"but with the greatest reserve, [et,] s'il m'est permis de la dire, [avec] la canne levée. No other argument has weight. I hope "in God we shall long hold, as we now do, the right end of the Staff." In the same year Colonel Crawford and Admiral Cornish refute in interesting memorials certain preposterous claims made by France and Spain with respect to the British conquests of Belleisle and Manilla; and the following year Sir James Porter, writing from Brussels, says: "I cannot but "observe from this Polish Election the essential necessity there " is of keeping France low to keep her quiet. She did what "she could to disturb and excite disorder, but was overcome by impotency. She barked and could not bite; had she been prosperous she would have inverted the very vitals of Poland [and have] excited a bloody civil war." Again, with reference to the Canada Bills, Sir James Porter writes:-"If France re"fuses to depart at all from what she has done, I fear the poor

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Canada Creditors are in a deplorable situation, for this country " will hardly go to War to procure them satisfaction, I suppose. "But I reckon France's game will be to neglect & delay, with" out refusing, till She herself is ripe for War, and then cancell " at once all her Other unperformed Engagements." Mr. Sedgwick, one of the Under Secretaries of State, writing to Mr. Weston in 1767, says: "It becomes the more evident every day, that this Our Country is so clearly in the high Road to destruction, that nothing, as it seems, but a Miracle can save it:" and soon afterwards he says:-"The Seasons are totally changed in this Country, and one of them is quite done away. "We are not now to expect warm weather till the Autumn, and may therefore as well dismiss the word Summer from our Language, as being no longer of any use, in reference to our "own Country at least." He elsewhere mentions as a wellrecognised fact "The general Alteration of Seasons and Climates " in all Europe for some years past;" and a Mr. Waite, writing from Dublin Castle in the summer of 1770, says :--" Surely the "Seasons were more warm & kindly & regular when I was a Boy. The Great Globe itself, as well as Those who it inhabit, seems hastening to its final period! Mr. Sedgwick strongly reprobates the bribery that was so prevalent at parliamentary elections, and with reference to the Northampton Election in 1767 writes:--" A Blow indeed was aimed at his Lordship [Lord "Halifax] by a drunken clergyman who headed the adverse "Mob; but a faithful servant, I am told, defended his Master " from the Stroke, & beat the Parson within an inch of his "Life."

The Weston letters also give many particulars about the Chevalier d'Eon and Mr. Wilkes.

The Gawdy MSS. are a collection of letters and documents formed by Peter Le Neve, Norroy King-at-arms (born 1661 died 1729), relating chiefly to the Norfolk families of Gawdy, Knyvet, Hobart, Hare, and Le Neve. The MSS. are contained

in 17 vols. and number 3,276. They extend over the reigns of Queen Elizabeth, James I., Charles I., Charles II., and James II.

The Gawdy letters are the earliest in date and give an interesting description of the domestic and social life of the period. The Gawdys were a well-to-do family living at Harling, not far from Norwich; several of them were High Sheriffs for the county, and one, Framlingham Gawdy, sat in the Long Parliament. Bassingbourn, William, Charles, John, and others were all knighted and took a prominent part in county affairs. There are 1,222 letters belonging to the Gawdy period. Of these many are from friends and relations appointing meetings, discussing the merits of their hawks and hounds, inviting to 'bankets," and relating domestic news and affairs. But there are others of political interest, and three are from the Earls of Nottingham and Essex, and Robert Earl of Leicester.

At the end of the volume are several closely written newsletters or gazettes treating mostly of political matters.

The collection contains some early post-marks, also seals and coats-of-arms.

The next largest portion of the letters after the Gawdys are those addressed to Oliver Le Neve, brother of Peter, who married Anne, daughter and heiress of Sir John Gawdy and Anne de Grey.

The Knyvet, Hare, and Hobart letters are fewer in number, but have the same general characteristics as the others.

Plymouth Corporation.-The supplementary report upon the records of the Corporation of Plymouth drawn up by Mr. R. N. Worth, shows that a large number of books and papers have been brought to light subsequently to, and as a result of, Mr. Jeaffreson's visit. The most valuable of these is a volume of Receivers' Accounts showing the income and expenditure of the Corporation during the important reigns of Elizabeth, James I., Charles I., and the Commonwealth, and containing a large number of entries affecting matters of national history.

