Page:Life and transactions of Mrs. Jane Shore (2).pdf/3

 THE LIFE AND TRANSACTIONS оf MRS. JANE SHORE. MRS. JANE SHORE was daughter to Mr. Thomas Win- stead, a citizen of good repute, who lived in Cheapside, by trade a mercer. She being the only child of her parents, was brought up with all the care and tenderness imaginable, not wanting any education that was proper for her; and her natural temper, which was very airy, being joined to her education, and that degree of pride, which, as it is natural, some make necessary for the female sex, helped to set her off to the best advantage. Fine feathers always make fine birds, and if the birds are fine without them, doubtless they make them doubly so. This lovely woman was the delight of her father, who clothed her richly, adorning her with jewels; and, his trade lying among the court ladies, he often carried her with him to shew her the pastimes which were made frequently there, to divert the queen, &c. which gave her an early longing after a greater gentility than she had ever yet attained to, or her city breeding was fit to produce. When she grew to the age of fifteen, her competent stock of beauty and good carriage, caused many to fall in love with her, and some great lords fixed their eyes upon her, to get her for a mistress, which her father perceiving, sent her to his sister at Northampton, where she remained about a year, till he supposed the inquiry after her was over, and that she might return without any hazard of being any further tempted to lewdness : yet she was no sooner returned, than a plot was laid one night to have her carried away by Lord Hastings, who, after the death of King Edward, took her for his concubine, as will appear in the close of this history.