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A Nonsense Anthology by Collected by Carolyn Wells

C >> Collected by Carolyn Wells >> A Nonsense Anthology

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"Cassez-vous, cassez-vous, cassez-vous,
O mer, sur vos froids gris calloux!"
Ainsi traduisit Laure
Au profit d'Isadore
(Bon jeune homme, at son futur epoux.)


Un marin naufrage (de Doncastre)
Pour priere, an milieu du desastre
Repetait a genoux
Ces mots simples et doux:--
"Scintillez, scintillez, petit astre!"

_George du Maurier_.



* * * * *

There was a young man of Cohoes,
Wore tar on the end of his nose;
When asked why he done it,
He said for the fun it
Afforded the men of Cohoes.

_Robert J. Burdette_.


* * * * *

I'd rather have habits than clothes,
For that's where my intellect shows.
And as for my hair,
Do you think I should care
To comb it at night with my toes?

I'd rather have ears than a nose,
I'd rather have fingers than toes,
But as for my hair:
I'm glad it's all there;
I'll be awfully sad when it goes.

I wish that my Room had a Floor;
I don't so much care for a Door,
But this walking around
Without touching the ground
Is getting to be quite a bore!

_Gelett Burgess_.



H was an indigent Hen,
Who picked up a corn now and then;
She had but one leg
On which she could peg,
And behind her left ear was a wen.

_Bruce Porter_.




Cleopatra, who thought they maligned her,
Resolved to reform and be kinder;
"If, when pettish," she said,
"I should knock off your head,
Won't you give me some gentle reminder?"

_Newton Mackintosh_.



When that Seint George hadde sleyne ye draggon,
He sate him down furninst a flaggon;
And, wit ye well,
Within a spell
He had a bien plaisaunt jag on.

_Anonymous_.



There was a young lady of Niger
Who smiled as she rode on a Tiger;
They came back from the ride
With the lady inside,
And the smile on the face of the Tiger.

_Anonymous_.



There was a young maid who said, "Why
Can't I look in my ear with my eye?
If I give my mind to it,
I'm sure I can do it,
You never can tell till you try."

_Anonymous_.




INDEX OF TITLES


ABSTEMIA _Gelett Burgess_
Abstrosophy _Gelett Burgess_
Aestivation _O. W. Holmes_
Ahkond of Swat, The _Edward Lear_
Alone
As with my Hat upon my Head _Dr. Johnson_
Auld Wife, The _C. S. Calverley_
Aunt Eliza _Col. D. Streamer_
Autumn Leaves, The

BABY AND MARY
Ballade of the Nurserie _John Twig_
Ballad of Bedlam
Ballad of High Endeavor, A
Ballad with an Ancient Refrain
Bison, The _Hilaire Relloc_
Bloated Biggaboon, The _H. Cholmondeley-Pennell_
Blue Moonshine _Francis G. Stokes_
Boy, The _Eugene Field_
Bulbul, The _Owen Seaman_
Buz, quoth the Blue Fly _Ben Jonson_

CENTIPEDE, A
Chimpanzee, The _Oliver Herford_
Chronicle, A
Classic Ode, A _Charles Battell Loomis_
Cobbe's Prophecies
Cock and the Bull, The _C. S. Calverley_
Collusion between a Alegaiter and a Water-Snaik
_J. W. Morris_
Companions _C. S. Calverley_
Cossimbazar _Henry S. Leigh_
Cow, The _Oliver Herford_
Cruise of the "P. C.", The
Cumberbunce, The _Paul West_

DARWINITY _Herman Merivale_
Dinkey-Bird, The _Eugene Field_
Dirge of the Moolla of Kotal _George T. Lanigan_

ELDERLY GENTLEMAN, THE _George Canning_
Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog _Oliver Goldsmith_
Elegy on Madam Blaize _Oliver Goldsmith_

FAITHLESS NELLY GRAY _Thomas Hood_
Famous Ballad of the Jubilee Cup, The
_A. T. Stiller-Couch_
Father William
Ferdinando and Elvira _W. S. Gilbert_
Fin de Siecle _Newton Mackintosh_
Flamingo, The _Lewis Gaylord Clark_
Forcing a Way
Frangipanni
Frog, The _Hilaire Belloc_

GENERAL JOHN _W. S. Gilbert_
Gentle Alice Brown _W. S. Gilbert_
Great Man, A _Oliver Goldsmith_
Guinea Pig, The

