SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

Morroareax aurnanrosur,

Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies of Great Britain, from the commencement of the Twelfth Century to the close of the Reign of Queen Mary. Edited, chiefly from the Originals in the State Paper Mike, the Towerof London, British Museum, and other State Archives, by Mary Anne Everett Wood. Illustrated with fac- simile Autographs. In three volumes Colburn • THEOLOGY, Sermons preached at St. Paul's Cathedral, the Foundling Hospital, and several Churches in London ; together with others addressed to a Country Congregation. By the late Reverend Sydney Smith, Canon Residentiary of St. Paul's Cathedral. TRAVEIA, Longman and Co. Pedestrian and other Reminis,vw.% at Home and Abroad ; with Sketches of Country Life. By Sylvauus Longman and Co. NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, Elements of Meteorology; being the third edition, revised and enlarged, of Meteoro- logical Essays, by the late Bohn Frederic Daniell, D:C.L., Oxon ; Professor of Cho• mistry in King's College, London, ilia. In two volumes Parlrer. Thiamine POETRY.

Dramas for the Stage. By George Stephens, Author of " The Manuscripts of Erdely," " Martinuzzi," he. In two volumes " London: Ineditus.'

MISS WOOD'S LETTERS OF ROYAL AND ILLUSTRIOUS LADIES OF GREAT BRITAIN.

THESE interesting and ably edited volumes contain a selection of epistles written by British ladies, from about the year 1100 to the close of the reign of Queen Mary in 1558. The bulk of the letters areprinted for the first time. The few exceptions are chiefly from the Paston collection, with translations from one or two foreign authors who have treated of the Tudor biographies ; and the accuracy of these last is tested by a comparison with such epistles as are still in existence. The sources whence Miss Wood has drawn her materials are principally the public depositories of Great Britain,—the State Paper Office, the Tower, the Rolls, the British Mu- seum, and the Bodleian Library; but the fullest and most valuable supply relates to the reign of Henry the Eighth, and is drawn from the Wolsey, the Cromwell, and the Lisle papers. When the respective owners were successively arrested, their papers were seized at the same time; and though Viscount Lisle, after two years' imprisonment in the Tower, was pronounced innocent, and the King sent him a ring with a gracious mes- sage that killed him by the joyful reaction it occasioned, yet his widow and children appear neverlto have claimed the family documents,—too happy to sink the subject of those they had destroyed. Although Lisle only filled the office of Governor of Calais, his wife was an active, busy manager ; holding a ready pen, carrying on a large correspondence, pushing the interests of the joint families, (for both had children, and she had children- in-law, by former marriages,) and receiving many solicitations for ouch influence as she possessed. She had besides, a " servant," or as we, in politer phrase, should say, an " agent," at court, to watch her interests, and keep her informed of passing events; and the family, in addition, seem to have been letter-writers, or the example of Lady Lisle forced them to practise the art. The correspondence of Wolsey and Cromwell as the principal Ministers of the King, the supposed dispensers of all favours, and even the influencers of justice, naturally drew to them in- cessant applications, from princesses of the blood royal and the noble of the land down to the humblest suitor. Two more valuable historical collections than the Wolsey and Cromwell papers are perhaps not in ex- istence ; and a well-selected publication by the Government, at a mere cost price, so as to place the book in the possession of even humble libraries, would be a worthy national undertaking. Circumstances rendered the love-match of Mary Tudor, sister of Henry the Eighth and widow of Louis the Twelfth of France, one of the most singular of royal marriages ; and circumstances have also preserved the story in all its details from the pens of the respective actors ; the entire correspondence having centred in Wolsey, either as mediator, referee, or adviser. When the Reformation was spreading terror through the ecclesiastical portion of the community-, from its threatened changes of property, those who wished to keep their possessions and those who wished to take them would naturally endeavour to influence Cromwell. Besides these and other public events—as the divorce of Catherine, the marriage of Anne Boleyn, and Henry's capricious treatment of his children—the law of wards, with the King's interference in the affairs of his nobles, were continually bringing family matters before his Ministers ; and, with the petitions that reached them for favours of all sorts, they throw a strong light upon the manners and domestic life of the age.

