This! It’s the fantastic drawing that makes this one of my very favorite pieces of paper I’ve had in my possession, depicting what I first took for mermaids but believe may rather represent Lamia—a mythological child-eating monster and, in later tradition, regarded as a type of night-haunting spirit.
The hand-written text surrounding the drawing—bearing the signature of a Lucy B. Howard, and which my favorite handwriting expert dates to 1830 or so, with its writer having learn to write c. 1805-10 due to the mix of handwriting styles—make it all the more curious. Some of it is a bit difficult to make sense of, but here’s a deciphering of one section, written on the reverse side, perhaps in a different hand altogether but which seems it might have a connection to the drawing:
Little is neglected though I am, I do my work by day,
I dwell within my own doors and calm pass my time away
But mean revenge walks abroad and shows its tracks by day
Then with double guilt drops its head, holds its peace and meanly skulks away.
But stop, stop forever my hasty rattling pen
Tis folly to follow revenge Idiots him that to night walks will descend.”
Otherwise it seems conceivable that the rest are math-related word problems, though they seem partial. One is clear:
A man being asked the time / of day took out his watch and said / The time past twelve at noon / Was just equal to four fifths of the time / From then til twelve at / night. What time was it when he took his watch out.
So perhaps Lucy was studying math. Or perhaps she was a mystic!? Definitely this has a very gothic flavor! I would frame it laid flat to the drawing side and never tire of looking and this drawing and wondering about the life of Lucy.
7 5/8” x 5 5/8”. Drawing itself meanders 5 3/4” x 3”. General wear and some scattered stains but overall good condition, with the ink clear and bold, and no tears in the paper, just old fold lines, though it lies flat now.
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