Diana Astry

Diana Astry
Portrait of Diana Astry, courtesy of the Orlebar family
Born	Diana Astry
Died	4 December 1716 Podington, Bedfordshire, UK
Spouse	Richard Orlebar (m. 1708–1716; her death)

Diana Astry, (baptized 2 January 1671 – 4 December 1716) was an English diarist and compiler of a recipe book containing 375 recipes acquired from a number of sources including family and friends.

Astry lived at the Great House, Henbury, Gloucestershire, with her parents, Sir Samuel and Lady Elizabeth Astry, and her siblings, Elizabeth, Ann, Arabella, Luke and St John. Her father died in 1704, and in 1707, when their widowed mother married Sir Simon Harcourt, Diana Astry and her sister Arabella moved to Pendley, Hertfordshire.

In 1708, Astry married Richard Orlebar. She was an heiress with a fortune of £7000 who inherited even more money when her mother died 20 days after the wedding. The couple moved back to Henbury until the completion of their home, Hinwick House at Podington in Bedfordshire, in 1714. Diana Orlebar died childless two years later. Richard Orlebar, who was High Sheriff for Bedfordshire in 1720, was buried beside his wife in St Mary the Virgin, Podington when he died in 1733.

Most of the 375 recipes Astry collected, before and just after her marriage, are of a practical nature, including general culinary, pickling, preserving, and medicinal entries. The sources of the recipes and tips are acknowledged and reflect not only the lifestyle of the upper middle classes in England and housekeeping knowledge required to run a country house, but also Astry’s wide circle of influential friends and acquaintances.

The book includes recipes for 239 food dishes, 52 wines or cordials, 21 medicinal remedies, 25 pickles and 38 preserves. Among the sources mentioned are: Lady Drake, Lady Churchill, Lady Holt, Lady Torrington (whose recipe for "orange water" included "2 leaves of gold"), Lady Terret, Lady Chick(h)eley and Lady Fane. Where only initials have been recorded, the source may be a housekeeper; like the Orlebars’ Hannah French. Three men have contributed recipes: Mr Clark – "To make red strake sider"; Captain Rider – "An orange pudding"; and Dr Culpeper – "Dr Stephens' water (for use in childbirth)". Culpeper's recipe was one of many for "Dr Stephens' water" circulating in seventeenth-century texts.

Astry’s vellum-bound recipe book is mostly written in her hand, although the writing deteriorates towards the end and a few recipes are written by another. The recipes are not in any particular order though there are more medicinal recipes towards the end, including for the plague and dog bite. The cordial with more than 80 herbs and spices "will cost 50 shillings a quart to make it".