If Women in the 18th Century Could Blog...

I've started reading the First Volume of "Thraliana" which is essentially an 18th century 'Blog' of the Mrs. Hester Thrale-Piozzi. She, of course, did not have a computer, but she relates how she began her 'log' of everyday life at the beginning of her volume:
       
          It is many Years (1768 or before footnote) since Doctor Samuel Johnson advised me to get a little      
          Book, and write in it all the little Anecdotes which might come to my Knowledge, all the
          Observations I might make or hear; all the Verses never likely to be published, and in fine ev'ry
          thing which struck me at the Time. Mr. Thrale has now treated me with a Repository,--and
          provided it with the pompous Title of Thraliana; I must endeavour to fill it with Nonsense
          new and old. 15: September 1776.  (Thrale 1)

So you see, Blogging is not a novel idea, but only has evolved into the convenient online version, which has become widely accessible. I am sure Mrs. Thrale would have been thrilled to have her "Observations" known in an instant...or maybe not. She did threaten to burn her volumes out of fear they may be read.
I can relate to her writer-anxiety.

Lara

Works Cited:

Thrale Lynch, Hester Mrs. "Thraliana: The Diary of Mrs. Hester Lynch Thrale (Later Mrs. Piozzi)
       Volume 1:1776- 1784. 2nd Ed. Eds. Katharine C. Balderston. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1951.