Anne Lister Entries Only – 16th-30th September 1834

Tuesday 16th September 1834

[up at] 7 25/..

[to bed at] 12 1/4

very good one last night – fine but hazy morning Fahrenheit 57 1/4º at 8 35/.. a.m. – at my desk at 8 1/2 – Kind letter to Mariana – glad she had found out by means over which I had no control that ‘I had even written less often to those who are perpetually heaping upon me kindness after kindness, and whose very situation in life makes them supposed to be the 1st objects of my consideration –’… if ‘not more heart, I had more common sense than to value the things of this world according to the scale which has been laid down for me – Had you believed me oftener, and known me better, it would have saved us both much pain – But if heaven has willed it otherwise, let us not complain – the final ruler of events is wiser than we – I am deeply sensible of all your affection; but, from the moment of your having deliberately told me your determination, and the leading arguments which gave rise to it, my chief endeavour was to be convinced and reconciled – Mary! you trusted me too little for happiness – Remember this, and be comforted – Cheer up – trust me, you have much to hope, – much more than you seem aware – the prospect will brighten by and by – I have never failing consolation in the thought, that you will be happier in others, than you could have been in me – Confidence was too much shaken on both sides – Mary! the last blow on mine, was too severe – Be comforted – be assured, that you have acted wisely for us both – violent changes are generally irksome to all parties at 1st; but, remembering what I myself have suffered, I do not easily despair for any one – I do not feel inclined to say much on the subject of our meeting – the reflections to which it would give rise, could only be painful – Do as you think best –’ Hope ‘her niece’ will exceed her all her expectations – ‘I can easily enter into your motive for calling her Percy’ – pleased at the thought of her going to the Rhine next year – only anxious about her choice of a companion – mention Geneva as a fine town ‘having many literary and economic advantages’ and that a family of 2 or 3 might live in affluence at Rolle for £250 a year – date my latter 1/2 page 3, Monday 15 September and say it shall go as last night, the herald of the small parcel (stays, 6 laces, pair of earrings from Geneva and book, Coxe’s picture of Italy edition of 1815, too old – borrowed when last at Lawton December 1833) to be sent off by one of todays mails – ‘I find my aunt much the same as I left her; and Mr. Sunderland told me, he thought her general health quite as good – but she is uncertain – this season of the year, or rather later, has generally tried her very much; and I fear, if she gets over the winter at all, it will be very indifferently – she suffers a great deal, yet her cheerfulness does not forsake her – She desires me to give her love, and say how glad she shall be to hear you are better – the 30 shillings for Thomas Beech’s greatcoat are paid; and I will place this sum to your account – If you do not feel quite sure of my understanding all your wishes about money matters, tell me more particularly what you would have me do – God bless you, my dearest Mary! Ever very especially yours A L –’   Nice enough letter to Lady Stuart – will consider about the fourgon ‘when I am more able to fix up my next line of route’ – ‘I am perfectly astonished that I had your letter 12 days ago, and that I had been at home a fortnight on Saturday – I know not how the time has slipped away – I have been so busy about my law-concern, etc. etc. the days have seemed like moments; and I have since been out of the house – yet I have often thought of you, and wondered how you would settle all those disagreements I was so grieved to hear of… … mention letter from Vere – shall go and see her one of these days – at present can make no plans – my poor aunt suffers a martyrdom; yet still she lives, and may live for several months – It is a great comfort to me to see her so pleased at my having got a little friend to take care of me in my travels – I hope you will tell Miss Tate – But, dearest Lady Stuart, it was what you said that I have never forgotten; and it is you that I shall always think of, and thank with all my heart[’] – wrote this morning under the seal – ‘I do hope to hear from you soon, if it be only one line to tell me you are better, and have settled things more comfortably than you expected – Do not trouble yourself one instant about a frank – I shall be delighted to see a Norfolk postmark – I shall trouble Lord Stuart with a note to Lady Stuart de Rothesay and a little note to dear Charlotte about the parcel from Paris – Ever, dearest Lady Stuart, very truly and affectionately yours [signed:] A Lister’ – General account of my journey to Lady Stuart de Rothesay – hoped for some commission in Paris – perhaps she doubted my abilities – could not doubt how happy I should have been to do my best – ‘I had a little friend with me whose good care soon set me above Mr. Freeman’s medicines; and we had some delightful wanderings among the Savoy mountains – I do confess that my “bowels yearned” towards Mt. Blanc; but he was a little surly; and the 2 Savoyard avocats who attempted his summit, and said, tho’ unbelieved by any, they reached it, were glad enough to get down again – they had no regular guides, only 1/2 a dozen peasants, two of whom had made the ascent before – and, had they been a few hours later, would probably have been lost – we made what is called the grand tour of Mt. Blanc’ … crossed the great and little St. Bernard… we had no Gollis-work – the little Inns very fairly comfortable ‘except one in the village de Ferret where there were only 2 bedrooms for the widow and her 8 children, one man servant and 2 guides, our 2 selves, and 2 sick infants the poor woman had taken to nurse, tout compris, at 6 francs each per month – we returned by the Savoy lakes and Chambéri – saw the pass of the Echelles, and the grande Chartreuse – spent 2 or 3 days at Lyons – tho’ many of the houses damaged or destroyed in April are already repaired or rebuilt, there are still too many traces of the émeute – Several opulent manufacturers