The  Duchess  dowager  of  Savoy,  who  was  grandmother  to  the  present  Duke,  was  mother
to  his  father,  p.  34^

Dr.  Parr  had  in  his  possession  a  copy  of  this  book  so  indexed  which  had
formerly  belonged  to  Bromley  himself.  In  it  was  the  manuscript  note,  ^  This
edition  of  these  travels  is  a  specimen  of  the  good  nature  and  good  manners  of
the  Whigs.  This  printing  of  my  book  was  a  very  malicious  proceeding ;  my
words  and  meaning  being  very  plainly  perverted  in  several  places.  But  the
performances  of  others  may  be  in  like  manner  exposed,  as  appears  by  the
like  tables  published  for  the  travels  of  Bishop  Burnet  and  Mr.  Addison."

Perhaps  it  was  with  some  premonitory  anticipations  of  these  wilful  perversions
of  the  index-maker  that  a  once  celebrated  Spaniard,  quoted  by  the  bibliogra*
pher  Nicolaus  Antonius,  held  that  the  index  of  a  book  should  be  made  by  the
author,  even  if  the  book  itself  were  written  by  some  one  else.  Macaulay,
too,  recognized  how  an  author's  words  can  be  turned  against  himself  when
he  wrote  to  his  publishers,  **  Let  no  d  d  Tory  make  the  Index  to  my
History."

Nevertheless,  if  authors  were  to  make  their  own  indexes  we  should  be
deprived  of  many  good  stories  of  mistakes  and  misapprehensions,  which,
however  exasperating  to  the  anxious  inqyirer,  have  afforded  pleasant  food  for
mirth  for  many  generations.  The  story  about  Mr.  Best's  ^reat  mind  is  a
classic  As  usually  quoted  it  occurred  as  an  entry  in  the  index  to  Binns'
"  Justice,"  thus  ;

Best,  Mr.  Justice,  his  great  mind.
