Armorial Book-stamp of the Rev. C.M. Cracherode.
The library contains three Caxtons: Boethius de Consolatione Philosophiæ, the Mirrour of the World, and the Boke of Eneydos.
A copy of Tyndale's New Testament on vellum, which once belonged to Queen Anne Boleyn, with her arms emblazoned on the title-page, and the words 'Anna Regina Angliæ' painted in gold on the edges of the leaves, and a handsome Shakespeare first folio, ought also to be mentioned.
Mr. Cracherode's classical attainments were by no means inconsiderable, but his only writings were a Latin poem printed in the Carmina Quadragesimalia of 1748, and some Latin verses in the collection of the University of Oxford on the death of Frederick, Prince of Wales, in 1751.
A portrait of Mr. Cracherode appears in Clarke's Repertorium Bibliographicum, and in Dibdin's Bibliographical Decameron. This was engraved, contrary to his express wishes, from a drawing made by Edridge for Lady Spencer. An explanation is given by Dr. Dibdin of the circumstances under which the likeness was reproduced.
JOHN TOWNELEY, 1731-1813
John Towneley, who was born on the 15th of June 1731, and died on the 13th of May 1813, was the younger son of Richard Towneley of Towneley, in the county of Lancaster, and Mary, daughter of William, Lord Widdrington. He married Barbara, fourth daughter of Edward Dicconson of Wrightington, in the county of Lancaster, by whom he had a daughter, Barbara, who married Sir William Stanley, Bart., of Hooton, and a son, Peregrine Edward, who succeeded to the estates. Dibdin, in his Bibliographical Decameron, informs us that 'Mr. Towneley had one of the finest figures, as an elderly gentleman (for he died at 82), that could possibly be seen. His stature was tall and frame robust; his gait was firm; his countenance was Roman-like; his manners were conciliatory, and his language was unassuming. His habits were simple and perhaps severe. He generally rose at five, and lighted his own library fire—and his health was manifest in his person and countenance. He was entirely an unpretending man—and may be said to have collected rather from the pleasure and reputation attached to such pursuits than from a thorough and keen relish of the kind of taste which it imparts. He had an ample purse, and it was most liberally unstrung when there was occasion for effectual aid. This observation may equally apply to matters out of the bibliomaniacal record; but as a book-purchaser he was considered among the most heavy-metalled and determined champions in the field.'
The library formed by Mr. Towneley was a particularly good one, and it was remarkable for the large number of rare and fine examples it possessed of books from the presses of Caxton, Pynson, Wynkyn de Worde, Julian Notary, and other early English printers. No fewer than nine Caxtons were to be found on its shelves, and Pynson and Wynkyn de Worde were especially well represented. Among the Caxtons were the first edition of the Dictes or Sayings of the Philosophers, the Fayts of Arms, and Troilus and Creside, together with the Life of St. Katherine, published by Caxton's executors. Perhaps the most important of the other early English books were Boccaccio's Falle of Princis, translated by Lydgate, and Froissart's Cronycle, both printed by Pynson; and the Vitas Patrum and the Kalender of Shepeherdes by Wynkyn de Worde. The library also contained some exceedingly rare and valuable manuscripts, of which some of the most notable were a famous copy of the Iliad, a Pontificale of Pope Innocent IV., and a very interesting and curious collection of English Miracle-Plays acted at Wakefield in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.[79] Of the copy of the Iliad, Clarke in his Repertorium Bibliographicum remarks:—'This is the identical manuscript which was formerly in the possession of Victorius and Salviati at Florence, the supposed loss of which had been deplored for more than two centuries. Critics have unanimously assigned to it a very remote period of antiquity. It is written upon vellum in a very fair and legible hand, and the margins are replete with most valuable and important scholia. Heyne has given a facsimile of it in his Homer. It was purchased by the late Rev. Dr. Burney, whose entire collection is now deposited in the British Museum.'