Physical description

Form:

Codex

Paper of a single stock throughout.

Watermark: Strasburg lily (i.e. fleur de lis in shield, crowned), with the number 4 beneath the shield and WR beneath the 4. Countermark of PB surmounted with IHS and a cross above the H. Similar to Churchill 423 (1664), though without Churchill's HG below the WR. Also similar to Heawood 1787 (1684), though without Heawood's HC below the WR.

4o in 8s: i8 (with three leaves tipped in between the first leaf (pastedown) and second leaf (unpaginated blank leaf, so really i11), ii8, iii7 (guard between pp.38 and 39, the 5th and 6th leaves of the gathering), iv-xiii8, xiv9 (additional folio interleaved between 7th and 8th gathering), xv-xxi8, xxii4.

Four margins on each page, drawn without a ruler. Marginal biblical references near the gutter. Some tiny writing on pp.135 and 145, which must have been added later to a blank spot that proved too small. The table of contents appears at the back of the manuscript (on verso of final folio and back pastedown). As in most other Halkett manuscripts, occasional words are underlined in a different ink, though in this volume there doesn't seem to be any tracing over of words.

With the exception of p.vii the entire manuscript is written in Anne Halkett's hand.

Hand A (pp.i-vi, 1-336, viii-ix): italic.

Hand B (p. vii): italic.

Contemporary brown calfskin rebacked in the 20th century with blind stamped floral and foliate designs forming a large border (40 mm), surrounding an inner border around a central panel (foliate design, 15 mm). The central panel now looks blank, but once contained more floral and foliate stamped designs. This was a reasonably ornate binding at one time. The modern spine has the National Library of Scotland logo and ""MS. 6493"" stamped in gilt. Pages may be edged in gray. There are two blank modern endpapers at the front of the volume.

232x188x37m

i-vii + [1-2] + 1-336 + viii-ix pp. Paginated in pencil and by Halkett. The volume has been paginated ix + 336 pp. More precisely the sequence of pages is: pastedown (p. i), two modern endpapers, 3 loose leaves (pp. ii-vii), an unfoliated blank leaf then 336 pp., p.viii is the verso of p.336, then p.ix is the back pastedown. Halkett's pagination diverges from the main pagination at p.217, where a leaf has been interleaved. It is headed ""to follow 217 [7 is superimposed on an 8] page on Sir Robert Muray"", so the librarian has paginated the following page 218, while Halkett has 217 (the interleaved page should have been bound in after Halkett's page 217--one has to flip back). From p.217 to the end the pencil pagination is one ahead of Halkett's.

Some torn pages, repaired with lost text in a few cases (e.g. pp.131, 195), though in at least one case (pp.224-225) the page must have been torn before Halkett wrote on it because she has avoided the torn portion. Some worm holes in lower cover.

Provenance

The manuscript remained in the library at Pitfirrane House, seat of the Halkett family, until it was purchased by the National Library of Scotland in 1951-52 (though it was borrowed from Pitfirrane on two occasions).

This manuscript, and the 13 others, were still in the hands of the family in 1870, the date of a note in NLS MS 6412, fol.213 in the correspondence of Admiral Sir Peter Halkett, Bart. (succ. 1837). He lists the 7 volumes which are missing, lists most of the extant volumes as currently with John Gough Nichols (his edition of Anne Halkett's autobiography was published in 1875), and asks at the end of the list if the unbound volumes listed by Cooper in 1701 exist (National Library of Scotland Catalogue of Manuscripts, V, 6).

The National Library of Scotland acquired the Halkett manuscripts in 1951-52.