hese isles."

But I must hasten on, although I would fain tarry long over George Borrow
and his works. I have said that East Anglia is the country of great
letter writers. First, there was Margaret Paston. There is no such
contribution to a remote period of English history as that contained in
the _Paston Letters_, and I think we must associate them with the name of
a woman--Margaret Paston. Margaret's husband, John Paston; her son, Sir
John Paston; and her second son, who, strangely enough, was also a John,
and called himself "John Paston the Youngest," come frequently before us
in the correspondence, but Margaret Paston is the central figure.

It may not be without interest to some of my hearers who are married to
recall that Margaret Paston addresses her husband not as "Dear John," or
"My dear John," as I imagine a wife of to-day would do, but as "Right
Reverend and Worshipful Husband." Nowhere is there such a vivid picture
of a bygone age as that contained in these _Paston Letters_. We who sit
quietly by the hearth in the reign of King Edward VII may read what it
meant to live by the hearth in the reign of King Edward IV. It is
curious that the most humane documents of far-off times in our history
should all come from East Anglia, not only those _Paston Letters_,
brimful of the most vital interest concerning the reigns of Henry VI and
Edward IV, but also an even earlier period--the life, or at least the
monastic life in the time of the first Richard and of King John is in a
most extraordinarily human fashion mirrored for us in that Chronicle of
St. Edmund's Bury Monastery known as the Jocelyn Chronicle, published by
the Camden Society, which Carlyle has vitalized so superbly for us in
_Past and Present_.

But I was speaking of the great letter writers, commencing with Margaret
Paston. Who are our greatest letter writers? Undoubtedly they are
Horace Walpole, William Cowper and Edward FitzGerald. You know what a
superb picture of eighteenth century life has been presented to us in the
nine volumes of correspondence we have by Horace Walpole. {144} Walpole
was to all practical purposes an East Anglian, although he happened to be
born in London. His father, the great Sir Robert Walpole, was a notable
East Anglian, and he had the closest ties of birth and association with
East Anglia. Many of his letters were written from the family mansion of
Houghton. {145}

Next in order comes William Cowper. I believ