Octavia Walsh

Octavia Walsh (1676? – 1706) was an English poet. Her book of poetry is in the Bodleian Library.

Her brother attended Oxford University but without result. It is supposed that Walsh never went outside her county and she had to rely on her brother for access to other poets. The book that creates her reputation is bound in vellum and it has 165 pages. Walsh had written from one end and then reversed the book and she then wrote from that end. The book is mostly poetry but it does have some recipes. A portrait of her seems to have been stuck in and annotated by another hand. She has a memorial tablet in Worcester Cathedral. Her poetry was not published in her lifetime. The first is in a book by a bishop.