believe that the
comparatively small house in Camden Square could contain between 12,000
and 13,000 volumes, and yet such is undoubtedly the case. Every room is
crowded, and all the sides of the staircases are crowded with books
from top to bottom. Mr. Knight's library is essentially a working one,
but it is also something more. It is rich in editions of Froissart's
'Chronicles'; in editions of Rabelais--notably the excessively rare one
printed by Michel le Noir, 1505; in Elzevir editions it includes a very
extensive series; the series of the 'Restif de la Bretonne' includes
about 200 volumes, being one of the few complete sets in London. A few
of Mr. Knight's greatest rarities have come to him at very cheap
rates--_e.g._, the 'Apologie pour Herodote,' 1566, without any of the
_cartons_, or cancels, upon which the Genevese authorities insisted.
This little volume, of which there are very few copies known, cost Mr.
Knight 16s., neither buyer nor seller knowing its value at the time of
the transfer. Another 'bargain' is the fine copy of Baudelaire, 'Les
Fleurs de Mal,' 1857, which was fished out of a fourpenny box in High
Street, Marylebone! Mr. Knight's collection of French plays and of works
relating to the French stage is, like that of the English
dramatists--ancient and modern--exceedingly extensive. He possesses,
also, a few good Aldines, a number of Bodonis, and some books of Le
Gason.

Mr. Gladstone is, of course, a book-collector, as well as an omnivorous
reader. The Grand Old Book-hunter's literary tastes cover almost every
conceivable phase of intellectual study. His library contains about
30,000 volumes, to which theology contributes about one-fourth. The
works are arranged by Mr. Gladstone himself into divisions and sections.
For many years he was an inveterate bookstaller, a practice which of
late years has brought with it a certain amount of inconvenience. After
attending Mr. H. M. Stanley's wedding, for example, in 1890, Mr.
Gladstone went on one of his second-hand book expeditions, this time to
Garratt's, in Southampton Row. The right hon. gentleman walked with his
customary elasticity, and was followed to the shop by a large crowd of
admirers, chiefly consisting of working men, whose enthusiasm was kept
in order by three policemen. Outside the bookseller's several hundred
people gathered, and they were not disappointed in their wish to see
the Grand Old Man, for Mr. Garratt's shop does not boast of a back