The peculiar plan, which confines her to letters ofladies, has to some ex- tent prevented Miss Wood from making a full use of the stores at her dis- posal ; and, without any wish to underrate the fair sex, we suspect that more variety and matter would be found in the letters of the lords of the creation. To some extent this deficiency of plan is supplied by Miss Wood's elaborate mode of editing. When a letter-writer is introduced for the first time, the reader is presented with a notice of her, as full as our im- mense stores of heraldic and family memorials supply; and the occasion of every letter is told with a fulness proportioned to its importance and the editor's means ; copious extracts being often given of the masculine epistle which replied to it, or to which it was an answer. This editorial matter is so full, that the setting will often be found of more value than the gems ; some of which, sooth to say, are rather curious than attrac- tive in their nature; whilst those of the Tudor period are too numerous to excite interest for their curiosity, yet not in sufficient numbers to form a complete collection with a view to supersede reference to the originals. The rigid chronological order which Miss Wood adopts has also a ten- dency to break up the interest ; not so much by separating a subject nto parts, (though that ..ometimes takes place,) as by dividing families and placing single writers far apart. She has probably allowed too much to mere rank ; and the interminable epistles of Margaret Queen of Scot- land, sister of Henry the Eighth, are rather a drag upon the work, as well as some by lesser writers. The truth is, that though the mind may be struck by rarity, it can only be interested by association ;•.t.t'e must know before we can care. This principle should be ever present to a person who is using archaeology for popular purposes. As soon as things, whether in literature or the arts, are sufficiently numerous to lose their value as mere specimens, the interest must be based upon illustration. To the antiquarian or the his- torian almost every relic may have some value, because something will be associated with it in his mind ; but minute facts of history, slight traits of character, or merely curious varieties in manners or the usages of domestic life, have no attraction for the general reader. He can only be drawn on by some story of inherent interest, or deriving an interest from his previous knowledge of the persons ; by striking pictures of man- ners; by glimpses of domestic life ; or the story of family fortunes, which come home to us all ; or by great strength of character, which always has an interest from its association with the qualities of our com- mon nature. We must therefore confess, that Miss Wood would have turned her learning and research to better popular account had she plan- ned her work upon a principle of illustration. In the early period the matter must have stood pretty much as it now does. The materials are so scanty that a classification into Latin, Norman French, and English, would seem to be the chief divisions. From the time of Henry the Eighth, however, more distinctness of feature would have been desirable : telling some action—as the loves and clandestine marriage of Mary Tudor and Charles Brandon ; the matrimonial quarrels of the Duke and Dutchess of Norfolk, the incessant reclamation and accusations of the wife, with the calmer defences and explanation of the Duke ; connected with some cha- racter—as Queen Katherine ; some political event—as the visitations and the enforced surrender of the religions houses, with ecclesiastical affairs in general ; pictures of family life—as the Lisles ; or general illustra- tion of individual character and manners. Thus classed, the reader would have had a general idea of the subjects, and have read with a pur- pose ; single letters, of little value isolated, would have acquired interest from their use as a member ; and the whole would have possessed the interest of order over chaos. At the same time, to be done completely, the collection could not well have been limited to feminine epistles.

The passion of Francis the First for the beautiful Mary Tudor, widow of his predecessor, is well known ; but., being, as Hume observes, cau- tioned that it might affect his claim to the throne, (through his wife,) he lent his good offices to reconcile Henry to the match with Charles Bran- don Duke of Suffolk. It is not so generally known that Francis was the lovers' confidant, and a forwarder of the marriage ; Henry himself having been aware of the attachment, and having given an implied sort of con- sent to it, if Mary espoused and outlived Louis the Twelfth ; as she thus wrote to Henry after the marriage. The business-like character of the first match scarcely seemed to herald the romance of the second.

