[Sidenote: GEORGE THE THIRD’S SERIES OF BOOKS FROM CAXTON’S PRESS.] The _Caxtons_ bought for the King at West’s sale included the dearly prized _Recuyell of the Histories of Troye_ (1472–1474?), the _Booke of the Chesse_ (1476?), the _Canterbury Tales_ of CHAUCER (1478?), the _Dictes and Sayinges of the Philosophers_ (1480), the _Mirrour of the World_ (1481), the _Godfrey of Boloyne_ (1482), the _Confessio Amantis_ (1483), the _Paris and Vienne_ (1485), and the _Royal Booke_ (1487?). Of these, the lowest in price was the _Confessio_ of 1483, which the King acquired for nine guineas, and the highest in price was the _Chaucer_ of 1478, which cost him forty-seven pounds fifteen shillings. At the same sale, he also acquired another Caxton, which has a peculiar interest. The King’s copy of the _Troylus and Creside_ (probably printed in the year 1484) formerly belonged ‘To Her, most gentle, most unfortunate, Crowned but to die—who in her chamber sate Musing with Plato, though the horn was blown, And every ear and every heart was won, And all, in green array, were chasing down the sun;’ and it bears her autograph. Three years after the dispersion of WEST’S Library came that of the extraordinary Collection which had been made by a Bermondsey ship-chandler, John RATCLIFFE by name. This worthy and fortunate Collector has been said, commonly, to have amassed his black-letter curiosities by buying them, at so much a pound, over his counter.[14] But of such windfalls no man has ever been so lucky as to have more than a few. [Sidenote: JOHN RATCLIFFE OF BERMONDSEY AND HIS CURIOUS LIBRARY.] John RATCLIFFE was, like his King, a large buyer at WEST’S sale, and at many other sales, upon the ordinary terms. By pains and perseverance he had collected of books printed by CAXTON the extraordinary number of forty-eight. No Collector ever surpassed, or even reached, that number, except Robert HARLEY, in whose days books that are now worth three hundred pounds could, not infrequently, be bought for much less than the half of three hundred pence. RATCLIFFE’S forty-eight _Caxtons_ produced at his sale two hundred and thirty-six pounds. The King bought twenty of them at an aggregate cost of about eighty-five pounds. Amongst them were the _Boethius_, of 1478; the _Reynarde the Foxe_, of 1481; the _Golden Legende_, and the _Curial_, both of 1484; and the _Speculum Vitæ Christi_, probably printed in 1488. The _Boethius_ is a fine copy, and was obtained for four pounds six shillings. A few years ago an imperfect copy of the same book brought more than sixteen times that sum. [Sidenote: GIFTS TO THE KING’S LIBRARY.]