from that address from 1779 to 1793. He first started
selling books on Midsummer Day, 1774, in Featherstone Street, St.
Luke's. It was from Chiswell Street that Lackington dated those rambling
letters which he styles 'Memoirs of the Forty-five First Years' of his
life. In twelve years he had progressed so rapidly, from the sack of old
rubbish for which he paid a guinea and with which he began business as a
bookseller, that a move to more commodious premises became necessary. In
1794 he transferred his stock to one of the corners of Finsbury
Square--which had been then built about five years--and started his
'Temple of the Muses.' The original building was burnt down some years
ago, but the late Charles Knight has left on record an interesting
sketch of the place as it struck him in 1801: 'Over the principal
entrance is inscribed, "Cheapest Booksellers in the World." It is the
famous shop of Lackington, Allen and Co., "where above half a million of
volumes are constantly on sale." We enter the vast area, whose
dimensions are to be measured by the assertion that a coach and six
might be driven round it. In the centre is an enormous circular counter,
within which stand the dispensers of knowledge, ready to wait upon the
county clergyman, in his wig and shovel hat; upon the fine ladies, in
feathers and trains; or upon the bookseller's collector, with his dirty
bag. If there is any chaffering about the cost of a work, the shopman
points to the following inscription: "The lowest price is marked on
every book, and no abatement made on any article." We ascend a broad
staircase, which leads to "The Lounging Rooms" and to the first of a
series of circular galleries, lighted from the lantern of the dome,
which also lights the ground-floor. Hundreds, even thousands, of volumes
are displayed on the shelves running round their walls. As we mount
higher and higher, we find commoner books in shabbier bindings; but
there is still the same order preserved, each book being numbered
according to a printed catalogue. . . . The formation of such an
establishment as this assumes a remarkable power of organization, as
well as a large command of capital.'

[Illustration: _Jones and Co. (successors to Lackington)._]

Six years after he had started, Lackington, who had been joined by his
friend, John Denis--a man of some capital--published his first catalogue
(1779), the title of the firm being Lackington and Co., and the list
enumerating some