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.
He made a list of them, which I found afterwards in the cottage.
In the list, No. 43 was `Cotarmouris,' or the Boke of St. Albans. The
old fellow was something of a herald, and drew in his books what he held
to be his coat. After his death, all that could be stuffed into a large
chest were put away in a garret; but a few favourites, and the `Boke'
among them remained on the kitchen shelves for years, till his son's widow
grew so `stalled' of dusting them that she determined to sell them.
Had she been in poverty, I should have urged the buyer, Stark,
the duty of giving her a small sum out of his great gains."