I beg pardon of the manes of "John Ratcliffe, Esq.," for the very inadequate manner in which I have brought forward his collection to public notice. The memory of such a man ought to be dear to the "black-letter-dogs" of the present day: for he had (mirabile dictu!) upwards of Thirty Caxtons! I take the present opportunity of presenting the reader with the following engraving of the Ratcliffe Library, Oxon.

If I might hazard a comparison between Mr. James West's and Mr. John Ratcliffe's collections, I should say that the former was more extensive; the latter more curious. Mr. West's, like a magnificent champagne, executed by the hand of Claude or Both, and enclosing mountains, meadows, and streams, presented to the eye of the beholder a scene at once luxuriant and fruitful: Mr. Ratcliffe's, like one of those confined pieces of scenery, touched by the pencil of Rysdael or Hobbima, exhibited to the beholder's eye a spot equally interesting, but less varied and extensive: the judgment displayed in both might be the same. The sweeping foliage and rich pasture of the former could not, perhaps, afford greater gratification than the thatched cottage, abrupt declivities, and gushing streams of the latter. To change the metaphor—Mr. West's was a magnificent repository; Mr. Ratcliffe's, a cabinet of curiosities. Of some particulars of Mr. Ratcliffe's life, I had hoped to have found gleanings in Mr. Nichols's Anecdotes of Bowyer; but his name does not even appear in the index; being probably reserved for the second forth-coming enlarged edition. Meanwhile, it may not be uninteresting to remark that, like Magliabechi, (vide [p. 86], ante) he imbibed his love of reading and collecting from the accidental possession of scraps and leaves of books. The fact is, Mr. Ratcliffe once kept a chandler's shop in the Borough; and, as is the case with all retail traders, had great quantities of old books brought to him to be purchased at so much per lb.! Hence arose his passion for collecting the black-letter, as well as Stilton cheeses: and hence, by unwearied assiduity, and attention to business, he amassed a sufficiency to retire, and live, for the remainder of his days, upon the luxury of Old English Literature!

It is with pain that I trace the ravages of the Book-Mania to a later period. Many a heart yet aches, and many a tear is yet shed, on a remembrance of the mortality of this frightful disease. After the purchasers of Ratcliffe's treasures had fully perused, and deposited in fit places within their libraries, some of the scarcest volumes in the collection, they were called upon to witness a yet more splendid victim to the Bibliomania: I mean, the Honourable Topham Beauclerk.[393] One, who had frequently gladdened Johnson in his gloomy moments; and who is allowed, by that splenetic sage and great teacher of morality, to have united the elegant manners of a gentleman with the mental accomplishments of a scholar. Beauclerk's Catalogue is a fair specimen of the analytico-bibliographical powers of Paterson: yet it must be confessed that this renowned champion of catalogue-makers shines with greater, and nearly perfect, splendour, in the collection of the Rev. Thomas Crofts[394]—a collection which, taking it "for all in all," I know not whether it be exceeded by any which this country has recorded in the shape of a private catalogue. The owner was a modest, careful, and acutely sagacious bibliomaniac: learned, retired, yet communicative: and if ever you lay hold of a large paper copy of a catalogue of his books, which, as well as the small, carries the printed prices at the end, seize it in triumph, Lisardo, for it is a noble volume, and by no means a worthless prize.

[393] There are few libraries better worth the attention of a scholarlike collector than was the one of the distinguished character above noticed by Lysander. The Catalogue of Beauclerk's books has the following title: "Bibliotheca Beauclerkiana; A Catalogue of the large and valuable Library of the late Honourable Topham Beauclerk, F.R.S., deceased; comprehending an excellent choice of books, to the number of upwards of 30,000 volumes, &c. Sold by auction, by Mr. Paterson, in April, 1781," 8vo. The catalogue has two parts: part i. containing 230; part ii. 137, pp. The most magnificent and costly volume was the largest paper copy of Dr. Clarke's edition of Cæsar's Commentaries, 1712, fol., which was sold for 44l.; and of which the binding, according to Dr. Harwood's testimony, cost 5l. 5s. There is nothing, in modern times, very marvellous in this price of binding. Of the two parts of the Beauclerk collection, the second is the most valuable to the collector of English Antiquities and History, and the first to the general scholar. But let not the bibliomaniac run too swiftly over the first, for at nos. 3450, 3453, he will find two books which rank among the rarest of those in old English poetry. At the close of the second part, there are a few curious manuscripts; three of which are deserving of a description here.

PART II.

£s.d.
3275.Thomas of Arundel, his Legend in old English verse; vii parts, with the Entre, or Prologue: written A.D. M.C.VII. upon vellum, the Capitals illuminated, fol. Here follows a specimen of the verse1180
ye fyrst pt of ys yt es
of mon and of his urechednes.
ye secounde pte folowyng es
of ye worldes unstabillnes.
ye yyrdde pt yt is of deth
& of peyn yt wt hy geth.
the ferthe parte is of purgatorye
yere soules ben clensed of her folye.
ye fyfte pt of ys dey of doom
& of tokens yt byfore shul coom.
ye syxte pt of ys boke to telle
yt speketh of ye peynes of helle.
ye seventhe part of joys in heven
yat bene more yenne tong may neuen.
3276.The Life and Acts of St. Edmond, King and Martyr, by John Lydgate, Monk of Bury, fol.: a choice MS. upon vellum, illuminated throughout, and embellished with 52 Historical Miniatures. For a specimen of the verse, take the first stanza:2210
The noble stoory to putte in remembraunce
Of Seynt Edmond mayd martre and kyng
With his suppoor: my style i wyl avaunce
ffirst to compyle afftre my konnyng
his gloryous lyff his birthe and his gynnying
And by discent how he was soo good
Was in Saxonye borne of the royal blood.