Notes on Miss Davidson's Journal 1845
To modern-day comment on current entry
January 5th 1845
Happy New Year! You can see that even New Year is not made into a particularly important occasion. Poor Anne, clearly feeling unsettled during Dr. Forsythe's sermons. We all know the feeling!. Mr. Davidson is no relation, I'm sure.
January 14th 1845.
Wet is the word to describe our weather in 2003, too! Wet windy, grey and dark. On the other hand last week it was gloriously beautiful, the trees lacy with hoarfrost, the lochs frozen from side to side and blazing amazing sunsets.
January 15th
This entry reminds us that the journals are written by a very young woman. I think we can assume that there was a young man there...perhaps Mr William Forbes.
January 17th
I wonder if this means that Kemlo (a maid?) is leaving? Or perhaps it's an important birthday for her. I think the family were probably quite good employers by the standards of their time.
January 27th
Imagine poor Ann, overpowered by the conversation of these high-flying people. Her slight air of complaint - "as usual" - then contradicted by her "at least I can do something"
Feb ruary 22nd.
Charlie is her older brother who causes the family much heartache by his erratic behaviour.
February 23rd
It's not very fine here today, either. After nearly three weeks of stunningly clear weather, with wonderful stars and moon at night, it has begun to rain - and just when we are expecting family to stay! Anne would have been very embarrassed to be shown into the wrong seats at church.
February 25th. I am guessing that the swelled neck is probably caused by a boil, in view of the "wash" provided by the Doctor.
February 27th-28th. You can see that the ball made quite an impression...
March 1st, 2nd, 4th and 10th - four deaths of people known to Ann within 10 days.
March 7th. It seems that Ann is quite often entrusted with domestic matters.
March 14th . I fear all the people at the party were OLD. And therefore "stupid"!
My profound apologies to all readers of Anne's Journals. The wonderful technological miracle which makes it possible for me to put her daily entries onto the web (i.e. my pc) has recently been very ill and had to go into hospital where it received shock treatment for worms, confusion, slow reactions and all sorts of other things. It is now feeling much better, though it has lost a lot of its memory and will have to have a new one built up.......
Now James' book is in the bookshops, I hope to be more loyal and regular in my work on the diary.
November 2007
If there's anybody out there after all this time, I am very sorry to have been so neglectful. Suffice to say that I now have a modern pc with lots of memory, fewer things to distract me from this task, and the firm intention of keeping up with the diary
November 8th
It is wonderful to see Anne being so acerbic ! The only Julien I could find associated with Punch was a Canadian, Henri Julien, who not only did political charicatures, but started up a Punch equivalent in Canada. However, he was not born until 1852, so it must be someone else....
November 10th.
It started 'cloudy, wretched, here, too. We have had everything this week - a day when you could go out without a jacket enjoying the sunshine, snow, howling gales, rain and fog! A rhododendron has flowers, and a lilac tree new green buds just as the last leaves have dropped.
For notes on the Journal for 1844, click here
For notes on the Journal for 1846, click here
For a list of names mentioned in Anne's journal to this date, click here
For a list of houses/places mentioned in the Journals, to this date, click here