" Mary Queen-Dowager of France, to her Brother, Henry VIII. A.D. 1515. [Miscellaneous Exchequer Documents, first series, No. 1213, Rolls House, Corrected draveght.] " sus Mary's penitent letter before given was evidently the first effusion of the sorrowful bride when she was informed of her brother's indignation at her stolen love-match. The present letter was the more formal document, which, though addressed to the FUng, was intended to be laid before his Council as an excuse for herself and her husband, and was dictated for her by her prudent friend and counsellor Wolsey. The frequency with which Mary reiterates her assurances that this marriage was of her own choosing, and without any solicitation from her bridegroom is evidently intended to shelter the latter, who had failed in per- suading the King to allow him to marry the Queen publicly before they left France, and whose position rendered him far more open to the assaults of his enemies, and his still more dangerous secret rivals, than from her rank, her sex, and her near relationship to the Sovereign she could possibly be.

" My most dear and entirely beloved brother—In most humble manner* I re- commend me to your Grace.

" ` Dearest brother, I doubt not but that you have in your good remembrance that whereas for the good of peace and for the furtherance of your affairs you moved me to marry with my Lord and late husband King Louis of France, whose soul God pardon. Though I understood that he was very aged and sickly, yet for the advancement of the saidpace, and for the furtherance of your causes, I was contented to conform myself-to your said motion so that if I should fortune to survive the said late King, I might with your good will marry myself at my liberty without your displeasure. Whereunto, good brother, you condescended and granted, as you well know, promising unto me that in such case you would never provoke or move me but as mine own heart and mind should be best pleased; and that wheresoever I should dispose myself, you would wholly be con- tented with the same. And upon that, your good comfort and faithful promise, I assented to the said marriage, which else I would never have granted to, as at the same time I showed unto you more at large. Now that God bath called my said late husband to his mercy, and that I am at my liberty, dearest brother, re- membering the great virtues which I have seen and perceived heretofore in my Lord of Suffolk, to whom I have always been of good mind, as you well know I have affixed and clearly determined myself to marry with him; and the same [I] assure you bath proceeded only of mine own mind, without any request or labour of my said Lord of Suffolk, or of any other person. And to be plain with your Grace, I have so bound myself unto him, that for no cause earthly I will or may vary or change from the same n't From some cause or other, Cromwell seems to have been more troubled with matrimonial disputes than Wolsey ; as well as with various family 'contentions, arising from the feudal law, then in great strictness, and the operation of wardship. After every allowance for exaggeration, some of these addresses offer singular pictures of the selfishness of the great during the Tudor rule, and the absence of natural affection; or exhibit examples of the personal hardships that individuals of rank had to un- dergo in that age on any reverse of fortune ; or show instances of the harshness with which heads of families sometimes exercised the power that opinion and the difficulties of obtaining justice against rank placed in their hands. Here is a letter of complaint from Lady Hungerford against her husband, an intimate friend of Cromwell, and beheaded with him. It is probable that her troubles do not appear less in her assertion of them ; but Hungerford's character was none of the best, and there

" It was at first written, ' In most tender and loving manner possible' ; the alter- ation is in Wolsey's hand."

t " This sentence was originally written= So It is, brother, as you well know, I have always borne good mind towards my Lord of Suffolk ; and him, as the case doth now require with me, I can love before all other, and upon him I have perfectly set my mind—settled and determined ; and upon the good comfort of your said promise, the matter is so far forth that for 120 cause earthly I will vary or change from the same. And of me and of mine own towardness and mind only hail It proceeded"'

must have been some ground for the statements. After due introduction, Lady Hungerford proceeds.

