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.

In that first series of Papers which was published in the Annals, the bulk
of the correspondence centred round the personality of Walter Spencer-
Stanhope, M.P., who lived from 1749 to 1821. In the present series, the
correspondence is principally addressed to or written by John Spencer-
Stanhope, his son, who lived from 1787 to 1873. Other letters, doubtless,
there were in plenty, to and from other members of the family, but only
those have survived which found their way back to the old Yorkshire house
whence so many of them had originally set forth with their messages of
love and home tidings, and which were there preserved, eventually, by the
grandmother of the present writer, Lady Elizabeth, wife of John Stanhope
and daughter of the celebrated 'Coke of Norfolk.'

The following book, therefore, is appropriately termed the "Letter-bag" of
the lady to whom its existence is due, although her personal contribution
to its contents does not commence before the year 1822, when she first
became a member of the family circle of its correspondents. In it, in
brief, is represented the social existence of two generations and the
current gossip of over half-a-century, as first set forth by their nimble
pens in all the freshness of novelty. Thus it is an ever-shifting scene to
which we are introduced. We become one with the daily life of a bygone
century, with a family party absorbed in a happy, busy existence. We
mingle with the gay throng at the routs and assemblies which they
frequented. We meet the "very fine" beaux at whom they mocked, and the
"raging belles" whom they envied. Then the scene changes, and we are out