Mr. Vidler. Mr. J. W. C. Vidler, of Rye, has sent to Your Majesty's Commissioners for inspection a manuscript volume entitled "The Method of Building, Rigging, Apparelling, and Furnishing His Maties Ships of Warr according to their Rates Also the Charge of Wages, Victualls, and Neces"saries The Number and Charge of Officers and "Workmen at each Dockyard The Salaries and "Allowances granted to Commissioners and Officers of Her "Maties Navy, And the whole of the same for one year." The "nature of the volume is sufficiently shown by its title. At the beginning is an elaborate and lengthy dedication to James, Duke of York, dated December 23rd, 1684, and signed by "Edwd Battine." The most interesting portion of the work is a List sof the Navy at that time, giving the names of about 140 ships of war, including ketches, sloops, and yachts, their dimensions, burthen, draught of water, total cost, and showing when where, and by whom they were built.

Lord Muncaster.-The most important of the manuscripts at Muncaster Castle are two volumes of transcripts made in the reigns of James I. and Charles I. The first of them contains copies of numerous letters and papers concerning the mixed Commission appointed in 1605 for the pacification and government of the borderland of England and Scotland. It serves to connect and illustrate the scattered notices of the Commission that are to be found in the Calendars of State Papers and elsewhere. A full calendar of its contents, prepared by Mr. H. Maxwell Lyte, is therefore printed in one of the supplementary reports to Your Majesty. The transportation of the most turbulent of the Grahams to Flushing and Brill, their early return to their old haunts, and their subsequent plantation in Ireland, led to a considerable amount of correspondence between the different members of the Commission. At times too it was found necessary to obtain specific instructions from the chief officers of State. The English Commissioners frequently complained that their Scottish colleagues were not sufficiently zealous in the search for malefactors, especially for those who happened to be their own countrymen. Some of the earlier letters relate to Thomas Percy, the traitor, and others enumerate the exploits of Hutchin Graham and other marauders who caused the people of Cumberland to "abhor and fear the name " of Graham." Near the end of the volume there are copies of several characteristic letters from Lord William Howard, well known as "Belted Will," a very energetic repressor of disorders. Sir Wilfrid Lawson, the most active of the English Commissioners, kept the original letters and papers relating to their proceedings, and this volume appears to have been transcribed for one of his colleagues, Joseph Pennington of Muncaster.

The other volume contains the "smooth logs" of Admiral John Pennington during the years between 1631 and 1636 inclusive. Numerous extracts from it will be found in the Appendix. They serve to illustrate the letters concerning the Royal Navy, of which abstracts are given in the Calendars of Domestic State Papers for those years. They also afford an interesting view of nautical life in the middle of the seventeenth century. It was the primary duty of the Admiral guarding the narrow seas to keep them clear of pirates, but he had also to arrange for the transport of important personages across the straits of Dover. In 1631, Admiral Pennington conveyed the Earl of Leicester and his suite on an embassy to the court of Denmark. Many of the entries describe the steps taken for exacting due salutes from the ships of all countries. Some of those for the year 1635 show the arrangements that were made in the fleet with a view to naval action against the French.

Another volume, of much earlier date, gives a curious list of the holy places visited by pilgrims to Jerusalem in the fifteenth century. Among the detached deeds at Muncaster Castle there are some English "dooms," or awards, of the fifteenth century, and an agreement to perform military service under the Earl of

Westmoreland in the reign of Henry IV. A letter of the year 1745 describes the march of the Duke of Perth's army through Lancaster and Kendal.

The Corporation of Kendal.-None of the documents in the custody of the Town Clerk of Kendal refer to events prior to the incorporation of the borough by Queen Elizabeth. Among the earliest of them are some letters of her reign concerning the defence of the English border against the inroads of the Scots. Several of them are proclamations issued by the Lord Warden of the Western Marches, ordering watch to be kept for the firing of the beacons at critical times. A small piece of paper, signed by four justices of the peace on the 20th of March 1600, is an order to the Alderman of Kendal to cause the beacons to be fired, and to warn all the country to repair to Carlisle without delay, upon pain of death. A somewhat similar order was issued six days after the death of Elizabeth.

