The Victorian Diary of Thomas Henry Milsom

These are some extracts from the diary of my great-grandfather Thomas Henry Milsom.

Thomas was born in Bath in 1849 and was an Undertaker by profession. Although happily married he liked to travel. He managed to tour the world without his wife by explaining that “The healing Spa waters of Bath are very bad for the undertaking business so I am forced into making trips to research fresh schemes for making our fortune”. His wife Charlotte was a trusting soul and appears never to have complained.

17^th March 1872 Buffalo, New York

Today I have had a meeting with the visionary inventor F.H.C.Mey, his latest velocipede has a seat for the driver and a hollow front wheel turned by a pair of dogs running inside it.. I think that if the frame were lengthened we could accommodate a coffin in a rear compartment. All we would then need is to find a pair of mute dogs and we would then have a hearse that would be the talk of all Bath.

Next extract from diary