Great Malvern [on embossed notepaper: University, St Andrews, N.B.]. - Inaugural meeting of Wordsworth Soiety at Grasmere last night; lists aims of the Society and some of its members; the Bishop of St. Andrews [Charles Wordsworth] is President. Invites Houghton to join Council, listing other probable members; duties will be light.
Title on cover in hand of [?] Wordsworth's son Christopher (1807-1855). Notes in pencil on inside front cover regarding the stages in a dinner at which various drinks should be handed round.
List headed 'Invitations to Dinner' by date; 'A' for accepted or 'Eng' for 'Engaged' usually recorded; sometimes numbers record a party accompanying an individual. Dinners between 1820-1841, the whole span of Wordworth's Mastership. A detailed account of table setting and drinks produced is given for a dinner of 13 Jul. 1835 at which Earl de la Warre and Lord Camden were present.
ff. 25-26 (folded sheet tipped into the volume): copy, in Wordsworth's hand, of 'Account of the culture of Sea Cale by H. B. Way Esq., Bridport', from the Transactions of the Society of Arts [Vol. 29 (1811), pp. 70-72].
ff. 27v: Notes [in the hand of Wordsworth's son Christopher (1807-1885)?] headed 'Allowance to Dr Wordsworth's Sons in 1823'. Some biographical notes on John, Charles and Christopher Wordsworth, including Charles and Christopher's appearance, for Harrow and Winchester respectively, at Lord's Cricket Ground on 27-28 Jul. 1825; H. E. Manning also appeared for Harrow and was caught by Christopher in his second innings. Pasted opposite (f. 28r) is a statement in the hand of Christopher Wordsworth the elder, dated 1 Jan. 1823 at Cambridge outlining an allowance for Charles for 'all his Tailors, Shoemakers and Hatter's Bills'; 'John' is added above Charles' name, probably at the same time as an annotation on 27 Aug. 1823, and a note about 'Chris's allowance'. Biographical notes on Charles in the hand of Christopher the younger, f. 28v. Sheet pasted in at f. 29r with draft [?] of statement about Charles' allowance on previous f.
f. 30 'Bill of Fare at Trinity Lodge above 1820-1830': sheet pasted in on opposite f. with this.
ff. 32-34: Copies, in hand of [?] Christopher Wordsworth the younger, 'Extracts from Dr Wordsworth's Pocket-Diary for 1821'. ff. 35-36: copies in the same hand, 'Memoranda at the end of the Pocket book for 1821'.
Pencil notes on inside back cover in Christopher Wordsworth the elder's hand, recording the dates of visits by his sister Dorothy and brother William. Printed label for Flight & Williams, stationers and paper hangers of Holborn, pasted to inside back cover.
Wordsworth, Christopher (1774-1846), college headThe Master [Christopher Wordsworth] wishes WW to preach a sermon the Sunday before he retires from his Vice-Chancellorship. Lodge has returned from Holland. The Master told JCH that Dora Wordsworth is better: 'I wonder whether her long illness has arisen from disappointed love. Do you hear any reasonable motive assigned for Wordsworth refusing his consent?'.
Embossed notepaper, Bishopshall, St. Andrews. - Met Houghton at Shakespeare Tercentenary meeting sixteen years ago; suggested him as Council member for Wordsworth Society at its inaugural meeting. Professor Knight has written twice to Houghton but has had no reply.
(Pasted to a sheet marked ‘With compliments from Prof. L. Campbell’.)
Notes, correspondence and printed material largely relating to W. Aldis Wright's work as Secretary of the Old Testament Revision Company. Includes letters from: Bartholomew Price; the Bishop of St David's [Basil Jones]; the Bishop of Llandaff [Alfred Ollivant], two Bishops of Winchester [Harold Browne and Samuel Wilberforce) and the Bishop of St Andrew's, Dunkeld and Dunblane [Charles Wordsworth]. Draft letters from Wright to R. A. [?] Massie and the editor of the Rock. Printed correspondence, members lists etc of the Old and New Testament Revision Companies. Notes on the Psalms, the Athanasian Creed, 'The Rephaim and other giant races of Scripture' [no 44] etc.
Also present: what purports to be a frontispiece to the Coverdale Bible of 1535, with an engraved portrait of Coverdale 'from a Drawing in the Possession of Dr Gifford' [from Erasmus Middleton's Biographia evangelica of 1816?] and a copy of 'Coverdale's Dedication' and 'Myles Coverdale unto the Christen Reader' [from Bagster's 1838 printing?]. A note in Philip Gaskell's hand judges the frontispiece to be 'slightly fishy: cd be a block printed on old paper'.
Wright, William Aldis (1831-1914), literary and biblical scholar