In 2004 an oak box was passed to me by my aunt Vera. Over the years it had been passed down through members of the Buston family living at High Buston Hall and nearby Buston Barns. At some point the key had been lost and the contents remained hidden and forgotten about for many years.

We had the box opened by a locksmith to reveal letters c. 1788, daguerreotype and ambrotype Lambert family photographs and a copy of The Newcastle Journal dated 15 September 1838 which reported the heroics of Grace Darling and her father in the rescue of crew members from the Forfarshire Steamer off the Northumberland coast.

However it is the letters and " death book" which are of the most interest.They provided me with a window into the social life of the landed gentry of those days and their gallantry when fighting for the army of the East India Company in the Anglo-Maratha wars of the late 18th and early 19th centuries in India