LEAVES FROM AN OLD DIARY. 
453 
II. 
LEAVES FROM AN OLD DIARY IN THE YEARS 1800-2. 
By Thomas Southwell, F.Z.S., V.-P. 
Read 28 th October, 1902. 
Perhaps there is nothing more interesting than an old note-hook ; 
whilst perusing its pages we seem to live again with the writer, and 
if it be of ancient date, for the time being identify ourselves with 
the knowledge of the subject then prevailing, passing in mental 
review the gradual steps by which a clearer light has dawned, and, 
it may be, more accurate knowledge has been developed. 
Occasionally we come across passages which are like little rifts 
in the clouds that obscuro the past, and even should the records 
not be of very great importance, still they are possessed of 
value for the light which they cast on the mode of life of our 
ancestors, their prevailing lines of thought, or the condition of the 
country and of its natural productions at the time they were penned. 
To no class of observations do these remarks apply more fully than 
to Natural History subjects, particularly when they relate to our 
own locality, and it seems to mo highly desirable that such records 
should find a place in the ‘ Transactions’ of our Society, where they 
will no longer be in danger of being lost. 
Recently the Rev. J. \V. Millard has been kind enough to lend 
me a fragmentary diary kept by the Rev. Dr. Sutton in the Autumns 
of 1800-2, in the parish of Holme-next-the-Sea, and although 
there is perhaps nothing very striking in the entries, they are still, 
I think, interesting from their local character and the frequent refer- 
ences to men celebrated in their generation as well as to events 
long past. Mr. Millard has therefore, at my request, been so good 
as to give me permission to lay them before our Society. 
