Item 12.50 - Notebook kept by Christopher Wordsworth, 'Accounts and Cellar, 1814-1835'

1 vol., c 227 x 127 x 34 mm. 234 ff. 1 loose sheet between ff. 28-29 and between ff. 141-142; paper slip loose between ff. 144-145.

Accounts kept for years 1814-1827 at front of book, for households (over that period) at Lambeth, Sundridge, Cambridge, Buxted and Brighton. A pencil note at the end of 1814, f. 19v., states Wordsworth's intentions for the accounts in future years. Detailed record of income and expenditure, with bills/vouchers referred to by number and household staff named (including, in the Cambridge years, those connected with the Master's Lodge). At f. 124 there is the heading '1820. Account of Expences at and in connexion with Trinity College Cambridge' - Wordsworth's appointment to the Mastership - which includes 'Mr Hodgson for Letters Patent' and journeys to Cambridge, including the 'Caravan' transporting Wordsworth's possessions.

A receipt, dated 28 May 1813, for the purchase of straw hats from Josiah Gosling of Bocking, loose [previously pinned] between ff. 28-29. List of food stuffs (shopping list?) loose between ff. 141-142. Paper slip loose between ff. 144-145.

At the back of the book, ff. 232, there is 'Calculation - preparatory to an allowance to be granted to the Boys yearly from 1 Jan. 1823', and next some figures for book binding. Following on, from the back of the book in, are cellar accounts dating from 1813-1835.

Wordsworth's wife died in 1815; it seems from the care taken with these accounts that the management of the household was henceforth very much in his own hands.