alised three thousand nine hundred
and ninety-three pounds and sixpence. Among the purchasers at the sale
were King George III., Louis XVI., King of France, Dr. Hunter and the
Rev. C.M. Cracherode. The British Museum also acquired a considerable
number of the books. The manuscripts, and the printed books with
manuscript notes, were sold by Leigh and Sotheby in 1785. The sale took
place on March the 7th and the eight subsequent days. There were six
hundred and thirty-three lots, which produced eighteen hundred and
twenty-seven pounds.

[Illustration: REV. C.M. CRACHERODE.]

Askew was the author of a manuscript volume of Greek and Latin
Inscriptions, copied by him during his travels in Greece and the Levant.
The collection is preserved among the Burney Manuscripts in the British
Museum.

REV. C.M. CRACHERODE, 1730-1799

The Rev. Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode, to whom the British Museum is
indebted for some of its most precious collections, was the son of
Colonel Mordaunt Cracherode, who commanded the Marines in Anson's voyage
round the world. He was born at Taplow in 1730, and was educated at
Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford, taking the degree of B.A. in
1750, and that of M.A. in 1753. After leaving the University he took
holy orders, and for some time was curate of Binsey, near Oxford, but
he did not seek any preferment in the Church. On the death of his father
he inherited a fortune of about three thousand pounds a year, which
enabled him to acquire a library of not less than four thousand five
hundred volumes, remarkable for their rarity and beauty; seven
portfolios of drawings by the great masters, and a hundred portfolios of
prints, many of which were almost priceless; and in addition to these a
splendid collection of coins and gems, and a cabinet of minerals. Mr.
Cracherode, who never married, was a shy, retiring man, who lived
entirely among his collections, and it is said that he never mounted a
horse, nor travelled a greater distance than from London to Oxford. One
great drawback to the happiness of his quiet life was the dread that he
might possibly be called upon to officiate at a coronation as the King's
cupbearer, as his manor of Great Wymondley was held from the Crown
subject to the performance of this duty. Dibdin, in his _Bibliographical
Decameron_, says of him that he had 'a dash of the primitiveness of the
old school about him, and that his manners were easy, polished and
engaging. He was