manuscripts and papers I had collected; upon which I advertised my willingness to return their subscription money who would call for it, and did not chuse to wait till I could get up another collection; and by one only amongst them all, the same was demanded and paid. I have now been enabled by the goodness of some great friends and learned antiquaries, to present this collection to the public, and hope they will be found both useful and entertaining."-Preface. And it is also necessary to cite his excuse for his neglect of a chronological, or indeed any other arrangement: "I may be charg'd with inaccuracy, in not preserving order of time in the following collection, but my desire to come out as soon as possible, and clear a reputation very freely and familiarly dealt with, made me send a letter to the press as soon as I received it, and which was often follow'd with another prior to the other in its date and period, but I have endeavour'd to set this right in the contents."Ibid. The Doctor's reference, at the end of his preface, to his long and ill repaid services in the ministry; to the difficulties which he struggled against, from having a very confined income; and to the ill offices and unkindness which he experienced, relate more to his personal history than to his book, though it would be unfair to notice his allusion to them without also speaking of his candid confession, that his life was not altogether sans reproche." 66 66 So varied are the articles in this "book-making" volume, and so wretchedly are they arranged, that it is absolutely impossible, without enumerating every article, a task that would be equally irksome to our readers and to ourselves, to convey even an idea of its contents, excepting what may be gleaned from the following slight account of the principal subjects. With the exception of an " Epistle from Eleutherius Bishop of Rome, to King Luccus, anno 169," the earliest letter in the series is from Lord Scrope to Henry the Fourth, in 1401. Then, in point of time, follow, one from the magistrates of Nurenberg to the same monarch, in 1412; a warrant from the Earl of Warwick, temp. Henry VI.; a letter from Lord Hastings in recommendation of a servant, temp. Edward IV.; letters, from Margaret mother of Henry VII. to the King her son; and from Katherine Queen of Henry VIII.; several letters from statesmen and private individuals during that reign; Henry the Eighth's declaration relative to Anne of Cleves; a few letters, chiefly official, temp. Edward VI. and Queen Mary; a large correspondence between almost all the eminent characters of the reign of Elizabeth; six letters from Sir Thomas Lake, written about 1617, relating to public affairs; a few from Mr. Secretary Calvert; some letters from Elizabeth, James the First, Oliver Cromwell, and Charles the Second; royal speeches; charges to juries; account of audiences of ambassadors; an account of Venable's and Penn's expedition, which, the recent editor erroneously says, was never before printed; Lord Howard's speeches in parliament from 1660 to 1673; papers relating to baronies, &c. &c.; and, as if nothing might be wanting to add to the confusion, a few letters, which a MS. note informs us were written by Dr. Howard himself, and printed in a weekly paper in 1738," but which he had been desired to publish in this collection." Nor is the horrible want of arrangement all that puzzles the reader; the very pages partake of the disorder which characterizes every other part: thus, according to our copy, and the fault does not seem to rest with the binder, p. 473 follows p. 378*; p. 502 is succeeded by p. 553; p. 568 by p. 595; p. 430 by p. 513, and p. 536 by p. 441; and after p. 464 is the appendix, which is paged 379: thence the pages are regular to p. 422, where we again meet with p. *521, and the volume ends at p. *535! At the back of the last page is the following account of the second volume, but which never appeared. "The second volume contains some curious antiquities, letters, &c. in this period, and through the succeeding reigns to the present times: With some originals of Queen Ann, Dutchess of Marlborough, Lord Bolingbroke, Sir Robert Walpole, &c. To which are added several remarkable originals and scarce pieces, poetry, &c. religious, political, and moral." It would thus seem that the worthy Doctor, finding it necessary to form a volume of a certain bulk, or to refund divers sums of money, adopted the former expedient; and, trusting to chance, sent to the printer every thing which the charity of his literary friends induced them to give him; that when the book was completed, or, in other words, when he thought that charity exhausted, it was deemed finished; but that, as it did not assume an appearance sufficiently bulky, patches were added until the necessary corpulency was