There is a particular kind of building that survives not because anyone meant it to, but because it happened to be standing in the wrong place when everything around it fell down. Cothelstone Gatehouse, tucked at the foot of the Quantock Hills near Taunton, is one of...
Kitty Fisher in Somerset A Diary Entry & a Besotted Earl An Unexpected Entry Among the papers preserved at Montacute House in Somerset, the diaries of Edward Phelips V offer an invaluable window into the daily life of a Georgian country gentleman. Phelips, born in...
Kitty Fisher Georgian London’s First Celebrity Featured Image: Nathaniel Hone, Kitty Fisher, 1765. Oil on canvas, 749 × 622 mm. National Portrait Gallery, London (NPG 2354). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Humble Beginnings Catherine Maria Fischer was born on 1...
In Edward Phelips’s diaries statements of activity are recorded, often related to hunting and dining. These statements position Edward and his associates in time and place. Beyond that there is a context that can inform historians. In this case it is the information...
I have been working on analysing the diaries of Edward Phelips V of Montacute House, Somerset (1725-1797). This is one of the blog posts which attempts to contextualise entries to examine the culture of the 18th C English country gentry. This post relates to January...
Main Picture: Theatre Royal, Bath In Edward Phelips’s diary of 1779 are embedded the plays that he, his family, and acquaintances attended. The theatres they frequented were Covent Garden and Drury Lane. The commercial theatre took off in the 18th C as an enterprise...
