THIRTY

FALE, Thomas (active 1604); annotated by RHODES, William. Horologiographia. The art of dialling: teaching an easie and perfect way to make all kinds of dials vpon any plaine plat howsoeuer placed. With the drawing of the twelue signes, and houres vnequall in them all. Whereunto is annexed the making and vse of other dials and instruments, whereby the houre of the day and night is knowne: of speciall vse and delight, not only for students of the arts mathematicall, but also for diuers artificers, architects, surueyours of buildings, free-Masons and others. By

Thomas Fale.

At London: Imprinted by Felix Kyngston, dwelling in Pater noster-Row, 1627. Quarto. Foliation [4], 60, [16], Signatures: A-Q⁴ (R)⁴ R-T⁴ leaves, lacking leaf D4, fragment of rear endpaper remaining. Contemporary limp vellum, very heavily worn and since bound into an early 20th-century buckram binding. The text is browned, and the margins very chipped and flaking, loss to the letter “T” in the word “ART” in the second line of title, and to edges of some annotations.

Provenance: Two ownership inscriptions to final leaf and stub of endpaper: “Wm Higgenson Booke 1666” and “Will: Higgenson”. A scrap of paper and pasted to title verso “George Pares’s Book Nov. 19 1879” with a calculation of the time since the was printed. Inscription to R1v: “Wm Rhodes his Book Bought this present Nov: 26 Anno Domini 1778”. Copious 19th-century annotations by William Rhodes throughout, some initialed “WR”.

¶ To describe this heavily worn copy of Fale’s Horologiographia as having been annotated by William Rhodes hardly does it justice. His annotations are numerous, and most pages feature date calculations by Rhodes; so far, so horological. But Rhodes’ notes go far beyond that, combining the objectivity required of his vocation with a touching and emotional subjectivity – and both, at times, have a compulsive quality that, had the term existed in the 19th century, might have earned him the descriptor ‘neurodiverse’.

Rhodes was notable enough in his sphere to merit a mention in Gatty’s Book of Sun-dials: “At the beginning of the nineteenth century, one William Rhodes, a tobacconist and pewterer, was living in Liverpool, and he possessed several works on the art of dialling, by Fale, De la Hire, and others, which he annotated in his own writing with mottoes from dials. He bought Fale's work in 1802, but the copy had belonged, in 1675, to ‘Thomas Skelson,’” 1. Ours is another of his copies, the fourth edition, 1627, which Rhodes in his inscription says he bought in “Anno Domini 1778”.

Before Rhodes acquired this copy, its 17th-century owner, “Will: Higgenson”, appears to have made notes of his own, such as “How to make a earth(?) for your moulds to cast Brass which will bee cleare : Soe you may cast your brass into any forme as plates for Horizontal Dyales, or for quadrant Dyals or round plates for night Dyals” (Q4v); beside the illustration for “The West Diall erect”, “Devide the midd line in 5. […] likewise Devide the middle Circle in 6. […] the bottom of ye pl[ate] that is the Distance Devides in 2 / one for the Left quadrant from side of the plat” and marked up the illustration according to these instructions (D1r); and the cryptic “c. & h. is the same yt. e & I is it is c.f. e. k is L.M. for stile Least distance from L.& the stile as L unto O” (D2r).

Rhodes was by all accounts a prolific annotator: among many other books he is known to have given the same treatment (besides the above) are The Art of Shadows; or, Universal Dialling by John Good (1771), The Art of Dialling by William Leybourn (1669), and Horologiographia Optica. Dialling Universal and Particular by Silvanus Morgan (1652).2 The nature of his annotations, too, was similar to those in our volume: they reportedly included “family memoranda and commonplace Latin mottoes”.

