#janfeb1834

[awhilesince]

Sunday, 12 January 1834

8 3/4

12 1/4

a little goodish grubbling last night that she was tolerably satisfied and did not snore but she had fallen after I left and had her back rubbed with essence of turpentine tonight which was anything but agreeable – 

fine soft morning – breakfast at 9 3/4 – walking with Miss W– (Walker) – as far as the Crownest gates – then left her to go to Church (at 10 1/2) and walked home rain from 10 1/2, smartish, all the way – yet could not resist pacing up and down the Pearson Ing – about 100 yards railing will do the fencing off – 

came in at 11 1/2 – prayers at 12 to my aunt and her maid – the former acting as clerk in the psalms and everything – how very much better today! then a little nap till Mr Sunderland came soon after 1 – all well – told him to come at least once a week – but to send in his bill to the end of the year and to tell Dr. Kenny to do ditto and my aunt would send for him Dr. K– (Kenny) when she wanted him this my aunt having set her heart on doing thinking herself too well to take medicine or have a physician – 

wrote out the last 4 lines of Friday and all yesterday and so far of today and with Eugenie packing the Imperials till 3 1/2 – then wrote to Mrs Judd ‘Miss Lister expects to be in York about 7 or 8 tomorrow evening etc etc ordering the same rooms I had with IN– (Isabella Norcliffe) and saying I should only stay a couple of nights so should not interfere with my engagements for the 16th (the great ball for the benefit of the city walls) – and wrote as follows to

‘my dear Steph – as our last conversation is too recent for you to have forgotten it, it is merely necessary to say, I hope to be at the Black Swan about 7 or 8 tomorrow evening, and do pray come, if you can, en médécin, about nine – Do not announce us to anyone except your wife; as that can be done, pro re natâ, afterwards – very much yours AL– Anne Lister’ 

then wrote note to Miss Jenkinson to beg her send the amount of Eugenie’s bill and the charge for horses and gates from Shibden hall to Leeds, and charge also for Taking my carriage round by Lidgate and thence by the Lower brea road to Stump Inn, and Leeds – the horses to be here punctually at 12 – 

Left for Thomas to take to the post my letter to ‘Dr Belcombe York’ and to ‘Mrs Judd Black Swan, York’ and my note to be given to ‘Miss Jenkinson White Lion’ – again helping Eugénie – and not done till 5 10/.. – 

at Lidgate in 1/2 hour at 6 10/.. – dinner immediately cold mutton and apple dumpling and tea immediately afterwards Miss W– (Walker) having dined at 1 and had the clergyman, a Mr Edwards – sat dawdling over tea – I read aloud a short chapter and prayers at 9 50/.. in 5 minutes – came upstairs at 10 10/.. – 

Rainy day from 10 1/2 a.m. Till night thro’ pretty fair as I returned to Lidgate – Fahrenheit 54° now at 10 1/4 p.m. with good fire –

reference number: SH:7/ML/E/16/0158

[awhilesince]

Tuesday, 28 January 1834

7 40/..

12 10/..

Rainy morning – Had Pickels, to speak to him – set him to pull up and take away the cross wall in Walsh-land, and right up the wall along side the road, and to see what draining the lower land would require – inquired about sunk-walling the top of the Allen Car – would wall it 6 feet high, and sod the embankment and find stones and cart them for 20/. a rood – of which the walling would be worth 14/. a rood – 

breakfast at 9 20/.. in 20 minutes – backwards and forwards till 1 1/2 with Mallinson and Charles Howarth ordering about the north parlour, the floor of which to be lowered and the front wall rebuilt, and the window enlarged 9 inches in height, and each mullion to be thinned 1 1/2 inches – and also planning about moving the great door opposite the north parlour down to tho the 1st hen-house to be converted in a coal-place – 

At Lidgate at 2 and 1 20/.. minutes there with Sarah getting out and ordering about things to go in a large box to York per waggon tomorrow – At Cliff hill from 3 1/2 to 5 – Long talk to Miss W– (Walker) about Miss W– (Walker) junior, had convinced her, I think, that it was right for the poor girl to remain quietly for some time under Dr. Belcombe’s care – 

hinted pretty strongly at Mr Ainsworth real character said he was the last man Miss W (Walker) ought to marry that I abominated the fellow and had a correspondence to manage for immediately on his wifes death and that had I been at home I thought he would not have troubled her again but was in Scotland in July and had even committed himself to the Sutherlands  said Miss W (Walker) thought of making her will had asked if I would be executor  but had merely said she must remember I was likely to be much abroad  said she  they would think her not fit to make a will but I assured her to be contrary  had asked doctor who said decidedly yes and I had advised her to send for Mr Jonathan Grey and to make the will right (said the way she mentioned to me would annoy the Sutherlands keep all safe at home and was the sort of will I should make myself for she might leave an additional life estate by codicil then explained about the proposal I had made last autumn twelve month which I had told her of before I went abroad and said Miss W (Walker) had told her sister she never repented refusing it but once and that was always  I said not say much now to Miss W (Walker) but the case was altered  I was not like Mr Ainsworth who would be glad to get hold of her whether able to decide for herself or not we talked over Miss Bentley and how odd it was she should rejoice for Miss W (Walker) at the prospect of her Miss Ws (Walker’s) marrying him – 

home in 1/2 hour at 5 1/2 – very wet – rained all the way home – changed my dress – dinner at 6 20/.. in 1/2 hour – arranging things in new drawers till 8 1/2 – then above an hour with my aunt and 1/2 hour with my father and sister – upstairs at 10 10/.. – siding till 11 20/.. – 

Rainy day – a gleam as I went to Lidgate and that all – thro’ 2 or 3 short gleams earlier in the morning – Fahrenheit 52° now at 11 20/.. p.m. –

reference number: SH:7/ML/E/16/0163

[awhilesince]

Thursday, 23 January 1834

7 55/..

