Hardcover notebook embossed with Emilie M. Watson, Mountmellick, 1866

Hardcover notebook bearing the bookplate of Joseph Dollard on the inside cover, and embossed on the first page ‘Emilie M. Watson, Mountmellick, 1866’. The Watsons were a Quaker family of Mountmellick, a centre of Irish Quakerism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The book contains short essays in clear handwriting with titles presented in ornate calligraphy. Contents include a table listing the gravities of chemical elements; a note on triangles with illustrations; distances of planets from the sun; list of the signs of the zodiac; genealogical tables relating to the royal family; map of Ireland with related topographical and geographical notes; notes on mythology; the role of the resultant in mechanics; phrenology; barometers and thermometers; wind and rain; phosphorus; the empire of Alexander the Great; ancient Greece; classification of mankind; figures of speech; and on mammals, reptiles, insects, fish, and leaves. Between the essays are ornate pages containing sayings and quotations. At the end of the book, in reverse, is a long poem of religious nature entitled The Three Rocks, attributed to ‘Nannie’ Webb. For ‘Nannie’ Webb, also see 283.