Agreeableizing

1830 November Saturday 27 (Got up at) 6 40/.. /   (Went to bed at) 12 3/4 Ready in an hour. Wrote note to M. Monod, Faubourg Saint Martin, No. 80, to ask Messers Waterhouse  and Rawson to dinner at 5 tomorrow. Out at 8 20/.. (met Dr. Tanchou in the Champs Elysées near the Barriere in going, and he walked with me as far as the Barriere) by La Muette through the Bois de Boulogne to Boulogne 1 5/.. in the bois. Returned the same way and home at 11 25/.. Note in answer from M. Monod that the boys will come, then an hour with my aunt ordering about dinner for tomorrow – very tiresome I have nobody who can save me such work as this. Then breakfast, then talking on with Cameron about her carelessness till she cried and then of course there was an and of it. At my desk at 2.   1/2 hour nap.   Monsieur and Madame and the 2 Mademoiselles Séné called at 4 and staid 3/4 hour.   Would have sent to inquire after my aunt and come long ago but fancied that, like...

1836 January Thursday 21 7 40/.. 11 20/.. No kiss . Ready in 50 minutes.   Fine morning, F 42° at 8 40/.. – Mr. Samuel Washington came to Ann – Out with Robert + 4 till 9 1/2, at which hour, breakfast and sat talking to Ann till 10 1/2 – She had told Washington respecting Home house, late Mr. George Armytage, that he, Washington, was to buy it for her – ‘ He was to get it.’   Mr. William Priestley about it – Ann determined to be the purchaser if possible – Out at 10 1/2 with Joseph Mann at Listerwick cabin – Ordered about iron racks to be added at Low Moor for the back stable – Mr. Husband had told me Mr. Coleman, veterinary professor in London, would never have racks placed in the corners of stalls – Told Joseph to order racks for the middle of the stalls. Came home at 11 1/2 for £10 to give to Joseph Mann to pay £8.15.6 for a ton of the rails to be carted here by Mark Hepworth (from Low Moor for 3/6) this afternoon – Joseph Mann told me his plan . ...

1836 January Wednesday 20 8 12 50/.. No kiss. F 35 1/2° at 8 50/.. and fine morning, and went to Mr. Husband and shewed him Booth’s Estimate of doing up Mytholm Cottages, and gave Mr. H- back his own plan of the cottages and proposed alterations – He to meet Booth and Mallinson and Joseph Mann on the spot at 8 1/2 a.m. tomorrow and settle with them – Breakfast and talking to Ann till 10 3/4, then out till 5 40/.. – With Mallinson and his boy at farmyard gates fitting and hanging and with Robert Mann + 3, who began again at the Lower fish pond – excavating in continuance of the walk (on the South side) through the old road, across the valley, into the Little field and upper Land – The stuff barrowed on to the Lower fish pond north embankment so as to bring the slope down to the water’s edge and leave no walk as I at 1st intended – Wanted another man, the barrow run so long, so had Robert + 4 in the afternoon – Mark Hepworth carting stuff from Whiskum quarry and Frank ...

1836 January Tuesday 19 8 1/2 12 A tolerable kiss last night, poor Ann not disinclined, meaning to be affectionate, and we are all right – Sent off by Frank the 2 last months’ newspapers to Whitley and Booth to be bound – Sun shining and F 34° at 9 25/.., at which hour, breakfast and Mr. Matthew Pattison came and paid Ann her 1/2 of the bond-debt due to her, i.e. £350 – Then sat over breakfast and looking over Ann’s coal plans, etc. (Shugden Head, etc.) till out at 11 5/.. Some time with Robert Mann + 3 – They finished shifting the water drift scale from the far side of the road to near the Cascade Bridge on the great embankment opposite the house, and in the afternoon they finished cutting down the scale from under the large beeches close to Adney Bridge, thus widening the approach to the bridge sufficiently – Some while at Listerwick cabin and with Mallinson and his boy, hanging the farmyard gates – Came in at 12 1/4 – walked Ann out on the flags in front of th...

