THE PASTON LETTERS Edited by JAMES GAIRDNER Of the Public Record Office 4 Vols.<y 2is, net. The Fourth Volume Containing the INTRODUCTION and SUPPLEMENT may be purchased separately. Price los, 6d, net. These Letters are the genuine correspondence of a family in Norfolk during the Wars of the Roses. As such they are altogether unique in character ; yet the language is not so antiquated as to present any serious difficulty to the modern reader. The topics of the letters relate partly to the private affairs of the family, and partly to the stirring events of the time ; and the correspondence includes State papers, love-letters, bailiffs' accounts, sentimental poems, jocular epistles, etc. Besides the public nev^^s of the day, such as the loss of Normandy by the English ; the indictment and subsequent murder at sea of the Duke of Suffolk ; and all the fluctuations of the great struggle of York and Lancaster ; we have the story of John Paston's first introduction to his wife ; incidental notices of severe domestic discipline, in which his sister frequently had her head broken ; letters from Dame Elizabeth Brews, a match-making mamma, who reminds the youngest John Paston that Friday is ' St. Valentine's Day,' and invites him to come and visit her family from the Thursday evening till the Monday, etc., etc. Every letter has been exhaustively annotated ; and a Chronological Table, with most copious Indices, conclude the Work. HENRT HALLAM, Introduction to the Literature of Europe, i. 228. Ed. 1837 : * The Paston Letters are an important testimony to the progressive condition of Society, and come in as a precious link in the chain of moral history of England which they alone in this period supply. They stand, indeed, singly, as far as I know, in Europe ; for though it is highly probable that in the archives of Italian families, if not in France or Germany, a series of merely private letters equally ancient may be concealed 5 I do not recollect that any have been published. They are all written in the reigns of Henry VI. and Edward IV., except a few that extend as far as Henry VII., by different members of a wealthy and respectable, but not noble, family 5 and are, therefore, pictures of the life of the English gentry of that age.' THE MORNING POST : * A reprint of Mr. James Gairdner's edition of The Paston Letters with some fresh matter, including a new introduction. Originally published in 1872-75, it was reprinted in 1895, and is now again reproduced. The introductions have been reset in larger type, and joined together in one, conveniently broken here and there by fresh headings. The preface is practically a new one. ... It is highly satisfactory for readers who care about history, social or political, to have this well-printed and admirably introduced and annotated edition of these famous letters.' MANCHESTER GUARDIAN : <One of the monuments of English historical scholar- ship that needs no commendation.' ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO Ltd 2 WHITEHALL GARDENS WESTMINSTER