have left the town, and set up their establishments elsewhere – there are 3 large ones just completed at Voiron now communicated with Echelles by a fine new road of 3 postes – there are several new roads finished and in progress – that by St. Etienne opened 2 years ago (missing Lyons) saves 3 days’ journey to Marseilles’ – 2 or 3 days at St. Etienne and 2 or 3 at Clermont – ‘the view from the Puy de Dome, is one of the most interesting and extraordinary I have ever seen, – a vast assemblage of cones of extinct volcanoes, – a vast coulee (sea) of lava – but the heat was so excessive in walking up, and the air so cold at the top, I only staid about 1/2 an hour – Do tell the girls, they never saw such a dirty figure as I was on coming out of the fine silver mines (opened 2 or 3 years ago) near Pont de Gibaud – But the coal-mine of Firminy, near St. Etienne, astonished me most – It is exactly like a common stone quarry (open to the day, and worked in the same way) but the rock is coal of excellent quality – It is only 3 years that it has been worked in this way, and is the only coal-mine known of the kind – the miners at the silver mine were chiefly Germans – Be the government what it may, I never saw so great an appearance of improvement and prosperity in the country – the Écoles des mines have done an infinity of good to the mining interests of the country’– dinner with Lady Charlotte Lindsay and the Berrys – ‘and was delighted with my visit – all were in good spirits, and were very agreeable, and kind – I had never seen so much of Lady Charlotte’ (Lindsay) ‘who says things so nicely, and whose manners are so interesting, she made quite an impression upon me – Miss Berry is really wonderful – Thank you very much for giving me their address – I was quite glad to improve so nice an acquaintance[’] – unexpected pleasure to see Lady Stuart – ‘what an enviable tour in Norway! I wish a [I] knew a little more about it – If I live, I mean to go there one of these days – my aunt, as to general health, is much the same as when I left her – but she suffers a martyrdom from rheumatic pains; and her medical men fear she cannot long survive the winter  – I enclose a little note for Charlotte – Believe me, dear Lady Stuart, always very truly yours [signed:] A Lister’ then wrote on 1/4 sheet the following   ‘Shibden hall – Monday 15 October /September/ 1834. my dear Charlotte – I send you a very little note, the herald of a very little parcel, which Miss Berry was so good as promise to bring from Paris – I told Lady Stuart, it was for you – I always thought of giving you some small remembrance on your entrée into the great world – I wished it to be something useful, and only hope I have chosen well, and that you will like the watch for its own sake, and for mine – I hope you are all enjoying yourselves, and looking quite rosy and well at Highcliff – I should not know it again – If you still hunt for fossils, and care as much as ever for the collection, you can fancy how disappointed I was to find, on reaching here, that all my fine specimens from the Auvergne silver-mines, and many others that were packed in the carriage tool-box, were lost in London, thrown away as lumber, I suppose, by the coachmakers’ men, who thought antiattrition better worth – I often thought of you among the high alps of Savoy, and wished you were with me – what sketching for Louisa! Give my love to her – I shall always feel very much interested for you both; and believe me, my dear Charlotte, your very sincere and affectionate friend [signed:] A Lister – my kind remembrances to Miss Hyriott’ – went down to breakfast at 11 1/4 and sent off then by George my letter to ‘Mrs. Lawton the Reverend M[ichael] Miller’s Scarborough’ – breakfast – Mr. Parker sent the lease of ‘Lidgit’ to Mr. Lampleugh Wickham Hird for Adney to read over – she read it aloud to me – the game reserved as in my leases – only allowed to have 7 dayworks under plough – penalty £10 per daywork – not to cut or prune timber – 34 dayworks not to underlet except with written leave – Rent £100, term 10 years – asleep 1/2 hour – at my desk at 1 5/..
wrote my note to Charlotte Stuart and at 2 1/2 had written so far of today, and had folded and sealed up in envelope my note 4 pages of 1/2 sheet to ‘the Lady Stuart de Rothesay’ enclosing in the same my note to ‘the honourable Miss Stuart’ and enclosed these and my note to ‘the honourable Lady Stuart Whitehall’ under cover to ‘Lord Stuart de Rothesay 3 Carlton house terrace London’ – sent the above letters at 7 p.m. by George – Adney and I out at 2 3/4 to Brearley hill to meet Holt about getting water for John Bottomley and about sinking pit to enable me to look after Mr. Rawson – getting the water will cost about £16 to £20 sinking and diving at 3/. to 3/6 per yard about 100 yards – ordered this job to be advertised next week for letting as also the pit sinking – Holt thinks the pit will cost about 40/. per yard sinking about 100 yards deep to the lower bed – saw the place near the upper gateway just above Conery wood in the Park farm well field – with a small fire engine might get coal there for many years – easily roaded along the foot of Bairstow, out just below Whiskum cottage into the new bank to Halifax – pit to be oblong 8 feet x 5.4 therefore about not quite said Samuel Washington tonight, 5 square yards stuff will come out at each yard depth of sinking – 5 x 100 = 500 yards of stuff carting down to the foot of the wall opposite the house = about £20 – the water of dirt band (36 yards band) and four-score yards band to be gathered up in sinking and turned the Conery clough separately or not to the house – Holt said the coal would sell at 8d at the pit’s mouth – and note turnpike to Halifax would make a penny a load difference – Rawson sells at 9 1/2 in the town – we should sell at 9d – would average 5 1/2 corves or loads per square yard – 20 loads or one score would sell for 13/4 at the pits mouth – 

getting     .        .     4.6

pulling and banking  2.6

Tools        .        .      1.0

Taxes       .        .      8.0    

13.4 – 8 = 5/4

say 3d per load profit

or 1/4½ per square yard profit   } say 1s.3d per square yard profit therefore 1 acre or 4840 yards = £242 + £60.10s.0d

