Leeds Brotherton Lt 100 | Manuscript Verse Miscellanies

Title	Untitled
Archive	Brotherton Library
Call Number	Leeds Brotherton Lt 100
Complete	Yes
Description	Anonymous, ca. 1775–1810. 130 items. Pieces from Garrick's memoir and other prose with a record of Wyvill-G—ll coterie's poetic exchanges in the middle.
Format	Quarto
Book Size	21cm x 16.5cm
Filled Page Count	237 pages
Item Count	130
Poem Count	106
Periods	1761-1790 1791-1820
First Line Index	Yes
Digitized	Yes
Region	York, Yorkshire Yorkshire
Additional Genres	Bills of fare, Lists, Prose
Print Sources	London Chronicle London Magazine St. James's Chronicle Sun Times World York Chronicle York Courant
Major Themes	Celebrities Death, afterlife Humour, wordplay Public affairs Theatre, drama Major themes prominent among the manuscript contents in alphabetical order.
Minor Themes	Animals, pets Courtship, marriage Family Passions, Sentiments Satire - religious Other themes of interest among the manuscript contents in alphabetical order.
Links	firstlines.folger.edu www.literarymanuscriptsleeds.amdigital.co.uk.proxy.lib.sfu.ca
Bibliography
Citation	“Leeds Brotherton Lt 100.” Manuscript Verse Miscellanies, 1700–1820, edited by Betty A. Schellenberg, Simon Fraser University, https://mvm.dhil.lib.sfu.ca/manuscript/382. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025.
Created	2020-05-06 1:28:44 PM
Updated	2025-09-22 11:19:39 AM

Contributor	Role
[Anonymous]	Primary compiler Major author
David Garrick	Major author
William Hayley	Major author
John Hoole	Major author
Sir William Jones	Major author
Mrs. C. Wyvill	Major author

First Line	Context	Print Source
A Knife, dear Girl, cuts Love, they say	f. 105 inverted. Local title: Verses sent by a gentleman to his lady with a present of a knife. Attributed author: n/a Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: n/a	Unknown
Goddess of golden dreams, whose magic pow'r	ff. 6r–8r Local title: Castle building, an Elegy. Attributed author: n/a Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: n/a	Unknown
Is not my measter here among you, pray?	f. 15r-16r Local title: Prologue. Written by Mr. Garrick, and spoken by him in the Character of a Country Boy. Attributed author: n/a Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: n/a	Unknown
Painful source of many a sorrow!	p. 32v. Local title: On the Word Last. Attributed author: Miss HM. Williams. Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: Epigraph: What a desolate word is the monosyllable last!	York Chronicle
Since thine is the only power on earth we know	p. 107v inverted. Local title: To the Pope—Supposed to be wrote by the Dutchess of Kingston. Attributed author: Dutchess of Kingston. Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: n/a	Unknown
Take, holy earth, all that my soul holds dear	p. 104v. Local title: Mrs. Mason's Epitaph. Attributed author: W. Mason. Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: also found on f. 78 of this manuscript	Unknown
Take, holy earth, all that my soul holds dear	p. 78. Local title: Mrs. Mason's Epitaph. Attributed author: n/a Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: also found on f. 104v of this manuscript	Unknown
Thee, Mary, with this Ring I wed	ff. 104r–103v inverted. Local title: To Mrs Locke with a Ring. Attributed author: n/a, but misattribution to a Mr Locke implied Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: n/a	Unknown

Feature	Note
Author attributions	Frequent; frequent source attributions as well.
Binding	Vellum with some blind tooling, worn and somewhat discoloured.
Hands	Single, varying over time and with varying degrees of formality, with a different hand at ff. 33v and 37.
Indications of use	Seemingly contains a record of coterie exchanges in the middle (ff. 57–48). “Key to the Riddles” written upside-down on the first (unpaginated) page at the front of the ms, perhaps suggesting anticipation of a reader who wouldn’t already know the answers. Frequent annotations throughout, eg. f. 86. f. 94 item seemingly added in at a later date in remaining space, and then when the compiler ran out of space, a paper insert was added as well. Another paper insert between ff. 34–35.
Item formatting	Small space between items, rare lines under titles or separating items.
Organization	Ambigraph.
Original poetry	Yes; the Wyvill sequence at the end of the ambigraph section seems to be original.
Page layout	Paginated (in folios; from f. 48v, pagination is written from the back of the book inwards and upside down; f. 1v is also upside down). Some pages are filled to the edges, eg. f. 71, and some have plenty of leftover space, eg. f. 63. The use of space is inconsistent.