Tue Diary or Soun Baxcn (Barrister of the Middle Temple and Solieitorgeneral of the. Leoward Islands). Baited by Phitip C.. Yorke, Gram, Licencid-ts-Latters, Univ, of Paris, P. H. Hist, 8, Hotehiné fen, London, 21/
The discovery of diary is an event bringing" thrills familiar most families, "In recent years there have been a number of such fifties, published with the assist ance of industrious editorship and mach historical research. Thi fow-comer is. presented. with Positive wealth of scholarship and, as the introduction points out, deals with emall people and small events and. does "not, therefore, leompete with some of' the classic fdities, Tr is to be commended, if commendation is possible, on. unfosual grounds. "Moreover, itis.
quaint diary, because the fist" docs not' attempt any literary style. He just jate down few odd sentences, interlarded often by" quotations and. incursions into what he imagines is French, "When
counter maker precious tle im-Reecta"a amos, man, abe en. Dretsion on hint, and thus should heer up the mien of to-day, who may be great to posterity but incur iba eviticlams. of hele. con-
Mr. Baker, As, for example, when the Just puls down six words to say that he sat for three-quarters of jan hour with Mr, Hogarth, and no more is vouchsafed on what the twentieth-century would regard as jan Immense privilege. He came in contact, for instance, with Mr. (Garrick, who was his intimate friend, and yet: all we Jearn from tuis diary. is that he received a wave of the hand from the actor Jon his way to ride in the Park, or JGarrick came in one day to borrow is cook to dress the turtle. Baker met Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill, but that is the limit of the information which we have on the subject, So for the merit of this Jdiary the reader must look el where. It vividly shows the gener trend of existence in the profes:
nal class to which the author belonged in teenth-century, and it is by tition of trivial ants that insight is given into the character of thave ancestors of the British people of John Baker himself was the second son of a Chichester grocer and became a barrister of the te, But three years after being called to the Bar he Jett England to take up of ha chao, Bit was the son of a London silver. smith, was twenty-five years of age and was a lawyer at St, Kitts, Hig trial aroused a great deal of discussion in England at the time, This reticence reveals qn attractive modesty which draws the reader very close to the diarist.
Distinguished passengers on sailing ships in those days seemed, to have had a fair amount of latitude in dealing with other ships, On June 18, 1757, John Baker sailed for England and on July 19 this is the entry in the diary?
"One Captain MeN French) ship from Antigua calling Tong fo ako care Thin and we thinking mest in fault, 1 trumpet Are you ai calm ind. near each Seemed to, same the find. asked what "we ha Bien "T*toll him he lid calle.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.