First British occupation 1795-1803

This second volume of the Cape diaries, dealing with 1800, further develop this rich and entertaining account of life at the Cape in the early years of British rule. Politically the Diaries lay bare the dynamics of the conflicts among senior office-holders, not only in the civil administration, but also in and between the army and navy. Lady Anne's independence of thought is reflected in her ideas on such diverse matters as animal rights or interior decoration or landscaping. She offers valuable insights into the social constraints upon women at the time

The Cape Diaries are the private and unrevised records on which Lady Anne based her Journals. Consequently they express Lady Anne's uncensored views on a wide variety of topics, social and political. The diaries are not only illuminating but also vastly entertaining because of her brilliant command of language and the pleasure she took in the act of writing itself. They greatly enlarge our historical awareness of the transition in her day from the aristocratic, hierarchical world of the 18^th to the fast-emerging bourgeois culture of the 19^th century.

Lady Anne's journals were revised from her original diaries and produced for the interest of her immediate family and friends. They were never intended for publication. However, they are invaluable in the light which they cast on 'the interesting domestic particulars of life in Cape Town', dealing with matters which male writers ignored. In addition, her place in society, as wife to the secretary of the first British governor of the Cape and the latter's official hostess, gave her access to a wide range of classes and people. Although carefully censored, her journals, enhanced by the quality of her writing, give a unique of view of life at the Cape at the end of the 18^th century