LIFE could be really dull for young Westmorland men with land and money - but no where to go for fun - more than 200 years ago.

There was no TV or radio, the cinema or the internet had not been invented and long-distance travel was limited to the speed of a horse.

What they got up to was revealed in a diary kept by George Hilton, of Beetham, near Milnthorpe, in the early 18th century.

Its contents were described by Dr Alan Crosby in a talks day for the Regional Heritage Centre at lancaster University.

Mr Hilton was a country squire who relieved the boredom of rural life by going on regular alcoholic "benders" with his drinking cronies.

Dr Crosby said: "There is a sense of how on earth do we fill the day.

"Young men of independent means in the countryside had quite a challenge to find things to fill the time."

The inns and ale houses provided one escape - places for drink, food, chat and gambling.

Dr Crosby said: "He must have been quite a celebrated figure around the drinking houses of Kendal.

"He was going on a bender every few days."

Among his drinking pals was a man from Flookburgh.

Dr Crosby said: "People who live life to excess get pangs of conscience.

"They are brought up in a society which is polarised between the confines of morality and religious observance."

Following many of Hilton's drinking bouts was at least day at home to recover and get over the hangover - referred to as "not abroad today".

The diary of Nicholas Ashton, of Downham, near Clitheroe, survives for only parts of 1616 and 1617.

He got to meet King James I on his tour through Lancashire but most of the young man's time seems to have been spent hunting, drinking ale and going to church.

He was married with young children but they rarely rate a mention. Mr Ashton hunted - with more passion than skill - for hares, foxes and badgers.

Nicholas Blundall, of Crosby, near Liverpool, was more honest with his diary than with his wife in the early 18th century.

In his attached accounts he records buying her a "false diamond".