Diana Astry facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Diana Astry
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| Born | Diana Astry |
| Died | 4 December 1716 Podington, Bedfordshire, England, UK |
| Spouse | Richard Orlebar (m. 1708–1716; her death) |
Diana Astry (born around January 2, 1671, and died December 4, 1716) was an English woman from a long time ago. She was famous for writing in a diary and putting together a large recipe book. This book had 375 recipes that she gathered from her family and friends.
Contents
Diana Astry's Life Story
Diana Astry grew up at the Great House in Henbury, Gloucestershire. She lived there with her parents, Sir Samuel and Lady Elizabeth Astry, and her brothers and sisters: Elizabeth, Ann, Arabella, Luke, and St John.
Her father passed away in 1704. A few years later, in 1707, her mother married Sir Simon Harcourt. After this, Diana and her sister Arabella moved to Pendley, Hertfordshire.
Her Marriage and New Home
In 1708, Diana Astry married Richard Orlebar. She was an heiress, which means she had inherited a lot of money, about £7000 (a huge amount back then!). She inherited even more money when her mother died just 20 days after her wedding.
The couple first moved back to Henbury. Then, in 1714, their new home, Hinwick House in Podington, Bedfordshire, was finished. They moved there. Sadly, Diana Orlebar died two years later in 1716. She did not have any children.
Richard Orlebar was an important person too; he was the High Sheriff for Bedfordshire in 1720. When he died in 1733, he was buried next to Diana at St Mary the Virgin Church in Podington.
Diana's Amazing Recipe Book
Diana Astry collected most of her 375 recipes just before and after she got married. Her book is full of practical recipes. These include everyday cooking, how to pickle foods, how to preserve things, and even some old-fashioned medicines.
The book also tells us where she got the recipes from. This shows us how wealthy families lived in England back then. It also shows how much a lady needed to know to run a big country house. Plus, it reveals that Diana had many important friends and people she knew.
What Was Inside Her Book?
Diana's recipe book had:
- 239 food dishes
- 52 recipes for wines or cordials (sweet drinks)
- 21 medicinal remedies
- 25 pickle recipes
- 38 preserve recipes
Many of the recipes came from other important ladies like Lady Drake, Lady Churchill, and Lady Torrington. Lady Torrington's "orange water" recipe even suggested using "2 leaves of gold"! Sometimes, only initials were written down, which might mean the recipe came from a housekeeper, like Hannah French, who worked for the Orlebars.
A few men also shared recipes. Mr Clark had a recipe for "red strake cider," Captain Rider shared an "orange pudding," and Dr Culpeper gave a recipe for "Dr Stephens' water," which was a common remedy at the time.
How the Recipes Were Written
Diana's recipe book was bound in vellum, which is a special type of treated animal skin used for old books. Most of the book is written in her own handwriting. Towards the end, her writing changes, and a few recipes are written by someone else. The recipes are not in any special order. However, there are more medicinal recipes towards the end, including some for serious illnesses like the plague and dog bites. One cordial recipe, with over 80 herbs and spices, was very expensive to make, costing "50 shillings a quart."
The recipes often don't say exactly how much of each ingredient to use or how long to cook things. But they were very rich! For example, a good soup might have included beef, veal, mutton, a chicken, bacon, pigeon, cheese, and many vegetables and spices. A venison pasty (a type of meat pie) needed a whole side of venison, 14 pounds of flour, 6 pounds of butter, and 16 eggs!
She had recipes for freshwater fish like carp, pike, eels, and lamprey. Different types of sugar were used for sweetening, but honey was only in three recipes for mead (a drink made from honey). There was even a recipe for "catchope" (which is an old word for ketchup!). It used white wine vinegar, anchovies, spices, and herbs, and was colored with red wine.
Some unusual ingredients were also mentioned. "Alebaster" (alabaster) was used to make elder wine clear. Hot brass coins were put into vinegar and salt to make pickles green. And for jaundice (a yellowing of the skin), a powder made from earthworms was suggested!
Her Daily Notebook
Diana also had a small vellum notebook, or pocket book, from 1706. In this book, she wrote down what she ate at different dinner parties and places between 1701 and 1708. She even noted her weight on October 8, 1705, which was 94 pounds (about 6 stone 10 pounds).
A writer named Gilly Lehmann looked at Diana's notebook in her 2003 book, The British Housewife. She noticed that Diana's notebook didn't show many French dishes, even though Diana's own recipe collection had many French-style "fricassees" and "raggoos." Lehmann also pointed out that a supper Diana attended in London in 1706 was special because the dishes were served one at a time. This was unusual then, as food was usually put on the table all at once. This supper started with a sweet "posset" (a warm drink made with milk and wine or ale).
Family Life
Diana and Richard Orlebar did not have any children. In 1709, Simon Harcourt wrote to Richard Orlebar, hoping to hear that "the young fox hunter thrives apace." This was a playful way of saying he hoped Diana was pregnant and that he would soon be asked to be the baby's godfather. In 1710, Diana thought she was pregnant and wrote to her sister Elizabeth about how much she wanted a child.
Diana Astry had three sisters. Elizabeth died in 1715 and was married to Sir John Smyth. Anne died in 1703 during childbirth and was married to Thomas Chester IV. Arabella died in 1722 and was married to Charles William Howard, who was the 7th Earl of Suffolk.
