Your readers, who may not be conversant with that undeservedly neglected volume, will confess their obligation, when they have consulted its pages, in having been directed to so valuable and so original a work. It may be observed, that those letters of the Countess which are authentic, are certainly written in a very different style to the one in question; but this letter, if addressed by her to Sir Joseph Williamson, would be written under peculiar circumstances, and being in her 84th year, she might naturally have asked the assistance of the ablest pen within her reach. I have the copy of an interesting letter, addressed by the late Mr. John Baynes to Ritson, in 1785, stating his admiration of the Countess's "spirit and industry, having seen the collections made by her order relative to the Cliffords--such as no other noble family in the world can show." I join in wishing that Mr. Pickering would add a judicious selection from Drayton's poetical works to his _Lives of Aldine Poets_. To the list given by your correspondent (p. 28.), may be added a work entitled _Ideas Mirrour Amours in quatorzains_ (London, 1594, 4to. p. 51.), which was lent to me about forty years ago, but which I have not seen since. Some notice of it, by myself, will be found in the _Censura Literaria_. with the following note by Sir C. Brydges:--"The extreme rarity of this publication renders a farther account desirable, and also more copious extracts. It appears wholly unknown to Herbert, and to all the biographers of Drayton." It is unnoticed by Ritson also. Chalmers, in his _Series of English Poets_, has referred to this communication, but he has not printed the poem amongst Drayton's works. The expression "a Flemish account" is probably not of very long standing, as it is not found in the most celebrated of our earlier dramatists, unless, indeed, Mrs. Page's remark on Falstaff's letter may be cited as an illustration:--"What an unweighed behaviour hath this Flemish drunkard _picked out of my conversation_, that he dares in this manner assay me." If the habit of drinking to excess prevailed in the Low Countries in the sixteenth century to the extent represented, may not the expression have arisen from that circumstance, and been equivalent to the contempt which is usually entertained for the loose or imperfect statements made by a tipsy or drunken man? When quoting opinions upon Burnet, we must not forget the brief but pregnant character which Burke has given of the Bishop's _History of his Own Times_. In his admirable speech at Bristol, previous to the election if 1780, Burke says, "Look into the History of Bishop Burnet; _he is a witness without exception_." Dr. Johnson was not so laudatory:--"Burnet is very entertaining. The style, indeed, is mere chit-chat. I do not believe that he intentionally lied; but he was so much prejudiced, that he took no pains to find out the truth."