Show PRECIOUS autographs tho odd way in collector 8 aureil capr on a day in the year 1810 tharo calla t a fishmongers shop in old biml market kept by a yarmouth man named jay friend himself from yarmouth no fishmonger but a cannou and collector of autographs with moreover a sick son for whom lio desired to buy soloa he buys his aolis and flioy am wrapped for him in i largo stin sheet of paper torn from n folio that stands at jays elbow on the dresser and with eliat tho connoisseur goes home and unwrapping the soles them to tho cook when hero on tho largo of paper his trained eye catches tho signatures of godolphin sunderland ashloc lauderdale tho wrapping of tho soles is a sheet of alio charge for prisoners in tho towar in tho reign of james II 11 and the signatures aro those of liis ministers any other man must leavo given eign gone oil to tell somo boily not 50 alio connoisseur but ho ti iaci his hit anil stick and whistling a bit walks back straight into jaya shop the eliop of liis fellow townsman and ho buys a whiting and ho says pretty good paper of yours jay anya ho ind jay aay res it but slid 1 wrapping the whiting in another great sheet of tho folio and ive got a good b altol it too I 1 got it from somerset house the connoisseurs heart gacs a great leap hero of ar gams he remains cool and asks tho arico of cod returns jay her ten tons of waste paper and I 1 offered thirty live dollars a ton which they took dyo see anil ITO got tons of it in the stables and till I 1 want it all like this asks the con faint with expectancy pretty much replies jay ill odds h tho connoisseur goes home with whiling with cod with mackerel with with parcels of even kenil of asli fur his poor fanciful sick son and moreover with a grait bundle of these precious papers froni somerset handed over to him carelessly by his fellow townsman jay who knows his friends little weakness for rubbish and fragments and obligingly sends around to ho stables for an armful fur him ami safe nt home the connoisseur casts alic asli on tho bloor and alio papers and his head beims as ho looks on accounts of tho exchequer office signed by henry VII and henry hlll wardrobe accounts of anno and dividend receipts inca by rope now ton and ran he is obliged to throw up tho window for air as in his armful ho discovers accounts marked with tho E G of nell gwynne a tr caliso on tho eucharist cuch arist in the boyish hand of edward VI and ii disquisition on the order of the garter in alic scholarly writing of elizabeth the government ern ment in disposing by tender of their old papers to jay the fishmonger have disposed of memorials of those if the country lias not most reason to bo proud of she has at least most to remember cochill magazine |