MANUSCRIPT RECIPE BOOK - LAURENCE STERNE & YORKSHIRERecipe and household book kept by the Croft family of Stillington Hall, North Yorkshire, written in several hands, including several French and Indian recipes, some attributed ('Lady Fauconberg', 'Mrs Vansburg', 'Mrs Earle', 'Mrs Schaah', 'Miss Cholmley', 'Mrs Cheap', 'Miss Farrer', 'Sir J Sinclair President of the Royal Society'), including 'To make Royal Pancakes', 'To make Cazan Butter', 'Crème á la Madeleine', 'Crème au Petit Pain', 'Langnes de Mouton en Papoillotes' 'Duke of Norfolks Punch', 'Ham loaves', 'Treacle Beer', 'Indian Pickle', 'Receipt for Curry', 'To make a Bardawan Stew', 'Maid of Honor Cheese Cake', 'To Preserve Pineapples whole', 'To make a Buxton Pudding', 'Mrs Haslers receipt for a thick cream cheese' ('...take the mornings milk of 7 cows & the nights cream of 7 cows...'), 'To make Raisin wine' (' ...to one hundred weight of Raisins put twenty gallons of Water... add to it one gallon of French Brandy...'), some annotated ('excellent', 'a very pretty dish for supper', 'Mrs Croft a good one'); with household and medicinal receipts, ('To make and use Sand Paint', 'Mr Hays Prescription for Miss Crofts Eyes', 'To wash Cotton Stockings', 'To Clean Boots', 'Nervous Tincture'), two veterinary ('A Receipt for a Horse in the Gripes', 'To cure the Red water in Cattle'), accounts recording the cost of a three week journey to Scarborough ('...Bathing 2.6 a Time came to £2 10s 6d/ Stillington to Malton 17 miles 3 hours... Turnpikes for the Coach... 5d to go down upon the Sands...'), instructions for the planting and management of a Sea Kale bed ('...the bed should be made in December or as soon after as may be to temper with the weather... a bed will keep producing for six years it must be earthed up every year...') and hints to prevent the new pottery from Josiah Wedgwood's factory from spoiling ('...Pot Pouporee from the Carmelites at Paris... I would advise when you put them in jars in your Rooms never to put them in any thing but China as the Salt Penetrates through the Wedgwood Ware & soon moulders it away...'); some pages at end inverted; with indices, a page of handwriting exercises, a note of the birth dates of the Croft children, newspaper cuttings from the 1770's to 1790's stuck in (includes cutting from The Repository of a letter to the editor from Philologer of Sillington, 7 December 1773'), a note of 'Brydges & Walker/ Lacemen/ at the three Crowns the Corner/ of Bedford Street Covent Garden/ London' and other pencil notes on front flyleaf, indistinct ownership inscription ('Mrs Croft...') in ink on front board, c.280 pages, some pages excised, browning, staining and signs of wear, one or two small worm holes and some losses and small tears, contemporary vellum, worn, 4to (200 x 160mm.), mid eighteenth to early nineteenth centuryFootnotes:'AT STILLINGTON THE FAMILY OF THE CROFTS SHOWED US EVERY KINDNESS': RECEIPT BOOK FROM THE HOUSEHOLD OF LAURENCE STERNE'S NEIGHBOURS AND FRIENDS, THE CROFTS OF STILLINGTON.Laurence Sterne wrote his literary masterpiece, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman whilst incumbent of St Nicholas Church, Stillington, Yorkshire, a position he held from 1745 until his death in 1768. Although revered in London and Parisian society after its publication, he remained unpopular in his home parish – maybe because he chose to reside in Sutton-in-the-Forest, two miles away, or maybe due to his preference for shooting and other less salubrious pursuits over his ecclesiastical duties. However, he did become close friends with the Croft family at Stillington and Stephen Croft (1712-1798) became an intimate friend and correspondent, who helped Sterne and his wife out financially, as well as championing his works in Yorkshire society and giving him the means to travel to London to promote his book. As Sterne himself writes: 'I remained twenty years at Sutton, doing duty at both places. I had then very good health. Books, painting, fiddling and shooting were my amusements... at Stillington the family of the C__s showed us every kindness; 't was most truly agreeable to be within a mile and a half of an amiable family who were every cordial friends.' (Letters of the Late Rev. Mr. Laurence Sterne, to his Most Intimate Friends, Vol. I, 1776, p.8.). Indeed Croft is widely credited with saving the manuscript of Tristram Shandy from certain destruction. After a fine dinner at Stillington, Sterne chose to read an early draft of his novel to the assembled company. Replete with food and wine, the audience, so the story goes, '...fell asleep, at which Sterne was so nettled that he threw the Manuscript into the fire, and had not luckily Mr Croft rescued the scorched papers from the flames, the work wou'd have been consigned to oblivion.' (John Croft, 'Anecdotes of Sterne vulgarly Tristram Shandy' in The Whitefoord Papers, ed. WAS Hewins, Oxford, 1898). Stephen's brother John Croft also comments in his Anecdotes that Sterne was a 'constant Guest at my brother's Table' (Ian Campbell Ross, Laurence Sterne, A Life, Oxford, 2013, p.101) and, although much of this volume seems to date from after Sterne's time at Stillington, it would however be interesting to speculate whether he sampled any of the receipts included herein.A member of the famous Croft wine-shipping dynasty, Stephen Croft rebuilt Stillington Hall to much admiration, 'was not only an active Whig but also a man who shared Sterne's tastes in painting, music, and literature: in years to come he could commission Joshua Reynolds to paint his portrait [and] act as a director of the York Assembly Rooms...' (Campbell Ross, p.101).This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: •• Zero rated for VAT, no VAT will be added to the Hammer Price or the Buyer's Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
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