You're looking for a quote and can't find it? You know you've seen it somewhere. You know you weren't dreaming it. But, despite searching through every book/chronicle/article that you own it seems to have vanished into the ether.

Why, oh why, oh why, can't I get more disciplined and note the darn things down when I see them???!!!

Yes, very frustrating! What's the quote?

Oh, yes, drives me crazy!

My specialty is looking through a dozen books to find a reference, then starting all over again and finding it in the first book I looked through originally.

I was looking for something for the next post on the blog (tomorrow). It was about Ed asking the Cinque port sailors to look after Hugh during his 'exile'. I eventually found it in the Vita chronicle - it's just that I could have sworn I'd seen it in the Close or Patent rolls (although it would have been a bit odd).

I'm in the process of logging every thing written about Hugh but it's going to take quite a while. I think it'll be worth it though when I really get into the biography. But for now, it's still a case of chasing through my shelves of books and then going cross-eyed looking at documents on the screen

Susan - I've done that too! I'm sure sometimes the quote wasn't there the first time I looked!

Or worse, you wrote it down and not finding in your notes where you think it is, you go on the search again. Then, when found a second time, you find that the original notation was right under your nose the entire time!

Do you think it happens to - say - marine biologists too? Or is it just a history thing and we're unique?