A COLLECTION OF MANUSCRIPT VERSES AND OTHER PAPERS relating to annual masquerades at Great Glemham, Suffolk, for the birthday of the Hon. Mr. Stratford in 1769, 1770 and 1771, including elaborate descriptions of the people and costumes attending, and a poem on the events.

[GREAT GLEMHAM, Suffolk.]

Edité par Great Glemham Suffolk 1770 1771 and later, 1769

A propos de cet article

Manuscripts in ink, 4to (mostly about 230 x 190mm), altogether 21pp., in various hands. Great and Little Glemham are villages in Suffolk, less than ten miles inland from Aldeburgh; the principal house was Glemham Hall, an Elizabethan house inhabited in the later 18th century by the Hon. Nicholas Herbert (d. 1775), who had married the heiress Anne North. Their daughter Barbara (1742-85) married Edward Augustus Stratford, son of the Earl of Aldborough, and celebrating his birthday in September seems to have been a regular occurrence in 1769-71 and, no doubt, a highlight of the social life of the county. These papers describe in some detail the elaborate costumes for many of the participants, men and women, titled and commoners, who were invited to participate. The first paper is a poem describing 'The Stratford Masquerade at Great Glemham 1769'. These anonymous verses eleven stanzas of four lines each describe several of the masquers, and helpfully identify them in footnotes: 'A Goddess of Wisdom came next in my way The first female sure that had nothing to say Tho perhaps she intended the proverb to suit That a woman's best wisdom is still to be mute'. This goddess is annotated as 'Miss Cooper, a neighbouring Farmer's daughter', and other masquers are helpfully identified as Mr Charles Long, Mr Dudley Long, Mrs Herbert and others, including two clergy, Mr Redman and Mr Lambert. This is quite unspecific, however, compared with the really detailed descriptions of the masquerade held at Glemham on 25 September 1770, 'the Aniversary of the birth day of the Honble: Mr Stratford'. For this grand event, we have two letters, specifying the exact costumes of more than forty people attending. For instance, the 'Honble Mr Nassau in a black Domino Masqu'd & very lively'; and 'Mr G. Nassau a Neapolitan Prince very fine in green & gold'; 'Lady Chapman a Pedlar very clever a kind of pretender to fortune telling'; 'Miss Prettyman a Shepherdess pink & white with flowers on her head'; 'Miss Sally Long a girl of Patmos, dress white silk close Gown.'; 'Miss Sparrow an Antique Lady from an old picture her dress was red & blue with old Lace.'; and 'Miss Gooch Miss in her teens, the dress a pale pink Coat. her head dress black ornamented with pearls. it was reckoned a very genteel dress'. One of the letters appears to be a later copy of another letter, but describing the same event. The same event must have been held in 1771, as the next document is a long poem by Charles Jenner, dated 11 November 1771. Jenner must be the man of that name (1736-74) who published several poems in the early 1770s, as well as a novel, The Placid Man (1770) and a sentimental comedy: he may have been related to Mrs Stratford (whom he addresses as 'my dear Cousin'), and had clearly been asked by her to commemorate that year's masquerade in verse. He turns his effort into a mock-complaint: 'You expect me to know every one as you name 'em Just as well as if I had been brought up at Glemham. When I've asked all the muses, & they all assure us That except Mr Bennet I once saw at our house And one Mr Bowen of whom I'd some knowledge About ten years ago at Emanuel College. There is not a soul that set foot in the place That I e'er heard a word of in all my born days'. These witty and well-constructed verses, of a hundred lines, appear to be an unpublished poem by a fairly well-known contemporary poet. It is perhaps appropriate to note that when Jenner died, quite young, three years later, it is said to have been by catching a cold at Vauxhall Gardens. Two more manuscript poems by published poets are included in the collection: a sonnet beginning 'I feel ye, well-known Breezes! Fair ye rise', which is said to have been 'Translated by Mrs Cobbold of Holy Wells, Ipswich'. This is clearly Elizabeth Cobbold (1767-1824), poet and artist, who was married to an Ipswich brewer and banker, and published several volumes of poetry, as well as a novel. It is unlikely to datable to ea.

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Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: A COLLECTION OF MANUSCRIPT VERSES AND OTHER PAPERS relating to annual masquerades at Great Glemham, Suffolk, for the birthday of the Hon. Mr. Stratford in 1769, 1770 and 1771, including elaborate descriptions of the people and costumes attending, and a poem on the events.
• Éditeur: Great Glemham Suffolk 1770 1771 and later
• Date de parution: 1769
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Poetry