Harley MS 2202

Contents:

ff. 1r-10v: The Case of Anthony Ashley Cowper Earl of Shaftesbury (‘The Earle of Shaftsburyes Case’), beginning: ‘This day the Earle of Shaftsbury was brought to the Barr upon the returne of an alias habeat corpus directed to the Constable of the Tower of London’, written in the late 17th century.

ff. 11r-12r: Excerpts from Greek and Roman authors, written in the 16th century.

ff. 13r-48v: Robert Cooke, An English Baronage, written in the 16th century.

ff. 49v-53v: Certayne breiffe Instructions of an Atturney in the Common place or Courte of Common Pleyes; ending ‘Soli deo gloria vivat Elizabetha Regina’.

ff. 54r-54v: Copy of a letter by Francis Knollys (b. c. 1550, d. 1648) to Francis Drake, written on board the Leicester on 6 January 1585/86; signed 'your most unhappy folower Fraunces Knowlles'.

ff. 55r-70v: The Leicester Journal, containing a report of Sir Francis Drake’s West Indian voyage, beginning at 3 October with ‘ffrom 8 to 12 we Caped south w and south w amongest 8 glasse 6 leagues’.

ff. 71r-71v: Extract from John Lydgate, Fall of Princes, beginning ‘There may to slouthe no nother’, written in the late 15th or early 16th century.

ff. 72r, 71r-71v: Eight ryme, ‘Oon sleth the deer wythe an hookid arwe’, written in the late 15th or early 16th century.

f. 72v: Two payments in English, written in the 16th century.

ff. 73r-74r: Copy of the will of ‘J. Jamys Scrobye of London’, beginning ‘In the Name of god Amen the xxvijth daye of September in the xxiiijth yere of the reigne of our Soverein Ladye Elizabeth by the grace of god of Englande ffraunce and Irlande’; signed ‘In wytnes of us whose names ar here under written: by me Thomas maye – Henrye wood – by me John Bwwme – Jamas Jackson’, written in 1581.

f. 75r: A chemical note related to the alchemical work on ff. 76r, 91v.

ff. 76r-91v: An alchemical work in 12 chapters, imperfect, beginning 'To make a copell in hast, for small works' (also features in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 1492); ending with an address to the reader: ‘He that will take this worke in hand must be very patient, and constant; not hasty nor greedy, he must spare for noe paynes, and worke in ye right manner, as ye nature of ye mettalls require, And allwayes endeavour rather to doe a little well, then to spill a great deale; or els he shall lo[o]se both his tyme, and his Cost’; possibly followed by an erased ownership inscription (‘of Mr Ca[...]’), written in the 16th century.

The manuscript contains a later addition:

f. 49r: An untranscribed note in a 16th-century hand.