class="smcap">Preface

v Introduction on the History and Art of Letter-Writing 1 I. Ancient History. II. Letters in English—before 1700. III. The Eighteenth Century. IV. Nineteenth Century Letters—Early. V. Nineteenth Century Letters—Later. VI. Some Special Kinds of Letter. VII. Conclusion. Appendix to Introduction: Greek Letters—Synesius 100 (i) To his Brother—Preparations to meet Raiders. (ii) To Hypatia—Longing but unable to come to her. Latin Letters—Pliny 102 Accepts a Brief for a Lady. Letters of the "Dark" Ages—Sidonius Apollinaris 105 The exploits of Ecdicius. Early Mediaeval (Twelfth Century) Letter 108 Duchess of Burgundy to King Louis VII.—Matchmaking. ENGLISH LETTERS The "Paston" Letters 111 1. A Channel Fight. 2. Margery is Willing. Roger Ascham 116 3. "Up the Rhine." 4. Nostalgia for Cambridge. Lady Mary Sidney 122 5. Have you no room at Court? George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland 125 6. A Death-bed letter. John Donne 129 7-10. Letters to Magdalen Lady Herbert. James Howell 135 11. "Long Melford for Ever." 12. The White Bird. John Evelyn 139 13. How to take care of ears, eyes and brains. Dorothy Osborne 146 14. A discourse of Flying, and several other things. 15. Some testimonies of kindness. Jonathan Swift 154 16. Letter-hunger. Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu 159 17. Directions for running away with her. Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield 164 18. Some manners that make a gentleman. George Ballard 173 19. The wickedness of Reviewers. Thomas Gray 180 20. Romanities and Plain English. 21. Kent, Rousseau, Lord Chatham, etc. Horace Walpole (and W. M. Thackeray) 187 22. What Horace wrote. 23. What Horace might have written. Tobias George Smollett