Hampden Sydney College - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Hampden Sydney, VA)

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the gift was made-of the Histoire de Geneve, which work was published in 1773. Of the six volumes, however, one is now missing. Those that remain tell in no uncertain language a curious and sad story of the depravity of human nature. In these volumes, each fly-leaf coming into immediate contact with a back was made of very stili' paper and was colored on the side next the back, the other side being plain white. Now, from each of the five volumes left us this fly-leaf in the front of the book has been cut out, the stubs that are left being evidence. On the first com- pletely white Hy-leaf of each volume is the inscription of presentation, which runs thus: This book was presented to the College of Hampden-Sidney by Patrick Henry Esqr. July 26, 1787. The volumes are not large, and the inscription, written on several lines with ample space between, covers nearly the whole page. Though a portion of the inscription is written in rather a fancy hand, some of it is not, and especially is the name Patrick Henry written in plain style. No one, however, if he should think for a little time, would conclude that Patrick Henry himself wrote the inscription. The fancy writing of a portion of it and the use of the word esquire would negative such an idea Positive proof, however, that the writing was not done by Mr. Henry is furnished when one of his genuine signatures for the fac-simile of onej is compared with it. The two hands are entirely different. But some one has failed to do this, and, thinking that he has come across a genuine signature of Patrick Henry, has cut out the name from the inscription placed in the Erst volumeg but he has kindly left the other volumes in peace. And now, to go back a little, the explanation of the missing fly-leaves in all the volumes seems to be simple. Each of these leaves-probably on the white side-undoubtedly contained, when the books were presented to the college, the genuine signature of Patrick Henry or his book- plateg which objects of interest early excited the cupidity of some thief, who forth- with made away with them, probably long before thief number two fthe individual who further mutilated our first volumej ever heard of Patrick Henry. This second individual was a fool as well as a thief. On the absence of ore of the volumes of this set it is useless to speculate. The volume may never have been pre- sented to the library at allg it may have been lost by accident g it may have been stolen. The books described immediately above are the only ones certainly presented by members of the Hrst Board. It is possible that others deserve a place in the list, for there are several with the names of members of the original Board in them, and proba- bly the signatures, but the history of these books is not altogether clear. The one that most probably belongs with the above is Elements of Navigation QEdinburg, 1773j. This has in it in one place, From the Library of S Smith, and in another place, Presented to the Library by Thomas Read, H. S. C. The latter inscription is written in a plain hand in pencil, and does not seem to be of sufficient age to have I 2

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of presentation, the matter is not so serious: but even in such a case as this, it is hard to say whether the formula was written by the donor or by some one at the college g and positive knowledge upon this point is, because of the conclusions depending thereon, in one or two instances very important. It would be tedious, however, to give here all the difficulties that arise in getting the story g and, in fact, unnecessary, because they will be at least hinted at later on. But it may be remarked in passing that the writing contained in at least three of the books examined must have been done by the donor. These three books are text-books, and the inscription fthe same in each and written in the same handj is as follows: Presented to Hampden-Sidney College for the benefit of pious, indigent young men, May 2, 1829. To this there is no name signed. In each of the vol- umes, however, at another place, is the name George YV. Lane, New Orleans. But the handwriting of the signature and that of the inscriptions are not sufficiently sim- ilar to convict Mr. Lane of writing the latter. It seems highly probable that he did not do so. It seems more highly probable still, and for reasons that are apparent, that the writing was not put into the volumes by any one at Hampden-Sidney. Fur- ther, from the general appearance of the books we may conclude that the authorities here did not lend them out as text-books to the afore-mentioned pious, indigent young men 5 for the volumes are not much worn-and the inscriptions themselves live to tell the tale. Proceeding now to the more serious consideration of other books, we find that beyond any doubt there are in the library volumes presented by the following members of the first Board of Trustees of the college: Everard Meade, Patrick Henry, Robert Lawson and John Nash. The books presented by Colonel Meade are two quarto volumes of Chambers' Cyclopredia QLondon, 17515, and the inscrip- tion on the Hy-leaf is as follows: Hampden-Sidney College. Presented to the College by Colonel Everard Meade of Amelia. Sep'r. 12th, 17 833' The handwriting is evidently not that of Col. Meade, but is the fancy work of' the librarian of that day, or of some student particularly accomplished in the mechanical use of' the pen. Unfortunately, none of the volumes presented by any one of the gentlemen men- tioned above contains the signature of the donor. The inscriptions were all placed in them by others. The books presented by General Robert Lawson were several volumes of' Newton's Principia QGeneva, 17403, but only one of these now remains. The inscription is about the same as that found in the volumes presented by Col. Meade. The date, however, is April 6, 1782. The inscription placed in the first of the volumes given by Colonel Nash is also about the same, the date being June 3, 1784. These volumes, four in number, are John NVitherspoon's Essays on Im- portant Subjects. Patrick Henry presented six volumes-if' the set was complete at the time that I 1

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been written by the Colonel Thomas Reade, who was a member of the first Board, or by a contemporary of his, nor isthe name spelled with the final e. Whether or not, however, the writing is that of Col. Reade may be settled hereafter, as there is a con- siderable quantity of his writing still in existence. The following list of four books is made up of those containing what are supposed to be the signatures of members of the Hrst Board, there being no indication, however, in any case as to how the book came into the possession of the library. 1. Works of Dr. Thomas Sydenham QLondon, 1769j, Nathaniel Venable. 2. The fourth volume of an edition of the Spectator, brought out in Glasgow in 1749, John Nash. 3. Rollin's Roman History QDublin, 1740j, Francis Watkins. 4. Lord Bolingbroke's Letters on the Study and Use of History, James Madison. In reference to the supposed signature of James Madison, it must be admitted that considerable doubt hangs over the case. The volume containing it is much mutilated, the front of the book up to the title page being gone 5 and the supposed signature comes on the last Hy-leaf, of the book. The writing is large and carelessly done, and on the same page is a J, a James Mad, and also what appears to be a still further attempt at the writing of the name James Madison, but all of this is indistinct. The whole page looks much as if some one had been doing just a little practice in writing. All this seems to be against the theory that we have here a genuine signature of Mr. Madison. But we must remember that Madison was once young, and, as others, not averse to writing his name in a careless manner in the back of one of his books. And when fac-similes of Madison's signature are compared with this writing, the similarity, making due allowance for difference in age at the times of' writing, and for other things, is rather close than otherwise. In Grigsby's The Virginia Convention of 1776, fac-similes are given of Madison's signature as a man of about sixty and as a man of eighty-two. These differ from each other, as we might expect, far more, in fact, than does the supposed signature differ from either. There seems to be no difficulty in accepting the writing as the writing of Mr. Madison when a young man and in a hurry. The date of publication of the book is 1770. Madison was born in 1751, so that in 1770 he was nineteen years of age. He graduated at Princeton in 1771, but continued there another year, doing further work under the guidance of Dr. John Witherspoon, the president. We may even suppose that the book came Madison's way some time in this year of special study, and it would still not be too late for him to write in the manner exhibited. There is no way of determining how the book got to Hampden-Sidney. But when the early connection of Princeton and Hampden-Sidney, through the teaching force of the latter, is recalled, a possible explanation of the presence of the book here is at once suggested. Some one of these Princeton-bred instructors may very easily have brought I3