| Description | Index to the volume at front. The pages are numbered inconsistently to indicate single or double pages.
Page 1 - Note on limit to costs on recovery of common debts; note on woollen goods measured in the hand are greater than when laid on the ground.
Page 2 - Notes on kitchen flues, stoves, range and windows.
Page 3 - Note on terms for the letting of the Duke of Bedford's estate. Note on separate positioning of stables.
Page 4 - Copy of letter from George Dance, Architect to the City of London, to James Wyatt, on the terms for the letting of the City's premises, written from Salisbury Street, 19 May 1784.
Page 5-6 - Notes on dry rot, including speculation about its origins as a disease and specific instances relating to individual London properties, one note dated July 1784.
Page 7 - Note on land surveying on the usual custom of including a yard for the ditch beyond the stake as part of the estate.
Page 8 - Notes on wine cellars, 6 July 1784.
Page 9 - Notes on the construction of Westminster Bridge, under direction of Charles Labelye and Richard Graham ( 1736-1737).
Pages 10-11 - Notes on brickmaking, including extract from a letter written by Thomas Scutt of Brightelmstone and calculations, 1785-1786.
Page 12 - Copy of extract from letter of Mr W. Cole, engine maker, about recommendations for a pump, written at Lambeth, 19 Mar 1785.
Page 13 - Table of dimensions and prices of drawing paper: continuation of note from page 12 about pump.
Page 14 - Notes on ventilation of timber, one note dated, March 1801.
Page 15-16 - Copy of accounts for the expense of the 50 new churches built in London by Sir Christopher Wren; notes on building of St Paul's Covent Garden built by Inigo Jones, copied from "The World", 28 June 1788.
Page 17 - Notes of "Political Calculations", about rents of lands in England and mortality rates in France: note on bugs not harbouring in bedsteads made of yew.
Page 18 - Notes on plaister and Derbyshire plaister [plaster].
Page 19 - Calculations on compound interest (referring to the National Debt, calculating back to the time of Christ's birth and a comparison with the size of gold: sketch of elevation and section of an ice well.
Page 20 - Prices of pig lead from merchants Lancaster Bax and Ellill, owed by Richard Robinson, 1786-1787 (related memorandum on page 41).
Pages 21-22 - Calculations of expenses of lime making, including those supposedly made at Erith, Kent, c1785, and at Aldwark near Rotherham, 1789.
Page 23 - Notes on costs of respective purchases of last part of Gibbon's Roman History, Paley's Moral and Political Philsophy, and Robertson's History of Charles V, taken the Public Advertiser, 6 March 1788.
Page 24 - Recipe of vegetable syrup for scurvy, by T. Hucking, Cambridge, Dec 1787, copied from the Morning Herald, 7 March 1788; recipe of Sir William Fordyce for a half headache (side on one side of the face).
Page 25 - Notes on slates, including copy of part of letter on prices by Mr Williams, superintendent at Llandegai near Bangor, Carnavonshire, directde to Willaim Southwood, slater, 16 Grays Buildings, Manchester Sqaure, London, 19 Feb 1788, note of prices at Aldwark, 1788, and note on Tavistock slate.
Pages 26-27 - Assorted notes on cement for broken stone, cleaning marble, size of ale butts, buff coloured wash, pencil drawings, cisterns, recipes for blacking shoes and clouring boots tops.
Page 28 - Method of preventing putrefaction in the bodies of birds, taken from the Public Advertiser, 6 Oct 1789.
Page 29 - Recipes for taking grease and writing ink out of paper and for a substitute for Indian ink.
Pages 30-31 - Calculations and notes for design of sash windows.
Page 32 - Extract from letter on Lord Dundonald's Coal Tar, written by Dr Black to Mr Cappe, Edinburgh, 12 Feb 1789.
Pages 33-34 - Notes on whitewashing, plastering, laths and lime.
Page 35 - Notes on copper sheets
Page 36 - Notes on use of copper in Lord Folio's house, Chandos Street, Marylebone, about 35 years previously, 17 Nov 1789 (continued on page 65).
Page 37 - Note on price of glass for Glass House, Ratcliffe Highway.
Page 38 - Continuation of notes on page 25 on slate, including on Lord Penryn's patent slates, taken from Mr Worthington's letter, 26 Aug 1806.
Page 39 - Not on engrossing stationery prices.
Pages 41-42 - Memorandum on lead, wth particulare reference to use in cisterns.
Page 43 - Notes on delivery of bricks at Aldwark, 1787, and on measuring quantities of lime and sand.
Page 45 - Notes on prices of stone, including on carriage of Rock Abbey stone to Aldwark near Rotherham, 1789, and delivery at Chester from William Freeman of Cromwell Bottom, 9 Aug 1806.
