. Shorter has many interesting manuscripts and books
by Oliver Wendell Holmes, R. L. Stevenson, and A. C. Swinburne, with
autographs or notes by their respective authors. Mr. Richard le
Gallienne, the well-known author, has for many years been a confirmed
book-hunter, and has come across some rare and interesting finds. Mr.
Henry Norman, the traveller and assistant editor of the _Daily
Chronicle_, has a number of choice and rare books, chiefly first
editions of American authors--J. Russell Lowell, Longfellow, O. W.
Holmes, Emerson, Walt Whitman, and Whittier--nearly all of whom were
personal friends of Mr. Norman's. Mr. Norman has gone to the
extravagance of two sets of the first editions of Thomas Hardy's books,
whilst of George Meredith there is one complete set.

[Illustration: _Mr. A. Birrell, Book-collector._]

The House of Commons contains several men who have very excellent
libraries and excellent judgments of books. Mr. Leonard Courtney has
been guilty of bookstalling a good many times in his successful career,
and is, perhaps, an exception to the general rule that good political
economists usually make poor book-hunters. Mr. Courtney possesses a good
many uncommon books, which he has picked up from time to time. Mr.
Augustine Birrell, Q.C., the author of 'Obiter Dicta,' and son-in-law of
the late Frederick Locker-Lampson, has a good library of from 5,000 to
6,000 books. Among these may be noticed the first edition of Gray's
'Elegy,' picked up at Hodgson's for 3s. 6d.; first edition of Keats'
'Endymion,' purchased off a stall in the Euston Road for 2s. 6d.; first
edition of 'Wuthering Heights'; and an extensive series of books
relating to or by Dryden, Pope, Swift, and others of that period, as
well as a number of presentation copies of books by Matthew Arnold,
Browning, and Tennyson, etc. Mr. T. R. Buchanan, M.P., who was for many
years librarian of All Souls' College, Oxford, has a small but select
library of books which are, for the most part, remarkable on account of
the beauty or rarity of their bindings. It is especially strong in fine
specimens of early English and Scotch bindings; there are a few examples
from De Thou's library, and a few characteristic specimens of Italian
and Flemish bindings of the best periods. The books themselves are
principally editions of the classics; but the section of Bibles printed
in England and Scotland is a full one. There are also many volumes with
a personal interest; f