I enjoyed a visit to the library. We've lost the art and appreciation of silence. Silence allows thoughts to develop, and unrealised ideas to germinate. In a public lending library the only sounds were the squish of shoes on polished parquet flooring and the nervous coughs of customers. Any suggestion of speech or enjoyment and Blue Rinse would '…have to ask you to leave'. In pre-Gates days, this doughty guardian of the library precinct devoted her life to sorting and cataloguing little cardboard envelopes, each of which contained a slip of paper giving details of a borrowed book. She lived in a cubicle created by banks of tiny wooden drawers holding many thousands of these crucial items. The loss of an individual envelope was not acceptable. Private libraries also existed, one major example being Boots – remember Laura, in Brief Encounter? Books belonging to such libraries were uniformly dressed in paper jackets and instantly recognisable. Even quite small shops could have a small area of books tucked away in a corner for loan at a tanner a week. [For younger readers, a tanner was half a bob]. It is still possible to find an old book with a Boots label affixed inside the cover, and many book lovers had artistically designed labels for marking books as their personal property. Almost every home contained at least one old book of religious works or poetry, in which an ornate label recorded its presentation as a reward for achievement. My grandfather, an Old Contemptible from Ypres, whose language certainly broadened my horizons; was he really the same youngster who never missed chapel in three years? And of course there was the family Bible. The largest of books in every sense, and obviously well thumbed in much earlier years. Scribbled notes inside the covers recorded births, deaths and marriages, plus any significant events such as emigration of family members or close friends. Large engravings of bearded patriarchs, protected by sheets of rice paper. My personal library was rather more dog-eared and ink-stained. 'Mensa, mensa, mensam ...' -- Smokey Checked by Norton 2004 before transmission with Mozilla Thunderbird