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This gift of books was the greatest benefaction the library of Cambridge ever received, and it consisted of 28,965 volumes of printed books and 1790 manuscripts. This liberal gift cost the royal treasury the pretty sum of £6000, the price paid to the heirs of John Moore, D.D., Lord Bishop of Ely, to whom the library had belonged. This munificent act was suggested to the king by his Secretary of State, Townshend, in acknowledgment of the loyalty of the university which, through its senate, had voted an address in which expressions of its attachment to the person and government of the king were introduced. Beyond question this trifling act pleased the monarch, who knew of the Jacobite tendency manifested at Oxford. Some nineteen years after the books were received, they were given suitable housing in rooms especially prepared for them. The fact which makes this bit of history worthy of mention in the present connection is that, at this time, the celebrated engraver, John Pine, made a book-plate for these books which was intended to commemorate the gracious generosity of the royal giver. This plate is very handsome in appearance and bold in execution. There were four sizes engraved to fit the folios, quartos, octavos, and books of lesser size. In all 28,200 copies were printed, as appears from the receipted bill dated July 8, 1737. The three larger plates are alike in design, and may be described as follows: upon an architectural base upon the front of which is a medallion of King George, rises a pyramid, whose fore-front is nearly concealed by a large oval shield which gives the arms of the university; upon the right sits Minerva, and upon the left stands Apollo. Piles of books lie about, and the ornamental touches of the period are used to good advantage. There is extant a letter from Pine in which he discusses some proposed alterations in the plate, and offers to make the profile of the king " more like." In the smaller-sized plate many of the features of these larger ones are omitted, notably the figures of Apollo and Minerva, the sun, clouds, and pyramid. Lady Betty Germain, friend of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, used a dainty book-plate made after the death of her husband in 1718. The Germain arms appear in the proper lozenge impaling those of Berkeley, and surrounding the shield is the widow's knot, the whole upon a hatched background whose blackness throws the graceful design into effective prominence. One of the very early families of England went by the musty name of Fust, and various of its members have crept into history at one time or another, having been in the train of some valiant prince, expatiated some horrible crime at the stake, or attained to rank and fortune. There is a book-plate used by a certain member of this family going by the name of Sir Francis Fust of Hill Court in the County of Gloucester, Baronet, which is of note on account of the immense number of armorial bearings it shows. No less than forty coats are blazoned upon this plate. There is one large shield which is divided down the centre, and upon the dexter side are shown the marriages in the male line and on the sinister the marriages in the female line. So says the inscription itself. The date of this remarkable plate is about 1730. A very interesting plate, both on account of its appearance and the memories it stirs, is that of the Rt. Honble. Henrietta Louisa Jeffreys Countess of Pomfret, Lady of the Bed-chamber to Queen Caroline. This is the inscription as it reads upon the largest and most interesting of her three notable plates. This lady was the granddaughter and heiress of that "monster in ermine," Lord George Jeffreys, Baron of Wem, the infamous minion of James II. As this large and rare plate falls under the eye of the collector, he cannot but remember the atrocious deeds committed by Jeffreys, his inhumanity and his terrible cruelty in the high position in which he was allowed to display these traits of his character. His son succeeded to the title of Baron Wem and was the last to hold it, a title bestowed by a despicable specimen of royalty for a despicable ingenuity in the trials of the adherents of Mon-mouth. His daughter married Thomas, first Earl of Pomfret, and was made Lady of the Bedchamber, as the plate indicates. This office she was released from upon the death of the Queen in 1737, and the plate was probably made within three or four years of that date. The motto on the bookplate is in Welsh and reads, Pob dawne O dduw. The armorial bearings shown are Fermor and Jeffreys with supporters and coronet: at either side the Fermor and Jeffreys crests are seen, and a distant view of the open field appears at one end. This plate, which is signed S. W., is of a very unusual shape, being long and narrow and quite large, not at all of the dimension or form one would pick out for the use of a lady. There is a very bold bit of engraving which seems to represent huge tomes lying upon a table near the grating of an unglassed window, which was used by the Earl of Aylesford as a book-plate. The plate has this peculiarity that while very strong and massive in appearance, the exact meaning of the design cannot be understood. Another interesting point which this plate presents for solution relates to the person who engraved it. The work very strongly suggests the touch of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, and if one did not know that the Earl had been a student of the art of engraving under this very master and prided himself in no small measure upon the ability he possessed, it would be at once assigned to the graver of Piranesi. But as the Earl may very possibly have executed the plate himself, the question is one not to be decided until further proof is adduced for one side or the other. William Wilberforce, the abolitionist, used a bookplate of no very handsome design and which is thought to have been drawn originally for his grandfather, of the same name. However, as it was used by the great philanthropist and statesman, it may well be included here as having much interest attaching to it; for the bravery and eloquence of his speeches and the finally triumphant persistence with which he urged his abolition measures before the House of Commons made him of world-wide reputation. The plate shows the arms without motto enclosed in a neat frame in the