HEN, THE _Oliver Herford_
Her Dairy _Peter Newell_
Here is the Tale _Anthony C. Deane_
Her Polka Dots _Peter Newell_
Higher Pantheism in a Nutshell, The
_A. C. Swinburne_
Hippopotamus, The _Oliver Herford_
Holiday Task, A _Gilbert Abbott a Becket_
Hunting of the Snark, The _Lewis Carroll_
Hyder iddle diddle dell
Hymn to the Sunrise

IF
If Half the Road
If a Man who Turnips Cries _Dr. Johnson_
I Love to Stand
Imitation of Wordsworth _Catharine M. Fanshawe_
Impetuous Samuel _Col. D. Streamer_
Incidents in the Life of my Uncle Arly
_Edward Lear_
Indifference
In Immemorian _Cuthbert Bede_
In the Dumps
In the Gloaming _James C. Bayles_
In the Night
Invisible Bridge, The _Gelett Burgess_

JABBERWOCKY _Lewis Carroll_
John Jones _A. C. Swinburne_
Jumblies, The _Edward Lear_

KEN YE AUGHT O' CAPTAIN GROSE _Robert Burns_
Kindness to Animals _J. Ashby-Sterry_
King Arthur

LAYE OF YE WOODPECKORE, YE _Henry A. Beers_
Lazy Roof, The _Gelett Burgess_
Like to the Thundering Tone _Bishop Corbet_
LIMERICKS:
Cleopatra, who thought they maligned her
_Newton Mackintosh_
H was an indigent H _Bruce Porter_
I'd rather have habits than clothes
_Gelett Burgess_
I wish that my room had a door
_Gelett Burgess_
There once was a girl of New York
_Cosmo Monkhouse_
There once was a man who said "How"
There once was an old man of Lyme
_Cosmo Monkhouse_
There once was a person of Benin
_Cosmo Monkhouse_
There was a dear lady of Eden
There was a gay damsel of Lynn
There was an old man in a tree
_Edward Lear_
There was an Old Man of Kamschatka
_Edward Lear_
There was an Old Man of Leghorn
_Edward Lear_
There was an old man of St. Bees
_W. S. Gilbert_
There was an old man of Thermopylae
_Edward Lear_
There was an old man who said "Do"
There was an Old Man who said "Hush"
_Edward Lear_
There was an Old Man who supposed
_Edward Lear_
There was an old person of Ware
_Edward Lear_
There was an old person of Wick
_Edward Lear_
There was an old person of Woking
_Edward Lear_
There was an old stupid who wrote
_Walter Parke_
There was once a man with a beard
_Edward Lear_
There was a princess of Bengal
_Walter Parke_
There was a small boy of Quebec
_Rudyard Kipling_
There was a young lady of Milton
There was a young lady of Niger
There was a young lady of Wales
There was a young maid who said "Why"
There was a young man at St. Kitts
There was a young man of Cohoes
_Robert J. Burdette_
There was a young man who was bitten
_Walter Parke_
Vers Nonsensiques _George du Maurier_
When that Seint George hadde sleyne ye dragon
Lines by a Fond Lover
Lines by a Medium
Lines by a Person of Quality _Alexander Pope_
Lines to Miss Florence Huntingdon
Lines to a Young Lady _Edward Lear_
Little Billee _W.M. Thackeray_
Little Peach, The
Little Willie
Lobster wooed a Lady Crab, A
Lovers and a Reflection _C.S. Calverley_
Love Song by a Lunatic
Lugubrious Whing-Whang, The _James W. Riley_
Lunar Stanzas _H.C. Knight_

MALUM OPUS _J. Appleton Morgan_
Man in the Moon, The _James W. Riley_
Martin Luther at Potsdam _Barry Pain_
Martin to his Man
Mary Ames
Mary Jane
Master and Man
Mayor of Scuttleton, The _Mary Mapes Dodge_
Melancholia
Metaphysics _Oliver Herford_
Minnie and Winnie _Lord Tennyson_
Misfortunes _Col. D. Streamer_
Mr. Finney's Turnip
Modern Hiawatha, The
Monkey's Glue, The _Goldwin Goldsmith_
Monkey's Wedding The
Monsieur McGinte
Moon is up, The
Moorlands of the Not
Mors Iabrochii
Muddled Metaphors _Tom Hood, Jr_.
My Dream
My Feet _Gelett Burgess_
My Home
My Recollectest Thoughts _Charles E. Carryl_

Nephelidia _A. C. Swinburne_
Noble Tuckman, The _Jean Ingelow_
Nonsense
Nonsense _Thomas Moore_
Nonsense Verses _Charles Lamb_
Not I _R.L. Stevenson_
Nyum-Nyum, The

