Agreeableizing

  1837 April Tuesday 11 10 35/.. 12 Slept last night in the kitchen chamber and slept very well – 1st time of sleeping alone since Ann has been here – Poor dear Ann ! Very lonely to be without her – Ready in 55 minutes – Breakfast in the blue room at 11 35/.. and Ann sat with me – Sat talking till after 1 – Dawdling about – My eye not quite so well this morning as yesterday morning ? Ann says I did too much yesterday – At my desk now at 1 50/.. – Meant to have written letters, but when I had written and copied my letter to Mr. Harper, found my eye unwilling to do more – wrote to Mr. Harper in answer to his letter of yesterday asking me if he should get another estimate of the Listerwick millwright work – Astonished – £1150 instead of £500 – Told him to get one or more estimates from whom and from where he thought best – To bring with him the old brass thing (found in  the clay west side of the barn and stabling)– and to bring the rough draft of the advertisemen...

1837 April Monday 10 1 0 1/2 11 40/..   Could not sleep for Ann’s snoring all night.   Determined to sleep in the kitchen  chamber – Siding the room and not ready till 12, Mr. Jubb having waited a long while. Much better this morning, but not to go out today or tomorrow – Mr. Jubb will come again on  Wednesday – Ann had the servant from the honorable Lady Shaw, and rode to Cliff hill about 2 p.m., and the young man went with her, and Mrs. Ann Walker engaged him £13 per annum and livery and to be washed, for in the house – Breakfast at 12 – Ann got the kitchen chamber ready for me to sleep in tonight. Told Mr. Jubb I had been so disturbed by the horses in the stable could not sleep last night or the night before – From 12 3/4 to 6, looking over my estate plan, and calculating and planning about the Incline from the top of the bank to the yew tree – and definitively to about 60 yards below the yew tree (the westernmost of the 3 yew trees in the ...

1837 April Sunday 9 .. .. In bed all the day – Mr. Jubb came about 11 just after I handsome breakfasted – Better – May get up this afternoon – Had 1/2 a cup of tea about 12 – Ann staid at home from church, but left me at my desire while I slept – A note this morning from Mrs. Hammerton, once of Staups, asking for money by John Booth’s nephew who is to call for an answer this evening – Desired Ann to say I thought Mrs.   Hammerton had better apply to her friends – Would give her nothing, because an undeserving person whose friends (relations), sons, and her niece, Miss Hoyle that was, are able enough to make her a sufficient allowance – Up from 7 1/4 to 11 1/4 – Snow showers during the day –   WYAS Finding Number SH:7/ML/E/20/0044

1837 April Saturday 8 .. .. In bed all the day did not sleep much, but my eye much better.   Could not sleep for Ann’s snoring. Mr. Jubb came about 11 just after my breakfast – Forced the eye open – Made up with leech-stoppings – Much better, but to take 2 more pills tonight and the saline mixture every 3 hours as before – Took it as I said now and then – When inclined – Ann went to Cliff hill about 3 and returned at 6 1/2.   Tea at 7 1/2.   Slept during the afternoon – Up at 9 1/2 (to have the bed made) for 3/4 hour – Note tonight from the Philosophical Society and from Mr. McKean a new checkbook – Snow showers during the day – Took 2 pills tonight –   WYAS Finding Number SH:7/ML/E/20/0044

1837 April Friday 7 .. .. In bed all the day – Found Ann had sent for Mr. Jubb, who came about 11 1/2 and ordered 6 leeches to be put on just under the eye (the right) – Would send the leech-woman and medicine – Breakfast, tea and tea cake about noon – Mrs. Wright put on the 6 leeches at 3 p.m. all off in 3/4 hour – Kept on the bleeding with hot flannels and little poultices for about an hour after the leeches were all off – The pain relieved, but not removed – The fomenting with hot water and then with Mr. Jubb’s opiate lotion did good – Mrs. W- Wright calculates 1 leech (with a good bleeding afterwards) to 1/3 of an ounce of blood – Tea at 9 – Up at 10 for near an hour in the blue room while the bed was made – Took 2 pills together = 2 grains calomel 2 grains antimony and about 6 grains colchicine compound.   Finish day   WYAS Finding Number SH:7/ML/E/20/0044

