Monday, January 20, 1840

1840

January

Monday 20

8 50/..

1

Fine morning; Réaumur -1° at 8 a.m. dehors – Réaumur 10 1/4° on the console and 11 ° on my table at 10 a.m.  Breakfast over at 10 50/.. – Wrote this page –

Count Panin called for 2 or 3 minutes at 11 1/4 – gave me 3 letters of introduction, 1 to Count Werontzoff, 1 to Maréchal de la Noblesse at Nijnii Novgorod, and 1 to the governor of Astrakhan – The Comte will come in the evening –

Had just written so far now at 11 40/.. –

At 1 3/4 had just finished copying my letter to Mariana of 18 November and 3 January (vide journal of this latter date), when on looking out of the window, saw it snowing and Madame Ocoulouff came and her sister came just as I wrote the last line at 1 3/4 in the snow, and must have been here an hour or more when they hurried off on the arrival of princesse Michel Galitzine, who sat talking till 3 35/.. – Very nice agreeable person – I really like her much – nobody could be more civil – She is très liéa de la princesse Tcherkask, who wishes to make our acquaintance – Princesse Galatzine will be glad to see us some evening to tea, and will present us to princess Tcherkask –

Explained our journey - That I had now traveled 10 years – Had always longed to travel – Lived with my uncle; however, très instruit – Savant – Did nothing but read – Talked to him of travelling, who bade me wait till après sa mort –

Princess Galitzine had heard we were going into Asia – Said I feared that (understanding her to mean Persia etc.) was not possible sans courier des grandes visques; but if it should be feasible to go to Tabriz, should be glad – However, did not think of it –

Talked of Troitza – The history of Father Antoine given by Lady Londonderry, and the name of the lady to whom he was said to be attached – All this an error – It was no attachment that made him turn monk – It was une invocation, what we our Methodists should term a Call – His protecteur prince . . . . . . meant him for the world – Had a physician in the house under Father Antoine – Studied medicine, but was always reading livres de piété when he could , and at last ran away and became monk – the princesse Tcherkask knows him very well – and princess Galitzine has his history from a person who had known him from his infancy – Lady Londonderry is wrong – Ditto old princess Olga – who told me the same story but without names and without saying Lady Londonderry told the same story –

Madame Ocoulouff very civil – Speaking of plate, she said 96 zolotniks = 1 pound Russe and one buys silver spoons, forks, etc. at ./90 to 1/. per Zolotnick (by wright) – Good silver forks in England will weigh from 3 ounces to 4 ounces apiece; and suppose a Russian pound to weigh 12 oz. ounces = 96 Zolotniks and suppose 8 Zolotniks = 1 ounce ⸫ one fork weighing 3 ounces or 24 Zolotniks = 4/.  To go to Madame Ocoulouff on Wednesday at 12 (noon) and she will go with me to buy all we want –

Had just written so far now at 4 1/4 p.m.  Took up the St. James’s Chronicle of 19 to 22 October – Dressed – Dinner at soon after 6 – Count Panin came soon after 7 and staid till very near 8 – took leave before going into the country for a week or 10 days – If my casserole is not ready I am to take his – Sorry he is going before we get off – Tea at 8 – Afterwards till 11, finished the above newspaper and the following ones, viz. from 22 to 24, and from 24 to 26, and from 26 to 29 October – Nothing very particular but the mention (last paper, page 3, column 4) of the late Duke of Bedford’s rent roll estimated at £250,000 per annum – He received £4,000 per annum as ground landlord of Drury-lane and Covent Garden theatres and £12,000 per annum as proprietor of Covent Garden market –

And vide 24 to 26 October, page 2, column 4 from the Leicester Journal.  it is said that Sir Edward Godfrey Leman, heir to the late Sir John Leman, ‘will shortly come into possession ‘of his immense landed and funded property.  The annual rents alone amount to £400000’ –

Vide 19 to 22 October, page 4, column 2 from the morning Herald – Beau Brummel in a lunatic asylum in Caen in Normandy, existing on the ‘benevolence of relations and contributions of friends’ on scarcely £100 a year – !!!

Vide 22 to 24 October, page 1, column 5, at the Epping agricultural dinner thanks to Mr. Palmer for producing 2 samples – of black wheat from Russia, and white barley from China – The former not perhaps much worth for England, but Mr. Palmer observed the latter might be of use from the quickness of its growth – Instead of being a lean thin barley was nearly the substance of our own – ‘That sown ‘in his garden in May, was in ear and ripe in June; he then sowed it again, and some of it was nearly ripe now from the seed…..It might be of use in colder climates and perhaps it might be serviceable here’

Had had Grotza, and just written the last 5 lines of the last page and so far of this now at 12 25/.. tonight –

Fine morning till about one – then snowy for an hour or 2 or more then fair again – Réaumur 12 1/2° on my table and 11 1/2° on the console, and fine moonlight night now at 12 1/2 tonight – Seemingly rather a thaw wind? and Réaumur 1 1/2° above the freezing point dehors – The thaw has cleared the glass of the window and I once more see the thermometer fixed up outside –

 

WYAS Finding Numbers SH:7/ML/E/23/0183 and SH:7/ML/E/23/0184