Note 367 — The Drawing Room. (continued 2)

The reader will find an animated eulogy on this great nobleman in Walpole's Anecdotes of Painters, vol. iv., 227; part of which was transcribed by Joseph Warton for his variorum edition of Pope's works, and thence copied into the recent edition of the same by the Rev. W.L. Bowles. But Pembroke deserved a more particular notice. Exclusively of his fine statues and architectural decorations, the Earl contrived to procure a great number of curious and rare books; and the testimonies of Maittaire (who speaks indeed of him with a sort of rapture!) and Palmer show that the productions of Jenson and Caxton were no strangers to his library. Annales Typographici, vol. i., 13. edit. 1719. History of Printing, p. 5. "There is nothing that so surely proves the pre-eminence of virtue more than the universal admiration of mankind, and the respect paid it by persons in opposite interests; and, more than this, it is a sparkling gem which even time does not destroy: it is hung up in the Temple of Fame, and respected for ever." Continuation of Granger, vol. i., 37, &c. "He raised (continues Mr. Noble) a collection of antiques that were unrivalled by any subject. His learning made him a fit companion for the literati. Wilton will ever be a monument of his extensive knowledge; and the princely presents it contains, of the high estimation in which he was held by foreign potentates, as well as by the many monarchs he saw and served at home. He lived rather as a primitive christian; in his behaviour, meek; in his dress, plain: rather retired, conversing but little." Burnet, in the History of his own Times, has spoken of the Earl with spirit and propriety. Thus far the first edition of the Bibliomania. From an original MS. letter of Anstis to Ames (in the possession of Mr. John Nichols) I insert the following memoranda, concerning the book celebrity of Lord Pembroke. "I had the book of Juliana Barnes (says Anstis) printed at St. Albans, 1486, about hunting, which was afterwards reprinted by W. de Worde at Westminster, 1496—but the Earl of Pembroke would not rest till he got it from me." From a letter to Lewis (the biographer of Caxton) by the same person, dated Oct. 11, 1737, Anstis says that "the Earl of Pembroke would not suffer him to rest till he had presented it to him." He says also that "he had a later edition of the same, printed in 1496, on parchment, by W. de Worde, which he had given away: but he could send to the person who had it." From another letter, dated May 8, 1740, this "person" turns out to be the famous John Murray; to whom we are shortly to be introduced. The copy, however, is said to be "imperfect; but the St. Albans book, a fair folio." In this letter, Lord Pembroke's library is said to hold "the greatest collection of the first books printed in England." Perhaps the reader will not be displeased to be informed that in the Antiquities of Glastonbury, published by Hearne, 1722, p. lviii, there is a medal, with the reverse, of one of the Earl's ancestors in Queen Elizabeth's time, which had escaped Evelyn. It was lent to Hearne by Sir Philip Sydenham, who was at the expense of having the plate engraved.