Manning was the finest artist in the town.

Ponting, at the top of the street just at the corner of the Close, was an artist too, but in quite another fashion.

Ponting was the best established, most sacred and serious bookseller in the county.

In the days when the new "Waverley" was the sensation of the moment Mr.
Ponting, grandfather of the present Mr.Ponting, had been in quite constant correspondence with Mr.Southey, and Mr.Coleridge, and had once, when on a visit to London, spoken to the great Lord Byron himself.
This tradition of aristocracy remained, and the present Mr.Pouting always advised the Bishop what to read and was consulted by Mrs.Lamb, our only authoress, on questions of publishers and editions and such technical points.

For all this Jeremy, at his present stage of interest, would have cared nothing even had he known it, but what he did care for were the rows of calf-bound books with little ridges of gold, that made a fine wall across the window with an old print of the Cathedral and the Close in the middle of them.