Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/222

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s i. MA*. 12, 1910.


still with us : the Rev. J. Llewelyn Davies, D.D., and Mr. J. M. Ludlow. The former wrote of ' The Revivals of 1859,* and the latter (who contributed four articles to the volume) treated in the initial issue oi ' The Moral Aspects of Tennyson's Idylls.'

J. GRIGOR. 14, Crofton Road, Camberwell, S.E.

COL. VINCENT POTTER, REGICIDE (11 S. i. 147). There is a short and very imperfect account of Vincent Potter in Mark Noble's 'Lives of the English Regicides l (1798), vol. ii. pp. 129-31. I do not remember that his life has been dwelt upon elsewhere.

A. O. V. P.

STRAWBERRY HILL CATALOGUE : ' MDW. WALPOLIANJE* (10 S. vii. 461, 517; xii. 216, 294, 353, 430, 491 ; 11 S. i. 34). In my first note I stated that there were " at least four of the sale catalogues." I have recently found a fifth, which I will designate as 3A, since it is the small-paper issue of 3, the large-paper copy. The collation is the same : portrait, xxiv, 1-90, 97-250 (244 pp.). The measurements are llf by 9J in., and 13 by 10| in. respectively for the small and large copies. The title-pages of 2, 3, and 3A are identical, each stating that ' ' a few copies are printed on large paper, at 12s. each." The total amount of lots by number under each day's sale is the same, but No. 2 cata- logues the seventh and eighth days, while 3 and 3A do not.

No. 2 completes the cataloguing of the first six days'- sales on p. 68, and 3 and SA on p. 86, the essential difference being that the cataloguing of many lots has been expanded in the last two catalogues. For instance, lot 96 in the first day's sale in No. 2 is "Evelyn Sculp tura, and 7 other vols. on the Arts," while lot 96 in 3 and 3A gives eight titles at some length. This more extended cataloguing accounts for the 18 additional pages in the first six days, which were occupied with the books in the collection. From the ninth day on the three catalogues appear to run pari passu.

The curious fact to be deduced from the examination of the first four catalogues is that the major part of the collection, to a greater or less extent, was catalogued three separate times. No. 1 differs radically from the other three ; 2 from the title-page might have been expected to prove the small-paper edition of 3, but is not. A simple explanation would seem to be that 1 was withdrawn on account of inaccuracies ; that 2 was issued before it was decided to


expand the prints (seventh and eighth days) into the ten days' sale ; and that when 3 and 3A were put out, the seventh and eighth days being then first omitted, it was deemed advisable to recatalogue at greater length that part of the collection containing the books, i.e., the first six days.

P. 85 (it should be p. 86, by the way) with the sixth day's sale ending with lot 160, which MR. ABRAHAMS found inserted in the copy he examined, is undoubtedly from catalogue SA.

As to the early " Descriptions " of Straw- berry Hill and its contents in Walpole's time, MR. ABRAHAMS'S deductions are some- what loose. In my first communication I itemized rather briefly all the varieties of the descriptive catalogues which are known or believed to have existed.

It seems possible that the Kirgate-Baker- Cruden-Eyton ' Description ? of 65 pp. is unique. Martin, who examined the Cruden collection, cites the title, but .gives no date, which he is careful to do in the case of all the other books.

Mr. Dobson cites Baker and Lowndes, but says he has not seen it himself.

I should not be inclined to accept the date of 1774 given in the Eyton sale catalogue as certain evidence, to judge from sale catalogues in general and the three extracts given from this one in particular.

The collation of the 'Description, 1 1774 edition, drawn directly from the small- paper copy, is : Half-title, with print of Strawberry Hill, 1 leaf ; title-page, 1 leaf ; A Description of Strawberry Hill, pp. 1-119 ; 120 blank ; Appendix, 121-45 ; List of the Books printed at Strawberry Hill, 146-7 ; 148 blank ; Additions since the Appendix, 149-52 ; More Additions, 153-8.

As shown by some of the contents, the Appendix and List, " Additions," and "More Additions" were not printed prior to 1781, 1783, and 1786 respectively.

Similar conditions are found in the 1784 dition of the ' Descriptions, 1 where the Appendix (pp. 89-92), "Curiosities Added," &c. (pp. 93-4), and " More Additions ' pp. 95-6) contain articles acquired in 1785, 1787, and 1788 respectively.

n fact, Walpole wrote to Lady Ossory, 15 Sept., 1787, concerning the ' Description, 1 that "though printed, I have entirely tept it up [i.e., held it back], and mean to do o while I live," and proceeded to detail his reasons for not giving it out.

One of the " fragments " sold by Messrs. Hodgson & Co. in 1902 was the 'Pictures,