Has the assertion made in _An Answer to Mr. Pope's Preface to
Shakspeare_, by a Strolling Player, 1729, respecting the destruction of
the poet's MSS. papers, been ever verified? If that account is
authentic, it will explain the singular dearth of all autograph remains
of one who must have written so much. As the pamphlet is not common, I
transcribe the essential passage:--

"How much it is to be lamented that _Two large Chests_ full of
this GREAT MAN'S _loose papers_ and _Manuscripts_ in the hands
of an ignorant _Baker of_ WARWICK (who married one of the
descendants from Shakspear), were carelessly scattered and
thrown about as Garret Lumber and Litter, to {54} the particular
knowledge of the late _Sir William Bishop_; till they were all
consum'd in the general Fire and Destruction of that Town."

S.W.S.

Mickleham, Nov. 14. 1849.

[We cannot insert the interesting Query which our correspondent
has forwarded on the subject of the disappearance of
Shakespeare's MSS. without referring to the ingenious suggestion
upon that subject so skilfully brought forward by the Rev.
Joseph Hunter in his _New Illustrations of the Life, Studies,
and Writings of Shakspeare_, vol. i. p. 105.:--"That the entire
disappearance of all manuscripts of Shakspeare, so entire that
no writing of his remains except his name, and only one letter
ever addressed to him, is in some way connected with the
religious turn which his posterity took, in whose eyes there