| Description | Commonplace book in which Lady Augusta Murray has copied poetry, prose, reflections, prayers and riddles, and her own thoughts.
Book cover is parchment, and front and back boards have pasted paper cut-outs. Front board bears classical-style printed designs in red ink showing children and women engaging in rustic and primitive activities. An inscription reads "Augusta Vol. 6th". Back board carries pasted cut-out printed media, including a mother and infant, labelled "Il Principe Rezzonico, Senatore di Roma", images of classical antiquity and rustic life. A handwritten label mentions Throckmorton.
Front inner board, and f1r-f1v is pasted with cuttings of songs, poems and sonnets.
Handwritten contents of the book cover the subjects of feelings, emotions, the spirit, the soul, sensibility, cheerlessness, unhappiness, melancholy, misfortune, unquiet, forsakenness, fear, disappointment, wretchedness, suspicion, sorrow, falsehood, fixation, suffering, suicide, difficulty, confusion, hope, doubts, fears, womanhood, men, husbands, love, friendship, romance, marriage, domestic life, child rearing, children, parenting, education, freedom, happiness, joys, felicity, gaiety, pleasure, praise, attachment, companionship, wisdom, experience, fame, virtue, manners, civility, good example, qualities, prudence, kindness, humility, fortitude, modesty, perseverance, recollection, honesty, agreeableness, character, temper, morals, duty, obligation, strength, weakness, faults, wrongs, error, compassion, pity, vanity, flattery pride, selfishness, foolishness, jealousy, regret, contradiction, redress, pardon, the passing of time, genealogy, geography, history, nature, wit, humour, reason, philosophy, the heart, fate, fortune, intention, providence, renewal, absence, gratitude, death, mortification, belief, the mind, religion.
There are several blank pages towards the end of the book, and the final pages have been given titles as if to begin a list of books, but no books have been listed. Back inner board is pasted with cuttings of verse. |