                 = £302 per acre

from Brearly hill Adney met me at Whiskum cottage – thence down the old bank to Halifax to the Bowling foundery for fire-grates for north parlour north chamber and tent room – then to Miss Hebden’s – good account of Charlotte Booth – then to Whitley’s – brought home volume 3 octavo Lyell’s geology and Busby’s Journal among the vineyards of Spain and Portugal – and pamphlet by John Travers on the tea duties – then to Throp’s about acorns, and setting Bairstow with them – home up the old bank at 6 55/.. – dinner at 7 – coffee – had Washington – nothing to be made of Mrs. Machin about the sale of her 11 dayworks of coal- but Washington told her he would call again on Saturday – Adney and I sat talking and reading the newspaper George brought back this evening – with my aunt from 9 3/4 to 10 3/4 – wrote all but the 3 first lines of this page till 11 1/2 p.m. at which hour Fahrenheit 59 1/2 in my study – very fine day – note from Mr. Wilkinson, Heath to say the front pew in the north gallery nearest to the west gallery is at liberty rent 1 guinea a year

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale SH:7/ML/E/17/0084, SH:7/ML/E/17/0085 & SH:7/ML/E/17/0086

Wednesday 17th September 1834

[up at] 7 35/..

[to bed at] 11 20/..

no kiss fine morning Fahrenheit 57° in tent room at 8 3/4 – breakfast at 9 25/.. – all the morning till near 1 looking for Washington’s last rent-list – then dawdling about – with Ann Lee and hear assistant who came 1st time about 10 this morning take Ellen Hatton’s place in doing up the tent-room the latter having only cut out, or rather Charles Howarth, the diaper for the top – a shower about 1 p.m. – wrote now sent at 3 1/2 by George note to ‘the Reverend Robert Wilkinson Heath’ ‘Miss Lister’s compliments to Mr. Wilkinson, and is sorry that, in consequence of not having had his 2nd note till yesterday evening, and of having had little hope of there being a gallery front pew at liberty, she was so desirous of being certain of a pew immediately, that she made arrangements on Monday for occupying one of her own pews – Miss Lister and Miss Walker beg their compliments to the Miss Wilkinsons – Shibden hall. Wednesday 17 September 1834.’ – making memoranda and dawdling over 1 thing or other till 3 3/4 – Adney and I out at 4 – walking in the garden – went to Whiskum Charles and James Howarth sparring the stable – Pickells there with them – here in the morning – went to the Conery – some time at John’s then sat a little with Matty – home at 6 3/4 – dinner at 7 – coffee – Adney won 2 hits and a gammon and I nothing – a little while with my father – 40 minutes with my aunt till 9 50/.. – fine day – warm and close – a shower about 1 and afterwards about 3 1/2 – then fair and fine – Fahrenheit 61° in my study at 10 5/.. p.m. – 

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale SH:7/ML/E/17/0086

Thursday 18th September 1834

[up at] 7 25/..

[to bed at] 11 50/..

very good one last night  very fine morning breakfast at 10 Fahrenheit 62° at 10 50/.. – Note from Mr. John Waterhouse junior to pay my 2nd £50 for the new museum ‘on or before the 30th instant’ – about 12 1/2 sent off the yellow carriage dragged behind the cart to Pickford’s warehouse at Halifax with note to Mr. Booth the bookseller to help John and George Joseph to see it packed, to go in the same way to Huddersfield and thence by one of their vessels direct to London to ‘Messrs. Pearce Baxter and Pearce coachmakers 103 Long Acre London’ to arrive on Tuesday – Adney and I off at 1 50/.. along the walk to Hipperholme my 1st call on Mrs. Bateman – dressing to go out to dinner at 2 1/4 and left my name on Miss W Adney’s card – called and sat 18 minutes with Mrs. William Priestley – Mrs. Hartley with her – she (Mrs. William Priestley) held out her [hand] to Adney but not to me – yet talked civilly to us both – of course I shewed no sign of hand-shaking on coming away – then at Cliff hill at 3 25/.. for 1 1/4 hour – Miss Walker very civil – some hope of her at least seeming less cross with and at us in future? then to Crownest in Adney’s wine-cellar from 4 50/.. to 5 50/.. – took an account of the front rows of bottles – the wine was valued at £500 – dinner at 7 – coffee – I won 1 gammon against 1 ditto and 5 hits – with my aunt 1/2 hour till 10 20/.. – fine, warm, muggy day. Fahrenheit 56° a t11 10/.. p.m. – the 2 sewers again – and Mallinson set grate in the tent room

[In the margin:]

did not send took /tool/ box and foot pails and rug – sent with carriage 3 yards stuff like lining and 2 old cushion covers of the same – large front pocket – imperials – cap case 2 seat and 2 boot boxes – slipper and drag stall – 1 key of imperials and cap case and carriage door key locked up in the boot – 

