that the gentlemen of France greatly surpass the English in horsemanship. Another paper refers to an anticipated rising of the Presbyterians in Cheshire and the adjoining counties in 1663.

Stanley Leighton, Esq., M.P.- Mr. Leighton has made a small collection of manuscripts, for the most part relating to affairs in Shropshire. One volume among them gives some historical notices of Shrewsbury, and a minute account of the visit of James II. to that town in 1686., A contemporary letter mentions that as early as the 24th of March 1660, some English ships displayed the royal colours, and that "all the frogs that "crawled in King's Chambers" had been commanded to quit Whitehall, which was being richly furnished in anticipation of the restoration of Charles II.

The Corporation of Oswestry.-The muniments of the Corporation of Oswestry have been so fully catalogued and described elsewhere by Mr. Stanley Leighton, M.P., that it has not been considered necessary to include any detailed account of them in the present report.

The Earl of Powis.-In some bundles of miscellaneous papers in the muniment-room at Powis Castle, Mr. H. Maxwell Lyte discovered a number of interesting letters, chiefly of the seventeenth century, which have since been arranged, calendared, and bound. One volume now consists of part of the political correspondence of Sir Edward Herbert, the well-known Lord Herbert of Cherbury. Many of the letters relate to the war of the Palatinate. Writing in 1619, Sir E. Herbert says that the news of the coronation of the Elector Palatine as King of Bohemia was received" with incredible joy" by the Protestants at Paris and by the people called " Bons François." A few weeks later, Lord Doncaster gives a long account of his mission to the Imperial Court in Germany. Some of the letters relate to the breach between Lewis XIII. and his mother, the Queen-Regent. Others notice the project for a marriage between the Prince of Wales and the Spanish Infanta, and one of them give particulars of the Prince's return from his adventurous visit to Madrid. The correspondence illustrates the venality of the courts of England and France, and shows the difficulty which Sir. E. Herbert experienced in obtaining payment of his allowance as an Ambassador.

Another volume consists of miscellaneous papers, the earliest of which is an account of the examination of Mary Queen of Scots at Fotheringay, differing from that published by Camden. A letter of September, 1640, gives particulars of the encounter between the English and the Scots on the banks of the Tyne. Some letters of later date contain passing notices of political

events.

The Corporation of Bishop's Castle.-The entries in a minutebook of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries belonging to the Corporation of Bishop's Castle are for the most part of

purely local interest. Among them is an order of the year 1613 that no inferior person conversing in public with the Bailiff or any of the fifteen Head Burgesses of this small borough, or their wives, should presume to have his head covered. There are several notes about the representation of Bishop's Castle in Parliament, the chief care of the electors being apparently that their representatives should not claim any charges or fees for attendance at Westminster. A curious letter addressed to the members of the Corporation in 1646-in the thick of the Civil War-by Samuel More, a distinguished officer in the Parliamentary army, recommends them to elect his own brother and his cousin, on personal grounds. In the reign of James I., the choice of Members of Parliament for Bishop's Castle seems to have lain with the powerful Earl of Northampton.

R. Jasper More, Esq.-Mr. More has a very curious illuminated letter from James I. to the Emperor of China, requesting his protection for British subjects engaged in commerce in the eastern parts of the world.

W. F. Plowden, Esq.-The manuscripts at Plowden Hall do not call for any special notice. Mr. Plowden has two grants of annuities to Edmund Plowden, the famous lawyer, in consideration of his professional services, but none of his correspondence.

The Rev. J. D. Corbet.-In the library at Sundorne Castle there is a fine cartulary of the neighbouring abbey of Haughmond, and an early roll of statutes.

Alfred Salwey, Esq.-Mr. Salwey, of Overton, has a number of letters of the second half of the seventeenth century, for the most part addressed to his ancestor, Major Richard Salwey, a prominent politician. Among them is a holograph of Oliver Cromwell, desiring him to go on an embassy to Sweden. Some few others relate to public affairs, but the correspondence is mainly occupied with matters of business and sport. A series of letters from abroad gives entertaining accounts of journeys through France, and of the condition and amusement of the English factory at Smyrna in the reign of Charles II.