attained; and hence the incongruous mass which we have introduced to our readers. Not a note of the least value is to be found throughout the work, whilst of those which occur the only merit they possess is, that not a dozen exist, and which altogether would not fill a page. Nor does the compiler-for the term editor would be misappliedalways tell us whence the articles were taken; and, with the exception of a few which were copied from the Cottonian Collection and the State Paper Office, we have but two securities against their being forgeries-the compiler's undoubted incapacity, and the internal evidence they contain of being authentic. Abundant as this wilderness is in weeds, it undoubtedly possesses some flowers. These we shall carefully select; though, if we presented them as we found them, few would thank us for the kindness; for each must be accompanied by remarks descriptive of its particular value. The earliest letter in the collection, with the exception of the very apocryphal one from Eleutherius Bishop of Rome, to King Luccus, A.D. 169, is from Stephen Lord Scrope of Masham to King Henry the Fourth. As no other date occurs in it than the 27th of August, the precise year when it was written can only be presumed; but as he died in January 1406, and speaks of being engaged in the king's service, with his majesty's son, it may be safely assigned to the year 1401, in which Dugdale states, he attended Thomas Plantagenet, afterwards Duke of Clarence, to Ireland. The most curious part of this letter is Scrope's apology for the manner in which it was written; he being obliged, for want of a clerk, to write it himself: but as one of the few specimens which exist of correspondence at the commencement of the fifteenth century, it is well deserving of perusal. "A tres excellent, tres redoute, et mon essovereyn seigneur, le Roy. "Tres excellent, tres redoute, et mon essovereyn Seigneur ; je me recommand a vostre haute et Reall Majeste a tant come aucun lege homme puis a son Seigneur soveryn; desyrant ad tout mon coer de oyer et savoyr bonez novelles de vos et de vostre haute Majeste, le quell je pry a ly toute puissant que tous jours maintener et encrez com vostre coer mesmes saver a multz soheyder ou deviser; et vos doynt toujours le victoyr de tous voz enemyz: Et, tres redoute et mon essovereyn Seigneur, je vous supply par dieux, et en overe de charyte, que vos plesse, que je puis estre en vostre memoyr: Et pour tant que je suy en vostre servysse ovesk mon tres redoute Seigneur vostre Fitz, que je ne soy pas en obly. Et parce je ay envoye devant vostre haute presenz Hugh Cordoys, porteur de ceste, pour pursuer devent vostre haute presenz touchant mon bille que je ay baylle a vostre hautesse a mon deseyn de partir de vostre haute presenz, touchant le ylle de Man, en cas que vous plest que ill poursue pour le dit matre: Et altrement je le met en vostre haute et graciouse volunte. Par en bon foy de dieux, mon essovereyn Seigneur, je ne ay null espoyr, ne null eyde de null creature fors que de dieux et de vostre gracyouse et haute Majeste: Et parce par dieux, que vos plesse penser de mon pover estat, le quel je ne puis mayntener ne sustener en null manier sanz vostre gracyouse ayde. Et serteyn et en bon foy vos me troverez touz jours humble et loyale lege, et prest a touz servyces que vos me commandrez ad testous mon poayer en corps et bienz sans null fayntisse; Tres excellent, tres redoute, et mon essuer eyn seigneur, je pry aly Tout-puissant, que tous jours maynten et encrez vost haute et Realle Majeste en ioy, honer, et prosperite, com vost graciouse coeur mesmez saver a multz soheyder. Escrit a Chest, le xxvii jour de Auste, de ma propre rude mayn, en deffaute de un alt' clerk. Et par ce ie supply a vost hautesse, que vos plesse me tener pou excuse de cest Lettre. Vost' humble lege, "S. SCROPP."-pp. 65, 66. A letter from that celebrated woman, the Countess of Richmond, to her son, King Henry the Seventh, is of much interest. The suit to which she alludes was, we learn from a letter in Mr. Ellis's "Original Letters*," from Henry the Seventh to his mother, "some debts and duties which is oweing and due to her in France, by the French king and others," her whole right to which, that letter also informs us, she had then yielded to her son the king, though we may infer that the countess went first to Calais, purposely to recover them. Henry's communication is chiefly on that subject, and to which it is only necessary to refer. In the same work+ a letter will be found from the countess to the king, dated at Colynton in Northamptonshire, in which she mentions the same affair. Like the following, that letter is signed Margaret R." and which Mr. Ellis observes is "signed as queen," but it is nearly certain that the letter R. was meant to be the initial