adoption in some of the towns which have not yet seen fit to adopt them. From another point of view this occasion seems to claim special notice in these pages. The invitations sent by the Mayor and Libraries Committee of Newcastle to Members of the Library Association is a welcome tribute to our growing importance as an association. I hope that I may be permitted to say that its Members were not unworthily represented. It is a matter of regret that the Principal Librarian of the British Museum, who had accepted the Mayor's invitation, was obliged to write that his health and the weather would not allow him to undertake the long journey, and added "It is a great disappointment to me that I am unable to take the part you kindly offered me in the approaching ceremony." Lord Crawford and Balcarres, Dr. Ingram and Mr. Bradshaw were unable to accept the invitation. Mr. Bradshaw wrote "I should dearly have liked

to be with you at your opening ceremony."

It is not uninteresting to note that the last occasion upon which a formal visit was paid to Newcastle by Royalty was in 1822, when the Duke of Sussex visited the town to lay the foundation stone of the new building for the Literary and Philosophical Society. Upon the present occasion the Royal visitors have opened two extensive buildings-a Museum and a Public Library respectively.

Of the former institution we can give but a brief account in this place. It belongs to the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle, and is a massive free-stone building. With its fittings it has cost about £40,000. It already possesses fine geological collections, the best collection of British birds in the kingdom, the gift of Mr. John Hancock, and an interesting collection of Bewick's drawings.

The history of the movement for the establishment of the Public Library goes back to 1854, when the late Dr. Newton (father of the present Mayor) moved and carried in the Town Council a motion for a Committee to "consider the propriety and report upon the measures necessary for the promotion of a free library." The enquiry seems to have led to no practical result, and it was reserved for the present Dr. Newton to re-open the question. This he did in 1870, when a Committee of the Council was appointed to consider the matter. The Acts were adopted in 1874. Then there arose difficulties as to the site for a building, which were not solved until 1878, when the Trustees of the Mechanics' Institute agreed to hand over their building and library to the Corporation on condition that the art and science classes should be carried on and the liabilities taken over. On the 13th of September, 1880, the foundation stone of the new building was laid by Mrs. Newton, the present Mayoress, and on the same day the temporary lending department was opened by Mr. Alderman Cowen, M.P. The catalogue of its contents, including some 20,000 volumes, was issued at the same time. This catalogue, though based upon the lines originally, we believe, devised at Manchester and since adopted in so many other libraries, was nevertheless a distinct advance upon anything previously accomplished. Its numerous references to the collectaneous literature contained in the library, its cross-references, and the multiplicity of the information supplied by it, must have involved an immense amount of work. We need not wonder therefore to find the Newcastle Daily Chronicle the other day, with pardonable pride in Mr. Haggerston's work, speak of this catalogue as "an embodiment of the genius and enterprise of the Chief Librarian." Since the opening over a million of volumes have been issued with a loss of only sixteen volumes, and the stock has increased to 27,000 volumes. While the architect and builders have been engaged upon the new building, Mr. Haggerston has been employed in bringing

together the books to form the reference library, which, including the Specifications of Patents, opens with a stock of over 23,000 volumes.

The new library building is a handsome Corinthian and Doric structure, with an effective façade of 167 feet in length. Seven steps lead up through a portico into the vestibule. From this the newsroom opens on the right hand, and the lending library on the left. A handsome staircase in front of us leads up to the reference library. This is a fine apartment, 132 feet long by 41 wide. The length of the room is divided by an entablature supported by Corinthian columns, under which are the card catalogue cabinet and the issue and enquiry desks. The room, which is calculated to provide accommodation for 80 readers, is lighted from the top, and the decorations are in soft light tints; the bookcases and counters are of pitch pine, with mahogany tops and dressings.

