The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Parson

This comprehensive index volume (volume 10 in ‘The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Parson’ series), is presented in two hardback parts. Part 1 extends to 682 pages and contains a detailed places index, a subjects index, and the first part of the Biographical Index comprising surnames A to G. Part 2 extends to 800 pages and contains the second part of the Biographical Index comprising surnames H to Z. The subjects index which takes up 192 pages of the index has been presented as a digest, assembled in six parts in a contextual style in chronological sequence. These six parts broadly cover all elements of the diarist’s life: 1 The Domestic Environment, Home and Family 2 Art, Music, Pastimes and Theatre 3 Society, the Law, Local Governance, Education and Public Health 4 Agriculture, Commerce, Industry, Transport and Infrastructure 5 The Establishment, Politics, Religion, the Armed Forces and International Affairs 6 Abstract and Miscellaneous By far the largest element of this index is the Biographical Index listing approximately 3,400 people and their families. For each person mentioned a short biography is given with a summary of their career and family. This is followed by the dates that the person is mentioned in the diary in chronological sequence. ‘The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Parson’ contains all of the surviving journals and notebooks written by Revd Francis Edward Witts (1783-1854) from 1795 to 1854 and amount to almost 2.5 million words. To anyone tempted to dip into random entries of the diaries, it quickly becomes apparent that much of what Francis Witts wrote was mundane; however, this monotony is interspersed with gems of information and occasional moments of ire, sarcasm, wit, and levity. Taken as a corpus, and especially when added to the 900,000 words of the diaries of his mother, these diaries create a fascinating picture of society and mobility during the times of the Napoleonic Wars through to the early years of the reign of Queen Victoria. Francis Witts records minutiae that cannot be found elsewhere. His method appears to have been to maintain a ‘rough’ book, and some portions of one survive in one of the diaries. From this he transcribed in fair copy later. However, it does seem that in his settled time...