Saatchi Book Fair 2025

Dean Cooke Rare Books Ltd

Recent acquisitions & selections from stock, to be exhibited on Stand D28 Saatchi Gallery, London 15th - 18th May 2025.

ONE ¶ Even in cases where the identity of a household manuscript’s scribe remains obscure or only partially evident, the presence of a healthy quantity of recipes and remedies can tell us a little about them, their palates, their household’s state of health, and their social circle. So it is with this manuscript, whose principal owner, “Frances Cotton”, has declared herself via several inscriptions, but this, besides a date (“August : the 17 1715” – presumably the day she began her entries), is where her intentional disclosures end.

A handful of attributions locate some of Frances’ acquaintances just outside London, to the west (Buckinghamshire) or north west (Berkshire), and a note to the rear paste-down makes reference to the capital itself (“for mrs Stroud at the Earl of orrery in Glas hous Street ner Sent James London”). More specific clues to the precise identity and background of “Frances Cotton” are lacking, but we can infer some general information about her household. Most obviously, this is a prosperous family, to judge by the preponderance of fruit and dessert recipes and the frequency of sugar as an ingredient, including rare delicacies such as “To Candy all Sortes of flowers”.

The recipes and remedies are mixed together, with only intermittent attempts to establish a theme or sequence. Thus, the first five pages feature recipes for “Veall”, “A Caroot pudden”, “a Hasshe”, “Sasages”, “Sennement Water” and “Nutmegg Watter” “Marchepin”, “hartes horn fflumery”, several different kinds of cake, and “Cowslop Wine”, with a remedy “ffor A Consumsion” popping up conspicuously among them.

¶ [COTTON, Frances]. Early 18th Century Manuscript Book of Recipes and Remedies.

[Circa 1715]. Quarto (197 x 159 x 18 mm).

Approximately 124 text pages on 91 leaves (earlier pages numbered in manuscript), and ten loose-leaf recipe notes. Contemporary vellum stationer’s binding, soiled, some pages loose, some leaves excised with only stubs remaining.

Inscriptions to front paste-down: “Frances Cotton Her Book of : Recetes :”, dated “August : the 17 1715”. Further inscriptions to rear endpaper: “Frances Cotton” (written twice) and “Charles”; “1739 / 1730 / 1740”. Note to rear paste-down: “for mrs Stroud at the Earl of orrery in Glas hous Street ner Sent James London”.

References: 1. https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/ volume/1660-1690/member/hampson-sir-denis-16531719#constituency

RECIPES Savoury recipes include stews (“To Stow a brest of Veall” (f.1), “To stow a Calues Head” (f.4), “To frigasie a hare” (f.18), “To Stew Soles” and “Carpe” (both f.24)), pickles (“To pickle Mushrams” (f.48), “Broom Buds”, “Cowcumbers” (f.49), “To Pickle Sprats for Anchovies” (f.54), various other methods of preparing and preserving meats (“How to Make a Dish of Meat or Vele Mutton Chikens or what you please”, “To Drye Neats tongues” (both f.18), “To order Westphalia Hams” and “How to Salt Them” (p24), “To Rost a Sholder of Mutton in Blood” (f.19)), and a handful of egg and cheese dishes (“To Pot Cheese” [55], “To make an Aumlett” (f.56).

Recipes in the sweeter category are far more populous. Preserving fruits is addressed comprehensively, from the relatively straightforward “Quinces : Red” (f.20) “To Dry Chereyes” (f.27), and a batch on ff.28-30 including “To Preserue whole Rasberys” (“you must alow a Little Sugar for that is all So : Finess”), “To preserue Grapes as green as grasse” (“putt them in ye Sugar & then Boyle them up a pase tell they Look Cleare they will Quickly bee Enough”), “To preserue Golden pippins”, “To dry Plomes Green”, “To preserue Aprecocks very Good” (“… boyle tell itt will Jelley which you may know by its Sliperness”), and several methods of preserving “Gousberys” to more involved but familiar forms (“Rasbery Past” (f.23), “Red Jelly of Quinces” (f.32), “Gum of Cheries” and of “Rasberys” (f.45), “Qunce marmleit Red with litle more then hal f ye waight in Sugar” (f.46). Also covered are methods of preserving flowers using sugar (“To Candy all Sortes of flowers” (f.8), “To Candy flowers thare Natural colours” (f.39) and of making wines (“To Make Gousbery Wine” (f.12), “To Make Couslop Wine” (f.15, and a second in a later hand f.36)) and creams (“To make Lemon Crème” (f.4), “Oringe cream” (f.40).

REMEDIES Among some 35 remedies included in the manuscript – some in batches but many mixed in with the culinary recipes – are a pair that may help to locate our volume’s household close to, or in, London. “For a Cough by Mrs Cowderoy of Brimpton” points to a village in Berkshire; and “Sr Dennis Hampson Recet for madness often aproved” likely refers to Sir Denis Hampson, 3rd baronet, of Taplow, Buckinghamshire (c.1653-1719), MP for Chipping Wycombe in the 1680s. 1 The inclusion of several versions of certain treatments may indicate areas of health concern to the household: for example, purges (“An Exelent Purge” (f.14), “An Exelent Purge against ye Goutt” (f.13), “A purge Mr Boylson” (f.17)) and remedies for rickets (“The Laidy Watkins Rectt ffor Rickets” (f.20), “Mrs Backen Receit for Ricketts aproued by many” (f.17), “To Make an oyntment for weekness in Childrens Limes or Rickeits” (f.70)).

More perennial issues are also dealt with several times, such as coughs (“A Receipt for a Cough, by Mr Chas Smither”, “A Receipt for a Cough by Dr Crawley” (f.54), “A Receit for a Coff or Stopage at ye Breast” (f.51), “An experienced receipt for a Cough” (f.55)).

The abovementioned “Mr Boylson” is credited with a batch of remedies, apparently copied down at one sitting so likely from another collection (presumably Boylson’s own). Across folios 15, 16 and 17, his receipts cover the likes of “Campherit : Watter” and “Camphirited powder”, “Linement ascey”, “a blistering Plaster”, “Tincture of Saffron”, “To Bath an Inflammation” (“Dissolued in a Coffee Cup of Spirit of Wine Rub it in”), and “The White oyntment”. Reversing the pattern elsewhere, Boylson’s medical contributions here are interrupted by two separate culinary entries, both attributed to him: “To Make Mackroons” and “Biskets”.

Also on offer are several nostrums with varying claims as to the extent of their salutary effects: a remedy “ffor ye Megrim impostum Dropesy feauer & ago in ye head & for all maner of Ackers in ye head” (commended: “Probatum Est”) (f.11); “The Angell Salve” (“Mrs Prices Recpt”), whose “Vertues” encompass the relief of “any new or old sore”, “head ach”, “swell’d Eares or cheeks”, “Cankers noli me tangers straines”, and “aches & ye Gout” (Hand II f.31); and “Gaskins powder” (i.e. Gascoigne’s powder, a popular “cure-all” of the period featuring ingredients such as powdered “Crabs Claws” and “Eyes”, “powder of Perl” and of “Corall”, “fine white amber”, “beser Stone” and “Ambergrese” (f.14).

Another remedy merits attention for the enthusiasm of its commentary. “A sovereign Watter of Dr Chambers wch he Imparted to ye Archbishop of Canterbury” (f.33) is a concoction of herbs and spices in “a Gallon of white wine” whose extensive “Virtues”, if truly efficacious, would render many of the volume’s other remedies redundant: among its benefits, it “helpes inward deseases that comes of cold, as allsoe against the Palsey […] it helps concepcon in woman that are barron it Kills worms in the body it helps the stone in y e bladder comforts the stomack and cureth the could cough It helps the tooth Ach and cures cold dropsey, it helps the Stone in the Reins and cures a stinking breath […] preservess youth”. Both medical science and religious authority are invoked in the subsequent endorsement: “with this water Dr Chambers by gods assistance preserved his owne Life till Extreme Old Age […] he lived 5 yeares after the rest of the Doctrs Judged him incapable of Living a Month […] Archbishop Abbott acknowledged that of all the watters this was most soveringe and the second preserver of his Life”. Frances concludes this litany of “Virtues” with a practical note that the mixture’s effects “will be much better if it be close stopped and sett in the Sun all Sumer”.

After a number of blank leaves interspersed by the occasional stranded receipt (including “To destroy Rats” (f.57), Frances fills a page with “Generall Directions” for treating illness (“Auoid giueing Purgeis at the beginning of allmost all Destempers In Dueing yt ye young Practeris apotckerarys quickly Due much harm”, “Vomeits are ye most part proper att the beginning of Destempers”, “In Restlesness and want of Sleep 25 Drops of Liquid Laudaernam att nights” (f.79), followed by just over a page of “Directions for Agues & Inter miteing Feavers” (f.79).

CONCLUSION

Although Frances Cotton left little in the way of firm information about herself, certain aspects of her life, including her household, background and social circle come through clearly in this manuscript. Her family is accustomed to using sugar and fruits and even candying flowers, but has occasional need for remedies that may suggest overindulgence (surfeit water, purges). The detail of some of the recipes indicates both a seriousness about preparing food and the wherewithal to buy expensive ingredients. Whether or not the social connections mapped in the attributions will yield a more precise provenance, this manuscript volume evokes the tastes, ailments and routines of a well-to-do English household in the early 18th century.

£8,000 Ref: 8320

TWO ¶ Some of the contradictions and inconsistences of Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate—which saw a flourishing of varieties of Protestantism, a relatively inclusive attitude towards Jews, a mitigated toleration of Catholics, and an intolerance of the Anglican faith—are in evidence in this little pocket book, which dates from around 1657.

Remarkably, despite the fact that it was designed to be carried around in a pocket, this little volume retains its original limp vellum binding (although it has been subject to worms) with ties intact; even its succinct manuscript title to the spine, “A Note Booke”, remains legible.

¶ [PRETTY, Richard (c.1611-1682)].

Interregnum Period Calvinist Manuscript Entitled, “A Note Booke”.

[Aldridge, Staffordshire. Circa 1650-60].

Octavo (152 x 100 x 15 mm). 107 leaves (including front endpaper). Some sections of text are paginated in manuscript, but sequencing breaks and restarts in places, so for the sake of clarity we refer solely to foliation of the text.

It seems likely that it was intended for personal use; indeed its portable size and vellum ties strongly indicate that it was for on-the-hoof thoughts. That said, some of these thoughts go into considerable detail, suggesting that they took time to ponder over their pious considerations.

WHO WROTE IT? Although the text is anonymous, a note on f.107 gives us a significant clue concerning the book’s owner. The note is written in two hands: it begins with the name “Capt. Whitgreave” which is in same hand as the rest of the volume (we will call this Hand I); then a different hand (Hand II) takes over: “Haueing receiued ye inclosed petition of Mr Pritty Minister at Aldridg in Staffordshire wee thought fit to referr the same to yr consideration hereby Authorizing & requiring you to repair to the said place & by all the lawfull ways & meanes you Can to informe yr selfe of the originall & ground of the pretended custume mention’d in the said petition & to Certifie the same unto us together wth yr opinion Concerning the same & ye disorders & mischeifes wch have or probable may ensure by such meetings & in the meane time you are to take care y t there bee no such tumultuous & disorderly meetings at the place & time mentioned in y e petition until you have certified unto us as aforesaid & our will & pleasure be further knowne Concerning the same & rest y r loving friend” Hand I has dated the note “Whithall Decemb[er] 22th 1657”; Hand II has subscribed it “Oliver P.” – surely signifying Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), Lord Protector. As to our “Capt. Whitgreave”, this is likely one of two Thomas Whitgreaves, both of whom lived in Staffordshire: one was from the Royalist recusant branch at Moseley; the other was from the Anglican branch at Burton.

Unfortunately, these two Thomas Whitgreaves seem to have been conflated by some sources. It is often claimed that Thomas Whitgreave of Moseley sheltered Charles II after the defeat at Boscobel, leading parliamentary troops to question him, but that he also served as a member of parliament and was knighted by Cromwell. He seems to us an unlikely candidate to have served in the Protectorate Parliament, much less to have received a knighthood for services to the Commonwealth; a more plausible candidate for the recipient of Cromwell’s instruction is the Anglican Sir Thomas Whitgreave (1628/9-1663) of Burton who served in parliament during the Interregnum and was subsequently knighted by Cromwell. This ascription is given further weight by an entry in Dugdale’s 1663 Visitation of Staffordshire, in which Thomas Whitgreave of Burton is recorded as Sir Thomas Whitgreave, whereas the Moseley contender is given the title of Mr Thomas Whitgreave. 1 The text in this volume is neatly bordered and written in the same hand throughout (Hand I), the sole exception being the page containing the Whitgreave note. This strengthens the impression that the book was a receptacle for on-the-hoof additions, and that Hand II – perhaps a curate to “Mr Pritty Minister at Aldridg” – copied out this reply to his letter shortly after it arrived. While this must remain conjecture, we can confidently identify our minister as Richard Pretty (c.1611-1682), graduate of Oriel College, Oxford (B.A. 1631, M.A. 1634), vicar of Hampton-in-Arden 1636-47, rector of Aldridge 1636-82 and canon of Lichfield from 1660. 2

If Hand I was indeed Pretty, what motivated him to lodge a petition against “ye disorders & mischeifes”? The contents of the rest of this manuscript, as we shall see, suggest that he was a fervent Calvinist, and the Protectorate’s general religious toleration did not prevent the passing of an Act in 1657 (the year of this letter) “for discovering, convicting, and repressing of Popish Recusants”. Pretty may therefore have been alerting the authorities to Catholic conclaves in Staffordshire. In any case, the note shows that Cromwell tasked Whitgreave with ensuring “there bee no such tumultuous & disorderly meetings”.

