Accounts of Tattershall Castel, which has been described as "the finest piece of medieval brick-work in England"

The following is the opening paragraph of W. Douglas Simpson’s Preface.
The publication of this work has been inordinately delayed. This is partly due to my own ill-health and partly to various mishaps, of which the most spectacular is perhaps unique in the record of such undertakings. My house was invaded by a monkey, escaped from a travelling circus a mile or more away: and, in the fracas consequent on efforts to recapture it, some of the transcripts were so badly damaged that they had to be re-written!