A presentation manuscript, written in a very neat, mixed secretary and italic hand, with several pen flourishes. The margins are ruled in red ink. The preacher is unknown. The sermon begins as follows: 'Our Lent, our tyme of Mortification by fasting and humbling our selues [...] is not yet halfe done' (see the verso of the first leaf). The preacher goes on to argue that '[o]ur Lent is a representation of our life' (see the recto of the second leaf).
Guide to British Historical Manuscripts in the Huntington Library (San Marino, CA: The Huntington Library, 1982), p. 31; Hannah Yip.
The manuscript has been dated by the present cataloguer according to the handwriting and its place within the Ellesmere collection. As there is a reference to the king, the sermon was clearly delivered during the reign of James I. The margins are ruled in red ink. There is some use of Latin and Greek. Marginal notes are principally Biblical and Classical citations, including Seneca and Ovid.