On the 9th of July in this year (1536), Cromwell was raised to the peerage as baron Cromwell of Okeham, and henceforward we shall always find him addressed by the title of lord. It is a distinction which has enabled me to fix the date of a letter in several instances where it had been previously mistaken.

Richard Southwell, the writer of the following letter, was one of the commissioners who were now visiting Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. It is hardly necessary to observe that Walsingham was one of the most famous places of pilgrimage in England. The discovery mentioned in the letter is a curious trait of the scientific pursuits of the monks.

LXIII.

RICHARD SOUTHWELL TO CROMWELL.

[From MS. Cotton. Cleop. E. iv. fol. 231.]

It maye please your good lordshipe to be advertised that sir Thomas Lestrange and Mr. Hoges, accordinge unto the sequestratyon delegate unto them, have ben at Walsingham and ther sequestred all suche monney, plat, juelles, and stuff, as ther wasse inventyd and founde. Emoung other thinges the same sir Thomas Lestrange and Mr. Hoges dyd ther fynd a secrete prevye place within the howse, where no channon nor onnye other of the howse dyd ever enter, as they saye, in wiche there were instrewmentes, pottes, belowes, flyes of suche strange colers as the lick non of us had seene, with poysies, and other thinges to sorte, and denyd(?) gould and sylver, nothing ther wantinge that should belonge to the arte of multyplyeng. Off all wiche they desyred me by lettres to advertyse you, and alsoo that frome the Satredaye at night tyll the Sondaye next folowinge was offred * at ther now beinge c.xxxiijs. iiij. over and besyd waxe. Of this moultiplyeng it maye please you to cawse hem to be examyned, and so to advertyse unto them your further pleasuer. Thus I

* i. e. offered by the pilgrims at the image of our Lady of Walsingham.

praye God send your good lordshipe hartye helthe. Frome my pore howse, this xxv. of Julii, ao xxviij°.

To the right honerable

and my synguler good

lord, my lord prevye seale.

humblye yours to commande,

RIC. SOUTHWELL.

The Benedictine nunnery of Pollesworth in Warwickshire, of which the ruins are still considerable, owed its modern foundation and earliest endowments to the second Robert de Marmion, distinguished by his turbulence in the troublesome reign of king Stephen. Tradition, however, carries back the date of its original foundation to the time of the Saxons. The last abbess, Alicia Fitzherbert, was elected to that office in the first year of the reign of Henry VIII.

LXIV.

THE COMMISSIONERS TO CROMWELL.

[From MS. Cotton. Cleop. E. iv. fol. 210.*]

After oure dueties of humble recommendacion unto youre good lordship hade, it may please the same to be advertysed that we have surveyd the monasterye or nonnery of Pollesworth in the countye of Warwike, wherin ys an abbas namyd dame Alice Ffitzherbert, of the age of lx. yeres, a very sadde, discrete, and relygyous woman, and hath byn heed and governour their xxvij. yeres, and in the same howse under her rule ar xij. vertuous and religyous nonnes, and of good conversacion as farr as we can here or perceyve, as well by our examinacions as by the ffame and report of all the countrey, and never one of the nonnes thar will leyve nor forsake therr habite and relygyon. Wherfore in our opyneons, yf it myght so stande with your lordships pleasure, ye mought doo a right good and meryetoryous dede to be a medyatour to the kinges highnes for the said house to stande and remayné unsuppressed; ffor, as we thinke, ye shall not speke in the prefer

open

ment of a better nonnery nor of better women. And in the towne of Pollesworth ar xliiij. tenementes, and never a plough but one, the resydue be artifycers, laborers, and vitellers, and lyve in effect by the said house, and the repayre and resorte thar ys made to the gentylmens childern and sudjournentes that ther doo lif to the nombre sometyme of xxxtie, and sometyme xltie and moo, that their be right vertuously brought upp. And the towne and nonnery standith in a harde soile and barren ground, and to our estymacions, yf the nonnery be suppressed, the towne will shortely after falle to ruyne and dekaye, and the people therin to the nombre of vj. or vij. score persones are nott unlike to wander and to seke for their lyvyng, as our Lorde Gode beste knowith, who preserve youre lordshipe in good lif and longe, with encrease of honour. Wrytton at Maxstoke * beside Coventre, the xxviij. daye of July.

