Graham, Elizabeth Susannah ["Theresa Tidy"]

Manuscript, 8vo (7 1/8 x 4 1/4 in.; 180 x 108 mm). 56 pages written, plus 53 blank leaves, 14 drawings in pencil many of which are finished in brown ink. Contemporary green straight-grain morocco, roll-tooled in gilt and blind, spine gilt, marbled edges; extremities rubbed. With:  a typed letter signed by Peter Opie, West Liss, Hampshire, 25 August 1981, concerning the content, laid in. With: Herbert Earl Munroe. Father Ganders Melodies, a companion book of nonsense to "Mother Goose." Boston, 1885. Manuscript, 4to exercise book with lined paper (8 1/4 x 6 3/4 in.; 210 x 172 mm). 39 pages, written in a cursive hand; lightly browned. Original stiff wrappers, ms. title on upper cover; lower outer corner of upper cover chipped.

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A fine collection of "family verse", apparently unpublished, including the earliest record of the well-known song "There was a ship a sailing".

The collection is comprised of 18 poems, many of which are illustrated with pencil and penwork illustrations, the finest of which is undoubtedly the cycle accompanying "The Porciad" in 27 stanzas showing well-dressed aristocratic pigs enjoying high society. Four of the poems are signed "ESG" and four are dated in 1801-1803. One poem is entitled "A Petition to Mrs Graham" which is followed by "The Answer from ESG" dated 24 December 1802.

Opie (in the accompanying letter) is confident in the attribution to Graham and adds "We should make clear that this manuscript recording is the earliest we have of 'There was a ship a sailing'; and the puzzle is how it got into circulation. The lines that Halliwell picked up in 1846 did not come direct from this MS. They had undergone some changes, and, rhythmically, some improvements. On the other hand Crane's version of the song, in the Baby's Bouquet, 1879, has more verbal affinity with the MS ... than have the earlier printed versions."