House and Garden 
/ 
/ THE ETHICS OF BOOK-BORROWING 
A FRIEND of Burne-Jones returned 
^ some borrowed books, which he 
had kept for thirty years, with a note say¬ 
ing that if it is base to keep books thirty 
years, it is also heroic to return them 
after time had bred a sense of possession. 
Burne-Jones replied: “The return of 
those books has simply staggered me. 
It has also pained me, for it seems to 
raise the standard of morality in these 
matters, and perhaps to sting the suscep¬ 
tible consciences of book-borrowers. I 
have many borrowed books on my 
shelves. I would rather the owners 
should die than that I should have to 
think about these things and return them. 
I have two costly volumes that were lent 
to me before that little incident of 
ours, which, you may remember, was in 
Red Lion Square. I hope the owner 
is no more, for I simply will not give 
them up. 
“And you have made me uneasy, and 
have helped to turn an amicable rascal 
into a confirmed villain. Your affec¬ 
tionate Ned. ” 
LEICESTER AND ITS TEMPLE OF JANUS 
TT may be interesting to old Shaks- 
pearean actors, as well as the lovers 
of Shakspeare, to learn, writes a corres¬ 
pondent of the “London Era,” that 
there exists at the present time in the 
town of Leicester a ruin of a temple 
dedicated to Janus. This ruin is known 
as the “Jewry Wall,” and is in danger of 
being swept away to make way for the 
new railway station of the M. S. & L. 
Company in connection with their trunk¬ 
line to London. The owners of an 
adjoining factory have included this 
remarkable ruin in the sale of their 
property, although the vicar and church 
wardens of St. Nicholas, who claim the 
ruins as theirs, have protested. From 
accounts in my possession, it appears 
that King Lear founded the town or city 
of Leicester 884 years before the birth 
of our Saviour, and that he built therein 
a temple dedicated to Janus, and placed 
therein a Flamen (a pagan priest). 
It further appears that King Lear was 
buried in this temple by his daughter, 
Cordelia; also that another king of the 
Britons, named Archigalls, was buried 
there. 
As an action in the matter is pend¬ 
ing, the vicar and church wardens 
would be glad of any assistance. Their 
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