But I proceed without further delay to relate some of the more important steps in the progress of this interesting paper, from the garret of the starving poet to the drawing-rooms of Holberton House, merely observing by way of preface that the following notice may be relied on so far as it goes, the writer--Colonel Jonathan Howard of Trenton, New Jersey,--having had access to the very best authorities, and having also had the honor of being enlisted in the service of the Lumley Autograph upon an occasion of some importance, as will be shown by the narrative. It was just one hundred years since, in 1745, that this celebrated letter was first brought to light, from the obscurity in which it had already lain some half a century, and which no subsequent research has been able fully to clear away. In the month of August of that year, the Rev. John Lumley, tutor to Lord G----, had the honor of discovering this curious relic under the following circumstances. Mr. Lumley was one day perched on the topmost step of a library ladder, looking over a black letter volume of Hollinshed, from the well filled shelves of his pupil. Suddenly he paused, and his antiquarian instincts were aroused by the sight of a sheet of paper, yellow and time worn. He seized it with the eagerness of a book-worm, and in so doing dropped the volume of Hollinshed alarmingly near the wig-covered head of his youthful pupil, who with closed eyes, and open mouth, lay reclining on a sofa below. The book, grazing the curls of the young lord's wig, he sprang up from his nap, alive and sound, though somewhat startled. {Hollinshed = Raphael Holinshed (d. 1580), famous writer of British historical chronicles, used by Shakespeare as source for some of his plays} "Hang it Lumley, what a rumpus you keep up among the books! You well nigh drove that old volume into my head by a process more summary than usual." The learned tutor made a thousand apologies, as he descended the ladder, but on touching the floor his delight burst forth. "It was this paper, my lord, which made me so awkward--I have lighted on a document of the greatest interest!" "What is it?" asked the pupil looking askance at letter, and tutor. "An original letter which comes to hand, just in time for my lives of the tragedians--the volume to be dedicated to your lordship--it is a letter of poor Otway." {Otway = Thomas Otway (1652-1685), English playwright who wrote a number of important tragedies in verse, but who died destitute at the age of 33. The Coopers were familiar with his work; James Fenimore Cooper used quotations from Otway's "The Orphan" for three chapter heading epigraphs in his 1850 novel, "The Ways of the Hour"} "Otway?--What, the fellow you were boring me about last night?" "The same my lord--the poet Otway--you may remember we saw his Venice Preserved last week. It is a highly interesting letter, written in great distress, and confirms the story of his starvation. You see the signature."