Rivington, a Printer, in St. John's-square, died June 28, 1785. Another son, Robert, Captain of the Kent East Indiaman, met with a glorious death, in October 1800, in bravely defending his ship against the attack of a French frigate of far superior force: he was a young man of great merit, and conspicuous talents; and it was his first voyage as Captain.-Henry, the youngest son, a respectable Solicitor, is the present Clerk to the Company of Stationers.

The business of the Father is carried on, with great diligence and augmented reputation, by two of the Sons, and a Grandson, under the firm of Francis, Charles, and John Rivington.

THOMAS OSBORNE, ESQ.

" Of Tom Osborne," says Mr. Dibdin*, “ I have in vain endeavoured to collect some interesting biographical details. What I know of him shall be briefly stated. He was the most celebrated Bookseller of his day; and appears, from a series of his Catalogues in my possession, to have carried on a successful trade from the year 1738 to 1768. What fortune he amassed is not, I believe, very well known: his collections were truly valuable, for they consisted of the purchased libraries of the most eminent men of those times. In his stature he was short and thick; and, to his inferiors, generally spoke in an authoritative and insolent manner. 'It has been confidently related,' says Boswell, that Johnson, one day, knocked Osborne down in his shop, with a folio, and put his foot upon his neck. The simple truth I had from Johnson himself. "Sir, he

*Bibliomania, p. 470.

+ He was many years one of the Court of Assistants of the Stationers Company, and died Aug. 21, 1767.

In the latter part of his life his manners were considerably softened; particularly to the young Booksellers who had occasion to frequent his shop in the pursuit of their orders. If they were so fortunate as to call whilst he was taking wine after his dinner, they were regularly called into the little parlour in Grays Inn to take a glass with him. "Young man," he would say, “I have been in business more than 40 years, and am now worth more than 40,000l. Attend to your business; and you will be as rich as I am." VOL. III.

DD

was

was impertinent to me, and I beat him. But it was not in his shop: it was in my own chamber."

"Of Osborne's philological attainments, the meanest opinion must be formed, if we judge from his advertisements, which were sometimes inserted in the London Gazette, and drawn up in the most ridiculously vain and ostentatious style. He used to tell the publick, that he possessed all the pompous editions of Classicks and Lexicons.' I insert the two following advertisements, prefixed, the one to his Catalogue of 1748, the other to that of 1753, for the amusement of my bibliographical readers, and as a model for Messrs. Payne, White, Miller, Evans, Priestley, Cuthell, &c.

This Catalogue being very large, and of conse quence very expensive to the proprietor, he humbly requests, that, if it falls into the hands of any gentleman gratis, who chooses not himself to be a purchaser of any of the books contained in it, that such gentleman will be pleased to recommend it to any other whom he thinks may be so, or to return it.'

"To his Catalogue of 1753 was the following:

To the Nobility and Gentry who please to favour me with their commands. It is hoped, as I intend to give no offence to any nobleman or gentleman, that do me the honour of being my customer, by putting a price on my Catalogue, by which means they may not receive it as usual-it is desired that such nobleman or gentleman as have not received it, would be pleased to send for it; and it's likewise requested of such gentlemen who do receive it, that, if they chuse not to purchase any of the books themselves, they would recommend it to any bookish gentleman of their acquaintance, or to return it; and the favour shall be acknowledged by, their most obedient and obliged, T. OSBORNE.'

"The Harleian Collection of MSS. was purchased by Government for 10,000l. and is now deposited in the British Museum. The Books were

* Mr. Dibdin here attributes an anecdote to Osborne, in which the former edition of this Work had misled him. It was Charles Alarsh, not Osborne, who made the Rum Bargain. See vol.V. p.171.

disposed of to Thomas Osborne, of Gray's Inn, Bookseller; to the irreparable loss, and I had almost said, the indelible disgrace, of the country. It is, indeed, for ever to be lamented, that a collection, so extensive, so various, so magnificent, and intrinsically valuable, should have become the property of one, who necessarily, from his situation in life, became a purchaser, only that he might be a vender, of the volumes. Osborne gave 13,000l. for the collection; a sum, which must excite the astonishment of the present age, when it is informed that Lord Oxford gave 18,000l. for the Binding only, of the least part of them*. In the year 1743-4 appeared an account of this collection, under the following title, Catalogus Bibliothecæ Harleianæ,' &c. in four volumes (the 5th not properly appertaining to it.) Dr. Johnson was employed by Osborne to write the Preface, which, says Boswell, he has done with an ability that cannot fail to impress all his readers with admiration of his philological attainments.' In my humble apprehension, the Preface is unworthy of the Doctor: it contains a few general philological reflections, expressed in a style sufficiently stately, but is divested of bibliographical anecdote and interesting intelligence. The first two volumes are written in Latin by Johnson; the third and fourth volumes, which are a repetition of the two former, are composed in English by Oldys: and notwithstanding its defects, it is the best Catalogue of a large Library of which we can boast. It should be in every good collection."

