Add MS 89624

Commonplace book prepared for Hannah Craven and used to collect handwritten recipes for various purposes. The recipes predominantly relate to the curing of ailments in horses, but also include cures for illnesses and conditions in humans, cows and sheep. The book also contains instructions for buying and dealing with horses and cows, the means of filling a pond with fish, recipes for cordials, instructions for preparing inks in various colours and instructions for some metalworking tasks. Several of the recipes in the later parts of the book are partly written in an unknown numeric cypher.

On the frontispiece of the book is a dedication to Hannah Craven, dated 1762, a quotation from the Song of Solomon (chapter 8, verses 6-7) and a drawing of a woman, possibly Craven, with the inscription "When this you see remember me". On the last page of the book is a fragment of what appears to have been a hand-drawn map of the world, now showing only part of the Pacific Ocean, California and the Solomon Islands.The outer leaves of the book have been used for a number of calculations, and for recording significant dates, including the birth of four children in the Ward family between 1721 and 1769. A number of the leaves in the book have been cut out and used for other purposeds