THE PEPYS OF SOUTH DORSET. 31 



into the simple life of a Dorset landowner of position upwards 

 of 200 years ago, and is the more interesting as it begins not 

 many years after Pepys had finished his immortal diary. The 

 extracts referred to are now practically forgotten and unknown. 

 I do not know who is the present possessor of the original diary. 

 I happen to possess a manuscript copy of the extracts, and, as 

 Mr. Richards is undoubtedly entitled to be styled "The Pepys 

 of South Dorset/' it occurred to me that it would interest the 

 members of our Club if an attempt were made to collate and 

 comment on this attractive record. 



Warmwell is a small sequestered village delightfully situated 

 off the main roads, about equi-distant (seven miles) from 

 Dorchester and Weymouth ; it is almost surrounded by one of 

 those glorious gorse-covered heaths Nature's unfenced, 

 untouched gardens which, to my mind, rank among the chief 

 beauties of Dorset. Warmwell has, too, a fine stream, a 

 tributary of the Frome, and a picturesque water-mill. Few 

 parts of Dorset have such a charm for me as the lovely heaths 

 of Warmwell and West Knighton. 



Mr. John Richards was of Dorset extraction ; his pedigree 

 appears in HutchinsJ* He had been a London merchant, 

 and was a man of refinement and financially of good means. 

 He appears to have resided at one time in Italy. He had a fair 

 knowledge of Italian, which he found useful for making entries 

 in his diary on certain occasions, as I shall shortly explain. He 

 was an intelligent reader and played the bass viol. We 

 remember Macaulay's remarks as to the gross uneducated 

 'squires of the iyth century ; these observations, in any case, do 

 not apply to the Warmwell 'squire. 



Having retired from business in London, Mr. Richards 

 purchased the Manor of Warmwell in 1687 and settled there; 

 this was ten years before he began his diary. He resided at 

 Warmwell until his death in 1721 ; he and his wife were both 

 buried there, she surviving him only two years. Certain of 



* Hist, Dorset, Vol. II., Ed. 3, 499, 



