Note 378 — The Drawing Room. (continued 3)

Bibliothecæ Bridgesianæ Catalogus: or a Catalogue of the Library of John Bridges, Esq., consisting of above 4000 books and manuscripts in all Languages and Faculties; particularly in Classics and History; and especially the History and Antiquities of Great Britain and Ireland, &c., London, 1725, 8vo. Two different catalogues of this valuable collection of books were printed. The one was analysed, or a catalogue raisonné, to which was prefixed a print of a Grecian portico, &c., with ornaments and statues: the other (expressly for the sale) was an indigested and extremely confused one—to which was prefixed a print, designed and engraved by A. Motte, of an oak felled, with a number of men cutting down and carrying away its branches; illustrative of the following Greek Motto inscribed on a scroll above—Δρυὸς πεσοὺσης πᾶς ἀνὴρ ξυλευεταὶ; "An affecting momento (says Mr. Nichols, very justly, in his Anecdotes of Bowyer, p. 557) to the collectors of great libraries, who cannot, or do not, leave them to some public accessible repository." My friend, Dr. Gosset, was once so fortunate as to pick up for me a large paper copy of the analysed catalogue, bound in old blue morocco, and ruled with red lines, for 4s.!—"Happy day!"