LIVSEY, Annie.

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Compositions. A beautifully executed composition book by a student of Upton Hall School in Birkenhead, Merseyside. Neatly penned in purple manuscript with elaborate calligraphic titles and accompanied by several delicate full-page watercolours, it encapsulates the curriculum taught at one of the finest girls' schools of the era. Particular attention is paid to foreign languages, astronomy, botany, and cartography. Annie Livsey was likely born in the first half of the 1850s, almost certainly to Catholic parents, as Upton Hall was founded by the Convent of the Faithful Companions of Jesus. The school advertised itself in the 1869 Catholic Directory as providing a "superior Continental education", in which "French is the language chiefly spoken" and "the course of studies comprises all the branches of an accomplished English education" (p. 40), with music, dancing, and art classes available at an extra cost. Livsey's book is a meticulously crafted demonstration of her learning, and was probably created as presentation object, perhaps to commemorate her time at the school.Composition was designed to teach pupils how to write clearly and succinctly. The standard form was for a pupil to craft a description or definition of a given topic; Livsey's book gives writing guidelines such as "Elegance consists in the perspicuity of language". Her topics range from "How do we know that our soul is spiritual and immortal?" to "What are the forms of fungi?" and "Geometry as a speculative scie

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