[Commonplace book], [ca. 1750].

Manuscript, in a single hand, of a collection of several hundred primarily humorous or lighthearted poems, on such subjects as women, love, fashion, and pets. The collection includes entries by various 18th-century authors, among them David Garrick, Jonathan Swift, Matthew Prior, William Cowper, and Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th earl of Chesterfield. Other poems have been written by the compiler's acquaintances, such as a collection of epitaphs for a friend's pet dog; a poem on the death of Janetta, "Miss F Pettiward's favorite Dormouse" by J. Knight; and An impromptu on Miss Fraine's sleeve-knot, by G. B. The manuscript also contains a number of unattributed poems, including A dialogue between death and a macaroni; A letter from Miss Feathertop Fashion in town to her friend Miss Cherry Bean Blossom; The bumpkin and the pumpkin; and A fable by a young gentleman in his tenth year

The collection also contains a large number of riddles and epitaphs, many of them lighthearted, as well as a humorous alliterative letter titled An original letter to Mr Peter Pettiward of Putney - penny post paid; an account of the 1775 election of Cardinal Braschi as Pope Pope Pius VI, d. 1799); a humorous sermon; and a description of a masquerade ball