Rhodes’ manuscript notes confirm Gatty’s description of him as “a tobacconist”, for example in his memos “Our Little Tobacco Engine Sold from Wharehouse this present 2 June” (N1r), and “Aug 9 1783 put up Brass Dial North Declining West …” (E2v). But “pewterer” is less certain: in burial records for his children he is recorded as a “brazier”3 – a point confirmed in notes such as “Aug 9 1783 put up Brass Dial North Declining West” (E2v) and “Put up New Brass Dial dated Nov 1st on Nov 6 1781. Now Nov: 14 1782. made first Rocket pridie” (I1r). He records having installed many such sundials, including a clutch of them in one entry: “July 15 1783 got stone Pillar Horizontal Dial pridie Put up New B. to Dial on it 15 of Spet: 1783 now Sept: 17 1783 it was the 15 Mar put up one on the kitchen Door Date May 1 1784. Decl 48.50 4 May 5 1784 Glorious Day put up 2 Dials on the pump Rec. 51-3 Decl: 39 the other an Horizontal on the Stone in the yard Sept: 3 1784 now Sept: 7 1784” (E2r).

His attention to dates and their calculation borders on the obsessive: sometimes these are relatively trivial, as when he shows his workings to estimate that it has been “200 years since this book was printed viz 1727”, and that he “Bought it in

1778” (E1v, which also features a long note concerning weather and dates). Since he is clearly accomplished at such calculations, one gets the impression that Rhodes is deriving satisfaction from writing them out. This seems deeply rooted in his character, and all the more so because these work-related notes are inextricably bound up with a much more personal seam of annotations in which he applies his skills to the working-through of his own grief.

Timing Is Everything

Rhodes clearly had much to grieve over: among his notes is one dated “Sept: 24 1822” which reads: “Little Martha ON died Sept: 21 1822 and buried at the Church along [w]ith her poor grand mother and uncle hodie”, with a calculation of years between 1822 and 1779 (B2v); another, sharing space with notes on a “Barometer”, calculates the duration between 1821 and 1784, and adds “Longum nunc videtur præsentem post mortem Martha Charæ uxorem who died March 17 1820” (B3r). Similarly, his work shades into his emotional life in the entry: “July 30 1802. the 3 Sun Dials in Coln Church yard made in the year 1672. Mater mea ibi nata anno 1722 / 1672 put up 50 years before she was born” (Rhodes’ use of Latin perhaps signifying an attempt to solemnize his loved ones’ death or, paradoxically, to create a little distance from the distress he so compulsively revisits).

Rhodes is also blessed (or perhaps cursed) with a prodigious memory, judging by his recollections of affecting little details: having noted “Friday Sept: 3 1813 Julia Ann Rhodes my dearly beloved daughter was buried that day”, he adds that he “bought Apples at a small cottage in Aintree when going fetch Maria home Sept: 23 1812”, and “showed Julia the foot road over the long field which her brother John so very like her walked over with –(?) Sept: 11 1791, never –(?) again. WR”. A note elsewhere clarifies this brother’s sad fate: “March 10 1812 Johannes filius departed this life Tuesday March 10 anno 1795. being just 17 years since this day. Sec fuget irreparable tempus” (M1r).

Grief sometimes manifests not just in Rhodes’ evocation of such poignant moments but in his repeating them: in an entry dated “Dec: 11 1833”, he writes “that’s Dadda’ Dilay book not touch it. Poor dear Elizabeth Mary used to say in old kitchen below many a time. she died May 1780” (F4r); he tells this anecdote again a little further on (H1v). That he often writes these passages in letters larger and bolder than the printed text contributes to the impression that these are not just annotations but heartfelt engravings.

The annotations to this somewhat battered and sadly incomplete volume show their author to be a fascinating mix of detailobsessed, process-driven and emotionally raw – the last of these apparently impossible to separate from the rest. This remarkable artefact shows the sometimes-uneasy interplay between public and private in the mind of an artisan for whom time was a defining preoccupation.

£1,250 Ref: 8145

References:

1. Gatty, Margaret Scott. The Book of Sun-dials. (4th ed. 1900).

2. ‘Bibliography of Dialling’ in Notes and Queries (no. 191, 1889)

3. Burial: 6 Jan 1792 St Nicholas, Liverpool, Lancs. Martha Rhodes - Daughter of William Rhodes & Martha. Died: 5 Jan 1792. Age: 12 days. Abode: Pool lane. Occupation: Brazier. <https://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Liverpool/Liverpool-Central/stnicholas/burials_1792i.html>; Burial: 13 Nov 1793 St Nicholas, Liverpool, Lancs. Sarah Rhodes - Daughter of William Rhodes & Martha (formerly Moorhouse). Died: 11 Nov 1793. Age: 10 mths. Abode: Pool lane. Occupation: Brazier. <https://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Liverpool/Liverpool-Central/stnicholas/burials_1793i.html>

THIRTY-ONE

being an Excellent new Song to the Tune of the lady’s fall

[Circa 1704. Undated]. Folio (313 mm x 193 mm). Two bifolium sheets, text to 5 pages. Written in a neat scribal hand. Watermark: Quartered shield (dagger in one quarter; Arms of London). Countermark: H. Which matches Folger L.f.649 which they date circa 1699.