"To the volumes was prefixed the following advertisement: As the curiosity of spectators, before the sale, may produce disorder in the disposition of the books, it is necessary to advertise the publick, that there will be no admission into the Library before the day of sale, which will be on Tuesday the 14th of February, 1744.' It seems that Osborne had charged the sum of 5s. to each of his first two volumes, which was represented by the Booksellers * From Oldys's interleaved Langbaine. See Brydges's Censura Literaria, vol. i. p. 438.

' as an avaricious innovation; and, in a paper published in The Champion,' they, or their mercenaries, reasoned so justly as to allege, that, if Osborne could afford a very large price for the library, he might therefore afford to give away the Catalogue,' Preface to vol. iii. p. 1. To this charge Osborne answered, that his Catalogue was drawn up with great pains, and at a heavy expence; but, to obviate all objections," those," says he, "who have paid five shillings a volume, shall be allowed, at any time within three months after the day of sale, either to return them in exchange for books, or to send them back, and receive their money." This, it must be confessed, was sufficiently liberal.

6

"Osborne was also accused of rating his books at too high a price. To this the following was his reply, or rather Dr. Johnson's; for the style of the Doctor is sufficiently manifest: If, therefore, I have set a high value upon books-if I have vainly imagined Literature to be more fashionable than it really is, or idly hoped to revive a taste well nigh extinguished, I know not why I should be persecuted with clamour and invective, since I shall only suffer by my mistake, and be obliged to keep those books which I was in hopes of selling. Preface to the 3d volume. The fact was, that Osborne's charges were extremely moderate; and the sale of the books was so very slow, that Johnson assured Boswell, there was not much gained by the bargain.' Whoever inspects Osborne's Catalogue of 1748 (four years after the Harleian sale) will find in it many of the most valuable of Lord Oxford's books; and among them, a copy of the Aldine Plato of 1513, struck off upon vellum, marked at 217. only: for this identical copy Lord Oxford gave 100 guineas, as Dr. Mead informed Dr. Askew; from the latter of whose collections it was purchased by Dr. Hunter, and is now in the Hunter Museum. There will also be found, in Osborne's Catalogue of 1748 and 1753, some of the scarcest books in English Literature, marked at two, or three, or four shillings, for which three times the number of pounds is now given."

The

The BALLARDS, of Little Britain *,

famed for more than a century as the supporters of literature, were noted for the soundness of their principles in Church and State. The Father of them was celebrated by John Dunton; and of the Son and Grandson there are a few Bibliomaniacs still living who recollect their integrity and civility. School Books and Divinity Catalogues were their par ticular forte. The father, Samuel, who was many years Deputy of the Ward of Aldersgate Within, died Aug. 27, 1761. The only son, Edward, died Jan. 2, 1796, at the age of 88, in the same house in which he was born. He had outlived his mental faculties and for some time used to be moved about in a chair. He was the last of the profession in Little Britain, once the grand emporium of Books,

* The" New View of London, 1708," describing Little Bri tain, observes, "Here now live many eminent Booksellers, and other trades ;" and Mr. Strype, in 1720, says, "This street is well built, and much inhabited by Booksellers, especially from the pump in Duck-lane, which is also taken up by Booksellers, for old Books."-Macky, in his Journey through England, in 1724, thus describes the situation of the Trade at that period: "The Booksellers of Antient Books in all Languages are in Little Britain and Paternoster-row; those for Divinity and Classics on the North side of St. Paul's Cathedral; Law, History, and Plays, about Temple Bar; and the French Booksellers in the Strand. It seems then that the bookselling business has been gradually resuming its original situation near this Cathedral ever since the beginning of George I. while the neighbourhood of Duck-lane and Little Britain has been proportionably falling into disuse."

† Of the elder Ballard, and also of Scott and Bateman, see before, in vol. I. pp. 423, 424. The original name, as appears by the auction catalogues, was Bullard.

It is not many years since two Booksellers resided there who were used to sport their rubric posts close to each other, as Tom Davies once did in Russel-street. Perhaps Sewell in Cornhill was the last who exhibited the leading authors in his shop in that way. How few people now remember when it was not an uncommon thing to do so!