In Duke Humfrey's Library

I've at last managed to allocate some time to TOGW, for the first time this month. I ordered the five manuscripts in the collection I'm sifting on Wednesday, and was surprised to find seven volumes waiting for me - MSS Rawl. Letters 76 consists of three stout volumes, whereas 77-80 consist of one slim volume each. Unfortunately they all had a lot to do with seventeenth-century Dutch scholarship, were mainly written in Latin with a little Dutch and French, and had nothing to do with my subject. So, they were dispatched in half an hour - and two hours on, I am of course still waiting for the next batch of MSS to arrive. This isn't unusual of course, but it does leave me wandering around Oxford with a laptop for a chunk of the afternoon when I could be doing some work.

Bodleian broadside ballads

While waiting for manuscripts to turn up, I had a look at the Bodleian broadside ballads website. I'm surprised that I hadn't made more use of it. There are some good illustrations and examples of how folk song could be turned to political purposes - so 'A-begging I will go' is reworked into two songs ridiculing George I for being both a cuckold and controlled by his mistress (or mistresses, depending on whom you believe). The example is here.

Off now to SocT's fireworks, if I can find them, as I'm still in Woodstock and the society is assembling on Magdalen Bridge round about now.