Meditations and prayers : Religious writing 1660-1663.

Format:

Book

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Title pages.

Meditation.

Barbados.

London (England).

Scotland.

Tay River (Scotland).

Covent Garden (London, England).

England.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

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 6491

National Library of Scotland MS 6491 is the third 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 occasional meditations from pp.1-95 (msItems 6-20), then meditations and prayers on all the holy days of the year from pp.96-257 (msItems 21-49), and finally select or biblical meditations from pp.258-325 (msItems 50-51.6). The final item in the manuscript (p.326, msItem 52) is a comment on whether Halkett intends her meditations to be made public or not. Among the topics covered in the occasional meditations at the beginning of the volume are the deaths of her daughter Elizabeth on 13 November 1660 and her son Henry on 12 May 1661, the disbanding of the army, Charles II's coronation on 23 April 1661, her own legal battles at court, and a grave maker. Halkett's meditations on the church's holy days start with Christmas day and end with All Saint's Day (November 1), after going through the calendar twice. The biblical meditations are on Isaiah 12:1-6 and Psalm 34:1-4. Those meditations contain some occasional comments on topics such as the Restoration and the birth of her daughter Jane. Prefacing the volume are two leaves that were presumably bound into the volume, between the first and second leaves, when the modern binding was carried out. These are preceded by a first leaf (pp. i-ii) which contains a note on the date of the meditations and where they were written: London in 1660 and 1663. The two tipped in leaves contain a table of contents (pp. iii-iv) and two brief meditations (pp. v-vi). Halkett has provided headings for many of the meditations, making easy reference to individual items more likely (either for her own, or for future readers', reference). The first 13 meditations have the number of the item in the top centre of each page (meditations 13-15 have "Med 13"). The meditations on all of the holy days have a heading at the top of each verso with a short version of the title. Even if a new passage begins on a recto it is repeated on the verso (like a printed book, making it easy to flip through and find a particular day). For the last two meditations (on Isaiah 12:1-6 and Psalm 34:1-4) the verso has "Med 12 Isay" or "Meditat 34 Psal" while the recto has the verse.