Geoffrey Neate (ed.), Memoirs of the City and University of Oxford in 1738 together with Poems, Odd Lines, Fragments & Small Scraps, by ‘Shepilinda’ (Elizabeth Sheppard) (Oxford Historical Society New Series Vol. 47: Oxford, The Boydell Press, 2018), xxxii + 132 pp. ISBN: 9780904107296.
This chapter looks at Geoffrey Neate's present edition on the account of Elizabeth Sheppard of Oxford in January of 1737–8, written under the pen-name of ‘Shepilinda’. The main part of Shepilinda's manuscript is a tour of the Colleges made in the company of an older woman who is nicknamed ‘Scrippy’, and who is the dedicatee of the manuscript. The tour is largely arranged topographically, starting with Worcester in the west and ending with Magdalen in the east. There are then accounts of the academic halls, including the self-consciously bogus one of ‘Frog Hall’, which is actually Shepilinda's family home. This part of the manuscript ends with a description of the Bodleian Library, and the traditions associated with May Day and St. Scholastica's Day. The second, and shorter, part of her manuscript comprises some short poems.