best known of
the Queen's embroidered books, now in the British Museum, is Archbishop
Parker's 'De Antiquitate Ecclesiae Britannicae,' 1572, presented by the
author to Elizabeth, for whom also he had it specially bound. It is
covered in green velvet. We give facsimiles of the two sides of the
cover of the manual of prayers which the Queen is said to have carried
about with her, attached by a gold chain to her girdle. It is bound in
gold and enamelled, said to be the workmanship of George Heriot. The
prayers were printed by A. Barker, 1574. The front side of the cover
contains a representation of the raising of the serpent in the
wilderness; whilst on the back is represented the judgment of Solomon.
This book was for many years in the Duke of Sussex's collection; it was
sold with the rest of the collection of the late George Field, at
Christie's, June 13, 1893, for 1,220 guineas, to Mr. C. J. Wertheimer.

[Illustration: Elizabeth P.]

The Marquis of Salisbury's library at Hatfield contains a number of
books which belonged to two distinguished ladies of the Elizabethan
period. Lady M. Burghley's many book-treasures included a number of
learned works which we do not usually associate with the women of the
time. There were, for instance, Basil, 'Orationes,' 1556; Bodin, 'La
Republique,' 1580; Erasmus, 'De Copia Verborum,' 1573; Fernelius,
'Medecina,' 1554; Hemming, 'Commentarius in Ephesios,' 1574; Haddon,
'Contra Osorium,' 1557; Jasparus, 'Encomium,' 1546; Valerius, 'Tabulae
Dialectices,' 1573; Velcurio, 'Commentarius in Aristotelis,' 1573;
Whitgift's 'Answer to Cartwright,' 1574, and several others. A few of
the books which were once possessed by Anne Cecil (sister of Sir Robert
Cecil), Countess of Oxford, are also at Hatfield, notably a 'Grammaire
Francaise,' 1559, and an edition of Cicero 'Epitres Familieres.'

[Illustration: _The Frontispiece to 'The Ladies' Library' of Steele._

Engraved by L. Du Guernier.]

During the eighteenth century, the taste for books was by no means
uncommon among women, although only a bold man would declare that that
period produced a genuine _femme bibliophile_. The idea of a lady's
library was first suggested by Addison in the _Spectator_, No. 37. In
No. 79 Steele takes up the thread of the subject, to which Addison
returns in No. 92, and Steele again in No. 140. These papers created a
want which Richard Steele, with a doubly benevolent object, essayed to
fill. 'The Ladies' Library,'