1 35/..

rainy morning Fahrenheit 53° at 9 5/.. a.m. breakfast at 9 20/.. to 10 – out at 10 10/.. to buy gloves, to Wolstenholme’s about carving at £20 according to his good plan for the hall Chimney piece, – to Hubies, then to Miss Walker – sat talking and eating grapes – then both of us asleep on the sofa.

Dr. Belcombe came about 2 – meant to have taken Miss W– (Walker) to call on Mrs Henry Belcombe but she was not much inclined to stir and we went to her room and she sat on my knee with her head on the bed and her feet on a chair while I grubbled her pretty well – 

at 4 Miss W– (Walker) and I went out on the Malton road – met Miss Bagshaw she turned with us and we back with her to the bar – dined with Miss W– (Walker) at 5 – on a mutton chop, and staid with her till 6 10/.. 

when took leave, walked home, and came in at 6 20/.. – very quick – wrote and sent 1 1/2 page to my aunt Shibden to say I should be at home between 8 and 9 tomorrow evening and asked if Eugenie could not sleep in the store-room – wrote also and sent to ‘Mr Edward Hope, Carver and gilder 88 and 89 North Street Leeds to beg him to do up the 2 picture frames in paper and send them and the bill to the Hotel Briggate, and I would pay the master of the house – wrote also note to ‘Miss Crompton Micklegate’ to say if they would be at home at 7 1/4 – 

read the 1st 32 pages volume 1. James’s Sweden and Russia etc while waiting for a Fly – kind note from Miss Henrietta Crompton – would be glad to see me – there at 8 1/2 – tea at 9 – agreeable evening enough – home at 10 40/.. – very kindly invited and half promised to stay a day or 2 with them – 

read to page 263 volume 1. James’s tour in 1813 and 14 – John Thomas James A. M. 2 volumes 8vo (octavo) Murray. London 1819. vol. 1 pages 470. volume 2. pages 447.

damp warm muggy day but fair – Fahrenheit 58° at 1 1/4 tonight –

reference number: SH:7/ML/E/16/0162

[awhilesince]

Tuesday, 21 January 1834

7 50/..

1 1/2

very good grubble last night breakfast at 9 1/4 – out at 10 1/4 – we went to the minster – very neat and well kept and beautiful church – Miss W– (Walker) went with me to the top (near 400 steps or more?) without the least complaint of fatigue – fine view of Hull and the Humber seeming near – then to 2 book sellers’ shop – then a few minutes in St. Mary’s church, large very handsome old church likewise well kept – this and the minster still under workmen – 

back at the hotel (Tiger Inn) at 12 1/2 and off from there at 12 50/.. – pretty thro’ Westwood – Beverley a nice little town – thro’  Market Weighton without stopping – got out at the Skelfler Gate at 1 3/4 and took Miss W– (Walker) thro’ the plantation and garden and farm yard and the field along the beck and then to the house – Walker father in law of the tenant came to us in the farm yard, and shewed us over the buildings – good sort of civil man – said the farm was too dear – he was out of pocket the 2 last years’ rent – gave a guinea an acre – above £200 had just been laid out in repairs, and the place looked very neat – did not say who I was, but talked as if I was looking about, with some view to purchasing the estate, and do not think he had any idea of my name – he said taxes were very high – last year’s poor rate £20 – off from Skelfler at 2 3/4 – changed horses at Pocklington new Inn, and alighted at the Black Swan, York, at 5 50/.. – 

we went out shopping – left Miss W– (Walker) 1/2 hour at Hick’s while I went to Dr. Belcombe’s – 2 women servants as Lady’s maids in view for Miss W– (Walker) ordered tea at 8 – Had one of the maids to speak to, Maclean, asked 20 guineas – much recommended by Dr. B– (Belcombe) but did not much like her and got off on the score of being a dissenter – 

tea at 9 – took Miss W–‘s (Walker’s) baggage and off with it in a Fly to her lodging (Heworth Grange) at 10 24/.. and back again in an hour – found IN– (Isabella Norcliffe) was in the house – went up to her bedroom and sat with her 1/4 hour till 11 40/.. Marianne and Bell Dalton at Langton – very fine day – found waiting for me at Dr. Belcombes Letter from the 10th instant from Mr Bewsher about the plate – detained at Calais –

reference number: SH:7/ML/E/16/0161

[awhilesince]

Saturday, 18 January 1834

8 20/..

1 1/2

no grubbling last night  I with my cousin glad to be quiet and she therefore went quickly to sleep and snored a little – fine rather frosty morning and cold strong wind – Fahrenheit 50° at 8 20/.. – breakfast at 8 25/.. – 

Miss W– (Walker) and I out at 10 50/.. by ourselves and did not come in till 5 1/2 – shopping – Brown 25 and 40 Whitefriar gate would make French bedstead 3.6 or 4 feet wide and 6.3 long at 50/. to 55/. Pailasse 18/. Hair mattress very good, but not quite the best 3.3.0 – this man had more stock on hand than the 2 others but had nothing worth notice – gave up the thought of buying chez John and James Lofthouse chemists and druggysts, 15 Market place Palmers patent candle lamp bronze 22/. and gold bronze 21/. candles for them (burn in 2 divisions of wick) at 10 1/2 a lb. (pound) – recommended some composition candles at 1/6 a lb. (pound) as burning as well as sperm candles at 2/. – trying them this evening and the sperm far the better of the 2, clearer steadier light – when Lofthouse 1st knew Jones 201 Strand London in 1827 he had his things in a passage – no shop – now he had bought the premises belonging to the passage had a house in St. John’s wood and drove into town every day – a clever man – made his fortune by his various patents – his promethean lights certainly capital – 

