A guide to the Manuscripts and Documents
in connection with the book
Places of the Mind:
the Life and work of James Thomson (“B.V.”)
as arranged in 58 numbered cardboard wallets,
with 2 ring binders, card index to early research,
and roll of maps
Glasgow University Special Collections Ms 1568
Tom Leonard
In the manuscripts common references are as follows:
Bodleian and British LIbrary research, wallet 20
Ba, Blu= Bodleian (intially blue binder) Thomson unpublished works and notes wallet 20
BR=Black binder notes as wallet 29
BL, Bla=Black loose leaf ringbinder, numbered on cover as 27
LR1,2=London Research as wallet 20
RF=Red File as wallet 28
Sa=Henry Salt research notes from 1880’s as photocopied from Rationalist Press Association, now with Bodleian. Wallet 46.
The text submitted to Cape (Wallets 59-61 ) uses numbers not written out, ie 19 appears as such, not nineteen as in published book. The original was deliberate and remains my preference.
Tom Leonard September 19th 1996
1
Our Lady of Oblivion: first four chapters of what began as a thesis, with some notes
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2
James Thomson of Port Glasgow: nine chapters, with appendices on Matilda Weller and Charles Brodie’s research, plus working sheets, of first attempt at book.
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3
Essays: Some Notes on Edward Irving and the Irvingites in Port Glasgow at the Time of Thomson’s birth; Some Notes on the Female as Redeemer in Thomson’s Poetry; John Cumming—A Millenialist Contemporary of James Thomson; 2 articles for the Scotsman—Matilda Weller, Charles Brodie’s research
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4
Essay Mater Tenebrarum, with working towards it.
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Places of the Mind: Text
5
Drafts of Introduction/ Preface
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6
Drafts of Chapters One and Two
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7
Drafts of Chapters Three and Four
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8
Drafts of Chapters Five and Six
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9
Drafts of Chapter Seven
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10
Drafts of Chapter Eight
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11
Drafts of Chapters Nine and Ten
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12
Drafts of Chapters Eleven and Twelve
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13
Drafts of Chapters Thirteen and Fourteen
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14
Drafts of Chapters Fifteen and Sixteen
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15
Drafts of Chapters Seventeen and Eighteen
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16
Drafts of Chapters Nineteen and Twenty
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17
Drafts of Chapters Twenty-One and Twenty-Two
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18
Drafts of Notes to Chapters
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19
Drafts of Appendices and Index
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20
Notes from Thomson Manuscript and other pure research
material: five sets of pages held with plastic spineholders:
Transcribed copies of unpublished Thomson poems and translations in the Bodleian and British Library; with notes from theThomson collection mss. Pages numbered to 68, plus 16 pages containing 15 of the unpublished poems typed.
pencil notes from Thomson manuscripts in the Bodleian Library
(“LR1” ie London Research 1) notes from Public Record Office, Census Office, also Bodleian Library Oxford
Notes from Caledonian Asylum documents; Public Record Office London, Edinburgh, Mitchell Library Geneology section; London Archives; East Finchley Archive LIbrary,
Chronological listings of Thomson’s poems and where published, with bibliography from Schaefer’s Beyond the City.
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21
Thomson’s translation of Novalis’s Hymns to the Night: transcription of Dobell’s transcription in Bodleian, then typed, then with suggested emendations by Simon Reynolds ( subsequent editor of Novalis and the Poets of Pessimism); with PN Review August 1994 containing first full publication of the translation.
Photocopy of Schiller’s Saïs poem.
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22
Letters and Replies in connection with the research:
Bruce Leeming (Brodie’s research) 1976-93; Church of Scotland Edinburgh, London; Greenock Telegraph; Royal Army Education Corps; ; Rationalist Press Association; Scottish Maritime Musuem ; Royal Caledonian School;
Tim Looney, Ballincollig; Bodleian Library; Dublin PRO; Census office;
Hugh McIntyre Port Glasgow 1977-85; Val Shepherd; Highgate Cemetery; David Tribe. Greetings card about research 1990 .
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23
Sundry notes, Narratives and chronologies of individual people and events from the diaries 1874-82 and the American journals;
with calendars for 1874-82 showing dates of Thomson entries and those photocopied as per wallets 39-45.
