visit the locality, on the borders of Lincolnshire and
Yorkshire, from which Bradford and Brewster and Robinson, the three
leaders of the Pilgrims, came, and where their first church was formed,
and the places in Amsterdam and Leyden where the emigrants spent
thirteen years. But I longed especially to see the manuscript of
Bradford at Fulham, which then seemed to me, as it now seems to me, the
most precious manuscript on earth, unless we could recover one of the
four gospels as it came in the beginning from the pen of the Evangelist.

The desire to get it back grew and grew during the voyage across the
Atlantic. I did not know how such a proposition would be received in
England. A few days after I landed I made a call upon John Morley. I
asked him whether he thought the thing could be done. He inquired
carefully into the story, took down from his shelf the excellent though
brief life of Bradford in Leslie Stephen's "Biographical Dictionary,"
and told me he thought the book ought to come back to us, and that he
should be glad to do anything in his power to help. It was my fortune, a
week or two after, to sit next to Mr. Bayard at a dinner given to Mr.
Collins by the American consuls in Great Britain. I took occasion to
tell him the story, and he gave me the assurance, which he has since so
abundantly and successfully fulfilled, of his powerful aid. I was
compelled, by the health of one of the party with whom I was
travelling, to go to the continent almost immediately, and was
disappointed in the hope of an early return to England. So the matter
was delayed until about a week before I sailed for home, when I went to
Fulham, in the hope at least of seeing the manuscript. I had supposed
that it was a quasi-public library, open to general visitors. But I
found the bishop was absent. I asked for the librarian, but there was no
such officer, and I was told very politely that the library was not open
to the public, and was treated in all respects as that of a private
gentleman. So I gave up any hope of doing anything in person. But I
happened, the Friday before I sailed for home, to dine with an English
friend who had been exceedingly kind to me. As he took leave of me,
about eleven o'clock in the evening, he asked me if there was anything
more he could do for me. I said, "No, unless you happen to know the Lord
Bishop of London. I should like to get a sight at the manuscript of
Bradford's history before I go home." He said, "I