This shows how great was the negligence towards our literary treasure
before the Revolution; for the pariah volume, which, 60 years before,
had been placed in the Invalides, and which had certainly formed
part of the original Mazarin collections, turned out to be a fine
and genuine Caxton."


I saw this identical volume in the Mazarin Library in April, 1880.
It is a noble copy of the First Edition of the "Golden Legend,"
1483, but of course very imperfect.

Among the millions of events in this world which cross and re-cross one
another, remarkable coincidences must often occur; and a case exactly
similar to that at the Mazarin Library, happened about the same time in
London, at the French Protestant Church, St. Martin's-le-Grand. Many years
ago I discovered there, in a dirty pigeon hole close to the grate in the
vestry, a fearfully mutilated copy of Caxton's edition of the Canterbury
Tales, with woodcuts. Like the book at Paris, it had long been used,
leaf by leaf, in utter ignorance of its value, to light the vestry fire.
Originally worth at least L800, it was then worth half, and, of course,
I energetically drew the attention of the minister in charge to it, as well
as to another grand Folio by Rood and Hunte, 1480. Some years elapsed,
and then the Ecclesiastical Commissioners took the foundation in hand,
but when at last Trustees were appointed, and the valuable library was
re-arranged and catalogued, this "Caxton," together with the fine copy
of "Latterbury" from the first Oxford Press, had disappeared entirely.
Whatever ignorance may have been displayed in the mutilation, quite another
word should be applied to the disappearance.

The following anecdote is so _apropos_, that although it has lately