1837 April Thursday 6 8 50/.. 12 40/.. No kiss. Cold morning with small snow flying about at 9 – Nearly fair at 10 and Fahrenheit 37 1/2 ° and breakfast – And sat over it reading Lardner on Steam Engines till 12 – Then reading the same upstairs – A little while with Ann at her luncheon – Then looking into Nesbitt on the mensuration of circles till 1 35/.. Parcel about noon from Mr. Harper, York, containing leathers for the shelves of Ann’s bookcase and hinges for the door of my portable bookcase, and letter for Mr. Husband announcing to him that he will not be wanted after June – Mr. Harper having agreed that he, Mr. Husband, should have 3 months wages or 3 months warning – All very right – Mr. Harper says there will be no necessity for him at Northgate longer than this – Mr. Gray will meet Mr. Harper here on the 19th instante mense – Mr. Harper wishes for the plans and estimate of the mill work – To be sent to him as soon as possible that he may have time for consi...

1837 April Wednesday 5 8 1/4 1 1/4 No kiss. Washing. Fahrenheit 46° in the sun at 9 35/.. and breakfast.   Ann read French – Out at 10 1/2 with Robert Mann +3 at the new drain in the Sour Ing – Sam Booth came to his work in the afternoon 1st time since his accident last Thursday – With Joseph Mann in the afternoon till 5, then with Robert + planting large thorns at the top west corner of the wheatfield-glen – Frank carting stone for Ingham +2 at the carriage court wall – John Day carting clay and stones for levelling up towards the 2 brook Ings near the meer and for the new drain – Masons again at the west tower and meer-drift clow – Joseph Mann’s plan of avoiding letting of the upper bed dead water – to drive above from the present bottom of Engine pit (12 yards drop) to Listerwick pit – Longish talk with John Oates this afternoon – Came in at 6 1/2 – Dressed – Dinner at 7 – Coffee – Asleep on the sofa in Ann’s sitting room (north parlour) till 9 – Then read ...

1837 April Tuesday 4 8 10/.. 12 5/.. No kiss quarter hour, no, ten minutes washing – Breakfast at 9 10/.., at which hour, Fahrenheit 55° in the sun – Ann read aloud octavo 2 pages of French – Out at 10 – In the stable – Charles Howarth came – to come tomorrow to do up, repair the back stable stall- partitions – Had him in about letting the upper bed water off – Yes! Charles begged me to consider about it – If let off as Joseph Mann proposed, I should loose 3/4 of Dovehouse farms upper bed coal – Thanked Charles – said he might mention it or not as he liked, but if it was known, he would get many an ill word for telling me – Then in the cowhouse – the cow calved about before 10 last night – Thomas Pearson would like to buy the calf (a quey) to keep at a few days old – Asked what he should give – John said Aquilla Green had lately sold one for 7/6 (John guessed 15/. and was told, for 1/2 that).   I said that would not do – If fit for the butcher, what should be the ...

1837 April Monday 3 8 10/.. 12 5/.. Pretty good one last night.   Much snow in the night – The ground all covered again pretty thickly.   Not a speck of green to be seen, and Fahrenheit 43° now at 9 40/.. a.m. Found cousin come gently and had all to prepare, which has made me so long dressing – Breakfast at 9 3/4 with Ann – and with her afterwards (wine currant cordial out of hall cellar given to Robert Schofield – his wife poorly) and dawdling downstairs till 11 – From then to now, 1 40/.., read (missing for the present the 40 next preceding pages) from page 88 to 136, Higgins on the Earth – and look at maps, and several references – Then 1/2 hour with Ann, not going out this afternoon – Began snowing (small snow) about 1 and now snowy, wintry afternoon – all around trees and ground groaning under their white covering – At 2 10/.. at my desk – Wrote 4 pages of 1/2 sheet and 1/2 page of another 1/2 sheet to Lady   Vere Cameron Then at four and thir...