in 1 or 2 linen drapers shops, etc soon after 12 went to Wilsons 49 Lowgate book seller late Editor of the Hull advertiser (Tory) lately sold it and the politics now quite changed – 2 radical members now – inquired for Russia leather Bramah lock writing cases – none but of very inferior 24/. kind to be had in the town – staid a long while reading then went upstairs among his 2nd hand books and staid till 5! Miss W– (Walker) bought £8 or £10 worth and I Burmann’s minor Latin poets 2 volumes 4to (quarto) vellum good Calmet’s sacred dictionary 4 volumes 4to (quarto) calf 20/. no prints and not very good condition Pliny’s Epistles 4/. 1 volume 8vo (octavo) calf and Cluverius 1 volume 4to (quarto) calf 5/. likewise not very good condition Morell’s thesaurus £2 etc

went into Kidd’s 52 market place, the shop for flannels, patterns of worsted work etc. – Mrs Kidd gave me the following receipt for washing flannel ‘Flannel should be washed in 2 clear lathers – wring out of one and put into the other directly – as hot as the hands can bear it – wring gently – shake it well – and hang it up immediately’ at a moderate distance from the fire –

dinner at 5 3/4 – afterwards wrote the above of today – went this morning into an excellent furniers shop, Taylor Silver Street – large handsome light but dark of the kind sable muff £6. – large pelerines of sable mink i.e. sable not quite in season £5. and chinchilli £6. – 

Mr Wilson the book seller came with his books and staid some time – Hull very low – tho’ never knew such a good fishing season as the last (all the ships well fished) yet the oil so low (£15 a ton – 1 good fish produces about 20 tons) and the wear and tear of shipping so great the owners will gain very little – the discovery Expeditions failed of their object, but have done much good to the whale fishery, having pointed out the present track in Davis’ Straits where all the whales now go – the Baltic trade bad and tho’ a good trade to the mediterranean 30 years ago, none there now – sent back my books to be cleaned and sent with Miss W–s Walker’s in a parcel to York, and Mr Wilson by the boy sent to fetch them back brought me Wilson’s Letter to the conservatives of Hull in justification of his disposing of the Hull advertiser in 1832. sat up talking and cutting open books till 11 50/.. very fine day but coldish and windy –

left margin: Books from Hull on Tuesday (sent Monday night) arrive at Newcombe’s waggon warehouse Fossgate, York, about noon on Wednesday –

reference number: SH:7/ML/E/16/0160

[awhilesince]

Friday, 17 January 1834

7 1/4

.. [Anne’s period] rainy morning – good grubble last night  she snored  I count days and hours to getting rid of her – half hour asleep on the pot this morning then dressed and ready at 8 1/2 and then Fahrenheit 52° and rainy morning breakfast at 8 3/4 – fine for 1/2 hour – then rain again at 10, and fair again and out with Miss W– (Walker) and Eugénie and our guide Mr George ? Howe (at 10 3/4 – having put on old moiré dress and made myself fit for rain and dirty streets – 

Panorama of Hull CC BY-SA 3.0

walked round the 3 fine docks, Humber dock, Junction (or middle) ditto, and old dock lined with warehouses stored with hides, wool, cotton goods for Hamburg, bows for home tillage etc etc, then to the citadel – the 53rd there – walked thro’ the barrack yard, a fine open space – the broad foss full of water this and the Circumvallation very neat and well kept – 

then into the shop of Sancr cabinet maker and upholsterer, water works street, some neat light chains at 14/. – inquired for French bed – then saw the carriages of the great couch maker in Carr Lane – then to the Botanic garden – a little way out of the town on the Anlaby road – there at 12 40/.. – 5 acres – established 20 years ago, yet nothing very rare or worth in the gardens – 3 nice green houses neatly kept – supported, tho’ not very well, by annual submissionns and selling plots – Low, wet, clayery, bad ground for a garden – cut beech hedges bottom filled up with privet might be worth imitation? about 1/2 hour there – returned by Albion Street – 

The Museums Quarter CC BY-SA 4.0

saw the new assembly rooms and museum there in 1 not quite finished handsome brick building – the museum a gallery lightened by 14 windows in the top, covered, 12 feet square height, and 18 feet to the windows on top of the covering – 127. feet 6 inches long by 24 feet wide – nice proportion enough – the specimens furnished by donation – a good manner, perhaps arranged nearly as well as their motley nature admits – opposite 1 end of this building (the ball-room a squary very lofty in proportion quite plain room with raised orchestra at the end) – is the new public dissecting room in the Egyptian style – I suppose the medical museum is kept there – rang 3 times but nobody came – the people much against it – will perhaps pull it down – a woman the other day at seven was taken up at 12 at night – a man saw 2 men steal the body – to be tried at York – 

Trinity Church (Hull minster) CC BY-SA 2.0

Hull Minster inside  CC BY-SA 4.0

sauntered homewards looking in the shop windows in Whitefriargate Silver Street etc went into Trinity church large handsome old Gothic – handsome painted glass east window about 1/2 just done and put up, to cost a £1000 – done by “Thomas Ward Esquire Artist, 57 Frith Street, Soho Square London” – this address got for me by the woman who shewed the church from the church warden W. B. Day who, she said, wished to know everything and begged to have my address in return which I wrote down “Miss Lister Paris” – the Gothic arch part of the window done in divers small designs – below 3 rows of large figures 7 in each row – our saviour and 6 apostles in the 1st – virgin and child and other 6 apostles in the 2nd and 7 cardinal virtues Faith, hope, charity, justice, Prudence, Temperance and fortitude – creditable to the artist – If all this = £1000, perhaps a St. James the elder might be done for £100? a small library of old books fathers and classics belonging to the church is kept under the vicar’s lock and key –

then to the Trinity house at 2 3/4 – a good while there – seeing several north american (Esquimaux) and other curiosities in a few tolerable rooms floors lightly strewed with rushes (queen Elizabeth’s carpet) fresh every 3 months – 30 rooms in the house for old sailors and their widows? Trinity hospital at a little distance an old looking building said one guide – then looked into the public library in Parliament Street – the largest and best about 15000 volumes – got Miss Bedingfeld’s address South Humber bank Bellevue terrace – 