With the exception of a few bonds for the good behaviour of suspected persons, the Corporation has no documents concerning the civil war in the time of Charles I. The municipal customs and social life of Kendal in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are well illustrated by many entries in a volume known as the Book of Record. Besides the rules of the twelve companies of traders, it contains curious orders for the regulation of games and of feasts at weddings, at churchings, and on other occasions. One of them, issued in 1586, relates to the Corpus Christi plays, which were still popular, although discountenanced by the Corporation.

Captain Josceline F. Bagot.-A number of deeds of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, preserved in the muniment room at Levens Hall, near Kendal, are valuable, as being some of the earliest records of Westmoreland now extant. Although they are for the most part ordinary conveyances of land, they supply much information of interest to the topographer and the genealogist. Some of them relate to the Hospital of St. Peter, at York, others to the Abbey of Byland, and others to the Abbey of Whitby. A few mediæval deeds of later date are of secondary importance.

After an interval of more than four centuries, the muniment room at Levens again furnishes materials for history, in the correspondence of Colonel Graham, the younger brother of Viscount Preston. During the reigns of Charles II. and James II. Colonel Graham held various offices in connexion with the court, and he was greatly trusted by the latter monarch. He accompanied James II. in his flight to Rochester, and returned thence to London in order to recover for him certain strong boxes and documents of importance which had been left behind at the palace. Among the papers at Levens there is a draft in the King's own hand of the manifesto issued from Rochester to explain his reasons for withdrawal. There is also the first letter written by him after his landing at Boulogne. It is in a feigned hand, and, by way of further precaution, Colonel Graham en

dorsed it" Mr. Banks' 1st letter after his going to Oxford." In many other letters the dethroned king is mentioned under the name of "Mr. Banks," and "Oxford" was a pseudonym for "France." A small piece of A small piece of paper headed "My Oxford cypher," gives the key to the secret parts of some letters from abroad. It is very difficult, however, to extract positive historical information from this section of Colonel Graham's correspondence, inasmuch as the Jacobite letters addressed to him are for the most part undated, and studiously vague. James II. openly transferred to him some stock of the Royal African Company and of the East India Company, in 1689, and it is possible that a collection of coins and medals offered for sale by Colonel Graham ten years later belonged to his former master.

Among several hundred letters, mostly relating to business matters, there are some which bear upon public affairs in the reigns of William III., Anne, and George I. From these Mr. H. Maxwell Lyte has made notes and abstracts. Some supply information about successive contests in Westmoreland between the representatives of the noble houses of Lowther and Tufton. Together with other local news, there are some accounts of the riots at Kendal in consequence of the regulation of the coinage in 1696. There are also short contemporary notices of the battles of Blenheim and Ramillies. The Duke of Hamilton expresses his political sentiments in a series of letters to Colonel Graham, and Bolingbroke contributes three characteristic letters. Several other men of note were friends and correspondents of Colonel Graham.

George Browne, Esq.-Mr. Browne, of Troutbeck, has a collection of papers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, relating almost exclusively to affairs in the county of Westmoreland. Some of them describe the hardships suffered by the Scottish rebels who were taken in the rising of 1715, one letter stating that the prisoners at Carlisle died "in droves, like rotten sheep," and that their bodies were flung into the castle ditch. Mr. Browne has also an interesting volume of private prayers and meditations written by, or for, Thomas Percy, Duke of Northumberland, who was executed for treason in 1572. Some of the political and doctrinal passages in it are curious, as illustrating the views held by an educated nobleman at a period of transition.

The Earl of Kilmorey. - The manuscripts at Shavington consist chiefly of deeds and legal documents. There are, however, a few letters and papers of the seventeenth century relating to public affairs. One of them describes the political situation at Christmas, 1659, in some detail. Many others relate to the military organisation of Cheshire and Shropshire. Among these is a curious proposal made by the Earl of Northampton in 1618 for the establishment of a riding school in Ludlow Castle for the sons and servants of the neighbouring gentry. He states