LEAVES THEY HAVE TOUCHED. 317 



variety of aspects ; and should tlie tone of those words be at any time 

 one of sorrow or perplexity, we shall perhaps be reminded by them of 

 that stone of many colours bearing iipon it tears still as fresh as if 

 newly fallen. Moreover, by the contemplation of such objects, a 

 taste for the noble study of history may here and there be awakened 

 and fostered ; and by hiiits hence derived, where an enthusiasm in 

 that direction has already been set up, an ambition may be roused 

 to investigate the Past by the aid of original documents whenever 

 the opportunity is afforded ; and so not to continue forever at the 

 mercy of interested garblers who from time to time propose to supply 

 us and our children with their one-sided compendiums. 



I enter now upon my proposed review without further preliminary, 

 save the remark that again in several instances I reckon as literary 

 memorials of distinguished men, volumes from their libraries ; and that 

 I reserve for separate consideration hereafter all my relics of eminent 

 men more immediately connected with Oxford and Cambridge. 



My first English historical autograph will be that of Cecil, Lord 

 Burleigh, the famous secretary and trusty counsellor of Queen Eliza- 

 beth. It is attached to a parchment instrument authorizing the sale 

 of some property in Warwickshire, in accordance with a private Act 

 of Parliament which had lately been passed. He signs himself W. 

 BuRGHLEY, and not as the name usually now appears. As co-trustees 

 probably, the following, each bearing a name more or less distinguished 

 in the annals of England, also sign the document, thus : E,o : Cecyll. 

 Antho. Cooke. Tho. Mildemay. Will,. Waldegrave. The narrow 

 strips of parchment from which the seals of the signers were once 

 pendant are still to be seen inserted, but the seals themselves are 

 gone. On the back of the document is a cloud of witness-signatures, 

 and other official attestations. Amongst them I make out the auto- 

 graphs of Thomas Heigham, R. Coke, Will. Ffox, Th. Blythe, Lewys 

 Hughes, Wm. Ludlow, John Thynne, Thomas Ridley. The instru- 

 ment will explain itself. T have modernized the spelling of the Eng- 

 lish throughout. " This indenture tripartite made the twentieth day 

 of September in the five and thirtieth year of the reign of our sovereign 

 lady, Elizabeth, by the grace of God, Queen of England, France and 

 Ireland, defender of the Faith, between the Eight Honorable William 

 Cecil, of the most noble order of the Carter, Knight, Lord Burleigh, 

 Lord High Treasurer of England, Sir Robert Cecil, Knight, one of 

 Her Majesty's Most Honorable Pxivy Council, Sir Thomas Mildmay, 



