62 711 Oc15
Acquired April 2020
The first of two extensive manuscript account books from the house, the Day Book records receipts from 22 Sept 1759 (£10,513. 10. 5 1/2) to 1769 (£3820. 5. 1 3/4) and expenses 22 Sept 1759 (£10,341. 6.6.) to 1769 (£3683. 19. 9 1/4), which are laid out at opposite ends of the book. For the decade 1770-1780 they are presented together as following accounts occupying the center of the ledger. Receipts and expenses are carefully balanced and range from the £3,000s to over £10,000 per annum. Receipts include cash in hand, numerous sums from individuals (probably rents), loans (£6000 was borrowed from ‘Mr Ives’ in 1769), stocks and dividends, from Aylsham Navigation, sales of wood and hay, bricks, bequests (£510 was received from Sir Randal Ward, who died in 1762). Expenses include rents (with large payments to Sir William Fleming and to the bankers Messrs Gurney), ‘Bishop’s rents’, ‘wife’ (entered annually as an expense, being £450 in 1780), staff and servants, agricultural labour, produce, gardening, stables, carts and carriages, upkeep of buildings (bricks, glazing, thatching etc), clothing, window tax, charity (including a contribution of £25 to the new Norwich hospital, founded in 1771, another for North Walsham School and occasional payments to various named paupers), medicine, investment (Leeds Navigation was paid £240 in 1771), a fire engine, local clubs, lotteries, clocks and watches and ‘largesses’ for labourers. The Day Book also notes Sir Thomas Durrant’s frequent attendance at local court Sessions and assemblies (with regular visits to Dereham, Swaffham, Norwich, Thetford, Yarmouth, North Walsham, London, but also York and Margate and elsewhere in England). Particularly interesting are detailed day-today living expenses including entries for: theatre, books ([?Thomas] Payne is named as bookseller more than once, while in 1776, £18 9s was paid for books and mathematical instruments), ‘a sheet map of Norfolk’, pictures (in 1774 four were purchased: Repose in Egypt by F[rançois] Mille; Dutch Garden by Apshoven, £7 7s; A Warm Landscape by Swaneveldt £3 7s; a Madonna ‘from Raphael’ £2 5s), visiting grand houses and gardens (Blickling, Hampton Court mentioned among others), pleasure gardens (Ranelagh, Sadler’s Wells), the Royal Academy (in 1770), coffee houses, dinner at Boodles [Pall Mall], inns, racing, ‘japanned card cases’, Wedgwood vases (£7 7s) card playing (winnings and losses entered in the account). Loosely inserted is a single sheet bill for house repairs from one John Green, mason of 21 December 1761, itemising major renovations, bricks, glazed pantiles (a type typical in Norfolk), wood and labor.
The second account book, the Scottow Ledger, contains yearly accounts for named individuals connected with the Scottow estate, either as tenants or as creditors. Numerous local names are found including Harbord, Blofeld and Gurney. Each account usually occupies a double page. The data recorded includes rents and taxes.
LWL Mss Vol. 252
Acquired May 2020
Acquired April 2020
Six plates with titles: London from Camberwell (on the South). Blackfriar’s Bridge [illegible]. The menagerie in the Tower. Westminister Bridge, Hall, & Abbey. London Bridge & the monument. The Juvenile Library.
659 808S
Acquired March 2020
53 R332 780
Acquired July 2020
Letterpress text discussing the line of succession above an etched genealogical chart, which illustrates the line of succession, following the reign of George IV, probably published in response to the death of Princess Charlotte in 1817 and before the birth of Victoria in 1819. However, the text also references “the present Princess of Wales”, but further evidence that this was issued in response to her death is the dark black border around her name.
Imprint etched at top of chart. Date from letterpress: “The following is a brief sketch. A.D. 1818.”
File 63 818 On58++
Acquired August 2020
An engraved writing sheet illustrated with seven scenes from Gay’s Fables, each with rhyming couplet below. At head, and the largest scene, is ‘The Shepherd and the Philosopher’; six smaller scenes form the right and left borders below. A garlanded motif, designed to carry a hand-inserted date-line, is at the foot.
787.11.17.01++
Acquired May 2020
“Heading to etched verses. Mrs. Clarke, seated on a dais, receives applicants for commissions who advance through a doorway (left). She sits on a drum, wearing a cocked hat and military sash over a white dress, and holds up a sword. A short fat soldier holds over her head a Union flag with the white horse of Hanover. Two soldiers stand at attention with fixed bayonets behind her, and a fat trumpeter blows his trumpet. Another Union flag, without the white horse, flies from the corner of the large dais. On the wall hangs a notice: ‘Half-pay Commissions at Half Price for Ready Money’. The applicants press forward in a bunch, headed by a fat and gouty ‘cit’ hobbling on two sticks, behind whom is a chimneysweep. The first of three verses: ‘Come all you brave Fellows who wish for Promotion. Wether Captain or Colonel or a General’s your notion. A Warehouse I keep for the sale of Commissions, And our Prices you’ll find will suit all conditions, You’ll be treated with Honor if you secrecy mark Sir For my Master is Noble and I am his Clarke Sir, You’ll be treated &c.’ The last lines: ‘But forget not the ready (Gold or Notes) for pray mark! My Master wants Money, & so does his Clarke. But forget not &c.’ The verses are bordered by spears which serve as posts for plump purses, symmetrically attached to them.”–British Museum online catalogue.
