Circa 1900 manuscript on vellum, commonplace book filled with poetry, classical and contemporary. Possibly from The Souls circle

A 19th century manuscript on vellum (the entire text block is vellum, not just the binding) commonplace book, written by a highly educated and mournful author. The crown on the front cover might indicate the author's heraldry (an entirely vellum notebook was a very expensive and rare choice).

A wide swath of literary quotes reside within the book, as well as many (likely) original poetic works. Predominately, there is a theme of loss. This notebook may have been kept as a coping tool.

There are 44 leaves of vellum within the textblock (two are blank); roughly 80 pages of manuscript.

Authors quoted include:

Ovid - Fasti - "ut solet a magno..."

Shakespeare Sonnet 30 - "When to the session of sweet silent.."

Shakespeare The Tempest - "Nothing of him doth fade..." (back cover)

Thomas Raymond - His diary, from 1659, includes a description of coffee, which made it into the quotes here.

George Herbert - excerpt from The Call and another from Aaron regarding sin nature as the "old man"

Francis Thompson - The Kingdom of God - "O world in visible, we view thee, o world..."

A pastiche of a Scottish Ballad, "There's Nae Luck About the House", written in the 1700s - "Minne bakes oaten cakes, Minnie brews ale..."

Victor Hugo, The Man Who Laughs - "O Lord take pity on this soft little child..."

John Keats - "Where are you going you Devon maid? And..."

Christina Rossetti - "It's a year almost that I've not seen her".

Goethe - "Light, more light" (front cover)

Ancient English Proverb - "When bale is alt hyest..."

Elizabeth Barrett Browning - "those Olympian crowns we run for..."

Emerson - "Hast thou harmed all the birds?..."

Coleridge - "What am I?... But a point in boundless space..."

There are many, many more quotes, and quite a few that appear to be original works.

As a whole, we can infer that the author was facing a loss (theme of loss), highly educated (the original poetic works make reference to a wide swath of classical themes) and financially well-off (vellum notebook).

In terms of dating, The Francis Thompson poem quoted, The Kingdom of God, wasn't printed until 1908. That's not to say that the author of this book might have come across Thompson before that, but it gives some rough estimate of the time this manuscript was produced.

Google's AI, that bastion of truth (much sarcasm), thinks that this book was produced by Mary Charteris, one of The Three Graces of John Sargent, wife of the Earl of Wemyss and a member of The Souls. I say that this theory is highly unlikely and I've come to know AI makes great (again, sarcasm) assumptions. But, here's AI's argument:

The vellum format - only a very rich person would have such a notebook and the crown on the front points to her social status. An all vellum notebook might have been produced by the Arts and Crafts movement, of which the Charteris family were patrons.

The poetry - Mary was well-educated, and the mix of classical (Ovid, Shakespeare, etc) and contemporary (Thompson, etc), mixed with Christian themes, is in keeping with the tastes of The Souls.

The geography links - The inclusion of "Minnie" points to someone with a Scottish link; Mary's Gosford House was in Scotland. The picture of "Stoneheng" points to a strong tie there, as well; Mary's childhood home, The Clouds, was near to Stonehenge.

Here's the most dubious links. There is a poem of mourning calling out April; according to Google, one of Mary's sons, Hugo Francis Charter, died in April. There's also a prayer, "strengthen him, comfort him, uphold him... God bless David". Google thinks this is a prayer for Hugo's son.

I'm very dubious on the Mary Charteris idea, but I can't disprove it either. I'd take it as a grain of sand. The book is very likely to have been owned by someone well-off and well-educated, from the UK, at the time period of Mary Charteris.

Physical Attributes -

Measures approx. 14 x 9.5 x 1 cm. Vellum binding, with spine ties. Paper pastedowns, and at rear it extends into a flyleaf. 44 leaves of vellum.

Collation - (I'll list these as they appear as gatherings) 6 leaves, 5 leaves, 3 loose leaves, 6 leaves, 5 leaves, two leaves, 6 leaves, 6 leaves, 5 leaves.

Assuming the three loose leaves are from the three gatherings of five, the book might be complete; that also assumed the gathering of two leaves was always a bifold. But, there's a chance those missing leaves were given to someone else... and that the loose ones are from another volume. There are several instances (like the front pastedown) where it seems another leaf was pasted in (from the same book, or a friend, I don't know).

Condition -

See pictures. Some waviness to vellum binding. Spine largely chipped away. Paper pastedowns cracked at gutters; front flyleaf not present (if ever present). Small vellum note pasted onto front pastedown. Three leaves loose.