iv

the Reign of Henry VIII." will have little difficulty in perceiving how much this work is indebted to yours in respect of its plan and system. I only trust that, in its execution, it may not be found unworthy of the teaching from which I have so much profited, and in gratitude for which I remain,

Yours very sincerely,

JAMES GAIRDNER.

PREFACE.

UBLIC attention was first drawn to the Paston Letters in the year 1787, when there issued from the press two quarto volumes

with a very lengthy title, setting forth that the contents were original letters written "by various persons of rank and consequence" during First publication the reigns of Henry VI., Edward IV., and of the Letters. Richard III. The materials were derived from autographs in the possession of the Editor, a Mr. Fenn, of East Dereham, in Norfolk, who seems to have been known in society as a gentleman of literary and antiquarian tastes, but who had not at that time attained any degree of celebrity. Horace Walpole had described him, thirteen years before, as “a smatterer in antiquity, but a very good sort of man." What the great literary magnate afterwards thought of him we are not informed, but we know that he took a lively interest in the Paston Letters the moment they were published. He appears, indeed, to have given some assistance in the progress of the work through the press. On its appearance he expressed himself with characteristic enthusiasm :-"The letters of Henry VI.'s reign, &c., are come out, and to me make all other letters not worth reading. I have gone through one volume, and cannot bear to be writing when I am so eager to be reading. There are

letters from all my acquaintance, Lord Rivers, Lord Hastings, the Earl of Warwick, whom I remember still better than Mrs. Strawbridge, though she died within these fifty years. What antiquary would be answering a letter from a living countess, when he may read one from Eleanor Mowbray, Duchess of Norfolk ?"1

So wrote the great literary exquisite and virtuoso, the man whose opinion in those days was life or death

1 Walpole's Letters (Cunningham's ed.), ix. 92.

What was

by some.

to a young author or a new publication. And in spite of all that was artificial and affected in his character, -in spite even of the affectation of pretending a snobbish interest in ancient duchesses,-Walpole was one of the fittest men of that day to appreciate such a publication. Miss Hannah More thought of them was less easily pleased, and she no doubt was the type of many other readers. The letters, she declared, were quite barbarous in style, with none of the elegance of their supposed contemporary Rowley. They might perhaps be of some use to correct history, but as letters and fine reading, nothing was to be said for them. It was natural enough that an age which took this view of the matter should have preferred the forgeries of Chatterton to the most genuine productions of the fifteenth century. The style of the Paston Letters, even if it had been the most polished imaginable, of course could not have exhibited the polish of the eighteenth century, unless a Chatterton had had some hand in their composition.

in the work.

Yet the interest excited by the work was such that General interest the editor had no reason to complain of its reception. The Paston Letters were soon in everybody's hands. The work, indeed, appeared under royal patronage, for Fenn had got leave beforehand to dedicate it to the King as "the avowed patron" of antiquarian knowledge. This alone had doubtless some influence upon the sale; but the novel character of the publication itself must have excited curiosity still more. A whole edition was disposed of in a week, and a second edition called for, which, after undergoing some little revision, with the assistance of Mr. George Steevens, the Shakspearian editor, was published the same year. Meanwhile, to gratify the curious, the original MS. letters were deposited for a time in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries; but the King having expressed a wish to see them, Fenn sent them

1 Robertson's "Memoirs of Hannah More," ii. 50.

to the palace, requesting that, if they were thought worthy of a place in the Royal Collection, His Majesty would be pleased to accept them. They were accordingly added to the Royal Library; and as an acknowledgment of the value of the gift, Fenn was summoned to Court, and received the honour of knighthood.

But the two volumes hitherto published by Fenn contained only a small selection out of a pretty considerable number of original letters of the same period in his possession. The reception these two volumes had met with now encouraged him to make a further selection, and he announced with his second edition that another series of the Letters was in preparation, which was to cover the same period as the first two volumes, and to include also the reign of Henry VII. Accordingly a third and fourth volume of the work were issued together in the year 1789, containing the new letters down to the middle of Edward IV.'s reign. A fifth and concluding volume, bringing the work down to the end of Henry VII.'s reign, was left ready for publication at Sir John Fenn's death in 1794, and was published by his nephew, Mr. Serjeant Frere, in 1823. Of the original MSS. of these letters and their descent, Fenn gives but a brief account in the preface to his first volume, which we will endeavour to supplement with additional facts to the best of our ability. The letters, it will be seen, were for the most part written by or to particular members of the family of Paston in Norfolk. Here and there, it is true, are to be found among them State papers and other letters of great interest, which must have come to the hands of the family through some indirect channel; but the great majority are letters distinctly addressed to persons of the name of Paston, and in the possession of the Pastons they remained for several generations. In the days of Charles II. the head of the family, Sir Robert Paston, was created Earl of Yarmouth; but his son William, the second bearer of the title, having got into debt and encumbered

The MSS.

Owned by Peter

his inheritance, finally died without male issue, so that his title became extinct. While living in reduced circumstances, he appears to have parted with his family papers, which were purchased by the great antiquary and collector, Peter Le Neve, Esq., Norroy Le Neve. King of Arms. Le Neve was a Norfolk man, possessed of considerable estates at Witchingham and elsewhere in the county; and he made it a special object to collect MSS. and records relating to both Norfolk and Suffolk. What intentions he may have had as to their ultimate disposal I have not been able to ascertain, but on his death in 1729 his library was sold by auction, and the MSS., which he had brought together with so much industry, were dispersed.

A large part of them, however, came to the hands of his brother antiquary, Thomas Martin, whose name By Martin of has been handed down to antiquaries of Palgrave. the present day with the epithet by which he himself wished it to be distinguished, as Honest Tom Martin of Palgrave. Shortly after Le Neve's death, Martin found himself a widower, and married the widow of his friend. He thus came into the possession of a valuable collection of pictures, antiquities, and other articles, besides a considerable remainder of the books and MSS. not yet submitted to the hammer; so that, having already bought a good number of those which had been sold, he for a time secured against further dispersion the treasures which it had cost Le Neve forty years of labour to bring together. The collection was still spoken of as Le Neve's collection, and Francis Blomefield, who was at this time engaged in composing his invaluable "History of Norfolk,"1 alludes to it under that name. Blomefield had the free use of all Le Neve's MSS., and appears to have made some collections of his own, though doubtless on a smaller scale. In the preface to his "History of

1 The first volume of this work was published in 1739, ten years after Le Neve's death.