ed
by him to the Rev. George Thomason, the son of the collector, dated
Oxon, February 6, 1676. He mentions in the letter that he had
endeavoured to secure them for the Bodleian Library, and that although
he had hitherto failed, he still did not despair of finding a way to do
so. He was not, however, successful in his efforts, and King Charles II.
appears to have directed Samuel Mearn, the royal stationer and
bookbinder, to buy them on his account; it is not known for what sum. It
is to be presumed, however, that the King did not find the money for
them, for on May 15, 1684, the Privy Council considered and granted a
petition from Anne Mearn, widow of Samuel Mearn, that she might dispose
of the tracts by sale. She does not seem to have succeeded in doing
this, and they appear to have been returned to the Thomason family, for
in the year 1745 we find them in possession of Mr. Henry Sisson, a
druggist in Ludgate Street, London, who, Richard Gough, the antiquary,
was informed, was a descendant of the collector.[43] After some
negotiations with the Duke of Chandos for their purchase, they were
brought by Thomas Hollis[44] to the notice of King George III., who,
through the Earl of Bute, bought them of Miss Sisson in 1761 for the sum
of three hundred pounds, and in the following year they were presented
by him to the British Museum.

On one of the volumes of the collection are some mud stains, which have
an interesting history. The volume was borrowed from Thomason by King
Charles I., who was anxious to read one of the tracts in it, and while
journeying to the Isle of Wight let it fall in the dirt. Thomason made a
memorandum of the circumstance on a fly-leaf of the book, adding the
'volume hath the marke of honor upon it, which noe other volume in my
collection hath.'

In 1647 Thomason published a trade catalogue in quarto, consisting of
fifty-eight closely printed pages, entitled _Catalogus Librorum diversis
Italiae locis emptorum Anno Dom. 1647, a Georgio Thomasono Bibliopola
Londinensi apud quem in Caemiterio D. Pauli ad insigne Rosae Coronatae
prostant venales. Londini, Typis Johannis Legatt_, 1647, and in 1648 a
selection of works in oriental languages from this catalogue was
purchased by order of the House of Commons,[45] who directed that the
sum of five hundred pounds out of the receipts at Goldsmiths' Hall
should be paid for the books, in order that they might be bestowed upon
the Public Library at Cambridge.

Mr