1 of _The Antiquary_, I cannot resist the temptation of re-printing it, as a warning to inheritors of old libraries.

The account was copied by me years ago from a letter written in 1847, by the Rev.C.
F.Newmarsh, Rector of Pelham, to the Rev.S.R.Maitland, Librarian to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and is as follows:-- "In June, 1844, a pedlar called at a cottage in Blyton and asked an old widow, named Naylor, whether she had any rags to sell.

She answered, No! but offered him some old paper, and took from a shelf the 'Boke of St.
Albans' and others, weighing 9 lbs., for which she received 9_d_.

The pedlar carried them through Gainsborough tied up in string, past a chemist's shop, who, being used to buy old paper to wrap his drugs in, called the man in, and, struck by the appearance of the 'Boke,' gave him 3_s_.

for the lot.