Note 164.1 — THE PASTON LETTERS Henry VI (continued 3)

[From Paston MSS., B.M.] The two letters following are from contemporaneous copies written on the same paper. Being dated the same day as the preceding letter of the Earl of Oxford, and addressed to the two persons named in the postscript, we should have every reason to suppose they are the copies there mentioned, were it not for the circumstance that the Earl of Oxford’s seat at Wynche, near Lynn, in Norfolk, must have been a good day’s journey from Bury St. Edmunds. The internal evidence, however, is in other respects so strong that we have no doubt at all upon the subject. The difficulty as to the date may be accounted for by supposing that these two letters were really written at Wynche the day before, but that the date 21st August was filled in by the Earl at Bury St. Edmunds at the time he despatched his letter of the same date to John Paston.