liam Vavasour's handwriting in the letter to the Earl of Salisbury,
dictated and signed by Francis Tresham, when dying in the Tower.
December 22, 1605. (State Papers, Domestic. James I. ccxvi. 211.)

Stated by Vavasour to have been written by Mrs. Tresham. On March 24,
1605-6, he confessed that he wrote it, and signed a note to it to that
effect.]

[Illustration: FACSIMILE No. 4.

William Vavasour's handwriting in his _untrue_ statement written in the
presence of the Lieutenant of the Tower, that No. 3 was written by Mrs.
Tresham. Dated March 23, 1605-6. (State Papers, Domestic. James I.
ccxvi. 207.)

[***]To avoid detection of his falsehood, he writes a hand quite
different from his ordinary writing in Nos. 2 and 3, thus producing a
hand which is in itself identical with his former disguised writing as
seen in the anonymous letter (No. 1).]

[Illustration: FACSIMILE No. 5.

George Vavasour's handwriting on the last leaf, which he renewed for
Francis Tresham, of the MS. intitled "A Treatise against Lying, &c."
(Laud MSS. 655, folio 61.)]

George Vavasour's handwriting upon the last leaf of the MS. (Facsimile
No. 5) shows a much more refined and educated hand than his brother's,
from which the writing is in every respect different. A small "s" is
invariably used in commencing a word with that letter; the "t's " are
quite different; the "w" finishes with an inner, not an outer loop; the
"g's" have no flat tops; and the "hangers" of the "h's" do not descend
below the line. The writing is evidently an educated hand for the time,
and cannot readily be imagined as using small "i's" for the first
person, such as are used in, and seem to accord so well with, the much
less educated handwriting of the warning letter.

* * * * *

WILLIAM VAVASOUR, the Tresham family serving-man, is thus not only
conclusively proved to have written the anonymous letter to Lord
Monteagle, but most probably was also the "unknown man of a reasonable
tall personage" who is so quaintly described in the Government story as
having delivered the letter.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 46: Calendared by the Historical MSS. Commission. "Report on
MSS. in various Collections, vol. iii., 1904. The MSS. of T.B.
Clarke-Thornhill, Esq., of Rushton Hall, by Mrs. R.C. Lomas." These
important family papers were preserved and discovered in a curious
manner. In 1828, when making alterations at Rushton Hall, on removing a
partition