234 SOME OLD BOOKS 



LIII 



Oh for the gift of second-sight, which my lost friend, 

 some gentle Andrew Lang, assured us in his notes 



Old Books. to /^g Legend of Montrose was quite as 

 prevalent as ever twenty years ago an oracular deli- 

 very, meaning just as much or just as little as the faith 

 and temperament of the hearer contributes to it. Who 

 so prescient as to pronounce what, in the torrent of 

 current publications, will be valuable after half a 

 century ? Of no avail is ordinary foresight, nor literary 

 insight, nor business instinct. Fifty years ago Elzevir 

 duodecimos were in costly request: now a score or 

 more of these fat, vellum-clad pigmies may be had for 

 the price of a single volume of Tennyson or Stevenson 

 in the original edition. 



Nothing short of second-sight will avail to avert the 

 mischance which once befell me. Wishing to acquire 

 the ninth edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica, the 

 price whereof was 35, and finding the congestion of my 

 bookshelves to be in striking contrast to that of my 

 privy purse, I cast about to determine what volumes 

 might be drafted in exchange for the coveted quartos. 

 The lot of sacrifice fell upon the Sporting Magazine 

 a complete set (saving two volumes) from its com- 

 mencement in 1793 to its demise in 1870. Off they 

 went, and in their stead came the Encyclopedia. 

 When I read in 1911 that a set of the Sporting 

 Magazine had been sold at auction for 950, it was 

 borne in upon me that the advantage of exchange had 

 not been exactly on my side. 



After all, it is far from certain that soothsayers would 



