Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/79

 'PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.' 67 knew on the subject, and whether a bill shewn to them, entitled c Mr. Ponder his Bill,' was or was not in Thomas Braddyl's handwriting. None of the witnesses attempted to answer the questions as to Braddyl's connexion with the Third Part of the c Pilgrim's Progress,' or what the agreement was between the parties as to rates and prices and quantities, perhaps for the best of reasons, that they knew nothing about these points. Awnsham Churchill, who gave his age as thirty- nine or thereabouts, said he had known both the plaintiff and defendant for fifteen years, and that about seven years since (i.e., about 1690) he and Nicholas Boddington bought nine thousand five hundred of the First Part of the c Pilgrim's Pro- gress,' and paid him about threepence-halfpenny a book for them. He believed the bill shown to him to be in Braddyl's handwriting, because it was not unlike some writings which he had seen of Braddyl's. Peter Parker was fifty-seven years of age at the time of the taking of the depositions, and had known the plaintiff for twenty years and the defendant for about ten. To the best of his re- membrance it was about five or six years before (i.e., 1691 or 1692) that he bought about three thousand of the Second Part of the c Pilgrim's Progress ' printed by Braddyl, and paid about three- pence or threepence-halfpenny a piece for them, and paid the money in the presence of both the plaintiff and defendant in a coffee-house in London, but how they shared it he could not say. Parker also admitted ' he might buy a quantity ' of the