Looked into the cabinet makers shop of T. and G. Carlill, 15 Whitefriargate best, said our guide, in Hull, or as good as any – common with castors – nothing worth seeing – but would make French bedstead painted rose wood colour and varnished 6 feet 3 inches within and 3 feet 3 inches broad for 2.10.0 Hair mattress 2.0.0 Pailasse 28/. 1 square pillow and bolster best feathers 1.11.6 = £8.9.6 i.e. 9/6 more than I am to pay Hubie in York for the same – would make a rather different sort of French bedstead (castors), but made up (boxed up) close to the ground, very neat, for £6 in mahogany and £3 in imitation rosewood – then walked to South Humber bank Bellevue terrace – nice neat small houses overlooking the river – 

home at 4 3/4 – dismissed our guide, and poked about in shops near home till 5 20/.. – dinner at 5 1/2 – hare soup, small smelts roast loin of small but not very tender mutton – Tarts, custards and jellies, and soda water 2 bottles for me and 1 with juice of 1/2 lemon and sugar for Miss W– (Walker) comfortable – 

wrote out the above of today till 8 1/4 p.m. – meant to have gone to the theatre tonight, but too idle – my cousin came gently about noon or before this morning took no notice till night and then put on one white worsted stocking to be soft and keep all save – 

went to the steam packet office – the Transit, 160 horse power, and Monarch 140 ditto ditto will start probably Friday 22 February and run every Friday from here to Hamburg in from 56 to 60 hours – after cabin 4 guineas instead of 5 and fore cabin 2 1/2 guineas instead of 3 1/2 to encourage passengers – carriages 1 1/2 guineas per wheel horses 5 guineas each therefore self 4.4.0 two servants 5.5.0 carriage 6.6.0 = £15.15.0 + Expense from Shibden to the time of embarking suppose = £26.0.0 to take me back to Hamburg – not ruinous – saw several fine whalers in dock this morning of 500 tons burden – distinguished by knees paced with iron round the lower part of the stern to cut thro’ the ice – came home late this year – the last in November with 36 whales – go out in February – the Sugar refinery and soap mill not shewn – Hull not so good a town as I had fancied, nor shops so good – 

tea at 9 1/2 – talk – looking over plan of Hull in Baines’s Directory – went to my room at 11 35/.. – Rainy morning (vide line 20 of today) but fine day high wind along the water from about 10 1/2 for the rest of the morning afternoon and evening – Fahrenheit 48° at 12 tonight –

reference number: SH:7/ML/E/16/0159, SH:7/ML/E/16/0160

[awhilesince]

Thursday, 16 January 1834

8 1/7..

12 10/..

very good grubble last night she said better done at last than ever it was before – ready at 9 20/.. at which hour Fahrenheit 52° – fine morning breakfast at 8 1/2 – we and Eugenie off to see the church at 9 1/4 – 1/2 hour there – very handsome old abbey church – 

Selby Abbey  CC BY-SA 2.0

near the chancel under a well preserved stone, buried 

‘Nathanael Spencer merchant born of Halifax the 23rd of February 1629 and here interred the 31st January 1689 also Mary his wife who dyed the 24th of July 1725 aged 89’– 

well cut arms at the head of the stone – arms a bend (from dexter to sinister) changed with 3 fleur de lis between 2 frets – wife’s arms a cross filling up the dexter quarter the sinister quarter parted fesson wise and the 2 other quarters forming equal band fesson wise – a small slab fixed near this monument against the chancel pillar records the death of Richard son of the above Nathanael Spencer, also a merchant born at Leeds 1 February 1662 and buried 13 February 1690 1 of our family married 1 of these Spencers? – Nave old Saxon – handsome old saxon west end – choir gothic and more modern – roof of nave and transept in very bad repair – a tumble down tower bore along with it great part of the north transept many years ago, and what was left was plainly walled up at the end – no assessments for the church now – the dissenters having opposed them – all repairs therefore now done by subscription – honorable Mr Edward, late of Stapylton park, Petre tho’ a Roman catholic gave the handsome crimson velvet fringed with gold altar cover – a very good man – what used to be the chapter house now a common-looking school-room – 

off from Selby at 10 10/.. perfectly flat but well-farmed country – several neat villages – Carleton, Snaith, Cawick, Rocliffe and Armyn – Snaith neat small town

St. Laurence Church, Snaith CC BY-SA 2.0

 – several trees blown down here and there – at 12 25/.. stop to change horses at Booth ferry, a largeish good Inn, with well stocked larder, and where we should have been apparently much better off than at Selby – at Goole in about 1/4 hour at 12 50/.. 35 minutes there walking thro’ the good corn and wool etc warehouses and walking round the large good basin well filled with craft, 1 or 2 largish Hull brigs apparently very sea-worthy – 

Aire and Calder Canal  CC BY-SA 3.0 

the Aire and Calder fine canal runs into the basin at one end which communicates with the Ouse at the other – between the basin and canal is a good broad leading to old Goole a small village about 1/4 mile off – Goole very flourish brick-built place – some very good-looking houses – back at the Ferry house in 17 minutes – waited 10 minutes for the servants eating – embark the carriage and over the water in 5 minutes but the whole business of em and disembarking took 19 minutes – the Aire falls into the Ouse (here a fine river) on the Ferry house (Wells very civil man) side about a hundred or two yards above the ferry – a small pot-house near where we disembarked – 

