THE PASTON LETTERS

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 111, 12 May 1934, Page 18

THE PASTON LETTERS

AN ELECTION IN 1-455

"WODE AS A WILDE BULLOK"

• (By "Ajax.") IV. Last week I quoted Miss Alice Greenwood's eulogy of Margaret Paston as "a capable and devoted wife, an admirable -woman of business, a good friend and considerate mistress," and also as "perhaps tho most attractive character in the 'Letters'." Her husband, John Paston (1421-1466), was evidently no match for her in attractiveness, nor perhaps in any other pleasing human quality. In the "Dictionary of National Biography" James Tout describes him as "somewhat hard, self-satisfying, and unsympathetic," but there was a method in this hardness and coldness of John Paston's to which the world's obligations cannot be easily exaggerated. His letters,-says Tout, reveal the cool, calculating, business temperament, which we have chiefly to. thank for the preservation of the unique family correspondence, in. which he is the central, though not the most interesting, £%. re. For the history of the Paston Letters Tout refers tho reader to the article on Sir " John Fenn in the "D.N.8.," but, as might bo expected from its title, that article is only concerned with the history of tho collected letters- as they came into the hands of Fenn (1739-1794), and with their, subsequent adventures. That is a> very interesting story, but a very different one from that of the compilation, and preservation, about which, presumably, not much is known. The title of the book, of which the first two volumes were published by Fenn in 1787, and two others in 1789, and a ' fifth, by his literary executor in 1823, is ' such a model of its kind as to be well worth repeating. In the absence of a ' first edition"! am compelled to follow the title-page of tho second edition published by Charles Knight for : Ramsay in 1841. But the fact that in ; this edition the text of the/less im- . portant letters is abridged raises a presumption against the responsibility ' of its .editor for, the delightful prolixity of tho borrowed title-page, and in ' the parts that I have been able to check the copy is accurate. «■ •» ..*... Paston Letters ' '. Original Letters Written during the Reigns of i Henry VI, Edward VI, and Richard 111 by ' ' | Various Persons of Rank and Consequence . containing many ' Curious Anecdotes, relative to that Turbulent and Bloody, but Hitherto Dark Period of our History; and Elucidating not only Public Matters of State, but likewise the i . Private Manners of tho Ago. ; With i Notes Historical and Explanatory; , and' Authenticated by Engravings of ' Autographs and Seals. - - #. * •; Fenn presumably knew the taste of ' the late .18th-Century London when he ; advertised the authorship of "Various Persons of Rank or Consequence" to ' sell his book, and Horace Walpolo may ' seem to bo indulging the same taste when, ho writes:— The letters of Henry Vl's reign, etc., are come out, and to me make' all other letters not worth reading. I have gone through one volume, and cannot bear to be waiting when I am so eager to be reading. . . . What antiquary would be answering a letter from a living countess, when he may read one from Eleanor Mowbray, Duchess of Norfolk? But Walpole was an antiquary and a scholar as well as a society man; and we know that he was democrat enough to enjoy with enthusiasm the .whole of a book.which, is very largely concerned with tho speech and the life of the rank and file. * * » It is a very lucky chance that has brought Eleanor Mowbray, Duchess of Norfolk, unexpectedly into my last paragraph, for sho supplies tho exact cue to an episode with which I was prdposing to deal, though not at once. "With a county election coming on, she wrote on June 8, 1455, '' To our right trusti and well-belovyd John Paston, Esq.," to say that it was considered necessary. that my Lord have at this time in the Parlement suche persones as longe [belong] unto him, and be of his menvull stirvaunts. Tho two "menyall servaunts" selected for this purpose were "our ryght welo belovyd cousin and servaunts John Howard and Sir Roger Chamberlayn," and Paston. was requested to "give and apply his voice" for their return as Knights- of the Shire, and to exhort others to help. v '• * • The.curious construction "cousin and servaunts John Howard and Sir Roger Chamberlayn" plainly indicates that while both of the candidates were servants—the Duchess had already declared the position of menial servant to be ' a necessary 'qualification— Howafd, the one first-mentioned, was the only cousin. This confirms the natural inference that , this John Howard belonged to the great Howard family •which then held and still hold the title. With the powerful NorfolkMowbray combination behind him, John Howard may .well have expected a walk-over for the Duke's home county, nor was it any premature insurgence of democracy that prevented _ it. The principal cause indicated by the correspondence is that though Norfolk was the Duke's home county it was not hia candidate's. But there is also a suggestion that an adjoining magnate, the Doke of Suffolk, may have had a finger in tho pi 6. * * » Both of these matters are covered by John Jenney in letters written to John Paaton on consecutive days in June, 1455. On the 24th he wrote contradicting the Teport that he had told Howard that Paston was intending to run against him, and explained what he really did say. I tolde my Lord of Norfiblk atte London that I labored diverse men for Sir Roger Chaumberleyn, and they seid to me they wolde have hym, but not Howard, in asmeche as he hadde no lyvelode [livelihood or income] in the shire nor conversement [acquaintance]; and I have asked them horn they wolde have, and they seid they wolde have you and thus I tolde hym. ♦ * ' • John Jenney 's second letter to John Paston is still.more entertaining. My servaunt, he writes, tolde me ye desired to knowe what my Lord of Norffolk seid to me whan I spake of you; and he seid in asmeche as Howard myght not be, he wolde write a lettre to the UnderShreyethat the shire shulde have fre eleccion, soo that Sir Thomas Todenhara wernot, nor none that was toward the Djso;<>£ Suffolk; he seid he-knewe ye wer ieVeiH»l>yntward, Xc may seride- to* the.

Under-Shreve, and see my Lords lettre. Howard was as wode [mad] as a wilde bullok; God sende hym seche wurshipp as ho deservith. It is an evill precedent for the shire that a stvaunge man shulde be chosyn, and no vmshipp to my Lord of \orke, nor to my Lord of Norffolk to write for'hrm; for yf the jcntilmcn of the shire will suffrc scch inconvenyens, in good fuithe, the shire shall not bo called of scche wurshipp as it hathe be.

It w«^ hard luck on John Howard but it ill becomes a Christian to become "as wode as a wilde bullok." Tho kind of "free election" that nevertheless excludes Todenham and tho partisans of the Duke of Suffolk from tho poll is also worth a note. But even in the 20th Century there are still some fuuny free elections, especially in tho United States, where the workers enfranchised under Mr. Roosevelt's Codes sometimes have to let a "company union" run their elections.