Manuscript 

(BIN) Small manuscript in dark blue extra gilt morocco, in a morocco slipcase dated '1816'. Blank unlined pages at the back.||(PRV) Inscription of fourth free endpaper 'Riddles | Harriet Caesar Chester | Bush Hall | August, 1818 (CON) Contains 18 hand-written riddles, answers provided on the first free end paper. The fifth riddle, beginning "Kitty a fair, but forward maid", recalls that partially recited by the character of Mr. Woodhouse in Jane Austen's Emma (1816) - "Kitty a fair, but frozen maid". The traditional answer to both variants, given in this manuscript, is chimney sweep. For alternate meanings and consideration of Austen's use of the riddle see Jillian Heydt-Stevenson's Austen's Unbecoming Conjunctions: Subversive Laughter Embodied History (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005) and Lona Manning's 'From “Namby-Pamby” to “Sinister”: The Meaning and Significance of “Kitty, a Fair but Frozen Maid” in Austen’s Emma', Persuasions, Vol. 43 No.1, Winter 2022. 

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