Tuesday 20th January 1835

Breakfasted at 10 – immediately after got on my things to go to Cliff hill, waited ½ hour for dearest who had a long talk with her sister – Cordingley not coming back, unless if better & able would just come till Miss Marian got suited – A- [Anne] proposed to change the whole thing, if I had no objection & mentioned it to me accordingly – I begged her not, on many accounts & such a decision was very fortunate, as Miss M- [Marian] said when her sister declined that had it been otherwise her father would have gone to the East Riding – My Aunt very glad to see us, (at Whitehall met Hinscliffe) & Dearest asked her about a servant did not recollect any one likely but would let us know if she heard – asked Mrs. Washington – At 3 1/2  Mr. Washington brought me Shibden Mill rents, joint £494-7-3- total my own £7..12.6 & also brought Pattersons chiefly in two bills, one £115 – other 100 .. 13 – & the remainder in cash – heard Mr. & Mrs. Musgrave, & Mrs. M- [Musgrave] the widow, were to dine at New house – Mr. Staveley died aged 95 – Mr. Hudson feels the cold weather very severely & is not so well.

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale WYC:1525/7/1/5/1/36 & WYC:1525/7/1/5/1/37

[up at] 8 35/..
[to bed at] 11 40/..

no kiss very fine winter’s morning – more snow in the night – hard frost – Fahrenheit 36° now at 9 25/.. – breakfast in about an hour – went in to Marian to ask her to speak about the smoke last night in the kitchen – long talk – Cordingley not to return except for Marian’s convenience till she got another servant – had thought of inquiring for a cook housekeeper – what Adney and I pay is perhaps not quite enough to cover the additional expense – said we would pay whatever more might be required – offered to take the whole establishment in and out upon myself if Marian liked – my father allowing me whatever his present expenses were – Marian herself had no objection – but my father must be consulted – well! said I, and so must Adney; for all the indoors trouble would fall on her – said I was glad Cordingley was really going or gone – Adney and I off to Cliff hill at 11 – talked over what had passed with Marian – Adney quite against our having anything to do with housekeeping – thought things had much better go on as at present during my father’s life – she easily persuaded me to her opinion – sat at Cliff hill from 12 to 1 10/.. – Mrs. Ann Walker good humoured and glad to see us – I told her of Cordingley’s going on account of ill health, and she (Mrs. Ann Walker ) will try to hear of a servant for us – a little while at Crownest, and asked Mrs. Washington to inquire about [a] servant for us – off from Crownest at 1 25/.. and home at 2 10/.. – Had met Hinscliffe in going who said he could lend us 20 pair of 4 feet rails and would call as he passed and tell Joseph Mann that Pickels’s cart might go for them directly to Hinscliffe’s smithy (now Walker’s opposite the Crownest gates) – Hinscliffe said, too, that he had agreed with Farrer for the iron rails at £8 per ton for 2 tons – the money to be paid on the delivery of the full quantity and he (Farrer) was to return 5/. – about a ton would be ready in a day or 2 and the rest soon – 

Adney came in to luncheon at 2 10/.. and I went to Charles Howarth in the farm yard he and James Howarth cutting up the old mountain ash (blown down last spring at the top of the Allen Car) – for sleepers for the iron rails to lie upon in the drift – stood talking about stopping Spiggs Loose – Charles thinks there will not be above a yard gained between Slip-in Pit and Walker pit – (vide last line of page 285. Howarth thinks there will be 10 yards gained) – therefore Charles thinks stopping the Spiggs will certainly stop Walker pit – but thought I might stop Keighleys, and still keep the water low enough not to stop myself at Walker pit – 

Came in at 2 50/.. and till 3 25/.. from page xii to xxv De la Beche’s Geological notes – then went down to Mr. Washington and settled the rent account with him – he had paid Mr. Carr £3.10.0 before he could settle with him for the 1/2 daywork of litter called manure and that 1/2 raked off again – 

Adney and I sat talking from 4 till after 5 – she had just gone to my aunt when I called her away to Mrs. Grieves who paid her £50 and got back the promissory note for this sum, getting Adney to pay her 4/. for the stamp as Mr. Beattie told her it was customary for the receiver to pay for stamps   Adney said this was neither law nor custom but she would willingly give her the 4/. – I went down to Marian for 1/2 hour and told her to her great satisfaction that Adney wished things to go on as they are – Marian thought that if I had taken charge of the establishment my father would probably have gone into the East riding   of course, I said how glad I was to do anything for the best – dinner at 6 – coffee – we went to my father and Marian at 7 20/.. for 1/2 hour – then till 9 wrote out the whole of today – 4 pages of common sized letter sheet from Lady Stuart Whitehall (thanks for the shawls) and 3 pages and under seal of 1/2 sheet from Lady Vere (Whitehall) franked by Lord Stuart de Rothesay – very kind letter from Lady Stuart – Captain Stuart returned for Rothesay – nothing yet said about Lord Stuart de Rothesay’s being employed but he sure of not being forgotten tho’ Lady Stuart knows not what to make of the long silence about it in high quarters –they all tell her she looks well – she herself knows her own feebleness – Vere says she has only seen ‘Miss Agnes once, and Miss Berry’ (Berrys) ‘not at all – they asked me to a soirée but I have not been out once, and I do not encourage them here, for they are much too exciting folks for us. Lady Charlotte Lindsay is far less so, and more amusing’ – A [house] in a town without good shooting will not do – the rent asked for Gisbourne £300 but taxes and wages of gardeners etc. would mount it to £450 – but the Camerons hope to get it for £300, all included –Adney read aloud the paper – with my aunt 1/2 hour till 10, at which hour Fahrenheit 34° fine, very fine winter’s day – hard frost –

[In margin:]

Iron rails borrowed of Hinscliffe
ditto ditto agreed for of Farrer

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale SH:7/ML/E/17/0149 & SH:7/ML/E/17/0150