ABSTRACT

The manuscript is held in the Berg Collection, New York Public Library, and is catalogued as ‘The English mail coach: Dream-fugue’. It is one page, measuring 285 by 185 mm, with writing in black ink on both recto and verso. The recto, however, is actually two separate pieces of paper: a shorter sheet has been aligned at the top and sides, and then pasted down over a longer sheet. The paste down is the opening passage of the manuscript, running from ‘Thus as we ran like torrents’ to ‘‹in a moment›’. It has not been possible to read or retrieve the writing underneath the paste down. The bottom sheet becomes visible at ‘of {↑ massiest} purple granite’. The paste down is gray wove; the bottom sheet is a yellowing laid paper with part of a watermark visible.