logue-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.

[Footnote 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 Caesar's
Commentaries, 1712, fol., which was sold for 44_l._; and of
which the binding, according to Dr. Harwood's testimony,
cost 5_l._ 5_s._ 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.

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 verse L1 18_s._ 0_d._

_ye fyrst pt of ys yt es
of mon and of his urechednes._

_ye secou