A Diary of 1803

During the spring and early summer of 1803 the general state of mind in this country, and indeed in most of Europe, must have been not unlike that of the same months in 1940. After a brief period of peace, an ominous cloud hung over France and her nearer neighbours. The Great Dictator was once more on the war-path and busily assembling his forces for a new attack, with the invasion and conquest of Great Britain as his principal aim. England cast aside a feeble and pacific Prime Minister, and recalled the national hero and war-leader, Pitt.

But, while Napoleon was gathering his powerful invasion force at the Channel ports, what of the private, as opposed to the public, state of mind, in London and elsewhere? It has been considered strange that the novels of Jane Austen should contain so few references to the Napoleonic Wars; and this is equally true of a short private journal, now in my possession, that covers the summer months of 1803.