OTHER PEOPLE’S SECRETS

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3969, 7 October 1930, Page 2

OTHER PEOPLE’S SECRETS

BRITISH DIARISTS AND WHAT THEY RECORD .Many people have had what Fanny .Burney called “ the itch to record,” and have found an outlet for this feeling in the keeping of a diary. Statesmen and courtiers, such as Charles Grevilie, the Earl of Egmont, and John Evelyn, have through their journals reflected their lives and times. So, equally vividly, have working men. Charles Russell, a fireman riveter, kept an account in 1898 of his attempts to find work in Africa and on the Uganda railway; and Strother, a shop assistant in York at the end of the eighteenth century, for one week, attempted the impossible task of writing down everything he did throughout the day (says ‘ John o’ London’s Weekly ’). PARSON DIARISTS. In the nineteenth century diary writing became a fashionable habit, particularly among women. “ Cupboards are filled with them still,” Lord Ponsonby tells us in £ British Diarists,’ which has been added to Messrs Bonn’s excellent ‘ Sixpenny Library.’ Parsons, too,- have always been great diarists Hundreds of readers have found delight in James Woodforde’s descriptions of hisrperiodical visits to London, his baptisms and weddings, and his colossal meals. William Jones, again—his diary was published comparatively recently—is equally entertaining, though in a different way. In his earlier entries he indulges in violent outbursts of self-condemnation. “ The vilest of sinners, the most daring miscreant out of hell,” is one of the milder accusations he makes against himself. But Dr Rutty, a Quaker who lived in Dublin, kept a diary that surpasses all in quaintness. His failings were temper and greed, and Lord Ponsonby gives us a few of his “ confessions ” : Temper: “Twice unbridled choler ” ; “ Britt! ■ again ” ; “ A frappish cholerick day ” ; “ Snappish on fasting ” ; “Sinfully peevish”; “A little crabbed.” Greed; “ Feasting beyond the holy bounds”; “A .little swinish at dinner ” ; “ Piggish at meals Gripes from excess ”; “A little piggish in stuffing with vegetables ” ; “ Take care, take care of the fumes of cyder and whisky, tremble at the mixture.” But with regard to temper he is eventually able to record: “ A sweet whisper from God will hear my petition for freedom from quickness to anger”; and as to greed: “ A sensible advancement in victory over the sin that used so easily to beset me.” WHAT SOLDIERS PUT DOWN. Another unique diary is Dowsing’s. He was “ parliamentary visitor ” for “ demolishing the superstitious pictures and ornaments of churches,” appointed in 1642: — “ He kept a daily account of one of his journeys, recording exactly how many windows he smashed and how many statues, images, organs, and pictures he destroyed He was a professional iconoclast, and his diary shows he enjoyed his- work.” “ Military diarists,” says Lord Ponsonby, “ are not among the best,” but they often demonstrate the British soldier’s characteristic of making light of the dangers and hardships he has to undergo;— “ An officer’s diary in the Boer War is eminently characteristic of this particular quality. In a long entry he describes a fishing expedition, giving details of the flies, rod, and gut he used ; he goes on with a passage about a pony for coursing hares, and at the end lie writes: ‘ We have had two big battles.’ ” Tin's little book should be tlie means of sending many readers to Lord Pirnsonby’s more detailed works on the subject of diaries and diarists.