Handle this Book!

In Handle this Book! the New York Times describes the presentation of rare books and manuscripts to History undergraduates. There's nothing like the smell of old books, the sound as you flick through the pages of a book made from cloth paper or reading the scribbled notes and signatures of previous owners!

This is the untidy scrawl of a previous owner of the 1640 edition of Parkinson's Herbal held in the Richardson Collection (263F). William Hopkins has practised his signature numerous times on the last page of the volume but what was he thinking when he scrawled the following lines...?

'Remember well and bear in mind
a faithful friend is hard to find
but how to find a friend so just
is first to try and then to trust'