WHAT WILL BE The text is grouped into four sections: the first and fourth sections (10 and 38 pages respectively, including a single blank and text to rear paste-down) are unnumbered. Sandwiched between them are two numbered sections (1-177 and 1-13). There is a break in the sequencing with a few stubs remaining where several leaves have been carefully excised. It is not clear to this cataloguer what distinguishes the sections one from another. None of them are titled, but there are sub-titles squeezed into the upper margins of the second, third, and fourth groups which help one to navigate the Calvinist fulminations.

Our scribe discusses at length one of the major preoccupations of Calvinist Puritans: the relationship between “Predestination”, the “Elect” and “ffree will” (f.27r-32v). This austere debate opens with the statement: “The Supreame end of Predestination is the manifestation of Gods Glorye partly in his mercy partly in his Justice … The decree of Election is that whereby God hath ordayned Certaine men to his glorious Grace in the obtayning salvation and heavenly lyfe by Chrt … The decree of reprobation is Absolute in Respect of the purpose of God to forsake the Creature, thereby to manifest his Justice. for we cannot imagine any Cause in the Creature why it was Gods will to passe by it for sin is after the dissertion, and therfore no Cause of it”.

Pretty takes care to justify all of this with biblical references, but he then goes beyond Calvin’s doctrine by claiming that “There is a double Act in p[re]destination to be considered in the Elect”. The belief in “a double Act in p[re] destination” asserted that not only were there those chosen to be saved, but also those predestined to damnation.

This rather extreme viewpoint was favoured by some Puritan Calvinists of the period. But perhaps the reason is that there are only a limited number of spaces in “eternal salvation” (“The decree of Election is definite not Conditional, it is Irrevokable, and Immutable; so that the number of the Elect can neither be Increased, or diminished” (f.32r)), so each person must accept their allotted fate (“The Elect is bound to believe that by believing he shall be made partaker of Election, and life Everlasting … The reprobate that not believing, he may be made inexcuseable of all his Sins before God, even by the Intention of God … not to Cavill at the doctrine of predestinacon, nor admitting the depth of his Councell”).

Having locked themselves into a predestination bind, the Calvinists have to explain human agency. In the eightpage passage “of ffree will” (f.33r-36v), the scribe attempts to recover some meaning in human actions: “Man is to be Considered in a foure-fold estate. 1 As he was Created 2. Corupted 3. Renewed 4. Gloryfied”. He classifies actions as “either Naturall, Humane, or Divine” and proceeds to break these down in more detail: “Naturall as to Eate, Drinke, Sleepe, see Heare, Smell, Taste”, and “Humane” as “to Speake and use Reason”, a facility they employ to perform such acts as “Civill duties”, or to “Preach” and “heare the worde”. After this clear outline, he gets into the tangled thickets of theological contradictions. But he satisfies himself that “Adam did fall by Gods will and decree and that he should perishe by his own falling” and concludes that “God either doth all things or permitteth them to be doen”.

PURITAN PREOCCUPATIONS

Our scribe’s concern with fleshly corruption and iniquity is on display throughout the text. He rails energetically against “Sodomie and drunkenesse”, “Adultrye the occasion of Murder”, “Spirituall adultrye”, and “all uncleanesse in words, or Actions” (f.49v), sprinkling biblical references throughout. Lest there be any ambiguity over the concept of inebriation, he goes on: “Drunkenesse discribed. It is when the Head is Intoxicated and falter in speech … Rednesse of the Eyes; want of government of the handes; and looking after strange fleshe and given to quarelling …They that are mightye to drinke strong drinke and glory in it … When they staggar and keele as they goe … They spew and vomitt through excesse … Their Breath is strong and noysome”. To drive the point home, he adds a cautionary note on “Surfeting & drunkenesse”: “We must take heed, and ever be Carefull not to frequent places where Surfetrring, and drunkenesse is used but to Eate, and drinke as it were before the Lord; for if we presume to abuse the Creatures for our lustes God may make every bitt we Eate, & every supp we drinke to be our bane” (f.50r).

After inveighing against “Idolatrie” (“we must keepe our selves from Idoles … whoredome brought forth Idolatrye … People and Preests Comit Idolatrie untill all are destroyed”) and “Witchcrafte” (f.50v), he turns to “Swering” and “Cursing & Lying” (f.51v-52r) (which, unsurprisingly, he is also “Against”). Later, in a denunciation “Against Rich Men”, he warns that they should “Take heed of worldly Cures and sinfull pleasures” and “not set our heart upon Riches”, for “Gods blessing maketh Rich” (f.108r).

CONCLUSION With so much of this 17th-century volume intact, from its original ties to the strident Puritan piety, the environment of England’s interregnum period is almost palpable in its pages. Our Calvinist scribe moves from tortuous theological arguments to the surer ground of condemning mankind’s corruption, while the copied note from “Oliver P.” to “Capt. Whitgreave” neatly demonstrates how a minister’s censorious take on “all uncleanesse in words, or Actions” could include a practical element: a mandate from the Lord Protector himself to prevent “tumultuous & disorderly meetings” of certain local undesirables.

£4,000 Ref: 8325

1. Grazebrook, Henry Sydney (editor). The Heraldic Visitations of Staffordshire Made by Sir Richard St. George Norroy, in 1614, and by Sir William Dugdale, Norroy, in the Years 1663 and 1664. (1885).

2. Foster’s Alumni Oxonienses, and CCE With thanks to Christopher Whittick.

THREE ¶ Philosophy, religion, financial accounts, and rabies – these are some of the topics covered in this early 18 thcentury manuscript miscellany whose contents seem to have been begun while its principal owner was a student at Glasgow University and became a joint effort between several contemporary hands.

One end of the tête-bêche arrangement begins with 50 pages of philosophical arguments in Latin, arranged under three headings: “Theses Logicae”, “Theses Ontologicae”, and “Theses Pneumatologicae”. These comprise 81, 68 and 40 short sections respectively, each numbered with roman numerals and featuring contributions by several different hands, some within the same section as though this were a relay-writing exercise.

¶ [MACKY, Spring] Early 18th century manuscript ‘Theses Logicae... Ontologicae...

Pneumatologicae’.

[Scotland, Glasgow. Circa 1717-40]. Quarto (200 x 168 x 14 mm). 88 leaves (two torn with loss). Text arranged tête bêche and to both sides. Bound in contemporary calf, rubbed and worn, text browned and frayed.

There are also some 120 pages of manuscript notes, again in Provenance: Vertical inscription to second various hands, including prayers and other religious leaf reads “Ex libris Springi Macky In Aca. outbursts, and accounts recording transactions (mostly dated Glasg: 19mo die Augusti 1717”; several between 1730 and 1750) such as payment of rents for estates inscriptions to first leaf of “David Bigger” including Kirktoun of Kilbryde, Southannan, and one of which is dated 1719.

Hunterstone. Also to be found is “Doctor Meads receipt for the bite of a mad dog”, a remedy popularised by Dr Richard Mead (1673-1754) which, as our scribe confirms, involved the use of “Lichen cinereus terrestris, in English Ash Colour’d Ground Liverwort”.

The earliest ownership inscription, made on the loose second leaf, reads “Ex libris Springi Macky In Aca. Glasg: 19mo die Augusti 1717”. This answers to Spring Macky, the son of John Macky (d.1726), a Scottish spy who served William III and Anne and who played a key role in uncovering a series of Jacobite plots such as the attempted assassination of William in 1696 and James Stuart’s invasion of Scotland in 1708. Of Spring’s own achievements, the most prominent seems to have been publishing books by his father, including an autobiography, Memoirs of the Secret Services of John Macky (1733).

The inclusion of several ownership inscriptions by “David Bigger”, one of which is dated 1719, usefully tallies with Macky’s student career: both names appear in the list of students “who entered the Academy this year” (1717). 1 The notebook’s sometimes untidy accumulation of hands, topics and uses on its journey from academia into the wider world expresses something of its owners’ progression from youthful idealism to more worldly concerns.

£1,750 Ref: 8257

1. Records of the University of Glasgow from its Foundation till 1727, vol. iii. p210 (1854) (https://digital.nls.uk/ dcn6/8073/80733036.6.pdf)

FOUR ¶ The sheer size of this remarkable volume makes an impression before one even inspects the contents, which consist of an already formidable printed book interleaved with blanks, and filled with extensive manuscript notes and glosses, with clear signs of repeated readings – in effect, annotations on annotations, on annotations ...

¶ [DOWNAME, John (1571-1652) (editor); NESLING, Rev. Richard (16471724) (annotator)]. Annotations Upon all the Books of the Old and New Testament; wherein The Truth is Explained, Doubts Resolved, Parallelled, and Various Readings observed.

London: Printed by John Legatt and John Raworth, 1645. FIRST EDITION. Folio (340 x 210 x 140). Pagination [919]p. lacking leaves ¶1-2 (“An Advertisement”). Interleaved throughout, and profusely annotated.

[Wing, T2036].

Text heavily used, title page and preliminary leaves, detached, waterstained and frayed. Contemporary calf binding, split but just holding, worn with some losses, and section crudely stitched.

The Annotations Upon all the Books of the Old and New Testament was first published in 1645 as one of the outputs of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, a council of English and Scottish theologians and parliamentarians tasked with restructuring the Church of England. It was published in two volumes, which have been bound into one volume, with interleaved with blanks leaves throughout to make an artefact of prodigious size. An ownership inscription to the front free end paper (“Richard Nesling”) matches the hand in the annotations, and although the inscription is undated and lacks a location, the CCEd yields just one result for this surname, leading us to make a confident attribution.

Richard Nesling (1647-1724) was born in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, and was admitted to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1668/9 and MA in 1672.

Between these degrees he was ordained as a deacon within the Diocese of Norwich and appointed as schoolmaster at King’s Lynn Free School (likely his alma mater) in 1670 (the year he also became a licensed preacher at Houghton). He later became rector of Hessett and then Beyton, both near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

Nesling has annotated the volume to a degree for which the word ‘extensive’ seems inadequate. The interleaves have mostly been ruled to create two wide columns and sometimes a third, slimmer one; he has made abundant use of these leaves, but has also added copious interlinear notes and marginalia to many of the printed pages. In all, he has added manuscript notes to over 800 of the interleaved pages (ranging from a single paragraph to extended commentaries which fill all the available space), and annotations to over 600 text pages, from a few lines to pages so densely populated that the annotations obscure the text. If that were not enough, he has made repeated active readings in which he has added notes to his earlier readings, some of which occasionally require further stitched-in sheets and scraps. The motivation for his overwhelming diligence, beyond compulsive religiosity, is unclear: in the absence of any dates of composition, we can speculate that his fervent engagement with the text had something to do with his seeking a post during or shortly after his Cambridge studies, but this must remain speculation.

After the beginnings of an alphabetical index, Nesling precedes the printed text with manuscript notes, often densely written, switching between English and Latin. His last note before the authors’ preface poses what might be considered a searching question about veracity: “Q / How shal we know if yese Books were of Divine revelation delivered from God Himself”; he answers himself with a fairly well-worn justification, which begins “Ans: He must know yt ye certaine knowledge hereof to the p[ro]phets was one: & to ye hearers was a nother. The p[ro]phets by vision most certainly knew yt the things they delivered were from God…” It seems clear that Nesling’s intention is not to dispute or interrogate the book’s interpretations of scripture but to learn from them. He demonstrates his interest in certain sections over others, however: his annotations are notably denser throughout the chapters on the New Testament and the Book of Psalms than in most of the Old Testament (the printed text on the first page concerning the Psalms is all but overshadowed by Nesling’s undergrowth of commentary). Almost throughout, his double-columned manuscript pages mirror the layout of the printed text opposite, and his many additions are usually marked with the verse number corresponding to the original commentary (and often appended with a scriptural cross-reference).

Nesling invokes several other authors throughout his entries: glimpsed among the thickets of annotation are the likes of “Robert Stephens” (probably the Parisian printer Robert Estienne (1503-1599), since he refers to the division “of ye Books of Scriptur into chapters” and “verses”, an innovation introduced by Estienne and others), “Reynolds” (probably the Biblical scholar William Reynolds (c.1544-1594), and “Holland” (perhaps Guy Holland (c.1587-1660). This partially alleviates the sense of sequestered labour, though the overall impression remains one of solitary scholarly devotion, by a clergyman who, by all accounts, never left East Anglia.

As an act of Biblical engagement, our volume impresses through its sheer size as well as through the profusion of manuscript annotations that have rained down on its pages. As a vehicle for the workings and preoccupations of an early-modern clergyman, its often densely written notes merit much deeper examination.

£3,750 Ref: 8323

FIVE ¶ The distinguishing feature of this 18th-century volume of manuscript recipes is a woman’s engraved bookplate, which has been pasted below an inscription to the paste-down (“Isabella Sclater Bradford Yorkshire Decbr the 16: 1789”, with the number “18” above) which evokes an untraced, or unrealised intention to build a collection of her own.

¶ [SCLATER, Isabella (1763-1822]. 18th Century Manuscript Recipe Book.

Isabella Sclater (17631822), was the daughter of Richard Sclater (1727-1782) and Isabella (nee Salusbury) Sclater (1727-1773) of Bradford, Yorkshire. The arms on her engraved bookplate show the paternal coat of Slater, and the escutcheon that of Salusbury. In 1797, eight years after making her inscription, Isabella married one Richard Cardwell.

