'

The book catalogued in this puzzling manner is by Lord and Lady Nugent,
and is entitled 'Legends of the Library at Lilies [the Nugents'
residence], by the Lord and Lady thereof.' A similar carelessness
resulted in Sir Astley Cooper's 'Treatise on Dislocations,' 1822, being
catalogued as follows: 'Bart (C. A.), a Treatise on Discolourations and
Fractures of the Joints,' etc., and also of books by Sir James Y.
Simpson, Bart., as by 'Bart (S.)' and 'Bart (J.).' The following entries
speak for themselves:

'Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Pottery.'
'The New Wig Guide.'
'The Rose and the Ring by R. Browing.'
'Marryat's "Pirate and Three Butlers."'

Under 'Devil, The,' we find the following entry: 'Le Deuil sou
observation dans tous les Temps,' 1877; and under Numismatics the
following delightful bull: 'Money, a comedy, a poor copy, 1s.'

As an instance of official cataloguing, it would be difficult to beat
the following description of a familiar classic which appeared in a list
issued a few years ago (according to a writer in _Notes and Queries_) in
a certain presidency of India, 'by order of the Right Hon. the Governor
in Council':

'Title--Commentarii (_sic_) De Bello Gallico in usum Scholarum,
Liber Tirtius (_sic_).
Author--Mr. C. J. Caesoris. Subject--Religion.'

Nichols, in his 'Literary Anecdotes' (iv. 493), mentions that Dr.
Taylor, who about the year 1732 was librarian at Cambridge, used to
relate of himself that one day throwing books in heaps for the purpose
of classing and arranging them, he put one among works on Mensuration,
because his eye caught the word _height_ in the title-page, and another
which had the word _salt_ conspicuous he threw among books on Chemistry
or Cookery. But when he began a regular classification, it appeared that
the former was 'Longinus on the Sublime,' and the other a 'Theological
Discourse on the _Salt_ of the World, that good Christians ought to be
seasoned with.' Thus, in a catalogue published about eighty years ago
the 'Flowers of Ancient Literature' are found among books on Gardening
and Botany, and Burton's 'Anatomy of Melancholy' is placed among works
on Medicine and Surgery. Some blundering bibliographer has classed the
'Fuggerarum Imagines,' the account of the once mighty Italian family,
among botanical works, under the 'Resemblance of Ferns.' Dibdin states
that he once saw the first Aldine Homer in a country bookseller's
catalogue