THE FAIR MAID OF AYLESBURY ii 



manor to Lord Chief Justice Baldwin. The cause 

 of his selling the manor was, he says in a letter to 

 Thomas, Lord Bramwell : ' The truth is, that when 

 I married my wife I had but fifty pounds a year for 

 me and my wife as long as my father lived, and yet 

 she brought me a child every year.' A writer of 

 eminence says : ' This fair maid of Aylesbury, 

 is described as being of that singular beauty and 

 tendernesse that her parents took all care possible 

 of her education. Therefore, besides the ordinary 

 parts of virtuous instructions, wherewith she was 

 liberally brought up, they gave her teachers in 

 playing on musical instruments, singing, and 

 dancing, inasmuch that when she composed her 

 hands to play and her voice to sing, it was joined 

 with that sweetness of countenance that three 

 harmonies concurred. Likewise, when she danced, 

 her rare proportions varied themselves into all the 

 graces that belong either to rest or motion.' These 

 accomplishments, improved by the ease and self- 

 possession she had acquired at the Court of France, 

 captured, but could not secure, the affections of the 

 salacious Henry, who, having conceived a passion 

 for Jane Seymour, caused the Queen to be tried 

 for adultery. This abominable charge rested on 

 no other ground than some slight indiscretions, 

 which her ' simplicity had equally betrayed to 

 commit and to avow.' No proof of innocence could 

 avail, however, with the king ; she was condemned 

 to die, and she expired on the scaffold. In one of 

 her affecting protestations, which she sent to her 



