CAPACIOUS HOLD-ALL: An Anthology of English-Women’s Diary...

CAPACIOUS HOLD-ALL: An Anthology of English-Women’s Diary Writings edited by Harriet Blodgett (University Press of Virginia: $14.95). The entries in this unusual anthology range from the late 16th Century to World War II, and cover every social station, from scullery maid to aristocrat. Elizabeth George’s account of supervising the extensive preparations for a visit by the Duke of Buckingham, the Duke of Cambridge and Prince George in 1840 is strikingly free of the awe tenant farmers are usually portrayed as feeling for the upper classes: The weary young woman seems to regard the arrival of the titled guests as a royal pain. Nancy Woodforde takes pride in walking for her health and figure, and offers a late-18th-Century recipe for a diet drink compounded of saffron, fennel, anise and sassafras. During the Battle of Britain, Nella Last discovers her exceptional administrative abilities, managing canteens and soup kitchens, and resolves never to return to being a housewife. Reflecting on the stolid nonentity she refers to only as “my husband,” she marvels “at how, to avoid hurting him, I had tried to keep him in a good mood, when a smacked head would have been the best treatment.”