tant in this respect was Charles John Stewart
(whom Henry Stevens, of Vermont, described as the last of the learned
old booksellers), who was born in Scotland at the beginning of the
present century, and died on September 17, 1883. He was one of
Lackington's pupils, and started as a second-hand bookseller with
Howell, subsequently carrying on the business alone. His chief commodity
was theological books, and when his stock--perhaps the largest of its
kind known--came to be sold, it realized close on L5,000. Joel Rowsell
was another famous bibliopole who resided in this street, and he, like
Stewart, retired in 1882. G. Bumstead (whose speciality was curious or
eccentric books; he was distinctly an 'old' bookseller, for he rarely
bought anything printed after 1800), Molini and Green, J. M. Stark, and
J. W. Jarvis and Sons, were also, at one time or another, in this
bookselling thoroughfare, which is now entirely deserted by the
fraternity. Doubtless one of the most successful of modern bibliopoles
who lived in the vicinity of the Strand is Mr. F. S. Ellis, who was an
apprentice of James Toovey, and who in a comparatively few years built
up a business second only to that of Quaritch. Mr. Ellis (who purchased
the valuable freewill of T. and W. Boone's connection) compiled the
greater portion of the catalogue of the celebrated Huth Library, and
since he has retired to Torquay has taken up book-editing with all the
zeal which characterized his earlier career as a bookseller. Mr. Ellis's
shop was at 33, King Street, Covent Garden, and afterwards at 29, New
Bond Street, and the prestige of his name is worthily maintained by his
nephew, Mr. G. I. Ellis (with whom is Mr. Elvey), at the latter address.
The whole neighbourhood of which Covent Garden may be taken as the
centre, is full of a bibliopolic history, which dates back to the
beginning of the last century. The time when Aldines were to be picked
up at 1s. 6d. each, and when Shakespeare Folios were to be had for 30s.
each round about the Piazza, has, it is true, long gone by; but a very
large library, in almost any branch of literature, may be easily formed,
at a very moderate cost, any day within a stone's-throw of London's
great vegetable market. It may be mentioned, _en passant_, that George
Willis, the editor-publisher of _Willis's Current Notes_, was for many
years at the Great Piazza, Covent Garden. The firm subsequently became
known as Willis and Sotheran, and is now So