The Althorp heirlooms, now removed to Manchester, have been familiarised by the catalogues of them printed by Dibdin; but there are hundreds of precious volumes which he has overlooked, and of which some account is given in the present writer's _Collections_ from the books themselves. An idea of the Dysart and Britwell libraries is to be gathered from Blades's _Caxton_, Dibdin's _Ames_, and Hazlitt's _Collections_. Of the possessions in this way of the Marquises of Bath and Bute we gain only casual glimpses from the same sources. Payne Collier and Hazlitt have made the Bridgewater House library fairly well known. The Huth one is elsewhere referred to, and of Lord Acton's a sale catalogue of a portion was prepared some years since, as well as a bibliographical account; but the former was suppressed, and the latter remains incomplete and in MS.
Of Lord Aldenham's collection (Early English Literature, Bibles, Classics, MSS., &c.) there is a privately printed catalogue, 1888, and there is also one of the late Mr. Locker-Lampson's literary treasures.
Classification of collections--Origin of the taste for books--Schedule of topics or branches of inquiry--Each separately considered and the authorities cited--Ancient typography--British history and topography--Liturgies--Books of Hours--The _Imitatio Christi_--_Pilgrim's Progress_--Books of Emblems--Books of Characters--Books printed before the Great Fire, at Oxford, during the Civil War and Interregnum, &c.--Monastic and patristic writers--English devotional and other books printed abroad--Froschover's Zürich Bible of 1550--Other Bibles--The French Bible of 1523-28--Minor specialisms.
AS books, in a manuscript or printed shape, are far more numerous and varied than any other species of property, and are also more largely sought for purposes of direct study and instruction, there exists the greater difficulty in attempting to advise collectors as to the line which it is best, wisest, or safest to embrace.
The class of persons who engage in this attractive pursuit are:--
(i) Pure amateurs, without any eye to the financial question. (ii) Specialists of more than a single kind. (iii) Students. (iv) Speculators. (v) Miscellaneous or casual buyers.