Not only in private houses and Corporate and Church libraries were priceless collections reduced to cinders, but an immense stock of books removed from Paternoster Row by the Stationers for safety was burnt to ashes in the vaults of St.Paul's Cathedral.
Coming nearer to our own day, how thankful we ought to be for the preservation of the Cotton Library.

Great was the consternation in the literary world of 1731 when they heard of the fire at Ashburnham House, Westminster, where, at that time, the Cotton MSS.

were deposited.

By great exertions the fire was conquered, but not before many MSS.

had been quite destroyed and many others injured.