himself, carried the Poe manuscript along with him, folded up in one of the books of his library. Determining to return to Pennsylvania, he made sale of his personal effects, and among a lot of old books offered was found the Poe manuscript. It was at once recognized, rescued from the rubbish among which it had so nearly been lost, and forwarded to Mr. Johnston the son, who in the mean time (1847) had removed to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and begun business as a daguerrotypist. Twice his daguerrean rooms took fire, and once (March 8, 1850) almost all his books, papers, pictures, and apparatus were consumed; but the Poe manuscript, folded within the leaves of an old music-book, escaped the wreck.

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"About the year 1857," he goes on to say, in his letter to me, a grocery-store, occupying the first floor of the building in which were my rooms, took fire and burned furiously. The flames did not reach my rooms, but the smoke did, and the firemen drenched them with water, destroying books, papers, and other property; but, by rare good fortune, the Poe manuscript again escaped all injury, except a slight discoloration. From 1861 to 1864 I was in the army, but on my return therefrom I found the Poe manuscript in the old music-book where I had left it on leaving home. In the spring of 1865 I took charge of the Swan Hotel, Lancaster. Removing therefrom in 1869, a great deal of rubbish was consigned to the ash-pile, the old music-book sharing the fate of many worthless articles. The next-door neighbor, thinking it had been inadvertently thrown away, picked it from the ash-pile and handed it to me. On opening the book, I again beheld the muchneglected manuscript. Resolved that it should not again be subjected to so many risks, I at once had it bound."

I have a very interesting letter written under date of August 13, 1841, by Poe to the Philadelphia publishers Lea & Blanchard. “I wish," he says, "to publish a new collection of my prose tales, with some such title as this: The Prose Tales of Edgar A. Poe, including "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," the "Descent into the Maelström, and all his later pieces, with a second edition of the " Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque."

"The later pieces will be eight in number, making the entire collection thirty-three, which would occupy two thick novel volumes.

"I am anxious that your firm should continue to be my publishers, and, if you would be willing to bring out the book, I should be glad to accept the terms which you allowed me before, that is, you receive all profits, and allow me twenty copies for distribution to friends."

I possess an interesting relic of Lord Byron,-his writing-desk, on which he wrote "Don Juan" and other poems. It bears his crest and monogram. Byron's works are represented in my library_by Murray's sumptuous six-volume edition (1855), inscribed to me "In testimony of kind remembrance, from John Murray." The first volume contains portions of the manuscript of "The Bride of Abydos." It also gives a curious illustration of Byron's dislike of Wordsworth. When "Peter Bell" appeared, Byron cut it out, placed it in the beginning of a copy of his own works, and on the margin of the page wrote a parody of the poem. It will be remembered that "Peter Bell" ran in this

way:

PROLOGUE.

There's something in a flying horse,
And something in a huge balloon;
But through the clouds I'll never float
Until I get a little Boat

Whose shape is like the crescent moon.
And now I have a little Boat,

In shape a very crescent moon :-etc.

Byron's parody is as follows:

EPILOGUE.

There's something in a stupid ass,
And something in a heavy dunce;
But never since I went to school
I heard or saw so damned a fool
As William Wordsworth is for once.
And now I've seen so great a fool

As William Wordsworth is for once,
I really wish that Peter Bell,
And he who wrote it, were in hell,

For writing nonsense for the nonce.

"I saw the light in ninety-eight,"

Sweet Babe of one-and-twenty years!

And then he gives it to the nation,

And deems himself of Shakespeare's peers.

He gives the perfect work to light!

Will Wordsworth, if I might advise,
Content you with the praise you get
From Sir George Beaumont, Baronet,
And with your place in the Excise.
RAVENNA, March 22, 1820.

