Global Encounters and the Archives: Britain’s Empire in the Age of Horace Walpole

Observations made by Mrs. Percivall when in London, 1713 or 1714

In a letter to her friend Elvira, the Englishwoman Mrs. Percivall describes a masquerade that took place at the Haymarket playhouse in London and evokes the fantasies that a global British Empire spurred in the metropole. "Imagination cannot form any thing more Amazing and diverting than the infinite Number of habits of all nations Sexts [sic] and Religons [sic] which compose a Masquerade," she declares (57); "here Indian Kings make love to Milk Maids" (58) and one might encounter "Sparkling Witt, from a Mulata [sic; a woman of black and white parentage] and all the politeness of a Lady bred at the most refined European Court from the Appearance of a Gypsey [sic]" (59). Conjuring the East, she declares that, "had Mahomet known the charms of a Masquerade he would have promised his followers that kind of paradice" (59). Catalog Record

Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University Library

Mrs. Percivall

Bound Manuscript CollectionThis collection includes over 300 volumes of a diverse set of material relating to political, religious, literary and domestic life in the eighteenth-century British world. Extent: over 300 volumes Summary: This extensive and diverse collection of bound manuscripts both supplements the other manuscript collections highlighted in this exhibition, but also stands as a largely untapped and robust resource for any scholar studying eighteenth-century Britain and her Empire. It includes several diaries and commonplace books of prominent political and religious figures, travel journals, account books, autograph books, engravings and religious writings. In addition, the bound manuscripts collection contains more ephemeral items such as recipe books, newspaper clippings, broadsides, songbooks, tickets and much more that offer a glimpse into daily and domestic life. This vast collection is an incredibly rich trove of material that mirrors eighteenth-century society in full, offering insight into anything from high philosophical and political debates to concerns and daily life of the family. Whether consulted in tandem with other collections or on its own, this collection promises to be invaluable for any scholar of the eighteenth-century British world.