Wood, and left him a
legacy of L40. He purchased the valuable MSS. of the ingenious Augustine
Vincent, Windsor Herald, and Keeper of the records in the Tower, _temp._
Charles I., which at his death he bequeathed to the Heralds' College,
where they are still preserved; and allowed John Vincent his son a
yearly pension for many years. He travelled often to Rome, and spent
some time there to furnish himself with choice books, coins and medals.
In short, he was of such remarkable integrity, charity and hospitality,
as gained him the universal esteem of all the gentlemen of the county;
insomuch that he usually went by the name of the Great Sheldon.... And
for the sufferings which himself and father had undergone in the civil
wars, he was nominated by Charles II. one of the gentlemen of
Warwickshire, who were to have received the honour of the Order of the
Royal Oak, had it been instituted; his estate being then valued at
L2000 per annum, the largest of any in the county, except that of the
Middlemores of Edgbaston, which was estimated of the same annual value.'
The library formed by Sheldon at his manor-house of Weston in the parish
of Long Compton, Warwickshire, was a fine one. Among the printed books
was a very curious and probably unique copy of the first folio of
Shakespeare (now the property of the Baroness Burdett-Coutts), where the
concluding passages of _Romeo and Juliet_, and the opening passages of
_Troilus and Cressida_, are printed twice over at different parts of the
volume. This irregularity was discovered by Mr. Sidney Lee, who read a
paper on the subject before the Bibliographical Society on March 21,
1898. The library at Weston was dispersed in 1781.

[Illustration: BOOK-STAMP OF RALPH SHELDON.]

In commemoration of Sheldon's gifts to Heralds' College, Mr. Ralph
Bigland, who was created Blue Mantle in 1757, and died as Garter in
1784, caused a handsome canvas to be painted, on which are emblazoned
Sheldon's arms, impaled with those of his wife, accompanied by the
following biographical notice:--'To the Memory of Ralph Sheldon of
Beoley in the County of Worcester, Esquire, a great Benefactor to this
Office. Who died at his Manor-House of Weston in the Parish of
Long-Compton, in the County of Warwick, on Midsu[~m]er Day, 1684, aged
61 years wanting 6 weeks: the Day afterwards his Heart and Bowels were
buried in Long-Compton Chancel, in a Vault by those of his Father,
Mother, Grandfather, etc., and on the 10t