The Cornhill Magazine (vol. XLI, no. 242 new series, August 1916)Various
General
The Cornhill Magazine (vol. XLI, no. 242 new series, August 1916)
Various
England -- Periodicals; English literature -- Periodicals; Short stories, English -- Periodicals
My remaining coincidences are of a much more ordinary character. The
first case occurred in 1882, when I was reading Elton’s ‘Origins of
English History.’ On page 194 he describes from a printed collection the
manorial customs of Taunton Deane in his own county of Somersetshire.
For my own studies I wanted to examine these customs. I sought for the
book in vain at the British Museum, at the Law Society’s Library, and at
other libraries to which I had access. And at last I determined to appeal
to Mr. Elton himself. At that time I did not know him well. He replied,
pointing out the great value of the book, owing to it being printed
locally for the use of the tenants of the manor and not for publication,
and stated the probability of his copy being the only one in existence.
Eventually he lent me the book on condition that I returned it within a
week. It reached me one Monday morning, and in the evening I commenced
to copy the entire book. It consisted of 132 and xxix pages of a small
octavo, and its title was ‘The Ancient Customs of the Manor of Taunton
Deane; collected from the records of the Manor presented by the Jury at
the Law Day Court, the twenty-fourth of April 1817, and published under
their sanction. By H. B. Shillibeer, Land surveyor etc. Taunton, 1821.’
I finished my copying for the night, a dozen pages or so, skipping the
introduction of twenty-five pages. Among my letters on Tuesday morning
was a catalogue from Hindley, the bookseller in the old Booksellers’ Row
in the Strand, and the first entry which caught my eye was Shillibeer’s
‘Customs of Taunton Deane’ marked in the catalogue for three shillings
and sixpence. Breakfast had no longer any interest for me, and I posted
up to London and secured the copy, which still holds its place in my
library. I have a note of one other copy in a Manchester catalogue at
fifteen shillings, but have never met with another copy in a catalogue or
in a library.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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