ABSTRACT
Elizabeth Inchbald kept her diary of 1781 (designated Folger M. a. 151) in THE LADIES’ Own Memorandum-Book: OR, DAILY POCKET JOURNAL, For the YEAR 1781, published yearly in London by G. Robinson, No. 25, Paternoster Row, and T. Slack, Newcastle. The cost of the book was one shilling. The title page describes the journal as being ‘Designed as a Methodical Register of all their Transactions of Business, as well as Amusement’, and is announced as being written ‘By a LADY’. The 1781 journal consists of seventy-nine unnumbered leaves, though it originally had more, as at least two leaves (probably blank) have been cut out of the front. Th is pocketbook is bound in a plain brown leather cover with a double line embossed around the edges. Both front and back covers have pockets (now empty), and the front cover has a flap that probably once folded over all of the pages. The pocketbook measures roughly 12.5 cm in length by 8 cm in width by 1.5 cm in thickness. Th is pocketbook is extremely fragile and (as of 2007) is held together with a white ribbon. The cover is flaking away at the edges, and the first (blank) leaf is completely loose. At some point, the year 1781 was written on the cover and now is barely visible on the leather. Additionally, the numeral 12 – presumably the volume number – is still visible in black ink on the cover.
