en he is as quick as
other three, eating six times every day.'

II.

From start to finish the Stuart dynasty ruled England for close on
three-quarters of a century. That book-collecting should have existed at
all under it is a marvel. But the hobby no longer depended upon the
patronage of courts and courtiers. From the Wise Fool, James I., to the
Foolish Fool, the second James, collectors pursued their hobby in London
and out of it. James I. began to collect books at a very early age, and
a list of his library was published for the first time in the _Athenaeum_
in 1893. It has, however, but little interest to us in this place, for
doubtless most of the books were imported into Scotland from the great
book centre, Paris. The library which he acquired after his accession to
the throne of England is of little consequence, for he was not the
person to purchase books when he had the means, and doubtless many of
his bookish possessions were gifts. In the library at Eton College there
is his copy of Captain John Smith's 'History of Virginia,' 1624, which
was rescued by Storer from a dirty bookseller's shop in Derby, and the
existence of many others might be traced. It is certain that 'he gave
them shabby coverings, and scribbled idle notes on their margins.' Had
his son Henry lived, he might have developed into a respectable
book-collector. We know for certain that he 'paid a Frenchman that
presented a book, L4 10s.'; and that he paid 'Mr. Holyoak for writing a
catalogue of the library which the Prince had of Lord Lumley, L8 13s.
4d.' Charles II., like his forbears, was not a book-buyer, and so far as
he is concerned we must content ourselves with repeating a little
anecdote after Dibdin, who refers to an 'old and not incurious library
at Workingham, in Suffolk,' where there was a very fine ruled copy of
Hayes's Bible, published at Cambridge, 1674, in two volumes folio; on
the fly-leaf it contains the following memorandum: 'N.B.--This Bible
belonged to K. Charles IId. and [was] given by him to Duke Lauderdale
and sold by auction w{th} y{e} rest of his Books.' In a comparatively
modern hand, below, is written in pencil:

'Hark ye, my friends, that on this Bible look,
Marvel not at the fairness of the Book;
No soil of fingers, nor such ugly things,
Expect to find, Sirs, for it _was the King's_.'

[Illustration: _Sir Robert Cotton._]

The most distinguished Metropolitan book-collector of the period