A manuscript in an unidentified hand, containing nine detailed leases given by John Houghton of Bramerton during the 1750s and 1760s, five with maps of the properties concerned, written in the same hand and dated 1756 to 1763. All of the maps were “copied 1764,” but each referencing earlier surveys done between 1728 and 1742.
At the back of the volume and turned over, written on the first four leaves in a different unidentified hand is a library catalog with the heading “Folio, a catalogue of 95 titles (104 volumes) on pages ruled with four columns. The number of the volume is recorded in the first column, the author’s last name and title or just the title in the second column, and the place and date of publication in the third and fourth column, respectively. Titles include literature, religion, geography, history, dictionaries, travel, and legal works, mostly in English or English translation but also several in French. There are also references to a manuscript journal.
- Author: Houghton family, of Bramerton Hall.
- Title: Houghton family leases and library catalogue : manuscript.
- Production: Bramerton, England, between 1750 and 1763?
LWL Mss Vol. 287
Acquired September 2023
Christopher Columbus demonstrating how to make an egg stand on its end. The five observers look at the cracked egg, upright on the table, in amusement at the evidence of an inventive mind at work. Two other eggs intertwined with two eels lie on a plate in the center of the table. A dog peeps over the edge of the table in the foreground; the cutlery is pushed off to one side.
Eleven views in three rows, arranged around a larger central image of “A view of the island of St. Helena”; the ten smaller views, four in the top row, two in the middle row, and four in the third row, show images of various boats, ships and other sailing vessels on the sea.
“John Bull, blindfold, stands on a massive truncated pillar holding the beam of a pair of scales. In one scale (left), near the ground, Mrs. Clarke sits composedly among a mass of papers, holding one inscribed My dear Dearest Dearest Darling [see British Museum satires no. 11228, &c.]. The others are inscribed: Sandon, Toyne [Tonyn], Dowler, Omeara, Carter, French, Knight, Clavering. In the other scale the Duke of York swings high in the air, and shouts down to three men on the ground: Save me save me Save my Honour [cf. British Museum satires no. 11269]. They haul hard at ropes attached to his scale, which they tilt sideways so that he is in danger of falling out. One, a drink-blotched bishop wearing a mitre, says: Pull away Pull away the Church is in danger; the other two say: Pull away Pull away we lose all our Places, and Pull away pull away we shall lose our Noble Commander. On the pillar Britannia is depicted seated with her shield and lion; she holds the broken staff of a flag.”–British Museum online catalogue.
“Husband and wife dressing in a bedroom, the tent-shaped bed-curtains forming a background. The woman is thin and has a mole on her face, the man broad, but their deficiencies are similar. She stands (left), about to raise her shift and adjust false posteriors. A false bust, false teeth, and wig, simulating natural curls, are on the table behind her, on which are also the man’s wig and an eye in a tumbler of water. Both are bald. He sits (right) in shirt and breeches, about to put on a pair of stockings with false calves of fleece. Both register sour dissatisfaction with themselves and each other.”–British Museum online catalogue, description of an earlier state.