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale SH:7/ML/E/17/0086

Friday 19th September 1834

[up at] 6 3/4

[to bed at] 12 1/4

long trial last night   really tolerable kiss to me  the best I have ever had of A- [Adney] but very bad one to her – fine morning Fahrenheit 62 1/2° in tent room at 7 50/.. a.m. out at 8 (alone) to Holt’s – about his seeing about water for Pickells as well as John Bottomley – Pickells must have a well – about 10 yards deep to dirt band (or 36 yards band) will be done for 5/. a yard – at Greenwood’s at 9 for an hour seeing about sofa – looking at mahogany etc. a ditto wardrobe at £17 wide 7.3 and high 6.4 – then to Whitley’s – will pay for the carriage on hearing of its safe arrival in London – then to Stony Royde – Mrs. Rawson gone to Whitkirk – returned up the old bank – some time at Wiskum cottage – walked slowly from top of bank with my father and came in about 11 1/2 just as a heavy thunder shower came on – thundered from the top of the bank home – breakfast at 11 50/.. – Adney and I unpacking wine from Lidgate and preserve pots – Had John Pearson for near 1/2 hour – told him I should not take less than £65 a year for the Mytholm farm – at 1st I thought he would agree – then I thought not – he wanted it at any rate for one year to quit his sister Mrs. Dewhirst – could not get her off before November – what was he to do – said I did not know – he must settle that – he had no business to let it to her – I was not inclined to let for one year only – he would charge me for what he had in the land – he must pay me if he could not give me up the buildings at the proper time – off at 5 minutes before 4 to Lidgate – Adney off before – had forgot cellar key – I had to return from the bottom of the walk – at Lidgate at 4 35/.. – the Hirds there – Adney had walked towards Crownest – overtook her – went there – home at 6 – Adney tired – lay down – unpacking crockery etc. by our cart from Lidgate – dinner at 7 1/4 – coffee – had Greenwood’s man about north parlour chimneypiece – 35 minutes with my aunt till 10 5/.. – 1/4 hour at Adney’s bedside – wrote out yesterday and today till 11 – fine day very warm and muggy (except the thunder and shower) between 11 and 12 – Fahrenheit 67° in study now at 11 p.m. – 

[In the margin:]

Greenwood could buy Norway oak at Hull and deliver 1 inch boards at Shibden at 6 1/2d a foot –

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale SH:7/ML/E/17/0086

Saturday 20th September 1834

[up at] 7 20/..

[to bed at] 11 1/4 

no kiss fine morning Fahrenheit 60° in tent room at 8 1/2 a.m. breakfast and reading Morning Herald from 9 to 10 – then had Washington – Adney and I off to Lidgate (John and George went with the cart) at 11 50/.. – packing wine from 1 to 3 20/.. – the cart off home at 3 1/2 and I after it at 3 35/.. sauntered thro’ the walk and met the cart on its arriving at 4 1/4 – from 4 20/.. to 5 3/4 unpacking and arranging the wine in the cellar – viz.

15 bottles Elder

21 + 6 bottles Currant

19 Cider

31 gooseberry + 4 bottles port of 1825^§

                     + 1 bottle gin

                     + 1 bottle rum and 2 ditto ditto mixed with the gooseberry by mistake

5 claret

6 pint bottles  .  .  .

7 8/12 dozen Bucellus

38 bottles Soda water

^§6 1/2 dozen port of 1825 put into the cellar yesterday

Adney had worked very hard at Lidgate and got all the remainder of the bottles into the back kitchen ready for packing when I got back (and the cart, too) at 6 20/.. – all packed and the cart almost ready for being off when Adney and I came away at 7 3/4 – home in 3/4 hour at 8 1/2 – dinner at 8 3/4 – coffee – had the cart locked up as it was in the old coach house – asleep in the easy chair in the dining room till Adney came and awoke me at 10 25/.. just before she got into bed – my aunt poorly – only with her a minute or 2 – very fine day – Fahrenheit 65° at 11 p.m.

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale SH:7/ML/E/17/0087

Sunday 21st September 1834

[up at] 8 10/..

[no time of going to bed]

no kiss fine morning Fahrenheit 62° in the tent room at 9 1/4 a.m. breakfast at 9 20/.. and then asleep in the easy chair till 12 20/.. at which time went to my aunt – Adney and I read the morning (short, as now usual) prayers – Adney had letter from Captain Sutherland to say ‘a fine thumping boy’ born at 9 1/2 p.m. on Tuesday (the 16th instant) to be called John after his grandfather and uncle Walker – mother and child doing exceedingly well – Adney wrote 3 pages+ in answer of compliments and congratulations from herself and us all – never recollected till the letter was sealed that she had taken no notice of the intended name – Adney and I off to church at 2 35/.. George followed 1st time with the books and brought them back there being as yet no drawer in the pew – that belonging to the Stag’s head Mytholm – just lined with green cloth – 1st time of our sitting in it – determined to sit in a pew of our own since Miss Cliffhill’s taking her books away the Sunday before last – Mr. Fenton did all the duty – preached 20 minutes very fairly from Hebrews iii. 12 – on unbelief – 40 minutes at Cliff hill to announce the birth of the little boy – had opportunity to mention our sitting in our new pew – it seemed all right – but Miss Cliffhill wondered we did not go to Halifax, it was nearer – said I had 4 pews of my own in the chapel besides the Sutcliffe-wood pew belonging to John Lister in Wales – found Mrs. Carter at Cliff hill, but she soon went away – Miss Cliffhill in very good humour apparently – home at 6 25/.. – dressed – wrote and sent by Matthew at 7 1/4 letter 1 page to ‘Messrs. Pearce Baxter and Pearce coach builders 103 Long Acre London’ to say I had sent them my carriage on Thursday the 18th instant by one of Pickfords vessels to be in London on Tuesday – would have all done named in the estimate of 28th ultimo amounting to £99.18.0 and in addition new tool budget £5 or £6, and wished for their estimate of what should be done inside – asked cost of mail coach lamps and imperial 8 or 9 inch deep to fit on the top of front boot – had sent the imperials and boxes to be examined and have necessary repairs done – Adney too sent her letter to Captain Sutherland – dinner at 7 20/.. – I had coffee – Adney had bad head ache, and went to bed at 8 1/2 – near 1/2 hour with my aunt – then made tea for Adney and sat with her on her bedside till 10 20/.. – till 11 5/.. wrote out yesterday and today – fine day tho’ rather hazy and muggy – Fahrenheit 65 1/2° in my study now at 11 5/.. p.m. – 

