The Chronicle of 



epoch in queftion only in embryo, and not a few copies, we 

 may fuppofe, were lying perdu on high fhelves and in out- 

 of-the-way corners, unappreciated, if not altogether forgotten. 

 PafTing out of fafhion, the book had alfo palled out of fight ; 

 but the divining-rod of bookfeller and bibliopolift was foon to 

 do its work, 1 and whatever copies {till exift have been tranf- 



1 " It is a curious phenomenon in the old book trade," fays Mr. Burton, in 

 his amufing volume, " The Book-Hunter," " that rarities do not always remain 

 rare ; volumes feeming to multiply through fome cryptogamic procefs, when we 

 know perfectly that no additional copies are printed and thrown ofF. The fadT: is 

 that the rumour of fcarcity and value and of a hunt after them, draws them from 

 their hiding-places. If we may judge from the efteem in which they were once 

 held, the Elzevirs muft have been great rarities in this country, but they are 

 now plentiful enough — the heavy prices in the Britilh market having no doubt 

 fucked them out of dingy repofitories in Germany and Holland, fo that even 

 in this department of commerce the law of fupply and demand is not entirely 

 abrogated. He who dames at all the books called rare, or even very rare, by 

 Clement and his brethren, will be apt to fuffer the keen difappointment of 

 finding that there are many who participate with him in the poffeffion of the 

 fame treafures. In fad, let a book but make its appearance in that author's 

 " Bibliotheque Curieufe, Hiftorique et Critique, ou Catalogue Raifonne de 

 Livres difficiles a trouver," or in GraefTe's " Trefor de Livres Rares et Pre- 

 cieux," — let it be mentioned as a rarity in Ebert's " Allegemeines Biblio- 

 graphifches Lexicon," or in Debure, Ofmond, or the " Repertorium Biblio- 

 graphicum," — fuch proclamation is immediate notice to many fortunate 

 poflefTors who were no more aware of the value of their dingy-looking volumes, 

 than Monfieur Jourdain knew himfelf to be in the habitual daily practice of 

 talking profe." — P. 21 1. 



That copies of the early editions of the ' Compleat Angler' have been 

 multiplied within the lalt thirty years, by fome fuch agency as that fuggefted 

 in the above extract, is all but certain. They have not ceafed, however, to 

 belong to the category of rare books, a fadr. for which their fize and the familiar 

 ufes to which the work has been applied, account in a great degree. Employed 