On the 20th of August the space beneath the entablature was temporarily devoted to a daïs, which their Royal Highnesses, with Prince Albert Victor and Prince George, occupied during the simple opening ceremony. Amongst those present were the Mayor and Mayoress, the Duke of Sutherland, Lord and Lady Hastings, Lord Colville of Culross, Mr. Knollys, C.B., and Miss Knollys, Sir William and Lady Armstrong, Hon. C. R. Spencer, M.P., the Town Clerk, the Members of the Newcastle Public Libraries Committee, the representatives of the Library Association, with several other members, and W. J. Haggerston, Chief Librarian.

The Mayor, addressing the Prince of Wales, said :-I have the honour to invite your Highness to inaugurate the permanent building, and to open the Reference Department of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Public Library. It is established under the provisions of the Public Libraries Act of 1850, which was promoted in Parliament by the late William Ewart, to whose memory the catalogue of this institution is dedicated. So great has been the success which has attended the establishment of rate-supported libraries in this country that, at the present time, there are more than 100 in active operation in cities and towns with populations varying from 6,000 to half a million. inhabitants. The number of volumes contained in these libraries exceeds 1,775,000, while the issue over one year is little short of 11,000,000 volumes. The reference library which your Royal Highnesses have graced to-day with your Royal presence and approval contains 20,000 volumes, many of which are both rare and valuable, while all are useful. The entire stock in the Newcastle library is 50,000 volumes; and during the three and a-half years the provisional lending library has been open to the public 1,000,000 volumes have been issued for home reading, while during the same period only fifteen have been lost. The beneficent influence of this and similar institutions, with their vast circulation, must be great indeed. They will carry onward and upward the work of the public elementary schools, and supply a deficiency in our system of national education. Carlyle says:-"The true university of these days is a collection of books," and there is none better than a public library, with its vast stores of intellectual wealth, within reach of all who desire to enjoy its advantages." He concluded by briefly requesting his Royal Highness to open the reference library. The Prince of Wales said:-I have great pleasure, ladies and gentlemen, in announcing this reference library to be open.

The Mayor, addressing the Prince and Princess, said :-Would your Royal Highnesses kindly accept catalogues of our library? He then handed to their Royal Highnesses beautifully bound copies of the catalogue, which they graciously accepted.

The Mayor said:-I have one more favour to ask, and that is that you will graciously sign your names in the visitors' book.

The Prince and Princess of Wales and the young Princes granted the request amidst much hearty cheering, and the proceedings were concluded.

In the evening Mr. Mullins and myself had the pleasure of meeting a large number of the Local Members of the Library Association at a meeting convened by Mr. Haggerston as Local Secretary, including Mr. Lyall, Librarian of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle; Mr. Inkster, Librarian of the South Shields Public Library; Mr. Elliott, Librarian of the Gateshead Public Library; Mr. Watson, Secretary of the Hawick Public Library; Mr. Jordan, Librarian of the Jarrow Mechanics' Institute, and others.

As Sir James Picton and Mr. Mullins have been good enough at my request to set down their impressions of the visit, I need not detain the reader with an account of my own. It will suffice to say that I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in the Tyneside city, and that I wish a long career of steadily growing usefulness and prosperity to the Public Libraries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. EDITOR.

FREE PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND SUBSCRIPTION LIBRARIES. BY D. DICKINSON.

AN account of the formation of a Subscription Library in connexion with the West Bromwich Free Library may not be uninteresting to the readers of the LIBRARY CHRONICLE, and may be beneficial in inducing librarians of similar small libraries (where the id. rate is inadequate to supply the wants of the public) to adopt the scheme, and thereby add a considerable quantity of literature to their libraries, which would be otherwise unobtainable. The income of our library is not sufficient to allow of the purchase of current literature, and therefore I think we do not come under the class which Mr. J. Potter Briscoe criticised at Oxford in 1878.