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale SH:7/ML/E/17/0087

Monday 22nd September 1834

[up at] 8

[to bed at] 11 10/..

no kiss made Adney breakfast in bed for her cold – damp morning – ready at 9 – Fahrenheit 63 1/2° in my study at 9 1/4 – breakfast with Adney at her bedside at 10 – backwards and forwards – from 12 to 1 1/2 put into the cellar the wine brought from Lidgate on Saturday – 

20 bottles of different sirups.

7 dozen and 2 bottles gooseberry wine

2 dozen no ticket.

4 pint bottles port put with the other port

13 bottles ‘sweet wine of some kind’

15 bottles and 11 pints ditto currant or raisin wine made in 1826, 27, or 28.

16 bottles Bucellus

10 ditto madeira very old

7 ditto port and 1 pint ditto port very old

1 pint bottle cherry brandy

15 pint bottles malmsey madeira

4 bottles currant put next the elder

then dawdled till out with Adney in the garden at 4 20/.. for 20 minutes – she then tired and went in – pee-wee complained of back of neck – I out again at 4 3/4 – to Denmark to see how Pickells got on mending up the shed – not there – then looking at the young oaks at the top of the paddock and those sown last spring in Walsh-land or the is-to-be Park farm wood – some places missed entirely – think of sowing Bairstow with acorns – trenching or hacking 2 feet broad and leaving 3 feet broad as it is, alternately – home at 6 20/’’ – Adney better – dinner at 6 40/.. – I won 4 against 2 hits at backgammon – with my aunt 3/4 hour till 10 10/.. – finish, dampish day – Fahrenheit 62 1/2° now at 10 20/.. in my study – 

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale SH:7/ML/E/17/0087

Tuesday 23rd September 1834

[up at] 8

[to bed at] 12 10/..

good one last night   very fine sunny morning Fahrenheit 58 1/2° at 9 a.m. – breakfast at 9 1/4 – Had Throp – then Washington then left them all – Adney to go with Throp into the walk, and set out flower beds in front of the house, while I spoke to John Pearson who came to give up the farm, saying I had run off my promise – that I had said at 1st he was to have the farm at the present rent during my father’s life, but the last time I had said he was to begin of paying £65 per annum immediately – they had talked it over at home and he would rather give up the farm now, than have it at any price – I told him I neither wanted him to keep the farm nor give it – that was indifferent to me – I only wished him to do what he thought best for himself but I was annoyed at his talking of my breaking my promise – I had done no such thing – explained – spoke sharpishly – he said he was sorry for the misunderstanding – it was his mistake and he was sorry for it – I said I was satisfied – However he gives up the farm – and Washington being still in the house just told him to go to Pearson, and say he (Washington) would value the tenant-right on my part – then settled with Throp to hack up and trench the whole of Bairstow 2 acres 2 roods 2 perches at 3/. per rood of 49 square yards + 1/. for the same for acorns and setting and 20/. per day’s work per annum for taking care of the young plants so long (I said 4 years at least they would want it) as they would want it, or as long as I thought they wanted it – bound Throp down to have all the acorns in by Christmas day – Washington told me, Mrs. Machin asks £40 per day’s work for her coal, so he told her nothing more would be said about it – He said Holt was mistaken in saying Mr. Rawson could not get Mrs. Machin’s coal – now that he had bought the Law hill coal, he could get it all very well – asleep 1/2 hour till 1 3/4 – while we were out with Throp Ann Lee and her assistant Miss Fox and Charles and James Howarth put up the Diaper tent-shaped top (the seams bound with cord covered with crimson carpet binding) in the upper kitchen chamber now to be called the tent room – from 2 to 6 (backwards and forwards the while) wrote 3 pages and ends and 1 line under the seal to Vere – kind letter – had not received or heard of her ‘small letter’ till her own mention of it – ‘but I was not uneasy because I knew you were happy, and that you would not fancy me less anxious about you, or less often thinking of you, merely because Chance had made our written intercourse less frequent – Had you been under any circumstances under which I believed your welfare less secure, you would have heard from me often; but my mind is at ease about you, and I almost count upon seeing you before next summer – one of these days, I shall be delighted to see you at your own beautiful place – but give my kind regards to your Donald, and tell him, I am impertinent enough to say, he is right, not to let any temptation, however strong, lead him into debt – Festina lente, is an excellent motto in these cases’ . . . . glad she had been at Drumfin – could enter into her feelings – heard all about her own little Louisa from Lady Stuart – thought her, Lady Stuart, ‘looking harassed, and being more feeble than when I saw her in June’ – …’I shall be here during the remainder of my aunt’s life – she suffers a great deal, and is not expected to survive the winter – but her having continued so long, is so extraordinary, that her life may still be prolonged beyond the calculation of her medical men’ – have not given up my northern schemes – had a delightful tour among the mountains of Savoy – went completely round Mont Blanc – ‘I need not say how often I thought of you – there is an association in the mind between you and Mont Blanc, I do not easily forget’ – ‘I saw Mrs. Heneage going and returning. She always reminds me of Sibbella by a something in look and manner I cannot describe – her interest about you delights me’ – spent an evening and dined with Lady Charlotte Lindsay and the Miss Berrys – if not so nailed down to time, should have been off from Geneva to join Lady Gordon for a few weeks at Munich – Love to Lady Harriet – dare not risk more letters from here thro’ the foreign office but will write by one means or other when I have anything more particular to communicate – shall not forget her kindness ‘whether I write or not you know I am not given to forget my friends – you used to tell me I had too much heart, so I hope you will never think I have too little’ – to write from Leamington – letters always safe here – ‘I had your last nearly 3 weeks ago, and should have written immediately had I not been very busy, and waited for a little leisure to enjoy myself while writing to you – God bless you, my dearest Vere! I feel as if I changed remarkably little, and am certainly not less than ever very affectionately yours A Lister’ dinner at 6 1/4 – afterwards won 2 gammons and two hits against 2 hits – with my aunt 1/2 hour till 10 10/.. – then till 10 50/.. the whole of this page – very fine day. Fahrenheit 60° now at 10 50/.. p.m. – sealed my letter to the Lady Vere Cameron Achnacarry Fort William North Britain’ to go tomorrow morning – added under the seal ‘I was delighted to read the account of your reception by the clan’ – 

