LITERARY NOTES

Otago Witness, Issue 1853, 27 May 1887, Page 28

LITERARY NOTES

It has been computed that about 35,bb6 newspapers are published in the whole J worldj or one for'2B,ooo inhabitants." Of ; this nunv her 16,500 are in English, 7,800 in German^ 6,850 in French, 1,600 in Spanish, and 1,450 in Italian. '" *- ' ' : . ' '' ' The proprietor of Truth' (Mr t Henry Labouchere, M. P.) clears £15,000, a year from this periodical and 'the advertisements of the last Christmas number amQunted,to no less a sum than £iloo/ ; . ' i There is no money about, as everybody knows. Nevertheless, £910 was paid on the 3rd March at Messrs . Sotheby's for a vellum manuscript, beautifully written and illuminated, and dating from the twelfth century. It comes from a Suavian abbey, and is a graduate and sacramentarium. , £910 for a manuscript is a big price; but Messrs Ellis gave it, and expect, no doubt, to make a profit on their bargain. There are people in England who are ready to ,give £1000 for a book written by the monks about the year 1150. • • .. • , Browsing about among the treasures of the English branch of one of our largest booksellers the other day, I came upon a ' recently imported little water-colour drawing, says the New York ' Critic' It is prettily framed, and represents a house at Islington once occupied by Charles ' Lamb, and in which he spent many happy days. Written out in the copperplate hand ,of the London representative of the firm is the following paragraph copied from one of Lamb's letters to B. 'Barton :— " When you come Londonward, you will find me no longer in Covent Garden ; I have a cottage in Colebrbok Row, Islington; a cottage, for it is detached; a white house with six good rooms in it ; the New River,'(rather elderly by this time) runs (if a moderate walking pace can be so termed) close to the foot of the house; and behind is a spacious garden with vines (I assure you), pears, .strawberries, parsnips, leeks, carrots, cabbages, to delight the heart of old Alcinous. You enter without passage into a cheerful dining-room, all studded over and rough with old books ; and above is a lightsome drawing-room with three windows full of choice prints. I feel like a great lord, never having had a house before." The sketch represents the rear of the house, with the garden, which was evidently its most picturesque side; and, judging from the costume of the lady picking gooseberries at the left, I should think that it must have been made at about the time the place was occupied by Lamb.