[Bradford, Yorkshire. Circa 1789]. Quarto (187 x 155 x 8 mm). Approximately 30 text pages on 69 leaves (a few leaves torn out at the end, with only stubs remaining).

Contemporary boards, rubbed.

calf-backed

marbled

Provenance: Inscription to paste-down reads “Isabella Sclater Bradford Yorkshire / Decbr th[e] 16: 1789”, and her armorial bookplate pasted below. The arms are the paternal coat of Slater and the escutcheon that of Salusbury.

Isabella has mixed together recipes and remedies, so that a “Receipt for Hare Soup” is followed by a remedy “for a Sore Mouth” and a recipe for “Pink Tincture” (which uses “Cochaneal”, “Cream of Tartar” and “Allum” mixed and boiled “in a Brass Pan”, and is to be kept “in a bottle” for use in such things as “light Pudding, Flummery or whatever you’d have of a Pink colour”). Pursuing further her inclination to dye things a red hue, Isabella includes an unusual recipe to “Preserve Lemons red” by boiling them and using the above “Pink Tincture” with “fine Loaf Sugar”. A similarly random sequence juxtaposes a recipe to “make Blommange”, with a method “to make White Catchup”, which is immediately followed by “Varnish for Mahogany” and “An infallible Cure for Fits in Children or Grown Person’s”.

One group of items briefly coheres as a selection of household receipts: “Rose Pomatum”; “Wash Balls”, “Pomade”, “Rose Pomatum” (the same receipt, accidentally repeated), “Emulsion for a Cough”, and “Saline Draught” are, in keeping with the miscellaneous character of the volume, sandwiched between a recipe “To Pickle Red Cabbage” and one for “Norfolk Punch”.

Isabella adds dates to two of her entries, either side of her marriage in 1797: “A Biscuit Pudding” is appended “Roefield June 30th: 1789” and “Custard Pudding” is dated “Scarbro’ Septr 1802”. Clearly she continued to maintain this recipe book as Isabella Cardwell, and her engraved armorial bookplate strongly suggests that she had planned while still unmarried to build her own collection. Given that she left the greater part of the volume unfilled, and that we have been unable to trace any other surviving copies of her bookplate, our manuscript may convey a certain poignancy concerning what became of its owner’s plans.

£850 Ref: 8268

SIX This unpublished work is the only known manuscript by Stephen Switzer, “one of the most outstanding authors on practical gardening during the first half of the eighteenth century”. 1 THE AUTHOR Internal evidence supports an attribution of this manuscript to Switzer: at the head of the “Table of the Contents” he refers to “Grass, Seeds, flowers, Roots &c. Sold by the Seedsman and Gardiners in and about London Especially by S. Switzer att the flower pot over against The Court of Common pleas, Westminster Hall”; and on the seventh leaf of the synopsis the writer pens a note at the foot of the page “for a farther Enquiry into the Etimology of the Phascolus or kidney bean I refer to my Practical Kitchen Gardiner Sec 5, Chap XLIV, pa 236” – the author of which volume was the same “S. Switzer”.

[SWITZER, Stephen (1682-1745)].

Author’s manuscript with running title: ‘A Synopsis or practical Compendium of Husbandry & Gardening’.

[London. Circa 1740]. Folio (314 x 200 x 14 mm). 63 leaves. Text to rectos: 1 (notes in French in a different hand), 10 (“The Preface”), 14 (“The Contents”), 38 (“A Synopsis...”). Some alterations, corrections, or additions in ink in the same hand.

Contemporary vellum, soiled and discoloured, covers bowed, text damp stained, final leaf frayed affecting a few letters. Watermark: Pro Patria; Countermark: LVG.

Stephen Switzer (1682-1745), a landscape designer, author and seedsman, was born in a village near Micheldever, Hampshire into a family that had farmed in the county for generations. He was apprenticed at the renowned Brompton Park Nurseries run by George London and Henry Wise, under whom he “rose to be lieutenant […] in their projects, and also formed a congenial relationship with the architects Vanbrugh and Hawksmoor” (ODNB). Switzer played a key role in laying out the gardens of great houses including Castle Howard, Blenheim Palace, Grimsthorpe Castle, and possibly untold others, according to Henrey, who believes he “may have been responsible for many undertakings for which he received no credit from contemporary writers”. 2 Switzer drew on these experiences and his wealth of knowledge for his first book, The Nobleman Gentleman and Gardeners Recreation (1715), which began with a history of gardening that is still a valuable text for researchers. Two further volumes soon followed, the trio collectively becoming known as Ichnographia rustica. In the next decade he consolidated his reputation as a landscaper in the service of the Earl of Orrery and Lord Bathurst, published Introduction to a General System of Hydraulicks and Hydrostaticks (1729), often considered his magnum opus, and went into business as a seedsman, based at Westminster Hall, where he “became a public figure from the mid-twenties,

Provenance: The manuscript was, until recently in a private collection. According to the former owner, the manuscript was sold at the estate sale of the former head gardener for the Duke of Devonshire.

Switzer is known to have worked on the gardens at Chiswick House for Lord Burlington. Chiswick House passed by marriage to the Duke of Devonshire (for whom Switzer also worked, at Chatsworth House), so the manuscript plausibly passed to Devonshire’s head gardener directly from Switzer.

corresponding widely about improvements in the various aspects of landscape making—fertilizers, hydraulics, or beneficial legumes—and issuing a series of informative pamphlets”. (ODNB) It seems to have been as a seedsman, with a growing clientele beyond the landed wealthy, that Switzer developed a kind of ‘consumer guide’ approach to his publications; Henrey explains that he became irked at being “often obliged to write directions for his customers concerning the management of the seeds he sold them” 3. Far better, and more potentially profitable, to set these directions down in marketable form. Our manuscript is one such example in (partial) draft.

The manuscript was written circa 1740, to judge by a reference to the “Late Lord Peterborough”, i.e. the Commander of the Chief of Forces sent to Spain and Ambassador to the Court of Turin who died on 20 October 1735 on a voyage to Lisbon. Switzer’s death in 1745 both gives us a chronological cutoff point for the book’s composition and raises the strong possibility that this volume represents an unfinished – or at least unpublished – final work; the contents pages make it clear that this material amounts to the first eight complete chapters of a book which was projected to run to 30 chapters. We do not know whether Switzer ever completed the other chapters, because he has used a stationer’s blank book, so the subsequent chapters may have been completed in further stationer’s volumes.

Switzer himself explains his reasons for writing this particular book, besides the self-evident goal of income through publication. In the preface he acknowledges a marketplace filled with other such works; but “Numberless as they are”, these books “Fall very short of A System or Chain of Directions” (f.1.). He boasts that this new volume is “more Intelligible, than Any other Attempts of this Kind as yet Published whatsoever” (f.1.), and stresses

its originality, rebutting any possible objection that a new publication in this field must have been “pyrated from Evelyn, Mortimer, Lawrence, Bradley or […] Miller”. On the contrary – his work is “Entirely New, And Generally the Result of Practice, more than Books Taken as they truly are from the Field and Garden itself ^themselves, and from Gentlemen and others of Great Veracity’s and Experience in all ^several of the Different Counties of Brittain”.

The seedsman in him emerges soon thereafter: “the Reasons which have Induc’d him to the following methods or manner of Publication” are rooted in “those Lists or Catalogues [by] the best seedsmen and Gardiners about London” – resources which provide “no more than the References: bare names of Seeds and Plants they sell”; whereas “This 1. Henrey, Blanche. British Botanical and Horticultural Literature before 1800. (1975). p.235.

Synopsis or Compendious Catalogue” supplies “not Only 2. ibid p.326. the Names […] but the seasons also in which they are sown 3. ibid p.328. with the Quantity proper” (f.3).

Aside from the practical business of gardening and husbandry, Switzer displays an interest in etymology. In the preface, he accepts the notion that “Tis true that the Erroneous writing or badd spelling of the name of any Species of Herbs or plants Does in No wise Detract from its Intrinsic Value; and provided the Vegetable be good it is no matter (as some will, Undoubtedly be ready to say) whether the Name of it in Catalogues be right or Wrong”; but he continues: “if it Does not make better so it Does not make it worse […] The Etymology or Right pronunciation of a word an Amusement [is not] Unbecoming any Gentleman of Reason or Learning”.

It seems logical that a seedsman might seek to bring consistency to the spelling of plant names, if only to ensure that customers and sellers know exactly what they are buying and selling. But Switzer’s exploration of the roots of words appears to be motivated more by intellectual curiosity than by the practical question of consistency, and he concludes that the gardener is “Certainly Left to write or Speak as he pleases”. After all, “the Language of Botany is not the Chief Aim of the Author”; rather it is to provide a “Compendious Narrative” which takes in the various aspects of the plant.

A summary of the chapter on “Cepa or Onions Leek Ciboule &c” provides convenient example of the scope of his narrative. He begins with an “Introduction”, in which he makes an initial stab at derivation (“from the French Oignion”), and a historical overview (“it was held in Great Esteam […] amongst the Egyptians […] and Heroditus (as Mr Evelyn observes) writes that there was Ninety Tunn of Gold spent on them whilst the Pyramids were Building”). He details the best conditions for cultivating them (“Of the Soil and seasons of soweing”), acknowledging that none are “so fine as those Brought Either from Portugal or Spain”. He gives details of the varieties of onion, listing “Shasbourgh”, “Red Spanish”, “English of Mixt”, “Welch”, as well as “Leeks”, “Ciboles”, “Cives”, “Shalott” and others. For each he recommends how to grow them and to use them in the kitchen (Spanish

make “Excellent Sauce”, but “Welch” are “fit for nothing but Soups”). Along the way he draws attention to locations where plantsmen are succeeding in growing varieties (“The Red Spanish kind is also rais’d att Axbridge in Somersetshire”). Each section is rounded off with an etymology (“Of Garlick Etymology Kinds &c”), with sources scattered throughout the text (often “Miller”, “Bauhinus”, or “Evelyn”) or, if longer, they are bordered off into footnotes (“* See Millers Dictionary Sub titulo Allium Garlick quad Exiliendo Cusuit Roii Hist: Plantarum Lib: 21 Chap 5 pa: 1125”).

CONCLUSION This manuscript shows Switzer setting out his patch in the field of horticulture as an authority who knows whereof he writes, with knowledge which is “the Result of Practice” and of retail experience: he knows what is needed, both by plants and by their growers. He writes with a kind of knowledgeable ease earned by a lifetime’s experience, although his handwritten volume strikes a poignant note, since this was one project destined not to come to fruition; but as the only surviving manuscript by Switzer, it remains an artefact full of insights into the methods of a major figure in early-18thcentury English horticulture.

SOLD Ref: 8250

SEVEN ¶ Several hands in this well-used manuscript volume keep track of the general flow of work and business, life and death: inventories are recorded, cattle branded, taxes, rents and expenditure accounted for, and so on. And among these notes and accounts are some 10 recipes and remedies.

Thus, at one end of the tete-beche arrangement, an inventory “of ye good & Chattls of Aron Wright distrained by me Walter Stanhope” is followed by a small clutch of recipes in a different hand. First, four brief equine remedies, including “A good purge for a horse” (“halfe a dram or a dram cream of tarter two drams anni seeds […] in a pint of warme ale about four in y e afternoone”) and “ffor stratches or scabed heels”.

¶ [STANHOPE, Walter (?)]. 18thcentury manuscript Accounts and Recipes.

[Bolton, Bradford, Yorkshire. Circa 1706-58]. Quarto (202 x 167 x 22 mm).

Approximately 100 pages of accounts and sundry notes arranged tete beche (roughly 40; 60) on 134 leaves.

On the opposite page is a recipe “To make Birtch Wine”, which specifies “two pounds of Best powder shugar” to “every wine gallon of Birtch juce”. Below this is “How to make a good diet drink”, with ingredients such as “Agrimony sanctuary of each a handful / Gentian an ounce sena”, “a few brused anneseeds in a bagg”, and “a little rue barbe slise all in a gallon of old Beer wth ruste iron”. The entries at this end then revert to business matters, mainly comprising rents, land t ax payments and other expenses from 1706 to 1730.

At the opposite end, our scribe begins on “Aprill ye last day 1711” when he “Accounted wth me Mother Baron & payd her for Richd Table” as well as “four paire of new

shoes” and “worstett wool for stockings”, followed by a similar set of accounts for 1712 (although they then unsystematically revert to 1708-9 and 1706). Most of these detail leases, bonds, and mortgages, alongside costs of building repairs and maintenance (“Wright for sageing bords”, “for glaseing ye windows”).

Sandwiched between “Repairs att Bolton” and a “Field Book” (two pages of acreage measurements for various closes and “Leays”) are a pair of related recipes in another hand: “To make a Rich frute Cake” and “The Eiseing of it”. The evident size of the cake (“three pounds & a halfe of fine flower”, the same of “currants”) makes the “quart of cream”, “one pound of butter” and “ye yolke of twelfe eggs” seem a little less sclerosis-inducing, but “rich” it certainly is, especially with the “Eiseing”, which contains “a pound of double loafe loa lofe shugar”.