By the kinges commissioners, JOHN GREVYLL, SYMOND MOUNTFORT, THOMAS HOLTE, ROGER WYGSTON, GEORGE GYFFARD, ROBT. BURGOYN.

The following letter furnishes us with another instance of the eagerness with which the courtiers sought after their share in the spoils of the monasteries. Sir Thomas Elyot was a distinguished diplomatist, a man of great learning, and had been an intimate friend of Sir Thomas More.

LXV.

SIR THOMAS ELYOT TO CROMWELL.

[From MS. Cotton. Cleop. E. iv. fol. 220*.]

My moste speciall goode lorde, whereas, by your contynuell exercise in waighty affayres, allso frequent access of sutars unto your goode lordship, I could not fynde oportunity to gyve to your lordship due and convenyent thankes for your honorable and

* Maxtock, a parish in Warwickshire, near the town of Coleshill.

gentill report to the kinges majesty on Wenysday last passid in my favour, I am now constrayned to supply with my penne my sayde duety, offryng unto your lordship all harty love and servyce that a poure man may ow and beare to his goode lorde and approved frende, which allthowgh hability lakking in me, I can not expresse by any benefyte, your wisedom notwithstanding, which I have allway honoured and trustid, will I doubt not accept my goode intent, being, I thank Godd, ever syncere and withoute flatery or ill dissimulacion, I wisshing unto your lordship the honorable desyres of your hart, with the contynuall favor of Godd and of your prynce. My lorde, forasmoche as I suppose that the kinges moste gentill communicacion with me, and allso his moste comfortable report unto the lordes of me, procedid of your afore remembrid recommendacions, I am animate to importune your goode lordship with moste harty desyres to contynue my goode lorde in augmenting the kinges goode estimacion of me; whereof I promyse yow before Godd, your lordship shall never have cause to repent. And where I perceyve that ye suspect that I favour not truely Holy Scripture, I wold Godd that the king and you mowght see the most secrete thowghtes of my hart, surely ye shold then perceyve that, the ordre of charity savyd, I have in as moche detestacion as any man lyving all vayne supersticions, superfluouse ceremonyes, sklaunderouse jouglynges, countrefaite mirakles, arrogant usurpacions of men callid spirituall, and masking religions, and all other abusions of Christes holy doctrine and lawes. And as moche I injoy at the kinges godly proceding to the due reformacion of the sayde enormyties as any his graces poure subject lyving. I therefor beseeche your goode lordship now to lay apart the remembraunce of the amity betwene me and sir Thomas More, which was but usque ad aras, as is the proverb, consydering that I was never so moche addict unto hym as I was unto truthe and fidelity toward my soveraigne lorde, as Godd is my juge. And where my speciall trust and onely expectation is to be holpen by the meanes of your lordship, and naturall shame

fastness more raigneth in me than is necessary, so that I wold not prese to the kinges majesty withoute your lordshippes assistence, unto whome I have sondry tymes declarid myn indigence, and whereof it hath hapned, I therefor moste humbly desyre you my speciall goode lorde, so to bryng me into the kinges most noble remembrance, that of his moste bounteouse liberality it may like his highnesse to reward me with some convenyent porcion of his suppressid landis, whereby I may be able to contynue my life according to that honest degree whereunto his grace hath callid me. And that your lordship forgete not, that neither of his grace nor of any other persone I have fee, office, pencion, or ferme, nor have any maner of lucre or advauntage, besydes the revenues of my poure land, which are but small, and no more than I may therewith mayntayne my poure house. And if by your lordshippes meanes I may achieve goode effect of my sute, your lordship shall not fynde me ingrate. And whatsoever porcion of land that I shall attayne by the kynges gift, I promyse to give to your lordship the first yeres frutes, with myn assured and faithfull hart and servyce. This lettre I have writen, bycause that I herd that your lordship went to the court; and as for my first sute, I shall at your lordshippes better laysour recontynue it, trusting allso in your lordshippes favour therin.

Writen at my house by Smythfeld, this Moneday.

Yours moste bounden,

TH. ELYOT, kt.

To my speciall goode lorde

my lorde pryvy seale.

The baths of Buxton, in the Peak of Derby, to which the next letter relates, were frequented as early as the times of the Britons and Romans. In popish times, these, in common with other wells and fountains, were regarded with a superstitious feeling, derived from the period of Saxon paganism, and preserved in many popular ceremonies to the present day. The wells at Buxton were dedicated to St. Anne, and the