MARGINAL COMMENTS
By ROSE MACAULAY
ALL " fastidious book-collectors " (to call them by the gentle name given them by the Assistant Librarian of Christ Church) must, I think, be greatly encouraged by the fine tale of successful purloining unfolded in last week's Times Literary Supplement. For the Assistant Librarian has tracked down 34 valuable books and pamphlets stolen from the Christ Church Library between 1833-48 to the library (sold by auction in 1849) of the Reverend H. F. Lyte, the well-known hymnologist and book-collector, who died in .1847. Possibly more stolen books will be found recorded in this sale-catalogue when the inquest into missing books from other college libraries has been carried further.- So, for nearly a century, the biblioklepts have got away. with it ; and might, but for Mr. Hiscock's acumen and diligence, have got away with it for ever, as have so many biblioklepts of past and present times.
I confess that the thought of this high-minded clergy- man, writing high-minded hymns and religious verse with one hand, while with the other he pasted his book- plate into stolen books and stowed them away in his shelves, after the habit of so many cleriCs of history (cardinals and bishops have a special facility for book- collecting, on account of their voluminous—literally voluminous—robes and pockets) gave me some pleasure. I even seemed to detect in some of Mr. Lyte's religious verses that note of excessive remorse which prompts the reader to ask, what was on this man's conscience ? " An heir of guilt, a child of sin," he calls himself, with much of similar purport. Here, thought I, was one of the great clerical book-collectors, in line with Pope Innocent X, who concealed the rare volumes abstracted from friends' libraries in his robes, with Bishop More of Ely, from whom his clergy used to hide their most precious books when he visited them, with many another reverend book-thief. But, when I looked more closely into the story, so lucidly told by Mr. Hiscock, it became almost certain that this clergyman was innocent. For, during several of the years of theft, he was ill and con- tinually abroad ; and, says Mr. Hiscock, " there is no trace of his ever having been in Christ Church Library." This does not seem quite conclusive ; if I desired to steal books from a library and cut out the page on which they were catalogued, I should endeavour not to leave a trace of my visit. Still, it is obvious that the evidence is in favour of Mr. Lyte's personal innocence. It is his younger son, up at New College 1843-6, and known to have been " a book-lover even more fastidious than his father," who seems to come more under suspicion, particularly as he made " many valuable additions " to his parent's library after the former's death, and before his own a year later. After the decease of both father and younger son, the library was sold ; the elder on apparently preferred its price to its possession.
Did young John Lyte of New College yield to one of the most irresistible of all temptations and commit these depredations ? And, if so, was his father aware of his guilt ? We shall probably never know. There is many a horrid gap in many a library shelf that will perhaps remain an unplumbed secret until the books are opened (and, one hopes, returned) at that Great Day. There stands a Library in a pleasant London square, some of whose members are known to be biblioklepts, who roam the gridded galleries and creep away, their pockets bulging with unentered books, never to be returned. The more reckless among them may, I dare say, neglect to remove the Library book plate before pasting over it their own, selling the book, or stowing it in their shelves. The story of the Christ Church thefts cannot but be encouraging to these.
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