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The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Lady
Volume 1: The Lady of Rodborough
Agnes Witts
The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Lady is an extraordinary sequence of daily entries, almost without a break covering the years 1788 to 1824. During this thirty-seven year period Agnes recorded the weather, letters received and
letters sent, and most importantly of all, her social diary. Her spirits made her rise above the family’s financial disaster caused by her husband’s
bankruptcy and she and Edward always moved in the best circles, notwithstanding their straitened
circumstances…
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9781848680104
£ 22.50
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The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Parson
Volume 1: The Nomad
Francis E. Witts
The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Parson exceeds two million words and covers a span of almost sixty years. The very first diary was written by a
precocious twelve-year-old, probably under the guiding spirit of his mother, Agnes, also a prolific diarist. The last diary was written by a lonely widower with a failing heart.
248 x 168 mm | hardback | 704 pages | 367 illustrations | 80 colour illustrations
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9781848680005
£ 45.00
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The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Parson
Volume 2: The Curate & Rector
Francis E. Witts
Francis Witts gained a curacy in Wiltshire in 1806, but his Rector was a young man of approximately the same age and the two did not get on. To begin
with there were high hopes, and the two even went on a tour of Devon together, but the chemistry
did not work and Francis was on the point of being ousted when a better opportunity arose. In
1808 his uncle, Ferdinando died, and the living of Upper Slaughter became available. Some three
years earlier Agnes Witts had anticipated this circumstance and had assiduously cultivated the
holders of the advowson with success. This happy circumstance coincided with the marriage of
Francis to Margaret Backhouse, and by 1809 the two were settled at the Rectory in Upper Slaughter.
248 x 168 mm | hardback | 480 pages | 173 illustrations
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9781848680012
£ 45.00
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The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Parson
Volume 3: The Magistrate
Francis E. Witts
Although this volume has been given the title The Magistrate, it might equally have been named Books and Bishops. By 1825 Francis Witts had developed the habit of reporting on Parliamentary
affairs in great detail and of providing a form of review on all the books he read—which
were many. Interspersed with these reviews are numerous obituaries of bishops, for the 1820s seems to have been a decade in which bishops went to their maker in profusion.
248 x 168 mm | hardback | 500 pages | 129 illustrations
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9781848680029
£ 45.00
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The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Parson
Volume 4: The Murder Hunt
Francis E. Witts
Volume Four commences on 6 December 1828, a continuation of daily events from Francis Witts’s
previous diary. As usual, political happenings are recorded, and the event of particular note for the
day was the long-expect death of Lord Liverpool. Within four days a new element creeps into the
diaries, and this marks the beginning of a shift in emphasis, for problems were now on the horizon.
248 x 168 mm | hardback | 518 pages | 180 illustrations
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9781848680036
£ 45.00
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The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Parson
Volume 5: Imperium in Imperio
Francis E. Witts
Volume Five starts halfway through the entry for 30 September 1834. Edwin Jeffrey had been charged with the murder of Mr. F. J. Rens and
carted off to Gloucester. Now came the difficult problem of stopping Richard Cox and John
Clifford from charging the magistrates of false imprisonment. One magistrate who had not been instrumental in the Cox and Clifford affair
was Revd. Richard Ford, and he made capital
from the problems experienced by Francis Witts and others. Richard Ford had been a friend of
Francis Witts for many years. The two were similar in age and Richard Ford outlived Francis
Witts, indeed he even acted as a pall-bearer at his funeral, but despite the friendship, the two
men were antagonistic to each other and their whole lives were lived in a strange form of jockeying for ascendancy. The two were as bad as each other and each enjoyed their moment of
schadenfreude when the other was in a position of embarrassment. Now was just such and occasion and Richard Ford made capital of the opportunity.
248 x 168 mm | hardback | 390 pages | 81 illustrations
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9781848680043
£ 45.00
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The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Parson
Volume 6: Chairman of The Workhouse
Francis E. Witts
In volume six there is a distinct change in the diarist’s style and subject. Life had settled down and a more distinct routine was in place at the rectory,
Upper Slaughter. There was also a new reign, for Victoria had ascended the throne in June 1837 on the death of William IV. One year later Francis Witts was at the Coronation in Stow-on the-Wold...
248 x 168 mm | hardback | 608 pages | 60 illustrations
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9781848680050
£ 45.00
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The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Parson
Volume 7: The Man of Business
Francis E. Witts
With Edward Witts now married to Sophy Vavasour, Francis Witts had the joy of being a grandfather and also in seeing his son as his curate at Stanway. The ordinary business is now centred more around family and locality rather than the interest Francis Witts had showed in national and county events in his younger days.
248 x 168 mm | hardback | 560 pages | 62 illustrations
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9781848680067
£ 45.00
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The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Parson
Volume 8: The Man of Property
Francis E. Witts
Volume Eight begins with a family holiday, probably the only time in which the whole family, including grandchildren, spent a long time together (May-June 1846). The destination was the Isle of Wight where they had an enjoyable sojourn of five weeks, although Margaret’s poor health precluded her doing much walking.
Much of the volume is given over to property matters and to the Hunt Trust. The summer of 1847 did not include a holiday, but as a substitute, Francis and Margaret spent nine days with the Hunt family in Stoke Doyle, Northamptonshire, and of course much Trust business was discussed. The following year saw their last holiday, with a four-week break in North Wales.
248 x 168 mm | hardback | 624 pages | 60 illustrations
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9781848680074
£ 45.00
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