of gSouff? 



A DIARIST IN THE REIGN OF WILLIAM THE THIRD. 



By W. BOWLES BARRETT. 



;HE question suggests itself have we, as a Club, 

 given sufficient attention to the Diarists of 

 Dorset ? When their diaries can be traced, 

 they will frequently be found to be full of 

 transcripts from life quiet country life it may 

 be yet more fascinating than many of the 

 efforts to revivify the past through the medium 

 of historical romance or romantic history. So 

 far as I am aware, the only South Dorset 

 diary which has been pretty fully reproduced 

 is that of William White way, of Dorchester.* (A.D. 1618-1634.) 

 But While way's diary seems to have been more in the nature of 

 a chronicle, than an unsophisticated account of family and social 

 life. 



It is now nearly 60 years ago that in one of our local papers 

 there appeared copious extracts from a diary kept by John 

 Richards, Esq., Lord of the Manor of Warmwell, during five 

 years from 1697 to I 7 I - The diary affords a delightful insight 



* Proceedings, Dorset Field Club, Vol. XIII. (1892), 57. 



