"_The General Pardon._"--An imperfect copy of a small tract (measuring five and a half inches by three and a half inches) has recently come into my hands, of which I much desire to obtain the wanting parts. It is entitled:
"The general Pardon, geuen longe agone, and sythe newly confyrmed, by our Almightie Father, with many large Priuileges, Grauntes, and Bulles graunted for euer, as is to be seen hereafter: Drawne out of Frenche into English. By Wyllyam Hayward. Imprinted at London, by Wyllyam How, for Wyllyam Pickeringe."
There is no date, but it is believed to have been printed in or about 1571. It is in black letter, and is an imitation of the Roman Catholic pardons. It consists of twelve leaves. In my copy the last seven of these are torn through their middle vertically.
I have not been able to meet with this tract in the catalogues of any of the great libraries which I have consulted; _e.g._ The British Museum, Bodleian, Cambridge University, Lambeth, and several of the college libraries at Cambridge.
I want any information concerning it, or its original in French, which the readers of "N. & Q." can give: also access to a copy from which to transcribe the parts wanting in mine.
_Edward the Confessor's Rings._--There is an old legend of a ring given to one of our early kings, I think Edward the Confessor, by some saintly or angelic messenger. If any of your readers could give me any of the details of this story, it would very much oblige your constant reader
[The following extract from Taylor's _Glory of Regality_, pp. 74. _et seq._, will give our Correspondent the legend referred to.
"The ring with which our kings are invested, called by some writers 'the wedding ring of England,' is illustrated, like the Ampulla, by a miraculous history, of which the following are the leading particulars: from the 'Golden Legende' (_Julyan Notary_, 1503), p. 187.:--'Edward the Confessor being one day askt for alms by a certain 'fayre olde man,' the king found nothing to give him except his ring, with which the poor man thankfully departed. Some time after, two English pilgrims in the Holy Land having lost their road, as they travelled at the close of the day, 'there came to them a fayre auncyent man wyth whyte heer for age.' Then the old man axed them what they were and of what regyon. And they answerde that they were Pylgryms of Englond, and hadde lost their felyshyp and way also. Then this old man comforted theym goodly, and brought theym into a fayre cytee; and whan they had well refresshyd them, and rested theym alle nyght; on the morne, this fayre olde man wente with theym and brought theym in the ryght waye agayne. And he was gladde to hear theym talke of the welfare and holynesse of theyr Kynge Saynt Edward. And whan he shold departe fro theym thenne he told theym what he was, and sayd I am Johan Theuangelyst, and saye ye unto Edward your king, that I grete hym well by the token that he gaaf to me thys rynge with his one hondes, whych rynge ye shalle { 16} delyuer to hym agayne: and whan he had delyuerde to theym the ringe, he departed from theym sodenly.'