Ocean Wanderer, The
Odd to a Krokis
Ode to the Human Heart _Laman Blanchard_
Of Baiting the Lion _Owen Seaman_
Oh, my Geraldine _F.C. Burnand_
Oh, Weary Mother _Barry Pain_
On the Oxford Carrier _John Milton_
On the Road _Tudor Jenks_
Owl and the Pussy-Cat, The _Edward Lear_

PANTHER, THE
Parson Gray _Oliver Goldsmith_
Parterre, The _E. H. Palmer_
Personified Sentimental, The _Bret Harte_
Pessimist, The _Ben King_
Platypus, The _Oliver Herford_
Pobble who has no Toes, The _Edward Lear_
Poor Brother
Poor Dear Grandpapa _D'Arcy W. Thompson_
Psycholophon _Gelett Burgess_
Puer ex Jersey
Purple Cow, The _Gelett Burgess_
Python, The _Hilaire Belloc_

QUATRAIN

RIDDLE, A
Rollicking Mastodon, The _Arthur Macy_
Russian and Turk

SAGE COUNSEL _A. T. Quiller-Couch_
Sailor's Yarn, A _James Jeffrey Roche_
Sea, The
Sea-Serpent, The _Planche_
She's All my Fancy Painted Him _Lewis Carroll_
She Went into the Garden _S. Foote_
Shipwreck, The _E. H. Palmer_
Silver Question, The _Oliver Herford_
Sing for the Garish Eye _W. S. Gilbert _
Singular Sangfroid of Baby Bunting, The _Guy W. Carryl_
Some Geese _Oliver Herford_
Some Verses to Snaix
Song of Impossibilities _William M. Praed_
Song of the Screw, The
Song on King William III
Sonnet Found in a Deserted Madhouse
Sorrows of Werther, The _W. M. Thackeray_
Spirk Troll-Derisive _James W. Riley_
Story of Cruel Psamtek, The
Story of Prince Agib, The _W. S. Gilbert_
Story of Pyramid Thothmes
Story of the Wild Huntsman _Heinrich Hoffman_
Sun, The _J. Davis_
Sunbeam, The
Superior Nonsense Verses
Susan
Swiss Air _Bret Harte_
Sylvie and Bruno _Lewis Carroll_

Tender-Heartedness _Col. D. Streamer_
Tender Infant, The _Dr. Johnson_
There was a Frog
There was a Little Girl _H. W. Longfellow_
There was a Monkey
Three Acres of Land
Three Children
Three Jovial Huntsmen
Threnody _George T. Lanigan_
Thy Heart
Timid Hortense _Peter Newell_
Timon of Archimedes _Charles Battell Loomis_
'Tis Midnight and the Setting Sun
'Tis Sweet to Roam
To Marie
To Mollidusta _Planche_
Transcendentalism
Trust in Women
Turvey Top
Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee

Uffia _Harriet R. White_
Uncle Simon and Uncle Jim _Artemui Ward_
Unsuspected Fact, An _Edward Cannon_
Uprising See the Fitful Lark

Villon's Straight Tip _W. E. Henley_

Walloping Window-Blind, The _Charles E. Carryl_
Walrus and the Carpenter, The _Lewis Carroll_
Ways and Means _Lewis Carroll_
Whango Tree, The
What the Prince of I Dreamt _H. Cholmondeley-Pennell_
When Moonlike ore the Hazure Seas
_W.M. Thackeray_
Where Avalanches Wail
Wild Flowers _Peter Newell_
Wonderful Old Man, The
Wreck of the "Julie Plante" _W.H. Drummond_

Yak, The _Hilaire Belloc_
Yonghy-Bonghy-BO, The _Edward Lear_







INDEX OF AUTHORS


A BECKET, GILBERT ABBOTT
A Holiday Task
ASHBY-STERRY, J.
Kindness to Animals

BAYLES, JAMES C.
In the Gloaming
BEDE, CUTHBERT
In Immemoriam
BEERS, HENRY A.
Ye Laye of ye Woodpeckore
BELLOC, HILAIRE
The Bison
The Frog
The Python
The Yak
BLANCHARD, LAMAN
Ode to the Human Heart
BURDETTE, ROBERT J.
Limerick
BURGESS, GELETT
Abstemia
Abstrosophy
The Invisible Bridge
The Lazy Roof
Limericks
My Feet
Psycholophon
The Purple Cow
BURNAND, F. C.
Oh, my Geraldine
BURNS, ROBERT
Ken ye Aught o' Captain Grose?

