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BOOK II,
Chap. IV.
THE

KING'S OR
'GEORGIAN'
LIBRARY.

GIFTS TO
THE KING'S
LIBRARY.

Curial, both of 1484; and the Speculum Vita Christi, probably printed in 1488. The Boethius is a fine copy, and was obtained for four pounds six shillings. A few years ago an imperfect copy of the same book brought more than sixteen times that sum.

The other

This last

Two others of the King's Caxtons were the gift of Jacob BRYANT. One of these is Ralph LEFEVRE'S Recueil des histoires de Troye, printed, probably, in 1476. is the Doctrinal of Sapience, printed in 1489. named volume is on vellum, and is the only copy so printed which is known to exist. A third Caxton volume was bequeathed to GEORGE THE THIRD by Mr. HEWETT, of Ipswich. This is the Esop of 1484, and is the only extant copy. It was delivered to the King by Sir John HEWETT GEORGE

GEORGE III and Mr. Philip BROKE, the legator's executors.

AND THE

BIBLIO

MANIA.

THE THIRD Was very sensitive to the special triumphs of collectorship, and would be sure to prize the Esop all the more for its attribute of uniqueness.

A story in illustration of this specific tinge of the bibliomania in our royal Collector was wont to be told by Sir Walter Scort, and is mentioned in his interesting obituary notice of the King, printed in the Edinburgh Weekly Journal immediately after the King's death. According to SCOTT, GEORGE THE THIRD was fond of crowing a little over his brother-collector, the Duke of ROXBURGHE, on the score that the royal copy of the famous Recuyell of the Histories of Troye had a pre-eminence over the Roxburghe copy. The pre-eminence was of a sort, indeed, to which no one but a thorough-paced Collector would be sensible. For it consisted in the 'locking,' or wrong imposing, of certain pages, afterwards corrected at press. The fault, therefore,

* Edinburgh Weekly Journal, Feb. 1820. The article is reprinted in Miscellaneous Prose Works, Edition of 1841, vol. ii, p. 184.

Chap IV

KING'S OR *GEORGIAN

indicated priority of working off. But I do not find in BooK 11. the King's Recuyell-which now lies before me-the T peculiarity spoken of in the poet's story. Such a fault does exist in the Roxburghe copy, which now belongs to LIBRARY the Duke of DEVONSHIRE. Other and authenticated anecdotes, however, are abundant, which suffice to show the close knowledge of, and the keen interest in, his books, by which GEORGE THE THIRD was characterised. It was a still better trait in him that he found real pleasure in knowing that the treasures and rarities of his Library subserved the inquiries and studies of scholars. Nor did he make narrow limitations. Men like JOHNSON and Bishop HORSLEY profited by the Collection. So, too, did men like GIBBON and PRIESTLEY.

The total number of Caxton prints amassed by GEORGE III was thirty-nine. Of these three are in the Royal Library at Windsor-namely, the Recueil (1476 ?), the Esop (1484), and the Doctrinal (1489).

THIRD'S

AS AN

To a keen enjoyment of the pleasures of collectorship, GEORGE THE the King added, in 1787, a passing taste of those of all- APPEARANCE thorship. As a Collector, the bibliomania did not engross AUTHOR. him. He had a delight in amassing fine plants as well as fine books. The Hortus Kewensis (in both applications of the term) was largely indebted to his liberality of expenditure and to his far-spread research. He sent botanic missionaries to the remotest parts of Asia, as well as to Africa. He took the most cordial interest in those varied voyages of discovery which—as I have observed in a former chaptercast so distinctive a lustre on his reign, and in consequence of which such large additions were made to our natural history collections, public and private. And he did much to promote scientific agriculture, both by precept and by

BOOK II,

Chap. IV.

THE

KING'S OR GEORGIAN' LIBRARY.

example. It was
It was as a practical agriculturist that the
King (under a slight veil of pseudonymity *) made his bow
to the reading public by the publication of seven articles in
Arthur YOUNG's useful and then well-known periodical,
the Annals of Agriculture.

