that, among other rarities
which he has rescued from stalls and cellars in that district, are a
first folio Ben Jonson; a copy of the Froben Seneca (1515), with its
fine bordered title-page, by Urs Graf; an early edition of Montaigne,
with a curious frontispiece; the copy of the _editio princeps_ Statius
(1483), which was purchased by Mr. Quaritch at the Sunderland sale; one
or two Plantins, in spotless splendour; Henry Stephens' Herodotus, a
book as beautiful as it is now valueless, but of which a copy is kept in
a showcase at South Kensington, and others, all at merely nominal
prices.

Many first-class libraries were formed by these _frequentationes
orientales_. It is a great pity that Macaulay, for example, has not left
on record a few of the very remarkable incidents which came under his
observation during these pilgrimages. The late Mr. W. J. Thoms
contributed a few of his to the _Nineteenth Century_ thirteen years a