Horace Vicary, M.D., of Southbridge, to his old friend the Rev. Stacey Morris
Dear Morris,—It's a good volume, take it all round. But what has given me, in my unregeneracy, the greatest pleasure is the article on the Puttenhams. For years the Puttenhams here have been putting on airs and holding their noses higher than the highest, and it is not only (as they say doubly of nibs) grateful and comforting, but a boon and a blessing, to find that one of their not too remote ancestors kept a public-house, and another was a tinsmith. And I fancy I am not alone in my satisfaction.
Yours, H. V.
V
Sir Victor Puttenham, F.R.S., to the Editor of The Mustershire Archæological Society's Records
Dear Sir,—As probably the most widely-known member of the Puttenham family at the present moment, may I thank you for the generous space which you have accorded to our history. To what extent it will be readable by strangers I cannot say, but to me it is intensely interesting, and if you can arrange for a few dozen reprints in paper wrappers I shall be glad to have them. I had, of course, some knowledge of my ancestors, but I had no idea that we were quite such an undistinguished rabble of groundlings for so long. That drunken whipper-in to Lord Dashingham in the seventeen-seventies particularly delights me.—I am,
Yours faithfully,
Victor Puttenham
VI
From Sir Jonathan Puttenham to the Editor of The Mustershire Herald and Oldcaster Advertiser
Dear Sir,—I shall be obliged if you will make no more references in The Herald to the new Mustershire Archæological Records' article on the Puttenhams. It is not that it lays emphasis on the humble origin of that family. That is nothing to me. But I am at the moment engaged in a correspondence with the Editor on the propriety of publishing private or semi-private records of this character without first asking permission, and as he will possibly see the advisability of withdrawing the article in question there should be as little reference to it in the Press as possible.—I am,
Yours faithfully,
Jonathan Puttenham