Holograph of a diary kept by 14-year-old Dorothy Walpole, who records primarily routine social activities, both her own and those of family members, especially her mother, father, sister Rachel, and brother Horace, such as visits to and from friends; trips every Monday and Friday to the dancing academy; visits by the music master; and breakfasts, teas, and dinners with acquaintances; attendance at balls. She visits with Jane, Charlotte, and Fanny Pepys in London; on another occasion, she accompanies her mother to the Pantheon where she buys worsteds and patterns. She records the gifts she receives for Christmas; and, at the end of the volume, her travels through Italy, where she describes the quality of her lodgings in various towns; views paintings and churches; and declares Parma "the most horrible place I ever was in." Elsewhere, she records several verses, including an epitaph and a poem on mortality called The common lot; as well as a prose narrative of the life of St. Dorothy
Description:
Lady Dorothy Fanny Nevill (née Walpole) (1826-1913), hostess, horticulturist, and writer, was the youngest daughter of Horatio Walpole, third earl of Orford, and his wife, Mary, daughter of William Augustus Fawkener. In 1847, she married her cousin Reginald Henry Nevill (1807-1878); their 23-acre garden at Dangstein, in west Sussex, soon became well-known in horticultural circles, particularly for its collection of exotic plants and silkworms. She was the author of five books: Mannington and the Walpoles, Earls of Orford (1894), a book on silkworms, and three autobiographical volumes: The Reminiscences of Lady Dorothy Nevill (1906), Leaves from the Notebooks of Lady Dorothy Nevill (1907), and Under Five Reigns (1910)., In English., On title page: Journal begun May 1st 1840 Friday., On verso of title page: My Journal book. Dorothy Fanny Walpole. May 1st 1840 Friday., Pasted inside front cover: advertisement for W. Creswick, Paper Maker, 5 John Street, Oxford Street., and Binding: green half calf over marbled boards.
Manuscript, in a single hand, of a collection of descriptions of residences of English nobility. The author focuses on descriptions of the views from each seat and the landscape in which the house is situated; occasionally he also describes the architecture and furnishings of the houses and provides anecdotes about the owners. He calls Winander Meer in Westmoreland "the largest water of the kind in England," and notes its picturesque promontories and shrub-decorated shores. At Raby Castle in North Riding, Yorkshire, the seat of the Earl of Darlington, he praises the Gothic taste of the windows; provides the dimensions of the "rendezvous apartment"; and explains how the dog-kennel, "rising out of a wood," beautifies the scene. He also speaks approvingly of Sir James Lowther's project in Cumberland of "building a town to consist of 300 houses, for the use of such of his Domesticks, and other people as are married," which he calls "a most incomparable method of promoting population."
Description:
In English., Alphabetical table of contents at beginning of manuscript., At end of manuscript: "The following table of Rooms in the Noblemen & Gentlemen's Seats mentioned in this Vol[u]me do not give the exact proportion of any whole house ... .", Title from title page., Bookplate of Philip Shirley., Bookplate of Ettington Manuscript Library. Written in ink in center: No. 62., Steel engraving pasted on preliminary leaf, opposite clipping with description: Ickworth House near Bury St. Edmunds : the seat of the most noble the Marquess of Bristol / engd. on steel by Alfred Adlard. 50 Dorset Street, Salisbury Square., and Binding: quarter calf over marbled boards. Printed on spine: Noblemens Seats.
Subject (Geographic):
England., England, and Great Britain
Subject (Name):
Young, Arthur, 1741-1820.
Subject (Topic):
Architecture, Domestic, Gentry, Homes and haunts, Nobility, Social life and customs, Travelers' writings, English, and Description and travel