Aire and Calder Navigation blue plaque  CC BY-SA 4.0

Off again for North cave at 2 10/.. – stopt en passant at 2 27/.. 20 minutes to see Howden church of which the choir, chancel, and chapter house now form a fine ruin, the nave being fitted up as the present church – 

The ruins of Howden Minster CC BY-SA 3.0 

full of monuments with long-winded rigmarole Epitaphs – among the rest, 1 by the present dowager Mrs Saltmarshe to the virtues of her husband Phillip son of Arthur of Saltmarshe, and 1 to the memory of a Mr Jefferson, late a captain in the Blues, with a list of all the sums he left in charity – observe he died leaving issue only 2 natural daughters to 1 a Mrs Spofforth £1600, and to the other £6000 – there is still remaining a chapel in which are interred the families of Metham and Saltmarshe and 1 old monument of each name is still there – Howden a neat enough small cobble street paved town – still dead flat – at 3 3/4 (in 25 minutes) dinner in the carriage, cold fowl and the remains of our Lidgate tongue – at North cave at 4 2/.. – neat enough small village like market town? – pass Cave Castle (Henry ? Barnard Esquire) – the last time I passed this noticed the Lodge – on entering from the road left, square tower – right small thin, tall round tower – battlemented pass? over the gateway between the towers – Ellerken pretty village – Welton very neat pretty ditto – 

Welton Mill  CC BY-SA 2.0

just light enough to see murkily thro’ it – could just distinguish the Humber afterwards – should have had day- light for this drive – 

Alight at the Cross Keys, market place, Hull (now the best Inn) at 6 1/2 – tea at 7 1/2 – afterwards till 9 55/.. wrote out all the above of today – very fine, mild day – came to my  room at 11 1/4 Fahrenheit 55 ° at 11 3/4 p.m. – cut nails –

Parliament Street, Hull  CC BY-SA 2.0

left margin: John Washington great grand father of General George W– (Washington) lived at what is now Cave Castle and possessed part of the estate but emigrated to America in 1657, and settled at Bridges Creek Company Westmoreland, Virginia where the family has seemed ever since –

Follow the route (from Selby to Hull)

reference number: SH:7/ML/E/16/0159, SH:7/ML/E/16/0160

[awhilesince]

Wednesday, 8 January 1834

9 1/2

11 3/4

soft damp thick-foggy morning – goodish touching and pressing last night she much and long on the amoroso and I had as much kiss as possible with drawers on  

breakfast at 10 1/2 – rainy night and morning – no stiring out – wrote 3 pages and ends to Mrs Norcliffe to say how I got home etc etc found my aunt pretty well, thought she might and would linger many months – read a little French with Miss W– (Walker)  

about 2 Thomas brought note from my aunt to say she would go into Marian’s room and Marian sleep in the hall chamber – bad night last night – wrote note to my aunt in answer – no objection to her plan as Marian was determined about it – wrote note also to Mr Sunderland to desire him to send my aunt an anodyne draught – sent back by Thomas my note to my aunt and ditto to ‘Mr Sunderland, Lord Street’ and my letter to ‘Mrs Norcliffe Langton hall Malton’ read a little more French – 

dinner at 5 3/4 – Tea at 8 – talk – prayers at 10 – came upstairs at 10 1/2 very rainy day and night – Miss W– (Walker) complained of weariness tho’ not having been out today –

she seemed lowish in fact the day had passed without excitement and in bed she was getting a little into the old way despairing of being quite well  felt so oddly afraid of not caring for anybody  dislikes the Sutherlands way yet has a feeling of not being able to manage for herself  oh oh thought I I will get off as well as I can I can never make anything of her and why all this pother for nothing – however she was on the amoroso as usual and lay upon me and I had led and grubbled till I was heartily tired – very rainy day and ditto tonight

reference number: SH:7/ML/E/16/0157

[awhilesince]

Tuesday, 7 January 1834

8 1/4

11 35/..

L

a little pressing and grubbling last night but I am not for more of it than I can help –

read prayers – breakfast at 9 1/2 – very fine sunny morning till about 10 – rain between 10 and 11 for some time then fine again – read the St. James’s Chronicle London 3 days a week paper – 

out at about 11 1/2 walked with Miss W– (Walker) by Lower brea and along my walk to here – she paid her visit to my sister and was a little while in the drawing room with my aunt, and a longish while with me in my study – lent her (took back with me) volume 38 off the British Essayists – then walked back with her to Lidgate to leave the book, and then to Cliff hill where I left her at the gate at 2 40/..

then here and came to my study – wrote out yesterday and today – wonder how all this will end she makes sure of me if she chooses and talks as we both do as if all was fixed but still she says nothing positive I don't care much about it and perhaps I shall get off again without her and then be rid of her – 

finished my letter to M– (Mariana) dated Sunday yesterday and today – tell her to cheer up – 

‘things happen so oddly, – we are always so little about to calculate our fate; and there is generally so much good we never think of, that, trust me, it is a mauvais calcul to look too attentively on the darker side of anything – How can we say that even our mistakes shall cost us as dear as we fancy they must? In these matters, we pay only by instalments; and the remainder of our debt is often forgiven us when we least expect it – think not, Mary of ‘unstrung nerves’ – think only that with increased experience and improved discernment, you have added powers of setting right the wrong, and of bending circumstances more and more as you would have them – I remember what you allude to, about my aunt – it was rather an observance to me, than a message to you – you know my aunt’s regard for me, and should make much allowance for a feeling that might have been your own, had you been in her place – you say ‘my head and my words are very commonplace, but my heart has no affinity with either’– [Monday afternoon 6 January] This may indeed be more true than you ever before taught me to believe; but, remember, our most familiar friend must judge of us in some sort by our words; and we ourselves should watch these narrowly when we know that they are not in unison with, or do injustice to, our feelings – But cheer up my dearest Mary’ …..

