| Description | Commonplace book with the bookplate of M J [Mary Jane] Chesterman on the front pastedown. Various poems, extracts of verses, prose, epigrams, etc. Many entries dated 1850s and 1860s, although a note at the front by William St Clair hypothesises that the album itself is 'Regency'. Opens with an extract from Byron's 'Childe Harold's Pilgrimage': "They mourn, but smile at length; and, smiling, mourn /
The tree will wither long before it fall". Entries are in various hands and mostly attributed, but much of the volume is blank. Includes some illustrations and pieces of lace paper.
Bound in gilt-tooled morocco with a lockable clasp. |