CALVERLEY, CHARLES S.
The Auld Wife
The Cock and the Bull
Companions
Lovers and a Reflection
CANNING, GEORGE
The Elderly Gentleman
CANNON, EDWARD
An Unsuspected Fact
CARROLL, LEWIS
The Hunting of the Snark
Jabberwocky
She's All my Fancy Painted Him
Sylvie and Bruno
The Walrus and the Carpenter
Ways and Means
CARRYL, CHARLES E.
My Recollectest Thoughts
The Walloping Window-Blind
CARRYL, GUY WETMORE
The Singular Sangfroid of Baby Bunting
CHOLMONDELEY-PENNELL, H.
The Bloated Biggaboon
What the Prince of I Dreamt
CLARK, LEWIS GAYLORD
The Flamingo
CORBET, BISHOP
Like to the Thundering Tone

DAVIS, J.
The Sun
DEANE, ANTHONY C.
Here is the Tale
DODGE, MARY MAPES
The Mayor of Scuttleton
DRUMMOND, W.H.
Wreck of the "Julie Plante," The
DU MAURIER, GEORGE
Vers Nonsensiques

FANSHAWE, CATHARINE M.
Imitation of Wordsworth
FIELD, EUGENE
The Boy
The Dinkey Bird
FOOTE, S.
Farrago of Nonsense

GILBERT, W.S.
Ferdinando and Elvira
General John
Gentle Alice Brown
Sing for the Garish Eye
The Story of Prince Agib
There was an Old Man of St. Bees
GOLDSMITH, GOLDWIN
The Monkey's Glue
GOLDSMITH, OLIVER
Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog
Elegy on Madam Blaize
A Great Man
Parson Gray

HARTE, BRET
The Personified Sentimental
Swiss Air
HENLEY, W.E.
Villon's Straight Tip
HERFORD, OLIVER.
The Chimpanzee
The Cow
The Hen
The Hippopotamus
Metaphysics
The Platypus
The Silver Question
Some Geese
HOFFMAN, HEINRICH
The Story of the Wild Huntsman
HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL
AEstivation
HOOD, THOMAS
Faithless Nelly Gray
HOOD, THOMAS, JR.
Muddled Metaphors

INGELOW, JEAN
The Noble Tuckman

JENKS, TUDOR
On the Road
JOHNSON, SAMUEL
As with my Hat
If a Man who Turnips Cries
The Tender Infant
JONSON, BEN
Buz, quoth the Blue Fly


KING, BEN
The Pessimist
KIPLING, RUDYARD
Limerick
KNIGHT, HENRY C.
Lunar Stanzas


LAMB, CHARLES
Nonsense Verses
LANIGAN, GEORGE T.
Dirge of the Moolla of Kotal
A Threnody
LEAR, EDWARD
The Ahkond of Swat
Incidents in the Life of my Uncle Arly
The Jumblies
Limericks
Lines to a Young Lady
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat
The Pobble
There was an Old Man in a Tree
The Yonghy-Bonghy-BO
LEIGH, HENRY S.
Cossimbazar
LONGFELLOW, H.W.
There was a Little Girl
LOOMIS, CHARLES BATTELL
A Classic Ode
Timon of Archimedes


MACKINTOSH, NEWTON
Fin de Siecle
Limerick
MACY, ARTHUR
The Rollicking Mastodon
MERIVALE, HERMAN
Darwinity
MILTON, JOHN
On the Oxford Carrier
MONKHOUSE, COSMO
Limericks
MOORE, THOMAS
Nonsense
MORGAN, JAMES APPLETON
Malum Opus
MORRIS, J. W.
Collusion between a Alegaiter and a Water-Snaik

NEWELL, PETER
Her Dairy
Her Polka Dots
Timid Hortense
Wild Flowers

PAIN, BARRY
Martin Luther at Potsdam
Oh, Weary Mother
PALMER, E. H.
The Parterre
The Shipwreck
PARKE, WALTER
Limericks
PLANCHE
The Sea-Serpent
To Mollidusta
POPE, ALEXANDER
Lines by a Person of Quality
PORTER, BRUCE
Limerick
PRAED, W. M.
Song of Impossibilities

QUILLER-COUCH, A. T.
The Famous Ballad of the Jubilee Cup
Sage Counsel

RILEY, JAMES W.
The Lugubrious Whing-Whang
The Man in the Moon
Spirk Troll-Derisive
ROCHE, JAMES JEFFREY
A Sailor's Yarn

