| Description | [Diary Transcription]
56
1823
June Saturday 28
5 1/2
11 1/4
In the stable ready to ride out at 7 — 20/60 i.e. 6 40/60 — off at 7 on Hotspur — by Savile Green direct to the moor —
round 3 times round it — met Miss Pickford (in returning) at Mrs. Wilcock’s gate — talking to her and shewing off the horse’s paces detained
me 10 minutes — she will drink tea here on Monday — Got home at 9 1/4 — Staid with Hotspur till he had eaten the corn I gave him — Came in to breakfast at 9 25/60 — after breakfast
went out a little with my aunt to look where to build a shed for the horses, if my uncle will consent — Came upstairs
at 11 — Put my hair in papers From 11 1/4 to 5 1/4, tidying my writing desk — looking over my papers in it — Reading over
my poetical epistles to Miss Brown and Mrs. Milne etc. etc. Trying to make a few more verses but stupid and tried in v
ain though seeming to have plenty of ideas — In fact, I have dawdled away and wasted all this day — I ought to have written
to Miss Marsh — might have written to Mrs. James Dalton — But I am irresolute about letter-writing — I wonder what M- [Mariana] thought
when she read my letter this morning — I did not quite like her manner of finding fault with me yet I deserve it
after for on looking over my journal this afternoon some of my conversations with Mrs. Milne are to the full as flirting
and improper as π- [Mariana] could imagine — I thought of all this I remember at the time and yet I did it — In the evening
read over the Yorkshire Gazette of today — among the deaths is the following ‘On Wednesday, the 18th instant, at his lodgings in the
Lambeth-road, in the 83rd year of his age, William Combe, Esquire, author of ‘The Devil upon Two Sticks in
England’, ‘The Diaboliad’, a singular work, professing to be ‘Letters of the late (the 2nd) Lord Lyttleton,’
and ‘The Tour of Dr Syntax’ — Likely for rain this morning but kept off till afternoon continued for 3 or 4 hours, and prevented
my going out in the evening as I had no expectation of its clearing up about 7, and turning out a finish Evening — mild, gentle
rain this afternoon, and warm and growing weather more like spring than summer — Barometer 4 1/2 degrees below changeable Fahrenheit 56° at 9 1/4
p.m. - more rain between 9 and 10, and likely to be a rainy night — Came upstairs at 10 50/60 — E... [below] o. a drop or two merely sta
rchy urine still clear surely this would seem as I was better perhaps the complaint is sslowly wearing itself out
In the evening wrote out from 26 April to 4 May and the index to this volume and 1/2 the first
column of the literary index —
[margin text :] In the evening wrote out from 26 April to 4 May of the index to this volume and 1/2 the first
column of the literary index —
Sunday 29
5 1/4
11 1/4
Turned Percy and the mare out immediately — gave Hotspur a little corn, and turned him in 1/4 hour At 6 3/4 set off to walk —
walked from here to the sign of the Pack-horse, 5 miles and a fraction, I should think from my walking, 5 1/3 miles from H-x [Halifax], and 4 1/3
from our door Shibden, in 2 19/60 hours, and walked back in 2 13/60 hours — Very good walking — and I did not hurry myself — Fine, cool air
on the hills — though a lowering, dampish-aired morning threatening rain — we all went to church — Mr. Knight preached (I was
1/2 asleep all the while) 35 minutes from Matthew xvi. 15, 16. I wonder what Mr. Knight would say of Bryant’s speculations on
the meaning of Barjona, Bar-jona — Gave Hotspur some oatcake, 1st softened steeped in hot water and covered with oatmeal — and then some
plain crisp oat-cake which he ate with pleasure I never tried him with this before. — I believe he would eat almost anything one gave him — neither of the other horses
would eat it — At 1 35/60 a heavy thunder shower — wrote the above of today,.... etc. Went downstairs at 4 25/60 — all
the afternoon from 1 35/60 to then dawdling — looking over my account with M- [Mariana] and the 1st page or 2 of my journal of our tour in Craven — My aunt and I read the
evening service, and I then read aloud sermon 45 volume 2. my uncle’s collection — Did nothing in the evening — Fine afternoon and evening after the
thunder shower at 1 35/60 — Barometer 3/4 degree below changeable Fahrenheit 58° at 9 1/2 p.m. — E o urine still clear — Came upstairs at 10 50/60
Monday 30
5 5/60
11 1/4
Turned Percy out immediately — Gave Hotspur some corn, and the mare a very little — 25/60 downstairs in the stable and about — at 6 1/2
set off to the moor on Hotspur — rode 3 times round as I mean to be my custom — Met Mr. Stansfield Rawson and his son at their own door as I went and returned
with them from the moor, happening to meet with them there when I had nearly finished my 3rd round — met with Miss Pickford at
Savile hill in returning — She walked by the side of me down Savile Green as far as the new church — She cannot drink tea here
