[Footnote 252.1: [From Fenn, iii. 412.] ‘This letter,’ says
Fenn, ‘has no direction, and lest it should be opened, the paper
which fastens the seal is, along the edge, marked with lines by
a pen, which communicate with the latter (_qu._ with the
_letter_?), by which means the receiver might easily have
discovered any attempts to have opened it, as the lines would
not then have exactly coincided again. On the back of it, but in
a later hand, is written, “A lettre to J. Paston, ar., from his
wife.”’
Fenn considers, I think with great probability, that this letter
was written ‘just before the important crisis that finished
Henry’s reign, and placed Edward on the throne,’ when Margaret
of Anjou was expected in London after winning the second battle
of St. Albans. Giles Saint Loe was sheriff of Norfolk and
Suffolk in 1458.]
[Footnote 252.2: This title is taken from an endorsement in a
later hand.]
433