her[15].’  It was the faithful Betson, too, who was chosen to look after his Katherine’s little sister Anne when she was ill in London, and he writes home asking for her clothes—­’She hath need unto them and that knoweth our Lord’—­and complaining of the old grandmother’s behaviour:  ’If my lady your mother meet my cousin Anne she will say no more but “God’s blessing have ye and mine’, and so go her way forth, as though she had no joy of her[16].”  It was Betson, too, who escorted Dame Elizabeth, when need was, from Windsor to London and wrote to her husband:  ’By the way we were right merry, thanked be God, and so with his mercy we mean here to be merry for the season that my lady is here, and when your mastership is ready to come hitherwards, we here shall so welcome you that the season of your abiding shall not be noisome, with God’s grace[17].’  Whereupon Sir William sends a present of capons by the carrier to assist the merriment, and Betson reports, ’Sir, I took two capons, but they were not the best, as ye counselled me by your letter to take, and indeed to say the truth I could not be suffered.  My lady your wife is reasonably strong waxed, the Lord be thanked, and she took her will in that matter like as she doth in all other.’[18]

[Footnote K:  The convent of Minoresses, or Franciscan nuns, outside Aldgate.]

There are, indeed, a hundred evidences of the warmth of Betson’s affection for the Stonors and of the simple piety of his character.  Sometimes he ventures to give them good advice.  Dame Elizabeth was somewhat uplifted by her elevation from the ranks of the mercantile bourgeoisie to a place among the country gentry, and was apt to be extravagant, nor was her husband entirely guiltless of running up bills.  We hear of the ale brewer and the bread baker calling daily upon his agent for money, and on one occasion the Stonors owed over L12 to Betson’s own brother, a vintner, for various pipes of red and white wine and a butt of Rumney[L][19].  So Thomas writes to Dame Elizabeth, on his way to the mart:  ’Our blessed lord Jesus Christ preserve you both in honour and worship virtuously to continue in God’s pleasure and also to send you good and profitable counsel and grace to do hereafter.  This is and shall be my prayer forsooth every day; your honour and worship of countenance hereafter sticketh as nigh mine heart as doth any friend, man or other about you, by my troth, our blessed Lord so help me.  I will avise you, Madame, to remember large expenses and beware of them, and in likewise my master your husband; it is well done ye remember him of them, for divers considerations, as ye know both right well.  And our blessed Lord be your comforter and help in all your good work.  Amen.’[20] A month later he hears that William Stonor has been ill and writes to sympathize with Dame Elizabeth:  ’And if I could do anything here that might be to his pleasure and yours, I would I knew it and it should be done withouten fail.  Truly your discomfort is not my comfort, God knoweth it.  Nevertheless your ladyship must cause him to be merry and of glad cheer, and to put away all fantasies and unthrifty thoughts, that comes no good of, but only hurtful.  A man may hurt himself by riotous means; it is good to beware.’[21]