cour de
France" (1695), of which Dunlop remarks that "to a passion, which has,
no doubt, especially in France, had considerable effect in state
affairs, there is assigned ... a paramount influence." But romancers
with a nose for gallantry had no difficulty in finding material for
their pens in England during the times of Henry VIII, Elizabeth, and
Henrietta Maria. But most frequently of all was chosen the life of the
Queen of Scots.

From fifteen or sixteen French biographies of the romantic Mary[3] Mrs.
Haywood drew materials for an English work of two hundred and forty
pages. "Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots: Being the Secret History of her
Life, and the Real Causes of all Her Misfortunes. Containing a Relation
of many particular Transactions in her Reign; never yet Published in any
Collection" (1725) is distinguishable from her true fiction only by the
larger proportion of events between set scenes of burning passion which
formed the chief constituent of Eliza's romances. As history it is
worthless, and its significance as fiction lies merely in its attempt to
incorporate imaginative love scenes with historical fact. It was
apparently compiled hastily to compete with a rival volume, "The History
of the Life and Reign of Mary Stuart," published a week earlier, and it
enjoyed but a languid sale. Early in 1726 it passed into a second
edition, which continued to be advertised as late as 1743.

"Mary Stuart" is the only one of Mrs. Haywood's romances that strictly
deserves the name of secret history. But late in 1749 a little romance
that satisfied nearly all the conditions of the type insinuated itself
into the pamphlet shops without the agency of any publisher. "A Letter
from H--G--g, Esq. One of the Gentlemen of the Bedchamber to the Young
Chevalier, and the only Person of his own Retinue that attended him from
Avignon, in his late Journey through Germany, and elsewhere; Containing
Many remarkable and affecting Occurrences which happened to the P----
during the course of his mysterious Progress" has been assigned to Mrs.
Haywood by the late Mr. Andrew Lang,[4] perhaps on the authority of the
notice in the "Monthly Review" already quoted.

The pretended author of the letter was a certain Henry Goring, a
gentleman known to be in attendance upon the last of the Stuarts. The
preface gives a commonplace explanation of how the letter fell into the
hands of the editor through a similarity of names. Apparently the
pamphlet was