Aleck Abrahams seems to have been contributing to N&Q since 1902. I'm thinking that had he he owned the diaries before 1911 something from them would have appeared before. The diarist was recorded as C Bryceson which is either a transcription mistake, or perhaps Mr Abraham made a mistake as they were new to him?
The interesting thing about diaries is how people see them through time. Mr Abrahams was an antiquarian, he was using them for what Nat wrote about the changing topography of London. I don't suppose he was interested in Nat's private life, which is what we are more interested in today.
When James Woodforde's eighteenth century diary was first abridged and published in the 1920s, it was done as a kind of celebration of "Olde England" A lot of the emphasis was on food and his social life. Most of the diaries entries about buying things was left out - now there is more interest in his domestic life, his servants and the accounts - the things he bought and how much was paid for them.
Carole