wiser now than before can estimate persons and things more fairly – I believe her happiness will improve beyond her expectation – she richer in friends than most people – to call on Lady Eastnor, and if not at home send note to say sorry and was in Cheshire out the time or should have had the honour of waiting on her on the 6th – do not give the exact form of the note because know not the style she has written in before – Again bid her cheer up – 

‘I never despaired, of you or myself – if I see you dispirited and unwell, it must make me uneasy and unhappy in the midst of all the blessings that may surround me – Pray what was the Gipsy’s prophecy? I am curious to know – Do pray tell me – But the fact is, you yourself are the gipsy, the fortune-teller and the fortune-maker – Providence leaves us free – tis we enthral ourselves and you twisted round the thread of my fate; for I had left it in no human power but yours –

Miss W…..’s (Walker’s) return is indeed odd – your surprise could not exceed my own – But do not let your conclusions run on too rapidly – now that I have taken my fate into my own hands, believe nothing till I tell it you myself – I know well enough what all the world will think; – but all the world may be wrong – you cannot be otherwise than interested about me; and I shall not leave you to hear my history 2nd hand – all I wish at present is a better account of yourself’ –

scarcely know what to think of my aunt – ‘She suffers a great deal; but still I cannot agree with Cordingley, that she may and will linger many months’ – Eugenie sleeps in my room – I here 3 or 4 hours in the day and then return to Lidgate – ‘if the house was my own, more pains could not be taken to make me comfortable’ – but back and forwards work not agreeable and no chance of its ending these 3 or 4 weeks – 

‘by the way, Miss W (Walker) ….. says she remembers you, and I dare say, would count upon your good wishes – I have been at Copenhagen since last year; and my thoughts wander there at times’ – .. you know the only instance in which I have ever thought myself [Tuesday afternoon 7 January] hardly dealt ‘with’ – it is past – and God grant that, among the blessings I enjoy, I may always number your happiness – You have underrated my regard long enough – I only hope you will do it justice, by and by – Be my own fate what it may, I shall never cease to watch over yours with affectionate anxiety – I do not expect to tell me you are ‘quite happy’. it would content me, for the present, to know, that you were really comfortable – 

merely mentioned Birmingham’s having forwarded the stays from Paris to Mrs Hawkins and that I should write about them but could not till tomorrow – 

‘so long in writing on account of my unsettledness and frequent interruptions – God bless you, Mary! always especially yours AL– (Anne Lister)’ 

at 5 had just written the above and sealed my letter to ‘Mrs Lawton Claremont house Leamington Warwickshire’ and left it for the post tonight – and off at 5 20/.. and at Lidgate in 25 minutes – dinner at 6 – tea at 7 50/..

long talk she will employ Mr G(r)ey in York to make her will  meant to leave me and Captain Sutherland executors and secure all to the children  she seems quite decided to take me and leave me all for my life and I said then I would do ditto – 

came upstairs at 10 35/.. and to my room at 10 55/.. fine day –

reference number: SH:7/ML/E/16/0156, SH:7/ML/E/16/0157

[awhilesince]

Friday, 24 January 1834

7 55/..

2 20/..

cross last night thinking of π (Mariana) as a mistress  very fine morning Fahrenheit 47° and breakfast at 9 – read forward to page 241 volume 1. James’s tour – 

out at 10 1/2 – called and sat 3/4 hour with Mrs Anne and Miss Gage – then at the Duffins’ and a few minutes at Mrs Yorkes (did not see Miss Yorke not left her room) and at Mrs Willey’s and home at 12 40/.. in smartish room – had old Parsons to cut my hair – had Mrs Judd up and remonstrated about servants being charged 5/8 a day – the head waiter had owned 4/6 was enough as I told Mrs Judd I thought it was – ordered 1 pair strong garter shoes and 1 pair black cloth boots at Hornbys and at Dr. B–‘s (Belcombe’s) at 2 1/4 – 

off from there (a lounging hunting idle near Gilbert there eating oranges and promising to take wine and water by and by) at 3 55/.. – took up the picture frames at Leeds and at Shibden at 10 – did not see my aunt – all well – cold roast mutton and tea – 

came upstairs at 11 40/.. – siding till 1 1/2 tonight at which hour Fahrenheit 58° fine day till about noon – afterwards rainy, windy stormy afternoon and evening till nearly fair about 9 p.m. tho’ wind still high – rough journey home –

reference number: SH:7/ML/E/16/0162

[awhilesince]

Wednesday, 22 January 1834

8

12 25/..

long tolerable grubbling last night – ready at 9 10/.. – Miss W– (Walker) up at 6 1/2 a.m. – streets very wet – damp and a little rain till 9 – some time with IN– (Isabella Norcliffe) at her bedside – breakfast at 9 1/2 – had the other Lady’s maid Lucy Smith, living with Mrs Smith of Plainville farm – hired her – to be with Miss W– (Walker) by 12 on Friday morning – to have 12 guineas the 1st year there and 14 the 2nd – 

little Tomas Norcliffe came and sat with us some time – then IN– (Isabella Norcliffe) came for a moment – then Norcliffe to both of whom I introduced Miss W– (Walker) IN– (Isabella Norcliffe) breakfasted in the next room and had the Henry Robinsons and I much with them till 12 – 

Dr. B– (Belcombe) came – had some private conversation with him – thinks Miss W– (Walker) quite competent, perfectly so, to make a will – Anne crossed out the rest of the words in this line backwards and forwards – IN– (Isabella Norcliffe) had luncheon and not off till 3 5/.. – 

then off with Miss W– (Walker) in a Fly – stopt at Bellerby’s – she subrented his to his library for 3 months 10/6 – may have 6 volumes at a time – got James’s Tour in Sweden and Russia etc in 1813-14 for me – Bellerby would let me have an uncut 4to (quarto) copy of Capell Brooke’s Lapland and Sweden published about a couple of years ago at 3 guineas for 27/. – Miss W– (Walker) helped me to buy blankets at Nicholson’s and went with me to Hubie’s about the French bed – At Heworth Grange at 4 50/.. to take possession of the lodging – dinner with Miss W– (Walker) at 5 (a mutton chop) and came away at 7 20/.. promising to see her in the morning – dressed – 

at Mrs Belcombe’s in the minster court at 8 10/.. – tea – Mrs and Miss B– (Belcombe) and Louisa and Mr Bulcock and Mrs Milne – stupid evening – home at 10 55/..

