225 



the preface to the printed volume, and more fully in a letter to myself 

 (April 20, 1862), from which T make the following extract : — 



''When I bought the Memoir de Villars, in MS. for a few shil- 

 lings, at a sale at Sotheby's, some eight or ten years ago, I concluded 

 it to be a transcript — -for such it obviously was — of a book afterwards 

 printed. I did not, it is true, know the book, but I had little doubt of 

 meeting with it — my collection of books relating to Spain not being so 

 large as it is now. This conclusion unfortunately prevented me from 

 attacliing any importance to the MS., and even from making any note 

 of the date, or the sale, when it came into my possession. It was not 

 until some years had passed that my attention was again directed to it, 

 on being asked to contribute something to one of the miscellanies of 

 the Philobiblon Society. On looking into the matter, I was surprised at 

 the absence of all mention of the book in either of the editions of the 

 Lettres de Mme. de Villars in Brunet, Querard, the Biog. ZTniverselle, or 

 any of the obvious sources of information. I showed the volume at se- 

 veral meetings of the society, and I especially consulted on the subject 

 M. Yan de Weyer, M. Delepierre,^ and the Due d'Aumale, the latter 

 of whom was sufficiently interested in the matter to take it home with 

 him, and examine it in the midst of all the resources of his very remark- 

 able library. The Duke returned it to me, with the assurance that he 

 could discover no account of it, or any reason to believe that it had been 

 printed, f Sir P. Madden afterwards examined it, and gave it as his 

 opinion that it had not been printed. Many other persons saw it, and 

 from none of them did there fall any expression of belief or suspicion that 

 they had seen it in print. Under these circumstances, considering it 

 was hardly lively enough to alford specimen extracts for a pajjer, and 

 much too bulky to form part of the Philobiblon annual volume, I de- 

 termined to present it to the society as a separate work, and to print 

 also a few copies (seventy-five, I think), for sale." 



Kow, it will be noticed that, among the list of obvious sources of 

 information which Mr. Stirling mentions in this statement, M. Barbier's 

 '' Dictionnaire des Ouvrages Anonymes et Pseudonymes" is not in- 

 cluded. This, I think, supplies the key to all the subsequent mistakes 

 which took place, and accounts for the extraordinary blindness which 

 seems to have fallen upon so many intelligent and well-informed persons 

 on a matter susceptible of the simplest and most obvious explanation. The 



* M. Delepierre has, it appears, since discovered his error, it is presumed through ori- 

 ginal research, as he does not quote any authority. The rather meagre account which he 

 gives of the volume of 1733, at pp. 108, 109, of his " Analyse," is curiously confined to 

 the description of that volume which I gave to Mr. Stirling, in my reply to the letter 

 above quoted. 



f The MS. which Mr. Stirling has been kind enough to lend me has inserted the fol- 

 lowing interesting autograph letter of the Due d'Aumale upon the subject : — 



" Le Due d'Aumale presente ses complements a. Mr. Stirling et lui renvoye les deux 

 volumes qu'il avait eu I'obligeance de lui preter. II regrette de n'avoir pu trouver aucun 

 renseignment nouveau sur les curieux memoires du Marquis de Villars. 



"Orleans House, 11 Avril, 1856." 



