"rg Mamaian, Mises a Selection. nem Stvage."" (Cedi Palmer, 323: 60 ted 'The first Earl of Oxford' may Ihave left an unheroic reputation in polities, but the antiquary, professional and amateur, will' always bless him for the'collection of tracts, pamphlets sand manuscripts which 'a redeeming eccentricity caused him to bring together. The complete "Miscellany," as, selected by Oldys and prefaced by Dr. Johnson, is, as Mr. Savage says, unlikely to be reprinted. Tt was all the happier thought, therefore, of the present editor to give us-this selection of a selection, which will. delight everyone blessed with the sense of atmosphere and a love of the past in its naiver intimacies
The item which carries us furthest back in this volume is the original form of initiation in the Order of the Bath, which has not been fully performed since the coronation of Charles LI, "And when the Esquire's governors Shall sar the noise of the minstrels, they shall undress the said Esquire, and put him naked into the bath, and the Esquire's governors' shall take the Esquire out of the bath and help him to his bed, there to ety Sh a ne til lifs body be dry." A. ser~ ies of lover letters between' Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn were written variously in English and French, "My; darling" or "Myne awne sweetheart" is the favourite exordium of "him that longeth to be yours, H.R." The Queen's last letter must have made the inconstant wince, with its allusion to "that party'for whose sake T am now as im, whose name I could some good while since have pointed unto your Grace being not ignorant of my suspicion therein."
Another Tudor figures at Hor best the intercepted letter of Richard Leigh, " Catholic priest, upon the failure of the Armada:—
T do find, and know, that many ood and wise men, which of Jong time have earnest devotion to the Pope's authority, begin now to stagger in their' minds, and to conceive that thix way of reform= ation intended by the Pope's Holi ness is not allowable in the sight of God.
The foreign menace has so roused and united the community "that for all earnest proceeding for-arming, and for contributions of money, and. for all other warlike actions, there was no difference to be seen betwixt the Catholick and the Heretick." Of contemporary date is Anthony Monday's account of the beginning of Lent in Rome and the Pope's comminatory exertions:—
There he curseth the Turke, and her majestic, our most gracious princesse and governess; affirming her to be fare worse than the Turke, or the cruellest tirant that is He curseth likewise all Cal-
Zwingians, are not according to hhis disposition. When he hath cursed all he can, saying "Amen,"
letteth the candle fall.
From a later century comes an unfriendly sketch of Muggleton, the founder of the Muggletonians. This worthy seems to have pursued a religious Rake's Progress—"first, degenerating from the orthodox tenets. of the Church of England to Presbytery; from thence to Independeneys thence to Anabaptism; thence to tly, to no religion Te is not quite "clear at which of these stages he is deseribed by a follower as having "put me into the easiest way to Heaven that ever was invented, A pamphlet purporting to. give some account of Alexander Selkirk's experiences indicates that the orginal Crusoe reacted so far to his environment as to be able to run down goats by superior speed—for his way of living, and continual exercise of walking and running, cleared him of all gross humours, 80 that he ran with wonderful ewiftness." There is no trace of Man day, but the tool-making faculty of Defoe's hero is evidently authen-"He had no other needle but a nail; and when his knife was wore to the back, he made others, as well as he could, of some iron hoops that were left ashore, which he~ bent thin, and ground upon stones."—The "Observer.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.