The Story of Libraries and Book Collecting. By Ernest A.
Savage. (George Routledge and Sons. 2s. 6d. net.)—Mr. Savage, who presides over the public libraries of Wallasey, has given us hero a very interesting little book. He devotes his first chapter to the "Libraries of Ancient Times," and gives a satisfactory account of them,—he might have mentioned by name among the Roman libraries the one which Horace has immortalised in the "Quid dedicatum poseit Apollinem," Then we have in succession the monastic libraries, those of the Renaissance, with a special mention of Braecioliui and his finds, and the libraries of modern Europe, a class in which those of Great Britain occupy a creditably promi- nent place. How much better they might have been but for the period of neglect which set in with the eighteenth century it is impossible to say. There was, for instance, the shameful rule of John Price at the Bodleian, when nearly fifty years (1765-1813) were almost lost. Things, however, were not quite so bad under Bandiuel, the predecessor of Henry Cox% as ono would gather from Mr. Savage's pages. A very readable book this, and useful withal. There is a chapter on "Popular Town Libraries" which suggests rather than answers various difficult questions,—the choice of books among them. Fiction is the groat difficulty. It is true that the majority of readers desire that, and nothing but that. But should this desire be yielded to P Surely, to take a common case, it is hard that the tradesman who keeps a circulating library should be rated to support a system which destroys his business.
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