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale SH:7/ML/E/17/0087 & SH:7/ML/E/17/0088

Wednesday 24th September 1834

[up at] 7 1/4 

[to bed at] 11 50/..

good one last night – fine Fahrenheit 59° at 11 1/4 a.m. reading Busby’s Journal (Spanish vineyards) till 9 1/2 – then out till breakfast at 9 3/4 and reading the paper till 11 1/4 – out with Adney off down the walk to Lidgate at 11 50/.. – taking inventory of Hannah’s things etc. back in 55 minutes at 2 35/.. – then out with John, and looking about – top of Trough of Bolland wood, Whiskum cottage (Hartley setting the fire places there), Bairstow – and home at 4 1/2 – found Miss W- [Walker] literally tipsy laughed and told her so    she said she had taken three glasses sherry at luncheon – how will all this end? – reading a few pages forward of Busby’s Journal to page 95 – with Charles Howarth who has got top and one side of tent room nailed on – Mallinson at the laundry chimney today and began it yesterday – Pickells taking grass off edges of Downholm and Coffin lane footpaths – Charles and James Howarth had Carter making tables etc. for china closet today and yesterday and Monday – dinner at 7 – Mrs. Lee did the north parlour carpet yesterday and today – she alone here today – they finished sewing tent room top yesterday after 7 days (I think) at it she and Miss Fox – Adney won a gammon and 3 hits to my 2 hits and in bed at 10 – I 50 minutes with my aunt till 10 1/4 – fine day Fahrenheit 59° now at 10 50/.. in my study – 

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale SH:7/ML/E/17/0088

Thursday 25th September 1834

[up at] 7 1/2

[to bed at] 11 1/2

no kiss fine but dullish Fahrenheit 58° at 8 1/2 a.m. in my study – Began last night (received yesterday evening by Booth’s man) and read 17 pages 

‘A treatise on primary geology; being an examination, both practical and theoretical, of the older formations. By Henry S. Boase, M.D. secretary of the royal geological society of Cornwall etc. etc. London: printed for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, Paternoster row. 1834. London: printed by A. Spottiswoode, New Street Square.’ 1 volume octavo pages 399.

