behind in the Hilsden neighbourhood; to whom there is a Letter, here first producible to modern readers, and connected therewith a tale otherwise known.
Letter Twentieth, which exists as a Copy, on old dim paper, in the Kimbolton Archives, addressed on the back of the sheet, with all reverence, To the Earl of Manchester, and forms a very opaque puzzle in that condition,—turns out, after due study, to have been a Copy by that Crawford of a Letter addressed to himself: Copy hastily written off, along with other hasty confused sheets still extant beside it, for the Earl of Manchester’s use, on a certain Parliamentary occasion, which will by and by concern us too for a moment.
A ‘Lieutenant-Colonel,’ Packer I dimly apprehend is the name of him, has on this Hilsden-and-Gloucester expedition given offence to Major-General Crawford; who again, in a somewhat prompt way, has had Packer laid under arrest, under suspension at Cambridge; in which state Packer still painfully continues. And may, seemingly, continue: for here has my Lord of Manchester just come down with a Parliamentary Commission ‘to reform the University,’ a thing of immense noise and moment, and ‘is employed in regard of many occasions’; is, in fact, precisely in these hours,[1] issuing his Summonses to the Heads of Houses; and cannot spare an instant for Packer and his pleadings. Crawford is still in Buckinghamshire; nevertheless the shortest way for Packer will be to go to Crawford, and take this admonitory Letter from his superior in command
“TO MAJOR-GENERAL CRAWFORD: THESE”
Sir,—The complaints you preferred to my Lord against your Lieutenant-Colonel, both by Mr. Lee and your own Letters, have
