"G. D. S." as he is known in the New York Auction Rooms. Like "G. B. S." of London, he is something of an enigma. What are the qualities which have made him, as he undoubtedly is, the greatest bookseller in the world?

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX

TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

There is no affectation of dignity or of knowledge about him, and it is well that there is not. No one knows all there is to know about books; a man might know much more than he - such men there are

and yet lack the qualities which have enabled him to secure and retain the confidence and commissions of his patrons. He is practically the main support of the auction-rooms in this country, and I have frequently seen him leave a sale at which he had purchased every important book that came up. He had knowledge and confidence enough for that, and I cannot see why his frankness and lack of affectation should be counted against him. It takes all kinds of men to make a world, and George is several kinds in himself.

Twenty-five years ago, in London, early in my book-collecting days, I came across a bundle of dusty volumes in an old book-shop in the Strand, - the shop and that part of the Strand have long since disappeared, and bought the lot for, as I remember, two guineas. Subsequently, upon going through the contents carefully, I found that I had acquired what appeared to be quite a valuable little parcel. There were the following:

"Tales from Shakespeare": Baldwin and Cradock, fifth edition, 1831.

Lamb's "Prose Works": 3 volumes, Moxon, 1836.

"The Letters of Charles Lamb": 2 volumes, Moxon, 1837; with the inscription, "To J. P. Collier, Esq. from his friend H. C. Robinson."

Talfourd's "Final Memorials of Charles Lamb": 2 volumes, Moxon, 1848.

By the way, the last was Wordsworth's copy, with his signature on the title-page of each volume; and I observed for the first time that the book was dedicated to him. Loosely inserted in several of the volumes were newspaper clippings, a number of pages of manuscript in John Payne Collier's handwriting, a part of a letter from Mary Lamb addressed to Jane Collier, his mother, and in several of the volumes were notes in Collier's handwriting referring to matters in the text: as where, against a reference to Lamb's "Essay on Roast Pig," Collier says, in pencil, “My mother sent the pig to Lamb." Again, where Talfourd, referring to an evening with Lamb, says, "We mounted to the top story and were soon seated beside a cheerful fire: hot water and its better adjuncts were soon before us," Collier writes, "Both Lamb and Talfourd died of the 'Better Adjuncts.""

There was a large number of such pencil notes. The pages of manuscript in Collier's heavy and, as he calls it, "infirm" hand begin:

In relation to C. Lamb and Southey, Mr. Cosens possesses as interesting a MS. as I know. It is bound as a small quarto, but the writing of Lamb, and chiefly by Southey is post 8vo. They seem to have been contributions to an "Annual Anthology" published by Cottle of Bristol.

The MS. begins with an "Advertisement" in the handwriting of Southey, and it is followed immediately by a poem in Lamb's handwriting headed "Elegy on a Quid of Tobacco," in ten stanzas rhiming alternately thus:

It lay before me on the close grazed grass

Beside my path, an old tobacco quid:

And shall I by the mute adviser pass

Without one serious thought? now Heaven forbid!1

The next day, Collier copied more of the poem, for on another sheet he remarks, "As my hand is steadier to-day I have copied the remaining stanzas."

On still another sheet, referring to the Cosens MS., Collier writes:

The whole consists of about sixty leaves chiefly in the handwriting of Southey and it contains ... productions by Lamb, one a sort of jeu d'esprit called "The Rhedycinian Barbers" on the hair-dressing of twelve young men of Christ Church College, and the other headed, "Dirge for Him Who Shall Deserve It." This has no signature but the whole is in Lamb's clear young hand, and it shows very plainly that he partook not only of the poetical but of the political feeling of the time.

The signatures are various, Erthuryo, Ryalto, Walter, and so forth, and at the end are four Love Elegies and a serious poem by Charles Lamb, entitled, "Living without God in the World."

How many of these were printed elsewhere, or in Cottle's "Anthology," I do not know. I would willingly copy more did not my hand fail me.

J. P. C.

Twenty years later, in New York one day, George D. Smith asked me if I would care to buy an interesting volume of Southey MSS., and to my great surprise handed me the identical little quarto which

1 The facsimile is from the original manuscript by Charles Lamb. First published in 1799 in what is usually referred to as Cottle's "Annual Anthology." The poem is generally attributed to Southey, but it sounds like Lamb, who liked tobacco, whereas Southey did not. The MS., in ten stanzas, is undoubtedly in Lamb's handwriting.