Place of Origin

England

Date of Composition

1723-1724

Description

This cookbook of 207 leaves, written by Ann Clifrton in the years 1723-1724, contains 546 receipts for the principal dishes of dinner and for preserves. Suggested "Bills of Fare" are written on three leaves at the beginning of the book and on three leaves following the last recipe. The volume ends with diagrams of "first corse" options and "second corse" options.

At some point, this book may have been in the possession of Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Oxford (1717-1797), a writer, antiquarian, and Whig politician who built Strawberry Hill, a Gothic Revival mansion in Twickenham, a London suburb. The book contains his bookplate, and the volume is titled on the spine of the 19th century calf cover, "Receipts in cookery Mss. Horace Walpole Strawberry Hill."