CHAPTER I

My Antecedents--How and Whence the Passion came to Me--My Father's People--And My Mother's--My Uncle--His Genuine Feeling for what was Old and Curious--A Disciple of Charles Lamb--Books My First Love--My Courtship of Them under My Father's Roof--My Clandestine Acquisitions--A Small Bibliographical Romance--My Uncle as a Collector--Some of His Treasures--His Choice, and how He differed from My Father--An Adventure of the Latter at a Bookstall-- Bargains--The Author moralises upon Them--A New View--I begin to be a Bibliographer--Venice strikes My Fancy as a Subject for Treatment--My Want of Acquaintance with It--Mr Quaritch and Mr Ruskin do not encourage Me--I resolve to proceed--I teach Myself what was Requisite to enable Me to do so--Some of My Experiences--Molini the Elder--The London Library Forty Years Ago--What became of My Collections for the Work--Preparing for Another and Greater Scheme, 1