12 Old English Letters. almost hourly, press, which in great measure supersedes the tongue of the talker and the pen of the ready writer. Its effect upon society in this respect is analogous to that of our stupendous machinery upon individual industry.' Old English Letters. The earliest English correspondence on record are the letters of the Paston family, relating to the reigns of Henry VI., Edward IV., and Richard III. (1422-85), and published by Sir John Fenn, a celebrated antiquary of the eighteenth century. The authenticity of these letters, which long formed a subject of controversy, has now been fully established by the recent elaborate investigations of the London Society of Antiquaries. Most of them were written by or to members of the family of Paston in Norfolk; and, accordingly, although they embrace frequent allusions to public affairs, their chief interest consists in their detailed and unvarnished description of the social and domestic manners of our English neighbours during the fifteenth century. The artless writers of these letters,' says Sir John Fenn, Paston Correspondence. 13 'here communicate their private affairs, or relate the reports of the day; they tell their tale in the plain and uncouth phrase of the time; they aim not at shining by art or eloquence, and bespeak credit by total carelessness of correction and ornament.' AGNES PASTON TO HER SON. TO MY WELL-BELOVED SON, JOHN PASTON,-Son, I greet you well, and send you God's blessing and mine, and let you weet (know) that Robert Hill came homeward by Orwellbury, and Gurney telled him he had been at London for money, and could not speeden, and behested (promised) Robert that he should send me money by you; I pray forget it not as ye come homeward, and speak sadly (seriously) for another farmer. And as for tydings, Philip Berney is passed to God on Monday last past with the greatest pain that ever I saw man; and on Tuesday Sir John Heveningham yede (went) to his church and heard three masses, and came home again never merrier, and said to his wife that he would go say a little devotion in his garden, and then he would dine; and forthwith he felt a fainting in his leg, and syyd (slid) down; this was at nine of the clock, and he was dead ere noon. My cousin Clere prays you that ye let no man see her letter, which is ensealed under my seal. I pray you that you will pay your brother William for four ounces and an half of silk as he paid, which he sent me by William Taverner, and bring with you a quarter of an ounce even like of the same that I send you closed in this letter; and say (tell) your brother William that his horse hath one 14 Matrimonial Epistle. farcy and great running sores in his legs. God have you in keeping. Written at Norwich, on Saint Thomas' Even, in great haste, by your mother, AGNES PASTON. NORWICH, Friday, 6th of July 1453. JOHN PASTON TO EDMOND GREY, LORD OF THE LORD GREY,-Right worshipful and my right good Lord, I recommend me to your good Lordship, and whereas it pleased your Lordship to direct your letter to me for a marriage for my poor sister to a gentleman of your knowledge of 300 marks livelihood, in case she were not married; wherefore I am greatly bound to do your Lordship service; forsooth, my Lord, she is not married, nor insured to no man; there is and hath been divers times of late, communication of such marriages with divers gentlemen, not determined as yet, and whether the gentleman that your Lordship meaneth be one of them or nay, I doubt; and whereas your said letter specifieth that I should send you word whether I thought you should labour farther in the matter or nay. In that, my Lord, I dare not presume to write so to you without I knew the gentleman's name; notwithstanding, my Lord, I shall take upon me, with the advice of other of her friends, that she shall neither be married nor insured to no creature, nor farther proceed in no such matter, before the feast of the Assumption of our Lady next coming, during which time your Lordship may send me, if it please you, certain information of the said gentleman's name, and of the place and country where his livelihood lieth, and whether he hath any children; and after I shall demean me in the matter as your Lordship shall be pleased; for in good faith, my Lord, it were to me great joy that my said poor sister were, according to her poor Howell and Garrard. 15 degree, married by your advice. Trusting, then, that ye would be her good lord, right worshipful and my right good Lord, I beseech Almighty God to have you in his keeping. Written at Norwich the 15th day of July. NORWICH, Monday, 15th of July 1454 Another early English collection of familiar letters is the correspondence of James Howell, who flourished during the first half of the seventeenth century. It affords abundant evidence of the ability and intelligence of the writer, and contains some very graphic descriptions of the historical events and personages of that eventful period. Towards the middle of the same century, we have a series of letters addressed by the Reverend George Garrard to Sir Thomas Wentworth, Lord Deputy of Ireland. They are to be found among a mass of public despatches in two bulky folios devoted to the life of Lord Strafford, and are described by Mr. Charles Knight as 'some of the most gossiping, and therefore amusing letters in our language.' Probably one of the most affecting effusions ever penned is poor Anne Boleyn's last letter to her capricious lord and master, embracing, as it does to use the language of Addison- the expostulations of a slighted 16 Anne Boleyn's last Letter lover, the resentments of an injured woman, and the sorrows of an imprisoned queen :' 'SIR, Your Grace's displeasure, and my imprisonment, are things so strange unto me, as what to write, or what to excuse, I am altogether ignorant. Whereas you send unto me (willing me to confess a truth, and so obtain your favour) by such an one, whom you know to be mine ancient professed enemy, I no sooner received this message by him, than I rightly conceived your meaning; and if, as you say, confessing a truth indeed may procure my safety, I shall with all willingness and duty perform your command. 'But let not your Grace ever imagine, that your poor wife will ever be brought to acknowledge a fault, where not so much as a thought thereof preceded. And to speak a truth, never Prince had wife more loyal in all duty, and in all true affection, than you have ever found in Ann Boleyn; with which name and place I could willingly have contented myself, if God and your Grace's pleasure had been so pleased. Neither did I at any time so far forget myself in my exaltation or received Queenship, but that I always looked for such an alteration as I now find; for the ground of my preferment being on no surer foundation than your Grace's fancy, the least alteration, I knew, was fit and sufficient to draw that fancy to some other object. You have chosen me, from a low estate, to be your queen and companion, far beyond my desert or desire. If, then, you found me worthy of such honour, good your Grace, let not any light fancy, or bad counsel of mine enemies, withdraw your princely favour from me; neither let that stain, that unworthy stain, of a disloyal heart towards your good Grace, ever cast so foul a blot on your most dutiful wife, and the Infant-Princess your daughter. Try me, good King, but let me have a |