today but will come tomorrow — She told me on Saturday [illegible] that Hotspur cantered as if his hind-legs were hoppled — I said it was
57
1823
June
L
§§
my fault; I reined him up so, — to make him canter short and gently — Let him go freer and faster and she then admired his
pace — this morning, she told me, I had not pulled him up well on Saturday — his hind and fore feet were all on a lump —
it might throw another person — I said the reason of my pulling him up so, was, that colts always stumbled, and, on stopping
them, it was very necessary to hold them up very much, to prevent the possibility of their coming down — said I would stop him more gently
but that I must be very careful — or he would certainly stumble — Asked her to put her babit habit on some morning, and she should try
him on the moor — I was anxious to criticise her riding — I am glad she mentions these things to me — It teaches me and in fact
what should I know about riding but practice and attention and observation will I hope make me understand the thing
in time — Got home at 8 3/4 — Gave Hotspur a little corn — came in at 8 50/60, and wrote the above of today — Letter from Miss Maclean
(Quinish, Tobermory — ‘June 23’) — 3 ppages and the ends — I fear her health is very indifferent — Her family wish her, and she
herself seems to have determined to spend next winter at Sidmouth or Penzance, with her friend Mrs. McKenzie Grieves
‘I really think myself it is my only chance’ ….. ‘a land journey, I fear I am not equal to, therefore I talk of going from here to
Bristol by steam, taking a rest in Glasgow and Liverpool’ — Has she any friends in Liverpool? or does she merely
mean to rest a few days at an Inn — I should like to meet her there, — and shall think of this — ….. ‘The Cromptons I know but
slightly — owing to my health while in York — but they are intimate friends of Albane’s and Miss MacDonald’s — I liked them very much
the little I did know’ — She has before talked of leaving home for a few weeks on the 26th (that would be Thursday last) ‘I am a perfect
skeleton — 1/2 as fat as when I last saw you’ — ….’ I am much weaker, and now have pain in my right side and chest with
daily spitting blood’ …. ‘I have filled my handkerchief with blood while writing this’ ….. Doctor Belcombe told me it was ssc
rophulous [scrofulous] consumption no hope of her recovery but she might last a few years I think he said it was the last time
but one I was in York — ‘I did think you very very long in writing’ — Came upstairs at 10 1/2 — changed my dress, etc. — wrote
the last 11 lines — Chancing to open no. [number] 11 of the Retrospective review, could not lay it down till I had read nearly the whole — i.e.
all I had not read since Friday which took me till 3 1/2 — a very interesting no. [number] — a very good article on the poetical literature of Spain, on Cudworth’s
intellectual system, and on Burnet’s theory of the earth — Then wrote 1 2/3 ppages to Miss Marsh — Dressed etc. went down to
dinner at 5 1/2 — at 6 3/4 set off to walk to Lightcliffe — Miss Grisdale gone to Cliffe-hill — Mrs. William Priestley alone —
Confidential sort of tête à tête — Said very honestly why, in the event of their leaving Lightcliffe, I thought Cumberland would suit
them better than the neighbourhood of York — All people from Halifax were under some disadvantages as to society
Mrs. Hotham had it not much in her power now to introduce them etc. etc. Miss Grisdale returned at 9 — I came away at 9 1/4 — Mrs. William Priestley
walked back with me past German house, then I turned with her, and she with me again, and I did not get home till 9 10/60 —
we had met Mr. William Priestley, and he walked a little with us — Talked about the value of fat cattle — good beef worth 8/. [shillings] per stone
now, and cow-beef (an aged cow — pretty good), worth 7/. [shillings] a stone — In selling by weight, it is usual to sink one-fifth
for the offal, which is the butcher’s profit, and sell all the rest at its full value per stone — In weighing the animal alive, it is usual to
sink 8 lbs [pounds] in 20 lbs [pounds] for the offal — Came upstairs at 10 35/60 — Forgot to look at the weather glasses — E... [below] o. several little
drops but merely starchy and not so yellow — they are tired of Miss Grisdale she is no companion they never speak of family
affairs to hers she eats very little cannot relish their plain things drinks half a bottle of wine a day when she has a litt
le cold is fond of a buttered cheerer that is a glass of rum and water with a great lump of butter in it they all take it at Lord
Lonsdale‘s she is there four or five months in the year entertains the people they don’t think the trouble of entertaining her father
[margin text:] Doctor Grisdale a clergyman got himself in by electionneering [electioneering] for them and therefore they notice her —
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