It was only pure chance that prevented a table that once belonged to G.K. Chesterton ending up on the scrap heap.At a fund-raising event to mark the opening of a library in Oxford dedicated to the Catholic author and apologist, the scholar Aidan Mackey revealed how he narrowly saved the custom-made table from destruction.Mackey described helping Chesterton’s secretary and adopted daughter, Dorothy Collins, to carry the item from her cottage to the pavement after one visit so that it could be collected as rubbish by the local council.It was only when he wondered why the table was so tall that she revealed: “It doesn’t fit me. It was specially made for G.K.!”Now the table features in the collection at the Oxford Oratory. On it sits his hat, typewriter and fountain pe