"And whereas my said Lord Hungerford of late, unknown to me, obtained a commission of your Lordship to the intent he would have been from me divorced for mine incontinency, as he damnably bath reported to my great slander and utter confusion in the world, objecting such a crime of me unto your Lordship and other as I never offended in, I take God to record; and now perceiving with him- self that he could not, nor yet can prove, any manner of cause on my behalf to him given to be divorced, but that I may sooner object such matters against him, with many other detestable and urgent causes, than he can against me, if I would express them, as he well knoweth. And farther, that it pleased your good Lord- ship of your goodness and charity to advertise him at the sending forth of your commission that I should have things necessary in every behalf as it beseemed for his own honour, and that he ahould depart [in the sense of pay, disburse] somewhat with me yearly towards my sustentation and living; which things chiefly, as I suppose, is the very cause only at this time of his stay in this matter: for surely it may please your good Lordship to understand that it will grieve him not a little to depart with one groat at any time, although I am not of myself owner of one penny, nor have any earthly friend more than your Lordship in this world able to help me, or house to resort unto, or that any man will or dare speak or do for me towards your Lordship, or any other, for fear of my Lord's displea- sure: 137 reason whereof now of his own presumption he bath 'discharged your Lordship's commissioners assigned, without any examination or amendment had or used of his demeanour towards me. And so am I, your most woefullest and poorest beadswoman, left in worse ease than ever I was, as a prisoner alone, and continually locked in one of my Lord's towers of his castle in Hungerford, as 1 have been these three or four years past, without comfort of any creature, and under the custody of my Lord's chaplain, Sir John a Lee, which bail once or twice hereto- fore poisoned me, as he will not deny upon examination. And after that he heard say that your Lordship's pleasure was that my Lord Hungerford should give me yearly a pension for my honest sustentation, he then said and promised my Lord, that he would soon rid me for that matter, and so ease my Lord of that money paying, if he might have the keeping of me again, as now he }lath; and I am sure he intendeth to keep promise with my said Lord, if your good Lordship see not remedy in this behalf shortly, for I have none other meat nor drink but such as cometh from the said priest, and brought me by my Lord's fool con- tinually, mine old servitor, as all men in these parts knoweth. Which meat and drink, considering the priest's promise made unto my Lord, and his acts heretofore done unto me, as my Lord well knoweth, I have oft feared, and yet do every day more than other to taste either of the same meat or drink; wherefore many and sundry (times) I have been and yet am fain to drink water, or else I should die for lack of sustenance, and had, long ere this time, had not poor women of the country, of their charity, knowing my Lord's demeanour always to his wives, [she was his third,] brought me to my great window in the night such meat and drink as they had, and gave me for the love of God, for money have I none wherewith to pay them, nor yet have had of my Lord these four years four groats."

A few of the letters give a strange picture of the times in the matter of trespass and riot, with a strong feudal element lurking at the bottom. Sometimes a disputed title, was evidently at issue, though the form of proceeding partook of battle array. At other times ill-blood and wan- tonness would seem to be exciting causes as well ; though we have only one side of the story. The Dowager-Countess of Oxford seems to have been a sufferer in this way. Here is her account of •

THZ PRANKS OF A DE VMS.

Mobley Papers, Vol. VIII. Part I. No. 144, State Paper Office. Original.] Please it your Grace to be advertised, that upon Saturday last past I received your honourable letters, at which time I advertised your Grace to have knowledge of my Lord of Oxford's coming to this town, whereof these shall be [ to advertise] your Grace farther, that about eleven of the o'clock of the same day he entered into this town, accompanied with fifty horsemen, and many of them with bows; and the same day Sir John Raineforth, accompanied with thirty horsemen, came likewise unto this town; and my Lord with his company brake the pale of my park, and entered into the same, with their bows ready bent, like as they would have killed all them that had resisted. And at that time they killed seventeen of my deer, and so departed the park, and tarried them in the town till Wednesday then next following. And on the Tuesday he likewise brake the pale and the gate of my park, and entered into the same, accompanied by estimation with five hundred per- sons, whereof a hundred of the same were bowmen, and every of them their bows bent, and an arrow in their bow, and in array, like as they should have gone unto the wars, and at that time they killed a hundred deer; and before this hunting he sent unto all the towns hereunto adjoining, giving them knowledge to hunt, as many as would come: by reason whereof it caused the people to assemble. The Justice of Assize hearing of this same, and being advertised what mischief might rise by reason of the same, repaired unto this town, to the intent to see a stay, that there should [be] no insurrection among the commons; at which time they bound both my Lord and me to keep the King a peace; but all that notwith- standing, this day he bath been at Campys, accompanied with three hundred persons, and there bath broken up my house, and beaten my servants, and taken all my goods; and what he intends to do further as yet I know not, but except the King's Grace be good and gracious Lord unto me, I know not what-rmaZy. As knoweth God, who keep your Grace in good health. From Lavenham, the 11th day of August..

