At some time folio numbers have been roughly marked in pencil in this diary. Because...

At some time folio numbers have been roughly marked in pencil in this diary. Because of damage to the volume folios 1 - 12 are marked at the bottom of the page (or as near as possible), the rest in the top right hand corner. These numbers must have been pencilled in prior to 1927 because two of them (7 and 11) are reproduced in Eaton's facsimile (see below). The pencilled numbers have been used in the following list as folio references. Entries are not in strict chronological order (see note on Eaton's transcript below) and are as follows:

fos. 1 - 3r. undated notes, (?) 11 Apr. 1803

fo. 3v. 12 Apr. 1803

fo. 4v. 21, 22 Apr. 1803

fo. 5r. 14, 15, 16 Apr. 1803

fo. 6v. 21 Apr. 1803

fo. 7r. 23 Apr. 1803

fo. 8v. 28 Apr. 1803

fo. 9r. 29, 30 Apr., 1 May 1803, cont. on fo. 10r.

fo. 9v. 2, 3, 4 May 1803

fo. 10r. 1 May, cont. from fo. 9r., 2 May 1803

fo. 10v. 5 May 1803

fo. 11r. 5, 6 May 1803

fo. 11v. 6 May 1803

fo. 12r. 8 May 1803

fo. 12v. 9 May 1803

fo. 13r. 12 May 1803

fo. 13v. 13, 14 May 1803

fo. 14r. 1 May 1803

fo. 15r. "Sunday evening, May 15, 1803 ... Monday night, May 15, 1803"

fo. 15v. 16 May 1803

fo. 16r. 20, 21 May 1803

fo. 16v. 27, 31 May 1803

fo. 17r. 15 Jun. 1803

fo. 17v. 20, 24 Jun. 1803

fos. 18v. - 19v. blank

fo. 20r. 5, 6 May 1803

fo. 20v. 7, 8 May 1803

fo. 21r. 9 May 1803

fo. 21v. 10 May 1803

fo. 22r. 11, 12 May 1803

fo. 22v. 13 May, "Saturday May 14, 1803"

fo. 23r. "Sunday May 14, 1803"

fo. 23v. 16 May 1803

fo. 24r. 17, 18, 19 May 1803

fo. 24v. 20 May 1803

fo. 25r. 21 May 1803

fo. 25v. 22, 23 May 1803

fo. 27r. 24, 25 May 1803

fo. 27v. 25, 26 May 1803

fo. 28r. 27 May 1803

fo. 28v. 28 May 1803

fo. 29r. 29 May 1803

fo. 29v. (wrongly marked "30") 30 May 1803

fos. 30r. - 32r. reverse entries - see below

fo. 32v. blank

fo. 33r. 31 May 1803

fo. 33v. 1 Jun. 1803

fo. 35r. 2 Jun. 1803

fo. 35v. 3 Jun. 1803

fo. 36r. (3 Jun. cont.), small section cut away from bottom

fos. 36v., 37r. reverse entries - see below

fo. 37v. 4, 5 Jun. 1803

fo. 39r. lower half, reverse entry - see below

fo. 39v. blank

fo. 40r. 6, 7 Jun. 1803

fo. 41v. 8 Jun. 1803

fo. 42v. 9 Jun. 1803

fo. 43r. 10 Jun. 1803

fo. 43v. 11 Jun. 1803, cont. on fo. 46

fos. 44r. - 45r. reverse entries - see below

fo. 45v. blank

fo. 46 11 Jun. 1803, cont. from fo. 43 v., then cont. further on fo. 48r.

fo. 47r. reverse entries - see below

fo. 47v. blank

fo. 48r. 11 Jun. 1803, cont. from fo. 46 bottom of fo. 48 cut away

fos. 48v. - 49r. 12 Jun. 1803, cont. on fo. 64

fos. 49v. - 63v. reverse entries - see below

fo. 64 12 Jun. 1803, cont. from fo. 49r., then cont. further on fo. 70v.

fos. 65r. - 70r. reverse entries - see below

fo. 70v. 12 Jun. 1803, cont. from fo. 64v., 13 Jun. 1803

fo. 71r. blank

fos. 71v. - 75v. (end of volume)

Reverse entries and blanks

REVERSE ENTRIES

These are entered in and from the back of the volume. In the following list of entries the same sequence of pencilled folio numbers had been quoted as for the above (meaning that the pencilled number if now upside down at the bottom left hand corner of each folio). The entries listed above have not been mentioned in the following.

fo. 75v. "A Catalogue of the Books of Thos. Quincey, Manchester"

This and many of the entries made in reverse are in a different hand from the diary entries listed above. Where used this hand has been noted in the following list as "hand B".

