Mastresse Annes, I am prowd that ye can reed Inglyshe; wherfor I prey
yow aqweynt yow with thys my lewd [_uncouth_] hand, for my purpose is
that ye shalbe more aqweyntyd with it, or ellys it shalbe ayenst my
wyll; but yet, and when ye have red thys byll, I prey yow brenne it or
kepe it secret to yoursylff, as my feythefull trust is in yow.
[Footnote 300.2: [From Fenn, ii. 294.] The Mrs. Anne to whom this
letter was addressed seems to have been a Mrs. Anne Haute, to whom
Sir John was for a long time engaged. That it was written before
the year 1469 will appear probable on referring to Margaret
Paston’s letter written on Easter Monday (3rd April) in that year,
in which she wishes to know for certain if he be engaged; and we
have therefore little difficulty in referring it to the year 1468,
when Sir John was over in Flanders at the marriage of the Princess
Margaret to Charles of Burgundy. Mrs. Anne appears to have been a
lady of English extraction, who was either born abroad or had
passed most of her life on the Continent. She was, moreover,
related to Lord Scales, and is therefore not unlikely to have been
the daughter of one William Haute of Kent, who married at Calais,
in 1429, the daughter of a certain Richard Wydeville. (See
_Excerpta Historica_, p. 249.) But she could speak and even read
English; and Sir John, who was now returning homewards to England,
designed in this letter to open a correspondence with her. He
appears, however, not to have despatched it, as the original
remained among the papers of the Paston family; or else perhaps it
was returned to him on the breaking off of the engagement.]
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