FROM his earliest infancy he was remarkable for his great fondness for reading, so that when any of his family went to distant markets or fairs, he constantly importuned them to bring him presents of books; which, if they returned home later than his usual hour of going to rest, were always taken up to bed to him; and sometimes when they had been forgotten, his mother had no other means to allure him to sleep but by wrapping a piece of wood in paper like a book, which he would then hug to his pillow till the morning discovered the deception.
From Treadway Russell Nash, Collections for the History and Antiquities of Worcestershire (1781-2), i. 529.