Manuscript fragments,

Bookseller Notes

A group of five loose manuscript fragments - poems, news coverage, original compositions - with particular reference to Nelson and Bonaparte, likely collected by a contemporary observer. 1) A narrative recounting the ceremonial reception of Nelson into Hereford in 1802, when he was granted the freedom of the city, with original verses and epitaphs2) A parody on the soliloquy in Hamlet, titled 'Bonaparte Solus', with a crosswritten Hereford address, a composition about Port wine on the reverse3) A poem on Nelson's death, accompanied by a complete transcription of Southey's 'To Recovery', and William Lisle Bowles' 'Dirge of Nelson', as well as lines on the proposal for Nelson's column4) 'Bonaparte's Dukes', chronicling the dukedoms conferred by Napoleon, this with a verse 'The Oak and the Willow [...] Sheffield, 1808'5) A series of elegies on the death of Queen Charlotte (d. 1818), with 'The Consolation', a ballad composed and arranged by Thomas Billingdon (1817)