rococo style. There are three varieties of this plate, which are so nearly alike as to make it quite likely that their differences will be overlooked without close examination. It is conjectured that the plate was used first by the original William Wilberforce, then by his son of the same name, an uncle of the following, and finally by the owner who achieved greatest distinction. Thomas Bewick engraved many book-plates, and his style is so well known as to require no description. The charming little bits of landscape and water-side are found in profusion throughout the books he illustrated, as well as on many book-plates. Among these dainty bits there is one which bears under the picture the name "Joseph Pollard. This plate is illustrated here with a print from the very copper upon which Bewick traced the design. This represents a view of Newcastle, to which town Bewick belonged, and whose natural beauties and the ruins in the neighborhood of which, furnished the great engraver with not a few motives and ideas. This print shows the sky line of the town from up the Tyne, with the towers of St. Nicholas and the Old Castle showing faintly. It is of interest to record that this plate was in all likelihood a gift from Bewick to his friend Pollard, between whom there were strong bonds of affection. The Pollard family is perhaps even older to Newcastle and the Tyneside than the Bewick, and Mr. Percival Pollard of New York, who furnished these data, tells me that the original owner of the plate was his great-grandfather. Mark Lambert was a pupil, indeed an apprentice, of Bewick's, and many of his book-plates have been erroneously attributed to his master, so closely do they follow the style and manner of the great wood-engraver. Indeed in even so authentic a work as Hugo's Catalogue of Bewick's Works, some few things by Lambert are unconsciously included, and it is curious to learn that the plate of Buddie Atkinson, which was at first accredited to Bewick, and then to Lambert, now turns out to be the design and the engraving of Mr. George F. Robinson, who was with the firm of M. and M. W. Lambert for a long time, and who is now living at Gosforth, not far from Newcastle. The collector who can number a dozen plates by Lambert can feel assured that he has well over half the total number of plates which Lambert ever made. Bartolozzi is known to have engraved a few bookplates, and among the most pleasing of them is the one for Lady Bessborough. In this the interior of what seems a Roman villa is pictured, the female figure seated in the chair in the foreground being probably intended to represent Venus, who holds in one hand a flaming human heart and in the other the dove of purity. Two cupids hover near, bearing in their hands a floating scarf, upon which the name of the owner, H. F. Bessborough, is seen. The workmanship here is of the finest order, the drawing is faultless, the engraving most beautiful. The plate bears the signature of Cipriani as its designer and that of F. Bartolozzi as its engraver, and it is dated 1796. It may be that the distinguished lady who used this beautiful plate in her books also made use of it as a visiting-card, for which purpose it was quite in keeping with the fashions of the day. This is a plate not often met with in the collector's albums, and one that is highly prized by those who have it. To William Blake, student of engraving under Basire, and honored with the friendship and patronage of Flaxman, is attributed a small and most delicately engraved book-plate for one Charles Con-way. This is decidedly monumental in character, with its figures of an old man with a flowing beard, and the students upon either side in affectionate attitude, all resting upon a stone sepulchre of oblong form and simple, design. On the very bottom of the pedestal is carved the motto, Liberty of Opinion. There is a very rare and particularly interesting plate once gracing the books of Robert Dinwiddie, sometime Lieutenant-Governor of the colony of Virginia, which is a very fine bit of engraving and is of especial interest to American collectors on account of his connection with the early history of this country. The Chippendale style in its most ornate period is employed here, and the frame has two cartouches, one holding the arms and the other the name in ornamental script. The arms are peculiar; they represent, in the upper half of the shield, an Indian archer shooting his arrow at a deer, and in the lower, a single-masted, port-holed vessel making for a formidable fort which floats the English flag. The motto is, Ubi libertas ibi patria, and is the one used by the Baillie, Hugar, Beverly, Darch, and Garrett families, as well as the Dinwiddies. It is also the motto which Edmund Ludlow placed over his hut in Switzerland. Ludlow was obliged to flee England at the Restoration, but he was one of the men of whom Macaulay wrote in high terms of praise, calling him, indeed, "the most illustrious survivor of a mighty race of men, the judges of a King, the founders of a republic." The Dinwiddie folk are of ancient Scotch extraction , and on the Ragman's Roll, which Sir Walter Scott describes as the list of barons and men of note who subscribed submission to Edward I. in 1296, when that sovereign invaded Scotland and despoiled it of historical records and of the sacred coronation stone, which last is still preserved in London, appears the name of Alleyn Dinwithie, who is considered to be the progenitor of the family. There were some daring and bloody deeds in the days back of the Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia and his immediate family, when peaceable and prosperous merchants living in Glasgow took no little pride in the records of their ancestors. Robert was born in 1693 at Germiston, a seat his father owned, and was brought up in the counting-room and was in all likelihood a merchant as were his forbears. For some eleven years after 1727 he held the office of Collector of Customs in Bermuda and was given his appointment as Surveyor-General of Customs of the southern ports of the Continent of America in acknowledgment of his ability and zeal. Defalcations were not unknown in those days, and it needed such a man as Robert Dinwiddie to discover the purloiners of the government moneys and to set matters upon a proper basis. After this he seems to have had a residence in London and came out to Virginia in 1751 with