This wonderful thread by the Museum of English Rural Life went viral and you won’t be disappointed
The wonderful Museum of English Rural Life went viral today with this fascinating thread about a box of 18th century diaries it found in Kent.
Loads of people have been retweeting it and, well, have a read for yourself. You won’t be disappointed.
1.
Ok, we found something amazing and we demand you to come on a journey with us:
— The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) October 6, 2018
2.
A lot of our offices are like this.
The usual depressing office furniture, the utilitarian bookshelves, the archive trolleys which we *definitely* don’t ride down the corridors and… pic.twitter.com/qTApFQDDn7
— The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) October 6, 2018
3.
…boxes with eighteenth century diaries from Kent.
Just normal archive stuff. pic.twitter.com/tJ7Fbd6fuk
— The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) October 6, 2018
4.
Except this isn’t your normal farm diary.
It’s not even a diary.
It’s a Mathematics book owned by someone called Richard Beale, from a farm in Biddenden, Kent. pic.twitter.com/mHRQihidOB
— The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) October 6, 2018
5.
(As an aside, though, we got this book thanks to a generous donor because it’s connected to some of our farm diaries, which are a lot like normal diaries but with more cows.
We wrote a blog back in 2016 when we first got this family’s diaries: https://t.co/47wOhs1GlT)
— The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) October 6, 2018
6.
Every generation of the Beale family had a Richard, and we think the one who owned this book was 13 years old in 1784.
He used the book for writing out mathematical equations and problems. pic.twitter.com/a3RicOM0gr
— The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) October 6, 2018
7.
(they also had a boy named Seaman in every generation, which is just unfortunate, and a story for another time)
— The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) October 6, 2018
8.
If Richard was indeed the 13 year old, he had a beautiful hand. His mathematics are laid out like a dream.
But, like every teenager, mathematics couldn’t fill the void of Richard’s heart. pic.twitter.com/uieEyt930Q
— The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) October 6, 2018
9.
Richard doodled. pic.twitter.com/jRKPzVSZKk
— The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) October 6, 2018
10.
We think his family owned this dog, which pops up all over the place. pic.twitter.com/nSHydhpK5o
— The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) October 6, 2018