Chap. IV. KING'S OR LIBRARY. he gave advice-JOHNSON'S counsel bore excellent fruit. Book II, The body of geography' contained in the Georgian Library has never, I think, been surpassed in any one Collection GEORGIAN (made by a single Collector) in the world. It laid, substantially, the foundation of the noble assemblage of charts and maps which now forms a separate Department of the Museum, under the able superintendence of Mr. Richard Henry MAJOR, who has done much for the advancement of geographical knowledge in many paths, but in none more efficiently than in his Museum labours. Like good counsel was given to BARNARD by the great lexicographer, in relation to the gathering of illustrated books. He told the King's Librarian that he ought to seek diligently for old books adorned with woodcuts, because the designs were often those of great masters. When to this remark the Doctor added the words: Those old prints are such as cannot be made by any artist now living,' he asserted what was undoubtedly true, if he limited that high praise to the best class of the works of which he was speaking. But his words carry in them also an indirect testimony of honour to GEORGE THE THIRD. If, in the century which has passed since Samuel JOHNSON discussed with Frederick BARNARD the wisest means of forming a Royal Library, a great stride has been made by the arts of design in Britain, a share of the merit belongs to the patriotic old King. He was amongst the earliest in his dominions to encourage British art with an open hand. He was not only the founder of the Royal Academy, but a most liberal patron to artists; and he did not limit his patronage to those men alone who belonged to his own. Academy. If for a series of years the Royal Academy did less for Art, and did its work in a more narrow spirit of coterie than it ought to have done, the fault was not in the JOHNSON'S REMARK ON MODERN IL LUSTRATED Воок 11, THE KING'S OR Bibliotheca Askeriana (1775). Literary Anecdotes of Eighteenth Century, vol. iv, p. 513 (183-). founder. And, of late years, the Academy itself has, in many ways, nobly vindicated its foundation and the aid it has received from the Public. Towards the foundation of the Academy, GEORGE THE THIRD gave, from his privy purse, more than five thousand pounds. To many of its members he was a genial friend, as well as a liberal patron. Many other institutions of public education shared his liberality. Some generous benefactions which he gave to the British Museum itself, in the earlier years of his reign, have been mentioned already. But there were a crowd of other gifts, both in the earlier and in the later years, of which the limits of this volume at present forbid me to make detailed mention. The Continental tour of Mr. BARNARD was very successful as to its main object. He obtained such rich accessions for the Library as raised it-especially in the various departments of Continental history and literature - much above all other Libraries in Britain. Within a few years of his return to England the very choice Collection which had been formed by Dr. Anthony ASKEW came into the market. For this Library, in bulk, the King offered ASKEW's representatives five thousand pounds. They thought they could make more of the Collection by an auction, but, in the event, obtained less than four thousand pounds. The Askew Library extended only to three thousand five hundred and seventy separate printed works, but it contained a large proportion of rare and choice books. The chief buyers at the sale were the Duke of LA VALLIERE and (through the agency of DE BURE) LEWIS THE SIXTEENTH. The King of England bought comparatively little, although on this occasion Mr. BARNARD could scarcely have withholden his hand on the Chap. IV. score of the special injunctions which the King had formerly BOOK II, laid down for his guidance in such public competitions. THE LIBRARY. For it deserves to be remembered that GEORGE THE 'GEORGIAN' THIRD'S conscientious thoughtfulness for other people led him, early in his career as a Collector, to give to his librarian a general instruction such as the servants of wealthy Collectors rarely receive. I do not wish you,' he said, 'to bid either against a literary man who wants books for study, or against a known Collector of small means.' He was very free to bid, on the other hand, against a Duke of ROXBURGHE or an Earl SPENCER. The King's kindness of nature was also shown in the free access which he at all times afforded to scholars and students in his own Library. To this circumstance we owe some of the most interesting notices we have of his opinions of authors and of books. In the earliest years of the Royal Collectorship part of the Library was kept in the old palace at Kew, which has long since disappeared, the site of it being now a gorgeous flower-bed. Afterwards, and on the acquisition for the Queen, of Buckingham House,* the chief part of the Collection was removed to Pimlico, and arranged in the handsome rooms of which a view appears, by way of vignette, on the title-pages of the sumptuously printed catalogue prepared by BARNARD. It was at Buckingham House that JOHNSON'S well-known conversation with the King took place, in February, 1767. When JOHNSON first began to use the Royal Collection it The mansion for which the Trustees of the British Museum had been asked to give £30,000 was sold, five years afterwards, to the King for £20,000. It was purchased for the Queen as a jointure-house in lieu of her proper mansion, Somerset House, then devoted to public purposes. All the royal princes and princesses were born in Buckingham House, except George IV, and one, perhaps, of the younger children. THE OLD oF THE LOCALITIES OF GEORGIAN LIBRARY. BOOK II, KING'S OR THE INTER VIEW AT HAM HOUSE BETWEEN AND DR. JOHNSON. ary. was still in its infancy. He was surprised both at its The King's first questions were about the doings at Oxford, whence, he had been told, Johnson had recently returned. The Doctor expressed his inability to bestow GEORGE III much commendation on the diligence then exhibited by the resident scholars of the University in the way of any con1767, Febru- spicuous additions to literature. Presently, the King put to him the question, And what are you about yourself? 'I think,' was the answer-given in a tone more modest than the strict sense of the words may import-'that I have already done my part as a writer.' To which the King rejoined, I should think so too, had you not written so well.' After this happy retort, the King turned the conversation on some recent theological controversies. About that between WARBURTON and LowTH he made another neat though obvious remark-'When it comes to calling names, argument, truly, is pretty well at an end.' They then passed in review many of the periodical publications of the day, in the course of which His Majesty displayed considerable knowledge of the chief books of that class, both English and French. He showed his characteristic and kingly attention to minutiæ by an observation which he made when JOHNSON had praised an improved arrangeBoswell, pp. ment of the contents of the Philosophical Transactions— Croker's 184-186. oblivious, at the moment, that he had himself suggested the BOOK II, change. They have to thank Dr. JOHNSON for that,' said THE the King. Chap. IV. Another remark made by GEORGE THE THIRD during this LIBRARY. conversation deserves to be remembered. 'I wish,' said he, 'that we could have a really well-executed body of British Biography.' This was a desideratum in the seventh year of the old King, and it is a desideratum still in the thirtyfourth year of his granddaughter. The reign of Queen VICTORIA was comparatively young when the late Mr. MURRAY first announced, not without some flourish of trumpets, a forthcoming attempt at such a labour, but the little that was said as to the precise plan and scope of the work then contemplated, gave small promise of an adequate performance; and hitherto there has been no performance at all. THE KING'S CONVERSA TION WITH DR. Six years after the interview with JOHNSON, another literary conversation, of which we have a record, was held in the Royal Library. But on this occasion the scene was BEATTLE; Kew. Dr. BEATTIE'S fame is now a thing of the past. There is still, however, some living interest in the account of the talk between the author of The Minstrel and his 1773. sovereign, held in 1773, about liturgies, about prayers occasional and prayers ex tempore, and about the methods of of Beattie, education adopted in the Scottish universities. -- August. Forbes, Life vol. i, pp. 347354. MISS The King's least favourable-but not least characteristic -appearance, as a talker on literary subjects, is made in that conversation with Miss BURNEY, in which he uttered AND WITH his often-quoted remark on SHAKESPEARE :-' Was there BURNEY. ever such stuff as great part of Shakespeare-only one must not say so?' The sense of the humorous seems in 1785. GEORGE III to have been wholly lacking. And some part of the sadness of his life has probably a vital connexion with that deficiency. December. |