Commonplace book of humorous writings, poems, epigrams, epitaphs, jokes; excerpts from essays, articles, newspapers, and books; and copies of letters to Bunbury family members in the 18th and early 19th century, from Goldsmith, Garrick, and others. Many of the poems, enigmas, and charades are anonymous, others are attributed, including: riddles by Sheridan; Coleridge’s poem The Lawyers’ tomb; Wolfe’s The Burial of Sir John Moore; an epilogue written by H.W. Bunbury for a performance by Mrs. Jordan; anecdotes relating to Sir Joshua Reynolds and his sister; Jekyls’ poem The Tears of the Crewets on taxing salt & vinegar; notes on taxation in America; verses on ladies of fashion from 1760; Praed’s “Epitaph on the late King of the Sandwich Islands; Lord Byron’s On the opening of the tombs of Henry VIII and Charles the 1st …
… Also included are pen and ink drawings and watercolors of travel and humorous subjects, some of which are initialed “HEB” [i.e. Henry Edward Bunbury]. In addition to the pen and ink with wash drawn title page, there are full-page drawings: Gilbralter Jews; Gilbralter; Jews; Les Trois Etats de la Sicile; pen and ink drawing for Southey’s Ballad of the Bishop of Antidius, the Pope and the Devil; and preliminary pencil drawings. There are also half-pages illustrating the text, mostly untitled, as well as a 1815 drawing of “The Fortune Teller”; Oporto and Tyrol; a wash drawing of a boy leaning against a tree; and one and a half sheets of copies of famous autographs, laid in …
- Author: Bunbury, Henry Edward, Sir, 1778-1860.
- Title: Omnium gatherum : original, extracts, costume, epigrams, bon mots, traits, etc., [ca. 1815-1852].
Acquired November 2011