Excerpt from Correspondence of the Family of Hatton, Vol. 1 The letters before us may be. Taken as a fair sample of the cor respondence of a family of the higher classes in the seventeenth century. The selection has been made chiefly with the view of giving such letters as contained matter of historical or social interest. It is true that many of them may be called simply news letters; but, as such, they are of value as showing the impression that passing events made upon the mind of the writers, as well as the style of news and town gossip that was acceptable to those who were living in the country. Perhaps there is nothing very new of historical matter to be found in these pages, but it is interesting to watch the daily records of events and the way in which the different writers tell their story. Of the two principal news-men, Charles Hatton writes with some humour, and, after William's accession, with a certain Jacobite zest for fault-finding; Lyttelton, in a blunt straightforward way of his own. It should not however be un noticed that Charles Hatton's connection with Scroggs put it in his power to hand down to us a few facts of political interest. Nor are Nottingham's letters, written at the crisis of the Revolution by one who had so large a share in the settlement, without a special value. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.