'My uncle was so particular about his books that he used to declare that when a child's finger had touched one it was spoilt. Acting upon this idea, he gave up certain books to us, when as children we stayed with him at Binstead, on condition of our never touching any others. My brothers had Glanvill's "History of Witches", and we four had a handsome edition of the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments", which, being unexpurgated, was not the wisest choice that could have been made, though it gave me hours of entrancing delight at the time, and taught me to understand allusions to tales which have become part of general literature'.