Yours assured, A. Ostrow. Many of the letters relating to the nunneries are curious, and show that simony prevailed as much among the fair Romanists as among the Anglican Churchmen of modern days. The case of Florence Bonnewe, Prioress of Ambresbury, is touching, though not told by herself, but by the hardened Commissioners.

" We came to Ambresbury, and there communed with the Abbess for the se, complishment of the King's Highness' commission in like sort; and, albeit, we have used as many ways with her as our poor wits could attain, yet, in the end, we could not, by any persuasions, bring her to any conformity, but at all times she rested and so remaineth in these terms—' If the King's Highness command me to go from this house, I will gladly go, though I beg my bread; and, as for pen- sion, I care for none.' In these terms she was, in all her communication, praying us many times to trouble her no farther herein, for she had declared her full mind, in the which we might plainly gather of her words she was fully fixed before our coming."

We cannot enter into the Church question, fully but mast stop with' an indication of the family differences which the change in religion brought about. Here is a Tudor-like letter from a simple gentlewoman, to her eon, Friar George, suspected of backsliding from the " old faith."

" John George—I recommend me unto you, and send you God's blessing and mine, if you do well; but then you must change your conditions that you do now use. I hear of you very well, more than I am well content with. I bear say you be of the new fashion—that is to say, an heretic. I am sorry to hear this word, for truly there was never none of your kindred so named before; and it grieves me not a little to hear say that you should be the first. Also, I heard of your letters that you sent unto the nuns of Deptford, and another to your bener. I am sorry of it, but I think so be not you, for if you were jou should be ashamed to write such to such discreet persons; and, namely, to them the which Lath holpen to bring you up. But I do not marvel greatly at it, for you keep such a fellow's company, that same Bull, that you cannot thrive.

" Also, I hear how you be (not) in favour with your prior and your brethren, which grieves me to hear, as God cloth know. Also, you send me word you will come over to me this summer; but, an if you change not your condition and living, come not at me; for, an you do, you shall be as welcome as water into the ship; and also, you shall have God's curse and mine, and never to have a penny nor pennyworth that I can help you to, but I shall scare you all that I can. And as for that that I have, I had rather give it a poor creature that goeth from door to door, being a good Christian man, than to give it to you to maintain in lewdness and heresy. You can do nothing so privily but it is known at Deptford, and comes knowledge to your bener; and therefore amend yourself, as you will have my blessing, and use yourself so that you may please God, and your prior, and your friends, as you would I should do for you. And so fareyou well.

" By your mother, ELIZABETH GEORGE." " To Friar John George, in Cambridge, this be delivered."

The source of every letter is given, as indicated in some of our ex- tracts, and the condition of the manuscript described. The original orthography, unintelligible to the common reader, and not always readily decipherable even by the skilful, has been changed into the modern spelling ; but no other alteration has been made. When any injury to the manuscript has destroyed part of the writing, it is supplied,—the substituted words and letters within brackets being at once distinguished from the text ; and there is a very good index of names. In short, the selection and the editing reflects the greatest credit upon the fair anti- quarian.