{"id":5797,"date":"2025-07-01T17:33:06","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T17:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/?p=5797"},"modified":"2025-07-01T17:33:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T17:33:06","slug":"elizabeth-susanna-graham-poems-and-drawings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/2025\/07\/01\/elizabeth-susanna-graham-poems-and-drawings\/","title":{"rendered":"Elizabeth Susanna Graham poems and drawings"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Elissa B.G. Mullins<\/p>\n

If seeking a little levity in lovely line and verse, look no further. Peek inside this slim volume of manuscript poems and drawings, bound in gilt-ornamented green straight-grain morocco\u2026 Past marbled end-papers like theater curtains, you\u2019ll come to a hand-illustrated title page: \u201cPoetry,\u201d dated \u201cMDCCCXV\u201d [1815], showing two women in Greco-Roman attire before four columns, tossing flowers onto a flaming altar inscribed \u201cPenatibus sacrum\u201d; beneath this tableau, a lyre and foliage (Post-1650 MS 0887<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"Left:<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Susanna Davenport, born to a wealthy London family in 1762 or 1763, authored several books, one under the pseudonym \u201cTheresa Tidy\u201d entitled Eighteen Maxims of Neatness and Order<\/em> (1817), a popular guide to tidiness for children, and another under the pseudonym \u201cLemuel Gulliver, jun.\u201d entitled Voyage to Locuta<\/em> (1818), a pastiche of Gulliver\u2019s Travels intended to teach grammar to young children. She married Thomas Graham in 1791 and bore six children; they resided at The Hall, Clapham Common, her father’s estate in London, rather than at Edmond Castle, her husband’s estate.<\/p>\n

The poems here gathered in Graham\u2019s hand appear to be unpublished, and include the earliest record of the well-known song \u201cThere was a ship a sailing.\u201d In an accompanying letter from Peter Opie, dated 1981, he observes that \u201c\u2026 this manuscript recording is the earliest we have of \u2018There was a ship a sailing\u2019; and the puzzle is how it got into circulation. The lines that Halliwell picked up in 1846 did not come direct from this MS. They had undergone some changes, and, rhythmically, some improvements. On the other hand Crane’s version of the song, in the Baby’s Bouquet, 1879, has more verbal affinity with the MS\u2014almonds, raisins, and mice with rings about their necks\u2014than have the earlier printed versions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the poems are addressed to family and friends, including \u201cA Baby Song\u201d for Graham’s youngest daughter, Anne Margaret, and \u201cThe Birth of the Veil, address\u2019d to Mrs. Davenport (Grandmama).\u201d Several comment indirectly upon current events, such as \u201cOn Lady Mary Cook, who sat in the Peeresse\u2019s Gallery at Lord Melville\u2019s Trial\u201d [1806]. The volume also features 18 pencil drawings, many of which are finished in brown ink, including a cycle of illustrations accompanying \u201cThe Porciad\u201d showing well-dressed aristocratic pigs enjoying high society.<\/p>\n

\"Illustrated<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Elissa B.G. Mullins If seeking a little levity in lovely line and verse, look no further. Peek inside this slim volume of manuscript poems and drawings, bound in gilt-ornamented green straight-grain morocco\u2026 Past marbled end-papers like theater curtains, you\u2019ll come to a hand-illustrated title page: \u201cPoetry,\u201d dated \u201cMDCCCXV\u201d [1815], showing two women in Greco-Roman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":848,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,425],"tags":[301,210,372],"class_list":["post-5797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-manuscripts","category-poetry","tag-manuscripts","tag-poetry","tag-women-authors"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5797"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5807,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5797\/revisions\/5807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}