a magnificent collection of
maps and topographical prints and drawings. The library is very rich in
bibliographical rarities as well as in general literature. The Gutenberg
Bible, the Bamberg Bible, the first and second Mentz Psalters (the
first, a superb volume, is kept at Windsor Castle), and no less than
thirty-nine Caxtons are among the most conspicuous of the many
treasures of this splendid collection. The Caxtons were principally
purchased at the sales of the libraries of James West in 1773, John
Ratcliffe, the Bermondsey ship-chandler, who had acquired the remarkable
number of forty-eight, in 1776, and of Richard Farmer in 1798. Edwards,
in his _Lives of the Founders of the British Museum_, informs us that
'Ratcliffe's forty-eight Caxtons produced at his sale two hundred and
thirty-six pounds, and that the king bought twenty of them at an
aggregate cost of about eighty-five pounds. Amongst them were _Boethius
de Consolatione Philosophiae_, the first editions of _Reynard the Foxe_
and the _Golden Legende_, the _Curial_, and the _Speculum Vitae Christi_.
The _Boethius_ is a fine copy, and was obtained for four pounds six
shillings.'

George III.'s library was first kept in the old Palace of Kew, which was
pulled down in 1802, and afterwards in a handsome and extensive suite of
rooms at Buckingham House; the site which at one time had been proposed
for the British Museum. Scholars and students were at all times
liberally permitted by the King to consult the books, and he also showed
his kindly consideration for them by instructing his librarian 'not to
bid either against a literary man who wants books for study, or against
a known collector of small means.' A handsome catalogue of the library
was compiled by Sir F.A. Barnard, who had charge of the collection from
its commencement to the time when it was acquired by the nation. He died
on the 27th of January 1830, aged eighty-seven.

The library in which George III. took so keen an interest was regarded
by his successor as a costly burden, and there is little doubt he
intended to dispose of it to the Emperor of Russia, who was very anxious
to obtain it. The design of the King having become known to Lord
Farnborough and Richard Heber, the collector, they communicated
intelligence of it to Lord Liverpool and Lord Sidmouth, who were
fortunately able to prevent the proposed sale of the books by offering
the King an equivalent for them, the amount of which has not trans