22 Longleat Papers, No. 8. 



ware y' we wraches [wretches] ware ded than comber hyr and I wel go yn to my 

 coti'e [country] and dwel w' my pore kynge [kin] and pray for hyr grace dayely. 

 I liave a sister a wido y' well be glad of us bothe for al though I had rather chui-e 

 dethe than go from hyr hyt [yet] suche ys my bonde as wel off frendshep as off 

 mariage y' I wrache mouste folowe. I never se so woffull a man as I fonde off 

 my husbond : for he thynketh as he had good cawse y' al hys sen'ice ys forgote 

 for intendyng nor menyng harme moust never Juge y' sche has sum other mater 

 to him than thes which bereth y"^ face, or els sche cowd never dele thes [thus] with 

 Jhone Asheley : who never had other Joye than to drawe al menes harttes to hyr 

 w' suche comendacyons and presses [praises] y' sche was beloved or {I.e., ere} 

 sche was knowen / you can be a wj'tteues to thes and cowd he now be Juged y' 

 had any intent to dyshonor hyr ? No ! No ! My lord f orgeve me and here w* 

 my foly for I cannot wel tel what I write." 



Address : 



" to my very good 1 r " [Lord Robert] 



Mr, AstleYj to Lord Robert Dudley. 



[There is neither name of writer nor date of year to this letter : hnt 

 being docketed by some Secretary " January 1659. A — y/' and 

 being written " from Melton in Norfolk/^ it is at once identified 

 as coming from one of the Astley family, ancestors of the present 

 Baron Hastings, of Melton Constable, near Thetford in that 

 county. " Astley " and " Ashley " being often used indiscrimi- 

 nately, it is probable that the writer of this letter is the " John 

 Asheley, the husband " referred to in the former one. There 

 was a John Astley connected in^ some way with the establish- 

 ment of Elizabeth whilst only Princess. There is a letter 

 written by him from Hatfield to E-ogar Ascham, who had 

 been the Princesses tutor, but was then abroad, in which Astley 

 speaks of their friendly fellowship together at Hatfield, Her 

 Grace^s House, and at other places : of their studies in reading 

 together Aristotle, Cicero, &c., their free talk mingled with honest 

 truth, and their conferences about the troubles of the time (R. 

 Ascham^s Works, 8vo., 1815, p. 5). There was also a John 

 Astley, of the Melton family. Master of the Jewel House to 

 Queen Elizabeth. It is probably the same Mr. Astley to whom 

 the following passage in Camden's Hist, of Elizabeth (p. 2^7) 

 refers. The Duke of Anjou being announced as a suitor for the 

 Queen's hand, some French noblemen belonging to his suite were 