1836 January Monday 18 7 3/4 11 14 No kiss. F 39° and rainy, windy morning at 8 35/..   Ann had Mary lacing stays.   Her blister place not looked, but I did it up last night and luckily it is well.   She smiled at breakfast and said she was better, but tho I talked a good deal and as if not much had happened, yet my gravity was there.   I never kissed till she came to me to pay toll on going to the water closet.   Breakfast at 9.   Staid a little after Ann, reading Holland on the Laws of Life from page 91 to 113 – Out at 10 1/4 – With Robert Mann + 3, shifting drift scale to front of house, then with Joseph Mann at Listerwick cabin some time in spite of rain – Can get drain covers 2 feet 2 inches long and 6 to 8 inches thick (none under 6) at 5d per linear yard at the delf – To ask what Pollard will cart them for – Some bend-wood (wood naturally bent so as to make a frame) for the Engine pit, a circle of 9 foot drain – And iron rails want...

1836 January Sunday 17 8 10/.. 11 No kiss. Ann in good sorts. Dressed Ann’s back.   All but well – Ready in an hour and at breakfast at 9 10/.., at which hour, F 38° and fine, frostyish morning, but the sun out and thawed the flags – Sat reading downstairs till 11 3/4 from page 109 to 126 Milne Edwards’ Éléments de Z oologie – Read prayers in 23 minutes, Ann and I, to my aunt (in bed) and our 4 servants till 12 50/.. Read from page 35 to 68, Holland’s Experimental Inquiry into the Laws of Life till 1 10/.. – Then dressed, and after waiting a few minutes, went to see if Ann was ready.   All wrong about going to church in the yellow carriage.   Would not go at all.   Said I was very sorry, but really she had consented to it.   No, she knew nothing about it, and I had promised never to ask her again to go to church in yellow carriage.    Why, said I, you know I explained the necessity of using it sometimes now that we took no journe...

1836 January Saturday 16 8 1/4 11 50/.. No kiss, but she is in pretty good sorts . Dressed Ann’s back and had done all at 9 1/4, at which hour, F 32° sun shining and very frosty (hard frost) morning – Made breakfast – Out 10 minutes with Robert Mann + 3 at the scale shifting – Bought a couple of nice chickens for 3/. of a man passing by and came in to breakfast at 9 25/.. – Ann not quite in sorts at this, so after finding her not in talking humour, I shut up and said not another word, and she left me without speaking.   I must get the better or it will never do.   We shall have a try for it.   Her temper is a desperately disagreeable one, but I shall master it or get happily rid of her. A few minutes with Marian – Then had Charles Howarth – Then wrote the above of today till 11 25/.. Then at accounts till went out at 12 3/4 – Found the men, Robert Mann + 3, just beginning their work after dinner at cutting down stuff near Adney bridge (far side) an...

1836 January Friday 15 7 5/.. 11 1/2 No kiss. Ready in an hour.   Dressed Ann’s back – Nearly well yet she is not in good sorts.   I shall be glad to get rid of her by and by.   If my aunt recovers so as to live some years, what I shall or can do is uncertain, but I think Ann will not be with me forever – Fine morning, F 34° at 8 25/.. a.m. With Robert Mann + 3 at the scale shifting – But came in at 8 50/.. and made breakfast – Ann came at 9 10/.. –  Had read a few pages, from page 102 to 112, of Milne Edwards’ Éléments de Zoologie –  Breakfast till Ann left me at 9 3/4 –Then 1 20/.. hour with my father and Marian – She mending my gloves – Said I calculated the Lodge and road to cost a thousand pounds before both were quite completed – Out at 11 5/.. – With Robert Mann – and with Frank, cleaning out open drain behind the walk-sunkwall till 12 1/4 – Then at Whiskum quarry – More of John Bottomley’s wall fallen down – Returned home – Sent Fra...

1836 January Thursday 14 7 3/4 11 3/4 No kiss . Dressed Ann’s back – Much better this morning – Soft, damp, small rainy morning and F 42° at 9 5/.. – Had Sowden before breakfast was over – Gave him Pickles’s lease to read – No objection on that score – But could not give more rent – I asked £42 per annum (he pays £40) – Said it was valued as some shillings more – He gave me Samuel Washington’s valuation of his (Sowden’s) tenant-right = £20.9.0, but having 1 3/4 more under plough than customary.   Samuel Washington for this deducts £11.14.0 – Even in an arable farm, as I told him, not customary to have more than 1/2 under plough – I would not take less than I asked, so we parted good friends and he will give up the farm – Some time with Ann – Her stays hurt her back – Undressed her – She took the whalebone out, and I re-did up her blister place – Then note and bill from Mr. Bradley the architect = 19.0.6 paid in account £11 balance £8.0.6 asked for this or £5 in a...

