[Footnote 157-1: [From Paston MSS., B.M.] Fenn says, I cannot tell
on what grounds, that this letter must have been written between
1491 and 1495. At the earlier of these dates the writer could not
have been more than twelve years old, but as lads were sent to the
university at a much earlier age in those days than in ours, even
the earlier of these dates is not impossible. The style of the
letter, however, is not boyish, and I should have been inclined to
place it a year or two later even than Fenn’s latest date, but
that there is no clear evidence to go by. The sweating sickness
was prevalent in England at different times during the reign of
Henry VII.; and there is no particular record of its visiting
Cambridge.]
[Footnote 157-2: Fordham in Cambridgeshire, north of Newmarket.
Snailwell lies between.]
[Footnote 157-3: Punsborne, near Hatfield, in Hertfordshire.]
1063