ity that he unearthed some
deed or papers relating to the premises. It is strange, too, that one of
the few letters of this bishop which have been preserved refers to books.
'Ye promised unto me, long agone,' he writes to Secretary Cromwell, 'the
Triumphes of Petrarche in the Ytalion tonge. I hartely pray you at this
tyme by this beyrer, . . . to sende me the said Boke with some other at
your deuotion; and especially, if it please you, the boke called
Cortigiano in Ytalion.'[10]

There must be many such houses still extant in London, and who knows what
there may be in their long-disused attics? Hidden away in the darkness
beneath their tiles, between joists and under the eaves, it is possible
that books till now unknown to us, by sight at least, may still exist. Or
who has explored the lumber accumulated in many a disused cellar within a
quarter of a mile of the Mansion House? The very existence of the trunks
which we have mentioned proves that such things do still linger in the
nooks and crannies of this great city.

And I would not confine my surmise in this direction to London alone. Two
ancient libraries there are, one in the North Countrie, the other in the
West, that to my certain knowledge have never been explored by modern
bibliographer. The latter is spurned and neglected, the books are deep in
dust and even mildew; the former is also neglected, but at least the
house is inhabited. The owner, an old, old woman, will never permit of
any volume being disturbed. It is said that her father collected the
books many years ago, and that she still guards them jealously for him.

Perhaps one day a copy of the 'Nigramansir' will emerge from its long
sleep in some such house as these. Indeed, it is not so much a matter of
surprise that such books should have disappeared, as that they should
have remained hidden for so long. In 1909 an ancient volume was
accidentally discovered in an old manor-house in the North of England,
where it had lain undisturbed for generations. It proved to consist of no
less than five of Caxton's publications bound up together. Moreover, it
was in the original binding, and was bound, probably, by one of Caxton's
workmen, whose initials it bore. On being put up for sale at Sotheby's,
it changed hands at L2,600.

The account which Gairdner gives in the Introduction to his last edition
of the Paston letters, of the loss and rediscovery of those historic
documents, is also a striking example of th