The Diary of Nathaniel Bryceson (Part 5)

[Daisy Loo]

hehehehe!!  Hadn't realized how OLD that naughty word was!!

Go to Wikipedia and look up Pepys diary. You will see an extract of when he was caught with a housemaid by his wife in the mid 1660s and he uses a derivative of the word there. Also, at one time it was common, im told, that roads with much prostitution in them were called "gropec**t lane". I read this on the normally respectable BBC website in the last year or two. For some reason, all of these roads have been renamed.

really amazing actually...this word has been around for hundreds of years it seems, and yet in the english speaking world, it is arguably the most shocking?  I know of all swear words that there are, that particular one is the most hateful to me!

[Ruskie]

....I know of all swear words that there are....

 

[Siamese Girl]

Nursery maid at Wharf left her situation.

I'm still thinking dog - it's nearly 3 weeks since Dummer had her puppies. This might be the first time she's left them on their own. I can't think there were any human nursemaids living at the wharf.

Carole

[Icicle]

As one of the many 'lurkers' I have been enjoying following the diary and your various discussions 

I just thought I'd add a comment about Nat, his Mum and her illness.

We have a diary written by one of my OH relations. During WW2 his only son was in the RAF.

There is a diary entry that reads - Mrs A and myself visited ........ for lunch. Today I recieved notification that my son was posted missing in action. My tax return for this year is.......

When I first saw it I was shocked that such awful news had been sandwiched between his social and financial affairs. But when I spoke to family who knew him said they were very close and he was devastated at the loss of his son and rarely spoke about it.

I wondered if it was the same with Nathaniel. Is it because he is simply giving the facts and not the emotion makes it look unfeeling?   

[Mongibello]

I had a look at the drainage plans today.   Nothing before 1906 when No. 10 was having its one toilet moved from the back of the house to the far side of the tiny yard.  Perhaps the smell was getting bad?
In 1913 the Health Inspector was complaining to the owners (a building firm in South Norwood) that both 9 & 10 were filthy.   No indication of what they were being used for.

[alpinecottage]

Another comment about Nat, his Mum and her illness;  these days, when we are ill, we expect to know and understand what we are suffering from and to have a reasonable chance of being cured.  In Nat's day, there was little effective medicine, diagnosis was uncertain and people died suddenly from causes they didn't understand.  Probably Nat and his mother had no idea whether she was chronically long term ill or terminally ill, and lots of people were probably off-colour a lot of the time and I imagine people just lived more in the present.


As someone said earlier on the thread, in some ways we are still so similar now and in others we are so different that it is difficult for us to understand.  Also Nat was keeping a diary for his own reasons, but I'm sure he didn't anticipate complete strangers would be reading it 150 years in the future!

[Daisy Loo]

....I know of all swear words that there are....

not written well at all was it!?    rephrased: To me, of all the swear words that there are...etc... hehe

regarding NB & mother : We discussed before that NB doesn't write of his emotions and feelings...I think also, there is another way of looking at how he phrased it...  was so fatigued and ill that she was obliged to be brought home in a cab and was expected to die on the road. perhaps he was noting more than his mother's illness, that she had to struggle home from the doctor alone and having to order the cab , and then cab driver left her on the side of the street, no one to help her to her home...  just from the way he said "was expected" it's almost as if he is jibing at someone/thing

[Colin Cruddace]

regarding NB & mother : We discussed before that NB doesn't write of his emotions and feelings...I think also, there is another way of looking at how he phrased it...  was so fatigued and ill that she was obliged to be brought home in a cab and was expected to die on the road.

One thing that puzzles me with this, if she was so ill then why did the doctor allow her to go home? Perhaps this was his Mother's account of the event and she was laying it on a bit thick.

Colin

[Daisy Loo]

That's the thing...which is why I wondered if that was the whole point of his entry...
But what would be her options?  Probably the workhouse infirmary?  I'd say she'd prefer her own home...

Going back to NB being unfeeling about his mother...he hasn't recorded one single "feeling" about Ann Fox either...nothing that might say he was in lust   (oops slip of the keys there.. ) love with her, or that he held her in high regard...his whole diary is literally recording facts...