DECEMBER 287 



of one of the very few legacies they have ever had to 

 dispose of in the purchase of books. 



The general furniture of these shelves has some 

 analogy in geology a vast and uniform sedimentary 

 formation, represented by the steady accretion of 

 Parliamentary papers and debates, with erratic blocks 

 of nobler material and unexpected ' pockets ' of precious 

 metal. The choicest ' claims ' are situated in the room 

 third and last to the east of the Oriel room which gives 

 entrance to the suite. This is pretty rich in poetry and 

 classics, remarkably so in county histories and topo- 

 graphy. There is not much temptation to loiter in the 

 first two rooms, unless your taste lies in heraldry, of 

 which noble science there is a choice little collection of 

 authorities in the corner nearest the fireplace of the 

 second room. Even should the jargon of blazon be an 

 unknown tongue to you, it is worth pulling out a fine 

 morocco-bound folio of Milles's Catalogue of Honor, to 

 note the tiny, girlish hand in which Thomas Gray, the 

 poet, besprinkled it with marginalia. Among the 

 works of reference, also, are included at least two of 

 scantly senatorial character namely, a fine copy of 

 Grose's Blackguardiana (1785), and the Glossarium 

 eroticum Lingiwe Latince (Paris, 1824). Who was the 

 wag on the Standing Committee who directed the 

 purchase of these for the edification of members ? 



For the rest, the contents of the shelves in rooms 

 A and B, though furnishing with their serried backs 

 the very best kind of mural decoration, are only 

 digestible by very earnest politicians. Yonder is one 



