Elwin`s article on Laurence Sterne was published in the "Quarterly Review", March 1854. The offprint has been bound in cloth covers and interleaved. Many of the pages have been marked with corrections and alterations. Certain passages have been re-worked on the interleaves. Included is a manuscript copy by Elwin of a letter, 1762, of Sterne to an unnamed recipient.

The article was republished in Elwin`s, "Some XVIII century men of letters", under the following introduction :

"`Sterne` appeared in the Quarterly Review for March, 1854. It was the first of Whitwell Elwin`s larger contributions of combined biography and criticism after his writing had become entirely independent of [John Gibson] Lockhart. At a later period it was proposed to publish the essay separately, and with this view the author began to revise it, and somewhat increased the quotations. The revision had besides only touched a few passages of criticism, and had not yet extended to the biographical portion, when the task was laid aside and never resumed. Most of the additions, and such corrections as were made, are incorporated in the present reprint. The only omission is a page of introductory matter on the spurious work called the Koran, the title of which was placed at the head of the article."

"The edition of Sterne`s Works which Elwin used was that of 1798, in ten volumes. The references appended in the notes are to this. In the case of Tristram Shandy the volumes and chapters are those of the original issue."