of " Richmond." We find, from the only date mentioned in it, that Henry the Seventh was born on St. Anne's day, the 26th of July, a fact which has been hitherto unknown; and the affectionate manner in which she speaks of its being his majesty's birth-day, as well as the endearing expressions she uses towards him, are peculiarly striking. She was then the wife of her third husband, Thomas Earl of Derby, whom she mentions as "my lord:" "my lord marquis" was probably the Marquis of Dorset ; my lord of York" was Henry, the king's second son, afterwards King Henry the Eighth. and " 66 "To the King's Grace. "My derest and only desyred joy yn thys world, "With my moste herty lovynge blessyngs, and humble comendations: y pray oure Lord to rewarde, and thancke your grace, for thatt yt hathe plesyd your hyghnes soo kyndly and lovyngly to be content to wryte your lettyrs of thancks to the Frenshe kying, for my greet mater, that soo longe hathe been yn sewte, as Mastyr Welby hath shewed me your bounteous goodness is plesed. I wysh my der hert and my fortune be to recover yt, y trust ye shall well perseyve y shall delle towards you as a kind lovyng modyr; and if y shuld nevyr have yt, yet your kynd delyng ys to me a thousand tymes more then all that good y can recover, and all the Frenshe kyngs mygt be myn wythall. My der hert, and yt may plese your hyghnes to lycense Master Whytstongs, for thys time, to present your honorabyll lettyrs, and begin the process of my cause; for that he so well knoweth the matter, and also brought me the wrytings from the seyd Frenshe kyng, with hys odyr lettyrs to hys parlyement at Paryse, yt shold be gretlye to my helpe, as y thynke; but all wyll y remyte to your plesyr; and if y be too bold in this, or eny my desires, y humbly beseche your grace of pardon, and that your highnes take no dysplesyr. * First Series, vol. i. p. 45. + Ibid. p. 47. "My good kynge, y have now sent a servant of myn into Kendall, to resseyve syche anewietys as be yet hangynge opon the acounte of Sir Wyllyam Wall, my lords chapeleyn, whom y have clerly dyscharged; and if yt wull plese your mayestys oune herte, at your loyser to send me a lettyr, and command me, that y suffyr none of my tenantes be reteyned with no man, but that they be kepte for my lord of Yorke, your faire swete son, for whom they be most mete, it shall be a good excuse for me to my lord and hosbond; and then y may well and wythowte dysplesyr cause them all to be sworne, the wyche shall not aftyr be long undon: And wher your grace shewed your plesyr for the bastard of kyng Edwards, Syr, there is neither that, or any other thing, I may do by your commandment, but y shall be glad to fullfyll to my lytyll power, with God's grace: And, my swete king, Feldyng, this berer, hath prayed me to beseche yow to be his good Lord yn a matter he seweth for to the bishop of Ely, now, as we here, electe, for a lytyll offyse nyghe to Lond. Verily, my kynge, he ys a gued and a wyse well rewled gentylman, and full trewly hathe served yow well accompanyed as well at your fyrst as all odyr occasions; and that cawsethe us to be the more bold and gladder also to speke for hym; how be yt my lord marquis hath ben very low to hym yn times past, by cause he wuld not be reteyned with him; and trwly, my good kyng, he helpythe me ryght well yn seche matters as y have besynes wythyn thys partyes: And, my der hert, y now beseche you of pardon of my long and tedyous wryting, and pray almighty God to gyve you as long, good, and prosperous lyfe as evyr had Prynce, and as herty blessings as y can axe of God. At Calais town, thys day of Seint Annes, that y dyd bryng ynto thys world my good and gracyous prynce, kynge, and only beloved son. By "Your humble servant, bede-woman, and modyer, "MARGARET R.”—pp. 155–157. We are not sure whether the next letter we shall select, from Lady More, wife of the famous Sir Thomas More, to Cromwell, is generally known. If not, it will be very acceptable to most of our readers, for it presents a very affecting picture of the destitution to which that great man was reduced. It was evidently written about 1533, and the purport was to ask whether she might approach the king, because, from the fear then entertained of the plague, the sudden death of any person rendered the inhabitants of the house in which he died suspected of being infested with that disease. Dr. Howard says it was copied from the original. "To the ryght honorable, and her especyall gud maister, Maister Secretarye. 66 Right honorable, and my especyall gud Maister Secretarye: in my most humble wyse I recommend me unto your gud mastershypp, knowlegyng myself to be most deply boundyn to your gud maistershypp, for your monyfold gudnesse, and lovyng favour, both before this tyme, and yet dayly, now also shewyd towards my poure hus |