There is an interesting letter from one Mr. Wise to Mr. Sharpe, Solicitor to the Treasury, giving us a glimpse of Miss Blandy in prison.  The writer describes a visit paid by him to Oxford Castle and the condition in which he found her, tells how he impressed upon the keeper and Mrs. Dean the dire results to themselves of allowing her to escape, and mentions the annoyance of Parson Swinton, “a great favourite of Miss Blandy’s,” at the “freedom” taken with his name by some anonymous scribbler.  This was not the first time that reverend gentleman had to complain of the “liberty” of the Press, as we learn from certain curious pamphlets of 1739, from which it would seem that his reputation had no very sweet savour in contemporary nostrils.  Mr. Sharpe, writing to Mr. Wise on 6th December, alludes to a threatening letter sent to Betty Binfield, purporting to be written by Cranstoun, from which it was inferred that the fugitive was lying concealed “either here in London or in the North.”  A similar “menacing letter” signed W.H.C. had been received by Dr. Lewis on 23rd November, which, like the other, was probably a hoax.  Cranstoun, being then safe in France, would not so commit himself.

The last document of the series, “The Examination of Francis Gropptty,” dated 3rd February, 1752, tells for the first time the story of the fugitive’s escape.  This was the man employed by the Cranstoun family to get their disreputable relative quietly out of England.  The delicate negotiation was conducted by the Rev. Mr. Home, brother of Lord Home, and a certain Captain Alexander Hamilton.  It was represented to Gropptty, who had “lived with Lord Home several years” and then “did business for him,” that such a service would “very much, oblige Lord Cranstoun, Lord Home, and all the Family,” and that, as there were no orders to stop Cranstoun at Dover, by complying with their request he, personally, ran no risk; accordingly he consented to see the interesting exile as far as Calais.  On 2nd September Captain Hamilton produced Cranstoun at Gropptty’s house in Mount Street.  Our old acquaintance characteristically explained that he was without funds for the journey, having been “rob’d” of his money and portmanteau on his way to town.  Gropptty was induced to purchase for the traveller “such, necessaries as he wanted,” and Captain Hamilton went to solicit from Lord Ancrum a loan of twenty pounds for expenses.  His lordship having unaccountably refused the advance, the guileless Gropptty agreed to lend ten guineas upon Captain Hamilton’s note of hand, which, as he in his examination complained, was still “unsatisfied.”  He and Cranstoun then set out in a post-chaise for Dover, where they arrived next morning at nine o’clock.  On 4th September they embarked in the packet for Calais, paying a guinea for their passage; and Gropptty, having seen his charge safely bestowed in lodgings “at the Rate of Fifty Livres a Month,” returned to London.  Informed of the successful issue of the