A further ten pages of accounts are recorded, including “Monthly Assessment for ye poor according to ye pound Rent” and annual land taxes. Again, business is interrupted by recipes, this time three of them: “To make Cowslop wine” (“six gallons of water”, “twelfe pounds of fine powder sugar”, “30 quarts of Cowslops & six Lemons slised”) has a helpful footnote that adjusts the recipe’s quantities for each of three sizes of pot (“great”, “red” and “little”) in the household (with the further information that “great pot will hold 14 quarts of water […] little pot will hold 11 quarts of water & 13 quarts & 3 gills of fflowers”). On the next page is another “To make Birtch Wine”, then “Mrs Buck receipt to make salve” (involving “bees wax”, “ffine Rosin”, “ffrankinsence”, “white pitch”, “camphor”, “venus turpentine”, “sweet oyle or oyle of Ollives”, and a handful each of “Bishup leaves plantine self-heal St John Grass Winter Cherry Smaleige Loveige Arkangle Bettoney”; all these to be combined “with May Butter unsalted”).

In the 1740s, another scribe adds to the volume, concerned more with sartorial refinement than bodily health or sustenance. From “Will: Rawson” they buy “3 yrds: Super fine Cloath for Coat & Britches”, “4½ yrd s Shallown”, “Swan Skin 1.yrd”, and for the finishing touches “Silk half ounce”, “Gold thread buttons” and “Buttons what please”.

As to authorship, there are several mentions of the name Stanhope, including the reflexive reference in the inventory mentioned above, but elsewhere the scribes refer to “me Mother Baron”; and, in the 1770s, another scribe records a series of payments to “my Bror Geo: Greene”. All of this is complicated by the early modern penchant for colloquial monikers.

This early modern miscellany, with its clear signs of use, conveys the ebb and flow of life in an early 18 th-century household, as finance, property and livelihood intermingle with health, husbandry, and the necessities and pleasures of food and drink. Nowhere is this better illustrated than the presence – after pages of accounts concerning coal, linen and clothing – of “House keeping meat” expenditure between 1772 and 1786, the considerable fluctuations of which tell a story all their own. £1,250 Ref: 8269

EIGHT ¶ The first edition of Philip Woodman’s medical textbook intended for the use of “Young Practitioners”. The author was a surgeon and physician from Southwark, London. His text gives a clear and succinct account of a wide range of ailments (“It being deigned for a Vade Mecum, or Pocket Companion”), including “the Principal Signs, Causes, and Truest Prognosticks of all the Chiefest and most Common Diseases”. To each of these he gives brief case histories and observations, and includes remedies which could be easily made and “almost all ¶ WOODMAN, Philip (1690-1728). Medicus Experienced”. The book was successful enough to call novissimus; or, the modern physician: shewing the for a second edition in 1722.

According to a note to the front endpaper, “Jo. Wilson” appears to have begun reading the book in 1768. He has underlined some pages and added manicules and other small marks to the margins of a few pages in the sections on “Coughs”, “Cholick”, “Lethargy”, “Intermitting Fevers”, “Scurvy”, and “Dysentery or Bloody-Flux”. But most of his additions are to the endleaves, where he has added medical notes (“the Greek on Old Age”, “Chinese Physicians never prescribe Bleeding”) and remedies to nine pages including, “A likely Remedy for a Consumption” which recommend the “expressed Juice of Horehound”, obtained by “pounding the Leaves in a Mortar”, to which is added “a Pint of Cow’s Milk sweetened with Honey”. A note at the end claims that “A Person much reduced in a galloping Consumption recovered by sucking a healthy woman’s Breast” (but without a mention to her thoughts on this practice).

Some receipts record their source “Admiral Blakeney” has a “Cure for the yellow Jaundice” and “Dr Shann” provides a

principal signs, causes, and most material prognosticks; together with the true method of curing all the principal and curable diseases incident to Mankind, according to the most Modern and Best Method of Practice now in Use.

London: printed by J. H. for Chr. Coningsby, at the Ink-Bottle against Clifford's-Inn Back-Gate in Fetter-Lane, Fleetstreet, MDCCXII. [1712].

First edition.

Octavo. Pagination [16], 336 p, with manuscript remedies to endpapers.

Contemporary sprinkled calf, neatly rebacked and recornered. Single small worm track throughout. Ownership inscription to front endpaper: “Ex Dono Jo. Wilson. 1768”.

“Medicine for the Rheumatism”. A cure for headache and “removing Obstructions” is detailed over two pages of “Advice of the famous Doctor Morton of Kendall, to the Revd Mr Hodgson of Brough for the Use of Mrs Hodgson”. Several remedies are given such as “The Elixir called uterinum” and “Wine … impregnated on a Dunghill Heat” noting that “Barley water is very good but ye Syrup of Marshmallows is a pick Pocket Trifle”. A postscript warns “As to your Son, the Chincough is much abroad here, and is certainly infectious”, adding “I need not hint farther for you to keep your Son. We find it very stubborn in the Cure”.

Wilson returned to the text as late as 1786, to add a note concerning rheumatism copied from the Leeds Intelligencer. This slightly risky method of treating the condition advises “rubbing Spirits of Turpentine upon the Part afflicted before a hot Fire”.

£950 Ref: 8332

NINE ¶ The remarkable provenance of this book traces its journey through a series of owners, whose hands record their different responses to this richly diverse and engrossing text. From ecology to antiquarianism to pilchards, the annotators display their particular interests through their manuscript interactions.

ELIZABETHAN ANTIQUARY The Elizabethan antiquary and poet Richard Carew (1555–1620), is best known for his Survey of Cornwall. (1602). A pioneering work, it is above all a representation of Cornwall as its author saw it, in terms of the landscape and climate, and of the occupations of men and women whose lives these shaped. Such matters as the local tin mines, the fishing industry, and the games people played, including hurling, all come within the compass of his lively pen.

Carew includes an early account of the use of sign language by two deaf people, reflecting his lifelong interest in languages: he taught himself Greek, Italian, German, Spanish, and French, and his panegyric, The excellencie of the English tongue (1614), entangled him in a dispute which involved (among others) Richard Verstegan, Thomas Nashe, Edmund Spenser, and William Shakespeare.1 This feel for language may account for one of the pleasures of the Survey of Cornwall: Carew’s exuberant style. This, according to Halliday, 2 is perfectly encapsulated in his remarks on Cornish rats: “alike cumbersome through their crying and rattling, while they dance their gallop galliards in the roof at night”.

This passage attracted the attention of our earliest annotator, who has written “good store” beside the printed marginalia “rats”. The following paragraph concerning lice, or “slowe sixe-legged walkers” as Carew dubs them, has been marked out with a very neat manuscript manicule pointing directly to “Lice”.

¶ CAREW, Richard (1555-1620).

The Survey of Cornwall. Written by Richard Carew of Antonie, Esquire.

London: Printed by S. S[tafford] for Iohn Iaggard, and are to bee sold neere Temple-barre, at the signe of the Hand and Starre. 1602. FIRST EDITION. Quarto. Foliation: [4], 159, [5] leaves.

Collated and complete with the initial blank leaf. [STC 4615]. 18th or early 19th century half calf, gilt panelled spine, red morocco label.

FIRES AND FISH Judging from their annotations, this anonymous reader seems interested in the Cornish landscape and its uses, picking out such matters as the denudation of land by the tin mining industry whose practices, Carew declares, “yeeldeth a speedie and gainful recompense” at the expense of the soil quality, or as our annotator says, “spoil much grownd” (a striking early modern instance of ecological concern). They make further scattered remarks upon

the Cornish tin works, notably a passage by Carew in which he discusses “a strange practice (certes) for thrifts sake, to set our houses on fire”, which they do “once in seuen or eight yeeres”, to retrieve traces of tin among the ashes. But, as our scribe observes, they see “p[ro]fit in destruction”, not least perhaps, because the land is inconsistently fertile and its “soil inclyned to furze & broome”. They also make occasional note on property rights, especially regarding the complicated operations of land management, ownership, leasing, and enclosures (“fines for .3. lyves”, “al imp[ro] vem[en]t in fine not in rent”, “they take for lyves not for yeares”).

The other important economic industry in Cornwall was sardine fishing - the subject that most occupies our first scribe’s attention, especially its consumption and export to Spain. They have underlined the words “The trayne is well solde” and noted in the margin “15li a tune” (presumably the current market rate); and they estimate the

quantity of pilchards and the markup on the original price paid to fishermen when the fish reach their destination in Spain: “i000 of pilchardes are sold for, 3s ther, & in Spayne for 8s”. But, as Carew notes, the fish must not only be caught, but also prepared for export – work which benefits “almost an infinite number of women and children” who carry out the “bulking, washing, and packing”. These words are numbered one to three in manuscript, and a note to the margins elaborates on each task: “1. Laying by ye walls in order / 2. After making them on stikes & washing the silt & [-- smudged] of / 3. puting in barels to presse them”.

Our piscine-preoccupied annotator also weighs in on how sardines are to be eaten. The best way is to present “the pilchard for service at the table is drest thus taken out of the barell, & scrape of the skine & take out the bone, & then mince them & then put them in a platter, shred (?) with spanich onyons, & oil and bringe also minced / this dish the Spaniard eates to relish a / cup of wine without once [–shaved] it in [any?] fire” [last six words shaved].

THE HERALDS The next reader, and the first to claim ownership, was the herald and antiquary Peter Le Neve, (1661-1729), who has inscribed the front blank A1 “Liber Petri Le Neve Rouge Crois [Pursuivant] 1695”, to which position he was appointed in January 1689/90, and advanced to Norroy King of Arms in 1704. Le Neve was fellow of the Royal Society and helped found the Antiquarian Society, becoming its first President.

He was an active transcriber of early manuscripts and a voracious book and manuscript collector; it has been said that he was miserly in many things, but would “give more for a Book than it was worth, grudging no expence of that sort”.3 At a sale of Le Neve’s library over 12 days from 22 February 1731, over 2,000 printed books and 1,252 manuscript lots were sold, the latter including 584 heraldic manuscripts from Sir Thomas St George's collection, 72 pedigree rolls, 22 portfolios of pedigrees, and 28 boxes of charters.

Our book passed from one herald to another; its subsequent reader was the arms painter and herald painter, Josiah Jones (d. 1764) (not William Burton as a note to the endpaper claims). Although he has not inscribed the volume with his name, Jones has a distinctive hand which has something of a “modern” appearance about it. Were it not for the fact that he signed and dated some of his work, it might easily be taken for later in the 18 th century or even into the next.4 Jones’s focus of attention in this book was the genealogical section. Although Carew was interested in the affairs of armigerous Cornish families, his Survey of Cornwall is unencumbered by the heraldry that bulks so large in other chorographies. Jones seems to have considered this an oversight, and has augmented the volume with no fewer than 74 heraldic shields in the margins, mostly annotated with names and tricked. Nonetheless, his method of augmentation was quite parsimonious and does not interrupt the flow of Carew’s narrative.

LIBRARY ACQUISITIONS It has been frequently repeated that Josiah Jones took possession of Sylvanus Morgan’s large collection of heraldic manuscripts through marriage. But there is no evidence that he did; instead he likely acquired some from le Neve, who had in turn received some from Morgan’s daughter. Among other material that Jones acquired from le Neve is the genealogical section of the volume commonly known as le Neve’s ‘Equestion Book’ [BL Add. Ms 62541]. Sir Anthony Wagner thought that Jones bought the whole volume, but close inspection reveals that it was only later— and for some unknown reason—that the genealogical and hippological sections were bound together to create the volume. As is the case in our book, Jones was only interested in genealogy.

Jones lived in Vauxhall and Lambeth and is known to have transcribed manuscripts at Lambeth Palace Library, which would have been within easy walking distance. His transcriptions include copies of manuscripts such as

Monumental Inscriptions, Arms & Co: which he has signed “Jos. Jones” and added the introductory note “These things were gather’d whilst the work was doing at Palace of the Archbishop of Canterbury 1749”. Later records show Jones was still working there in 1758, which overlaps with Andrew Coltée Ducarel’s time as keeper of the library.

We know that Ducarel was aware of Jones: Thomas Thrope’s “Catalogue for 1840 of a Most Choise and Truly Valuable Collection of Autograph Letters” includes a letter dated 1762, from Sir Peter Thompson to Ducarel, informing the latter that he “knew Mr Jones near forty years back; he was then painter to Drury Lane play-house”.5

¶ References: 1. Carew’s The excellencie of the English tongue, was first published in the second edition of William Camden’s Remaines (1614).Quoted in ODNB, S. Mendyk.

2. Richard Carew of Antony: The Survey of Cornwall. Halliday, F.E. (Ed. and Intro.)

(1969).

3. Thomas Woodcock in the ODNB. 4. We are very grateful to Dr Robert Colley for identifying the hand.

5. The biography and the complicated story of the dispersal of Morgan’s library is the subject of a forthcoming publication

by Dr Robert Colley, who has been extremely generous in sharing his scholarship prior to publication.

6. Alston, R. C. Inventory of Sale catalogues…

1676-1800. (2010).

7. Robin Myers in the ODNB. 8. Ibid. Alston.

Part of Jones’s library was sold as A catalogue of the genuine collection of prints, books of prints and drawings; library of books and manuscripts, of Mr. Josiah Jones, painter: including the valuable collection of heraldical manuscripts of the late Sylvanus Morgan. [Sale catalogue, Samuel Paterson, 3 December 1759]. We do not know exactly why Jones sold so much of his library, especially the valuable Sylvanus Morgan manuscripts, but he may have been quite old (we have been unable to establish his date of birth) and starting to divest himself of his bibliographic assets. Whatever the case, the sale catalogue following his death in September 1764 still featured around 400 books (including some of his manuscript transcriptions). Paterson’s services were again called upon, and in December of the same year, he issued A catalogue of the genuine collection of prints and drawings, books, and heraldical manuscripts, of Mr. Josiah Jones, late of Vaux-Hall, painter, deceased.6

ORDERING AND INDEXING The next record of ownership is by the abovementioned Andrew Coltée Ducarel (1713-1785), a French-English antiquary, librarian, archivist, and lawyer who fled to England with his Huguenot family in 1722. He was educated at Oxford, was elected FSA at the age of twenty-four, and served as librarian (1754-7) and as treasurer (1757-61) of Doctors’ Commons, also writing a valuable reference work entitled A summary account of Doctors Commons.

