the book collector
version of his statement. The sale of the drawings had taken place in mid-February 1822, which places the statement at the middle of June. He sent a copy to Dibdin who returned it with a covering letter dated 25 June 1822 (in a private collection). Not surprisingly, the latter found it a partial view and denied any recollection of the agreement regarding the amount to be paid for the travel time. Dibdin assured Lewis that the final bill would be honoured when due, but did not refer again to a public reply. Lewis did make changes to his text for the final version. The open- ing paragraph was deleted and the drophead title ‘Advertisement’ added to the first page. He removed the references to the £ 80 out- standing and stated that all the money had been paid, which places this version after August 1822 when the last bill was taken up. He also made more than thirty editorial revisions of wording and style. (The two versions employ the same setting of type although the changes did involve shifting a good bit of it.) The most significant alteration, added to Dibdin’s comment, ‘I must reserve to myself the power of a public reply, should that statement be fallacious’, in his letter of 12 March 1822, was a new footnote: ‘As this statement has now been printed and made public for several months, and as no “ public reply ” has been made to it, I am justified in inferring that Mr. Dibdin has not found any thing in it which he conceives to be “ falla- cious ”.’ 19 And he revised his summary to read, ‘this sum was paid at long intervals; and the greater part of it long after Mr. Dibdin sold the drawings, and put the price in his pocket’. 20 Lewis seemed intent on publishing his statement, possibly with the completed Groups . How widely Lewis distributed the first version of his statement is unclear. He may have sent it to individuals who subscribed to his Groups , especially members of the Roxburghe Club and, thus, part of Dibdin’s circle. Some of the surviving copies were included in extra-illustrated sets of the Tour originally belonging to subscribers. Lewis did make copies of the second version available although, again, the circumstances are not clear. I have found records of twen- ty-one copies, the details of which are given below. 21 There is, po- 19 . Lewis, ‘Advertisement’, p. 6. 20 . Lewis, ‘Advertisement’, p. 7. 21 . This list is by no means comprehensive. It is based primarily on a survey of private
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