Origin of 'Hohenlinden.'The numbers of 'N. & Q.' are full of interesting references to the poet, among others the origin of 'Hohenlinden,' with the criticism which appeared in The Greenock Advertiser 'Notices to Correspondents ' :—
" T. C. The lines commencing
On Linden, when the sun was low,
are not up to our standard. Poetry is evidently not T.C.'s forte."
Polish exiles at Campbell's funeral in the AbbeyThe Athenæum of the 6th of July, 1844, in giving an account of the poet's funeral in Westminster Abbey, mentions that at part of the service where we commit his body to ashes and dust to dust, "one of the Polish exiles cast upon the coffin of their friend some earth which he had brought with him from the grave of the great Kosciusko."
THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY.
1899, Oct. 21.
The John Rylands Library.
J. Arnold Green.The opening of the John Rylands Library at Manchester on the 6th of October, 1899, was a red-letter day to all book-lovers. The collection includes the Althorp Library, which consists of upwards of 40,000 volumes. It was purchased by Mrs. Rylands in 1892 for something over 200,000l., through Messrs. Sotheran & Co., Messrs. Sotheby & Co. acting as agents for Earl Spencer; but long previous to this Mrs. Rylands, through her representative, Mr. J. Arnold Green, had already secured about 20,000 volumes in all departments
of literature, including the finest collection of Bibles in the world, in which will be found the Wycliffe MSS. (secured privately from the Ashburnham Library), the Coverdale, a number of Tyndales, a series of Cranmers, together with a copy of the Gutenberg; and one of the Bamberg publication, a work practically unknown to bibliographers. The historical department comprises all the transactions of the leading societies of the world, not omitting that of Moscow. Natural history includes all the great serials and the finest copy of Audubon's 'Birds of America,' being a presentation copy from the author, coloured by him; also Gould's series of ornithological works. General literature is well represented by the leading authorities in
every department, and the unique collection of the county histories of Great Britain must not be overlooked. These are all, without exception, large-paper copies, each volume having all the coats of arms illuminated in gold and colours. This work alone took an artist six years to accomplish. The entire cost of these histories exceeded 2,000l..
Dibdin's mistakes. The Rev. T. F. Dibdin, while he was Lord Spencer's librarian, undertook a catalogue of the chief rarities of the library. The notice of him in the 'Dictionary of National Biography' says of this that "here his lamentable ignorance and unfitness for such a work are sadly conspicuous. He could not even read the characters of the Greek books he describes; and his descriptions are so full of errors that it