J. Lechmere Parkinson, Esq.-The muniments at Ludford House, near Ludlow, consist chiefly of old deeds relating to property in the counties of Salop, Hereford, and Montgomery. There are also some quaint family letters of the eighteenth century, one of which describes the conduct of George I. soon after his accession to the throne of England.

The Rev. John Walcot.-There are at Bitterley Court a few semi-political papers of the seventeenth century.

The Corporation of Wenlock.-The records of the Corporation of Wenlock are scanty and unimportant, but a careful search through the bundles of constables' presentments of the seventeenth century would probably yield information of local interest.

The Corporation of Bridgenorth.-Besides several volumes containing lists of freemen and orders for the government of the town, the Corporation of Bridgenorth has a series of Chamberlains' Accounts, extending, with only a few breaks, from 1550 to the present time. Mr. Maxwell Lyte has examined nearly a hundred of these, and has made from them a series of extracts. Most of them are illustrative of social life in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but some also refer to political events. Among the former may be mentioned payments for stage-plays, rope-dancing, and the like, for the local assizes and the punishment of offenders, and for the entertainment of various persons of eminence, Among the latter may be mentioned payments for keeping watch in November, 1641, when a general insurrection of papists was expected, for the fortification of the town, and sending soldiers to the King at Shrewsbury in 1642, for providing refreshments for Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice, and for dismantling the town-hall and the tower of the church, at the time of the siege.

E. Lloyd Gatacre, Esq.-Mr. Gatacre, of Gatacre, has a few mediæval deeds relating to property in Shropshire, and a book of orders regulating the navigation of the river Severn, issued in the reign of Elizabeth. He has also a commonplace book, dating from the later part of the sixteenth century, which contains English ballads about the campaign in the Low Countries, verses about husbandry, and miscellaneous notes on law, history, and heraldry.

S. Zachary Lloyd, Esq.-Mr. Zachary Lloyd has a small collection of family letters of the sixteenth and subsequent centuries. One of the earliest of them gives some particulars of the siege of Terouenne. Two others, dated from the Fleet prison, mention the ravages of the sweating sickness. A fourth describes the elaborate preparations made in London for the reception of Cardinal Campeggio in 1518. He was to be entertained as nobly as if he were the Pope himself. Among the luxuries provided for him by Wolsey was a pair of the greatest organs ever seen in England, "and many other instruments within the same." A letter written early in the reign of Edward VI. states that mass was said in some churches according to the old fashion, and in others according to the new. The reign of Mary is represented by a proclamation announcing the suppression of Wyatt's rebellion. A long letter of June, 1666, gives particulars of severe engagements between the fleets of England and Holland.

The late W. Bromley Davenport, Esq. M.P.-The earliest deeds at Baginton Hall have been sent up to your Commissioners for examination. Some of them date from the middle of the twelfth century, and others from the thirteenth. All of them relate to property in Warwickshire. John Shakespere of Wraxale, son and heir of Richard Shakespere, occurs as the grantor of land at Shrewsbury in 1492.

Lord Braye.-The manuscripts at Stanford Park are derived from various sources. Some of them belonged to John Browne, the clerk of the Long Parliament, others were inherited from the Caves of Stanford; others were transcribed in the eighteenth century from originals elsewhere; others again were purchased at Rome within the last fifty years. Since Mr. H. Maxwell Lyte's first visit to Stanford on behalf of the Commission, the more important documents have been collected together, and some of them have been bound.

