Gift of Mrs. Landon K. Thorne, 1971.
1 item (22 p.), bound ; 18.6 cm
Blake re-used pages from William Hayley's Designs to a Series of Ballads (1802), cutting off the printed texts and writing out his poems in the inside margins. A conservator's examination in 2016 confirmed that there are no visible watermarks in the manuscript.
Contains ten poems written from about 1800 to 1804.
Formerly cataloged as owned, between Harvey and Pickering, by Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton. However, Blake scholar G. E. Bentley has pointed out that Lord Houghton was not in fact an owner, and that the Reverend Samuel Prince held the manuscript during that time.
HIGH RESERVE.
Inherited by Catherine Blake; upon her death, acquired by Frederick Tatham; sold by Tatham to Francis Harvey, a bookseller in Charing Cross; offered for sale by Harvey in a catalogue, ca. 1864; the Reverend Samuel Prince; purchased at his sale (Sotheby's, 11 December 1865, lot 83, for £7.5.0) by B.M. Pickering; William Mitchell (with his bookplate); Frederick Locker (later Locker-Lampson), with his bookplate; W.A. White (with his signature); A.S.W. Rosenbach; Mrs. Landon K. Thorne.
Contains fair copies of ten poems: "The Smile" (p. 1), "The Golden net" (p. 1-2), "The Mental traveller" (p. 3-7), "The Land of dreams" (p. 7-8), "Mary" (p. 8-10), "The Crystal cabinet" (p. 10-11), "The Grey monk" (p. 12-13), "Auguries of innocence" (p. 13-18), "Long John Brown and Little Bell" (p. 19), and "William Bond" (p. 20-22).
Red morocco drop-spine box (20.9 cm)