TODAY we are delving into the life of Emily Smith, a cultured and educated Victorian who married the Rector of West Stafford.

We're going to take a look at her diaries by Margaret Smith (no relation), which have been kindly lent to Looking Back by Roger Lane of West Stafford.

She was the mother of Reginald Bosworth Smith, who we featured in last week's Looking Back.

The naughty schoolboy scaled a tree at Badbury Rings to raid a nest of ravens' eggs.

Emily was cultured and gifted and was born in Paris in 1817. She lived in Bath until her marriage to the Revd Reginald Smith.

She was an avid collector of shells, autographs and archaeological artefacts and, a trait that would run in the family, birds' eggs.

Rather gruesomely she kept a pocket book made out of the skin of a man who had attempted to murder her brother William in the Chinese War.

She took a keen interest in current affairs. She was a friend of Thomas Hardy's - and he said of Emily 'her varied knowledge and experiences, which are of that precise kind that has a peculiar charm for all engaged in such pursuits as mine.'

Emily went to Lyme Regis when she was 18 to recover from the shock of her father dying. While there, she met and fell in love with Reginald Southwell Smith and they married on February 25 1836.

A pregnant Emily moved to West Stafford with her new husband - she had given up her life of visiting, hearing sermons and practising her music to become wife of the rector in a quiet parish where she would have a house and servants to organise with little training for either task!

Emily's role was managerial and she was accompanied by her own maid from Bath, and Reggy engaged two housemaids and a manservant.

There was help from villagers who lived nearby too - Stroud the carpenter would be the odd job man and Bevis did the garden and his wife got the rectory ready for their arrival; women in the village did their washing.

The young couple enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle - Reginald had a stipend of £303 a year and inherited a house in Upper Seymour Street, Marylebone and Emily's mother paid him £120 annually as settlement for the marriage.

However, the couple truly lived by Victorian values - thrift, character and duty.

Bathtime in their big wooden tub wold consist of strong-smelling soap unmelted in the and lying on top of the lukewarm water in frothy flakes. There was never scented soap.

Emily would visit the shops in Dorchester and furnished the house according to the fashion of the day - Thomas Hardy's father even decorated their dining room in dark red!

The couple's first baby was stillborn but they had two boys, Henry and Bosworth.

By 1840 Reggy was showing symptoms of advanced tuberculosis.

The family moved to Ventnor on the Isle of Wight hoping a change of air would help and even tried two years living on Madeira.

Emily spent the rest of her life trying to help him to remain as healthy as he could. There is no doubt that without her constant care Reggy would have died as a young man instead of outliving his wife and living to the age of 85. There is a life size figure of him in St Andrew's Church, West Stafford.

Emily Genevieve Smith died aged 60 on April 27 1877.

Her last words were 'my life had been a laborious one, but it has been very happy'.

*DO you have information about a local resident from days gone by who Looking Back should feature? If so get in touch with Joanna Davis on 01305 830973 or email joanna.davis@dorsetecho.co.uk