(Extract from a letter from Richard Whittingham,
Esq.)You were formerly so much amused at my pride in my descent from
that sister of Calvin's, who married a Whittingham, Dean of Durham,
that I doubt if you will be able to enter into the regard for my
distinguished relation that has led me to France, in order to
examine registers and archives, which, I thought, might enable me
to discover collateral descendants of the great reformer, with whom
I might call cousins. I shall not tell you of my troubles and
adventures in this research; you are not worthy to hear of them;
but something so curious befell me one evening last August, that if
I had not been perfectly certain I was wide awake, I might have
taken it for a dream.
For the purpose I have named, it was necessary that I should
