Authors featured in the collection include Voltaire, S.H. Vernede, d’Alibrac, J. Cats, Rhijnvis Feith, P. Boddaert, and H. Poot.

A collection of about 60 poems and essays, primarily elegies, occasional verses, and verse epitaphs on the subjects of solitude, death, and the nature of humanity. The volume contains poems by Joseph Butler, John Dyer, David Garrick, James Grainger, Thomas Gray, Richard Jago, Charlotte Lennox, James Marriott, Ambrose Philips, Petrarch, William Vernon, Thomas Wharton, Isaac Watts, William Whitehead, Anthony Whistler, and Mrs. Barber. Other poem titles include: Ode to death, possibly by Abraham Richard Hawksworth; Virgil’s tomb; Ode to solitude and one in French, Epistle de Mr. Voltaire.

The pocket diary contains:

• Elegiac lines to the memory of Maurice Margarot by Clio Rickman
• A fragment by Clio Rickman
• Impromptu Reply to Impertinence by Clio [Rickman]
• A mathematical riddle on the name of Napoleon Buonaparte
• Passport issued to William Bland, 1816 to travel from London to Paris via Calais
• Half sheet of a letter about procuring certain Roman coins the writer requires and how much he is willing to pay. On the back is a sentence about Voltaire and ‘this blockhead Lewis’.

The copy matches the 1775 Geneva edition of Voltaire’s works, with the addition of one stanza at the end of the elegy. Two separate, unrelated 5-line stanzas, ostensibly attributed to Voltaire, also feature on the MS.

The collection consists of c.150 separate pieces in English and French, in a variety of different hands, dating mainly from ca. 1780 to 1824. There are also some printed items such as lottery tickets and pages from books. The manuscripts appear in most cases to have been given to Anne Rushout by acquaintances in her circle, which included Fanny Burney, Mrs. Walsingham, Lady Hardwick, Mrs. Hastings, Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire, Miss Lyttelton, Miss Catherine Fanshawe, Princess Augusta Sophia. Almost all are poetry and include charades, acrostics, riddles, engimas, anecdotes, and elegies culled from various sources including: the Thesaurus Aenigmaticus, The Satirist, General Evening Post, Gentleman’s Magazine, and The Universal Magazine. The topics featured range from friendship and love, through virtue and death. Names mentioned as writers or subjects, giving an insight into the circle in which Anne moved and their interests, include: Voltaire, Mr. Selwyn, the Countess Bouchon, Sir William Jones, Lord Lyttelton, Lord Coventry, Lord Palmerston, Lord Strangford, Warren Hastings, William Hayley, Norhtwick, William Shenstone, Colley Cibber, David Garrick, Bishop Richard Heber, Horace Walpole, Walter Scott, John Dryden, the Sheridans and Sarah Siddons. In addition to the poetical contents there are few printed pieces and two accomplished mathematical conundrums. The principal places mentioned are Northwick Park, Worcestershire (now Gloucestershire), Wanstead Grove, and Daylesford Grove.

The collection consists of anecdotes and verses, both original and excerpted from various authors, including: biographical anecdotes on Alexander the Great, Voltaire, Sir Walter Raleigh, Philip of Macedon, Socrates, British sailors, Turks, Russians, American Indians, and other individuals and groups; epistolary poetry and extracts from letters, most of which are signed William Thomspon; one letter from a British soldier at the Battle of Bunker Hill to his wife in England; elegiac and farewell poems; poems on nature, plants, and animals; hymns and prayers; religious and moral poems and fables; from speeches, and from religious texts, lectures, and sermons; recipes for burn and lip ointments, stain remover, flea repellent, and other home remedies. Excerpts attributed to Rousseau, Cowper, Goldsmith, and others. Indexed by category.