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Extracts from the First Version of Hardyng's Chronicle
As promised in the last number of this Review, the three most distinctive passages of the version of Hardyng's Chronicle, which the author finished and presented to Henry VI in 1457, are now given in full from the only copy in the Lansdowne MS. 204. They are (i) The Introduction, (ii) The Praise of King Henry V, and (iii) The Conclusion celebrating the fame of Robert Umfraville, and exhorting Henry VI to keep peace and law and reward the writer. As explained on pp. 470-6 above, these passages give something of Hardyng's autobiography, and have a special interest for their picture of the state of England at the time when he wrote. To the description of Umfraville as the accomplished knight should be added Hardyng's account of the training of a young lord, which is quoted by Ellis, on p. i of the preface to his edition, from f. 12 of the same manuscript.
C. L. KINGSFORD.