A Romantic Circles Scholarly Resource

The transcriptions on this page are Murray's planning notes for the new Review. Internal evidence demonstrates that the notes were entered between October 1808 and August 1809, that is, during the Review's planning stages and the publication of the journal's third Number. The holograph is preserved in the Murray archive in the form of a fragile soft-sided memorandum book. Torn in half, the notebook was at some point slated for destruction; we can be grateful for its preservation as this is a remarkable document.

The names of potential contributors recorded in Murray's notes are most interesting. Murray has arranged the contributors' names under the heads of the journal's three principals: John Murray, Walter Scott, and William Gifford. The lists evidently reflect these three men's early deliberations. The lists are also primary evidence of the conservative networks in government, the arts, letters, science, and the professions from which Murray expected to draw support.

Folio A (recto) is blank

Folio A (verso) upper half

    Des
Books on Subjects desireable for the Review

I Already Published

Holinshed's Chronicles 5 Vols. 4to Transactions of Royal Society ——————Board of Agriculture ——————Asiatic Socy ——————Linnean Socy Pinckerton's Geography Playfairs — Do Pinkerton's Maps Pinkerton's voyages & Trans Caley's Life of Sir T. More —— ---------------[notebooks torn here]-------------------

Spain   Missions   Painters   Sidney   Burns   Sanskrit   Georgics   Curran   -   Owenson   Pub.   Characters   -   Young   Vince   Pratt   -   Cid   Swift   McNeil   Zaragoza   -   -   -----------

 

Folio A (verso) lower half

Dibdin's Edin. Of Mores Utopia
Parkinson's Organic Remains if by Davy or Kirwan
Payleys Sermons
Murrays Life of Bruce
Lysons Magna Britannica
Acuums Mineralogy — if by Kirwan or Davy
Miss Edgeworths Late Novel
Miss Bowdlers Life of Miss Smith
Lambes Dramatic Poets — if Mr G would undertake it & give really valuable
specimens & thus exhibit practically how deficient Lambes book is
Cowpers trans. Of Miltons Poems — Qy a few hints from Todd
Buchannans Journy to the Mysore — Qy Mills but mem. Broug[hole in paper]
Cox's Mems, of Heratis Ld Walpole Qy — Lisbon
Life of Thuanus — Qy — Turner

 

Folio B (recto) upper half

Books on Subjects already in t

Spain ————————————————————by
The various Missionary Societies ———————
Southey's Translation of the Cid ———————
Edwards Anecdotes of Painters ———————
Zouchs Memoirs of Sidney ———————
Burns Reliques ———————
Mrs Grants American Lady ———————
Wilkins Sanskrit Grammar ———————
Sanwells Translation of the Georgics ———————
Deales —— Do        Do ———————
Homes Histr of America ———————
Currans Speeches ———————
Mansils Lyrics Muse of Scotland ———————
Lewiss Romantic Tales ———————
Drummonds Lucretius ———————

-------------------------------------------------------------[notebook torn here]------------------------------------------------

 

Folio B (recto) lower half

Murrays Life of Bruce ———————
Warburtons Letters ———————
Dr Bartletts Essay on Swift ———————
Cowpers Translatn of Miltons Poems ———————
Beloes Anecdotes of Literature ———————
Gerrard Hamiltons Speeches Haslam on Insanity ———————
Board of Agriculture
Linnaean Society
Philsol Transacts
Denmark
Persius
Flodden Field

 

Folio B (recto)

T

Subjects

The Jews, & adultery its frequency & its effects on public morals, Duels
                               the fine only a punishment on the family — Owen

[ ?Baydell ], Woollets Ghost—his Letter on Petitioning for Lottery
           The Trial

School for Authors — neglected genius in Tobin — Faro Table suppressed
            [ ? ] the stage

Ketts Elements or his new work to be reviewed by
            Davies of Oriel College — QY if Penrose would [ ? ]
            him

The—Parson—Soldier—Lawyer—Statesman—Farmer—Merchant—General
Reader—Artist-Man of Letters—Scholar—Scientist, —

           there should be one article [paper tear] in every number appropriate to
each of the above [ ? ] classes—the rest to be filled up with subjects of general
interest & importance

Klopstocks Messiah — by Sotheby

—

Alfieris Plays —————————— Campbell

——

Grammont                              —————— Ellis

—

The Theatre                            —————— Hunt —— Thoughts on the present Condition of the Stage
           [ ? ] [ ? ] Clarke ( [ ? ] Ld Carlisle)

Haslam on Insanity

——
A Review is nothing more than a series of Essays upon subjects in which people
are mostly interested.