Note 434 — The Alcove.

Lysander would not have run on in this declamatory strain, if it had been his good fortune, as it has been mine, to witness the extraordinary copy of an illustrated Shakspeare in the possession of Earl Spencer; which owes its magic to the perseverance and taste of the Dowager Lady Lucan, mother to the present Countess Spencer. For sixteen years did this accomplished Lady pursue the pleasurable toil of illustration; having commenced it in her 50th, and finished it in her 66th year. Whatever of taste, beauty, and judgment in decoration—by means of portraits, landscapes, houses, and tombs—flowers, birds, insects, heraldic ornaments, and devices,—could dress our immortal bard in a yet more fascinating form, has been accomplished by the noble hand which undertook so Herculean a task—and with a truth, delicacy, and finish of execution, which have been rarely equalled! These magnificent volumes (being the folio edition printed by Bulmer) are at once beautiful and secured by green velvet binding, with embossed clasps and corners of solid silver, washed with gold. Each volume is preserved in a silken cover—and the whole is kept inviolate from the impurities of bibliomaniacal miasmata, in a sarcophagus-shaped piece of furniture of cedar and mahogany. What is the pleasure experienced by the most resolute antiquary, when he has obtained a peep at the inmost sarcophagus of the largest pyramid of Egypt, compared with that which a tasteful bibliomaniac enjoys upon contemplating this illustrated Shakespeare, now reposing in all the classical magnificence and congenial retirement of its possessor?—But why do I surpass Lysander in the warmth and vehemence of narration! And yet, let me not forget that the same noble owner has another illustrated copy of the same bard, on a smaller scale, of which mention has already been made in my account of the donor of it, the late George Steevens. Turn, gentle reader, for one moment, to page 428, ante. The illustrated Clarendon, above hinted at by Lysander, is in the possession of Mr. H.A. Sutherland; and is, perhaps, a matchless copy of the author: every siege, battle, town, and house-view—as well as portrait—being introduced within the leaves. I will not even hazard a conjecture for how many thousand pounds its owner might dispose of it, if the inclination of parting with it should ever possess him. The British Museum has recently been enriched with a similar copy of Pennant's London, on large paper. Prints and drawings of all descriptions, which could throw light upon the antiquities of our metropolis, are inserted in this extraordinary copy, which belonged to the late Mr. Crowles; who expended 2000l. upon the same, and who bequeathed it, in the true spirit of virtû, to the Museum. Let Cracherode and Crowles be held in respectful remembrance!