Frederick Whiley Hilles, whose bookplate
is in Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the late Dr. Samuel Johnson,
would be known to students of eighteenthcentury English literature. A Professor
at Yale University, he was of considerable assistance (acknowledged) to me
in my edition of Johnson on Shakespeare. At the other extreme,
is the bookplate of Charles Dickens in his copy of Peter Cunningham's A
Handbook for London, Past and Present, a presentation copy.
Dickens thanked his good friend Cunningham for the book in a letter of June 18, 1849: "My Dear Cunningham. Let me thank you, very heartily, for the present of your book," and, upon publication of a second volume of the Handbook, in a letter of January 5. 1854: "Your seasonable letters and book has [sic] already given me the greatest pleasure and will give me more." Occasionally a bookplate is accompanied by manuscript notes. Dr. G. C. Williamson, author of Stories of an Elephant did not present a copy of his book to his friend "Charles W. Berry, 3 St James's Street London SW" (so reads the bookplate) and regretted the omission in writing on the page opposite that bearing the bookplate.