Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 22 September 1797: 'I have been reading old Froissart. after Sir Walter Manny & about a dozen Knights with three hundred archers had sallied out & broken an engine than annoyed them — the Countess of Montford met them in the on their return, & she kissed them all three or four times, like a noble & valiant Lady. I have a great love for this plain quaintness of speech — it is often ludicrous, but it as often beautiful — & one who wishes to write good poetry now should read old prose.'