C. W.J. CHILD manuscript 'Poetical Works' an enthusiastic young man tries his hand at poetry 1827-33

Coles William John CHILD (1813-1873).

[POETRY] A 104-page manuscript, titled ‘C.W.J. Child’s / Poetical Works’. [No place, but the UK: poems dated between 1827 and 1833, but album watermarked ‘John Hall / 1829’]. Small quarto (8 7/8 x 7 ½ inches; 225 x 190mm). Pp. [1-4], '1'- '104' pages of poetry in ink in a single legible hand, some poems dated, followed by 84 lightly-ruled but otherwise blank pages. Original vellum over board, lettered in ink on the upper cover ‘Poems’ and ‘C. Child’ on the lower cover. Provenance: by descent (bought at auction).

An enthusiastic young man tries his hand at poetry – Anne or Ann Holden features prominently. The final poem suggests a doomed romance.

There are approximately 50 separate pieces varying in length from 12 lines to 10 ½ pages. Starting when he was 14,  Coles Child writes on a wide range of subjects: ‘Written to commemorate a fight at Mr. Holdens…’; ‘Lines on the Horse..’; ‘Some of the first effusions of my Muse’; ‘On Edward’s falling from a ladder’; ‘Written on breaking my own Nose against the Wall..’; ‘Three anonymous letters to Mary Brittell’; ‘Lines on hearing of the death of Miss Roberts’; ‘On leaving Buxted’; ‘To Susan Palethorpe’; ‘To Mary Brettle [sic],  an ugly devil!’; ‘On hearing a young lady say “she had never shed a tear”’; ‘On returning Miss Ann Holden’s portrait’; ‘Epitaph for a monument to the memory of Isaac Field Esq. & his only son Jno. Child Field Child in Yately Church. Written by request’; ‘Youthful Hours. This long rambling poem was written at different periods of my life, commenced about 1831 & concluded in 1833’.

One of the longest ‘titles’ is of a similar length to the poem in precedes: ‘The following lines were written on the occasion of my having one morning (June 7. 1831) peeped into the parlour window at Mr. Holdens, & detected Miss Ann, with her petticoats, as Mathew says “pretty particularly considerably” high, & intently engaged in tying her Garter, she was too much occupied to see me, & I therefore enjoyed a very leisure[ly] survey of one of the prettiest legs  in all Christendom, it was an occasion that I could hardly suffer to pass without comment, & the same evening she was presented with these verses, which she thought “ungenteel”’

Coles William John Child (23 March 1813 - 16 Jan 1873) m. in 1850 to Elizabeth Letitia Jones (d.1911). He was the son of Coles Child and Ann Martha Stahlischmidt. He held the office of Deputy Lieutenant and the office of Justice of the Peace, he was also Lord of the Manors of Bromley Kent, East Farleigh and East Peckham.