In 1757, he took the position of librarian at Lambeth Palace Library – its first lay librarian and the longest serving, remaining in post for 28 years.7 He put a great deal of effort into ordering the library’s collections by greatly improving the catalogues both of the printed books and of the manuscripts.

He has affixed his engraved armorial bookplate “Andrew Colteè Ducarel / L.L.D. / Doctor’s Commons”, to the paste-down, and inscribed the front blank “A Ducarel 1770” to the blank endpaper. A three-page manuscript index of surnames (“Index Cognominum”), bound in at the end, also appears to be by him. It is written on 18th-century paper, and the hand is very similar to examples of Ducarel’s held at Lambeth Palace Library [MS958f6; MS958f12; dedication to: MS5194a].

Our volume was included in the sale of Ducarel’s library, entitled A catalogue of the very valuable library of books, manuscripts, and prints, of the late Andrew Coltee Ducarel. [Sale catalogue, Leigh and Sotheby, 3 April 1786],8 where it was described laconically: Lot “361 Carew’s Survey of Cornwall --- 1602”. A year after this auction, the book came into the possession of “John Howard 1787” (inscription to title page). A pencil note to the front endpaper claims that it is in the hand of the philanthropist and prison reformer, John Howard (1726?-1790) – an entirely plausible contention, but unsubstantiated. The most recent ownership record takes the book back to its Cornish roots: the armorial bookplate to the front endpaper reads “CLC / Treverben Vean” i.e. Lieutenant Colonel Charles Lygon Somers Cocks (1821-1885) of Treverben in Cornwall.

CONCLUSION

Charting the provenance in this copy amounts to its own chorographical study. The connections traced, especially those concerning the connecting paths in the libraries of Peter le Neve, Josiah Jones, and Ducarel have yet to be clearly mapped, but they offer an extra dimension of appeal to an already hugely engaging volume.

£7,500 Ref: 8302

TEN ¶ Poised somewhere between memoir and fiction, this lively digressive manuscript seems to be the work of an unreliable narrator. The title page suggests a sober discussion of national debt, but the text presents a story of calamity, intrigue, insurrection and misadventure, mostly in Portugal and then in England, before concluding with some thoughts on English politics and foreign policy between the Jacobite rising of 1745 and the 1784 India Bill. In that sense, it partly answers the description of the title’s final clause, being indeed “some account of the author by the editor”.

But the “author” (“Timothy Quidnunc”) and “editor” (“Mr Benjamin Farmer”) are clearly both one and the same, and the pseudonym is an allusion to the satirical “Thomas Quidnunc” character invented by Joseph Addison in the Tatler. Benjamin Farmer came from a Quaker family who intermarried with the Galtons, who became gun manufacturers in the Birmingham area in the 18th century. Samuel Galton (1720-99), having married into the Farmer family, formed a business partnership with them; Farmer & Galton supplied the government with guns, exploited the growing market in India and equipped slave traders in Africa. In summer 1755, Benjamin Farmer arrived in Lisbon with a letter of introduction to Abraham Castres, the English Envoy Extraordinary, from Secretary of State Sir Thomas Robinson.

¶ FARMER, Benjamin Manuscript entitled ‘An enquiry into the rise, progress, and consequences of the National Debt, with the means by which it may be liquidated. By Timothy Quidnunc. With some account of the author by the editor.’

[Circa1785?]. Slim quarto (195 x 232 x 6 mm).

Approximately 64 text pages.

Stab-stitched paper wrappers, stained and with loss to lower of rear wrapper. Written in a neat legible hand throughout, and ascribed to the front wrapper “By Mr. Benjamin Farmer” in the same hand.

References: 1. Maslen and Lancaster. Bowyer ledgers, 4441. ‘A view of the internal policy of Great Britain’. In two parts. For A. Millar.

1764. LEDGER: P1185, 1202, 1208. Perhaps written by Farmer, but ESTC queries ‘by Robert Wallace’.

2. Paice, Edward. Wrath of God: The Great Lisbon Earthquakes of 1755. 2008.

Our manuscript takes up the Lisbon story eight pages in; first, by way of introduction, there is a kind of apologia for the “Quidnuncs”: “there has always been a sort of Extravagancy in their Character which has subjected ^them to the Ridicule and Contempt of the moderate and prudent part of the Community”. The “Quidnunc” epithet, coined by Richard Steele, was a reaction to the rise of political coverage in newspapers. The Latin construction (“What now?”) described a certain kind of coffee-house news addict, and can be seen now as an attempt to exclude the ‘tradesman’ and the ‘middling sort’ from serious political discourse, at a time when such debates were opening up to the literate masses. Whether Farmer – himself from a family of tradesmen – is being satirical or self-deprecating remains unclear.

The main narrative drops Farmer/Quidnunc in Lisbon, where he is “rob^bed and treated with great cruelty” (p.8) before experiencing the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and the subsequent “conspiracy of the Nobillity to destroy the King” (p.17). Sundry other incidents include an awkward meeting with the King and “a very singular Adventure” in which he is accused of stealing a mule. There are further anecdotes and reflections before he concludes with his thoughts on the balance of power in England between Crown and Parliament, and other political matters.

One passage appears to resolve an issue of authorship: Farmer recounts that he has “written a Book, and […] # published it” (p.35), giving the title as “Internal Policy of Great Britain, in two parts Millar, Strand 1764” – a book which has for some time been tentatively ascribed to Rev. Robert Wallace (1697-1771), author of Characteristics of the Present Political State of Great Britain (1758), but unconfirmed in the limited biographical accounts of Wallace.

Farmer’s remark supports a tentative attribution in the Bowyer Ledgers. 1 An ostensibly more reliable attribution may be found in Two very circumstantial accounts of the late dreadful earthquake at Lisbon, Exeter 1755 (reprinted Boston, 1756), of which the first account was “drawn up by Mr. Farmer, a merchant, of undoubted veracity”. 2 This strange, fascinating manuscript provides a firsthand account of an English businessman’s personal experience of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and fire and adds substantially to mercantile history and Anglo-Portuguese trading relations. It also offers evidence that Farmer, not Robert Wallace, was the likely author of A View of the Internal Policy of Great Britain. The mixture of vivid autobiography and a n e c d o t e s , p o li t ic a l commentary and mischievously ambiguous approach to presentation deserves closer attention.

£2,500 Ref: 7988

ELEVEN ¶ Wandesforde’s ‘Instructions’ were written in 1636 but remained unpublished for well over a century. They were first printed as A book of instructions, [...] to his Son and Heir, George Wandesforde, Esq; in order to the Regulating the Conduct of his Whole Life. (Cambridge, 1777).

¶ [WANDESFORD, Christopher (15921640)]. Scribal copies of ‘ Sir Christopher Wandesforde’s Instructions to his Eldest Son [and] A Funeral Sermon. Preached at the Burial of the Right Honble Master of the Rolls, Lord Deputy of Ireland.

[York. 1768]. Octavo (205 x 135 x 23 mm).

Pagination [2], ix, [3], 96, [2], 22 (numbered in manuscript). Contemporary calf, gilt, rebacked with the original title label laid down, damp staining throughout and resultant spotting to later leaves.

This manuscript precedes the published version by nine years and includes the unpublished “Funeral Sermon” on the occasion of Wandesforde’s death. It was written by “H.S.” of York and a nine-page dedication explains that it was “transcribed by from an old Manuscript which I accidently met with at B*****p” It makes for interesting reading, as he suggests that the manuscript he is has copied from was itself a scribal copy, and that “the antique Orthography […] its being Sewed in a Parchment Cover, containing some Proceedings in the Court of Chancery, concerning the estate at Kirklington belonging to the Wandesforde […] make it probable that it was copied immediately from he originals soon after Sir Christopher’s Death [...] Since when I guess it has come into the Possession of Mrs. J*****’s” who was, apparently, a distant relation of the Wandesfordes. “H.S.” goes on to explain that the manuscripts which he transcribed “were not so correctly taken but that they carry in them many Marks of the haste and Inadvertency of the Transcriber”, and although he has felt obliged to “change a Word or more, as best agrees with the Contact”, he claims “these are Liberties which I have used but sparingly”.

In all, a fascinating glimpse into scribal manuscript culture, transcribed before the published version and including the funeral sermon which has never appeared in print. £750 Ref: 7918

TWELVE ¶ Original woodcut printing block published in at least two ballad sheets: An Answer to the Unconstant Shepherd: or; Fair Cynthia's grief and care crowned with joy and happiness by her Lover's Return, to an Excellent New Tune.

Printed for Charles Bates next to the Crown-Tavern in West-smithfield, circa 1690]. [EBBA, 37501; ESTC, R170327; Wing, A3450].

The West-Country Counsellor: or, The Devonshire Damsels Advice to the Lasses of London, In their Choice of Kind and Loving Husbands.

Printed for J. Deacon at the Angel in Giltspur-street, without Newgate. [1671-1702 ?]. [R39752] Boxwood. (88 x 65 mm). Minor paper residue to printable surface, handwritten label in pencil to side (late 19th or early 20th century) reading “Early English Costume circa 1600, White [collection]”.

The woodcut is one of three used in the broadside. It illustrates the full body profile of a well-dressed woman; the eponymous Cynthia in one ballad; one of the “Lasses of London”; and likely others too.

£850 Ref: 8336

THIRTEEN ¶ A bound collection of correspondence of an Aberdeen merchant covering a wide variety of topics including family, social and business matters.

Alexander Dingwall was a stocking manufacturer in Aberdeen.

He was apprenticed to an uncle in the hosiery business, but having apparently completed his apprenticeship before his term had elapsed, he went into business with this uncle. In 1780, he married Elizabeth Douglass at Inchmarlo, Aberdeenshire, and they had six children together. He enjoyed some success in business, and “being of inexpensive habits his family were comfortably provided for”. 1

¶ [DINGWALL, Alexander (1748-1796)].

Over 70 Original 18th-Century Letters to and from Alexander Dingwall, Aberdeen Merchant.

[Circa 1750-95]. Folio album (325 x 205 x 12 mm). Approximately 70 18th-century letters, bound into a 19th-century volume, blue half roan with marbled sides. The letter are mounted rectos and versos, most with address panel mounted below, late 19th -century annotations identifying authors, and a child’s pictorial board game in watercolour of similar vintage loosely inserted.

Alexander cultivated customers in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Brussels, and these connections occasioned frequent business trips to those cities. The volume includes exchanges between Alexander and Elizabeth (hers written from Inchmarlo and Aberdeen; his from Rotterdam and Brussels); they address each other as “My Dearest Friend” and often strike an affectionate tone: “I need hardly tell you what I felt at your departure” declares Elizabeth in one letter. She hopes she “conceald it Pretty well”, but her friends and relations were clearly aware of her sense of loss: “evry body I am best acquainted with has given me evry attention”, and at an evening with relations “we Drunk a Bumper to a good voage to you and safe return”.

Other letters show a different side of family life. In one dated 1776, his cousin Arthur Dingwall (d.1786), a London jeweller, complains at having to judge his nephew’s literary pretensions: “an Epistle wrote by my Brother Sandies Eldest son Peter which our Brothr William desired he might write in my presence” is proving “an exceeding disagreeable office for me to be interfering”. Arthur declares that “there will be no probability of improvement … the diction bad, but the spelling shocking, beyond belief” (p.25).

A more businesslike air is to be found in three letters from Dr John Douglas, then Bishop of Carlisle and Dean of Windsor (all dated Windsor Castle, 1789-91 and signed “J. Carliol”). One concerns a Mr Gordon, who, partly thanks to Dingwall’s recommendation, is to be appointed “as a Missionary from our Society […] to the Mission of Exuma one of the Bahamas Islands” (p.25). Meanwhile, his brother Arthur Dingwall Fordyce (1745-1834), writing from Edinburgh in 1766, discusses family matters (land rents, health) and serves up some political gossip: “The whole talk of the Town is about who will gett Lord Milton’s gow – It is of great Consequence to the Douglas

Cause – The Dutchess of Hamilton and the Queen have been solliciting for Lockhart. But it is confidently reported that Montboddo had King;s promise of the first vacancy” (p.17).

Provenance: inscription to front blank: “To John Drysdale Esq of Castellan House Dunbar, E. Lothian, Old Family Letters chiefly addressed to his Great Grandfather Alexander Dingwall, Merchant, Aberdeen.

From his affection Uncle A. Dingwall Fordyce, Fergus, Ontario, Canada, 1892”.

A. Dingwall Fordyce wrote a Family Record of the Name of Dingwall Fordyce in Aberdeenshire, (Ontario, 1885), from which much of the biographical information below has been taken.

References: 1. A. Dingwall Fordyce wrote a Family Record of the Name of Dingwall Fordyce in Aberdeenshire, (Ontario, 1885) 2. Ibid.

The University of Aberdeen, Special Collections holds a similar volume: [GB 0231] Alexander Dingwall: letter book. (1772-1784) which contains correspondence “in various hands, with mainly commercial content”.