809.03.00.05+
Acquired June 2020
“A stout and comely lady stands at the door of an ornamentally rustic cottage, shaking a cloth from which tiny officers leap out, holding money-bags. The cloth is inscribed in large letters ‘Pin Money instead of Allowance’. She says: “This is a profitable Plan of his and pays me a Devilish deal better than he can, besides the Patronage!!” Five elderly officers of normal size (right) watch their pigmy rivals with consternation. One looks through his glass, saying, “To waste ones health in unwholesome Climates an then fail of promotion because we cannot fee ****** or Army Agents Agents.!!” Another says: “Mother Careys Chickens by – then we shall have a storm indeed!” A third exclaims: “What to spend our lives in the service of our Country, and to be thus degraded by a parcel of Boys!!” He has a wooden leg and a patch over one eye. Another had lost his right arm, and the group seem hardly fit for active service. The ‘boys’ wear fashionable crescent-shaped cocked hats with plumes, the others old-fashioned hats with cockade, loop, and button. Over the door is inscribed in large letters ‘… mus Cottage’. It has the ornamental Gothic windows with leaded panes and thatched roof of fashionable rusticity. Beside it is a weeping willow. Below the title: ‘NB these Birds have lately been seen hovering about the Horse Guards’. Below the design: ‘a Storm Finch, or stormy petterel (the Mother Careys Chickens of the Sailors). Procellaria Pelagica of Linnœus. is seldom or never seen but in the great Ocean, and then when observed flying near a Ship, is the sure prognostication of a Storm, the analagy [sic] of effect has induced modern Naturalists to class these, with the Pelagica of Linnœus, tho differing in plumage’.”–British Museum online catalogue.
808.11.00.01+
Acquired June 2020
“A burlesque coronation of the Queen. She sits enthroned on a dais, raising her right foot with tipsy joviality. In her right hand as sceptre is a rod topped by a tiny cask which a naked Bacchus bestrides. The orb in her left hand is a decanter; on her head is a tilting punch-bowl. She watches her champion Wood (left) (acting the part of Dymoke, cf. British Museum Satires No. 14193), a grotesque figure in armour on a caparisoned ass (see British Museum Satires No. 14146). He has just thrown down the glove, pulling his braying mount on to its haunches, and looks up with a fatuous stare at the Queen. His helmet is topped by an owl from which clouds of smoke ascend (cf. British Museum Satires No. 14196). John Bull (right), a ‘cit’ wearing an ill-fitting wig and top-boots, stoops to pick up the glove, supporting himself by a cudgel inscribed My God My King a[nd my] Country. Between these two foreground figures stands a ragged newsboy holding his horn, the paper in his cap inscribed Brandy burgh [cf. British Museum Satires No. 14191] Gazette; slung from his shoulders is a large sheaf of his newspaper, Brandyburg Gazette Extraordinary–Baron B…..i to be Il Baron par Excellence–Ad- W – – d to be Earl Log [see British Museum Satires No. 14189]–Lady A H [Anne Hamilton] to be Spinster for Life–L. H – – d to be Marquis Doodle. Attendants are grouped round the Queen on the dais, which is under festooned curtains. These are (left to right): Denman and Brougham, in wig and gown, applauding and gesturing; two turbaned Turks; Bergami, handsome and complacent, at the Queen’s right hand. Slightly behind are a simian face, Lady Anne Hamilton wearing the feathered Scots cap of British Museum Satires No. 14175, and another woman, Italian in appearance (probably Countess Oldi). Behind the Queen’s chair on the right are two hooded figures, the more prominent, who holds a decanter, being Viscount Hood, the other perhaps Keppel Craven. Two naval officers must be Hownam and Flinn. On the canopy of the throne behind the Queen are her arms; the quarterings are wine-glasses, bottles, a tent (see British Museum Satires No. 13818), and a bath containing a tiny figure (see British Museum Satires No. 13819). The supporters are a satyr and a goat; the motto, Bergami and My Bottle [see British Museum Satires No. 14175]. On the extreme left, supported on Gothic arches, is a gallery crowded with ladies, as in Westminster Abbey at the Coronation. On a lower level, seen through the arches of the Abbey, is a dense proletarian crowd with banners, pikes, and caps of Liberty. The characters are indicated by inscriptions divided by vertical lines, as in British Museum Satires No. 14182, and centred by a cartouche. These are (left to right): Mobility in Attendance. The Champion of Absolute Wisdom [see British Museum Satires No. 13899] on his renowned Steed. The Keepers of her Majesty’s Conscience [her Counsel]. Her Majesty’s Lord Great Chamberlain Her Majesty’s Privy Counsellor Knight Commander of the Bath Chief Performer of the Canopy Service and Courier Extraordinary [Bergami]. Hooded Doodles in Waiting [Lord Hood and his companion]. Barons of the Bedposts. Performers of the Canopy Service [the naval officers]. In the cartouche: If any Person of what degree soever, high or low, shall deny or gainsay our Puppet C . r . l . . e Columbina [see British Museum Satires No. 14120] of Brandy-burgh House, of the United Kingdoms of Soberness and Chastity, Defender of the easy Virtues &c &c the Right of being Crowned with a crown Bowl of Imperial Punch, or that she should not enjoy the same, here is her Champion, who saith he doth not care a Drug, being ready in person to lay a bet that she is, and in this wager will venture his Eighteen Pence against a Shilling wherever, and whenever his Adversary may choose.”–British Museum online catalogue.
821.08.06.01+
Acquired March 2020