South East

The best kind of diary is one that takes you back in time - a private, hand-written story of a person's life.

Hubert Verrall's diary is just that - it provides a remarkable view of Sussex life during Queen Victoria's reign more than 100 years ago.

He kept it every single day for almost half a century - and wrote about anything and everything from his personal life to daily news events.

Dr Sally White is the great, great, great niece of Hubert Verrall.

She says that this vast, detailed record of his life has enabled her to really get to know her late, great, great, great Uncle.

It also provides a fascinating insight into the life of an ordinary working man and the period of history in which he lived.

Digging up the past

Most old diaries don't survive.

Hubert Verrall - Sussex diarist.

If they're too racy, they're destroyed. And if they're too dull, they're simply thrown away.

But when a diary is preserved, it becomes a kind of time machine.

That's why Hubert Verrall's diaries are so important to historians.

Today Hubert's diary is kept in the vaults of East Sussex Record Office in Lewes.

His writings provide a slice of one man's life with its ups and downs.

Hubert's main interest was breeding and exhibiting caged birds. He never married and there's no mention in the pages of the diary of any romance or relationships.

The diary tells us that Hubert's life went from one bad turn to another.

Both parents, a brother and a sister all died within three years of each other.

The family auction business closed down, and Hubert was made homeless.

Hubert started drinking heavily in the 1870s as illustrated in this extract:

> Diary > March 23, 1879

"Walking all day, did not eat or drink, only tea, all day, by doctor's orders… I am of a strong suspicion that I have been a trifle insane ever since Tuesday through drinking whiskey every day last week and eating and walking too much…

"From this day I intend trying to be if possible an abstainer from beer and spirits and have not tasted beer of any description since 14 June 1878."

To historians a diary like Hubert's is like gold dust.

It gives them a true flavour of a particular place at a particular time, adding flesh to the dry bones of history.

Hubert also wrote about the latest news stories in his diary, illuminating everyday life:

> Diary > October 13, 1873

"Mr James Bates and Mr Knight Builder cut their throats in the evening and another man was taken to the Union for attempting to cut his wife's throat and his own. Mr Bates was taken to the Asylum and Mr Knight is alive."

Valuable record of life

Dr Sally White isn't so sure that Hubert would be happy about people reading his innermost thoughts more than 100 years on:

"I think he wrote this very much for himself… he was an intensely private man."

One thing that we do know is that Hubert's Verrall's diary provides a wonderful insight to everyday life.

That's why it's so valuable to historians today.