'When in my early apprentice days I was first enabled to dip into the pages of "Maga", its chief attraction was the later series of "The Diary of a late physician". I greatly enjoyed the papers, and also, later on, the same author's story of "Ten Thousand a Year". [when the journal came out] I would sit on the steps [of George Street] for nearly an hour engrossed by the perusal of some interesting portion of its pages, munching at the same time my dinner of bread-and-cheese. The pages of the copies of the magazine in my custody as collector were, of course, uncut, but having as many as eight or ten in my charge, I managed without it being discovered to cut open one leaf in each of the numbers in order to master the narrative.'