Leonora Meadowson in Sams's Royal Subscription Library, 1826

Haywood’s The History of Miss Leonora Meadowson (London: Francis Noble, 1788) is a two-volume collection of four, short works, only the first of which is by Haywood—this being the titular “Leonora Meadowson,” which is a lightly-revised reprint of Haywood’s Cleomelia: Or, The Generous Mistress (1726).

In addition to a 1997 conference paper and a long entry in my 2004 Bibliography, I have published two essays on Leonora Meadowson: “Eliza Haywood’s last (‘lost’) work: The History of Miss Leonora Meadowson (1788)” (BSANZ Bulletin, 1999)—which announced my 1997 (re-)discovery of a copy at the Fales Library in New York—and “Twice-Told Tales in Eliza Haywood’s Leonora Meadowson” (Notes and Queries, 2016)—which corrects my mistaken attribution to Haywood of the three shortest works in this anthology.

In my 1997 conference paper and 1999 essay, I explained how rare it is to find any reference at all to Haywood’s long-lost work. After a prolonged and extensive search, diligently pursued, I had found practically nothing. The “puny discovery” (1999:43) of a single advertisement, in another book issued by Noble, was all the reward I had for my efforts—until I accidently discovered a copy of the book at the Fales library in 1997.

Above is one of the blurry, ye-olde-tech photos I took of my discovery in 1997:

Over twenty-five years later, it is obviously very quick and easy to repeat and extend my previous, broad-scale searches for “some record, even if only a trace, of the fleeting existence of this ‘lost’ book” (1999:43)—and I am pleased to say that I found something more.

What I found is only another trace—but the location of that trace is interesting. In the essay I wrote on my search for, and discovery of a copy of Leonora Meadowson, I explain that:

“the main outlet for [the Noble bothers’] new publications was through wholesale distribution to other circulating libraries and to retail outlets. Leonora Meadowson appears never to have made it to this stage of distribution, or to have barely started it. If the book had been distributed, we would find it listed in the catalogues of dozens of the circulating libraries that the Nobles supplied; but, as I have shown above, it is not to be found in any of them. ” (1999:40)

I can now replace “not to be found in any of them” with “only to be found in one of them”—in the Catalogue of Sams’s Royal Subscription Library, No. 1 St James Street London (London: Joseph Sams, [1826]), 168 (no. 6658): “History of Miss Leonora Meadowson. a Novel, 2 vols. 12mo. 6s” (available here)

This “puny discovery” doesn’t change my original analysis, since finding just one entry in a circulating library catalogue supports my interpretation that the process of distribution can have only “barely started” for the book to disappear so comprehensively since. If anything, it offers more support for my interpretation, which is nice.

I will keep searching for traces of Leonora Meadowson. As more ephemeral publications (like the Catalogue of Sams’s Royal Subscription Library) are scanned and published online, it is possible that I will find yet more traces, but as I approach nearly thirty years of searching (!), my expectations are very modest indeed.