Sir Benjamin Stone's pictures; records of national life and history reproduced from the collection of photographs made by Sir Benjamin Stone, . eable adjunct of their Chamber is the Libraiy. Thewalls of the suite of rooms are lined coniijletely withbookshelves in dark oak; the volumes are beautifullybound; there are inviting writing-tables supplied withstationery; the old-fashioned chairs are a deliglit to sitin. Above the shelves is a frieze, with panels displayingthe armorial bearings of the Chief Justices of P2ngland. Peers pass in and out with noiseless tread, for thethick carpets dead
Sir Benjamin Stone's pictures; records of national life and history reproduced from the collection of photographs made by Sir Benjamin Stone, . eable adjunct of their Chamber is the Libraiy. Thewalls of the suite of rooms are lined coniijletely withbookshelves in dark oak; the volumes are beautifullybound; there are inviting writing-tables supplied withstationery; the old-fashioned chairs are a deliglit to sitin. Above the shelves is a frieze, with panels displayingthe armorial bearings of the Chief Justices of P2ngland. Peers pass in and out with noiseless tread, for thethick carpets deaden all sound. The atmosphere is per-vaded by the pleasantest and most appropriate odour fora library, the aroma of Russia-leather. The recessedwindows of the rooms, overlooking the river, withglimpses of the Surrey hills, far away beyond LambethPalace, make the cosiest retiring places for quiet readingand study. The Library is mainly historical and constitutional,legal and political. Just the sort of library, in fact, thatis best adapted for providing noble lords on oppositesides of the House witli mateiiul for refuting eachothers THE LIBRARIANOF THE HOUSE OF LORDS, Mr. Edmund Gossk is oue of our most experienced andaccomplished literary critics. In his delightful Gossipin a Library —a collection of scholarly essays aboutbooks, made up of a little criticism, a little anecdote,and a little bibliography — he says, In my sleep,* where dreams are multitude, I sometimes fancy thatone day I shall have a liljiary in a garden. The phraseseems to contain the whole felicit} of man— a libraryin a garden. It sounds like having a Castle in Spain,or a sheep-walk in Arcady; and I suppose that merel}to wish for it is to be what indignant journalists call afaddling hedonist. In 1904 Mr. Gosse, who had been in the senace ofthe Board of Trade, was appointed Librarian of theHouse of Lords. Writing of his own collection ofbooks, he says, There is something awful to me, ofnights an
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectgreatbritainparliame
