TllK KNTOMQLOGIST. 181 



scholar and a great reader, more particularly of old and rare 

 books. Eventually the time came for him to choose a 

 business or profession ; the church and the bar were talked 

 of, but his taste was for books, and nothing would suit him 

 but the business of a bookseller. Accordingly he was placed 

 in the house of Baldwin, Craddock & Joy, of Paternoster 

 Row. " At this time," writes Mr. Smith, " I was articled to 

 Shuckard's uncle, the celebrated landscape engraver, who 

 lived in Soho Square, and young Shuckard was to lodge at 

 his uncle's during his apprenticeship. So matters went on. 

 Shuckard was a most laborious reader; we occupied the 

 same room, and he used to read whilst I was in bed ; some- 

 times, if he was engaged upon a novel of Scott's, fresh from 

 the press, and in fact before it was issued to the public, 

 I listened to his whispering readings, for he dared not read 

 aloud, because his uncle's room was beneath our attic story : 

 these readings kept me awake, but when he was deep in his 

 more favourite works, books of antiquities, I must confess to 

 their somniferous effects upon myself. One book was of a 

 most composing character, and it was one in which Shuckard 

 look great delight, Butler's 'Anatomy of Melancholy:' he 

 dropped upon some expensive edition of this book, and was 

 so delighted with his treasure that in reading some favourite 

 passages he would forget himself, and frequently read so 

 loud that his uncle was awoke by his midnight readings, and 

 pounced in upon him in the very act. Several limes were 

 these discoveries made, and so determined was his uncle to 

 put a slop to these proceedings that a plan was adopted of 

 sending the servant up for our candle, which was duly put 

 out, and a little lamp was lighted and substituted for the lost 

 candle as soon as we heard his uncle safe in his own room ; 

 the window was darkened by hanging one of the bed-curtains 

 before it, and every chink of the door — top, bottom and sides 

 — was darkened, not forgetting the keyhole. All, however, 

 proved useless in the long run. The termination was my 

 being awoke one night, and seeing Shuckard grasped by his 

 uncle, both in a boiling rage, and a dismissal next day 

 threatened. Accordingly Shuckard left, and for some time 

 lodged at Bateman's Buildings, Hoiborn, opposite Furuival's 

 Inn, where his midnight readings caused him to become a 

 late riser in the morning, and a very irregular attender to his 