Letter (received at Mrs B–‘s) sent from Dr. B– (Belcombe) forwarded there from Shibden – from M– (Mariana) Leamington – 3 pages and ends and 3 pages crossed – has been ill – 

not in love with Willoughby Crew  tho she believes I think she is and she wonders she is not  ‘when memory recall what I have felt  I find nothing like it in what in what I do feel’  bids me take time and not fetter myself too soon nor too tightly

fine day – Fahrenheit 54° at 11 50/.. p.m. –

reference number: SH:7/ML/E/16/0161, SH:7/ML/E/16/0162

[awhilesince]

Monday, 20 January 1834

8 20/..

12 3/4

very good long grubbling last night  very fine frost morning Fahrenheit 48° at 9 10/.. a.m. – ready in an hour – breakfast at 9 1/2 – Wrote and sent by Thomas note to Miss Bedingfeld to ask if she had any letter or small parcel to send to York shocked to have not named this yesterday – should be off at 5 p.m. today – 

Miss W– (Walker) and I out at 11 – shopping and sauntering about – home about 2 for 1/2 hour – then out again – chiefly with Miss W– (Walker) at Kidd’s she learning to do different patterns in worsted work – going to work in 2 hassocks – bought sheets (for French bed) – 3 1/2 yards long, and a few yards remnant of real seal Russia towelling – no Russia sheeting to be had in Hull – 

Miss W (Walker) bought dressing box for ten pounds  useful  not silver bottle tops etc and vulgarish? as she is herself  this and lowness how much better shall I be without her!  and yet I talk as if she had only to take me or not as she chose – 

off from Kidd’s shop in the market place at 5 20/.. – got into the carriage at the Inn – stopt a moment at the bazaar in Severn Street for Miss W–‘s (Walker’s) dressing box and off from there at 5 35/.. and at the Tiger Inn Beverley (10 miles) at 6 40/.. – the waiter at Hull had sent message by the guard of the mail to announce us – soon made ourselves comfortable – tea from 7 1/4 to 8 – then Miss W– (Walker) cutting child’s things to be sent to her woman servant at home to make and I reading as far as page 54 Rennies alphabet of scientific gardening – nice little work – and then till 10 35/.. wrote out today – 

very fine day till about 5 1/4 when a little drizzling rain during the rest of the evening – Fahrenheit 54° at 12 20/..

tonight – sitting room with good fire –

reference number: SH:7/ML/E/16/0161

[awhilesince]

Sunday, 19 January 1834

9 5/..

12 40/..

long and to her excellent grubbling last night – fine frosty morning Fahrenheit 49° at 9 3/4 a.m. breakfast at 10 10/.. – at Trinity church just as they began chaunting the Jubilate at 10 3/4 – the vicar Mr Brumby preached 25 minutes a very good sermon from Romans ii.7 came home – then back to the church to see if the Sunday School children were there – no! took a little girl to shew us to the school room into a street at the end of Blue Bell court or alley – 

then took Miss Walker and Eugenie and went to call on the Miss Bedingfelds South Humber bank Belle vue terrace – at home – Miss W– (Walker) and E– (Eugenie) returned, and went to Trinity afternoon service at 2 1/2; and I found them just returned at 3 55/.. – I sat with the B–s (Bedingfelds) from 1 1/2 to 3 3/4. very glad to see me – some thought of leaving Hull, and taking a house in St. John’s wood London – If I go thro’ per steam to Hambro’ in the summer, and if they are here, hope to see me – their house rent £31.10.0 (30 guineas) and taxes makes the whole £45. – nice long stripe of garden behind – shewed me their knitted cotton counterpanes – done in small sqares and sewed together – a border round the edges in 4 long pieces and a large piece in the middle – very neat – asked Mrs Willey of York – they taught her – Miss B–‘s (Bedingfeld’s) counterpane that I liked the best, done in Diaper stitch – 

sat talking till dinner at 5 3/4 – tea at 8 – talk – wrote the above of today – read the first 4 or 5 pages Rennies alphabet of scientific gardening – wrote and sent at 8 p.m. by someone from the house note to Mr Wilson to get all the books cleaned as soon as possible – should stay till 5 p.m. and could take them all in the carriage boot – thanked him for the printed letter he made me a present of last night in justification of his having sold his newspaper the Hull advertiser now turned to radical politics – Mr Hutt 1 of the 2 radical members of P–s (Parliament) married the widow formerly the mistress of Lord Strathmore who left her all his property for life – Shetton eastern Northumberland? – 

went to my room at 11 1/4 – very fine frostyish coldish day – Fahrenheit 48° at 11 3/4 p.m.

reference number: SH:7/ML/E/16/0161

[awhilesince]

Wednesday, 15 January 1834

9 50/..

