Friday, December 9, 1831

 

1831 December

Friday 9

7 1/2

1 1/2

Incurred a cross last night thinking of Miss Hobart.

Great deal of rain in the night – Fair or almost fair at 7 1/2 – F in my room 61° at 8, and 58° in the balcony at 8 1/2 –

Skimmed over the newspaper – Letter from my aunt (Shibden), 3 pages and ends, dated Tuesday the 6th instante mense – Thus I can hear in 3 days from Shibden, and it takes 5 from Lawton about 30 minutes nearer London than Shibden is! –

My father and Marian well – My aunt’s limbs seem to get gradually worn but she was in pretty good spirits?  There is a subscription afloat for the communion plate (to cost about £45 to £50) for Saint James’s Church – what will I give? Shall I think £5 too much? No! Certainly not – Marian wishes my aunt to speak to me about Benjamin Bottomly, whose life will be shortened by quitting the farm ‘for she had been told by a person (whom she did not choose to name) that it was not so ill farmed.’

Went out at 9 20/.. Walked to the 3 mile stone on the London road and back at 11 20/.. – Ten or 12 minutes with Miss Hobart.  Changed my dress – Breakfast at 11 55/.. in 20 minutes – Then looking over map of France I have long thought of going from Paris by Auvergne to Grenoble to mineralogize and ramble about the mountains all thereabouts till time for Italy –

Went out at 12 50/.. with Miss H- – 2 turns in High Street – The rain hurried us back.  Miss H- left her card in returning for Lady (baroness) Howe, wife to Sir Wathin [Wathen] Waller –

Came in at 1 40/.. – From 1 50/.. to 2 1/4, Miss H- in my room; gave me a lesson (the 1st) in German from Doctor De Prati’s German fables with English Literal Translation à la Hamilton –

Then wrote the above of today – Windy and rainy – Fair all the while I was out –

From 2 3/4 to 5 20/.. (had Miss H- for a little while) wrote 3 pages and ends and under the seal to my aunt – kind chit chat in  answer to her – On the 2 main points, wrote as follows –  

‘Do give my love to Marian and tell her, I am very sorry for what you tell me about poor old Benjamin, as I really hoped he was wise enough to be persuaded that, at his age, (nearer ninety, I presume, than eighty) it was time to give up  farming, as much for his own sake, as that of anybody else – Marian herself told me of his being obliged to go to bed after returning with his milk cans from Halifax; and considering this strong symptom of decrepitude, and how unaided he is by anybody in whom one can place any confidence, I should suppose Marian herself must, on reflection, be of opinion that, if he has no money, he is unfit for the farm; and if he has money, the farm is unfit for him, being a concern much greater than he is able to manage, and, consequently, far more likely to impoverish than enrich him – I should be very sorry to be even the innocent means of shortening anybody’s life by the shortest time possible; but I understood from Marian, that poor Benjamin was hardly expected to get over last winter: – perhaps, therefore, if he should even be worse this, his illness might fairly be attributed to nature as much as anything else – With respect to Marian’s authority in favor of his good or not bad farming, I can only say, that that authority, being anonymous, it is not, perhaps, necessary to pay it more deference than one usually does pay in such cases –

Do exactly as you like, and think best, my dear aunt, about the subscription to the  ‘outfit’ for St. James’s Church – but it strikes me, that if I give five pounds, it will be enough for us both – However put it in your name or mine – If the people get the money, they will care ‘little about the name – but perhaps you will be no loser by avoiding the gift of your name, when there is  no good reason why you should not keep it to yourself if you choose – I left a hundred pounds, as I told you at the time, in Rawson’s hand, so that you do not need feel at all at a loss – you were quite right to subscribe to the map’ (of the parish price 36/. in a case); and I am very glad of it – that is a kind of thing that ought to be in the house’. . . . . . . IN- [Isabella Norcliffe] has not written to me since I left Shibden nor Mrs. Norcliffe these 6 or 7 weeks  I trust, however, there can be no danger in sending Joseph Booth to Scott’s – Fumigation, and whitewashing, and all that could be done would be done, to get rid of infection as soon as possible – What frightens me is the boy’s inflamed knee – This does not look well – I fear, poor fellow! his constitution is not good, but we must hope the best’ –

My aunt had got the gig back – Percy was not to blame about it – It was Mr. Briggs’s mistake – Say I like Hastings better than I did at first – but it will be time to be off by the 1st of April ‘The air is too damp and relaxing – too rheumatic – Warm as it is, I have been obliged to put on a 2nd pair (I now wear two pair) of woollen sleeves, and to smother myself in bed at nights, by which means I have just got rid of rheumatism from my left arm’ –

Had just written so far at 5 50/.. Sent off at 5, my letter to ‘Mrs. Lister Shibden hall, Halifax, Yorkshire’ – Dressed – Read a few pages De la Beche’s Geology – Dinner at 7 5/.. in 40 minutes – Miss H- read aloud sermon to me – Another lesson – a little music before and after coffee at 8 1/2 – From 10 20/.. to 11 20/.. read aloud from page 44 to 91, end of chapter 22 and about 30 pages of Chapter 23, volume iv, Gibbon –

Came to my room at 11 1/2 – Thickish and damp and windy, but pretty fine while I was out and till 1 1/2, from when rainy. Stormy (high wind) afternoon and evening – F 64° now at 11 3/4 in my room. With a fire from morning till night, and for the last 2 or 3 nights ..... up and kept in all night – Smothered up and kept in all night – F 51 1/2° on the balcony at 12 20/.. –

Miss H- had note this afternoon, very kind and civil, from Lady Ann Scott, excusing her not calling on account of Lady Margaret’s going to be married to Lord Marsham –

Till 12 20/.., writing out declensions of German articles and pronouns and adjectives to take with me and learn in walking –

 

WYAS Finding Number  SH:7/ML/E/14/0161