SEAMAN, OWEN
The Bulbul
Of Baiting the Lion
STEVENSON, R. L.
Not I
STOKES, FRANCIS G.
Blue Moonshine
STREAMER, COL. D.
Aunt Eliza
Impetuous Samuel
STREAMER, COL. D.--_Continued_
Misfortunes
Tender-Heartedness
SWINBURNE, A. C.
The Higher Pantheism
John Jones
Nephelidia

TENNYSON, LORD
Minnie and Winnie
THACKERAY, W.M.
Little Billee
The Sorrows of Werther
When Moonlike ore the Hazure Seas
THOMPSON, D'ARCY W.
Poor Dear Grandpapa
TWIG, JOHN
Ballade of the Nurserie

WARD, ARTEMUS
Uncle Simon and Uncle Jim
WEST, PAUL
The Cumberbunce
WHITE, HARRIET R.
Uffia








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Film review: Choke

Mark Crick performs 'Hanging Wallpaper with Ernest Hemmingway' and 'Boarding an Attic with Edgar Allan Poe'

History's missing pages: Iranian academic sliced out sections of priceless collection

These are high times for Gordon Brown. He has been praised for saving the global financial system, and received a welcome respite from his electoral troubles at the Glenrothes byelection.

But not everything is rosy for the prime minister. His latest book, Wartime Courage: Stories of Extraordinary Courage by Ordinary People in World War Two, has sold just 193 copies in the fortnight it has been on sale.

In the same two weeks, Jordan - Pushed to the Limit, the latest instalment of the glamour model's autobiography, sold 4,446 copies, despite having been on sale for 10 months. Wartime Courage currently ranks at 10,646 in the Amazon UK sales chart.

To rub salt into his wounds, the reviews have been rotten. The Independent bemoaned Brown's "robotic neutrality", "engine-drone monotone" and "mealy-mouthed avoidance of 'controversial' issues". Writing in the Spectator, the author James Delingpole went further, describing Wartime Courage as a "leaden, clunken-fisted cuttings job". Brown has an "automaton-like inability either to empathise with his subject ... or to work out which details needed emphasising and which could be safely excluded".

Brown's subjects - which include the Chariots of Fire legend Eric Liddell and Violette Szabo, who worked undercover for the Special Operations Executive during the second world war - were intrinsically thrilling, said Delingpole. Which "makes it all the less excusable that Brown has made them seem so dull".

And that's not all. "His opening and closing essays are waffly, trite and, in so far as they attempt to make political capital from the achievements of people who have nothing whatsoever to do with him or his grisly ideology, offensive," complained Delingpole, who admitted that as a "starving author" he resented "the allocation by the publishing industry of time, money, space and attention to people who can barely write and anyway have well remunerated day jobs".

Not everyone hated it, however. The Jewish Chronicle's reviewer was a lone fan, saying all of the stories in the book were "well told" and made "compelling reading". "Finding time to write this book does the prime minister credit."

The book was due to be published in April, but did not hit the shops until November. A spokeswoman for Bloomsbury, the prime minister's publisher, denied it had been held back because of his low popularity ratings in the spring.

"The reason it was delayed was because he hadn't finished writing it - he didn't have a ghostwriter," said Bloomsbury's publicity director, Katie Bond.

Neill Denny, editor-in-chief of the publishing trade magazine the Bookseller, said that while he was surprised Brown's book had sold so badly, it was not the most tempting proposition.

Denny said: "It would be different if he had written his memoirs. That could be political dynamite. We've had half the story of the Blair years, but Brown's point of view could be fascinating."

But he added: "It is not disastrously bad. Hardback books do not sell in huge quantities any more. When the Booker longlist came out last year, of the 13 books, half had sold less than 1,000 copies."

Gordon Brown's first book on the subject of bravery, Courage: Eight Stories, which was published by Bloomsbury last year, has sold 4,469 copies in the UK, according to Nielsen BookScan.

The Conservatives may be falling back in the polls, but they are easily winning the book war: William Hague's biography of William Pitt the Younger has sold more than 78,000 copies since 2004.

PM's weighty tome

Tirpitz and Godfrey Place

On 11 September six X-craft set out for the thousand-mile journey. Each midget submarine had two crews: one for the passage out - on which they were towed by six larger submarines - and one operational crew to carry out the final attack. Two of the midget submarines broke adrift, one being eventually recovered, the other sinking with all hands. On 19 September the four remaining vessels approached the target area, still under tow. Towing problems delayed HM Submarine Stubborn and her charge X-7 when a floating mine - part of the outer defences of Altafjord - became caught on the tow-line and was then impaled on the bows of the midget submarine. [Godfrey] Place, the commander of X-7, went out on its forward casing and cleared the mine away with his foot.

