tful: 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
cata