Note 393 — The Drawing Room. (continued 4)

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.