SOME OF MY FAMOUS CUSTOMERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11825, 30 November 1901, Page 6 (Supplement)

SOME OF MY FAMOUS CUSTOMERS.

RECOLLECTIONS OF A SECOND-HAND BOOKSELLER.

Yes I've had many distinguished customers in mv time, said a retired second-hand bookseller who for thirty years had a shop within a gtone's-throw of the Strand; and I have many most interesting memories of them. The most delightful of them all was Mr. Gladstone, who. I believe, spent many of his happiest hours rummaging among old books, and rarely failed to discover a few treasures. Nothing "amazed me more than the wide ranee of subjects that he studied, and I really think if I could give a list of all the books he bought of me it would surprise even those who think they know most of his marvellous versatility and range of knowledge. The first book he bought of me was a treatise on the atomic theory which he unearthed from the twopenny "box, and the last, which he purchased '.ess than two years before his death, was a German work on the '• Composition of the Odyssey;" but there is scarcely a subject you can name, from law to astronomy and from anthropology to numismatics, that he didn't pick up at one time or another during the twenty years I knew him as a customer. He loved to talk of books, too; and, as I have always been a book -lover as well as a bookseller" he has often spent as much as half an hour charming me with his views on all kinds of books and their authors- He would never allow me to send the books home; but many a time has walked off with half a dozen or so volumes, simply tied round with a piece of string. Another of my distinguished customers was Thomas Car'yle, who for many years used to pay me two or three visits a year. I saw him many times turning over the books outside, with an occasional grunt or a smile before he ventured inside, and our first encounter almost ended in a quarrel. It was a German volume of the "Life and Deeds of Frederick I." that was nearly the cause of our quarrel. I wanted 6s 5d for it, and it was cheap at the price but Mr. Carhie was determined to pay no more than ss. which he candidly confessed was all he had with him at the time.

At last he threw down the ss, saying: " Ye can tak' it or leave it—l'll no give ye a bawbee more," and when I decided to " tak' " it he put the volume under his arm and walked out with a gruff " Gude day," as if to signify that it was the last I should see of him-

But, in spite of all that has been said of his churlishness, Carlyle was no man to bear malice. He carae again and again ; and as I was a " brither Scot " we had many a long chat together in broad Scots, which he loved to lapse into at all rimes, and especially with one who could talk it as well as himself.

The last time I saw him was only a few months before his death. He looked ill and feeble; and when he walked off with his purchase, saying with a pathetic smile, " I've no time for a crack the day," I had a presentiment that I should never see him again. Aye. in spite of all his roughness, he was a grand man and a lovable, was Thomas Cariyle.

Tennyson, too, paid me quite half a dozen visits. When he calied the first time to inquire for a book I had not in stock I thought there was something about the rough-beard-ed, keen-eyed man, with his wide-awake hat and cape, that I ought to recognise, but I could not for the life of me identify him. But when I asked, his name and address, so that I might inform him when I got a copy of the book, and he handed me his card with the name " Mr. Alfred Tennyson," I was so " taken aback," as the ladies say. that I ejaculated. " Are you the great Tennyson, sir?" "Well," he answered, with a smile; " if there is a great Tennyson I suppose I must be him."

Dickens, too, was a customer and friend of mine during my first year or two of business. He had a positive passion for the twopenny and sixpenny boxes, and he was as delighted as a boy with his discoveries. He would, never, however, pay me less than a shilling a volume, and for one somewhat rare book, which by an oversight I had condemned to the twopenny box, he insisted on paying me half a, guinea. _ It was always as good as a breath of sea air to see him walk into the shop with a "Good morning, " (he always called me by my surname), and a hearty, sailor-like grip of the hand. But our acquaintance was all too short.; and I can remember as if it were yesterday the shock of grief and dismay when one morning Mr. Sala walked into my place with the news, " Dickens is dead !"