A book about the history of England has been returned to Harvard University - 233 years after it was checked out.
No one knows where the thick, leather-covered "Complete History of England with the Lives of All the Kings and Queens Thereof, Volume 3," has been. It was one of only a few books that survived a fire at the university in 1764, thanks to an unknown borrower who failed to return it.It was recently purchased from a rare-books dealer.
The book itself is a relatively undistinguished volume of history that was written by Bishop White Kennett, printed in London in 1706 and given to Harvard by a Boston minister in 1709.
It was one of 404 books that escaped a fire in Harvard Hall when the building burned to the ground on Jan. 25, 1764, destroying the rest of the 5,000-volume collection.
About 250 books that were being kept in storage were spared. Another 144 were out on loan, including one from the original bequest of John Harvard, after whom the university was named.
That book, "The Christian Warfare Against the Devil World and Flesh," by John Downame, was returned by an undergraduate who was profusely thanked and then expelled for having borrowed it without permission.