By oversight, or for some unknown purpose, John Browne retained a certain number of the official documents that passed through his hands, and thus his descendant, Lord Braye, has many papers which would otherwise have been placed among the archives of the House of Lords. Many of these were duly transcribed into the journals of that assembly which have since been printed, but the originals are not without an interest of their own. At Stanford are preserved Lord Digby's anonymous letter to Sir Lewis Dyves, which was produced as evidence against him, Sir John Hotham's letters to the Speaker of the House of Commons concerning the King's attempt to enter Hull, and the intercepted letter from the young Duke of York, making arrangements for his intended escape from England. Some of the documents, however, have not been printed in any of the historical collections relating to the reign of Charles I. Abstracts of these will be found in Mr. Lyte's report and a few only can be noticed here. Under date of October 1640, there is a long account of the negotiations then proceeding at Ripon. There is also a petition from the Earl of Strafford to his peers, which, although endorsed as read in the House of Lords on the 5th day of May 1641, does not appear in the journals. A long letter written from Colchester in August 1642 gives a contemporary account of the attack on the residence of Sir John Lucas. Your Commissioners have more than once directed attention to the secret correspondence between Charles I. and Henrietta Maria, of which a portion only was published by the Parliament after the capture of the King's cabinet at Naseby. They are therefore pleased to be able to report the discovery of John Browne's transcript of one of the suppressed letters. It is dated at Oxford on the 17th of April 1645, and expresses hopes of military success, and warm approval of the steps taken by the Queen. Some letters written from Scotland in the autumn of the year 1648, give particulars of Cromwell's proceedings in that country. John Browne's collections also include a long series of draft journals of Parliament, differing somewhat from the printed version, notes of the trial of Archbishop Laud taken down briefly from day to day, and the original manuscript of the Westminster Confession of Faith, subscribed by the chief members of the Assembly of Divines.

The Cave manuscripts consist for the most part of deeds and other legal documents, but among the family letters there have been found two narratives of the battle of Worcester by an eye

witness, and contemporary notices of the battle of Oudenarde and the riots in London in 1710. A transcript of letters concerning the military organisation of Northamptonshire in the early part of the reign of Charles I. tends to illustrate the condition of the country. Several bundles of letters and papers relate to Parliamentary elections in Leicestershire in the eighteenth century. It is probable that the heraldic manuscripts at Stanford were acquired by Sir Thomas Cave, who was much interested in antiquarian researches.

Sir Thomas Cave was certainly the purchaser of the manuscripts of Francis Peck, the author of the "Annals of Stamford," and other historical works. They consist almost exclusively of transcripts made by Peck himself and by his friend Zachary Grey, a holograph letter of Charles I. being perhaps the only exception. Many of Grey's transcripts are printed in the "Desiderata Curiosa," but others, omitted from that collection, illustrate the history of the civil war of the seventeenth century. Among the papers transcribed by Peck are copies of the numerous political letters that passed between John Mordaunt and Sir Edward Hyde, shortly before the restoration of Charles II. The Stuart papers now at Stanford seem to have been overlooked a few years ago when the late Miss Otway Cave presented to the British Museum the voluminous diaries and correspondence of Cardinal York, purchased by her mother Lady Braye at Rome in 1842. Among them are two narratives of the adventurous journey of Princess Sobieski before her marriage to the Old Pretender, copies of letters that passed between them, various papers concerning the property of the exiled Stuarts, and a number of letters concerning the pension granted by George III to Cardinal York, illustrating the relations between the two rival representatives of the royal line of Great Britain.

B. R. T. Balfour, Esq.-Among other relics of the exiled house of Stuart preserved at Townley Hall, near Drogheda, Mr. Balfour has a book of prayers and meditations in the hand of James II., and the formal certificate of the marriage of the Old Pretender with Princess Clementina Sobieski. The former contains some allusions to political events, and some entries illustrative of the deposed King's private sentiments. Mr. Balfour has also a few interesting letters of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries from Sir Isaac Newton and others.

P. Pleydell Bouverie, Esq.-Mr. Bouverie has a number of old letters inherited from the families of Pym and Hales, among which are several letters addressed to John Pym, the famous Parliamentary leader. A selection of John Pym's papers was presented to the British Museum in 1840 by the late Hon. P. P. Bouverie, and those which remain at Brymore relate almost exclusively to public affairs in the autumn and winter of the year 1642. Among them are several letters describing the condition and the movements of the armies in England and Ireland. The only one from a royalist source is a letter from Secretary