Meditations : Religious writing 23 June 1673 - 21 January 1675.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Adam Matthew Digital (Firm), digitiser.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Inverkeithing (Scotland).

Whitehall (London, England).

Dunfermline (Scotland).

St. Andrews (Scotland).

London (England).

Fyvie (Scotland).

Oxford (England).

Bristol (England).

Westminster (London, England).

Edinburgh (Scotland).

Title pages.

Religious literature--Authorship.

Religious literature.

Meditation.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Marlborough, Wiltshire : Adam Matthew Digital, 2008.

Summary:

The manuscript remained in the library at Pitfirrane House, seat of the Halkett family, until it was purchased by the National Library of Scotland in 1951-52 (though it was borrowed from Pitfirrane on two occasions).

Notes:

AMDigital Reference:MS 6493

National Library of Scotland MS 6493 is the fifth of fourteen extant manuscripts of religious meditations written by Anne, Lady Halkett. For a discussion of all of the surviving manuscripts plus the lost volumes, see the Context and Purpose article in NLS MS 6489. This manuscript consists of several occasional and select meditations. The first meditation is entitled "The widow's mite" (pp.1-31, msItem 7), some of which discusses events of the civil wars and the crowning of Charles II (Halkett writes that she was the first to greet the king at Whitehall after his coronation). The second meditation is on Luke 2:36-38, which tells the story of the devout widow Anna (pp.32-155, msItem 8). In this meditation Halkett discusses the Lord's prayer, the apostle's creed and the ten commandments, as well as personal and political matters. The third meditation discusses I Corinthians 1:11-13 (pp.156-212, msItem 9). From pp.214-336 (msItems 11-50) are occasional meditations (p.213 is the title page), discussing Halkett's usual broad range of topics: illnesses and deaths, important anniversaries such as the deaths of her husband and Charles I, political events such as the end of the third Anglo-Dutch war, her son Robert's comings and goings, and an opportunity to remarry. These occasional meditations date from 23 June 1673 to 21 January 1675. Halkett has written a table of contents on the verso of the final leaf (p. viii). As with several other of her manuscripts this volume contains some prefatory leaves. Three leaves of differing sizes have been pasted onto a guard. The first leaf (pp. ii-iii, msItem 2) contains a meditation dated 5 January 1674. The second leaf contains meditations on Eusebius (p. iv, msItem 3), and an untitled meditation on Moses, written upside down (p. v, msItem 4). The final inserted leaf contains a meditation, partly crossed out (p. vi, msItem 5) and, on the verso, part of a letter written in another hand, dated 27 July 1676 and presumably addressed to Halkett (p. vii, msItem 6). These were probably scraps kept with the manuscript, later bound in when the manuscript was rebacked in the twentieth century. An unfoliated blank leaf, part of the original volume, follows this prefatory material. Another leaf has been pasted into the volume at p.217 due to Halkett's having continued her meditation on a separate sheet (msItem 11).

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