¶ This is a scribal copy of The History & fall of the Conformity Bill, a satirical poem usually (though by no means always) attributed to Arthur Maynwaring.

The poem was circulated in manuscript in the early months of 1704. According to CELM, there are anonymous copies in Bodleian (MSS Rawl. D. 360, f. 62r; Rawl. poet. 169, f. 29r; Firth b. 21, f. 51r) and elsewhere. A manuscript copy, dated January 1703/4 and subscribed ‘Certainly written by Mr. Congreve’, is in the British Library (Add. MS 40060, ff. 41r5r). The poem is ascribed to Robert Wisdom in Bodleian (MS Locke. c. 32, f. 44r) and British Library (Add. MS 7122, f. 6r). In agreement with these last two, ours is inscribed at the end: “Sic Ceri vit Robert Wisdome”

It first appeared in print as an anonymous broadside entitled The history and fall of the conformity bill. Being an excellent new song to the tune of The ladies fall (1704). (Foxon, M32; N8689). ESTC records only one copy, which is located at Harvard’s Houghton Library. It was also included in A New Collection of

Poems Relating to State Affairs, from Oliver Cromwel To this present Time (London, 1705), pp. 557-61, where it is set to “to the tune of Chivy Chase”. The text in Alexander Pope’s exemplum of this publication (British Library, C. 28. e. 15) is annotated by him ‘Certainly written by Mr Congreve’. It was, however, attributed to Arthur Maynwaring (who, like Congreve, was a member of the ‘Order of the Toast’ or ‘Punch Club’) by John Oldmixon in his The Life and Posthumous Works of A. Maynwaring (London, 1715), p. 40.

These printed versions all have the names of characters redacted and the 1705 printed version also redacted “arse” (see below). The earliest printed version with all the names included I have located occurs in the Gentleman’s Magazine (1785). Our manuscript copy includes all the original names and expletives including:

Even Harley’s Self I would say would Scarce

Be made a Smithfield’s Martyr

For proof clap Faggots to his Arse

You’l find You’ve caught a Tartar

The poem sits at an interesting watershed in Maynwaring’s political thought, marking the point at which he turned fully to the Whig cause. According to Ellis in his Arthur Mainwaring as Reader of Swift’s ‘Examiner’ (1981), it is the “earliest of Mainwaring’s poems to defend the ideals of the Revolution […] The practice of occasional conformity by which a dissenter could take communion in the Church of England once a year to qualify himself for public office, military or civil, was particularly offensive to Tory high churchmen”.

The purpose of the Conformity Act was to prevent Nonconformists and Roman Catholics from taking “occasional” communion in the Church of England in order to become eligible for public office under the Corporation Act 1661 and the Test Act. As the poem puts it, “Dissenters they were to be pressed / To goe to Com[m] on Prayer”.

Ellis neatly sums up both the purpose and tone of the poem: “In Mainwaring’s fanciful conceit the bill becomes a hasty pudding, cooked up in the House of Commons and served up to the Lords to sample. But Burnet stirring it with his grimy toe makes it unpalatable to the peers (who in fact rejected it upon the second reading on 14 December 1703 by seventy-one votes to fifty-nine)… The physical repulsion aroused by the thought of eating something stirred by someone else’s dirty toe is a powerful vehicle for Mainwaring’s own feelings about the bill to prevent occasional conformity.” As before, our version retains the names of the characters in this unappetising foot-in-mouth feast of parliamentary compromise that ended up being sent back to the kitchen.

But as a hasty Pudding is soild

If there does fall some soot in’t Or if Burnt=too soe this was soiled

By Bishop Burnet’s Foot in’t