his wife and two daughters, Elizabeth and Rebecca. He set sail in the latter part of the month of July and landed just four months afterward to the very day. It was under Dinwiddie's administration that the attempt was made to expel the French from the Ohio and Fort Duquesne, in which campaign George Washington distinguished himself and Braddock fell. It will be remembered that it was Governor Dinwiddie who recognized the worth of Washington and who sent him on the commission to the French settlement upon the Ohio. However, things were not all smooth sailing for Dinwiddie, and when at last he left this country, he was not in the best of favor with the colonists. He had recommended the taxation of the colonies, and was charged with having converted to his own use something like $100,000, which should have been distributed to the Virginians as compensation for their over-contribution to the public service. When he embarked he declared himself " worn out with vexation and age." His book-plate, which was without doubt engraved in England, bears witness to his American residence in unmistakable manner. Perhaps no family has borne a more famous name for so many years in the " north countree" than have the Delavals, and of this interesting family, among whom were numbered a cousin of William the Conqueror, knights who fought for the Holy Sepulchre, a baron who was among those forcing from King John the great foundation of English national liberty, patrons of literature and of art, heroes on the seas and in the battles of the land, statesmen and companions of royalty, hardly any equalled Sir Francis Drake Delaval in natural ability and in those winning graces which make friends and attract wide notice. Sir Francis was a statesman of no mean order, and it is related of him that upon one occasion his claims to election were emphasized by the procuring of a cannon from which five hundred guineas were discharged among the electors of the particular town he wished to carry! This method proved exceedingly satisfactory, as Sir Francis was returned at the head of the poll. Valiant in war, he swam half a mile to be the first to land on French soil when the expedition was sent to make a descent upon St. Cass, and for his bravery he was made by George III. a Knight of the Bath. Among other amusing anecdotes of this brilliant man is that upon one occasion he hired Drury Lane Theatre and gave a performance of Othello, with himself and other members of his family in the principal roles. Even the House of Commons adjourned some two hours earlier than usual to be present, and no less a critic than Garrick praised the acting. When he settled down in 1750 in his beautiful seat in Northumberland with his bride, the relict of Lord Nassau Paulet, his hall and parks are said to have resembled fairy-land, and every sort of gaiety and splendor was indulged while the chanties of the neighborhood suffered no lack. Sir Francis used a book-plate which is now rare, and interesting because of his remarkable history. The plate is of the Chippendale style, showing the arms of Sir Francis and those of his wife in separate shields. In his own shield the arms of Delaval and Blake are quartered, and in his wife's those of Paulet and Thanet are impaled. The plate is very ornate, and under the two shields the mottoes of the families appear, Dieu me conduise, " God guide me," for the Delaval, and Aymez loyaulte, " Love loyalty," for the Paulet. There is a bit of interesting history connected with this motto which adds to the interest of the plate. John Pauletus, the Marquis of Winchester, garrisoned his house during the civil wars in the reign of Charles I. and held it against the Parliamentary forces for nigh two years. In honor of the principles which actuated him in this enterprise the Marquis called his house "Aymez Loy aulte," and he caused these words to be written with a diamond upon every glass window in the house ! Ever since this show of loyalty and pugnacity these words have been used by the descendants of the house as their motto. Sir John Hussey Delaval, Bart., known as Lord Delaval, was the second son of Sir Francis, and was in his way quite as remarkable a man as was his father. An apt business man and a lover of architecture, he did much to beautify the old estates and the ample additions he made to them. By the publication of the Delaval Papers the conspicuous position taken by this gentleman as a patron of the arts is made noticeable, and one reads with interest of his favors to the needy poet of Grub Street, to the penniless opera singer, and the broken-down member of the dramatic profession. Legends of his open-handed generosity and benevolence are still related upon the old northern estates. By the marriage of his favorite daughter to the second Earl of Tyrconnel, the historic Ford Castle and estate, including the field of Flodden, eventually came into the possession of the Beresford family; for the daughter and only child of the Countess of Tyrconnel married the second Marquis of Waterford. Sir John Delaval, after seeing his daughters married to high positions, received a great blow in the death of his only son a few months before coming of age, and by this sad event he was the last of his family to wear the robes of a peer. His book-plate, around which so many interesting memories cluster, is a brilliant specimen of the Jacobean style. Laurence Sterne, to whom the title of Reverend is properly, yet withal it seems improperly prefixed, was in all probability the designer of the book-plate he used in his own collection of books. The centre of the design is filled with a stone slab, upon which the bust of Juvenal, perhaps, is placed. Closed books lie at either side, upon one of which is the title Tristram Shandy, and upon the other Alas, poor Torick ! At the bottom the name Laurence Sterne is written in a flowing hand. Sterne added the talents of an artist and a musician of the ordinary level to his accomplishments as a lover of literature and a writer of books, and this design is not probably beyond his powers or above his imagination. He wrote a letter towards the end of July, 1761, to John Hall Stevenson, the satiric poet who figures in Tristram Shandy as " Eugenius," in which he tells him, " I have bought seven hundred books at a purchase, dog cheap, — and many good, — and I have been a week getting them set up in my best room here." Continued on this page