Acquiring A Victorian Diary

[Graham]

PS: I just nipped over to the JTR Forum to read the latest fingers-round-throats confrontation, this time about old houses, their floor-boards, and what's under 'em. It occurs to me that, if one assumes that the Diary, whoever wrote it, was meant to be seen, otherwise what was the point, then why the hell shove it under the floorboards of any house any where?

Graham

[Graham]

Thanks Harry.

I've just finished re-reading Shirley Harrison's book (Blake edition) for the first time in however many years, and it's reinforced my feeling that the Diary was (a) never produced in any way, shape or form by the Barretts; (b) was not filched out of Battlecrease by the electricians, which is reinforced by J Menges' Post 1811, quoting from Shirley's book. At this stage - and bear in mind that my interest in the entire Ripper saga is simply that of a casual and interested observer - I haven't quite got my head round just how the Diary did get to the Barratts. Anne's story of its being passed to her by Billy Graham is, I feel, not at all implausible, but to me at any rate doesn't at this stage strike me as totally watertight and concrete. And as to whether the thing was truly written by James Maybrick, I can't feel totally convinced that it was. However, if it wasn't, then my gut feeling - and I have a big gut - is that it must have been composed by someone close to him and to the family. Time, as someone once observed, will reveal all; or so it's said.

Graham

[harry]

Abby's apologies are noted.
It is obvious the 'one off' retail,refers to the sale.The sultanas are the subject of the sale.The advert could have been worded differently,and still conveyed the same message,with any item mentioned,but lets keep to the main purpose, which is the use of 'one off'.
I have messaged two posters with the name of the newspaper.I might add that one has to pay to access the archives of that paper.I use it because I am researching another topic.
Thanks Graham and Ike for your comments.

[Yabs]

This is currently being discussed over on the Forums.

https://www.jtrforums.com/showthread.php?t=26734&page=46

RJ Palmer posted this-

Shirley Harrison reports:

"...We made a return visit to Battlecrease House in June 1997 and sat
in James Maybrick's bedroom, now Paul Dodd's living room. It was
an eerie experience.

Paul was adamant. The house was originally gaslit and converted to
electricity in the 1920s. It was rewired again when his father bought it in
1946 and again in 1977 when Paul himself had gutted the place and
lifted the floor boards. Had anything been hidden, he was sure that he would have found it then."

JM

Thank you, JM.
I’ll give the whole thread a read.

[jmenges]

This is currently being discussed over on the Forums.

https://www.jtrforums.com/showthread.php?t=26734&page=46

RJ Palmer posted this-

Shirley Harrison reports:

"...We made a return visit to Battlecrease House in June 1997 and sat
in James Maybrick's bedroom, now Paul Dodd's living room. It was
an eerie experience.

Paul was adamant. The house was originally gaslit and converted to
electricity in the 1920s. It was rewired again when his father bought it in
1946 and again in 1977 when Paul himself had gutted the place and
lifted the floor boards. Had anything been hidden, he was sure that he would have found it then."

JM

[Iconoclast]

Just a thought.....
I know the story goes that the ripper diary was found when the floorboards were lifted at Battlecrease in 1992 for the first time since 1888.
I'm just thinking, were they not lifted before that when the house first became electrically powered for central ceiling lighting etc after the turn of the century?
I'm sure this must have been asked before so apologies for my ignorance if so.

Hi Yabs,

Personally, I don't know the answer to this, although I am sure I am right in saying that domestic electricity was available in the late Victorian period. To be honest, it's not something I give a lot a thought to (as I don't believe the scrapbook came from under the floorboards of Battlecrease House - I believe, rather, that a servant girl found it in Battlecrease House in 1889 after James Maybrick's death, literally laundered it via Elizabeth Formby's laundry, leaving it for Elizabeth to give to her daughter Edith who passed it to her stepson Billy Graham, who gave it to his daughter Anne Graham, who foolishly - thank God! - gave it to Tony Devereux, who gave it to his mate Bongo Barrett, husband of Anne Graham and erstwhile master-forger and world's greatest ever undiscovered actor, who gave it to the world).

Hope this helps.

Ike

[Kaz]

The bidding just ended one minute ago - sold for 26.88

BARGAIN!

MAD mike barrett was done... but this was before ebay days... in fairness...

[Yabs]

Just a thought.....
I know the story goes that the ripper diary was found when the floorboards were lifted at Battlecrease in 1992 for the first time since 1888.
I'm just thinking, were they not lifted before that when the house first became electrically powered for central ceiling lighting etc after the turn of the century?
I'm sure this must have been asked before so apologies for my ignorance if so.

[Yabs]

The bidding just ended one minute ago - sold for 26.88

An absolute bargain.
hypothetically speaking. If I was a forger I would remove that cover along with the used pages and part of the spine.
If done correctly, you could make it appear that only the cover was missing.
This would seem more natural with a hundred year old book, than having half of the pages missing with the cover intact.

[APerno]

Haha, let’’s keep an eye out for this turning up in the future.
it does say in the item description, 65-70 used pages but many unused and blank pages.

The bidding just ended one minute ago - sold for 26.88

[Yabs]

Interesting, Yabs. I wonder if this one also has blank pages at the end? (Scrapbook II, folks - it'll make a fortune!)

Haha, let’’s keep an eye out for this turning up in the future.
it does say in the item description, 65-70 used pages but many unused and blank pages.

[Iconoclast]

I thought I would try searching for something old that could be used as a Victorian journal in this modern day of the online auction.
Found something in approximately 2 minutes

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F352756570481

Interesting, Yabs. I wonder if this one also has blank pages at the end? (Scrapbook II, folks - it'll make a fortune!)

[Yabs]

I thought I would try searching for something old that could be used as a Victorian journal in this modern day of the online auction.
Found something in approximately 2 minutes

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F352756570481

[caz]

Ike-- another thing. The red diary produced by Anne G. was from 1891, not 1890, so technically it fell outside the parameters of the original advertisement in Bookdealer. I doubt that means much, other than shows the difficulty of coming up with a blank or largely blank diary from the late Victorian era.

Hi R.J,

Which, I suspect, is pretty much what Mike wondered about, when he first saw the 17 blank pages at the end of the Maybrick diary, following the final, and only dated entry - for 3rd May 1889. Did he want to know how likely it would be that a genuine diary from that era could survive until 9th March 1992 with so many unused pages? He certainly hinted at it when speaking to Martin Howells in September 1993 and describing how he had first seen the diary 18 months previously [taking it back to March 1992, rather than the Spring/Summer of 1991 - a slip of the tongue?]. He made an emphatic reference to the last page of the diary not being the last page of the scrapbook, as if he had found it noteworthy or puzzling at the time and therefore memorable.

Love,

Caz
X

[Iconoclast]

you all are right. my response to Harry was out of line and I apologize Harry. sorry. admin please feel free to strike my offending post.

Well done, Abby.