119.] "I called at Pickering's, in Chancery Lane, who showed me the original agreement between Milton and Symonds for the payment of five pounds for 'Paradise Lost.' The contrast of this sum with the L2,000 given by Mr.Murray for Mrs.Rundell's 'Cookery' comprises a history in itself.

Pickering, too, gave forty-five guineas for this agreement, nine times as much as the sum given for the poem.".