Commonplace book containing recipes, original and copied poems, newspaper cuttings, and a child's drawings

  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 206 Brotherton Collection MS Lt 117
  • Dates of Creation
      ca.1720-1830
  • Name of Creator
  • Language of Material
      English Latin
  • Physical Description
      1 vol. (184 pp.), manuscript and printed material. Written from both ends in several hands during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, bound in contemporary vellum, dust darkened, with remains of clasps, tooled, with a gilt-embossed decoration and title on the front cover which reads 'Book [for?] Receipts'. This title is at the opposite end from the recipe section and upsidedown in relation to it. There is marbling on both inside covers and the only extant endpaper. The manuscript is worn and damaged.

Scope and Content

Contains: (1) 65 recipes written on 26 pages during the early part of the eighteenth century, from about 1720 onwards, for making large quantities of cordials, probably for the use of a large household or for commercial supply; (2) Many original and copied English poems written in the mid-eighteenth century from both ends of the book, including laments to 'Dear Polly' from friends at Exeter, Pomeroy, etc.; (3) Many child's drawings and jottings in the centre of the book, including a few Latin declensions and phrases; (4) Many nineteenth-century press-cuttings pasted on to the manuscript pages containing further English poems and historical notes, the extant dates on them being 1824 and 1830.

Administrative / Biographical History

The compilers of this collection are unknown.

Access Information

Access is unrestricted.

Acquisition Information

Purchased from Heath's bookshop in May 2003.

Note

Mainly in English, but with a few Latin words.

Custodial History

Possibly the manuscript belonged at one stage of its history to the French family, since the names of both Sally and Sarah French, amongst others, appear in the dedications of two of the original poems. Its geographical provenance may have been Devon.