XI - UNDERGRADUATE LETTERS OF THE 17TH CENTURY

Summary

The members of the Gawdy family, one of whose principal seats was at West Harling in Norfolk, seem to have been, like the Pastons of the same county, great letter writers. There is a large collection at the British Museum, known as the Gawdy MSS., which contains many hundreds of letters written to and from various members of the family. Though far from rivalling the famous find of Sir John Fenn in respect of antiquity, many of them are old enough to be of much value. The following are selected from the correspondence of the junior members of the family, the writers being students at Cambridge. The Gawdys belonged to the country gentry, and occupied, if not the highest place, at any rate a dignified and substantial place in the county. In the early part of the seventeenth century, Framlingham Gawdy, Esquire of West Harling, was a prosperous landowner with a large family. No less than six of his sons came successively to College. It deserves notice that only one of them proceeded to a degree. Modern sentiment on the subject would regard this as representing somewhat of a failure, suggesting, presumably, idleness or want of ability. But it was entirely in accordance with the sentiment of the time. It is often forgotten that the society in College in those days consisted of two really distinct classes, who may be described as the professional and the amateur, and who probably associated very little with each other.