Friday, February 22, 1833

1833

February

Friday 22

6 5/..

12 1/4

F 48° in my room at 6 20/.. just after lighting the fire – Fine, soft, dampish morning –

Out at 7 1/4 along my walk to Washington’s about the plan of the estate, the land occupied by my father to be left blank, i.e. uncoloured, and the references to the paper plan that is to be mounted to be on a separate paper –

With Pickels at the Trough of Bolland wood road –

Came in at 9 1/4 – John told me he had just heard from William Moore of the Godley, who desired him to tell me that Mr. Carr was on the point of selling Godley, within £50 of agreeing to some person or persons who were going to build two mills (steam) in the garden field, close to our Sour Ing – It seems Carr had told Moore when out hunting, and that he had made me the first offer – Told John I had told Carr I would give him as much as anybody would in reason, but that if he sold the place to anybody else I should not care – I could build mills too – Would then make what I could of the estate and go away –

Breakfast with my father at 9 25/.. –

Had Throp – Ordered four arbutuses at 6d or 9d and 100 two-foot oak at 4/. or 5/. and a thousand hollies to be 3 feet high and proportionately bushy, not to be ready for 2 or 3 years hence and then to be 10/. a hundred = £5 –

Talking to my father and Marian about Godley etc. till 10 1/2 then wrote the above of today –

Charles and James Howarth putting shelves in the library book cupboards – 

A little while with my aunt and Out again at 11 1/4 – Met Mark Walsh, son to Walsh, partner with Hinscliffe and Co., in the colliery – Was coming about the stones forming the pit sheds.   Said I had left it John Bottomley to agree about them – some talk about the pit – his father wanting to stop its being filled up – asked him to the house to have a little beer, and staid talking to him some time – Thinks Hinscliffe has used his father very ill – They gave Oates and Green a hundred guineas to join concerns with a view to loosing the coals in the waste – Hoped the Willy hill pit would be opened again –

I had said I thought they were in a hurry to fill it up – I might perhaps have given them something for it – Said I supposed I had agreed with Mr. Rawson – But the agreement was not signed and tho’ I always did as I said, I was never sure whether other people did or not – Had I not been pre-engaged to them, should have agreed with Hinscliffe – But did not like having to do with a company – It depended upon Mr. Rawson whether they could ever get the waste coal or not – Better get rid of their share if they could get anything for it – but perhaps I should be seeing Hinscliffe and would tell him I thought them in too great a hurry to fill up the pit –

What I said was all, as usual, perfectly straightforward – He wanted a warrant to stop the filling up – But Mr. Pollard was not at home and he did not like to ask Messers Rawson and Waterhouse – Why not, said I – They would have no right to refuse the warrant – But go to Mr. Horton then – He never thought of that, but wished he had my spirit –

Out again at 2 with John – planted up the top of Trough of Bolland wood next low end of Park farm low well field with the beeches and the few oaks Pickels had taken up in cutting the new road – This took me till 5 1/2 – Then planted out nice sycamore at the top corner of the Wheatfield –

Then went to Pickels – Told him about Godley, and said to him as to John, I cared nothing about it – I would build mills, too, and leave the place –

Home at 6 20/.. – Cordingley and Charles Howarth had put up the lining (blue) in my armoire – Dinner at 6 40/.. – Afterwards wrote and sent note to Mr. Mitchell, Land Agent, Cowmarket Halifax, mentioning the report – That the gentleman meant to buy Holdsworth’s cottages also and to erect one steam engine immediately and ultimately another – tho’ I believed all this a mere trick, I mentioned it, that he (Mitchell) might make what inquiries he thought proper – Should be glad to hear his opinion –

Wrote the last 23 lines, and from 8 1/4 to to 9 1/2, read from page 40 to 49, De la Beche’s Geology, and had a nap –

Note by John from Messers Parker and Adam, enclosing the following note from Mr. Rawson: 

‘Dear Sir –

In reply to your favor of yesterday, please inform your client that I would not sign such a document for all the coals she possesses –

Yours very truly,

C Rawson

Friday a. m.’ –

Then there is an end of the thing, whether he may expect this or not –

Went into the other room – Read the note to my father and them all – Marian staid long talking it over and I staid afterwards talking to my aunt till came to my room at 11 –

Merely read a few lines of the Courier – Finish, dampish day – I felt it very cold out of doors – F 46° now at 11 5/.. p.m. –

Sat up calculating what income I should have to spend after paying every drawback allowance to my aunt etc. and exclusive of the hundred a year for stone from Freeman. I shall just have, taking every expence at the utmost, eight hundred and thirty to forty pounds a year.  I will make it do and perhaps shall be happier than if I had more.

 

WYAS Finding Numbers SH:7/ML/E/16/0020 and SH:7/ML/E/16/0021