10 1/4

longish goodish grubbling last night – Rain in the night and recently this morning streets quite wet – almost fair and Fahrenheit 50° at 9 50/.. a.m. – 

packed carriage seat box – very biliously inclined – could scarce see before breakfast – breakfast at 11 1/4 – sat talking – left Miss W– (Walker) and at 12 went to Mrs Henry Belcombe – just called to inquire after old Mrs Belcombe – finally ordered Miss W–‘s (Walker’s) things at Mrs Cooke’s and home at 1 20/.. – 

paid all and off from the Black Swan York at 2 3/4 and alighted at Hawdon’s hotel Selby at 4 40/.. – Dinner at 5 3/4 – poor gravy soup bad beefsteak, and roast fowl and indifferent plain boiled pudding – Had in the master of the house (Mr Hawdon) – times bad – rents in this neighbourhood must be lowered 25 per cent at least – that may do for some not for all – £400 a year for this hotel and farm – might perhaps do at £300 for new road from Doncaster to be opened in about a 12 month – all Mr Petre’s property in the hands of trustees – this hotel and other property cannot be sold – had about £14000 a year – could not support above 40 servants and racers and gambling on the turf – gave £80,000 for Stapylton and then had the manor farm (the best farm – all the rest of the estate very bad land – tenants have been unable to do upon it at 10/. an acre) to buy and gave £26000 for it – now all sold for £49000 to a Mr Barton whose father made his money in the Manchester Trade – Looking over Baines’s Directory East and West Riding Selby just in the latter and wrote the above of today till 9 5/.. –

came upstairs at 9 25/.. – fine soft day. Fahrenheit 54° at 10 1/4 p.m. (no fire).

reference number: SH:7/ML/E/16/0159

[awhilesince]

Tuesday, 14 January 1834

8 3/4

12 1/4

damp rather rainy morning fair at 10 when having waited 1/4 hour Dr. Belcombe came walked with to the end of Blake Street and met the cabriolet that ought to have come at 9 3/4 – drove to Mr Bewly’s out of Monk bar to look at their lodgings – good homely people – sufficiently satisfied with them and the rooms – 

back in about 1/2 hour – Dr. Belcombe saw his patient – breakfast at 11 to 12 – then out with Miss W– (Walker) (walked) – left the silver kettle at Cattle and Barbers to have arms taken off Mr Ainsworths Miss W– (Walker) wants to give it me, but, of course, I will not let her do that – then to another shop or 2 – some time at Mrs Cooke’s about cloak etc for Miss W– (Walker) Mrs Duffin and Miss Sophia Greenup there – just spoke and shook hands said I was only passing thro’ could not wait, and went off – ordered shoes at the çidevant Hornby’s and took cabriolet from there to Mrs Bewly’s Lodgings – Miss Walker well enough with the 3 rooms and people – terms 2 guineas a week, and kitchen fire and trouble of cooking included 50/. a week – candles and coals to be found by Miss W– (Walker) fair and moderate enough – for the price of dining in the room below given into the bargain – 

alighted at Hubies – the bed done ready for painting – to be sent off next Thursday week – then walked to Wolstenholm manor buildings – to draw me a sketch of a hall chimney piece, in oak – called and inquired after Fisher and left message to say I would call at Mrs Best’s at 5 1/4 – home at 4 50/.. – 

left Miss W– (Walker) and and sat with Mrs Best and Ellen from 5 1/4 to 5 40/.. – They talk of going from Hull to Rotterdam next summer in 24 hours – had hair done – dinner at 6 1/4 – sat talking till after 8 1/2 – then wrote out last 4 lines of Sunday and yesterday and so far of today – then wrote 1 page to Mrs Norcliffe when Dr. Belcombe came at 9 3/4 for near 1/2 hour – then sat talking till 11 25/.. – and went upstairs at that hour – fine day –

reference number: SH:7/ML/E/16/0158, SH:7/ML/E/16/0159

[awhilesince]

Monday, 13 January 1834

7 40/..

1 35/..

goodish grubbling last night – fine morning – ready in an hour – breakfast – 

off to Shibden at 9 1/2 Charles and James Howarth had begun this morning to pull up the upper buttery floor – Abraham Mallinson the mason – to have no drinkings allowed from the house – satisfied – behaved very well about it – with the workmen – helping Eugenie to put up my things – with Marian, and then with my aunt – changed my dress – 

off from Shibden (in my own carriage and with my own 2 servants) at 1 20/.. the horses having waited about an hour at Lidgate in 1/4 hour – helped Miss W– (Walker) to put up her things in one of my imperials and 1 of the seat boxes – the servants dined chez elle, and we got off from Lidgate at 2 35/.. – 

at Leeds at 7 3/4 – just stopt a moment in passing at Kendell’s to say I had given up the idea for the present of doing up the hall, and therefore begged him not to take the Trouble of going over to Shibden – the drawers would be done in a few days – 

Alighted at the Black Swab, York, at 8 55/.. – Had had a cold fowl and tongue in the carriage on leaving Leeds holding (propping) up the carriage lamp between us to give light – tea at 9 1/4 just as Dr.  Belcombe came and staid about 1/2 hour – Cotton dangerously ill, but Steph had not made known the danger –

got out of Miss W (Walker) that she had given the Sutherlands a thousand pounds last June I exclaimed against it – she owned she seemed to have got little thanks and will not do it again

fine morning and day to about 1 p.m. then rainy till about 5 p.m. fair tho’ damp afterwards – Fahrenheit 54° (no fire in my room) at 1 1/2 tonight – Miss W (Walker) makes no complaint of fatigue and seems as well as usual saw Steph first and explained a little –

left margin: Letter this morning from Mrs Norcliffe (Langton) Gilpin has 5 guineas a day and lives at their Table – the Becketts like him very much – he is to be at the Marriotts about this time Letter too from Hubie, York, cannot make a screen like the one at Langton under 13 guineas and Norcliffe only for £15 in London

reference number: SH:7/ML/E/16/0158