[Commonplace book], [early 18th century].

Manuscript, in a single hand, of a collection of fifteen 18th-century satirical poems, epigrams, and epitaphs. The poems are primarily political and satirize the royal family and the ministry of Sir Robert Walpole, 1st earl of Orford. The volume includes such titles as A song made on the funeral of the Duke of Marlborough; The brothers; Norfolk hours; and General Churchill's address to Venus. Authors represented in the collection include Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th earl of Chesterfield, John Hervey, baron Hervey of Ickworth, and Samuel Westley, while the satiric butts of the poem include King George II; Caroline, queen of George II; Sir Robert Walpole, and John Churchill, 1st duke of Marlborough. The manuscript also contains a serious epitaph for Henry Saint-John, 1st viscount Bolingbroke.