Anne Lister was a wealthy landowner who lived in Yorkshire. These diaries chart her daily life - studying, seeing friends, having leeches applied to ease her toothache (ouch!), taking two days to travel 30 miles in a carriage to visit her father etc.
She was a lesbian and had several lovers on the go. Here, she is visiting one of them, Isabella (nickname Tib), and is concerned about her drinking:
Friday 17 November 1820
Tib & I had a rowe [sic] about drinking so much wine. She still swore by all that is sacred she never took more than five glasses a day; one at luncheon, one at supper, one at dinner & two at tea. I repeated that I could, if I chose, mention a time when, for several days she not only took more than five but more than six or seven glasses. She called God & all the angels of heaven to witness it was a lie & wished herself at the devil if it was not false. I still quietly persisted that I knew the thing to be fact. I told her a great many home truths.
Saturday 18 November
Lay so long in bed talking seriously to Tib above an hour. I again gave her to understand that her taking so much wine was generally known & lamented by all her friends. Miss Vallance said the servants here began to talk of Tib's taking so much wine. I told Tib she did not know the injury she did herself. She was now twenty years older in constitution than she was ten years ago &, in fact, much more an old woman than she ought to be at her age. I saw that this made an impression.
She was a lesbian and had several lovers on the go. Here, she is visiting one of them, Isabella (nickname Tib), and is concerned about her drinking:
Friday 17 November 1820
Tib & I had a rowe [sic] about drinking so much wine. She still swore by all that is sacred she never took more than five glasses a day; one at luncheon, one at supper, one at dinner & two at tea. I repeated that I could, if I chose, mention a time when, for several days she not only took more than five but more than six or seven glasses. She called God & all the angels of heaven to witness it was a lie & wished herself at the devil if it was not false. I still quietly persisted that I knew the thing to be fact. I told her a great many home truths.
Saturday 18 November
Lay so long in bed talking seriously to Tib above an hour. I again gave her to understand that her taking so much wine was generally known & lamented by all her friends. Miss Vallance said the servants here began to talk of Tib's taking so much wine. I told Tib she did not know the injury she did herself. She was now twenty years older in constitution than she was ten years ago &, in fact, much more an old woman than she ought to be at her age. I saw that this made an impression.
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