While Drummond lacked his father’s flair for writing, his diary entries from 1657 onwards offer terse but informative glimpses into his private life. No less than 38 of Drummond’s entries in that year record instances of masturbation, using the code word “fattall”. Some of the more interesting entries, complete with Drummond’s original spelling, include:
January 4th: I stayed at hom from church and red the Cyprian Grove… fattall.
January 28th: Solitaire, fattall.
February 4th: Solitaire, but yet fattall. Lay in my bed all day.
February 26th: All night fattall.
March 12th: Fattall thrice.
March 28th: Fattall fowre times.
April 15th: Solitaire, fattall most grivously.
May 8th: Began first to ride that book which is so much estim’d of, Arcadia, out of a curiositie, becawse everyon was perswaded that it cowld not be but I had red it before twentie times. Fattall twise.
July 13th: Fattall fowre times.
Drummond’s diary also reports sexual liaisons with an unnamed mistress (“Z”) and the consummation of his marriage on December 17th 1657. Understandably, his diary mentions masturbating much less frequently after this – however on February 7th 1659 he admits to “fattall” again while his wife was away in Pendrike.
Source: Diary of Sir William Drummond of Hawthorden, 1657-59. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.