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24
Drafts of chronologies of the life and works of Thomson:
Work 1852-82. 2) life 1834-62 with list of poems as written in different barracks
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25
Chronologies: 158 page year by year guide to Thomson’s life 1834-82; the work 1852-82; Irvingite activity 1825-43. With some notes on influences on reverse pages facing dated poems.
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26
The City of Dreadful Night:
Photocopy of manuscript in the Pierpont LIbrary New York, in two parts;
Photocopy first publication City of Dreadful Night, National Reformer 1874;
National Reformer “Crowded Table” review of CDN book publication 1880.
Summary TL notes on the poem.
Paper cuttings: Herald centenary article; Saturday Review ditto; TLS review of Thinkers Library CDN 1933
Heath-Stubbs on Thomson and CDN; Cohen’s Thomson and his Wicked Brother; Robert Crawford’s Thomson and Eliot; Robertson on CDN; MacDiarmid centenary essay; TL review of Canongate 1994 CDN
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27
Black Loose Leaf binder—cross referred elsewhere eg the chronologies, as BF— containing contents page and pages numbered to 179, with written notes on:
Works and references on Irving and the Irvingite movement in Port Glasgow and London; the Shorter Catechism; Charles Bradlaugh;
criticism of Thomson; Walter McLeod; notes on Salt’s mss; parliamentary papers on army; alcoholism; The Times notes on Caledonian Asylum; dressmaking references; site of Thomson’s birth.
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28
Red loose Leaf binder—cross referred elsewhere eg the chronologies, as RF—containing contents page and pages numbered to 206, with written notes on:
Thomson’s Leopardi translations; Thomson’ s Shelley, Biographical and Critical Studies, Cope’s Tobacco Plant, Poems Essays and Fragments, Walt Whitman, Sarpolus of Mardon, Mr Save-his-soul-alive-o, Thomson’s contributions to National Reformer, Fraser’s Magazine.
Chronological list of Thomson’s poems, with brief notes on each.
Three 3-part narratives: Women in Thomson’s poetry 1852-62, 1863-73, 1874-82
Religion in Thomson’s Poetry 1852-62, 1863-73,1874-82;
Time and Consciousness in Thomson’s Poetry 1852-62,1863-73, 1874-82.
Schaefer on Thomson; Maccall’s memoir; some theses on Thomson; Meredith, Mangan, Garth Wilkinson, Carlyle, Coleridge, Byron, Keats, Shelley possible influences. Clough De Quincey Poe Baudelaire; listed dates works of Wordsworth Scott Crabbe Blake Hogg.
The Farmer Collection letters regarding Thomson’s birthplace.
The research of Charles Brodie; Port Glasgow register entry of birth.
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29
“BB” File: cross referenced elsewhere in the mss as eg “BB 28”, ie Black Binder file page 28. Contents page and pages numbered to 243 with written notes and extracts which include:
Irvingism in London and the West of Scotland; report on St. Mary’s District
London 1844; reports about the Caledonian Asylum in TheTimes 1840s; Rev John Cumming, extracts from works; Horae Apocalypticae; Journal of
Rev. Tod Brown, Caledonian church minister; sundry extracts from Parliamentary Reports 1850, 1858 & 1862 about Army education, pay, schooling, books used, attitude and conditions of army schoolmasters and pupils; journals of Sir John Benn Walsh, Cork landowner; Ireland, Ballincollig and Dublin 1850s; material about Charles Bradlaugh and secularism; 26 pages of excerpts from Thomson’s contributions to The Secularist 1876-77; Novalis in translation; National Reformer 1860’s, Thomson’s “Jottings” 1874-5; Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine; some Thomson contributions to Cope’s Tobacco Plant 1875-80; some letters to Henry Salt in Bodleian; Dublin barracks; Conway Hall secularist events; Thomson maternal family tree.
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30
Miscellaneous Handwritten sheets in five sections, put together in a not too exact way as:
1. Pages with workings of sections of Places of the Mind.
2. Notes to do with the arrangement of the book.
3. Notes highlighting things from the Red Folder, Black Folder, Black Book and
other notebooks.
4. Notes made prior to or at Public Record Offices, census offices, geneology
records, libraries.
