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A volume compiled by John Matthews, comprising book-keeping exercises in the form of a day-book and ledgers, 1816-1822; transcripts of 'Letters', 'Descriptive Letters', and 'Letters of Precept and Advice' written by John Gay, Stanton Harcourt, 1718, James Beattie, Peterhead and Aberdeen, 1784-1790, Thomas Gray, Anna Seward, Lichfield, 1765, Sir William Jones [orientalist], 1769, Thomas Wentworth, 1st earl of Strafford, 1641, Sir Matthew Hale, undated, and Dr. [Philip] Doddridge, Northampton, 1730; and a series of twenty-two 'Themes', being observations on procrastination, flattery, industry, swiftness of time, etc.

Letters (surnames Owen-Stanhope) addressed mostly to Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg).
The correspondents include William Owen[-Pughe], 1788-1808 (Nos 307-375), H. J. Pye, 1792 (No. 392), D. R. Rees, Llandovery, 1821-1822 (Nos 403-404), W. J. Rees, Cascob, 1819-1826 (Nos 417-424), David Samwell (Dafydd Ddu Feddyg), 1791-1795 (Nos 449-458), and Anna Seward, 1792, 1794 (Nos 459-460).

A manuscript copy, [1820s]-[1830s] (watermark 1814), of tours of North Wales undertaken in the Autumn of 1817 (pp. 1-30) and October 1819 (pp. 31-90) by Captain Henry Hanmer and his wife Sarah, including descriptions of visits to Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, the Ladies of Llangollen (pp. 10-11, 14-19, 45).
The itinerary includes Llangollen, Wrexham, Beddgelert, Caernarfon, Bangor, Llanberis, Holyhead, Conway and St Asaph, and includes descriptions of Dolbadarn Castle (pp. 55-58), the Penrhyn slate quarries (pp. 65-66) and Parys and Mona copper mines (pp. 69-73). A number of related poems and tales are interspersed throughout the text (pp. 4-101), including verses by Anne Grant (p. 19), Anna Seward (pp. 22-29), Sir Walter Scott (pp. 31-33), W. Sotheby (pp. 37-45), W. R. Spencer (pp. 48-53), Dr [William] Dodd (pp. 61-62), and Amelia Alderson Opie (pp. 88-89). They are followed by further transcripts in the same hand (pp. 107-120), including verses by Thomas Noel (pp. 112-118) and Sir Walter Scott (pp. 119-120), and, in a different hand (pp. 121-139), verses by Byron (pp. 121, 125), R. B. Sheridan (p. 121) and Robert Southey (p. 123). The volume contains numerous cuttings from engravings, either pasted or tipped in (pp. 1-103 passim); several of these are by Henry Gastineau and are taken from Wales Illustrated: In a Series of Views... (London, 1830), as is the printed description of Llangollen on pp. 101-102. Inserted at the end (pp. 187-198) is a pamphlet by S. G. Perceval, The Ladies of Llangollen: New and interesting facts ([?1909]), transcribing extracts from the present manuscript. A press cutting, [1829], concerning the Ladies of Llangollen is pasted inside the front cover. Pressed flowers are pasted in on pp. 57, 64-65, and the remains of a leaf has been placed in an archival envelope.