£1,000 Ref: 8296

Alexander Dingwall died unexpectedly at the age of 48: while improvements were being made to the family house, he fell from a ladder and broke his leg. Unfortunately, “lock-jaw coming on, death ensued on the 3rd of July, 1796”. 2 This volume was probably assembled from loose-leaf correspondence, by Dingwall Fordyce while writing his history of the family. From the gift inscription noted above, it apparently travelled from Scotland to Canada and back again. Its contents represents a cross-section of the concerns of a successful Scottish merchant, as business, charitable and political matters sit cheek by jowl with expressions of spousal affection and the venting of family frustrations.

FOURTEEN ¶ This is a scarce, complete and handsome set of Jonas Hanway's five letters on two of his most dearly held philanthropic enterprises: the Marine Society, which he established in 1756 to equip and prepare destitute men and boys for a livelihood at sea (four letters); and the Magdalen Hospital for Penitent Prostitutes, which he co-founded in 1758 (the fifth and final letter). Each has a separate title page, pagination, and register.

Hanway (1712-1786), was a merchant and philanthropist, often remembered for being the first man in London to carry an umbrella (for which he was widely mocked) and his opposition to tea (for which he was mocked by Samuel Johnson), he plunged himself into numerous benevolent causes, among them smallpox inoculations, the working conditions of young apprentices of chimney sweeps, the fate of infant children in workhouses, and a charity for girls abandoned to prostitution (hence his enthusiastic support for the subsequent Magdalen Hospital for Penitent Prostitutes). Among his most successful works was the Registers Bill (later dubbed ‘Hanway’s Act’), designed to improve the lives of workhouse children, which has been called “the only piece of eighteenth-century legislation dealing with the poor which was an u n q u a l i fi e d s u c c e s s” , a n d t h e establishment, in 1756, of the Marine Society. The Society’s mission was to p r o v i d e g o o d e d u c a ti o n a n d employment to poor boys, which in turn supplied the British Navy with thousands of much-needed, welltrained seafarers. It is the world’s oldest public maritime charity, which still exists today.

£1,250 Ref: 8155

¶ HANWAY, Jonas (1712-1786). Three letters on the subject of the Marine Society. [bound with] Two letters.

London: [s.n.], Printed in the Year. [1758].

FIRST COLLECTED EDITIONS.

Quarto. Pagination [2]; vi, 8, 24; 23, [1]; 67, [1]; 11, [1] p., frontispiece; [2]; [2], 34; 35 [1], p. Collated and complete. [Goldsmiths, 9406 and 9408; ESTC, T93944 and T93943].

Contemporary calf, rubbed, rebacked preserving old title label. A clean widemargined copy on thick paper.

FIFTEEN ¶ This group comprises some 55 letters and documents, all dated 1802 or 1803. There are 25 incoming letters to Thomas Adams (which he has docketed on the reverse), and 30 draft replies in his hand, most are one or two pages in length, and one 10-page document which includes a series of drafts in pamphlet form.

¶ [ADAMS, Thomas (1771-1811)].

A collection of Letters to Thomas Adams of Alnwick, together with his Draft Replies.

[Circa 1802-1803]. A group of 55 letters and documents, various sizes, but mostly quarto.

The correspondence includes Adams’ dealings with a handful of clients and acquaintances, possibly all on the same or interrelated matters. Much of the content touches on the will of “Sir John Webb” and issues arising, particularly as they concern his daughter and heir, Barbara, Lady Shaftesbury, a “power of selling the Lincolnshire Estate in aid of the personal Estate”, and a “Purchase of a reversion in fee”. A handful of letters relate enquiries (perhaps connected with a separate case) about “the Ogle Family” of Eglingham, near Alnwick.

Various colleagues and concerned individuals correspond with Adams, including his brother Alexander, “John Tarleton”, “John Frankland”, “Ne Taynton”, and various clerks to legal worthies.

Among the issues discussed are the wording of legal agreements, land and inheritance queries, and the prevarication of certain parties (“I have not received one line from Mr Tarleton […] my Conduct towards him does not deserve such Treatment and particularly when he knows how much embarrassed I am for money”).

£1,000 Ref: 8212

SIXTEEN ¶ These letters were written during the American Revolutionary War by a key figure in the British government: the fourth Earl of Sandwich, who, as first lord of the Admiralty, helped to transform the British Navy. The correspondence brims with the day-by-day business of managing a maritime fleet that had yet to reach the strength required of a nation with a growing empire.

The politician and statesman John Montagu, fourth earl of Sandwich, began his ministerial career in 1744 as a member of the Admiralty board, where he was instrumental in reforming many aspects of the navy, from training and discipline to ship design and dockyard management. He debuted as a diplomat at the Breda peace talks in 1746, and helped frame the resulting treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Almost concurrently, he became first lord of the Admiralty, but his determination to intensify the reform of the navy proved unpopular and led to his dismissal in 1751. He briefly returned to the post in 1763, then began a third stint in 1771, this time meeting with greater success.

Our collection of letters dates from this third term, which coincided with the British response to the

¶ [SANDWICH, John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718-1792)]. Twenty-four Autograph Letters and Notes.

[Circa 1774-81]. Folded for posting (240 x 375 mm unfolded). Address panels, some seals intact.

23 letters, each signed “Sandwich”; all but one headed “Hinchingbrook” (i.e. Hinchingbrooke House, Huntingdon, formerly the home of the Earls of Sandwich), and one letter signed by Captain Hugh Dalrymple.

Watermarks: Fleur-de-lis in shield, surmounted by crown, GR, over a bell, (Strasbourg lily), lettered “JUBB” in bell, others lettered “LVG”.

American Revolution, and all of the correspondence is concerned with naval matters – the greater portion of it relating to the American colonies.

Two of the letters have an integral address panel addressed to “George Jackson Esqr.”; this, we assume, is Sir George Jackson, 1st Baronet (1725-1822), deputy secretary of Admiralty and first clerk of the marine department between NB: despite writing over 20 years after the 1766 and 1782 – and a friend of Montagu’s.

introduction of the new calendar style, Sandwich rather eccentrically dates his letters according to the pre-1750 calendar; Jackson, however, when docketing does not. In our transcriptions we have used the ‘new style’ date shown on Jackson’s docket.

SHIPS

Numbering in square brackets below refers to our sequencing of the letters. A complete transcript of the entire collection is available on request.

Much of the correspondence relates to the disposition of ships: in the first letter, dated “Dec. 30. 1774”, Sandwich directs that “orders be immediately given for the Romney to be fitted for a voyage to Newfoundland, and to receive a Commodore”, stressing that “these orders be given without loss of time.” Other vessels mentioned in the early letters include “the Active” (which he considers “a proper ship to be sent to America” [3]); “the Cygnet”; and “the Rainbow”, stipulating that “Sir George Collier be appointed to command her, and Michael Hindman to be her second Lieutenant.” [5].

Provenance: formerly in the private collection of the Montague family.

Sandwich directs ships around various portions of a particularly complicated chessboard, balancing strategic

priorities with other considerations. On “Dec: 26. 1775”, he writes: “The Fox & Greyhound must be kept for North America, as their Captains have particularly requested that voyage, therefore the Boreas & Seaford may go to Jamaica & the Leeward Islands, & the Milford be the first or second ship to Boston.” (The 28-gun frigate HMS Milford in 1777 became the first British naval ship to engage with an armed American ship.) In the same letter (“Dec: 26. 1775”), Sandwich approves Jackson’s suggestion of “docking the Romney Surprize & Martin, & sending the Alborough immediately to Gibraltar”, noting that, if short of men, “we might take a few from the Surprize & Martin, & possibly a few more from the Romney.” [6] HUMAN RESOURCES

These manpower issues arise several times elsewhere, with Sandwich sanctioning “a bounty” to attract “voluntier Seamen, and I think able bodied landmen should allso be included” (“Dec: 26. 1775”) [5]. Soon thereafter, he cites a remark from “Admiral Graves” that “the ships of his squadron are in great want of Marines”, and asks Jackson to propose “to the Board” that the Milford, “& every other ship that goes to Boston, should carry out 20 supernumerary private Marines”, to be reassigned “to such ships […] as are most in want of them.” Each Admiral concerned should also continue his practice of “taking out the private marines from all the ships he sends home, and adding them to the Battalions on shore till they are compleated to 500 private each.” (“Dec: 30. 1775”) [9] Despite this need for personnel, Sandwich rules out “any of the apprentices or men who have been expelled from the yards for their late misbehaviour” [7]; but in other, often more senior cases, he makes a different call: responding to “Lieut: Duncansons” request for a “leave of absence”, he decrees that “Marine Officers are so much wanted, and their numbers since the augmentation to 80 per company so inadequate to the services required from them that I can by no means agree […] he must therefore either stick to our service or quit it.” [5] Everywhere in the letters we find evidence of the extent to which Sandwich, as first lord, covers the waterfront. He forwards to Jackson several requests for commissions, including for “John Nash to be a Master at Arms”, and for “Lieutenant William Bett” to relieve “the Lieut: of the Hazard” [9]. He likewise relays a petition “from Captain O’Hara desiring to quit his ship”, with instructions that end with an intriguing allusion to another matter entirely: “you will therefore inform him that he has leave to retire; and appoint Captain Wilkinson to succeed him. If the Captain Smith is the person who sold his ship in America when Commodore Gambier commanded there, he & I shall not easily make up our quarrel.” [12]

The unpredictability of human behaviour – from personality clashes to outright criminality – accounts for some of the more diverting passages in Sandwich’s letters. He stresses the importance of informing “Sir Peter Parker” that “it is not intended he should have the appointment of officers, otherwise something disagreeable will happen between him and Admiral Shuldham”; and directs an official response following “the escape of Brown from the Marshalsea Prison” [5].

WORSE THINGS HAPPEN AT SEA Meanwhile, larger dramas are played out: a “very disheartening” accident involving HMS Triton; the “disagreeable subject” of the “misfortune that has happened to the Deal Castle” [15]; the “victualler for Sir Peter Parkers squadron that proves leaky in Ireland” [10]; and largest of all, the worsening situation in America. He demands of Jackson rather tersely: “Should not the order to the Navy Board for taking up transports for 5000 men have mentioned that they were to be sent to America” [2]; and with almost palpable irritation, remarks: “as to the encreasing the compliments of the ships in America, L d G: Germaine must be informed that that has been done long ago” [15].

There are, however, pieces of good news: Sandwich rejoices that “Captain Hamilton’s account of the state of things at Quebec gives me spirits […] I agree with you that if the place is saved it will be entirely owing to the arrival of the Lizard” [6]; but once the conflict is further advanced, glad tidings are dampened a little by poor media management, as Sandwich tells Jackson in a letter sent from “Blackheath Monday night” (and docketed “31st Decr.

1781”) “as the account of the Agamemnons success comes directly from the Captain of one of the Kings ships, I think allmost the whole of his letter should be printed in to morrow nights Gazette; therefore I could wish that no extract of it had been sent to the morning papers, but I fear it is too late to stop that arrangement.” [20] CONCLUSION These letters make clear just how much came over the desk of the fourth Earl of Sandwich during this period, and how able a multi-tasker he was, with an eye for the details as well as the big picture. His perceived failures in the American Revolutionary War – still a matter of dispute – were counterbalanced by the lasting foundations he laid for the British Navy in the following century; and the sheer multiplicity of problems and complex scenarios he is seen tackling in these documents serves as a corrective to any impressions of ineptitude or incompetence on his part. This insightful set of correspondence complements other manuscript collections dealing with this momentous conflict, and adds significant nuance to the portrait of one of the key figures in the American Revolutionary War.

£12,000 +VAT in the UK

SEVENTEEN ¶ Blackmail, lascivious goings-on, disastrous royal marriages, century-long political cover-ups… It all sounds like ripe fodder for a sensationalist, bestselling story. And that is exactly what Thomas Ashe produced, in two forms: a hefty novel, and this extraordinary manuscript poem.

Ashe’s two very different versions of The Claustral Palace are among several prurient pieces he wrote about the Hanoverians as the nation followed the conflicts between the future George IV and his wife, Caroline of Brunswick. Many of Ashe’s other sordid writings ran to several editions by dint of their popularity (for example, The Spirit of the Book (1812) and its abridgement, The Spirit of the Spirit)1, but this verse rendition of The Claustral Palace was, like its subsequent ‘novelisation’, seized by government agents and remained unpublished.

¶ [ASHE, Thomas (1770-1835)] Manuscript entitled ‘The Claustral Palace: An Ovidian & Political Poem’.

[Circa 1811]. Quarto (252 x 190 x 8 mm). Approximately 64 unnumbered text pages (including title and part-titles) on 70 leaves (including endpapers).

Watermark: “Budgen & Wilmott / 1810”. Bound in fine contemporary red morocco, gilt.

Ashe, an Irish army officer, formed a powerful union with Caroline, to whom he became a ghostwriter2. After her marriage deteriorated, Caroline became a political scapegoat, prompting her to use the only weapon at her disposal: access to the royal family’s dirtiest of secrets. Ashe, who deployed his highsociety connections to feed his penchant for writing blackmailing novels and satires, saw ample material for storytelling, not to mention extortion. After George III confined Queen Charlotte and their six daughters at Frogmore House, scandalous rumours circulated: dodgy dalliances, violent disagreements, even venereal diseases – a goldmine of outrages which Ashe mined in The Claustral Palace.

