Bookworms of Yesterday and To-day:

MR. JOSEPH KNIGHT.

HERE is probably not another private library in London so extensive, so varied, and so interesting as that of which the editor of Notes and Queries is the happy possessor. All through the house, from top to bottom, and even on the staircases, the favoured (and, of course, covetous) visitor beholds nothing but books, in every case arranged with perfect order and taste. When one reflects on the size of the comparatively small house in Camden Square, it seems almost incredible that it could possibly contain comfortably an extensive collection of over 12,000 books—many of which are huge folios. But by double shelving and orderly arrangement impossibilities become perfectly feasible.

Mr. Joseph Knight has been a book collector from childhood, and by 1860 he had accumulated a library of 7,000 volumes, the greater portion of which, when he left the country for London in that year, to read up for the bar, were brought under the hammer at Sotheby's. Nearly all these books were purchased in the north of England or Scotland, and included a considerable quantity of black letter literature, Elizabethan poems and plays.

At present Mr. Knight's library is essentially a working one, but it is also something more. In works of reference it is as full as can be wished-which is saying a good deal. In bibliographical subjects it is well stocked, and it includes a large collection of the works of Peignot. As a dramatic critic, Mr. Knight-who has abandoned law for literature-has naturally made a special feature

of plays and works on the stage, and the old instinct of the collector developed itself. Works on early English and early French literature became the object of his quest. In French chronicles and poets Mr. Knight's library is very rich, some examples in each section being on large paper. Besides an extensive collection of quaint and interesting volumes of the "Shandean Library," we notice a good set of the Elzevir Brantome, a complete series published by Jannet, Daffis, and others known as the "Bibliothèque Elzevirienne," which has taken many years to fill up vacancies, and of which there are not perhaps three more complete sets in England. There are over 200 volumes. We note, also, the publications of leading societies and clubs, including the Spencerian, the Hunterian and others, besides nearly all the Rev. Mr. Grosart's accurate and otherwise valuable reprints.

Among the early impressions of English poetry and prose may be mentioned a first edition of Milton's "Paradise Lost," a first edition of the Duchess of Newcastle's "Plays," in two volumes, with the very rare portrait which is so frequently absent from copies of this book, and about thirty other folios of this distinguished and prolific matron; a copy of Geo. Wither's "Emblem's" (1635), with the diagram from which our seventeenth century forefathers were enabled to have a forecast of their fortunes in the lottery; and the same author's "Juvenilia,” 1633, a fine copy in old morocco. There are many other Withers' here. A fine, uncut copy of Prynne's "Histriomastix" (1633), recalls the fact that the unhappy author was only one of many scribblers whose energy has been put into force at the cost of their ears. An edition of Walpole's "Castle of Otranto," bound by Edwards of Halifax, has one of those very ingenious and effective designs painted under the edges of the leaves: when the book is closed its front edges are gilded, but so soon as these are slightly slanted on one side quite a change comes o'er the scene-instead of a spotless gold there is a charming little view in colours. This art is, we believe, practised to a much greater extent in England than in any other country. Mr. Knight has also a moderately extensive collection of privately printed American books, most of which were brought out by wealthy amateurs for circulation among a few friends. Among English books there is an extensive collection of first editions of the modern poets, such as Rossetti, Swinburne, and William Morris, not a few of them presentation copies. In the case of Rossetti, the last letter he wrote was addressed to Mr. Knight with a copy of the then just re-published volume of "Poems." This letter is appropriately placed in the book, and the two form a