"Thos Quincey" is possibly De Quincey's father, who died in 1793. Eaton, p. 1, states definitely but without quoting his source, that the diary is "... partly filled with a list of books once in the possession of Thomas Quincey of Manchester, the father of the English Opium Eater, written in an unknown hand ... the list ... re-created the library at Greenhay and, presumably, the core of the library in his mother's various homes ..."

fo. 75r. blank

fo. 74v. "Folio. Geography", hand B

fo. 74r. blank

fo. 73v. "Quarto. Dictionary; Geography; Travels etc. P, hand B

fo. 73r. blank

fos. 72v. - 71v. "Quarto. Poetry", hand B

fos. 70r., 69v. 26 May 1803

fos. 69r., 68v. blank

fo. 68r. "Octavo. Sermons", hand B

fo. 67 "Octavo. Poetry and Plays", hand B

fo. 66v. blank

fos. 66r. - 65v. "Octavo. Geography, Voyages & Travels", hand B

fo. 63r. "Octavo. History", hand B

fo. 62v. blank

fos. 62r. - 61r. "Octavo: Critical, Didactic: Miscellaneous, Law etc.", hand B

fo. 60v. 18 Jun. 1803

Beginning of draft letter to his mother, Mrs. De Quincey

fo. 60r. 18 Jun. 1803

Another draft letter to his mother, cont. on fo. 57v.

fos. 59v. - 58r. 13 May 1803

Draft letter to William Wordsworth

fo. 57v. 18 Jun. 1803

Draft letter to mother, cont. from fo. 60r.

fo. 57r. 13 May 1803

Draft letter to mother

fo. 56v. 14 May 1803

Draft letter to mother

fo. 56r. blank

fos. 55v. - 53v. 31 May 1803

Draft letter to William Wordsworth

fo. 53r. 31 May 1803

Draft letter to mother

fo. 52v. personal accounts

fo. 52r. "Duodecimo. Biography. History", hand B

fo. 51 - not marked

fo. 50v. price list, mostly books

fo. 50r. "Duodecimo. Novels, Romances", hand B

fo. 49v. 10 Jun. 1803

Draft letter to mother

fo. 47v. "Duodecimo. Sermons, Devotional Works", hand B

fos. 45r. - 44r. "Duodecimo. Poetry and Plays", hand B

fo. 39r., part "Duodecimo. Grammar, Arts and Sciences", hand B

fos. 37r., 36v. "Duodecimo: Geography, Voyages, Travels", hand B

fo. 32r. "Duodecimo. Natural History", hand B

fos. 31r. - 30r. "Duodecimo. Miscellaneous", hand B

The top right hand corners of fos. 1 - 5 have been damaged, probably by damp, so that part of the text is missing. The top right hand corner of the front cover is missing in the same way. A newspaper cutting pasted onto the inside of the front cover is undamaged, suggesting that the volume may have been in this damaged condition before it came into the hands of the Steel family (see introductory notes above).

A page has been torn out of the volume between fos. 8 and 9. The entry for 28 April 1803 is not completed. The pencilled folio numbers are, however, continuous.

On the inside front cover of the volume are pasted

a) A small piece of white paper on which is written "Robert Steel from J. Martindale Scott of Penrith by Jos Wilkinson Esq., Bowscale

b) A newspaper cutting, untitled and dated only "1859", of an obituary of Thomas De Quincey "... died at Edinburgh on Thursday, Dec. 8 ...". "Inserted by Robert Steel" written at top of cutting (see introductory notes above)

Small label pasted on to the inside back cover of the volume - "Royal Archaelogical Institution".

Leather spine twice marked in ink "De Quincey".

This diary has been reproduced and edited, see A Diary of Thomas De Quincey, 1803: here reproduced in replica as well as in print ... Edited by Horace A. Eaton ... Professor of English at Syracuse University, N.Y. [1927] (copy available in Rare Books sequence, H 920 DEQ). This volume reproduces the diary in facsimile and also transcribes it in print. It should be noted, however, that the facsimile and the printed transcript differ from each other in arrangement and both differ from the original, as follows:

i) The original is as listed above

ii) The facsimile follows the original to fo. 71v. but excluding all reverse entries. After this are reproduced all the 1803 reverse entries in De Quincey s hand in the order in which they appear in the original, with the exception of the draft letter to De Quincey's mother, 18 Jun. 1803, which appears in the original part on (reverse order) fo. 60r., part on fo. 57v. This has been reproduced in one piece, before the draft letter to William Wordsworth, 13 May 1803, which appears in the diary on fos. 59v. - 58r. None of the "hand B" entries has been reproduced in the facsimile.

iii) In the printed transcript everything, including De Quincey's reverse entries, has been arranged in one chronological sequence, not in the order in which it appears in the original. None of the "hand B" entries has been included in this transcript.

The Eaton edition includes useful Notes on the Text, pp. 215 - 248.