“I felt an immediate bond with this diarist”
As promised back in February, Margaret Bird’s monumental 4-volume “commentary and analysis” of The Diary of Mary Hardy, 1773-1809 is primed for release on Thursday, April 23, 2020.
I first found Mary Hardy following the 2013 publication of the full diary. Editor Margaret Bird now celebrates the completion of 32 years of work – on the four diary volumes (plus a single volume of entries not included) and now the four companions.
An excellent article on her passion, tasks, and triumphs is now online in the Eastern Daily Press article by Rowen Mantell, “Secrets of a Norfolk Diary revealed after almost 250 years.’ Says Bird of the diarist, “The best aspect for me is the way Mary Hardy depicts the social, economic and religious forces of the time.” Says Bird of her project, “I could see the diary’s significance just from short extracts.” Bird also comments on her affinity for and partnership (if I may call it such) with Mary Hardy: “I knew the church, the lanes, the waterways and the public houses familiar to her.” She confesses her “immediate bond” with Mary Hardy, and we get a fabulous snapshot of two pages from the diary itself.
As Mantell recognizes, “Margaret had no idea the project would take her more than three decades.” In the kind of dedication that _I_ can attest to, Margaret Bird has “given it [the Mary Hardy project] 10 to 15 hours a day, usually seven days a week, other than during our time on the boat on the Broads. When in Norfolk I carried out the fieldwork and worked in libraries and the record office.”
This link will give you several of the posts at Two Teens in the Time of Austen dedicated to Mary Hardy and Margaret Bird. I’ve also talked about the diaries in my blog Georgian Gems, Regency Reads & Victorian Voices, a site dedicated to letters and diaries – those primary materials that are so important to find and to celebrate.
vol 1 of the DIARIES
Read Margaret Bird’s latest Press Release, even with the disappointment of the 2020 Launch party (due to coronavirus closures and distancing), which would have taken place last evening, the article still ends with a “Clink” of champagne glasses! Scroll to the bottom of that page for information on both the DIARIES and the COMMENTARIES. The Companion volumes are ably described on this page, with links to further information on each volume.
A “Hardy” CONGRATULATIONS, Margaret, for your achievement!
Travels with Lady Anne
Some time ago the mailbox contained the lovely biography of Lady Anne Barnard by Stephen Taylor entitled Defiance: in the U.S. the subtitle is “The Extraordinary Life of Lady Anne Barnard“; in the U.K. its subtitle is the more enticing “The Life and Choices of Lady Anne Barnard“. I love, too, the cover art – which includes a depiction by Lady Anne of life aboard ship.
But as my blog, Two Teens in the Time of Austen, deals so much with original letters and diaries, my main comments today will be about three volumes – available on the used book market – that have arrived in the past week or two.
These volumes, published by the Van Riebeeck Society, cover the the years this valiant, diary-keeping Scotswoman spent in South Africa. The dust jacket on the U.S. edition mistakes Lady Anne’s date of birth, which is 1750, making her nearing the age of 50 when she undertakes to follow her husband to the Cape of Good Hope.
The first volume (VRS second series No. 24) are Lady Anne’s own “revised” diaries, and are therefore called The Cape Journals of Lady Anne Barnard, 1797-1798, edited by A.M. Lewin Robinson (with Margaret Lenta and Dorothy Driver), published in 1994 (for 1993). This is broken into three “journals,” which includes the sea journey (thus the drawing on the U.K. cover of Defiance); the “residence” ; and a tour into the “interior of Africa”. Extras include a literary assessment of Lady Anne’s work.
The two further volumes (VRS second series Nos. 29 & 30) publish her extant diaries: The Cape Diaries of Lady Anne Barnard, 1799-1800 (vols. 1 and 2), edited by Margaret Lenta and Basil Le Courdeur (1999 for 1998; and 1999).
This far-away land is a fairly new departure for me — though for a later traveler to Africa, see the published diaries of Mabel Hall-Dare, a relation to the Smiths & Goslings.
I am looking forward to spending some down-time with the warm-hearted Lady Anne Barnard. Whether you start with Taylor’s biography, or end with it, the quartet makes for weeks of reading.
My first blog post: Emma and Mary
My first post introduced Emma Smith and Mary Gosling, my TWO TEENS IN THE TIME OF AUSTEN, on 1 June 2008. it was called:
WHY EMMA and MARY?
I called them ordinary English girls. And so they remain to me. And, yet, they are extraordinary in that they left personal writing – diaries and letters – behind. More extraordinary: so did one mother and several aunts; so did brothers, sisters, cousins (though SOME items I have not yet located). Most extraordinary, _I_ found these girls, and their families. And I located, on several continents, their literary (and artistic) remains.
Of course, over the years, I’ve blogged about some of those finds. I’ve also *dreamed* about locating other bits and pieces, certainly those bits that I know once existed, and hoping – always – for those pieces of their puzzle that I didn’t know were out there. Kind readers of TWO TEENS IN THE TIME OF AUSTEN (thank you!!) have written to me over the years, some with a diary, others with a book, a couple with portraits, many with LETTERS, all of which I absolutely cherish. There’s no such thing as “enough”. One line in one letter potentially could ‘solve a mystery’. A relationship disclosed in a diary could point me to the next BIG STASH of stuff. And to be able to look at the faces of those who have penned their thoughts (and thereby penned their life stories): priceless.
Of course, the years of research also means that I’ve uncovered tidbits about MANY people – famous as well as extended family – with whom the Smiths and Goslings interacted. A VERY long list. Including members of the extended Austen – Austen Leigh – Knight – Lefroy families. Members of the British Royal Family. Many of these people I’ve listed on the CAN YOU HELP? page. Of course, since their names turn up in my research, _I_ can help those looking for more information about people they research too.
I’m currently working on a book chapter, for the book “Women and Music in Georgian Britain,” edited by Miriam Hart and Linda Zionkowski. My chapter will cover the years 1815 to 1825, with a focus on Augusta and Emma Smith, the two eldest sisters. These were formative years for them; a decade of music masters, London concerts (the “London Season” was astoundingly busy), travel, and of friends with whom they ‘make music’. The decade culminates with a year-long trip to the Continent and stays in Rome and Naples. If the trip was a ‘high,’ of course, the return home – to the “same old way of life” – led to angst over hearing less and less from their new acquaintances left behind.
The possibility of a beau or two left behind was also of concern to the brothers and sisters who remained home for that year (June 1822-June 1823).
Several years ago I collected blog “essays” into a book-length Kindle: TWO TEENS IN THE TIME OF AUSTEN: RANDOM JOTTINGS, 2008-2013 – and that book is still available. Given the times we currently live in, it is readily available. All you need is your Amazon account. No mailman or -woman need be involved.
As new information slowed, so too did my dissemination of information. And so too did my enthusiasm for talking to people whom I couldn’t see. I wondered: Is Anybody there? / Does anybody care? I plugged away at transcribing, and searching & finding – but I didn’t talk about it as much. For later “finds” were hard-won, or they were family images, or they were items that I purchased and didn’t want to share.
Then came a recent Kindle sale. (Thank you, dear reader)
The picture’s linked to the US site; but there are other Amazons, including United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia.
The Kindle version includes a couple items not found on the blog; though disregard the “early” first chapter – the same thoughts are still extant, but the chapter has totally evolved. Every purchase helps support this research, so: THANK YOU!
Two Teens in the Time of Austen 