chased the stock, and commenced business on his own account. After having been settled here a short time, a Dignitary of the Cathedral stopped at the door, and inquired who had taken the concern? On being told that it was a Mr. Beatniffe, he replied, "Then I give him half a year." This anecdote Mr. Beatniffe used to narrate with infinite pleasure.

Mr. Beatniffe's first Catalogue was published in 1779, and his last in 1803, to which an Appendix appeared in 1808; but in these no particular libraries are specified. He had the good fortune to purchase the principal part of the very valuable collection of books which was made by the Rev. Dr. Cox Macro, of Little Haugh, in the parish of Norton in Suffolk, and which had remained undisposed of, and scarcely been looked into, since the death of the doctor, a period of nearly forty years. This rich treasure of black-letter and early printed books, old poetry, and original letters and autographs of eminent persons, Mr. Beatniffe bought for the sum of £.150 or £.160; and the purchase, of course, proved by no means unproductive †. Such, indeed, was the rarity of the poesy of the "olden time" that he is said to have realised upwards of a thousand pounds by its sale,-some volumes having produced from fifty to a hundred pounds each. Throughout life he was a large purchaser of libraries and of secondhand books; and his Catalogues were in general well-stored with valuable articles, for which he always knew how to ask a good price.

To his customers Mr. Beatniffe was peculiarly blunt in his manners; and many anecdotes of his singularity in this respect are well remembered. A

* A memoir of this divine, with many of his letters, is inserted in the "Literary Anecdotes," vol. IX. P. 359.

+ Ibid. vol. VIII. p. 467.

"Concise Description of Bury," p. 247.

Scotch nobleman once called to purchase a Bible; Mr. Beatniffe took an Edinburgh one down, and named his price. "O mon!" said his Lordship, "I could buy it for much less at Edinburgh." "Then, my Lord," replied Mr. Beatniffe, calmly re-placing the volume on the shelf, and abruptly quitting his noble customer, "You must go to Edinburgh for it."

In politics Mr. Beatniffe was a very warm and decided Tory; and on one of his workmen once voting against that interest at a general election, was observed to shed tears. At the commencement of the French revolution he sided with the alarmists; and one day hearing an apprentice of his exclaim inadvertently, that he did not blame the French, as they had so long lived under a tyrannical government; he replied with much warmth, "What is that you say, boy? I tell you what, young man, if you go on this way, you will soon spit at me and father."

kick your

For many years Mr. Beatniffe was supposed to possess as large and as valuable a stock of old books as any provincial bookseller in the kingdom. On the publication and distribution of his Catalogues, the trade in London were in the constant habit of sending him extensive orders, which he very rarely executed. "They want all my good books," was his reply, "but I will take special care they shall not have them." Indeed his great pride was to sell his books to gentlemen; and, not wanting money, his greatest pride was to have good books around him, which he used facetiously to call "his jewels." On looking over these valuables, his customers would often remark, "I think this book is dear, Mr. Beatniffe." "You do, do you?" was his reply; "there it is; if you don't like it, leave it."

In that amusive work, "The Sexagenarian, or the Recollections of a Literary Life," Mr. Beatniffe's character is thus delineated:

"In the provincial town where our friend in early life resided, there were three booksellers of very different characters and attainments. One was a shrewd, cold, inflexible fellow, who traded principally in old books, and held out but little encouragement to a youth, who rarely had money to expend, to become a frequenter of his shop. Of course frequent visits were not paid by our Sexagenarian to him. The principal feature of this man's character was suspicion of strangers, and a constant apprehension lest he should dispose of any of his libri rarissimi to some cunning wight or professed collector. If any customer was announced as coming from the metropolis, he immediately added at least one third to his price." But notwithstanding these eccentricities, Mr. Beatniffe was much respected by those who knew him most intimately. By his knowledge of books, which was considerable, and his skill as a bookbinder, which was excellent; as well as by his strict attention to business, he amassed a large fortune, and retired from his favourite and lucrative pursuit a short time previous to his decease, which took place at Norwich on the 9th of July 1818, in the 79th year of his age. His very valuable stock of books was disposed of by public auction.

His remains were deposited in the nave of the Church of St. Peter at Mancroft, in Norwich, where, on a flat-stone, is the following inscription to his memory:

To the memory of
RICHARD BEATNIFFE,

who died July the 9th, 1818,
aged 78.
Also

MARTHA DINAH, wife of

RICHARD BEatniffe,

who died June the 6th, 1816,

aged 69.

Mr. Beatniffe married Miss M. D. Hart, the daughter of Mr. Hart, an eminent writing-master,

and an Alderman of Bury St. Edmund's, by whom he had issue a son, who died an infant, and a daughter Catherine, who was twice married, viz. firstly, to Mr. Cook, of the City of Norwich, by whom she had no issue; and, secondly, to Mr. Austin Palgrave Manclarke, of Yarmouth, by whom she had issue two sons and two daughters, of whom, Richard-Beatniffe was married to Eliza-Marian-Eleanor, the daughter of Major John Carige; and JaneElizabeth, to John Herbert Carige, Esq. both on the 1st of January 1824.

Mr. Beatniffe was author of that useful and highly entertaining little work, "The Norfolk Tour," which he lived long enough to see pass through six editions, and which, it must be fairly confessed, well merited that favourable reception which it has so amply experienced. The first edition of this work was published in 1772, and the last in 1808, under the following title, "The Norfolk Tour; or, Traveller's Pocket Companion, being a concise Description of all the Principal Towns, Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Seats, and other remarkable Places in the County of Norfolk, compiled from the most authentic Historians and modern Travellers, corrected to the present time. To which is added an Index Villaris for the County. The Sixth Edition, greatly enlarged and improved. Norwich," 12mo. Prefixed is the following advertisement: "Having carefully revised every page of the Norfolk Tour, and by the friendly communications of several gentlemen in the county, and my own observations during the last ten years, greatly enlarged, and, I hope, improved it, with much deference this Sixth Edition is offered for public approbation by R. Beatniffe *."

* Norfolk Tour, advertisement. - For some slight notices of, and allusions to, Mr. Beatniffe, see the “ Literary Anecdotes," vol. III. p. 672; vol. VIII. p. 467; vol. IX. 365; Gent. Mag. vol. LXXXVIII. pt. ii. pp. 93, 286.

The book, in this last edition, was amplified to 399 pages.

This well-digested and instructive Compendium of the History and Antiquities of Norfolk is one of those useful compilations which are commonly known under the name of Guides; and is highly creditable to the talents and research of the author. It contains a luminous account of the state of the manufactures of Norwich at the period of its compilation; and the pages which relate to this subject, are, perhaps, the best in the volume. Its ingenious author, it is said, received much valuable information on this point from a gentleman of undoubted ability, who was intimately connected with the manufactures.

The "Norfolk Tour" is now, and has been for some years, out of print.

REV. JOHN BRAND, A. M.

This profound mathematician and eminent political economist, whose peculiarities were of the most singular and striking kind, was a native of Norwich, in which city his father followed the occupation of a sadler. The family consisted of a son and two daughters, who on their father's decease found themselves left with a very scanty provision. The son, having a taste and turn for science and literature, went for some years to the continent for improvement, where, among other attainments, he so acquired the manners, singularity, and even grimace of the people among whom he sojourned, that on his return the agnomen of Abbè was spontaneously and universally given him.

Mr. Brand now entered himself a Member of