In the Cottonian Library, Vespasian, F. III. is preserved a letter
written by Queen Elizabeth, then Princess. Her brother, Edward the
Sixth, had desired to have her picture; and in gratifying the wishes of
his majesty, Elizabeth accompanies the present with an elaborate letter.
It bears no date of the _year_ in which it was written; but her place of
residence was at Hatfield. There she had retired to enjoy the silent
pleasures of a studious life, and to be distant from the dangerous
politics of the time. When Mary died, Elizabeth was still at Hatfield.
At the time of its composition she was in habitual intercourse with the
most excellent writers of antiquity: her letter displays this in every
part of it; but it is too rhetorical. It is here now first published.