The Library of William Congreve

A small cross is marked before most of the 659 items--before all but fifty-eight (or thirty-seven, when allowance is made for duplicates). Perhaps these crosses were used in connection with an inventory taken in 1729 when the books were inherited by the young Duchess of Marlborough, or in 1740 when the books were incorporated by marriage settlement into the Leeds library. The thirty-seven items then missing (as indicated by the lack of a cross in Congreve's list) were Numbers 27, 29, 54, 97, 109, 110, 127, 136, 169, 196, 217, 227, 246, 249, 275, 307, 350, 373, 393, 417, 432, 438, 439, 492, 494, 517, 520, 529, 530, 531, 532, 590, 591, 598, 605, 653, and 658. The two books that had been lent to "Ld. Hervy" (see Congreve's Number 81) and to the Duchess of Marlborough (see Number 372) were in place at the time of the inventory, and each was duly acknowledged by a cross. An additional larger cross surrounded by four dots appears before eleven items (Numbers 36, 65, 120, 232, 256, 283, 298, 303, 462, 484, a