Now, I will offer new evidence that, I believe, provides confirmation that it is, indeed, Henry Neville's handwriting. Henry Neville made scribbles that almost exactly match the scribbles on the flyleaf. I discovered this while examining his papers at the Berkshire Record Office.
Henry Neville's Pen Trials on a Draft Letter from 1598
Henry Neville had the practice (as was common at the time) of saving drafts of important letters as copies for his own records. We have about a dozen examples of these drafts from him. In the Berkshire Record Office, there is a draft letter from 1598, clearly written in Henry Neville's handwriting.
On the back of the letter there are some scribbles (or "pen trials"). Likely this was practice writing done before starting to write a letter and/or to test out a new pen nib. Here are the scribbles, note the section marked with the red arrow:
(You can download a zoomed-in version of the scribble at NevilleResearch.com.)
The Northumberland Manuscript flyleaf is covered in scribbles too. That alone is not evidence that it is Henry Neville's writing; pen trials and similar scribbles were common at the time. What *is* notable, however, is that the exact same letter forms are scribbled on both documents.
If you turn the front of the flyleaf upside down, many scribbles become legible. Here is the broad view of one part of the flyleaf with many "h" scribbles. Note especially the section marked with the arrow:
Compare this cluster of "h" scribbles from the flyleaf with the 1598 scribbles. It is almost an exact match:
Note how both sets of scribbles vary in similar ways. Some have a loop at the top; some don't. Some have an open bowl at the bottom; others are more closed. The handwriting appears to be the same, and the habit is the same. Another section of the flyleaf (also upside down orientation) has a similar group of the letter "h", some as part of words and some by themselves. I have underlined the letters:
There appears to be another cluster of the letter "h" on the front of the flyleaf:
Please compare these again. These three clusters on the flyleaf and the cluster on the 1598 pen trials are not just scribbles of the letter "h"; the letter forms vary in a similar way.
There is another cluster of "h" pen trials in the body of the Northumberland Manuscript on Folio 54:
.png)
And on Folio 64 there are some pen trials of "the" that are remarkably close to Henry Neville's above.
John Casson discovered a book inscribed by Henry Neville in 1600.There are "h" scribbles:
.png)
So it is very clear that Henry Neville had the habit of scribbling "h", just like the person who scribbled on the Northumberland Manuscript flyleaf.
Making sense of the scribbles
Reading the words on these scribbles, it immediately becomes apparent what Henry Neville is writing. "After my harty" and "After my harty commendacions" and "after my" are written on the right.
On the left we have "To the right" and then "ho ho the the". Henry Neville often wrote "To the right honorable" when he was addressing a letter, sometimes abbreviating "honorable" with simply "ho".
Look at this section of the 1598 scribble:
Compare to these addresses he wrote. They all vary in different ways, most notably in the letter "e" which Neville varied depending on the formality of the letter. The capital 'T" varies as well in "To". But you can see how the 1598 scribbles are obviously practice writing for this type of address:
Now compare this from the text "To the" written on the back of the Northumberland Manuscript flyleaf. Once again we see variations (especially in the capital T which varies tremendously in Neville's handwriting and on the flyleaf) but is an obvious match. It's not just the handwriting that matches, it's the habit of scribbling "To the". Compare with the three examples above:
Compare two examples of "the" from 1598 scribbles with this from the back of the flyleaf. The "h" letters vary in the shape somewhat and their formality, but otherwise the pen strokes of how letters are formed are exactly the same.
Comparing "h"
We have been looking at one style of "h", but Neville had a completely distinct type of "h" he used in more formal correspondence. Look at these examples of "ho" from his letter to Cecil from 1600:
This second, more formal type of "h" is *also* in the 1598 scribbles and *also* on the Northumberland Manuscript flyleaf. Compare the "h" in this word "harty" from the 1598 scribbles with the flyleaf. The letters are almost a perfect match:
To repeat an example from Part 1, look at these at these five examples of the less formal type of "h" Henry Neville used in his correspondence, compared with the flyleaf:
The variation in the style of "h" is a match along with the habit of scribbling the letter "h". This is very strong evidence of a single person writing all of these documents, someone with a tendency to vary the same letter forms in the same specific ways.
Henry Neville's Pen Trials on a Draft Letter from 1594
I discovered another set of scribbles at the Berkshire Record Office on a draft letter from 1594. These also seem to match quite closely the writing on the flyleaf. (Download a higher res version at NevilleResearch.com)
Something that looks like it might be the word "offer" appears on the 1594 scribbles. The common secretary hand double-f appears like an "A" with a loop on the top right to a modern eye. Those same letter forms are found on the flyleaf. When rotated upside down, there is a scribble of those letter forms; see the top right image below. The bottom two images are written as part of a Latin poem on the flyleaf. All four of these seem to be quite close matches:
A letter "h" is written, not connected to any other letters, on the flyleaf. It is the same style as Henry Neville uses in his formal letters (see above). Compare to the "h" in the word "that" written on the 1594 scribble. It appears to be an exact match.
Even before doing any handwriting or other comparisons, there is strong reason to believe the Henry Neville of Billingbear (d. 1615) owned the Northumberland Manuscript and scribbled on it. First, his family name is written twice on the flyleaf along with his family motto. These don't appear to be scribbles; they are quite nicely aligned with the rest of the normal writing on the document. In addition, the documents, such as essays by Francis Bacon and a letter from Philip Sidney, match closely his family and political alliances of the time. The timing of the document, 1594-1598, also matches Henry Neville's biography; he did not leave for France until 1599.
The handwriting analysis in Part 1 provides additional strong evidence to think that the writing is Henry Neville's. Many of the letter forms are almost precisely the same, and Henry Neville's handwriting varies in many of the same ways the flyleaf also varies.
When you add in this new evidence of Henry Neville's scribbles, especially the "h" scribbles which match so closely the ones on the flyleaf, it seems to me very likely that Henry Neville was indeed the owner and scribbler of the Northumberland Manuscript.
Feel free to contact me via email for source materials or further discussion of this issue. My email address is my name, kenfeinstein (at) gmail . com.
