He was a Cambridge man, who had come specially from Toulouse to see St Bertrand’s Church, and had left two friends, who were less keen archaeologists than himself, in their hotel at Toulouse, under promise to join him on the following morning. In the spring of 1883 an Englishman arrived at this old-world place–I can hardly dignify it with the name of city, for there are not a thousand inhabitants. It was the site of a bishopric until the Revolution, and has a cathedral which is visited by a certain number of tourists. St Bertrand de Comminges is a decayed town on the spurs of the Pyrenees, not very far from Toulouse, and still nearer to Bagneres-de-Luchon. ‘Canon Alberic’s Scrap-book’ was written in 1894 and printed soon after in the _National Review_, ‘Lost Hearts’ appeared in the _Pall Mall Magazine_ of the next five stories, most of which were read to friends at Christmas-time at King’s College, Cambridge, I only recollect that I wrote ‘Number 13’ in 1899, while ‘The Treasure of Abbot Thomas’ was composed in the summer of 1904. As for the fragments of ostensible erudition which are scattered about my pages, hardly anything in them is not pure invention there never was, naturally, any such book as that which I quote in ‘The Treasure of Abbot Thomas’. If anyone is curious about my local settings, let it be recorded that St Bertrand de Comminges and Viborg are real places: that in ‘Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You’ I had Felixstowe in mind. ‘Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad’ The Treasure of Abbot Thomas _These stories are dedicated to all those who at various times have listened to them._ Produced by Suzanne Shell, Thomas Berger, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

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