From the outset of this verse manuscript (written circa 1811), there are several marked differences with his 1812 prose version. The latter is a long “political romance”, narrated via the epistolary form, whereas our manuscript runs to 64 pages; the novel bears Ashe’s name on the title page, but in our manuscript it has been defaced to read “Thomas Algernon Esq”.

The verse manuscript is dedicated to Princess Charlotte, the only child of George IV and Caroline, who in turn is acclaimed as “her Royal Highness’s most persecuted & most Illustrious Mother” – a more personalised opening than that to the novel. As the poem begins, we find ourselves near “proud Windsora”, where “A stately Palace rises to the sight…” and we hear “Loud shouts, and sullen groans, & dreadful doleful sighs; / Heart-rending plaints demand the pitying ear”.

With these mock-classical tones, novel and poem begin to align, as both dive into the gothic murk of that era’s

popular sensationalist literature. In the earlier part of our poetic manuscript, “Mad” King George appears as “A Shiv’ring Monarch [who] keeps his awful Court”; his wife, Queen Charlotte, is “a Witch to Avarice assign’d”.

Ashe’s sympathy towards the princesses (“the blest Nymphs, whom rural graves confine”) reaches exclamatory heights in the third part: “Oh, World! Oh, Fortune! […] Against the References: Conqueror, Death, there’s none can charm”. Ashe offers his poem’s 1. Travers, James, A Blackmailer at Frogmore: The final thought: “As / None happy call, in this uncertain state / Death Adventures of Queen Charlotte’s Ghost, Amberley only sits us safe beyond the reach of fate”. The predicament of the Publishing (2022). royal children is clear.

2. Ibid.

3. Redding, Cyrus, Fifty Years’ Recollections, Literary and Personal, Vol. III, London (1858), pp. 63-64.

This poem was not available for consultation when James Travers wrote A Blackmailer at Frogmore. We are extremely grateful to him for sharing his scholarship for this catalogue.

Did Ashe ever intend to publish the earlier poem? The 18 th-century journalist, Cyrus Redding, wrote that Ashe “wrote false memoirs of living people, to get paid for their suppression. One of these […] was called ‘The Claustral Palace’”.3 Perhaps our manuscript, which has been folded as though for posting, or for just carrying around, had only ever been meant as a ‘shakedown’? Perhaps, after the success of The Spirit of the Book, Ashe decided to discard this poetic version and extend it into another Hanoverian hit novel?

Our manuscript abounds with fantastical Gothic imagery and intrigue, but its impression of blackmail dressed up as literature gives a flavour of the kind of unsavoury profiteering that attended the crisis-ridden Hanoverian dynasty.

£2,000 Ref: 8241

EIGHTEEN ¶ The artist and diarist, Joseph Farington was an influential figure in the expanding interest in tourism of the 18 th century. In this album of 45 drawings, he constructs a visual itinerary for the reader, using sketches created during several journeys around Scotland over almost a decade. Many of the drawings are signed, and his annotations frequently extend onto the mounts, leading us to attribute not just the pictures, but the compilation of the volume itself to the Farington, which in turn helps reveal the artist’s intentions.

By the 1780s, very few English artists had attempted a proper exploration of Scotland. Farington, however, was one of this select handful. His reputation rests largely on “the careful, accurate topographical drawings which he prepared for the folios of engravings of British views”; publications that “found a ready market among tourists confined to Britain by unrest abroad.” 1 Our volume is a superb example of just such a folio, albeit unpublished.

¶ FARINGTON, Joseph (17471821) An Album of 45 Working Drawings of Scottish Landscapes.

[Scotland. Circa 1788-1801]. Folio (340 x 230 x 14 mm).

Contemporary half calf, rubbed and worn, 45 sketches, neatly mounted on paper watermarked 1794.

Various sizes between 165 x 120 mm and 255 x 155 mm, neatly inset onto album leaves with ruled borders.

It was compiled by Farington himself using landscape drawings he had sketched during excursions to Scotland between 1788 and 1801, apparently with the intention of publishing a series of Scottish views similar to his Views of the Lakes of Cumberland and Westmorland (1785) and the two-volume History of the River Thames (1794).

TOURISM In the late 18th century, the popularity of the European Grand Tour suffered a decline after the French Revolution and its lengthy, hazardous repercussions made travel on the Continent inadvisable for British tourists. The notion of domestic travel as a cheaper, safer route to self-education, embodied in the Picturesque Tour, took hold following the publication of William Gilpin’s Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty (1782).

Gilpin presented scenes, via prose and illustration, that promoted their suitability as subjects for painting by the amateur traveller. The pursuit of picturesque tourism became popular, and British travellers beat a path to areas such as the Lake District, Snowdonia in Wales, and the Scottish Highlands. One consequence of this was an upgrade of transport networks and facilities in these regions; another was the increasing attention of artists and writers to these homegrown landscapes.

Farington was not inclined towards some of the liberties taken by many ‘picturesque’ practitioners; his style was esteemed for its veracity and realism. Nonetheless, Gilpin greatly admired Farington’s work, and used aquatints to illustrate his highly successful Observations, relative chiefly to picturesque beauty made in the year 1772, (1786). In the preface of which Gilpin commends “Farington’s prints” which he says “render any other portraits of the lakes unnecessary.

They are by far, in the author’s opinion, the most accurate, and beautiful views of that romantic country, which he hath seen”.

THE ALBUM At first glance, our album might be taken for a display piece. But closer inspection indicates that this was a workbook, featuring sketches that have either been extracted from sketchbooks or made on single sheets over a decade. In this sense, the volume has much to say about Farington’s working practices: he has assembled an album of Scottish views, arranged in the form of a tour, but his approach is geographical rather than chronological. That said, a goodly portion of the drawings seem to trace an intensive, 12-day campaign of sketching, as we shall see.

The journey begins at Gretna Green, with a panoramic pencil sketch (80 x 265 mm), followed by views of Dumfries, including one with the town in the distance and annotated with various names: “Criffel” (a large hill to the right), “Cowhill Mr Johnson” and “Dalswinton House Mr Millar” which is of a “Red Tone” (this house would have been fairly new, having been built circa 1785 for Patrick Miller, the inventor of steam navigation; Farington’s sketch is dated “July 20 1792”).

After a sketch in the town itself, Farington’s route takes him in a northerly direction, “5 miles from Dumfries” where he draws “Armisfield”, an impressive 16th-century castle known as Amisfield Tower, home of “Mr Charteris”, in whose family it remained until the early 20 th century. As he continues towards Moffat, he sketches

Lochhouse Tower (annotated “July 20 1792 Loch House seat of Johnston of Cor Head”), and on the same day he draws Raehills (“Rae Hill near Moffat, a seat of Lord Hopetoun”, “July 20th 1792”) with notes such as “Blue Hills” and “House red stone prospect”. Farington seems to have been particularly taken with Moffat: he includes another five sketches from the surrounding area as he heads towards Glasgow.

We know from an earlier drawing by Farington, now at the Met, New York, 2 dated 1788 and entitled “Corra Linn, the Falls of the Clyde”, that his next stop was a return visit: here he titles his sketch “Corus Lyn Waterfall”, dates it “July 25. 1792” and adds the note “rain sit--? colour throughout”. Like his previous rendition of the scene, he has used brush and wash and squared it for transfer; and although it takes the same viewpoint, it is drawn in much closer proximity, giving greater prominence to the waterfall. This 1792 drawing also shows Farington further experimenting with the ¶ References: composition: he has omitted the lower section from the grid and 1. Newby, Evelyn in the ODNB. extended the left side. The Met’s accompanying notes acknowledge 2. The Met. Object Number: 2011.78.

Farington’s trailblazing status as an English artist exploring Scotland, 3. Newby, ibid. and continue: “Farington sketched along the rivers Forth and Clyde in the summer of 1788 to design aquatints for an anticipated concluding volume of The History of the Principal Rivers of Great Britain. Unfortunately, the French Revolutionary Wars affected the print trade and these Scottish views were never published.”

It seems likely that our album is Farington’s rough layout of this intended work, and there are suggestions that this project was speculative and beset by financial worries: of the 45 drawings, 36 are dated between 20 and 31 July 1792 and cover a sizeable area. This indicates a concentrated burst of activity to gather the bulk of his material, into which he then inserted a smaller number of sketches from previous and later journeys which he took in 1788 and 1801 respectively. Thus, in the midst of these July 1792 entries he includes “Tolboth at Glasgow Octr. 23 1801”.

Returning to his July 1792 expedition, he has squared “Rock & Castle of Dumbarton” (“July 27”) for transfer, and followed it with two sketches of the “Rock of Dumbarton” looking up from the shoreline of the River Clyde. He returns the following day to execute another view of the rock, in a very free hand which emphasises the rock from a more dramatic angle, before walking into the town itself to record a more sedate street scene. Later that same day, he follows the River Clyde upstream to Ardmore, where he sketches “Mr Nobles” house. Continuing towards Gare Loch, on “July 29. 1792” he sketches “Rosneath, the Duke of Argyle’s”. This castle’s interior had been recently remodelled in the French fashion with designs by Robert Mylne; by 1800 it was in the hands of John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll, but in 1802, while the Duke was away, the castle was destroyed in a fire.

The next day was a busy one: Farington includes eight sketches with this date, with several views of lochs, one “taken on the water”, three at Loch Goil, (“entrance to Loch-goil”, “Head of Loch Gile”), two at Glen Gyle, and one at Loch Long (consulting a map while examining this selection enables one to determine which direction from the boat Farington was looking). He spent 30 and 31 July at Inveraray and Loch Awe, reaching as far north as Kilchurn Castle, “Glen Orch” (i.e. Glen Orchy) before descending to Loch Lomond.

Despite the effort and expense of compiling volumes such as this, it was not uncommon in this period for lavishly illustrated books never to see publication; the same fate befell several planned volumes with which Farington was involved, among them a seventh volume of the Britannia depicta atlas that were to feature his drawings of Devon, and William Byrne’s Magna Britannia, abandoned because of runaway costs. But Farington’s reputation endured, even though, as Evelyn Newby writes, “It is difficult to make a real appraisal of his paintings as they are scattered in many private and public collections, and rarely appear in art sales”. 3 This carefully arranged album is therefore both an unusual artefact and a primary source for examining the working practices and artistic intentions of a prominent artist of the ‘picturesque’ – a style ostensibly at odds with Farington’s concern for veracity. Our volume shows him planning a showcase – never realised in print – for his pioneering ventures into the landscapes of Scotland.

£4,000

NINETEEN ¶ An earnest attempt to compile a horticultural reference work has begun promisingly in this manuscript, but our anonymous scribe, despite taking pains to organise the material, in a neat hand, has completed some 124 pages of the volume – managing, among other things, a 14-page section on viniculture – before leaving the rest fallow.

They begin with “An Alphabetical Table of English Plants with the Latin Names against them Referring to the Dictionary For their Species and Cultivation”, arranged in double columns over 17 pages that run from “Abele Tree / Populus” to “Zarzaparilla / Smilax”. Immediately following this is “An Explanation of the Terms used in Botany and Gardening”, also alphabetical, which runs to nine pages and may be as complete as was intended (the entries go from “Acanaceous Plants” to “Umbelliferous Plants”), then a 13page untitled section that consists of selected, shortened entries from The Gardener’s Dictionary by Philip Miller (first published in 1731) – beginning with “Air” and ending with “Wine” (the latter without a definition).

¶ [GARDENER’S NOTEBOOK] Manuscript Notebook of ‘List of Plants’ & [Development of grapes for Wine] An Alphabetical Table of English Plants with the Latin Names against them Referring to the Dictionary For their Species and Cultivation.

[England. Circa 1750]. Quarto (242 x 180 x 32 mm). 124 text pages on 180 leaves.

Contemporary full reversed calf, blind tooled, rebacked. Watermark: Fleur de lis.

Hard on the heels of this is a section headed “The Gardeners Dictionary Abridg’d” – our scribe’s most sustained effort at 71 pages but ending at “Euonynmous” and lapsing into blankness until the last 14 pages of the volume, where they outline the process of making wine. As with the other sections, they have carried out this task with great diligence, but unlike the “Abridg’d” dictionary, the section may be complete. A remark part-way through states that this portion of the manuscript is largely “an Account of the different Practices of the Vintners and Wine Coopers in the Management of their several Wines”.

They begin with the basics (“Wine is a brisk, agreeable and spirituous juce, drawn from Vegetable Bodies, and fermented”), citing “Dr Boerhaave” for a scientific summary of its properties. There follows a description of the process of “Fermentation” (“a change produced in Vegetable Bodies, by means of an intestine Motion excited therein”) and a lengthy account of the factors that assist or hinder it. Topics are signalled in marginal headings: the generic-sounding “The making of Wine” is followed soon after by a series of short instructions for producing specific varieties such as “Spanish Wine”, “Claret”, and “Rhenish”. Other aspects of wine production covered here include steps in the process (“Drawing off” and “Bottling”), tips on timing (“Best time to Rack Wine” – apparently “in the Decrease of the Moon […] the Wind being at North East or North West […] the Sky serene, free from Thunder and Lightning”), and remedial tips when things go wrong (“To cure foul Wines”, “Wines in Bottles proving ropy”, “Flat wines recovered”).

The layout of the volume suggests it was intended to be a ready reference resource for its owner, but some of the detail and phrasing seems more in line with an expert’s teaching aid (for example, when our scribe announces that they “next shall offer a few things which have occur’d from Observation and Experience relating to the making of wines in England”). What comes across strongly is a complete immersion in the subject and – at least to begin with – in the task of creating a comprehensive, scientifically informed text on horticulture and viniculture in the mid-18th century. £750 Ref: 8254

TWENTY ¶ Gold leaf; sugar; an early recipe for ice cream (“Ize Cream”); chocolate (“Jocolate”); an emphasis on “pretty” or “noble” dishes and unusual receipts (“America Ale”), many of which are ascribed – these are just some of the features and characteristics to be found in our volume.

