Facsimile of the Intercepted Letter to Cranstoun written by Mary Blandy _From the original MS. in the Public Record Office._ Miss Blandy _From a Mezzotint by T. Ryley, after L. Wilson, in the Collection of Mr. A.M. Broadley._ Miss Mary Blandy in Oxford Castle Gaol _From an Engraving in the British Museum._ Captain Cranstoun and Miss Blandy _From an Engraving in the British Museum._ Miss Mary Blandy _From an Engraving by B. Cole, after a Drawing for which she sat in Oxford Castle._ Miss Molly Blandy, taken from the life in Oxford Castle _From an Engraving in the Collection of Mr. A.M. Broadley._ Miss Mary Blandy, with scene of her Execution _From an Engraving by B. Cole, after an original Painting._ Captain William Henry Cranstoun, with his pompous funeral procession in Flanders _From an Engraving by B. Cole._ The Scotch Triumvirate _From a satirical Print in the Collection of Mr. Horace Bleackley._ MARY BLANDY. INTRODUCTION. In the earlier half of the eighteenth century there lived in the pleasant town of Henley-upon-Thames, in Oxfordshire, one Francis Blandy, gentleman, attorney-at-law. His wife, née Mary Stevens, sister to Mr. Serjeant Stevens of Culham Court, Henley, and of Doctors' Commons, a lady described as "an emblem of chastity and virtue; graceful in person, in mind elevated," had, it was thought, transmitted these amiable qualities to the only child of the marriage, a daughter Mary, baptised in the parish church of Henley on 15th July, 1720. Mr. Blandy, as a man of old family and a busy and prosperous practitioner, had become a person of some importance in the county. His professional skill was much appreciated by a large circle of clients, he acted as steward for most of the neighbouring gentry, and he had held efficiently for many years the office of town-clerk. But above the public respect which his performance of these varied duties had secured him, Mr. Blandy prized his reputation as a man of wealth. The legend had grown with his practice and kept pace with his social advancement. The Blandys' door was open to all; their table, "whether filled with company or not, was every day plenteously supplied"; and a profuse if somewhat ostentatious hospitality was the "note" of the house, a comfortable mansion on the London road, close to Henley Bridge. Burn, in his _History of Henley_, describes it as "an old-fashioned house near the White Hart, represented in the view of the town facing the title-page" of his volume, and "now [1861] rebuilt." The White Hart still survives in Hart Street, with its courtyard and gallery, where of yore the town's folk were wont to watch the bear-baiting; one of those fine old country inns which one naturally associates with Pickwickian adventure.