breakfast at 9 50/.. – Throp’s son here for today setting out and digging up grass at the extremity of the plot for rose and flower beds before the windows – Adney and I with him a little while then off (down the old bank) to Halifax at 11 50/.. long while at Greenwood’s about sofa, mahogany wardrobe 7 feet 3 inches long 2 feet deep, and 6 feet nearly 5 inches high, etc. – then at Walker’s and Gregory’s old clothes shop in the Northgate about sending off bed curtains to Leeds to be cleaned – at Whitley’s – paid Booth for Boase’s primary geology and for Bakewell’s geology and Swainson’s discourse on the study of natural history the latter to be published 1 October being volume 59 Lardners cabinet cyclopaedia which 2 last works are to be ordered and come this day week – ordered revolving plate warmer at Pinkerton’s to be about 45/. – paid for fire grates for North parlour and north chamber at Bowling foundery warehouse in Wade Street – returned up the old bank (had left Adney at Suter’s while I went to Whitley’s) and home at 1 1/2 – read a few pages forward of Boase – asleep from 1 3/4 to 3 40/..! George having just awoke me in the middle to say Mrs. Dyson of Willow field had called – she sat an hour with Adney – reading again till 5 1/4 to page 62 Boase – then out with Throp’s son, etc. he finished his job this evening – Pickells paved (flagged) the new coal place with the old roof-covers of back kitchen from Denmark (Thomas Pearson’s), and did other jobs – 2 masons (Mallinson and Hardy) and 2 lads here at the chimney of barn end or laundry – Charles and James Howarth and Carter at new china closet table-shelves the 3 end ones put up – dinner at 6 55/.. – won 1 gammon and 3 hits against Adney’s 2 hits – with my aunt 1/2 hour till 10 1/4 then sat 1/2 hour at Adney’s bedside, she had gone to bed early, rather tired – Letter this morning 3 pages from Mariana Scarbro’ – dated Monday 22nd had not got the parcel till Friday – that night had suffered very much from tooth ache – pleased with my remembrance – stays and laces and earrings – believes I ‘never did nor ever will forget’ her – ‘I have seen’ and [‘]by means over which you had no control’ that you  write less frequently to others ‘who may have heaped upon you kindness after kindness, even that perhaps, of having been the 1st cause of our present position with regard to each other; but, I never put myself, nor ever you to place me with them, either in your thoughts or affections; however I must now take whatever corner you please to give me in your heart’ . . . . .   she says I never gave an answer to her question   always impatient of suspense   ‘I will conclude your silence is a confirmation of what I least wished to hear   well be it so   and may you be as happy as you have been’   ‘I cannot quite make out what you mean by saying “from the moment I deliberately told you my determination” – Did I ever tell you any determination? I dont remember it. however for yourself I trust you have done wisely’. . . . . How strange! – How inconceivable a lapse of memory! vide Journal of May 1832 at Lawton – fine day. Fahrenheit 60° in tent room at 11 p.m. – 

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale SH:7/ML/E/17/0088

Friday 26th September 1834

[up at] 8

[to bed at] 11

no kiss rainy morning and much rain in the night – did not sleep till long after 2 a.m. breakfast at 9 1/4 and skimmed the Morning Herald as yesterday morning – staid downstairs talking to Adney – then about an hour with Charles and James Howarth doing tent room – Mr. Sunderland came about 1 – my aunt’s general health no worse – had an old lady patient older than my aunt affected in the same way who after suffering as much and for long is now rallying – with Mr. Sunderland and in the barn and about and with Charles Howarth again a little in the afternoon – with these exceptions sat reading from 11 50/.. to 5 3/4 and read from page 62 to page 143 Boase and from page 94 to 129 Busby’s Journal of visit to the principal vineyards of Spain and France – dinner at 6 – coffee – won 1 gammon and 3 hits against 2 hits – read aloud from the Morning Herald just come tonight – the Leeds and Selby rail road opened on Monday without any particular ceremony and without any accident – thoroughly rainy day – Fahrenheit 62° at 11 1/2 p.m. in the tent room –

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale SH:7/ML/E/17/0088 & SH:7/ML/E/17/0089

Saturday 27th September 1834

[up at] 6 1/2
[to bed at] 12 3/4

no kiss fine morning F59 1/2° at 8 1/4 am – from 7 1/2 to 8 1/4 busy helping Adney and Eugenie to get the bed hangings down and packed up to send to be cleaned at Leeds thro’ Mrs. Gregory, old clothes shop, Northgate Halifax – out with Pickells taking clay from before north parlour window ready for flagging on Monday – breakfast at 9 – talk to Marian about taking Lidgate Sarah as housemaid – Adney and Marian decide against it – with Charles and James Howarth in the tent room – empty canteen of old Leeds Intelligencers to be bound – till 1 – asleep 1/2 hour – then found my cousin come   a little while with Adney at her luncheon – she took George and set off to Lidgate at 3, I staying at home with the people – from 1 3/4 to 3 1/2 read from page 143 to 193 Boase, primary geology – with Charles Howarthand James in the tent room – emptying wood and boxes out of Hall-chamber closet ready for having window remade into it – Adney not home till 6 1/2 – dinner at 6 50/..  sat talking all the evening she had four glasses of Madeira at dinner and talked as if it was in her head    would have a division of the property   what she would say to captain Suthe[r]land about it    she enraged against them   her aunt Cliff Hill still queerish –  1/2 hour with my aunt till 10 1/2 – then moving things from the tent room to make the blue room my dressing room pro tempore – our bed moved into the tent room this evening and slept there 1st time tonight – fine day – Fahrenheit 63° at 12 tonight – the steps into the garden at the middle door done today –

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale SH:7/ML/E/17/0089

Sunday 28th September 1834

[up at] 7 5/..
[to bed at] 12 20/..