Here is the original manuscript of William Godwin's "Cloudesley : a Novel." It is written on both sides of the sheets of old parchment paper, but in a strikingly clear and smooth hand. Shakespearian scholars, I suppose, would be particularly interested in my copy of Mrs. Mary Cowden Clarke's "Complete Concordance to Shakespeare." It contains a selection of fifty closely-written pages of the original manuscript, together with a long and exceedingly interesting autograph letter, which gives a detailed account of the progress of the work from its inception, through the twelve years occupied in its compilation, and four more of press-corrections, to its final publication; also copies of a congratulatory letter from Douglas Jerrold, the author's application for the privilege of dedicating the work to the queen, and the queen's reply, besides several portraits, a large number of newspaper cuttings, etc. In a letter to me, written from Villa Novello, Genoa, February 8, 1879, Mrs. Clarke says, "The notice in your paper was read through tears of proud emotion at the way in which your reviewer recognized the admirable characters of my Parents: It was enjoyed in concert by our family party, then assembled around our breakfast-table here; which included my brother Alfred, my sister Sabilla, and our two charming Italian nieces, Portia and Valeria Gigliucci-to whom I read aloud, as well as my streaming eyes would allow me, this American

warmth of tribute to Vincent and Mary Novello's moral and intellectual excellence."

From the late Anna Maria Hall and her husband, S. C. Hall, I procured a valuable collection of letters, manuscripts, and sketches from many celebrated people of the past fifty years. Mrs. Hall presented me with the Bible of Tom Moore, in which the poet entered the names and birth- and death-dates of his children. I have also an original score signed by Tom Moore, and the poet's famous Irish harp.

I have perhaps the only complete manuscript of any of Thackeray's works in existence. It is his "Lectures on the Four Georges," and is entirely in his own handwriting. The volume is illustrated by numerous original drawings by Thackeray, some of which are colored by himself. I have also the original manuscript of Walter Scott's "Chronicles of Canongate," which he presented from his Abbotsford library to his publishers, with a kind and appreciative note.

Among many other original manuscripts in my possession are "The Need of Two Loves," by N. P. Willis; James Fenimore Cooper's "Life of Captain Richard Somers;" Mary Howitt's translation of Frederika Bremer's "Hertha;" Bulwer's "Pilgrims of the Rhine" and "Godolphin ;" Gray's "Habitations of our Kings;" Harriet Martineau's "Retrospect of Western Travel;" the Dickens manuscripts to which I have previously alluded; and "The Italian Bride," an original tragedy by John Howard Payne, author of "Home, Sweet Home." This tragedy by Payne is in four acts, and was written for Charlotte Cushman; but it was never produced, and it has never been printed. Payne left two manuscript copies of his play. One was given to his friend Mr. James Rees, a well-known literary man of Philadelphia, from whom it passed directly to me. It consists of ninetysix pages entirely in the handwriting of Payne himself, with only a few pencil-marks and some stage-directions on the alternate blank pages.

The manuscript of "The Cow-Chase" must not be overlooked. This satirical poem, written by Major André, was founded upon an unsuccessful attempt of a party under General Anthony Wayne to capture a blockhouse upon the Hudson a short distance from New York City, on the 21st of July, 1780. It is said to have been the last literary effort of the ill-fated young Englishman, and, singularly enough, the last canto was published in New York, in Rivington's Royal Gazette, on the same day upon which he was arrested. The poem was afterwards printed, with full notes, for private circulation, and this with the original manuscript was the property of the Rev. Wm. B. Sprague, of Albany, New York, an extensive collector of autographs, who prized it as probably the most valuable article in his collection. The manuscript has been admirably illustrated by Mr. Ferdinand J. Dreer, of Philadelphia, with portraits of the generals of the Revolution, both Continental and English, wellknown and historical landscapes, characters, and buildings. The closing stanza of André's epic, which is complete in three cantos, runs as follows:

And now I've closed my epic strain,

I tremble as I show it,

Lest this same warrior-drover Wayne
Should ever catch the poet.

Soon afterwards André was caught, and some unkind hand thus continues the poem :

And when the epic strain was sung,

The poet by the neck was hung,
And to his cost he finds too late

The "dung-born tribe" decides his fate.

It would not be interesting merely to catalogue my collection, which includes poems, letters, and manuscripts of Burns, Swift, Longfellow, Bryant, Holmes, Tennyson, Pepys, Pope, Thomson, Shelley, Keats, William Penn, Voltaire, Goethe, Irving, Lamb, Gibbon, Hume, Lord Clarendon, and others. Coleridge is represented by a long letter, in which he states that he would be glad to go to London if he could be assured of a guinea a week. Here is a noteworthy manuscript of Schiller, his dramatic poem entitled "Demetrius." It occupies two folio pages, and was secured for me through the kindness of Longfellow. There is also the original manuscript draught of Tennyson's dedicatory poem to the queen, which is prefixed to the last collected edition of his poems.

