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[Illustration: THE VISCOUNTESS ANSON]

THE LETTER-BAG OF LADY ELIZABETH SPENCER-STANHOPE
COMPILED FROM THE CANNON HALL PAPERS, 1806-1873 BY A. M. W. STIRLING
TWO VOLUMES: VOLUME ONE

"TON IS INDEED A CAMELEON WHOSE HUE CHANGES WITH EVERY RAY OF LIGHT." ALMACK'S

TO CHARLES G. STIRLING THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED

PREFACE

The following papers, which extend over a space of nearly seventy years during a most interesting period of our National History, may be said to form a sequel and a conclusion to two previous publications, Coke of Norfolk and his Friends, which appeared in 1906, and Annals of a Yorkshire House, which appeared in 1911. They are, however, more essentially a continuation of the latter, in which the Cannon Hall muniments and anecdotes were brought down to the years 1805-6, from which date the narrative is resumed in the present volume.