Quaint piece of old English literature

My second-cousin Robert Pickering in Queensland recently drew my attention to the existence of a specimen of old English literature that was edited and published by John Pickering [1851-1926]. Our great-grandfather's young brother came upon a 16th-century manuscript written by an Elizabethan gentleman named William Spelman.

John Pickering, chief librarian at the Inner Temple in London, was so enthralled by this text that he decided to edit and publish it.

I'm immensely thrilled to discover a literary-minded ancestor. As for the Spelman novel, it can be downloaded from my website.