ship, and Tixall, but they had been removed out of it, many years ago; partly, perhaps, for the purpose of depositing them in a still safer place, and probably, also with the intention of showing them to such visitors at Tixall, as might feel a curiosity to examine such ancient manuscripts.[1] The box, however, at that time, was not very closely examined, or many papers were purposely left in it, as the reader will be informed hereafter. I had often heard my eldest sister, Mrs Wolseley, relate, that my father, (who, when he was first married, lived in the old house, now a ruin,) determined, on some occasion or other, to make a great bonfire in the court; and to throw into it a large quantity of old boxes, lumber, and rubbish, which had been accumulating in the ancient mansion, perhaps for more than two centuries. Among the rest, this venerable diplomatic chest, which had contained the laborious negociations, and important treaties of so many ambassadors, and such various countries, was also destined to the flames; but that my mother, and all the female part of the family, strongly interceded for it; struck, perhaps, with the exterior beauty of its gilded leather, and hobnails; and still more, because my mother declared, that she had heard her father, Lord Aston, say, that that very box had belonged to Sir Ralph Sadler; and that therefore, it would be a kind of sacrilege, to destroy a venerable relic of such an illustrious ancestor. The ladies prevailed, and the box was saved.[2]
- ↑ My respectable friend, Samuel Pipe Wolferstan, Esq. of Stadfold, near Tam worth, informed me, that making a visit one morning at Tixall, I suppose between 30 and 40 years ago, my mother showed him some of these papers, and spoke of them as very cuneus manuscripts.
- ↑ Here let me pause a moment, to pay the tribute of affectionate sorrow, to the me-