  1836 January Wednesday 13 8 50/.. 11 25/.. No kiss . Dressed Ann’s back and, this included, ready in an hour. Snowy morning and F 35° at 9 50/.., at which hour, breakfast and sat reading till 11 50/.. from page 86 to 102, Milne Edwards’s Éléments de Zoologie. Mr. Hutchinson, the candidate schoolmaster from Osbalwick near York, came at 11 55/.. – Ann and I some while with him – Think him very likely to suit, being to be recommended by Mr. Thompson of Escrick – Offered him £60 per annum and the house (including small school) if Mr. Thompson’s answer favorable – Can come in 2 months or perhaps less – Makes £30 per annum where he is – Thankful for the present offer – To be entirely under private patronage – his time to be at Ann’s disposal save the evenings, which he is to have at his own disposal – Some while with Ann.   Sent John Clarke with Mr. Hutchinson to the School immediately after his dinner, and sent George off with compliments and inquiries from A...

  1836 January Tuesday 12 9 12 No kiss . Ann had not a good night ⸫ I had not – Dressed her back – going on well – Ready at 10, at which hour, F 30° and snowy morning – The ground thinly covered with snow – Breakfast at 10 10/.. to 10 55/.. then a little while with my father and Marian – Out at 11 1/2 in the farmyard Robert Mann, covering the new paving with sand and 3 paviours setting the dunghill – Wood + 2 began shifting the water drift scale against the Allan Car gate – wheeled it down in front of the house nearish to the Cascade bridge – Mark Hepworth and one cart as yesterday, carting stuff from Whiskum quarry – I some time there (at the quarry) then at the tail goit – some time with Joseph Mann, draining along the top of Pearson’s Riding – Then at the Lodge – With Wood again – At the Lower fish pond – In the farmyard – 3 out of 4 of the compartments of the dunghillstead done – Frank carting engine ashes from Mr. Haigh’s mill with the bay horse in the sh...

1836 January Monday 11 8 55/.. 11 50/.. No kiss. Ready in 40 minutes – Then dressed Ann’s back – The blister place better – Put a little honey on the bad place last night, and it did good – Fine morning, hard frost – F 30° at 9 40/.. at which hour, went down to Holt, who had brought William Dean to speak to Ann about upper Hagstocks farm – To have it at £25 per annum i.e. a few shillings above the old rent – and on year-to-year renewing lease – Much wants laying out in fencing and repairs – Holt says 60 yards piping wanted for the pheying at Walker Pit – brought down a few coals this morning from a bit of a post left in their way – Machans now want to sell the farm and coal together – Mr. Rawson’s foreman about it – Holt to see them again on Friday and let me know the result – Breakfast at 10 in 1/2 hour – Then wrote the above of this morning – Sealed and directed my notes written last night, and gave the one for Jane to Marian, to give her for ‘ Dr. Belcombe York...

1836 January Sunday 10 8 25/.. 11 25/.. No kiss. Ann had another restless night from the soreness of the blister place – but the place doing well this morning – No need to change the linen – Went down and made breakfast at 9 20/.. – A few minutes with my father and Marian before Ann came down – Afterwards till 11 1/4, looking over Spanish and Italian botany in the Encyclopaedia of Geography – Then had Charlotte Booth (for 10 minutes in my study) – gave her the Étrennes  from my aunt and as much from myself altogether 10/. – Then had motion in the court. Wrote the above of this morning till 11 3/4, at which hour, F 32 1/2° and fine, cold, frosty day – At 12 in 25 minutes, read prayers to my aunt (in bed) and Oddy and Mary and my 2 men – Ann sat quietly in the blue room – Then had Mr. Jubb near 1/2 hour.   Talked moving the Dispensary – The present situation unhealthy – malaria from the too often used water of a steam engine and common stove – Suggest...