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 do not know the bishop myself, but Mr. Grenfell, at whose house you spent a few days in the early summer, married the bishop's niece, and will gladly give you an introduction to his uncle. He is in Scotland. But I will write to him before I go to bed."
Sunday morning brought me a cordial letter from Mr. Grenfell, introducing me to the bishop. I wrote a note to his lordship, saying I should be glad to have an opportunity to see Bradford's history; that I was to sail for the United States the next Wednesday, but would be pleased to call at Fulham Tuesday, if that were agreeable to him.