A note at the beginning of the commonplace book records that ‘The Collection was commenced at an early Age, and consequently in the first Pages many Things are inserted which might as well, and without any injury to the Book, have been omitted.’ There are headings used throughout, including: ‘Love’. ‘Mediocrity’, ‘Laugh’, ‘Deluge’, ‘Liberty’, ‘Sleep’, ‘Bees’, ‘East India Company’, ‘Gold’, ‘Women, ‘Wit and Humour’, and ‘Impeachment. Sources quoted in the commonplace book include Shakespeare, Addison, Burney, Pope, Johnson, and Rousseau. Much of the material was written during Owen’s time at Trinity College and so many of the quotations have a strong connection to Cambridge, including ‘Song Imitated from Voltaire by Mr Rough, Trin. Coll. Cant.’

Including: 1770-1771, and undated: papers re Thomas de Grey’s European tour, with list of persons visited at Bourges, Lyons, Turin and Milan; letters from Lord Bristol and William de Greay his father re appointment as Groom of the Bedchamber; letter from J. Bareldi, Genoa, ridiculing Rousseau and recommending him to read Dr Johnson; Note from Voltaire saying that he was ill but would try to receive his visitors.

The letter critiques the recipient’s poetry before going on to mention a series of poets: Voltaire; Jacques Pradon; Jean Racine; William Shakespeare; John Milton; Samuel Johnson; Edmund Waller; and John Dryden.