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Why shouldn't Sarah Palin get a book deal?

To the untrained eye the damage is barely visible. Yet within the handbound pages of books charting how Europeans travelled to Mesopotamia, Persia and the Mogul empire from the 16th century onwards, the damage caused by one Iranian academic to a priceless British Library collection is irreversible.

Leading scholars at the library are at a loss to explain why Farhad Hakimzadeh, a Harvard-educated businessman, publisher and intellectual, took a scalpel to the leaves of 150 books that have been in the nation's collection for centuries. The monetary damage he caused over seven years is in the region of £400,000 but Dr Kristian Jensen, head of the British and early printed collections at the library, said no price could be placed upon the books and maps that he had defaced and stolen.

"These are historic objects which have been damaged forever," said Jensen. "You cannot undo what he has done and it has compromised a piece of historical evidence which charts the early engagement of Europeans with what we now know as the Middle East and China.

"It makes me extremely angry. This is someone who is extremely rich who has damaged and destroyed something that belongs to everybody."

Hakimzadeh, 60, faces a jail sentence today when he appears at Wood Green magistrates court in London. The Iranian-born academic fled his country after the fall of the Shah and holds a US passport. He has pleaded guilty to 14 specimen charges of stealing maps, pages and illustrations from 10 books at the British Library and four from the Bodleian Library in Oxford dating back to 1998.

When police searched his home in Knightsbridge, west London, last July they discovered some of the missing maps, pages and pictures inserted into less valuable editions of the same books he owned.

Academics at the library were forced to turn detective in June 2006 after a reader who had taken out a copy of Sir Thomas Herbert's book A Relation of Some Yeares Travaille, Begunne Anno 1626 suggested some of its pages had been removed.

Careful examination by experts at the library proved him to be correct and the staff mounted a delicate operation to find out who had been damaging the book and whether other items had suffered the same fate.

Using electronic records, they found all the British Library members who had taken out the book and then examined other works these people had had contact with. They discovered that other works detailing the same periods in history and covering European engagement to the area from modern-day Syria to Bangladesh were also damaged.

Pages had been sliced away close to the spine of the books and maps, one of them worth £32,000, had been removed from chapters, leaving barely noticeable indentations in the paper marking where they had been.

"It was only the books taken out by Hakimzadeh which showed a consistent pattern of damage," said Jensen.

They discovered that Hakimzadeh had taken out 842 books and of these at least 150 had been mutilated. Some of the stolen pages were discovered but many have been lost forever.

The library wrote to Hakimzadeh, who at the time was chief executive of the Iran Heritage Foundation, a charity he formed in 1995 to promote and perserve the history, languages and culture of Iran. He replied saying he had no idea that there was any damage to the books. It was at this point that the library went to the police with the details of the investigation.

Forensic scientists analysed the damaged books and police officers called at Hakimzadeh's Knightsbridge home, where he lived with his wife.

"Some pages were found loose and others had been inserted into books in his own collection," said Jensen, who acccompanied the officers. "Hakimzadeh is eminently characteristic of our traditional groups of readers: he has a profound knowledge of the field. From my point of view, that makes it worse because he actually knew the importance of what he was damaging. What he did was use the cover of serious scholarly purpose to steal historic pieces and abuse our trust."

The library has launched a civil action to sue Hakimzadeh for full compensation.

Defaced books

The rare books that were defaced by Hakimzadeh include:

Historia de la China From the writings of Father Matteo Ricci, an Italian Jesuit who travelled to China in 1582 and became the first western traveller to settle there. First published in Latin in 1615. This copy was printed in Spain in 1621. Ricci learned to speak and write Chinese and his work was the first important and reliable European description of the country.

Novus Orbis An anthology of works by Simon Grynaeus, professor of Greek at Basle. Hakimzadeh removed an engraving of a world map drawn by Hans Holbein the Younger, court painter to Henry VIII.

Mithridates By the English dramatist Nathaniel Lee. Published in 1693.

Ost-indian-und Persianische Reisen By Johann Gottlieb Worm, the German philosopher who accompanied an envoy of the Dutch East India Company sent to the Safavid court in Persia in 1717. He travelled to Isfahan from India via Bandar. Published in 1745.

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