332 Charles, Lord Stoiirton, 8fc. 



muche honour. From Gillingham Lodge the xix"" daye of Auguste. By yotir 

 pooi'e Kynnysman and assured f'rend 



" John Zottche." 

 {Addressed) "To the right honorable and my very good lorde my lorde 

 Robert Dudleye and Master of the Q,uene's Majestie's horse. Delyver this." 



In Phelps's History of Somersetshire vol.i. p. 186 are (taken 

 from No. 159 MS. in the Lambeth Library) two sets of ancient 

 verses, the one called " Wordes that John Hartgylle spake before 

 his Death ; " and the other, " Ane Epitaphe upon the death of 

 John Hartgyll : " but both compositions are purely fanciful, and 

 they contain no information of the least use towards clearing up 

 the history of the case. 



In concluding this Memoir, the author would add only one 

 remark. There are, he is very well aware, several points in the 

 story left undetermined and imperfect : but without information 

 how can it be otherwise ? Even as it stands, almost the whole 

 Memoir has been worked out with considerable difficulty from a 

 number of dispersed documents, some found in one place, and some 

 in another : and all written in singularly illegible hands, the best 

 specimens of which are submitted to the reader in the two Fac- 

 similes that accompany the Paper. Let the reader only try to 

 decypher those, and the attempt will make him merciful. 



" It is well," says a writer in Blackwood's Magazine ^ " that all 

 of us should occasionally look into what are called the historian's 

 authorities, that we may know something of the difficulty of con- 

 structing a complete intelligible narrative. We should learn to 

 excuse the historian when he is, here and there, at fault : we should 

 learn not to expect perfect accuracy even in the most carefully 

 constructed narrative." 



(Supplementary.) 



Contract of Marriage for Charles, Lorb Stourton. 



The existence in print, of the following document relating to 

 Charles Lord Stourton, was not recollected in time for its insertion 

 in a more suitable part of this Memoir. It is a Marriage Contract 



'No. DLIX., p. 642. 



