Public and Private Libraries of Glasgow

translation of Virgil's Æneid-Chapman's Homer-Dibdin's works, 402-432

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE

LIBRARIES OF GLASGOW.

INTRODUCTION.

Defence of the Book-collector-Plan of the Work-Total number of Books in the Libraries described-Manuscripts-Fifteenth Century Printing-Bibles, Psalmbooks, and Prayer-books-Witchcraft-Poetry and the Drama-Shakespeare, Byron, Shelley, Tennyson -Scottish Poetry-First edition of Burns's Works -Scottish Biography, History, and Topography-A Bibliographical Society for Scotland-Glasgow Books -Boyd's "Last Battell of the Soule"-Scottish Trials Chap Books-Broadsides-Jerusalem, and the Holy Land-General history-Fine Art-AnglingAlchemy-Philology-Fiction, first editions-Bibliography-Proverbs and Ana.

As an ambassador into a strange and unknown country is usually granted an appreciative audience on his return home, so the present writer, who has made a pleasant voyage into some hitherto undescribed regions, trusts he may be pardoned for thinking he has a story to tell, and for hoping that he may be credited with more than the average veracity of story-tellers and travellers. Perhaps the plainness of his unvarnished tale may be forgotten in the interest of the subject.

No apology need surely be necessary for this offering at the shrine of the bookhunter. Many a time

and oft have the praises of warriors strong in battle been sung in triumphant strains, the charms of beauty inspired the rapturous muse, great deeds of piety and worth been celebrated in enduring lines, and still the adulating strain rolls on. From sweet Izaak Walton onwards the pliers of the wand have told the world of their love for the gentle craft, and sports and pastimes are many times outnumbered by the books about them. Everything has now its faithful scribes, who differ widely, some having something to say and others nothing, but who agree unanimously in their desire to say it in print. And why, therefore, should the booklover hide his head and have nothing to say for the faith that is in him? That there may be only an old tale to retell should be no let, for it hinders not other devotees from worshipping at their favourite shrines. Few read old books, and therefore he who carries forward the knowledge of the past to the living generation does a service sometimes greater than his fellow who strives to give them original thought.

The ardent love of books has been called madness, and a word invented to describe it, and indeed if every deviation from the beaten track be madness in degree, as has been said, then is the love of books truly madness, for the ways of the bookhunter are eccentric, as the pursuit of his study is delightful.

Of the genus book-collector there are many varieties. The popular conception is an unpractical, ill-dressed, somewhat rude being who is either prowling about oldbook shops turning over untitled volumes in search of bargains or at home buried in his literary rubbish, utterly heedless of the ways and wants of the outside world. It need hardly be said that this is not the portrait of any of the gentlemen whose names adorn our table of contents. Book-collecting is compatible with any occupation, and many of its closest followers have been connected with businesses having nothing in common with literature. Intelligent and wary critics explain

away the contradiction of a bookhunter successfully prosecuting his ordinary avocation by declaring him sane on every other point. They deride his liking for rare editions, large paper, thick paper, and other peculiar copies. Very unfair and fallacious reasoning. A large-paper copy makes a handsome book. An ample margin sets off fine typography as a white mount or a frame does a picture.

The miserly economy of paper evident in so many modern books is a gross violation of proportion which ought not to be tolerated by the true book-lover.

Plenty of breadth and length give an air of luxury to a book which is delightful. Besides being a thing of beauty, a large-paper copy might prove useful to the utilitarian stickler, for the convenience of making comments on the margin. The scribblings would doubtless detract from the immediate market worth of the book, but if the comments were of any moment future generations might think the book enhanced by the markings, and give a larger price for it as a peculiar copy, making the lover of cheap uniformity minister to the taste he had jeered and scoffed at.

The purchaser of a rare edition invariably possesses other editions of the same work, and is laudably desirous of making his collection as complete as may be, and also of tracing the textual variations which successive editors may have introduced. If a subsequent edition of a work is of value, surely it is of the highest importance that the first edition should be preserved, that there may be some means for testing presumed inaccurate reprints. And the same reason will apply, in less degree certainly, to every edition, but particularly to those distinguished by editorial or typographical excellence.

It has been said, and with some show of reason, that a book shut up in a private library is of little value to the world at large. This could only apply to the rare case of a unique book, or one of which all the copies

were in private libraries, and surely would not apply to even these.

For ordinary purposes there would doubtless be ordinary editions, and the scholar who had need to consult a copy not in any public library would hardly have any difficulty in obtaining access to copies in private possession.

And to whom do we owe the preservation of many most important books but to the owners of private libraries? There, touched only by reverential hands, have remained books of which scarcely a single clean and complete copy was in circulation. So long as the world lasts there will doubtless be collectors of books, and few of them will care to pause and defend their favourite pursuit; but, secure in the enjoyment of their treasures, may even snap their fingers at their critics, and perchance dismiss them as rich men excusing their lack of culture by denying its existence in others, or poor men depreciating what they do not possess.

It need hardly be said that the mystic number of thirteen does not exhaust the list of Glasgow private libraries. There are scores of libraries in the city worthy of description, and had the object been to compile a statistical report every private and public library would have found a place in the volume. But bluebooks are seldom read, and rarely purchased, and an author may be excused if he desire for his labours a less inglorious end than that which befalls these publications, whether at the hands of a discerning public or a tape-bound Comptroller-General. The libraries described (sixteen in all) are representative collections, and fairly reflect the characteristics of the remainder.

In each account prominence has been given to the leading features of the collection, but for uniformity of treatment the following rough classification has been followed throughout the entire work :

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