Obituary Notices, by James Hardy. 195 



£4,499 Is 6d. The following account of the nature of this 

 valuable collection is from the Scotsman of April 28th, 1880. 

 ** The late Mr James Maidment, advocate, as may be gathered 

 from a very cursory examination of this collection, was an enthu- 

 siastic bibhographer ; and there are few volumes in his library 

 which do not in one way or other bear the impress of his indi- 

 viduality. His acquaintance with many of the most eminent 

 litterateurs of his day enabled him to collect with facility not only 

 works of great value and interest, but numerous data and re- 

 miniscences relating to these works or their authors, which, em- 

 bodied in a permanent form in the books, invest the collection 

 with an additional interest. The 5059 works which he has 

 brought together in the course of over half a century's collecting, 

 and which are now to be dispersed under the hammer of the 

 auctioneer, comprise histories and treatises on a great variety 

 of subjects. Not a few of these date from the 15th, 16th, and 

 17th centuries, and are as valuable as they are scarce. An 

 important feature is the collection of works relating to the 

 drama and dramatic literature ; a department in which Mr Maid- 

 ment took an especial interest, and in which, perhaps, he was 

 most widely known to the literary world. These number close 

 upon 1,000. There are also numerous historical and statistical 

 works, including 100 volumes entitled 'Scottish Topographical 

 Collections ;' a great variety of biographical compilations and 

 relics, among which are collections of holograph letters by Sir 

 Walter Scott and other distinguished men ; many rare old ballads 

 and fugitive publications ; privately printed works by J. Payne 

 Collier, David Laing, and others ; publications of the Abbotsford 

 and other Clubs ; and sets of privately printed works, edited by 

 Mr Maidment, The books are in excellent condition, indeed, in 

 rebinding and renovating the most ancient specimens, the col- 

 lector has given some indication of how much he cherished them, 

 thinking, doubtless, with Charles Lamb, that however flimsily 

 current literature might be clothed, no binding was too good or 

 substantial for those relics of the past. Perhaps the most remark- 

 able, and to some extent unique, feature of the collection, con- 

 sists in the notes in the collector's handwriting, and newspaper 

 cuttings, which have been inserted more or less freely in a large 

 proportion of the works. These relate principally to the authors, 

 or furnish some additional information on the subjects under 

 treatment." 



