The Exeter Pocket Journal

EXETER

Published by Exeter, 1798

"May the English Mars ever subdue the French Hercules - And if one native take the invaders part. Eternal vengeance goad that traitor's heart." DEVON FARMER., near Stoke Church. His diary and accounts for 1798, written in The Exeter Pocket Journal; or, West Country Gentleman and Tradesman's Memorandum-Book, for the Year of Our Lord, 1798. Exeter: printed and sold by Trewman and Son. vi, [2], [106]pp for daily â appointments, memorandums, and observations', and cash accounts, 58pp printed almanac of duties, names of nobility, trade directory, fairs & markets, &c., folding table of distances at the front. Original limp calf, wallet binding with flap, and front and rear pockets. Hand dated 1798 on the upper cover. Designed for the pocket there is some wear to the foot of the spine, lower edges, and the edge of the flap, and rear pocket partially loose from the backing card. Internally in good clean condition, and written in a legible hand. 160mm x 100mm. 1798. ~ Written at the height of the great invasion scare when the French army gathered on the Channel coast, the diary, although concentrating on farm matters, does allude to the wider threat. Although there were 118,000 volunteers, faced with the possibility of a French invasion of southern England, William Pitt's government aimed to expand this number substantially. He attends a meeting about the military, and refers to taking names (possibly for volunteers). At the end he writes the quote, as noted above, about traitors to the English cause. There are clues to his identity and location in the text. Paid butcher for sheep skins, sheep to market, tilling, a farmer's detail to the daily weather, buying bags of barley, wheat in bloom, poor rates, paid Uncle Browne for 30 apple trees, at Stoke Church, 6d for tobacco and pipe, at Blackawton, paid John Tucker, "I dined at Mr Colton's at Wood at Blackawton about the names of the people again." "At meeting about the military." "Settled accounts with my sister Hannah [and] my brother." - a pair of gloves - John Coombe to work - "paid Hannah for James Schooling" - "paid for instruction for the highways" - In December he paid 1s 4d for an almanack for the coming year. "1799, February the 22nd received of Mr John Cole of Aunmouth in the Parish of Thurlestone five pounds being half a years annuity by the hands of my Uncle Lewis Aldemeire (?) due 25 December last. Jeremy Cornish." This edition of The Exeter Pocket Journal is unrecorded in FirstSearch. Seller Inventory # 161468

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Exeter Pocket Journal
Publisher: Exeter
Publication Date: 1798
Binding: Hard Cover
Condition: Very Good