By the Rev. Canon J. B. Jackson, ¥.S.A. 63 
who would venture to sell the wool, even at a loss, in her husband’s 
absence? I trow not. So that I claim the evidence of poor Amye’s 
letter as proving that she was a good managing trustworthy little 
wife, and that the much abused Lord Robert Dudley, so far from 
being estranged from her, left her at full discretion to deal with 
domestic matters when he was away: and this, please to remember, 
in the seventh or eighth year of their short married life of ten years. 
But I have not done with this letter. It is dated, not from any 
place in Norfolk, nor from London: but from “ Mr. Hyde’s,” with- 
out saying where that was; which of itself implies that the steward 
to whom it was written knew well enough. Now this Mr. Hyde’s 
house was at Denchworth, a few miles from Abingdon in Berkshire, 
and not many miles from Cumnor, though, observe, that with Cumnor 
they have had nothing to do yet. Mr. Hyde’s brother, William, 
was at this time M.P. for the Borough of Abingdon: so that there 
is no doubt of the respectability of this family. Now I find, and 
will prove to you, that Amye, Lady Dudley, resided a great deal at 
this Mr. Hyde’s: and was constantly visited there by her husband, 
coming and going to and fro: which throws a light upon the state 
of affairs. 
Queen Elizabeth had come to the throne, 17th November, 1558: 
when Robert Dudley’s star was in the ascendant. He had been 
nobody in Queen Mary’s reign: but he was of the same side as 
Elizabeth in matters of religion: he had been her playfellow in 
childhood and her fellow-prisoner in the Tower. She immediately 
appointed him Master of the Horse, and K.G. This in the first 
year of her reign. The office of Master of the Horse was one which 
demanded his continual attendance in London. No one journeyed 
about morethan Queen Elizabeth, and, go where she would, the Master 
of the Horse was obliged to go with her. If you refer to the published 
accounts of the Queen’s Progresses, there is always a great horseback 
_ cavalcade, and the Master of the Horse, in close attendance, riding a 
little in rear of Her Majesty. Now as Amye had no children, it appears 
to me probable, that, instead of living alone in apartments in London, 
she preferred living with friends in the country, and for that reason 
staid at Mr. Hyde’s. She might have disliked, as many ladies did, the 
