* Mr Hessels, his most distinguished pupil in the science of palæotypography. To the works of Caxton he paid, as his whole correspondence with Mr Blades shows, especial attention. His knowledge of Caxton formed, as he said himself, the starting-point whence he proceeded to study the typography of the Netherlands and Germany. He was anxious to do all he could to facilitate the study of the subject, but when Mr H. B. Wheatley started the idea of a society to publish facsimiles of Caxton's work, he condemned the project as impracticable. "Of course," he writes to Mr Wheatley, in October, 1860, "I think the Caxton Facsimile Society the most rampant piece of absurdity which has yet been devised. This you can understand my saying; but having said this I have said all, and in spite of this, I shall be heartily glad to give you any help in my power." I have already had occasion to mention the keen interest which Bradshaw took in the production of local presses; for instance, in those of Oxford and Cambridge, of Belfast and Aberdeen. In connection with the former, Mr F. Madan, of the Bodleian Library, relates a pleasing incident. In November, 1884, he was passing through Cambridge, on his way to Oxford, and had intended to take the opportunity of consulting Bradshaw on some points connected with the history of printing at Oxford. He found, however, that he would have only forty minutes to wait between his trains, and wrote to say he could not come. The sequel may be guessed. When his train arrived, there was Bradshaw on the platform. It was a bitterly cold day, but he had walked to the station, bringing with him a manuscript which was to go back to the Bodleian, on purpose to talk to Mr Madan about his favourite subject. The time flew by in unbroken talk, and Bradshaw concluded by writing out for his friend, * In his article on Typography, Encyclopædia Britannica, 1887. then and there, from memory, a complete descriptive list of all the fifteenth-century books produced at Oxford -a list which, Mr Madan tells me, was to be found nowhere else, and is, he believes, exhaustive and correct. The last piece of work which he was able to complete was his "Half-Century of Notes on John Dorne;" his last serious correspondence was that with Mr Anderson, on the Belfast press. There was a touching fitness in the fact that he died with one of his Irish books before him, his father's favourite study and his own. HERALDRY. Since writing the above, I have received a letter from Mr W. St. John Hope, in which he calls attention to Bradshaw's knowledge of heraldry. He says, "Although he professed not to be versed in the subject, a brief conversation sufficed to show that, if he was not familiar with the jargon of modern works on heraldry, he was completely at home with the medieval armorists. He spoke in the highest terms of the great interest and beautiful simplicity of the early armory, which the modern text-books studiously avoid reference to. One of his theories, which he again and again reiterated, was that the science of armory died with the conclusion of the Wars of the Roses and the foundation of the College of Arms. He always spoke of the claim of the college to regulate and grant armorial bearings as a direct contravention of the true principles of ancient armory. Another of his maxims was, that we ought to have a Grammar of Heraldry,' in which should be set forth the laws and usages of medieval armory, as exemplified by original authorities . . . such as monuments, seals, rolls of arms, etc., beginning with the earliest period when heraldry proper existed as a science. . . . As a case in point, Bradshaw raised the question, 'When were the arms of man and wife first impaled?' Adding, 'I don't suppose you will find that stated in any of the printed works on heraldry.' To test the point, we proceeded to the University Library, and consulted every available work, with the result that in one book only, so far as I recollect, we found the general statement that 'impaling' commenced in the reign of Edward I. This did not satisfy Bradshaw, who maintained that such a statement ought to rest on the earliest known example, and it was on these lines that the proposed Grammar' was to be written." CHAPTER XII. THIS memoir would not be complete without some review of Henry Bradshaw's work in the library which was his chief care for so many years, or without an attempt to place on record a few of the impressions left by his remarkable personality. His management of the library was not, it may at once be allowed, in every respect quite satisfactory. The condition of that institution at one period during his term of office caused, as I have already said, some discontent. But, in the first place, the difficulties with which he had to contend were very great. The staff under his direction was numerically inadequate, the want of space was an ever-present cause of confusion, and the publicity of the library was an impediment with which no other guardian of a similar institution has to contend. In the second place, if he did not succeed in entirely removing all causes of dissatisfaction, no one who compares the present condition of the library with its condition twenty years ago can fail to recognise the vast improvement in every respect which was accomplished by Bradshaw's unremitting zeal. When he became librarian in 1867, great confusion had lately been caused by the attempt to substitute a uniform numerical notation for the various marks-letters of the alphabet, Roman and Arabic numerals, etc.-by which the various classes of books had been indicated. The reform, however advantageous it might have been if it could have been carried through, was far too large a one for the limited staff to accomplish, and the attempt was abandoned after a considerable part of the work had been done. The simultaneous existence of two entirely different systems of notation, and the consequent confusion that ensued, may more easily be imagined than described. The first thing that Bradshaw had to do was to execute a retrograde movement towards the old system, and this was necessarily a work of time. He did not altogether give up the hope of eventually simplifying the system of notation, but he saw that it must be deferred. There was, however, an immediate necessity for devising a plan for denoting the contents of the new building which was completed soon after he took office, and those of other rooms to be added subsequently. The plan which he adopted was simple and effective. He denoted each of the existing rooms by a single letter of the alphabet, and, having regard to the historical growth of the building, he named them in chronological order, beginning with the catalogue-room as at once the centre and, probably, the oldest part of the library. This exhausted the letters from A to K. Then, following up this system, he denoted the new rooms by the remaining letters, from L onwards. The system was not actually applied to the old rooms, nor has it been yet applied, for its substitution for the present jumble of titles would be a long and costly task. But it has been applied to all the rooms added since 1867, and could at any time be introduced throughout, without altering the additions made since that date. The completion of the new building involved extensive changes in the arrangement of the books. Several classes, including the manuscripts and early printed books, were moved into the new rooms, and Bradshaw seems to have contemplated a complete rearrangement of the library, with a view to a classification according to subjects. But this task was too great to be accomplished by the existing staff. For some time considerable confusion was caused, and it was eventually resolved to discontinue the attempt. To give an account of all the changes which were introduced into the library during Bradshaw's tenure of office would lead me too much into detail. Some of the most important were the introduction of printed instead of written slips into the catalogue, the formation of a code of rules for cataloguing, the issue of a weekly bulletin giving a list of all books added to the library, and the gradual elaboration of the various stages through which the books have to pass before they can be placed upon the shelves. The rules for cataloguing are called by Mr Tedder* "probably the most practically useful set of working rules yet issued." Mr Wheatley,† in his report for 1880, says, "The rapid and efficient system by which books are catalogued and shelved and the title-slips pasted in the catalogue is very praiseworthy. This is a feature in which I do not think the library is surpassed by any with which I am acquainted." The printing of the slips was introduced several years before the British Museum had adopted the plan. It is unnecessary to suppose that the whole credit for these and other improvements was due to Bradshaw; it is enough to say that they were carried out under his direction and during his librarianship. His prevailing aim was probably rather to make existing arrangements work smoothly than to alter the machinery which he found to hand. His idea of a great library was hardly that of most modern librarians. He regarded it in the light of a museum of literary and typographical records quite as much as, perhaps even more than, that of a collection of practically useful books. The daily routine of management occupied far the greater part of his time-probably a larger share than was * Librarian of the Athenæum, in his report to the Syndicate, 1879. |