This difficulty can only be got over by an amount of learning on the
part of the collector to which, unfortunately, he is too often a
stranger. On the other hand, the advantages of collecting MSS. are
sometimes very great.

In addition to the pleasure--a pleasure at once literary and
artistic--which the study of illuminated MSS. affords, there is the
certainty that, as years go on, the value of such a collection
increases in a proportion altogether marvellous.

I will take two examples to prove this point. Some years ago an
eminent collector gave the price of 30 pounds for a small French
book of Hours, painted in grisaille. It was in a country town that
he met with this treasure, for a treasure he considered the book, in
spite of its being of the very latest school of illumination. When
his collection was dispersed a few years ago this one book fetched
260 pounds.

In the celebrated Perkins sale, in 1873, a magnificent early MS.,
part of which was written in gold on a purple ground, and which was
dated in the catalogue "ninth or tenth century," but was in reality
of the end of the tenth or beginning of the eleventh, was sold for
565 pounds to a dealer. It found its way into Mr. Bragge's
collection, at what price I do not know, and was resold, three years
later, for 780 pounds.

Any person desirous of making a collection of illuminated MSS.,
should study seriously for some time at the British Museum, or some
such place, until he is thoroughly acquainted (1) with the styles of