Record Number: 10012

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

[Transcription from a commonplace book]: [Title] 'Ode to the closing year'; [Text] 'Oh why should I attempt to ring/The knell of Time in sorrowing tone / Or sadly tune my lyre to sing/ A requiem to the year that's gone? ...' [total = 24 lines of verse followed by 1.5 pp of related prose]

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 1 Jan 1827 and 31 Dec 1827

Country:

n/a

Time

n/a

Place:

n/a

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

---

Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Magdalene Sharpe- Erskine

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

1787

Socio-Economic Group:

Gentry

Occupation:

Daughter of a Scottish land owning family

Religion:

Anglican

Country of Origin:

Scotland

Country of Experience:

n/a

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

Identity of reader is tentative

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

Anon

Title:

Ode to the closing year

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Serial / periodical

Publication Details

New Monthly Magazine, [v. VII, p. 23 1824?]

Provenance

unknown

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

10012

Source:

Manuscript

Author:

Magdalene Sharpe- Erskine

Title:

Recueil

Location:

Dunimarle Library at Duff House

Call No:

DH LIB 2024

Page/Folio:

Item 15

Citation:

Magdalene Sharpe- Erskine, Recueil Dunimarle Library at Duff House, p. DH LIB 2024, p. Item 15, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=10012, accessed: 23 April 2024

---

Additional Comments:

A commonplace book containing 69 items, mainly in one hand. On the basis of writing style, nature of contents, dates of entries (1827-1871) and of the material selected (mainly poets from the late 18th to mid-19th century), and the watermark date (1810), the most likely identity of the main hand is Magdalene Sharpe-Erskine, the youngest child of the main generation who collected the Dunimarle Library. Fourteen of the items are exclusively or mainly prose, the rest are poetry. Most are in English. About half the items are given, by the complier, as anonymous and about a third have no title. In each case some 6 have been identified from other sources.