Those articles have a threefold aim. They inculcate the wisdom, for certain soils, of an intermediate system of treatment and of cropping, midway between the old routine and the drill-husbandry, then of recent introduction; they describe several new implements, introduced by DUCKET of Esher and of Petersham; and they advocate an almost entire rejection of fallows. They further describe a method, also introduced by Farmer DUCKET, and then peculiar, of destroying that farmer's pest, couch-grass (triticum repens), by trench-ploughing it deep into the ground, and contain many other practical suggestions, some of which seem to have been empirical, and others so good that they have become trite.

But the best service rendered by GEORGE THE THIRD to the agricultural pursuits, of which he was so fond, was his introduction of the Merino flocks, which became conspicuous ornaments to the great and little parks at Windsor. Part of the success which, for a time, attended the importation of those choice Merino breeds was due to the zealous cooperation of Lord SOMERVILLE and of Sir Joseph BANKS [see the next chapter], but the King himself took a real initiative in the matter; acquired real knowledge about it; and deserved, by his personal efforts, the cognomen given him (by some of those worthy farmers who used to attend the annual sales at Windsor) of the Royal Shepherd.'

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* Ralph Robinson' is the name signed to the communications to the Annals of Agriculture, but they are dated from Windsor. (See Annals, vol. vii, 1787.)

Chap. IV

'GEORGIAN'

The recreative pursuits, alike of the book-collector and BOOK II, of the agriculturist, as well as the labours of the consci- THE entious monarch, were at length to be arrested by that KING'S OR great calamity which, after clouding over some months of LIBRARY. the years of vigour, was destined to veil in thick gloom all ILLNESS OF the years of decline—the years when great public triumphs 1810. and crushing family afflictions passed equally unnoted by the recluse of Windsor.

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GEORGE III;

DEATH.

January.

When GEORGE THE THIRD died at Windsor Castle, on AND HIS the 29th of January, 1820, the public mourning was sincere. During its ten years of rule, the Regency had done 1820. very much to heighten and intensify regret for the calamity of 1810. The errors of the old monarch came, naturally, to be dwarfed to the view, when his private virtues acquired all the sharp saliency of contrast.

Since his death, political writers have usually been somewhat harsh to his memory. But the verdict of history has not yet been given in. When the time for its delivery shall at length come, there will be a long roll of good deeds to set off against many mistakes in policy. Nor will the genuine piety, and the earnest conscientiousness of the individual man-up to the measure of the light vouchsafed

BOOK II,

Chap. IV,
THE

KING'S OR
'GEORGIAN'
LIBRARY.

STATE OF
THE KING'S
LIBRARY IN
JANUARY,
1820.

to him-be forgotten in the preliminary summing up. What GEORGE THE THIRD did for Britain simply in conferring upon it the social blessings of a pure Court, and of a bright personal example, is best to be estimated by contemplating what, in that respect, existed before it, and also what came immediately after it. Comparisons of such a sort will serve, eventually, to better purpose than that of feathering the witty shafts of reckless satirists, whether in prose or in verse. Meanwhile, it is enough to say that no honester, no more God-fearing man, than was GEORGE THE THIRD, ever sat upon the throne of England.

During all the time of his long illness, the King's Library had continued, more or less, to grow. When he died, it contained sixty-five thousand two hundred and fifty volumes, besides more than nineteen thousand unbound tracts. These have since been bound severally. The total number of volumes, therefore, which the Collection comprised was about eighty-four thousand. At the time of the King's decease, the annual cost of books in progress, and of periodical works, somewhat exceeded one thousand pounds. The annual salaries of the staff-four officers and two servants-amounted to eleven hundred and seventy-one pounds. The Library occupied a fine and extensive suite of rooms in Buckingham Palace. One of them was large enough to make a noble billiard-room.

The Royal Library, therefore, embarrassed King George THE FOURTH in two ways. It cost two thousand two hundred pounds a year, even without making any new additions to its contents. It occupied much space in the royal residence which could be devoted to more agreeable purposes. Then came the welcome thought that, instead of being a charge, it might be made a source of income. The

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