nergy. Thomas Macklin died in 1800, and the erstwhile Mitre gave
place--possibly not at once, but certainly very soon after--to Saunders'
Auction-rooms. The most important sale which occurred here, and of which
we have discovered any record, was an anonymous one in February, 1818;
the catalogue was entitled 'Bibliotheca Selecta: Library of an eminent
Collector, removed from the North of England.' This sale occupied six
days, and comprised a very fine series of books of old English poetry,
history, topography, and illustrated books. For instance, a very fine
copy in a genuine state of the First Folio Shakespeare realized the then
high figure of L121 16s. A copy of Yates's 'Castell of Courtesie,' 1582,
sold for L23 2s., Steevens' copy eighteen years previously going for L2
10s. A large number of other excessively rare books, several of which
were unique, were sold here at the same time; but whose they were, or
how they could have drifted into such an unimportant auction centre as
Saunders', are questions which we are not able to answer. Fifty years
ago there were at least three important firms of literary auctioneers in
Fleet Street--Henry Southgate (who eventually turned author, and who
died about three years ago), at No. 22; L. A. Lewis, at No. 125; and E.
Hodgson, referred to on p. 116. At each of these three centres many
extensive collections of books came under the hammer. When the elder
Southgate died or retired, in about 1837, two of his assistants,
Grimston and Havers, left, and started on their own account at 30,
Holborn Hill, making the auction of books a speciality; but their
existence appears to have been brief.

The neighbourhood had, however, a book-auction repute long before the
present century dawned, and the Rose Tavern, near Temple Bar, was a
favourite locality for this method of selling books. Samuel Baker here
sold the entire library ('Bibliotheca Elegans') of Alderman Sir Robert
Baylis in 1749, and that of Conyers Middleton, Principal Librarian of
the University of Cambridge, March 4, 1750-51, and nine following
days--by order and for the benefit of the widow, who in the preface
'takes this opportunity to assure the public that this catalogue
contains the genuine library of Dr. Middleton, without any alteration,
and is sold for my advantage'--there were 1,300 lots.

THE STRAND.

[Illustration: _Butcher Row, 1798._]

The modernization of the Strand, but more particularly the erection of
the New L