Sir Charles had no book of reference to guide him to its value.
But in the meantime, Stark had employed a friend to obtain for him
the refusal of it, and had undertaken to give for it a little more than
any sum Sir Charles might offer. On finding that at least L5 could be
got for it, Smith went to the chemist and gave him two guineas, and then
sold it to Stark's agent for seven guineas. Stark took it to London,
and sold it at once to the Rt. Hon. Thos. Grenville for seventy
pounds or guineas.
"I have now shortly to state how it came that a book without covers
of such extreme age was preserved. About fifty years since, the
library of Thonock Hall, in the parish of Gainsborough, the seat of
the Hickman family, underwent great repairs, the books being sorted
over by a most ignorant person, whose selection seems to have been
determined by the coat. All books without covers were thrown into a
great heap, and condemned to all the purposes which Leland laments
in the sack of the conventual libraries by the visitors.
But they found favour in the eyes of a literate gardener,
who begged leave to take what he liked home. He selected a large
quantity of Sermons preached before the House of Commons,
local pamphlets, tracts from 1680 to 1710, opera books, etc.
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