Chili, China, and so on.

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XV.

Great Collections.


Great collections of postage stamps, like great collections of
pictures, in these days acquire an international rank and reputation.
The great stamp collections of to-day are in a few hands, and have
been built up by lavish wealth and lavish industry. Wealth alone will
not suffice to gather together a really great philatelic collection.
There must be patient research, and there can be no research apart
from that full knowledge which comes only to the industrious and
painstaking Philatelist. The gem that is wanted to complete the finest
page in the rich man's collection has not unfrequently to be
personally sought for in the byways, the alleys, and lanes of stamp
collecting; and despite the keenest search of the wealthy, it
sometimes, after all, falls by grim mischance into the laboriously
gathered collection of the man of very limited means.

The Prince of Wales is known to be an enthusiastic and keen stamp
collector. He is the acting President of the Philatelic Society of