1837 April Sunday 2 8 35/.. 12 25/.. Longish not very good one last night. Very fine morning; Fahrenheit 57° in the sun now at 9 35/.. a.m.   Ann off to the school 20 minutes ago – Walked – Hard frost in the night – too slippery for the ponies – Breakfast – From 10 1/2 to 1 55/.., sat reading through (blue room) the Gentleman’s Magazine of last month – Came last night – Some very interesting articles – On the Phoenician descent of the Celts and Pelasgi – Etymology of Troy weight uncia or ounce, etc., etc.   Campanari’s Etruscan antiquities now shewing in London – Sir William Bentham, Ulster King at Arms, on ring money, etc., etc., pages 372, 375 . . . . . Off to church at 2 10/.. – Mr. Wilkinson did all the duty (service just began before we arrived).   Preached 20 minutes from Matthew xxviii.5 – 3/4 hour at Cliff hill – Ann had Samuel Washington there, who brought her the plan of coal got by Illingworth as measured in the bottom by Holt at Shugden Head. ...

1837 April Saturday 1 8 1 55/.. No kiss. More snow in the night – all white again.   My dressing room skylight darkened – sun out now at 9 20/.. and Fahrenheit 54° Had Mr. Husband at 9.   Gave him a check (No. 93) for his last 3 month wages = £24 due on the 11th ultimo – The 1st time I have ever paid him by check – He said there would be £40 wanted in account of the Stump Cross Inn – Said I ought to have known before – Must pay by check and should give himself one – Had Mr. Samuel Washington with a notice from Statham to quit the Stump Cross Cottages (late William Green) on the 1st day of June – He will have lived there about 4 months – Merely observed I should have been glad to have possession sooner – Then had just sat down to breakfast when Mr. Cole came for payment of a little bill in account of Northgate hotel (Conductor pipes) = £9.4.7 – Thought only of Mr. Cole the Engineer – said I did not like a high pressure engine – Had told Mr. Harper to settle abo...

1837 March Friday 31 8 1 1/2 No kiss. Very fine morning.   Sun out, Fahrenheit 51° at 9 – The ground just peeping out here and there from the snow – Breakfast at 9 1/4 with Ann.   Poorly this morning and the last 2 or 3 days – Caught cold at Bolton bridge? David Booth and Joseph Mann came at 9 1/2 about the meer-drift head clow and staid till 11 10/.. – Long talk about the clows and the meer generally – Settled the meer-drift head clow place to work in is to be square, according to David Booth’s proposal instead of round – and instead of a continuation of the walled and arched culvert from the clow to the meer, there is to be a stone-pen-trough 3 feet 1 inch wide and 18 inches high – Booth sure he can make it answer – Will cost (including labour carting and stone) 30/. per running yard.   Mentioned what John Oates said to me yesterday evening, that the banks had sunk 3feet – that the meer-end by-wash was too low – The banks would have to be raised 2 fe...

1837 March Thursday 30 8 11 40/.. No kiss. I see Ann’s irritability is returning, but she behaves as well as she can, poor thing.   We must be off as soon as we can – Fine, sunny morning; Fahrenheit 57° in the sun, but I feel very cold – as if it was a hard frost – Breakfast at 9 1/2, having seen Mr. Horner while he was with Ann .   He mentioned the Mechanics Institute – but on my asking if I was to consider what he said as official, he answered no!, but it was said he was in the habit of coming here and therefore they wished him to inquire if I should object to let them have ground – I said I would consider about it – I was anxious for the spread of genuine knowledge, but would not inflict upon the town a building in bad architectural taste – I should wish to see and be satisfied with the plan of any building before its being built on my ground – I did not always admire the taste of committees – I would consider getting asked what was wanted – a library, m...

1837 March Wednesday 29 1837 7 40/.. 1 Goodish one last night. The ground thickly covered with snow, and snowing fast, and Fahrenheit 36° now at 8 3/4 a.m.   Had Rhodes about wire door for my portable bookcase.   Breakfast at 9 – Ann read French after a cessation of a fortnight – Sat in the blue room reading Wordsworth, Athens and Attica, till 12 – Then taking books downstairs and siding – Wrote to Mr. Harper and Mr. Oldfield – Bligh and Robert finished setting up and repairing (rehanging the doors – sadly warped – the wood unseasoned) Ann’s bookcase in the north parlour this afternoon – At 4 1/2, had them upstairs moving drawers (my large mahogany chest) and oak-painted chest and cupboard into the blue room and also bringing up there my uncle’s bureau from the north parlour – All this took till 7 1/2 – Then dinner – Sent off my letters to ‘John Harper, Esquire, St. Leonard’s Place, York, Postage Paid’ and to ‘ William Oldfield, Esquire, York’ – ...