5. Sequence of typed poem extracts 1852-62.
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31
Three small notebooks 6 inches by 4 :
A green and gold notebook with miscellaneous notes front and back, the front mainly notes researching in London, the back references about Secularism.
A n “Atholl Series” notebook with reference notes made mainly researching in London and elsewhere.
. A blue notebook with pages dated per year and some entries on Bradlaugh and secularism.
Miscellaneous loose small written sheets, mostly compressed notes about Bodleian material, and others including page references to Garth Wilkinson’s the Human Body, notes on Thomson’s diary in Spain and America, list of Moxon Poetry texts edited by W M Rossetti, extract of a letter of W.M. Rossetti to Dobell about B.V.
Six pages of notes on Tribe’s Life of Charles Bradlaugh.
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32
Photographs: Sixteen photographs as follows: 1. Ms untitled prose fiction extract by Thomson from Bodliean Ms.Don.d.108. 2. Ms conclusion to Thomson poem “the dice to play this dubious game of life” 1858, Bodleian Ms.don.d.108. 3,4. Two 1961 photographs of shop building (since demolished) claimed by Charles Brodie to be wherein Thomson was born
James Thomson 1860 6. James Thomson 1869 7. James Thomson 1881 (posed reading probably 1st edition of The City of Dreadful Night)
Engraving view of Port Glasgow early 19th century 9 Etching from Illustrated London News: The juvenile band of the Caledonian Asylum 1847
Charles Bradlaugh 1859 11. officers relaxing at the Curragh camp
12. Central City Colorado 1869 13. Idaho Springs 1869
Don Carlos with his entourage Spanish civil war 1873 15. Ship Street Barracks Dublin 16. Melencolia 1, etching by Albrecht Durer 1514
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33
Miscellaneous word processor draft pages from the text, most with some written emendation at some point
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34
Miscellaneous tickets and guides to libraries used; with reference notes for Mitchell LIbrary, National LIbrary Scotland, Watt Library Greenock.
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35
Death Certificates: James Thomson; Sarah Thompson; James Potterton.
Birth Certificates: Agnes Gray; Matilda Weller
Photocopies: Brodie’s 1895 facsimile of Sarah Kennedy’s 1831 letter;
Brodie’s Thomson paternal family tree (with emendations by T Leonard); Brodie notes on back of tree.
Completed application form and petition for Thompson to enter Caledonian Asylum 1842; 1861Census showing Gray family home, census Birkmyres.
Current (1992) illustrated booklet/prospectus for Royal Caledonian Schools, with reprint of 1815 charter.
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Photocopies:
Thomson’s Diaries:
36
Diary 1872 Colorado (social diary, complete)
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37
Diary 1872 Colorado (business diary, complete)
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38
Diary/notebook 1873 Journey to France, Spain for Carlist War reporting (complete)
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39
Diary 1874
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40
Diary 1876
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41
Diary 1877
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42
Diary 1878
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43
Diary 1879
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44
Diary 1880
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45
Diary 1881
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46
Henry Salt’s notes towards his Life of Thomson
sometimes referred to elsewhere as RPA, ie Rationalist Press Association, in whose library they were before being transferred to the Bodleian.
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47
Bertam Dobell’s memoir to Thomson’s Collected Poems 1895
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48
Thomson: 15 poems as published in the Collected Poems 1895; with photocopies of their first appearance in Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine 1857-9
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49
Copies of poems from the Collected Poems of 1895 with very occasional margin comment, and occasionally cut for purposes of an anthology.
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50
Thomson’s translations of Heine in the Jersey Independent 1862; National Reformer—Thomson’s review of Emerson’s Conduct of Life; some of the “Jottings” columns; material about John Cumming in National Reformer and Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine; James Thomson by Frank Harris; Thomson by GW Foote (from Progress); Gnosticism; Diary of W.M. Rossetti; Imogen Walker’s James Thomson, In the Room section; Copes’s Tobacco Plant—Thomson on Spenser; article by another writer; illustration to supplement 1877. Thomson’s essay on Heine in Progress 1885; Holyoake’s report on Thomson’s funeral; Swedenborg The Divine Love of Wisdom; Platonic Love; 19th century map of Jersey; contemporary attack on Julian Harvey editor of the Jersey Independent when Thomson in Jersey;
adverts for 1860 Jersey Races; Journey through Arabia, Petra to Mt Sinai.
