Smuggling, social protest, incendiarism and multifarious crime gave Burwash an historic reputation for 'ignorance', insubordination and lawlessness when the Revd John Coker Egerton arrived as curate in 1857. No landowner lived in the parish and after his elevation to rector, Egerton described himself as village 'boss', though he was sufficiently honest to admit that his authority went unrecognized by a fair proportion of his neighbours. Egerton kept a daily diary of events during his thirty years in Burwash and it comprises a remarkable record of Victorian village life. It embraces a wide range of topics and events, including crime and poaching, emergent trade unionism, education and death. It describes a substantial miscellany of personnel: farmers both affluent and impoverished, labourers, saddlers, wheelwrights, carpenters, butchers, bakers and their families. His commentary is often incisive and his observation penetrating.

In his pithy introduction Roger Wells examines Burwash's history of notoriety and evaluates Egerton's claims to have 'sanitized' the village during his incumbency with a combination of charity, church and education. The book is illustrated with photographs taken in Burwash around the time of the diaries which aptly complement this evocative account of rural village life.