I will do no more than enumerate a letter of Lord Nelson, written four days before his death; a number of presentation-volumes from the brothers Chambers, Robert, William, and David; many curiously illustrated, inlaid, and arranged works, especially Ticknor's Life of Prescott, two volumes quarto, with several hundred illustrations; Life of Everett, quarto; Rogers's Italy and Poems, inlaid with three hundred engravings, all first impressions; a work on the empire of Brazil, presented by Dom Pedro in 1876, and containing his autograph; a copy of Chambers's "English Literature," which has autograph letters, about seven hundred extra plates, and numerous newspaper cuttings and references, the work being extended to eight volumes; many books upon the North American Indians; quite a large collection of Americana; Lamb's Works, with autograph letters of Lamb; Talfourd's Life of Lamb, with a manuscript poem by Talfourd, and a letter written to myself; Shakespeare's Works in many editions; a Collection of the Illustrations of H. K. Browne, better known as "Phiz," which contains all the sketches, several hundred in number, that can be obtained, and is enriched by memoranda and notes in the artist's own hand; and three large volumes of photographs, many bearing also the autographs, of interesting and well-known people I have met at home and

abroad.

One of the most unique works in my library is "A Collection of Autographs, made by a Scrivener." Mr. W. G. Latham, a lawyer of New Orleans, compiled the book. As a notary public he had access to many original documents, and he presently began to make accurate copies of the notable signatures which came under his notice. He thus employed the leisure hours of twenty-five years, and made at least one trip to Europe to complete his remarkable collection. If lost it could never be replaced. There are about four thousand names in the book, and they embrace distinguished Americans of all professions from the beginning of our history; British authors from before Shakespeare until within a few years; men of renown in authorship, medicine,

theology, natural history, botany, music, the drama, and the fine arts; a complete list of the signers of the Declaration of Independence; Washington and his generals; Napoleon and leading men of his time and nation; and the royalty, nobility, and military and naval celebrities of Europe for the past three centuries. Appended to almost every signature is a brief biographical sketch.

I have reserved for final mention a volume in my library that no doubt exceeds all others in historical interest. It is a large folio containing portraits and autograph letters of every President of the United States from Washington to Harrison. Eight of the letters are personal ones from the various Presidents to myself.

The first letter is one of the most interesting. It was written by Washington to Colonel Clement Biddle, of Philadelphia, under date of Mount Vernon, December 8, 1799,-that is to say, only six days before Washington's death. It was the last letter he wrote. There is not the slightest indication of approaching dissolution in the firm handwriting; the letters are carefully formed, the words carefully chosen ; and, though he spells cabin with two b's, his shrewdness in business dealing is illustrated in the stately announcement to Colonel Biddle that he has it in mind to send him "a hundred or two barrels of flour to dispose of for me in the Philadelphia market, as it commands a better price there than in Alexandria, and some barrels of fish also,-on commission." He also instructs his correspondent about the purchase of various kinds of seeds.

John Adams's letter is addressed to Commodore Bainbridge, and declines an invitation to visit the latter, on the ground that "an octogenarian gentleman and a septuagenarian lady (his wife) cannot be too cautious of engaging in bold, daring, and hazardous enterprises without an object of public good." The letters are all of a private and entertaining character: Pierce's letter is the touching one to James T. Fields to which I have already referred in connection with the death of Hawthorne; the Lincoln letter is the famous one of April 9, 1862, containing instructions to General McClellan and concluding with the underscored words, "But you must act ;" and General Grant is represented by the noted letter he wrote me, June 6, 1877, from London. This is the letter, fourteen pages in length, which I telegraphed to the London Times. It contains the lines, "It has always been my desire to see all jealousy between England and the United States abated, and all sores healed up. Together they are more powerful for the spread of commerce and civilization than all others combined, and can do more to remove cause of wars, by creating mutual interests that would be so much disturbed by war, than all other nations."

Autograph letters of Andrew Johnson are very hard to obtain,— harder than the letters of any other President. Letters written by his secretary and merely signed by himself are common enough. I have been enabled, however, to secure quite a store of Johnson's original manuscripts, including the account-book he kept while a tailor. This is full of droll expressions. The letter I have selected to represent him in the volume of the Presidents is an interesting communication to his friend Major (afterwards General) Sam Milligan. It is ill writ

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