PREFACE.
��THE letters and papers from which the following selections have been made form part of the vast collection of orio-inal documents relatinof to the Earl of Strafford which has of late years been acquired by the Trustees of the British Museum. The general correspondence fills fully one hundred volumes, and there are, besides, a few volumes consisting entirely of bills, receipts, and other records of the Earl's personal expenses during the greater part of his life. Many volumes in the collection are altogether of diplomatic and official interest, others relate chiefly to the management of his large estates in different counties of England, while a third portion is made up of letters from his intimate friends and relatives. i\lthough it is almost wholly from the last-named source that this work has been compiled, yet every other volume in the series has been searched, with a hope (often realised) of finding material for a note or illustration. The letters from Lord Raby to George Stepney, quoted in the Introductory Memoir, will be found in the Stepney Collection in the British Museum ; and
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