aave rejoiced in this accomplishment of John Tate's longng trials! Ay, Master Richard, this fair sheet was made n the new mill at Hertford; and well am I minded to use t in our Bartholomæus, which I shall straightly put in hand, when the Formschneider is ready. I have thought anent it; I have resolved on it; and I have indited some rude verses touching the matter, simple person as I am :For in this world to reckon every thing

Pleasure to man, there is none comparable
As is to read and understanding

In books of wisdom-they ben so delectable,
Which sound to virtue, and ben profitable;
And eld that love such virtue ben full glad
Books to renew, and cause them to be made.
And also of your charity call to remembrance

The soul of William Caxton, first printer of this book
In Latin tongue at Cologne, himself to advance,

That every well-disposed man may thereon look:
And John Tate the younger joy mote [may] he brook,
Which hath late in England made this paper thin,
That now in our English this book is printed in.'

'Fairly rhymed, Wynkyn,' said Lettou.

'But John

Tate the younger is a bold fellow. Of a surety England can never support a Paper-mill of its own.'

'Come, to business,' said William of Mechlin.

*He always in these marks, associated the device of Caxton with his own; lorying, as he well might, in succeeding to the business of his honoured master, nd continuing for so many years the good work which he had begun.

is

Su

I HAVE a great affection for the Pastons. They are t only people of the old time who have allowed me to know a them thoroughly. I am intimate with all their domesti concerns their wooings, their marriages, their househo economies. I see them, as I see the people of my own day In fighting a never-ending battle for shillings and penc spending lavishly at one time, and pinched painfully another. I see them, too, carrying on their public relatio after a fashion that is not wholly obsolete;-intriguing elections, bribing and feasting. I see them, as becom constitutional Englishmen, ever quarrelling by action a hir writ; and, what is not quite so common in these less a venturous times, employing the holy law of pike and g to support the other law, or to resist. I see them, in the gli pride of family, despising trade and yet resting upon fanc assistance. I see the ladies leading a somewhat unqui and constrained life till they have become comfortable the matter of marriage; and I see the young gentleme taking a strict inventory of the amount of ready cash thic is to be paid down with a bride, and deciding upon elig

to 1

clot

old

ility by this simple rule of the scales. This is all very difying and I am truly obliged to this gracious family, who, four hundred years ago, communicated with each other and with their friends, in the most frank manner, upon very subject of their varied lives.

We

The Paston Letters carry us hrough three generations who lived luring the turbulent period of the Wars of the Roses. The first geneation makes us acquainted with Sir William Paston, a judge of the Common Pleas, and his wife Agnes. This is a wonderful woman. see her, at the very opening of the correspondence, scheming for the narriage of her sons, and holding her daughters in terrible durance. The judge passes on to that assize where no more 'fur sit on the bench and latro stand at the bar.' But then comes on the scene, John Paston, his lder son; and he, for a quarter of century, dwelling now in the Inner Temple and now in Norwich, s carrying on a fight about disputed itles to broad lands in Norfolk and Suffolk, whilst his wife Margaret is writing him little tender rememorances of her affection, or warning aim against his enemies, or opening to the worldly man in London quiet glimpses of boys wanting new

Ther

me t

eir d

ir be

nyi

and

uf

lothes, and girls growing up to be troublesome in the
ancy that a little love is necessary to their existence. The
old grandmother Agnes is still busy amongst them. Then

* Original Letters written during the Reigns of Henry VI., Edward IV., and
ichard III.; with Notes, by John Fenn, Esq. A new edition, by A. Ramsay,
vols., 1840.

Mode of Folding and Sealing a Letter.

John Paston of the Inner Temple passes away, and gallant son, Sir John Paston, comes upon the stage. He of a gay and fearless nature, winning ladye's love at tour ment or dance, but a very restless spirit who has s secret affection which interferes with his certain advan ment if he would be prudent and marry after the com fashion. He has need of friends, but Sir John throws the away very recklessly; and so the great enemy of the Hot of Paston, the Duke of Norfolk, gets the upper hand, beleaguers their castle of Caister with a thousand men, a takes hold of the fortress and its lands in a summary wa well known to the old barons and knights as disseisi and which the petty modern ages imperfectly copied wha the landlord unroofed a cottage to eject his refractory tenar This latter story of the Pastons is a great romance.

Margaret Paston, the mother, is the heroine of t strange eventful history,' after she became a widow 1466. She is a person of prodigious energy, and she need of it to cope with the difficulties by which she is st rounded. She is troubled by the course of politics as as by that of law. Sir John, the gay soldier, hower ready to better his fortune in the sunshine of court fave is not very particular whether it be the sun of York' of Lancaster. Her second son, also John, who is call John of Gelston, a curious specimen of the gallant of the days, who wears his new hat and looks out for a new lo with equal indifference, cannot keep out of trouble wh swords are flashing all around him. The story of daughter Margery is a rare exception to the ordinary sages of gentle damsels in those times. It is a tale of tr love. There is a younger son at Eton; and through hi we learn a little of the school-life of the fifteenth centur and another at Oxford, who is destined for the church, dies young. But whether we see the lady mother and b sons in the Norwich of friars and worsted-spinners, w now and then a noble or even a king glittering among the citizens-or at their castle of Caister, a moated fortr some two miles from Yarmouth, where there is a rea

arrison ever looking out-we always see them under some spect of danger and difficulty, and yet putting a brave ice upon their perils, and keeping a great calm amidst Aeir hopes. These poor Pastons had an unquiet time of ; and this gives a more than common interest to their Annals--for their Letters are Annals-as trustworthy and as nteresting as any records that have aspired to the dignity f History.

When Dame Margaret Paston was a fair young maiden, nd John Paston came a-wooing, she made him gentle heer in gentle wise.' To the grave Sir William Paston, udge of the Common Pleas, his wife Agnes writes thus of he gentlewoman' whom John made treaty' with, being In good-humour at the coming alliance: The parson of Stockton told me if ye would buy her a gown, her mother vould give thereto a goodly fur; the gown needeth for to e had, and of colour it would be a goodly blue, or else a right sanguine.' Silk gowns were not come at so cheaply n those days as now; and the judge of the Common