“From no other place could I with more propriety address you, than from one which you are so eminently contributing to distinguish and adorn, by arranging and new clothing the precious MSS. which belong to it; and thus adding a new honour to the possessor of it, already raised above his fellows by so many eminent and amiable qualities. It has been the wish of my life, for these last twenty-four years that I have had the good fortune to live with Mr. Coke in habits of the closest intimacy and friendship, to have this object set about. Judge, then, of the pleasure I have, in seeing this great desideratum in a way of being speedily accomplished, and so as to reflect the highest honour on the very intelligent superintendant to whom it has been confided. The cheapness with which you do it astonishes not me alone, but Lord Spencer, perhaps the most conversant person in England in the price of bookbinding. There is no binding that we should not have estimated at one half more; and many at double what you have paid for the nice repairing, mending, and binding.”
