Viscount Mersey: The Bibliophile
Charles Clive Bigham, 2nd Viscount Mersey, Bignor Park
I used to forage for books on Saturday afternoons in the Charing Cross Road*, buying leather or vellum bound classics—Latin, Greek, English, French, and Italian—most of which I religiously read—and paying an average of two shillings a volume. I also bought history and memoirs—well-printed library editions—and in a few years had about one thousand volumes. ~Journal and Memories pp. 187
There is a good chance that Charles Clive Bigham acquired Acts and Monuments from one of the many booksellers on Charing Cross Road sometime between the years 1904 and 1950. What we can definitely tell, is that the bookplate—found on the inside of both volumes of Acts and Monuments—was put there after the year 1926 because the Bigham family did not live at Bignor Park until then. His bookplate is located on the rebound paper, so there seems to be a desire to modify as little of the original book as possible. A known bibliophile, the drab rebinding of this copy of Acts and Monuments would not have deterred Bigham. In fact, owning a 1610 copy of this particular book in any binding would have been preferable as he remarks in his Journal and Memories:
Binding for themselves I never sought for—so many poor books are magnificently bound—but a good book in a good contemporary binding is always worth getting. Gilt and morocco bindings began in France about 1500. The best European printers were Jenson, Aldus, Vascosan, Estienne, Koberger, Elzevir, Plantin, Bodini; and in England Caxton, Baskerville, and Foulis (a Scot). At the annual dinner of the Roxburghe, the great bibliophile club, we still drink to their memories (in one combined toast) ~Journals and Memories pp. 189
As a collector of antiquarian books, Charles Clive Bigham is about as good as it gets. He was highly literate and could read and comprehend English, Latin, Greek, French, and Italian. With this knowledge, Acts and Monuments would have been an absolute treat to own because of Foxe’s use of Latin, Greek, and Anglo-Saxon in addition to English. As a well-read and educated man, Mersey would have enjoyed the code-switching involved in reading the two volumes.
Being classically educated lent itself well to Mersey’s desire to collect—specifically books. In his Journal and Memories, Mersey ends each year’s entry (1941-1951) with one to two paragraphs about all of the books he read that year. He averages about one-hundred-fifty books a year with some of them being quite lengthy and in a language other than English. He not only remarks about how many books he has read, he also discusses the form of the book and the edition. He, of course, sought after first editions and would subsequently read them. It is completely likely that he acquired Acts and Monuments and read the whole thing. He may have been a great collector, but he was equally as good of a reader.
…whenever I found a book which had had a distinguished previous owner I bought it if the price was at all tolerable…~Journal and Memories pp. 189
Perhaps one of the most interesting ideas to consider is why Mersey would have wanted this copy of Acts and Monuments. Other than his need to collect antiquarian books, Mersey loved to collect books that had been owned by other people he could identify. Because both volumes belonged to Francis Rawdon-Hastings, Marquis of Hastings, Mersey would have sought after this kind of book. He was interested in English military history, so as a Governor-General of India, Hastings would have been intriguing to him. In fact, in The Viceroys and Governors-General of India 1757-1947, Mersey devotes an entire chapter to discussing Hastings.
As narrative, we believe that Foxe would have been very happy that Mersey was an eventual owner of this book. As a book for the exceptionally well-learned, Acts and Monuments ended up in the perfect hands with Charles Clive Bigham, Viscount of Mersey.