no kiss slept very comfortably 1st time last night in the tent room – very warm – felt no loss of our bed curtains – fine morning Fahrenheit 64 1/2° at 11 3/4 a.m.  breakfast at 9 – read the newspaper – settled accounts – a little nap in my study  till 11 3/4 – Letter this morning from ‘J. R. Pearce’ London the carriage arrived safe on Tuesday – new drag chain and slipper and new silk to the blinds and lining washing and repairing will probably = 7 to 8 guineas – Boot imperial about £6.10.   new lamps 4 to £5 – Patent axles 18 guineas and some alterations to [be] made that would add a little more to the expense ‘they are a decided advantage in travelling’ – require oiling every 5 or 6 months – the above named additions to the former estate will make it about £140 – say £150 – with my aunt from 12 to near 1 Adney  and I read prayers – then downstairs with Adney till off to Lightcliffe church at 2 25/.. – 55 minutes in walking – there in time – Mr. Wilkinson did all the duty – preached 25 minutes from 2 Corinthians v.11 – an hour at Lidgate Adney busy settling with the Sunday schoolmaster etc – had Dan the old Crownest groom – home in 55 minutes at 6 55/.. – Charlotte Booth here – grown and improved – dinner at 7 5/.. – coffee – Adney in bed at 9 – sat by her bedside 1/2 hour – 20 minutes of which rubbing the back of her neck and spine with brandy as last night – with my aunt 40 minutes till 10 10/.. – fine day – Fahrenheit 62 1/2° now at 10 25/.. p.m. – from 10 1/2 to 11 7/.. read attentively chapter 10. i.e. from page 193 to 212 Boase –

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale SH:7/ML/E/17/0089

Monday 29th September 1834

[up at] 7 5/..
[to bed at] 12

 no kiss  fine morning Fahrenheit 59 1/4° at 11 1/2 – ready in an hour – breakfast at 9 1/2 in the blue room – before and after siding – fill my new dressing room closet with boxes brown carriage cap-case etc. etc. – out at 11 35/.. – Mallinson and 2 men and 2 boys finish laundry chimney and begin flagging before north parlour window and setting fire grate in north parlour – Charles and James Howarth putting up doors at Whiskum cottage in the morning and putting up tables at side of and finishing new china closet this afternoon –  Pickells and John taking up old setting opposite new coach house door and carting away clay from there and bringing sand for repairing – with them all – from Whiskum walked back as far as Pump with John Oates – if I meant to get coal would loose it right from below (near Tilley holm style I suppose) – only about an acre to get where I talked of putting the pit down, even if that was not gone – gone before they (i.e. John Oates and Green and Hinscliffe and company had anything to do with it) – could not get more without pumping – asked what sort of pump – owned that perhaps a hand pump might go 1/2 down the pit – not much water on the coal – recommended the men from a distance that had been sinking for Wilson, and would be at liberty in a month – said all I wished was to get the pit sunk – well then I should bind them to work double shifts (2 shifts) per day – said Mr. Rawson could very well get Mrs. Machin’s coal – would get down to it by that clough below Joseph Hall’s – that belonged to Sammy Hall all of whose coal Rawson had bought did not know at what price –

sauntered home along the walk from the bottom of it – came in at 2 1/2 – Adney had just had Miss Atkinson and her brother Charles – and about 3 or after came Mr. Plowes and Mrs. Dyson for 1/2 hour or more – I kept out of the way, not, of course, being asked for by either party – looking over old music came to my study at 4 3/4 – read from page 212 to 230 Boase – had 1/2 hour’s nap – wrote the above of today till 6 10/.. – Mr. Sunderland here while I was out – said he never in his life saw Adney looking better or so well – thought her getting fat – she certainly looks happy and in excellent spirits – out near 1/2 hour – dinner at 6 3/4 in the blue room – coffee – Adney looking over Leeds Intelligencers all today for binding– I looking over my drawers to see if I had any there – 1/2 hour with my father and Marian and nearly as long with my aunt till near 10 – Adney not in bed till 5 minutes before 11 – rubbed her back with brandy 10 minutes till 11 5/.. – fine day – Fahrenheit 59° now at 11 10/.. p.m. – the 2 sewers making blue room curtains –
Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale SH:7/ML/E/17/0089

Tuesday 30th September 1834

[up at] 8
[to bed at] 11 3/4

no kiss  fine but dullish morning Fahrenheit 57 1/2° at 9 25/.. p.m. breakfast at 9 1/2 in 1/2 hour – from 10 to 1 at my desk with the exception of having Mr. Hoyland for 10 minutes about canvassing the side of the blue room – will not look well enough – so determined not to do it – unable to keep my eyes open long together – read from page 230 to 256 Boase and asleep all the rest of the time! – reading a page or 2 then sleeping – what can be the reason of this? – went downstairs at 1 meaning to go to George Naylor’s but staid all the afternoon helping Adney to put the china and glass in the new china closet, and now and then with Charles and James Howarth who finished this evening nailing on diaper on the sides of the tent room – Mallinson and 2 men and 2 boys flagging north court, and walling up wine cellar windows outside – Pickells repaving court near the new coach house door – Ann Lee and her assistant finished Blue room window curtain began yesterday – dinner at 7 – coffee – read aloud to Adney  the 1st 24 pages volume 1 Rollin’s ancient history – 1/2 hour with my aunt till 10 1/4 – fine day Fahrenheit 59° now at 10 35/.. p.m. – Parcel from Mr. Parker this morning and note to say he had sent me conveyance of cottage from William Green – agreement of John Lister with the Walterclough family about water level for their mill – admittance from Mrs. Walsh and the 2 leases to Empsall and Pickells – Parcel tonight by Thomas Greenwood containing Wilson’s of Hull receipt for 13/2, for Juvenal Lubini 5/. and carriage of Adney’s box by sea to Cromarty etc. = the rest, and his catalogue 2nd hand and new books – read from p. 257 to 267 Boase till 11 5/..

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale SH:7/ML/E/17/0089