[Footnote 307-1: [From Fenn, ii. 256.] It is curious that after
so much negotiation for the marriage of John Paston and Margery
Brews, we have no record in these letters when it actually took
place; but probably it was in August 1477, the last reference to
it as an event not yet accomplished being on the 7th of that
month (No. 916). In January 1478, John Paston talks of taking
his wife to her father’s house on account of her situation, and
their first child was born in the course of the following
summer. This letter seems to have been written in December. Fenn
remarks that St. Thomas’s Day might mean the Translation of St.
Thomas à Becket, 7th July 1478, and ‘Our Lady’s Day’ might be
the Visitation of the Virgin, 2nd July preceding. But this is
simply impossible, because the letter is dated Thursday
_before_ St. Thomas’s Day, which would in that case be the
very same date as the Visitation of Our Lady, viz. the 2nd July
1478. Besides, if the first child of John Paston and Margery was
not actually born before July, the latter was certainly much
nearer to her confinement then than this letter would imply.
_See_ No. 936 in vol. vi.
A facsimile of this letter was published in the _European
Magazine_ for March 1787, and we have carefully compared the
text with this facsimile.]
[Footnote 307-2: A kind of grey woollen cloth.]
[Footnote 307-3: Fenn suggests _Grenouilliere_ or frog-colour, but
I find no authority for such a word; and I should suppose ‘grene’
to be a separate word, though what ‘a lyer’ is I cannot say.]
[Footnote 308-1: This word commonly signifies neat or elegant, and
seems to be used here ironically.]
[Footnote 308-2: Conception of Our Lady, 8th of December.--F.]
[Footnote 308-3: 21st December, the day of St. Thomas Apostle, or
perhaps 29th December, the day of St. Thomas (à Becket) the
Martyr.]
[[_To my ryth reverent and worscheful husbond, Jon Paston._
_text has “myryth” but words are separated in MS._
Footnote 307-3
what ‘a lyer’ is I cannot say
_possibly Lier in Brabant_]]
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