They indicate not just an affluent household but a sociable one, and a family who, despite their rural location, were up to date on the most fashionable foods of the day.

If the clear arrangement of this manuscript is any reflection of how its author ran her domain, then we are certainly dealing with a well-ordered household, and with a scribe for whom presentation is a key concern, even a pleasure. An inscription to the first leaf, itself well presented, identifies our main scribe: “Agnes Braddyll’s Book 1728”. Agnes Braddyll (1705-?) was born at Ulverston, Lancashire to John Braddyll (1659-1727) and Sarah (née Dodding) (1665-?). She married Daniel Harrison in 1734 1, so this volume was commenced before her marriage.

The wealth of attributions, and the network of friends and relations that they represent, form an integral part of the manuscript and suggest this family retained close ties, partly through exchanging recipes. Among the attributees are immediate family (“My Grandmother’s way…”, “Sisr Ann Braddyll” (her sister Anne, was born 1709)), relatives by marriage (“Mrs Wilson” – Agnes’ sister Margaret (1696-1765) married Christopher Wilson (d.1773) in 1728; “Sis: Osbaldeston” – the Braddylls and the Osbaldestons intermarried in the 17th century), and an array of friends and peers (“Ann Carr”, “Mrs Clayton”, “Mrs Btty Hide”, “Mrs Lesley”, “Mrs Margt Askew”, “Mrs Patrickson”, etc).

THE RECIPES Agnes has carefully structured her manuscript by category, adding an index at the beginning. First come the beverages, consisting mostly of wines (“A Small sort of Mead yt will be ready to drink” in “5 or 6 weeks” but it “will keep 3 or 4 months” (f.8v); “Lemon Wine Sis: Osbaldestons way” and “Balm wine Sisr Ann Braddyll”; “Maligo Wine Mrs Margt Askew” (f.9v); “Curran wine Ann Carr’s way” (f.9r)), but concluding with an early recipe for “America Ale”(actually ginger ale, with ingredients including “7 pound of Natural Sugr 5 ounce of Gingr thin sliced a little Rose=mary Just to give it a taste or instead of that Lemon pills”) (f.10v).

¶ [BRADDYLL, Agnes( 1705-?)]. 18th Century Manuscript Receipt Book.

[Ulverston, Lancashire? Circa 1728-36].

Folio (305 x 195 x 15 mm). Approximately 163 text pages on 112 leaves. Text paginated to 159, but lacking three pages.

Commences with a title page and index, sections separated by blanks.

Bound in contemporary panelled reverse calf, rebacked, text browned and spotted.

Watermark: Pro Crown above GR.

Patria;

countermark:

The next section presents a handful of recipes to preserve fruit, with instructions that make clear these have been tried, tested and probably refined: “To Preserve Aprococks” (“Take the Apricocks not too ripe and gather ym in the heat of the day”) is followed by “To Preserve Goodberries Red”, which includes directions to “sett ‘em over a quick fire to boyle pretty fast … stand till they are allmost cold the put ym up – they must be often shaked in the boyling” (f.13r); and “Bullas Chees or Marmolett of Plumbs” recommends that you “boyle as quick as you please your plums will burst sufficiently in boyling take the skin off as it rises stiring it frequently to keep it from setting you must Judge of this as you do the rest when it is enough” (f.15r). The final recipe here, “To Candy Oranges or Lemons” (f.16v), later becomes an element in several baking recipes, either as an ingredient or decoration.

Baking and cakes follow next, covering the likes of “Clear Cakes of Rasberries”, “Cracknells” (f.17r), “Sugar Wafer wth Lemon Juice or Lemon Drops”, “Blister Cakes Cardimun Cakes or sug r of Roses” (f.17r). Several recipes, here as elsewhere, emphasise their potential for presentation: for “Huffles”, one may wish to “mix some Jocolate amongst the Sugr if you please add some [blank] or Scutchon Ell for a Different Colour looks pretty”; and the serving up of “Moss Cakes” can be enhanced if you “speck ym wth Gold wch looks pretty or Radishes if you fancy moulds or any other fancy” (f.18r). This eye for the visual effect is again at work in “A Plum Seed Cake – a very rich Cake or

plumb Cake for some extraordinary Occasion”, with some classy decoration to match: “when you have just laid on the Icing lay on large Chips of Candied Orange Lemon and Citron Strawing Carraway Cumfits all over and here and there a spott of Leaf of Gold or Silver w ch looks noble” (f.23r).

A selection of pastry and pudding recipes kicks off with a clearly well-trialled “Good Puff past”, to judge by Agnes’ comment: “If you have a good overn this past looks mighty fine” (f.28r). Her enjoyment of the business of preparing dishes is palpable in such remarks; similarly, in the recipe for “Lump past wch Rises well either for Pastie pie or minced pies”, she advises: “be sure you Dridge flower between every foulding it up Do not either make it too Sad or too light and it will rise well this makes ye best in Coole weather” (f.28v); and if making “Past for Sweetmeat Tarts”, one must “be sure to have a nice oven for them for the Oven often Spoils these nice things” (f.29r). Ever the enthusiast, Agnes appends “Rice Puddings in Beef or Hogg’s Skins” with her assessment: “they are very good” (f.35r).

A short section of meat dishes (“To Ordr meat for Mince Pies – season it wth Sweet Spices as Jamaica Pepper Nutmeg Sinamond Mace” along with “a little Candied Orange” as per the earlier recipe (f.40v); “To Bake Veal in a pott” (f.41r); “To Bake Charrs or Red Trouts or any other sort of Fish you like to bake in potts” (f.42r)) is followed by a batch of recipes for tarts and pies. A prefatory note advises: “All Tarts that’s made of nice paste puff must be filled w th Sweetmeats or fruits half preserv’d wth good Sugr for the crusts must be made so thin that they will not endure much baking” (f.43v). The recipes here include “Almond Chees Cakes Rice or Curd” (the rice to be ground “in a Coffie mill”) (f.48r), “Orang or Lemon Chees Cakes Mrs Wells” (f.49r), “Harts Horn Jelly p[er] Mrs Hyett”, and “To Make a fine Short Paste For Tarts In Petty pans p[er] Cozn Wilson” (f.50r).

Among the recipes for custards and creams (“Light Custard” (f.51r), “Jocolate Cream” (f.53v), “Pyramid Cream” (f.54r), “Butterd Ale or Swans milk” (f.58r)) is an unusual instance of a recipe for “Ize Cream”, only a decade or so after Mary Eales published the first printed recipe for ice cream in England: “Take Cream to yr taste wth Sugr and Orange flower water So fill yr molds wth it to 6 pound of Ize one quarter of a pound of Bay salt Sett it in yr molds in an earthern pan and cover them with yr saolt so sett it in the Coole wth a wett Cloth over it and when ready turn iy out on a China Dish or which you please” (f.56v). This is not a copy of Eales’ recipe (although it does share the characteristic of not being churned); however, it does have something in common with a slightly earlier recipe found in the papers of Lady Anne Fanshawe (1625–1680), which also recommended the use of orange-flower water but omitted the crucial ingredient of salt. Agnes’ recipe, therefore, would likely have been more successful than Lady Anne’s, though the lack of churning suggests a fairly dense end result.

Agnes continu contrib

ues with a hearty selection of soups, broths, sauces and stews, some of which have been added by a later 18 th-century hand. Agnes utes “White Gravy Soop p[er] Cozn Willson” (f.59v), “Plumb Broth used in Christmas” (f.60r), “White Pottage for a fasting Day” (f.61r), and others; the later hand, following her example by liberally attributing their recipes, adds dishes such as “To Make Oster Loves by Mrs Bows” (f.66r), “To Stew Trowts by Sister Jane” (f.66v), “To Make Catchop by Mrs Wilson” (f.66v); and a third hand adds four recipes by “Mrs Williams” (f.74v). She sets down some pickle recipes then.

KEEP IT IN THE FAMILY After four blank leaves, Agnes starts a short section of remedies, beginning with “Mr Edward Cooper’s way of Distilling In the Worm Still” (f.84v), “To Make ye Queen of Hungary Water” (f.85v), and “London Plague Water the Best Way – Remember to add a Dram of Safron to ye Infusion before you Still it” (f.86r). She concludes with two final receipts (“To Make Rasburry Brandy” and “To Make Milk Water” (f.87v)). Her entries then give way to a fourth hand who adds over 40 pages of assorted receipts, which like Agnes’s receipts, reflect strong social connections (“To Preserve Oranges Mrs Walker”; “To make Green Pease Soup Mrs Walker” (f.104r); Tea Cakes Mrs Ann Bunting” (f.105r); Biscuits Mrs S Davenport” (f.106v); To Pickle Mangies Mrs Walker” (f.107v); To make Jumballs Mrs Worrall” (f.108r). A clutch of recipes on ff.93-94, include attributions to “Mrs Parker” and “Lady Bradshaigh” and one by “Lady Evelyn”, help us date this section. The “Lady Bradshaigh” mentioned is most likely Lady Dorothy Bradshaigh (1705-1785), a correspondent of Samuel Richardson, the author of the famed epistolary novel Clarissa. Copies of Lady Bradshaigh’s receipts are to be found at the Lilly, Bancroft, and Wellcome libraries. The Bradshaigh baronetcy terminated in 1779, 2 so this probably dates Hand IV to between 1750 and 1780. Although this later 18th century scribe has not identified themselves, we can be confident that the volume remained in the family because there is a recipe on for “Indian Pickle” attributed “Mrs Jane Braddyll” (f.91v).

CONCLUSION It might seem that Agnes Braddyll aimed to impress with her well-presented receipts, and with the sophisticated, visually arresting manner of their execution. But, just as plausible, and if anything more amply evidenced in the manuscript, is that she had a genuine passion for culinary pursuits and an enthusiasm for exchanging them with her family and friends. Whatever her motivation, Agnes’s volume strongly evokes a household keen – and financially able – to remain current with the latest culinary fashions (despite their relative remoteness geographically) and abounds with social threads and unusual references for the scholar to pursue. £8,500 Ref: 8313 References: 1. The Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire: http://rslc.org.uk/api/file/Vol_081.pdf 2. https://www.manuscriptcookbookssurvey.org/collection/Detail/manuscripts/1230

TWENTY-ONE ¶ An interesting and unusual record of late 18th century dining practices, apparently compiled by a guest attending a series of formal meals. The volume records the layout and content, noting what was served and how dishes were laid out across the table, offering insight into both culinary practice and material display.

Entries contain a name and month, anchoring the meal to a specific occasion or visit. This is typically followed by one or more boxed diagrams, representing one or two meals—often a main meal with two courses (sometimes labelled “1” and “2” or “2d”), and a later “supper”. Variations occur: some entries feature only one course, others omit supper altogether. Repeat visits within the same month are recorded with “ditto”, suggesting familiarity and frequency of social exchange.

The meals described are often elaborate—reflecting wealthy or aristocratic settings—with references to a recurring cast of hosts, whose names are recorded in minimal detail ( “B—y”, “Mrs H—y”, “Lady H”, “Sir W—n—n”), suggesting their sole purpose was to jog the compiler’s own memory. Perhaps the grandest meal they attended was “Supper at Sir A—r Lover’s Ball July”, which records 25 dishes and twice notes that “Soup removed for two sorts of Ice”.

References to places such as “Waterstock” and “Thame Park” locate some of the social activity to Oxfordshire stately homes. The page following the reference to Thame Park, is annotated at the upper margin “Ld W—ns”. Given that our scribe made repeat visits to the same houses, this is plausibly Philip, 7th Viscount Wenman of Thame Park in Oxfordshire, 1742–1800.1 Thame Park is often remembered as the place where part of Sir Isaac Newton’s library was auctioned off along with the ordinary domestic contents of the house. If we are correct in our ascription of Wenman as the host, that would date our volume to sometime before his death in 1800.

The entries in this little volume seem neither boastful nor ornamental, but focused on a sparse recording of the spatial and culinary details of high society dining, many with individual meals recorded within dish shapes on table layouts - presumably with an eye to their recreation.

¶ [CULINARY POCKETBOOK].

An unusual 18th-Century Manuscript Pocketbook of Table Settings.

[Oxfordshire? Circa 1790]. Octavo (185 x 120 x 4 mm). Approximately 38 text pages on 22 leaves. Contemporary marbled boards.

The volume is small, neat, and very simply bound in contemporary marbled wrappers – perfect for going unnoticed; it could be discretely removed from an inside pocket to jot down the day’s table settings, and then slipped back into the pocket unnoticed. It offers a lens onto the transmission of fashion and social norms, and may have served as a guide when planning reciprocal entertainments. It provides an intimate picture of how this member of an elite social circle engaged with their peers, seeking to record and perhaps emulate their affluent displays.

1. We are very grateful to Robert Colley for this information.

£950 Ref: 8338

I specialise in interesting and unusual manuscripts and antiquarian books that record their histories as material forms, through the shaping of objects and the traces left on the surface, by the conscious and unconscious acts of their creators and users.

Dean Cooke Rare Books Ltd 125 York Road, Montpelier, Bristol, BS6 5QG, UK +44 7747 188 125

www.deancooke.org dean@deancooke.org invisibl_inks