| Description | [Diary Transcription]
220
1836
October Saturday 1
7 1/2
11 25/..
N
V
V
V
No kiss rainy morning and Fahrenheit 40 1/2° at 8 1/2 — wrote and sent by John at 9 note to ‘Mr. MacKean Yorkshire District Bank
H-x [Halifax]’ enclosing the £50 bank of England I got in exchange of A- [Ann] last night, and enclosing also a check for
£95 in their notes and £5 in silver — and gave John 3 little bills to pay — A- [Ann] had Mr. Washington
(in the housekeeper’s room) breakfast at 9 1/4 — A- [Ann] did her French — came upstairs at 10 1/4 — wrote the above of today —
a little while with my aunt in the hall-cellar — out about 11 — went to the Conery — 1/2 hour there settling about their moving to the
Lodge on Monday — then at Walker pit — sauntered along the fields hanging hay etc. into Pump Lane —
at the wheel-race (nobody there) at Mytholm, returned along Lower brea wood, up by Lower brea into
the new road to Wellroyde lane, then back down the daisy bank footpath and along the walk and home at 3 1/4 —
had Mallinson the joiner — speaking to him about centres for the dry arch Ingham is to make, he
said by next Thursday he should have 10 yards length (such as I wanted (4 feet wide semicircle) to spare from a
dead arch at the Infirmary — asked what he meant by dead arch — answer an arch blocked up and useless!
I expressed my astonishment at so much valuable space being lost — Mallinson thought it a great pity — not his
business to speak — I asked whose fault it was — Mallinson thinks the commissioners do not perhaps quite understand the plan —
said if I happened to be in H-x [Halifax] I would find it out for myself and then mention it — After Mallinson
had Ward who brought a hare and brace of partridges for which gave him 2/6 — the only hare he had seen — and his bill up to yesterday — paid it — and
took him into the walk and shewed him the lilac already gnawed by rabbits — said I would leave
it to him to charge for his time but should be glad to pay him if he would only destroy all
the rabbits that came near — found Robert Mann waiting for me — Long talk (walking up and
||down the flags in front of the house — my feet very wet) about the colliery — mentioned driving a
||galloway gate — or having an inclined plane and a small high pressure engine to bring the
||coal out just on this side the archway in the Godley road — told him to calculate the expense and
||whether it would pay — he agreed with me the coal would be worth more by a penny a
||load — told him to calculate also the expense of driving the 2 heads (3 feet 6 inches high and
||could not be less than 4 feet wide at the bottom) up to Walker pit — calculated 3000 yards
||besides coal, would come out — to be laid against Mytholm bridge (towards Medley Park)
||about 10 or 12 yards of the brook being arched over — told him to consider about all this
||and give me an estimate of the work, a price at which he could engage to do it — and to consider about
||the value of the coal that I might keep this in mind to the letting day — coal is rising — Wilson
||of Quarry house had told Robert it would be 11d. a load this winter — I said it would be a shilling
||what with rail roads steam engines and 1 thing or other — Whitworth told me (at Walker pit)
||the coal there was worth per score 5/. getting and 2/6 pulling and expense of tools etc. = 7/6 per score =
||4 1/2d. per expense of getting and pulling etc. — Whitworth agreed that 1d. per load clear profit was quite enough — yes! thought
||I and less — 1/2d. per load clear profit very well — suppose 4 loads per yard = 16160 loads per acre at 1/2d.
||= £33.13.4 clear profit per acre — had the H-x [Halifax] lawyer (Hainsworth’s) and paid him for this week — dressed
|| (my feet very wet and my clothes wet round the bottom) — A- [Ann] very poorly — very bad cold coming on — dinner at 7 —
||Mr. Jubb came at 7 1/2 — my aunt much the same but her pulse 112 tonight — Mr. Jubb saw A- [Ann] she had a
||great deal of fever — had eaten no dinner — to send for medicine and get her to bed after having had her feet in hot
[margin text:] where to put drift stuff. profit per acre on coal to the taker etc.
