William Holland (9 May 1746 – 17 April 1819) is now best remembered for his diary, which he kept from 1799 to 1818. The diary chronicles his life as the

vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pre ...

Over Stowey Over may refer to: Places *Over, Cambridgeshire, England * Over, Cheshire, England * Over, South Gloucestershire, England *Over, Tewkesbury, near Gloucester, England **Over Bridge * Over, Seevetal, Germany Music Albums * ''Over'' (album), by P ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lor ...

. In a similar fashion to the diary of Thomas Turner, Holland's diary is a personal consideration of the workings of country life during a time of considerable national tension. The diary is broad in scope, with limited discussion of national events such as the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fre ...

occurring alongside treatment of local matters. Not all of the diary's original 99 volumes survive; particularly, entries written both before and after the current known time-span of the diary are thought to have existed. Extracts from Holland's diary were published by C.F. Johnston in 1984. In 2003, the book ''Paupers & Pig Killers: The Diary of William Holland'', ed. Jack Ayres, was published by

Sutton Publishing The History Press is a British publishing company specialising in the publication of titles devoted to local and specialist history. It claims to be the United Kingdom's largest independent publisher in this field, publishing approximately 300 ...

. Comic excerpts were dramatized by BBC Radio in 2008–2012.

External links

* *http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007m03j 1746 births 1819 deaths English diarists {{England-writer-stub