Buckland learnedly suggested something about snails which he discovered at the bottom of some extensive limestone borings near Boulogne. This led to a learned disquisition on snails, as to how they bored & where they bored, & why they bored & whether they really bored, or no.
Thought I, if they don't, I know who does.
Diary entry for this day in 1841, by Barclay Fox, from The Faber Book of Diaries, one of the books I picked up in Maine.
The book presents short entries from four centuries of English diaries, written by more than 100 people.
I didn't know who Barclay Fox (1817-1855)was, so I checked trusty old Wikipedia, and learned that he was a businessman, gardener, and diarist, a member of the Quaker Fox family of Falmouth.
So, exactly 168 years ago, an English Quaker was being bored by a learned acquaintance, and I can read about it today.
Something about all this reminds me of blogs, and blog postings, and how the things we jot down at random might have a life of their own of which we little dream. I sometimes think that the blogs of today will become a trove of information about people in our time for the historians and e-archaeologists of the future. What wouldn't we give now for a record of the daily musings and doings of some ancient Egyptian or Babylonian?
Historians of the future, if you are reading this, hello!
Photo courtesy of Flickr user Mara~earth light~
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