All the good bodies thanke you for your remembrance, which I ought to have told you sooner if a paine in my head had not hinderd me.
I wishe I could give you the key you desire, but all I know of it is not worth anything; though conversant amongst his relations, could learne noe more then Pamela's being my lady Northumberland[1049], Philo[clea] my lady Rich[1050], two sisters, the last beloved by him, upon whose account he made his _Astrophell and Stella_; Miso, lady Cox, Mopse, lady Lucy, persons altogether unknowne now; Musid[orus] and Pericles, the two ladies' husbands. Lord Ri[ch] being then his friend, he perswaded her mother to the match, though he repented afterwards: she then very young and secretly in love with him but he no consern for her. Her beauty augmenting, he sayes in his _Astrophel and Stella_, he didnt think 'the morn would have proved soe faire a daye.' Their mother[1051] was beautifull and gallant (whether he meant Ginesia by her or noe, I know not); but their father died, they being young. She remaried to Dudley, Leycester and Northumberland, and afterwards to her gentleman of the horse, Sir Cristopher Blunt, which was beheaded with lord Essex. It was thought he meant himself by Amphi[alus] and his lady, Sir Francis Walsingham's daughter and heire, the queen of Corinth. If he did make his owne character high, they sayd Philisides was himself to, but it was all a guesse. He made it young, and diyng desired his folies might be burnt.
Some others I have heard guessed at, but have forgot. Therfore canot satisfie the lady, which I would for your sake.
I give you thankes but shall not want my grandmother's epitaph (which was for a relation of ours heere, who desird it), having found it of your giving.
I knew of my brother's place, but know nothing of his mariyng yett.
My service to your brother. I am sorry all thinges should not answear both your desires.
[Langton[1052] in Lincolneshire] Feb. 18, 1686/7.
Service to my lady Long. Whye doe you tell us no newes? Does not Mrs. Mason's mar[1053]....
[BX] Aubrey gives in trick the coat, 'or, a pheon vert [Sydney],' wreathed in laurel (as is his custom for a poet). Dr. Philip Bliss has added the reference 'See part iii ante p. 24 for his birth,' i.e. the horoscope in MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 41ᵛ--_ut supra_ p. 247.