Pages 46-48 - Two sketches of octagons, with note on how to make the figure of one from a square.
Page 49 - Note on reed fencing for gardening, Deptford 1791.
Page 50 - List of three books.
Pages 51-56 - Copy of grant for a market at the "Adam and Eve" at Tottenham Court Road, Middlesex, including sketch of ground plan, 21 Dec 26 George III [1785].
Page 57 - Recipe for the ague.
Page 58 - Note that the exhibition in 1784 produced £2400.
Page 59 - Genealogical memoranda (when at Charles Street, Cavendish Square): William Porden being sponsor for Joseph William James Rose, born and baptized 1783; birth of William Porden, Dec 1754, with baptism 29 Jan 1755; notes on his young children Henny and Mary Porden, twins, "run off alone" both aged less than 2, Jul-Aug 1787, deaths of one stillborn boy and William (died after 2 hours), 14 Apr 1787, buried in new burial ground at Marylebone, with rough sketch of location; death of daughter Mary Hannah, 6 Dec 1787; miscarriage of boy, 27 Jul 1789.
Page 60 - Miscellaneous memoranda on measurements and prcies relating to Portland Place and Portland Road, including commission on selling by Skinner.
Pages 61-62 - Accounts on patent sashes (metal by Jordan), Aug 1806, with memorandum of facts about sashes.
Page 63 - Note on street names at Richmond, Yorkshire.
Page 64 - Medicinal recipes for eye water, prevention of gout, cough pills (in Latin), 13 Apr 1805, pain in making water (in Latin), 14 Jul 1805, and cough In Latin)
Page 65 - Continuation of notes on copper and slate from page 36.
Page 66 - Genealogical memoranda (continued from page 59): (when at Charles Street, Cavendish Square) baptisms of two daughters, Mary Hannah and Sarah Henrietta, with details of God-parents: birth of two daughters, 15 Aug 1785; death of father Thomas Porden at Hull, 15 Jul 1775, news received 15 Jul 1776; (29 Newman Street) note on distress on Messrs Watson and Smirke and of Mr Stonhewer sending them £50, delivered by Porden, followed by accounts of moneys received from Mr Stonhewer and Mr Mason, 1775-177,7 also including memorandum on Porden's entering the employment of Mr Wyatt, 16 Jan 1775: (Devonshire Street) birth of William Mason Stonhewer Porden, 31 Jan 1793.
Page 67 - Recipe for cottage pudding.
Pages 68-69 - Genealogical memoranda (continued from page 66): sketch of burial place [as above, Marylebone New Ground]; (Devonshire Street, Portland Place) notes on birth of daughter Eleanor Ann Porden, 14 Jul 1795: death of William Mason Stonehewer Porden, 5 Aug 1795 (burial on 9th at Marylebone Burial Ground): execution of William Porden's will, 6 Mar 1800: death of mother, 22 Aug 1800: marriage of daughter Sarah Henrietta to Joseph Kay, architect, with annuity of £200: death of wife Mary Plowman, 23 Dec 1819, with references to marriage on 16 Oct 1784 (on same day as air-balloon ascent by Monsieur Blanchard), burial, 28 Dec at St John's Wood Chapel, Marylebone, birth or baptism 9 Sep 1750 and dining after the funeral with his two daughters, brother, Mrs Byrne and Mrs Kennion.
Page 70 - Note on advised widths of lead sheets, citing Mr Dakins the plumber and Mr Samuel Wyatt.
Page 71 - Note on valuation of "Brick Earth" with references to Waterman and the late Mr Samuel Adams.
Page 72 - List of entries (in Italian) from volumes of "Direzioni a Giovani Studenti nel disegno dell'architellum", 1731-1733.
Page 73 - Calculation of expense of continuing Hearne and Byrnes Antiquities, 14 Dec 1794
Page 74 - Recipes for Mr Payne's poultice and to make sand-paint.
Page 75 - Note of widths of gateways for prominent buildings, including the Prince of Wales's circular stables at Brighton: note on start and raising of property tax, 1803-1805: copies of three recipes (two in Latin) for unknown prescriptions, 26 Aug 1808.
The remainder of the volume (just over half) is blank.
On the frontispiece are written notes by Philip Lyttelton Gell about William Porden, including reference to his being of Huguenot stock associated with York Minster for several generations as architects (from Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists), his introduction into literary and artistic circles in London by poet Canon Mason, and his being architect to the Prince Regent and responsible for preparing Westminster Abbey for his coronation; the book came into Gell's possession on the death of Miss Frances Kaye, his granddaughter, Nov 1901. Followed by another note that Porden lived successively in Charles Street, Cavendish Square, Devonshire Street, Portland Place, Berners Street, |