A summary of Volume XXII [Return to publications page]

The Diary of Lady Adela Capel, edited by Marian Strachan

Lady Adela Capel's diary, written during 1841 and 1842, provides fascinating insights into one year in the life of a thirteen/fourteen-year-old girl growing up in an early Victorian aristocratic household. Her father, the 6th Earl of Essex, had inherited Cassiobury House, the elegant Gothic mansion near Watford, together with its extensive, beautiful estate. This was the home and playground of Adela and her two younger brothers. The diary affords a unique and intimate glimpse into life at Cassiobury and Adela's relationships with her family, governess, servants, farm tenants, friends and visitors.

Alongside naïve accounts of her daily interactions with the animals on the estate and her care of her pets, in what is almost a nature diary, we find references to various members of the aristocracy including Queen Victoria. Adela also writes of journeys to London to visit Lady Caroline Capel, her grandmother. Despite visits to the theatre, places of interest and mixing with London society, city life holds few attractions for the young diarist. The diary describes gender roles and the education and socialisation of a sensitive, caring girl as she moves towards womanhood. Her passionate outburst on cruelty to animals, and the role of education and the example of masters in combating their unnecessary suffering, is an illuminating comment on attitudes during this period.

Hertfordshire historians with a special interest in Cassiobury and the social life of early Victorian Watford will find references to families overlooked by the 1841 Census, and details of the 6th Earl's Cassiobury House, family, grounds and staff that are only to be found in the diary. Historians in general will find a very different perspective on Victorian social history; in particular, the invaluable, sometimes humorous, portrayal of children's everyday lives in an unusually liberal Victorian aristocratic household. The content and style of the diary also provide an accessible, personal and informative resource for those involved in teaching or studying the Victorian Period for the National Curriculum.

The original diary is held at the Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, reference D/Z 32 F1. Between its half board cover is an almanac and the scrawled handwritten diary now browning with age. The editor has provided a valuable service in transcribing and introducing the diary, where she has brought together details of the Earl's family from previously unpublished sources. She also draws on these to trace the events of Adela's later life, where in womanhood she shares in the career of one of Scotland's prominent and controversial Victorian statesmen.

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