ABSTRACT
Long John Brown' and 'William Bond' are poems with a similar village background, perhaps suggesting a like date within the Felpham period. John Adlard, in Sports of Cruelty, 1972, notes various folksong parallels which may perhaps derive from William Blake's Felpham stay. 'The Grey Monk' is derived from the Notebook, and seems to derive from a combination of circumstances in 1804; it carries 'The Golden Net, in the same group in the Notebook, with it. These details suggest that the Pickering Manuscript is not earlier than 1804 as it stands. The development of thought and imagery of 'The Mental Traveller' to some extent supports this, though this poem may be as early as 1801-02. The other poems provide no clues. These considerations suggest a date for the Manuscript, which is a neat fair copy, of about 1805.
