Gentlemans Magazine

The manuscript Memoirs of Thomas Whaley, now first published, are known to have been in existence ever since 1800, the year in which the writer died. They are mentioned in an obituary notice of him which appeared in The Gentlemans Magazine at the time, but they are supposed to have passed out of the hands of the family some forty or fifty years ago,1 since which time the place of their disposal has been a mystery, and even their existence a matter of considerable doubt. The unknown owners had been appealed to from time to time, by persons interested in the social history of Ireland during the latter portion of the eighteenth century, to make their contents public,2 but such suggestions do not seem to have reached the ears of those for whom they were intended.

Some little time ago, by a lucky accident, I happened to purchase in a London auction room what I recognised to be an interesting example of Irish binding, in the characteristic style of decoration common in Dublin at the close of the eighteenth Century, consisting of two handsome 4to volumes of manuscript bound in red morocco, inlaid and tooled in gold, and lettered on the back “Travels by T. W.”

After investigation of the contents—in which I was materially assisted by Mr. Henry F. Berry, I.S.O., of the Public Record Office, Dublin (to whom I am indebted for much other valuable aid and information)—I discovered that these volumes were the original manuscript Memoirs of Thomas Whaley so long missing, and which, as I have learned from enquiries since made, seem to have been for many years passing from hand to hand amongst English book-collectors, their preservation in all probability being attributable rather to their gold-tooled covers than to the more or less anonymous story which they contained.

The work was obviously compiled with a view to publication during the lifetime of the writer, who refers to his intention to publish it by subscription ;2 but the statement which has been made in many quarters, that the author had left directions to his executors to print the Memoirs, is not supported by anything to be found in his will, which may be seen at the Public Record Office in Dublin.