Stoke Newington.
_Roman Catholics confined in Fens of Ely._--Mr. Dickens, in _Household
Words_, No. 169. p. 382., in the continuation of a "Child's History of
England," says, when alluding to the threatened invasion of England by the
Spanish Armada:
"Some of the Queen's advisers were for seizing the principal English
Catholics, and putting them to death; but the queen--who, to her
honour, used to say that she would never believe any ill of her
subjects, which a parent would not believe of her own
children--neglected the advice, and only confined a few of those who
were the most suspected among them, in the fens of Lincolnshire."
Mr. Dickens had, of course, as he supposed, good authority for making this
statement; but, in reply to a private communication, he states it should
have been _Fens of Ely_. I am, perhaps convicting myself of gross ignorance
by seeking for information respecting it; nevertheless, I venture to ask
the readers of at "N. & Q." for a reference to the authentic history, where
a corroboration of Mr. Dickens' statement is to be found?