1 837 March Tuesday 28 8 25/.. 12 Long tolerable one last night, Ann quite affectionate.   Says the change of air and Brodies plaster have done her good.   She was very irritable before, she says and has said several times. Says she will have no more mysteries and seems intending to be good tempered and as she ought to be, tho she says nothing.   I think she is sensible of my having always kept my temper. Fahrenheit 37° at 9 1/2 a.m., the ground covered with snow – Much snow must have fallen in the night – Snowing when I got up and when Ann got up soon after 6 – Breakfast at 9 1/2 to 10 25/.. – then dawdling, about   the house chiefly, and in the stables – Too wintry for any workmen to come this morning – Bligh +3 busy making doors for my portable book cases, and doing up the doors of Ann’s and moving it down into the north parlour, to be Ann’s sitting room – Ann went in market cart (Frank drove) at 1 to the school and Cliff hill – I wrote copies ...

1837 March Monday 27 7 1/4 11 50/.. Long but good one last night. Breakfast at 8 25/.. – Fine morning – Civil people at the Devonshire Hotel Skipton – Well-aired rooms and beds – Comfortable – Off from there at 9 35/..   (Ann had been out at a bookseller’s and bought the hymns sung at the church – and had asked Miss Bradley (daughter of the house) to get her the music of some of them copied by the blind organist Miss . . . . ) – Hardly any wood, but limestone? ranges of hill closing in the good value of the Aire prettily rounded several villages seen and 2 or 3 passed through, the road pretty good.   To Keighley. at 10 50/.. – Devonshire Arms, Morgan – Went immediately to the Mechanics’ Institute.   Mr. Horner had mentioned it to Ann as a good building done for £700 – A new building for the same purpose wanted at Halifax – Mr. Horner asked Ann to speak to me about ground for it – He would understand from her that I should ask 2 guineas a yard for it – I ...

1837 March Sunday 26 8 11 No kiss. Fine morning.   Cold , though warmer than yesterday – At church at 10 35/.. – Mr. Oglesby, the Curate, did all the duty – Preached a very good sermon 28 minutes from Revelations 1.18. Ann and I and our 2 servants staid the sacrament, which last service lasted 3/4 hour, there being only 1 clergyman to about 50 communicants – Home at 1 1/2 – Ann had cold veal roll out of our own provision basket – Sat talking – She and I (left the servants at home) went to church in the afternoon at 2 3/4 – Service began at 3 – Mr. Oglesby did all the duty – Preached a very interesting sermon 35 minutes from Luke XV.18, ministering angels always round about us – Home before 5.   Sat reading.   Dinner at 6.   Tea at 8 – Wrote yesterday and today till 9 25/.. Fine day –   WYAS Finding Number SH:7/ML/E/20/0038

1837 March Saturday 25 8 1 5/.. No kiss. Ann in bed an hour before me last night and fast asleep in a few moments, and up before 7 this morning.   Fine morning – Hard frost – Breakfast at 9 25/.. to 10 – Read a little of Whitaker’s Craven and then had Mr. Wilson, the Landlord – Advised our driving 1st to Barden Tower up one side of valley, and returning along the other , and seeing the lions in the grounds as we returned – Had Mrs. Wilson – Ann inquired for a footman and I for a labourer – I would give 15/. a week and a cottage rent-free – This, she said, was exactly what the duke of Devonshire gave – Admired some carved oak picture frames – Mrs. Wilson recommended the cabinet maker who made them – Mr. Edward Brumfitt of Skipton – Mr. Harper built (altered, enlarged) the present Inn (Devonshire Arms, Bolton bridge) and had built several cottages for the duke, but nothing else – Was to have made some additions to the duke’s hunting box (a tower with a wing added ...