of book brokerage, buying libraries for those who want them, and rare
works and editions for American collectors. His business naturally
brings him into relations with literary people; and he is himself a
kindly and pleasant man. On our arrival we found Mr. D------ and one of
his sisters already there; and soon came a Mr. Peabody, who, if I mistake
not, is one of the Salem Peabodys, and has some connection with the
present eminent London Mr. Peabody. At any rate, he is a very sensible,
well-instructed, and widely and long travelled man. Mr. Tom Taylor was
also expected; but, owing to some accident or mistake, he did not come
for above an hour, all which time our host waited. . . . . But Mr. Tom
Taylor, a wit, a satirist, and a famous diner out, is too formidable and
too valuable a personage to be treated cavalierly.

In the interim Mr. ------ showed us some rare old books, which he has in
his private collection, a black-letter edition of Chaucer, and other
specimens of the early English printers; and I was impressed, as I have
often been, with the idea that we have made few, if any, improvements in
the art of printing, though we have greatly facilitated the modes of it.
He showed us Dryden's translation of Virgil, with Dr. Johnson's autograph
in it and a large collection of Bibles, of all dates,--church Bibles,
family Bibles of the common translation, and older ones. He says he has
written or is writing a history of the Bible (as a printed work, I
presume). Many of these Bibles had, no doubt, been in actual and daily
use from generation to generation; but they were now all splendidly
bound, and were likewise very clean and smooth,--in fact, every leaf had
been cleansed by a delicate process, a part of which consisted in soaking
the whole book in a tub of water, during several days. Mr. ------ is
likewise rich in manuscripts, having a Spanish document with the
signature of the son of Columbus; a whole little volume in Franklin's
handwriting, being the first specimen of it; and the original manuscripts