398 
IX. 
Windfor, Auguf? 10, 
I had fent back the encloied fooner, 
but that I thought you would have no 
epportumity of laying them before the 
Lords till to-morrow morning ; I defire 
Mr. Hill may have the power given him 
that is thought neceflary. Iam forry any 
occafion has confined you to your cham- 
ber, and am: ; 
| Your very affeCtionate friend, 
| Anne R. 
x. 
Windfor, Oflober 4, 
Your telling me Jatt night that Lord 
Keeper was to be in town to-morrow, and 
believing you would fpeake with him as 
foon as he came, I writt this to defire you 
would not do it till Saturday. 
Iam, your yery affectionate friend, 
Anne R, 
xI. 
Thurfday. 
I fend you my letter open that you may 
copy it to fend to my Lord Peterborough, 
becaufe I have made fome alterations in 
it Iam, 
Your very affectionate friend, 
ANNE R, 
To the Editor of the Monibly Magazine, 
SIR, 
Have received fo much delight from 
the perufal of Mr. Godwin’s Life and 
Age of CHAUCER, that I cannot content 
myfelf with the mere mention of it in my 
private circle. My admiration of the work 
has induced me to inclofe fome remarks 
which occurred to me in the progrefs of 
reading it: and I have alfo pointed out a 
few trivial errors, only to lament how in- 
feparable they are from the greateft and 
mof finifhed undertakings. 
Who were Chaucer’s parents we are not 
told, nor what part of London ke was 
born in: but I remember an anecdote 
being related to me a fhort time back, by 
one of the gentlemen at the Britith Mu- 
feum, which Mr. Godwin feems to have 
overlooked, or probably has never heard 
of ; It is that among the, Harleian char- 
ters in that great repofitory, is one, dated 
in the 29th year of Edward the firft, 1301, 
wherein Ifabeila the widow of Roger le 
Lorymer, refigns all right in a tenement 
in the parifh of St. Laurence in the Jewry 
to Philip le CHAUCER, and Mabel, her 
daughter, whom he had married. The 
Remarks on Godwin’s Life of Chaucer. 
| Dec. 1, 
witneffes, which proves the parties to have 
been of fome repute, were, Elias Ruffel, 
then Mayor of London, the Sheriffs, and 
others. ‘To fay for certain, that this, par- 
ticuJar deed relates either to the father or 
the family cf the poet is impoffible: 
thus much, however, may be fairly men- 
tioned ; that the name of Chaucer is a 
rare one ; that the date is not entirely at va- 
riance with the fuppofed time of Chaucer’s 
_ birth, which is placed in 1328, and that 
toward the clofe of the Canterbury Tales, 
is a particular defcriptien of the Fewerie 
in Afia, which can only be really ap- 
plied to that of the metropolis. 
‘* There was in Afie, in a great citee 
Amonges Criiten folk a “ewerie 
Suftened by a lord of that contree, 
For foul ufure, and lucre of vilanie 
Hatcful to Crift, and to bis compagnie 3 
And thurgh the firete men mighten ride & wende 
For it was free and open at eyther ende.” 
That this was a picture drawn from 
the fcene of his fir® education feems like- 
ly on another account, fince at the clofe 
of the tale he has a more pointed refe- 
rence to the hated condition of the Jews - 
in England : clofing it with a particular - 
mention of Hugh, the child whom they 
were {aid to have crucified at Lincoln, 
At any rate the prefervation of thefe cir- 
cumftances may perhaps hereafter tend te 
the elucidation of fome other document. 
The point indeed when fettled, may carry 
with it no vaft portion of importance, but 
it is ftill curious to know the particular 
{pot which produced the father of Englifly 
poetry, the hitory of: whofe connections 
and defcent isa matter not of particular, 
but general, concern. 
I now return to Mr. Godwin, the at- 
traétions of whofe work are too numereus 
and too brilliant to be fullied in the leak 
degree, by what I am about to mention. 
In foe of the earlier pages, Speght, a 
preceding commentator on the poet, is 
called Specht. : 
The hints for a catalogue of ancient 
portraits, at the clofe of the firft volume, 
contam many ftrong and found remarks. 
Mr. Godwin, however, dees not mention 
that the bef fpecimens of flatuary, beginnirg 
with the time of Henry III. ave of brafs ; 
fach is the material of feveral he has 
particularly mentioned. Eleanor, of 
Provence, too, (p. 433) isa miftake for 
Eleanor of Caftile, queen to Edward the 
Firt ; for whem feveral of the fineft 
crofies in the kingdom were not only me- 
; 2 motials: 
