A walk to Cumnor
Cloudy, but rain kept off and I had a pleasant walk to Cumnor with W. Sewell, Hook, O’Brien, Russell. We went across country jumping hedges and forcing our way through pleasant copses where the first primroses were already in flower. Brock ran with us, and at Cumnor had to be carried into the stable in the groom’s arms to save him from the other dogs. Saw the Church and after having dined at their lunch left about 3½ o’clock.

William Wood’s Diary 1855-1861, ed. by Mark Spurrell, is available from Oxfordshire Record Society. These excerpts are presented to give a flavour of life at Radley in the 1850s