We issued a circular in September last, stating the object and suggesting conditions for the carrying-out of the project. To give as little trouble as possible to the receivers of these circulars, a printed and addressed reply was enclosed, so that it needed simply the signature of the subscriber to be added. Twenty-nine only replied favourably. So small a number would not have justified the adoption of the proposed scheme, and therefore these twenty-nine were requested to aid us by soliciting their friends to join the Subscription Library, and as a result the number of intending Subscribers was increased to eighty. A meeting was then called and suggested rules were prepared, copies of which were printed, forwarded to each member and revised at a second meeting called a fortnight later.

The rules are similar to those in use at Bolton, Rochdale and Dundee, though there is one important exception, viz: that books remain in the Subscription Library two years before they become the property of the Corporation.

A list of members was printed and copy forwarded to each member, requesting him to put a cross to a number of names corresponding to the number the subscribers at their previous meeting had decided should form a committee. They were also requested by circular to suggest a number of books for the Committee to purchase, and with one or two exceptions the whole of the suggestions were adopted.

A small room over a vestibule is appropriated to this department, which was opened on the 1st of January this year.

All expenses attending the formation and working of the library, not including gas and attendance, are paid by the Subscription Library Committee. Out of £84 received in subscriptions, as yet only £64 10s. has been expended as follows; on stationery, day-books, etc., £10 10s., on books (about 250 works) £ 54; £5 is being subscribed to Mudie's Library to enable the Committee to supply, when requested, works published at a prohibitory price, such as novels at 31s. 6d. The balance is being reserved for the autumn publications.

The lists of the books already purchased include about 250 recent works, and the Free Public Library will thus receive at the end of 1885, a number of valuable books, which it could not and would not otherwise have obtained.

It may be added that since the formation of the Subscription Library here, the neighbouring town of Wednesbury is considering the advisability of adopting a similar arrangement in connexion with their Free Library.

THE FIRST ENGLISH BOOK ON ANGLING.
By WILLIAM E. A. Axon.

II.-BIBLIOGRAPHY OF TREATYSSE OF FYSSHYNGE.

THE popularity of the book was great. It has been the subject of patient investigations by angling bibliographers, and especially by the recent editors of the "Bibliotheca Piscatoria "-Messrs. Westwood and Satchell. The bulk of these notes were made before the publication of that excellent bibliography. Since its appearance Mr. Satchell has discovered that the opening sentence of the "Treatysse on Fysshynge" is derived from the Comment of Arnold de Villa Nova on the "Schola Salernitana." (Angler's Note-book, July 15th 1884.)

The following is a list of the editions:

1486.-The Bokys of Haukyng and Hunting; and also of cootarmuris. [col.]

Here in thys boke afore are contenyt the bokys of haukyng and huntyng, with other plesuris dyverse as in the boke apperis, and also of cootarmuris, a nobull werke. And here now endyth the boke of blasyng of armys translatyt and compylit togedyr at Seynt Albons the yere from th' incarnacion of oure Lorde Jhu' Crist MCCCCLXXXVI.

folio, black letter. There are copies at the Grenville collection, the Bodleian Library, the Public Library at Cambridge, and in the collections of the Earl of Pembroke, Earl Spencer, the Marquis of Bute. Some of these are imperfect. It has sold for the following prices :-West, 1773, £13 (vide Cat. 130); Ratcliffe, 1776, £9 10s.; Mason, 1799, £75; Roxburgh, £147; White Knights, £84; 1595. Henderson, 1786, 7s. 6d. 1496. This present boke shewyth the manere of hawkynge and huntynge and also of devysng of cote armours. It sheweth also a good matere belongynge to horses: wyth other commendable treatyses, and ferdermore of the blasyng of armys as hereafter it may appere. Here in this boke afore ben shewed the treatyses perteynynge to hawkynge and huntynge with dyvers playsaunt materes belongynge unto noblesse; and also a ryght noble treatise of cotarmours, as in this present boke it may appere. And here we ende this laste treatyse whyche specyfyeth of blasynge of armys.

Emprynted at Westmistre, by Wynkyn the Worde the yere of thyncarnacon of our Lorde. MCCCCLXXXXVI.

