What a secret diary uncovered about an artist's life in Staithes

In this blog post, I'll tell you a bit about my favourite romance in the history of Staithes. The Secret Staithes Diary of Enid Lucy Pease Robinson, edited by James Hart and published in 2010, is a unique first-hand account of life in Staithes during the summer of 1901. Written by a 20-year-old woman from the prominent Pease family of Darlington, the diary was discovered at an auction in West Sussex nearly a century after it was written.

The "Secret" Nature of the Diary

The journal is called "secret" because Enid Robinson methodically inked out location names and characters throughout the text, likely to hide her activities from her father. It is speculated that he would have frowned upon her "fraternising with the free-spirited artists" in the village. Modern technology, specifically using LED lights to shine through the pages, allowed researchers to reveal the hidden words and identify the people and places she described.

A Summer of Romance and Yearning

The diary's emotional core is Enid’s intense romantic interest in a man she refers to as "D," who was revealed to be the artist Ernest Higgins Rigg. Waiting for "D": Much of the diary records Enid’s anxiety as she watches the hill from the station, hoping Rigg will arrive on the next train, and her "fits of great depression" when he does not appear.

The diary culminates on 31 August 1901, when Rigg (whom she also calls "Riggie") proposes to her during a walk up the steep hill to the station Enid famously recorded a list of "Points in Favour" and "Objections" regarding a potential marriage. While she found him to be a "perfect character" with a "handsome face," she worried about his "Yorkshire (Bradford) accent," his "awful" relations, and the potential for social ostracisation due to his lack of wealth.

Portraits of the Staithes Group

Enid provides rare, contemporary observations of the artists who would later become famous as the Staithes Group.

• The Knights: She describes seeing Laura Johnson (later Dame Laura Knight) and Harold Knight, noting their work and social interactions.

• Historical Discovery: The diary provides a vital piece of art history by recording the inaugural Staithes Art Club exhibition, which opened on Monday, 26 August 1901—a date that had previously eluded historians.

• Caricatures: Enid was an artist herself, and the diary contains her own sketches and caricatures of the people she met in the village.

Views on Village Life

Enid's diary offers a glimpse into the social divide between the visitors and the local "fisherfolk".

Class and Religion: As a member of the Church of England, she found the local Methodist "chapelism" to be a "play at religion" and "amusing," though she admitted it was well-suited for the "working-classes".

Local Tragedy: She records the death of Dick Longster, a local man who fell over the Staith on a dark night, providing a more "naive" and personal account of the event than the version later published by Laura Knight.

Sensibilities: She expresses horror at the "sickening sight" of a bullock being driven to the butcher and slaughtered in the High Street, noting she could "hardly eat any food" afterward.

Legacy

Ultimately, the romance with Ernest Rigg "fizzled out," and Enid went on to marry a doctor and raise a family, though she continued to paint and write poetry throughout her life. The diary remains a significant historical document, providing a "far more immediate insight into late Victorian life on the North Yorkshire coast" than the more polished autobiographies written decades later.