Account and commonplace book, bound in vellum, kept and compiled by Colonel Edmund Pery between 1671 and 1681. The first part of the book contains brief memoranda of financial transactions, mainly monies lent to and borrowed from various individuals, and more complete accounts under headings such as ‘An Acount of All receits of my Cousin Sextens Interest since his death’; ‘Disbursements likewise on the same Account’; ‘An account of what moneys I payed my uncle att my being in London 1679/80’; ‘Receits since my returne from Kinsaile December 1681’; ‘Receits for the use of my uncle Mr Nicholas Batteley since the death of my Cousin Sexten being 23 of November 1671’; ‘Disbursements on the same account Feb the 20th 1671’; and ‘Due to my uncle since accounted for when in England last then owing him £56’. Upside down from the back are further memoranda of sums on money borrowed or lent. In addition to accounts, the book contains ‘A Collection of Several things fit to be knowne’. These include notes on weights and measures; a list of foreign coins and their value in pounds, shillings, and pence; various conversion tables; and a list of the countries of the known world and their acreage. There are several pages of explanations of terms of scientific nature, particularly relating to geography, topography, astronomy, physics, and mathematics. These are followed by instructions on how to ‘Know the Age of the Moon’, ‘know when the Moon is at the South by which you may know what tyme of the night is is [sic] by the Moon on a Sun Dual [sic]’; ‘find when it will be new moon in any given Month’; and ‘find Shrove Sunday’. There are also notes relating to orthography and the pronunciation and usage of English, and a table of the symbolic significance of various colours. Fifteen pages of the manuscript have been dedicated to instructions about horses. These include tips on how to identify a good horse, how to tell its age, and how to keep one in good condition, with further notes on equine ailments, and recipes for salves and potions for their treatment. These are followed by recipes for ‘A Liquor for Bootes’; ‘How to make a Cement which lasteth like marble & resisteth aier or water without disjoyning or uncementing’; ‘To make Iron or Steel exceeding hard’; ‘To make a Candle burne & continue 3 tymes as long as otherways it would; ‘To keep Wine fresh in the heat of summer tho carryed on horse back & exposed to the sun; ‘How to melt mettall quickly yea in a shell upon a little fier; ‘To make quart of good Inck’; ‘To make shott’; ‘To make Iron strong & look like silver’; ‘To make steel cutt Iron as it were Lead’; ‘To make Red Inck’; ‘To make Letters that cannot be read without the paper be put in water’; ‘To make letters that cannot be read but at the fier’; ‘To make Mellons or Cowcumbers ripe before their season’; ‘To keep Grapes fresh all the winter’; ‘To make the hands white’; ‘To take a spot of Oyl out of Cloath’; ‘To keep young Children from having pain in breeding Teeth’; ‘To mak hair not to grow’; ‘To keep flyes from flesh’; ‘To kill fleas’; ‘To take away the Tooth ach’; ‘To renue old & woren letters’; ‘To cure the sting of waspes or Bees’; and ‘To make Hair Curle’. The book concludes with a gardener’s calendar with advice on farming and gardening activities for every month of the year, and ways to predict ‘Dearth or Scarcity, Plenty, Sickness, Heat, Cold, frosts, snow, winds, Rain, Hail, Thunder &c’ from nature. To Pery’s observations have been added sheep, cattle, and butter accounts for 1724, 1725-1726, and 1729 by a different hand, possibly by Pery’s son, the Reverend Stackpole Pery.