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51
Jordan: The Present State of the Poor in Dublin 1856; Corps of Army Schoolmasters; Journals of Sir John Benn Walsh; Inspection of Royal Military Asylum (Edinburgh Review); Shelley letter on trial of Richard Carlile; Fasti of Church of Scotland—ministers of Caledonian Church; Rev Tod Brown: The Union of Christians; Norman McLean: The Life of J Cameron Lees; distances asylum to nearest Scottish churches; maps, architectual plans of school huts, economic tables regarding the Curragh Camp 1856; Description of Ballincollig; army uniforms; extract on Richmond Barracks; maps of Dublin 1864, 1916. Cork and the famine.
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52
Austin Holyoake— The Secularist’s Manual; Does their Exist a Moral Governor of the Universe?; Thoughts on Atheism; David the Dreamer; Thoughts in the Sick Room (National Reformer 1874). Charles Watts:Reminiscences of Johnson’s Court; Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner: In the Days of My Youth; Childish Recollections of James Thomson. Present System of Supplying the Metropolis with Water 1845; Davies: Dr Cumming in Crown Court, and in Europe; The Ritual of Infidelity; An Atheist’s Funeral. James John Garth Wilkinson: Swedenborg; The Human Body and its Connection with Man; a memoir by Wilkinson’s son. Maccall: The Elements of Individualism; Besant’s review of T.R. Wright’s Practical Politics.
Adams: Memoirs of a Social Atom. Charles Mackay: Life of Charles Bradlaugh. Gavin : The Unhealthiness of London.
Dictionary of British Radicals: Adams, Bradlaugh, Cooper, Foote, G.J.Holyoake, Austin Holyoake, W.J.Linton, Massey, Taylor.
DNB: Blind, Madox Brown, Professor Clifford, Dobell, W.M. Rossetti,
William Macall.
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53
Thomson : Shelley:—Notes on the structure of Prometheus Unbound, A Note on Shelley, Moxon’s Shelley, Correspondence with Rossetti about Shelley.
Thomson’s contributions to the Liberal: Huxley on Hume, Heine translations, Two Leaves of a Fadeless Rose.
Thomson: Seen Thrice a London Study (Progress 1885)
James Thomson: Sarpolus of Mardon; Schopenhauer. Cope’s: Thomson on Baudelaire, Gautier.
Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams (Oedipus);
encyclopaedia entries on Sphinx
Half Hours with the Freethinkers 1868: Shelley, Hume, Descartes, Spinoza, D’Holbach;
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54
Ker: Observations on Mrs Oliphant’s life of Irving; Coleridge on Irving; Robertson attack on Irvingites; Erskine on gift of tongues; Memoir of George and James McDonald; Prophetical Works of Irving; The Catholic Apostolic Church; Fasti, Macleod Campbell, Robert Story; DNB Hatley Frere;
Isabella Campbell Peace in Believing. Statistical Account Port Glasgow; maps Port Glasgow, Renfrew, Dumbartonshire; Norman McKim: The Port Born Poet and the Boglestone
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55
National Reformer: Thomson: Section 3 of A Lady of Sorrow ; Leopardi translations; review of Flaubert; translation of de Beranger; The Hyde Park Meeting 1861; Thomson’s Heine translations from Collected Poems;
Cayley’s translation of Dante.
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56
Colorado history; Wells Fargo in Colorado; Idaho Creek entry; 4 maps 19th century Central City area; maps Basque region France and Spain, with one highlighted in yellow at places in Thomson Carlist journal;
Shelley and necessity; necessity versus Christianity; Shelley’s doctrine of Love; Coleridge’s transcendentalism; Cameron’s Volney’s Ruins of Empire and The Revolt of Islam
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57
copies of sections of Stanford’s 19th century map of London
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58
Card index box with cards detailing books used and references to Red Files etc, from early to perhaps a third way through research.
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Places of the Mind: three spiral-bound texts as submitted to Jonathan Cape for publication.
59
Parts 1 - 3.
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60
Part 4 to end.
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61
Notes at rear of book.
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62
Tom Leonard: Places of the Mind, the Life and Work of James Thomson (“B.V.”) Jonathan Cape 1993.
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