RUSHOUT, The Hon. Anne (1768-1849). Artist, diarist, botanist and poet.
'MANUSCRIPTS / collected by the / Hon. Anne Rushout', 1 vol. 4to, half-calf, worn but intact, with gilt-lettered leather label to the upper cover. A collection of some 150 separate pieces, in English and French, neatly attached to pages of good quality paper, in a variety of different hands and dating mainly from ca 1780 to 1824.

The Hon. Anne Rushout, now principally remembered as a watercolourist, was the eldest daughter of John Rushout, 1st Baron Northwick of Northwick Park and Rebecca Bowles. She and her sisters, Harriet and Elizabeth, were celebrated for their grace and beauty and were painted as 'The Three Graces' by Henry Bone, R.A. and by the miniaturist Andrew Plimer. Her principal residence was Wanstead Grove (Essex), a house which she herself designed and built (demolished 1889). She was unmarried and decidedly a bluestocking, making several visits to the Ladies of Llangollen.

The manuscripts appear in most cases to have been given to Anne Rushout by acquaintances in her circle, which included Fanny Burney (who describes in her Diary a visit to her in Wanstead in 1784). Almost all are poetry, and include charades, acrostics and riddles culled from various sources including the Thesaurus Aenigmaticus, the Satirist and The Universal Magazine. Names mentioned as writers or subjects, giving an insight into the circle in which Anne moved, include William Hayley, William Shenstone, Colley Cibber, David Garrick, Richard (Bishop) Heber, [Horace] Walpole, Walter Scott, the Sheridans and Sarah Siddons. In addition to the poetical contents there are few printed pieces and two accomplished mathematical conundrums. The principal places mentioned are Northwick Park, Worcestershire (now Gloucestershire), Wanstead Grove and Daylesford Grove.
[No: 26560]