Date:1 Jan 1698 - 31 Dec 1698Collector (major)William Courten (28 Mar 1642-26 Mar 1702)N/AHans Sloane (1660-1753)Annotation:Courten interleaved part of this diary with a printed almanack: Apollo Angilcanus. London: Richard Saunder, 1698.
The first six leaves, both sides, covering 3 Jan - 11 Oct, 1698, then the title page to the alamanck, then one more leaf covering 11-23 June. These pertain mostly to his obsessive record of the presence and number of ravens at his home and also remarks on the progress of an illness. Much of it is in cipher.
ff. 7-64. Interleaved with the almanack are observations corresponding to the month in the almanack, first with (usually) a page of daily records of the weather, and then a record of his health, sleep, exercise, diet, prescriptions, assessment, and treatment of physicians (including Sloane) for complaints of fever, head aches, and dizziness. No remarks about collecting activities. Some times long stretches are in cipher, some times only words and phrases, with no observable pattern for it usage. Most of it is in English.
f.64 a very brief entry for 6 Oct 1696.
f.65 a record of barrels of oysters, presumably purchased and consumed by Courten, 31 Oct 1698 - 26 April 1699.
f.66 a legend of Courten's cipher, made by "J.M. Oct 1854
On the verso of some pages are verses in a different, probably later hand.