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Meditations : Religious writing 1 December 1697 - 22 February 1699
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The manuscript remained in the library at Pitfirrane House, seat of the Halkett family, until it was purchased by the National Library of Scotland in 1951-52 (though it was borrowed from Pitfirrane...
The manuscript remained in the library at Pitfirrane House, seat of the Halkett family, until it was purchased by the National Library of Scotland in 1951-52 (though it was borrowed from Pitfirrane on two occasions).
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- English
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- Marlborough, Wiltshire : Adam Matthew Digital, 2008
- Physical Details
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- 1 online resource
- data file
- AMDigital Reference:MS 6502
- National Library of Scotland MS 6502 is the fourteenth of fourteen extant manuscripts of religious meditations written by Anne, Lady Halkett. For a discussion of all of the surviving manuscripts plus the lost volumes, see the Context and Purpose article in NLS MS 6489. This manuscript consists of select or biblical meditations and occasional meditations. The first meditation is on the subject of the Apostles' Creed (pp.1-74, msItem 3). This is followed by meditations on Ephesians 4:30-32, Hosea 14:1-4, 1 Corinthians 15:58, and Naaman in 2 Kings 5 (pp. 75-177, msItems 4-7). The next item is "Meditations upon probable conjecture about the calling of the Jews" (pp.178-201, msItem 8), and the final select meditation is on the forty days' fast of Christ, Matthew 4:1-2 (pp. 202-212, msItem 9). The occasional meditations begin on p. 213 after some excised pages (for which see next paragraph). The occasional meditations touch on a range of topics, including Halkett's ministers, her servants, important anniversaries, family events, three new sects (the Quietes, the Pietes, and the Philadelphian Society), her debts, illnesses, visitors, on learning remedies from the king's physician, Sir Theodore Mayerne, and on reading about Christian Shaw's possession by the devil and the errors of the sect of Bourignianism. After p.212 a number of pages have been cut out of the volume with some kind of razor. Halkett paginated this page p. 213 then her next page is p. 250, so this suggests that the missing pages are pp. 214-249 (by Halkett's pagination). There is some blank space at the bottom of p. 212, suggesting that the previous meditation (msItem 9) did not continue on the missing pages. It would appear that Halkett or someone else removed leaves that contained additional meditations, either select (since this is the end of the select meditations) or occasional (since this is the beginning of the occasional meditations). The missing meditation or meditations are not listed in the table of contents. Perhaps Halkett herself or a later reader found them indiscreet or unacceptable in some way. In a meditation dated 19 February 1698 (p. 225, msItem 19) Halkett describes her fear that her manuscripts might fall into the wrong hands after her death. A few years previous to her writing this meditation she wrote out the contents of all of the volumes, sealed that up, and sent the sealed paper to Simon Cooper and James Graeme, so that at her death they might make her writings known. Cooper returned the sealed paper to her after her son Robert returned but recently asked her to let him and Graeme have the manuscripts. Cooper wanted to read one manuscript at a time and promised secrecy. She sent one but was very disquieted. This is one of several points in her manuscript meditations in which she speculates about a readership after her death, and the first time that she refers to other people actually reading her meditations in the present. The select meditations were begun on 1 December 1697 (p. 1) and completed on 22 February 1699 (p. 212). The occasional meditations were begun on 4 January 1698 (p. 213) and completed on 26 November 1698 (p. 314). A table of contents is written at the front of the volume (pp. i-iii).
- Reproduction of: Meditations, 1 December 1697 - 22 February 1699.
- National Library of Scotland