This has sold as follows:-White Knights, £60 18s.; Ditto, re-sold, wanting Ch. II. and III., £46 4s.; Dent, 13 10s.; Haworth, £39 18s.

It is in this edition that the treatise on fishing first appears. There are copies on vellum in the Pembroke and Grenville collections, and upon paper in the British Museum and Bodleian Library (in the Douce collection).

Without Date (W. de Worde).-" The Boke of hawkynge, and huntynge and fysshynge. Colophon: "Here endeth the boke of hawkynge, huntynge and fysshynge and with many other dyver maters."

Impryted in Flete Strete at ye Sygne of ye Sonne, by Wykyn de Worde. pp. 92. 4to. n.d. Black letter. The title is over a well executed wood engraving representing a Hawking Party. The work, illustrated with woodcuts, commences on the reverse of the title. The only copy known of this edition formerly belonged to Mr. George Daniels and is now in Mr. A. H. Huth's Library. There is another edition with a slightva riation in the colophon.

Without date (Copland).-"The Booke of hawkynge, huntynge & fysshyng, with all the properties and medecynes that are necessary to be kept." Colophon: "Thus endeth the booke of Hawkyng Huntyng & fysshyng, with other dyvers matters."

Imprynted at London in Fletestreate at the Signe of the Rose Garlande, by Wylliam Coplande for Rychard Tottell." pp. 96. 4to. n.d.

Black letter. This edition is divided into three parts, each part commencing with a wood engraving, over which are the titles of the treatises, as follow: Part 1. The booke of Hawkynge, as given above. This occupies 20 leaves and ends. Part 2. Here beginneth the booke of hunting, whereunto is added the measures of blowyng. This is in verse, and occupies 16 lines. Part 3, the treatise of fishing with an angle. The boke of hawkynge. This occupies 12 leaves and ends the volume on with the colophon as given above. Sold at the Inglis Sale for £ 12 os. od. Another Edition. Divided into three parts and with the titles to each, as before, but each part having the following colophon.

"Imprynted at London in Saynt Martyns Paryshe in ye Vinetre upon the thre Crane Wharfe by Wyllyam Copland. pp. 96. 4to. n.d. At the Haslewood Sale fetched £8 os. od. Another Edition. The arrangement of and the titles to this edition also agree: the imprints and colophons being: Part 1. Imprynted at London in Paules Churche Yarde, by Robert Toye. Part 2. Imprynted at London in Flete Strete at the signe of the Rose Garland by Wyllyam Copland for Robert Toye. Part 3. Imprinted at London in Flete Strete at the sygne of the Rose Garland by Wyllyam Copland. black letter. pp. 96. 4to. n.d. The sales have been Sotheby May, 1823, £38 17s. od.; Dent, £10 10s. od.

Another Edition. In three parts, with titles, etc. as before, each part having the following colophon (each differing slightly in orthography).

"Imprynted at London in the Vyentre upon the thre Craned Wharfe by Wyllyam Copland. pp. 96. 4to. n.d. Another Edition, black letter. This edition also agrees in its arrangement, the colophons being Part 1. Imprynted at London in Fletestrete, by Wyllyam Powell. Part 2. Imprynted at London in Fletestrete, at the Sygne of the George nexte to Saynt Dunstone's Churche by Wyllyam Powell. Part 3 same as Part 2. pp. 96. 4to. n.d. Sold at the Haworth sale, £7. 5s.

"The booke of Hawkyng, hunting & fyshyng, with other divers matters."

Imprinted at London in Paules Churchyarde, at the Sygne of the Lambe, by Ab: Vele. Editions by Copland are recorded in 1548, 1551, 1553, 1554, 1561, 1568 and 1569, by Henry Tab (without date), by John Waley in 1546 and 1586, by Powell in 1547, 1550 and 1567. Some of these will probably be cases where more than one bookseller