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Author(s): Agnes Witts
Introduction: Alan Sutton
In 1793, the Witts family arrived in Edinburgh. A previously well-to-do Oxfordshire/Gloucestershire family, they were brought to near bankruptcy by the failure of Edward Witts’ woollen cloth trading business. Apart from the stigma of insolvency, their easy style of living came crashing down to a mere few hundred pounds annually. Within a few months, Edward and Agnes had built a wide circle of friends and acquaintances in Edinburgh society where Agnes’ magnetic personality worked its magic.
Agnes was a remarkable woman with a great zest for life. She required constant amusement and bored easily; her favourite pastimes were cards and stimulating conversation; her social circle was wide and well-connected; and Agnes’ attachment to her faith consistent and strong. In a remarkable series of sixty-two diaries covering the years 1793-1798, Agnes recorded her life in a structured and unvarying manner. She noted the weather, the doings of the day and letters received and written. A day without a letter was a dark day in her life.
She loved to maintain a wide correspondence amongst a large circle of family, friends and acquaintances. Gaps in the diary are very few and usually occur only during times of serious illness.
These remarkable diaries provide a snapshot of Edinburgh society at a time of remarkable change when the city was rising to prominence as the ‘Athens of the North’. Edinburgh was a dynamic place, a growing city that was looking forwards to a prosperous future. It was the new middle classes that were at the forefront of the enlightenment and Agnes’ diaries provide a fascinating glimpse into the social fabric at the time.
| BOOK ISBN | 9781781554845 |
| FORMAT | 248 x 172 mm |
| BINDING | Hardback |
| PAGES | 416 pages |
| PUBLICATION DATE | 15 December 2016 |
| TERRITORY | World |
| ILLUSTRATIONS | 30 colour and 50 black-and-white illustrations |
