This manuscript diary begins on 18 February and ends 31 December 1848, though there is no extended entry for Sunday 31 December.
The diary describes a variety of events, often rural, and including a visit to Scotland: 18 February, 'the hounds in Pasture woods did not find a fox till the afternoon'; 1 March, 'had a telegraph sight put to my rifle'; 7/8 March, 'mobs of young miscreants still doing damage to the shop windows - good for glaziers and no one else; 1 April, 'Chartists aided by some French Republicans and other disaffected rascals are concocting row after the manner of the rest of Europe'; and, in Edinburgh, 10 September, 'Went to the English Church at the West end of Princes Street [...] there was plate at the door into which one is expected to put coppers after the Scottish fashion'.