writers from the past......

My Dad used to buy old wardrobes from the corn exchange in Tunbridge Wells, both for the elegant victorian furniture that no-one wanted, and for the books that were often contained inside.They were beautiful books, I still have some of the sets... Dickins, Household Words, Punch.  All full of beautiful engravings.  Sometimes there were notebooks and diaries.  I 
have one written by Tilly, who visited Paris for the first time in 1865, describing her visit in beautiful copperplate.  She returns in 1901 and is not so impressed.{see extra}  Others are filled with religious tracts, or verse like this one which caught my eye today.

A man without hands a letter did write
The dumb repeated it word by word
He who read it had lost his sight
And deaf was he who listened and heard.

I wonder in this digital world what will be left for people to discover?  I'm as guilty as everyone, as most of my reading is on a kindle these days, although I do have the odd notebook to pass on!