But upon closer examination the letters proved to be love letters with no word of magic in them from beginning to end. They were of the most passionate description imaginable: Pale compared his beloved to a sweet shower of rain falling upon him, to a fire at which he warmed himself, to a torment that he preferred to any comfort. There were various references to milk-white breasts and perfumed legs and long soft, brown hair in which stars became entangled, and other things not at all interesting to the magical scholars who had hoped for magic spells.

Pale was much addicted to writing his beloved’s name – which was Francis – and in one letter he made a sort of punning poem or riddle upon her surname: Pevensey. At first the eighteenth-century magical scholars were inclined to argue that Pale’s mistress must have been the sister or wife of the other Francis Pevensey. In the sixteenth century Francis had been a common name for both men and women. Then Charles Hether-Gray published seven different extracts from the letters which mentioned Eighteen Wonders in the House of Albion and shewed plainly that Pale’s mistress and the author of the book were one and the same person.

William Pantler argued that the letters were forgeries. The letters had been found in the library of a Mr Whittlesea. Mr Whittlesea had a wife who had written several plays, two of which had been performed at the Drury Lane Theatre. Clearly, said Pantler, a woman who would stoop to writing plays would stoop to any thing and he suggested that Mrs Whittlesea had forged the letters “… in order to elevate her Sex above the natural place that God had ordained for it…” Mr Whittlesea challenged William Pantler to a duel and Pantler, who was a scholar through and through and knew nothing of weapons, apologized and published a formal retraction of his accusations against Mrs Whittlesea.

Mr Norrell was quite happy to employ Pevensey’s magic, since he had settled it in his own mind long ago that Pevensey was a man. As to the letters – since they contained no word of magic he did not concern himself with them. Jonathan Strange took a different view. According to him only one question needed to be asked and answered in order to settle the matter: would Martin Pale have taught a woman magic? The answer was, again according to Strange, yes. After all Martin Pale claimed to have been taught by a woman – Catherine of Winchester.

3 Thaddeus Hickman (1700–38), author of a life of Martin Pale.

4 The ivy promised to bind England’s enemies

Briars and thorns promised to whip them

The hawthorn said he would answer any question

The birch said he would make doors to other countries

The yew brought us weapons

The raven punished our enemies

The oak watched the distant hills

The rain washed away all sorrow

This traditional English saying supposedly lists the various contracts which John Uskglass, the Raven King, made on England’s behalf with the forests.