221
1836
October
20 minutes — she took 1/2 a cup of tea — backwards and forwards with her and my aunt — saw A- [Ann] in bed at 9 55/..
then wrote the last 8 lines — very rainy night — rainy morning and rainy day till fair between 2 and 3 then
merely a light shower or 2 till after dinner — Fahrenheit 44° and raining hard now at 10 10/.. p.m.
Sunday 2
9
11 3/4
V
No kiss ready at 10 when Mr. Jubb came — my aunt’s pulse 96 — rather better this morning? A- [Ann] had still a
great deal of fever — had given her the other 2 pills and a saline draught at 9 1/2 — if the bowels not acted upon by 2 p.m.
to send to Mr. Jubb’s for something to produce immediate effect — luckily this afterwards proved unnecessary — Mr. Jubb
thought it not necessary to come this evening on my aunt’s account — has known a lady take as little nourishment as my
aunt does now, and live 4 years — my aunt may continue some time — breakfast at 10 1/2 — backwards and forwards with my
aunt or A- [Ann] at 12 1/4 read prayers to my aunt and Cookson and Oddy and the housemaid in 1/2 hour, and sat with my aunt
while Oddy dined — read now and afterwards when with my aunt Rennie’s Alphabet of Natural Geography the first
50 ppages then backwards and forwards — from 3 to 5 stood reading the H-x [Halifax] Guardian of Saturday partly aloud to A- [Ann]
then in the blue room skimmed over last night’s London paper — a few minutes with my aunt — then again with
A- [Ann] gave her the 5th saline draught since last night — she had nothing but 2 cups of tea for breakfast, and at 7 had a little veal broth and dry toast which
last she thought disagreed with her stomach — she has a good deal of fever again tonight — dinner at 7 10/..
in 35 minutes — made tea for A- [Ann] and coffee for myself and wrote the above of today till 8 10/.. — very rainy
morning and rainy day — some very heavy showers in the afternoon so that none of the servants could get to church —
before I had finished breakfast this morning had Charlotte Booth — she came to ask for a merinos gown, and
wanted 2 chemises — the term of her apprenticeship expires on Friday — said she should have the gown —
she must do for herself after Xmas [Christmas] — or from 1 January next — gave good advice, and spoke of a lady’s maid’s place for
her — £10 a year as much as she should expect at 1st — spoke very gently to her — she would do whatever
I liked; but I found she would rather ‘be in business’ than in a lady’s maid’s place — Miss Hebden had
told her she would have to sit up very late — It ended in my saying I was glad to have found out what
she liked best — my only wish was for her to do well — I would therefore give up inquiring for a place, and she
must consult with Miss Hebden, and manage for herself — asked what her gown would cost — answer
about a pound — what the chemises? about 5/. — I said I thought she would perhaps like best
to provide these things for herself, and do for herself from this time (to which she seemed to give glad assent)
and that I therefore begged she would do so, and I gave her 2 sovereigns for this purpose — I hoped she would always
be grateful to the Miss Hebdens, and never calculate pennies and twopences where they were
concerned but do all she could for them — and be sure to please them — if she did not, they would do
no more for her, and think no more of her — I said she must so contrive as not to put her father
to any expense — but must stay with Miss Hebden or be here till she got some place; and as for being
here, there was no room at present and I should not now like her to be here if I was away (alluding to my
having nobody to leave her with as Mrs. Cookson (I said) would go away, of course, with Miss Walker and
myself — I think the girl was pleased to be thus soon put upon her own management — I have given her
a trade — I have surely done enough — she would never suit A- [Ann] and me — She would rather be
independent — I am glad to have got thus happily rid of her — and hope she will do well for herself —
writing the above till 8 25/.. p.m. then went for A- [Ann] who got up and came and lay on the sofa (in her dressing gown and cloak) in the blue room
she would not take tea which I had made for her — I had my coffee — then while Oddy got her supper sat with my aunt 3/4 hour till near 10, at
which hour Fahrenheit 38° and fair — Rainy day with high wind in the afternoon —
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