The Diary of Nathaniel Bryceson Revisited

[Ruskie]

So Nathaniel was aggressively searching out specific books to add to his collection. I love the way he speaks of "serious old Londoners" and "old London".

Great stuff Jo A. 

Should we assume that Mr Westall is a bookseller? I know in his diary Nathaniel mentions places he shopped and Bozier's Court rings a bell - can anyone else recall him mentioning a book shop there in 1846?

[Ruskie]

Should we assume that Mr Westall is a bookseller? I know in his diary Nathaniel mentions places he shopped and Bozier's Court rings a bell - can anyone else recall him mentioning a book shop there in 1846?

Oooh yes! 
http://catsmeatshop.blogspot.com.au/2009/10/lost-streets-boziers-court.html
(Click on map to enlarge - Bozier's Court is in the top left corner near the red line)

If you look at a modern map of the area today (at the northern side of the intersection between Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street) you can see a triangular area remaining where the row of buildings containing Bozier's Court used to stand.

Scroll down for some excellent images from one of our previous threads:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=500342.20

[Ruskie]

And we can read it here to see why it was so sought after:
http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Handbook_of_London.html?id=0BQNAAAAYAAJ&redir_esc=y

[oh yes, I can see the attraction - that is going on my favourites bar  ]

[MaryA]

Just so that Jo doesn't think she is talking to an audience of only a couple, there are others, well at least one - me! who is reading your entries and thank you for posting them.

[Ruskie]

Nice of you to drop in Mary A. I see this thread has been read well over 5,000 times so I don't think you're the only one reading.  I hope not anyway. 

[Paul Caswell]

... I hope not anyway. 

Definitely not!

Loving it - and thank you Jo for your generosity.

Paul

[Jo A]

Thanks for the hellos.  I see an Amey there in the list - my husband's family name.  They've been in Dorset since time began though.

Here's some more serious reading.

NOTHING FROTHY

'Here's the kind of things I picked up - nothing frothy or comic about these - 'Scriptural Paraphrases' 'Norton's Statements of Reasons'  Gentleman's Magazine 1826'  'Holy Bible' of seventeen hundred and something, 'Ecclesiastical History' 'County Families' of fifty years ago.

That's the kind of reading earnest people took.  And we went to chapel three times on Sunday, and if by any chance we wanted a little recreation we had a walk in the park.

Theatres?  Haven't been to six in my life.  Theatres weren't to my taste when there were plenty of old churches and old graves and epitaphs.'

[Ruskie]

Um, a bit of light reading there Nathaniel!   

But I'm sure he is right that 'earnest' people did read these kinds of books, and Nathaniel did come across as being quite a serious young man.

Nathaniel didn't seem to be too much of a churchgoer in 1846 (though he did accompany others) - he seemed to be more intested in the graves and epitaphs than the service.

And a walk in the park for recreation? Maybe in his later years, but a 30 mile walk was fairly normal for Nathaniel's Sunday outings in 1846.

A dislike of theatres is exactly what I would expect of Nat. 

[Ruskie]

I had a reasonable look through yesterday's Handbook of London by Peter Cunningham (which took him 7 years to write), and I can understand why Nathaniel coveted it. I suppose it's a bit like a guide book of London - it's actually something that I think Nathaniel himself could have written, (with the addition of a lot more churches and epitaphs of course  ).