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whatdoesshedotothem · 2 years

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Thursday 7 July 1836

10 ¾

no kiss went to bed again to A- for half an hour fair but dull morning F55 ½° at 8 35 am at which hour breakfast - had Mr. Husband ordering about the home-alterations till off at 10 and out all the day making calls, and lastly shopping ½ hour at Nicholson’s, and home at 6 35 - dinner at 7 - had Messrs. Husband and Hainsworth and then Joseph Mann - then coffee and with my aunt till 9 ¾ - fine but dull day till began to rain about 6 and afterwards very rainy evening and rainy now at 9 50 and F52 ½° called 1st at Stony Royde and sat 10 minutes with Mrs. Rawson - very glad to see us - I never expected to have seen her again and was glad we had called - she looked ill and aged - but had been in the garden said she was in her 82nd year, yet seemed in the enjoyment of all her faculties - then to Heath, to wait in an empty room 7 minutes and talk for 7 more to Miss Kitty and the large vulgar Mrs. Wroughton - then to Willowfield for 40 minutes hearing the story of Mrs. D-‘s grievance about the slights to herself and the leech-like sticking to their bachelor uncle Mr. Thomas Edwards in Regent’s Park, of the Misses Atkinsons - I quietly advised Mrs. D- to keep all this to herself - then to Darcy hey for 10 or 12 minutes to Mrs. John Edwards - tired to death of the pedantic, wit-aping, nonsense of that handsome, abominably disagreeable widow - her sister and the revered Mr. Charles Hoyler with her - then to Pynest for ¼ hour waited one ½ the time and saw Miss Edwards and Miss Eliza Plowes, and, for the last 4 or 5 minutes, Mrs. Edwards - then to Haugh end about 1 ½ - Mrs. Henry Priestley at dinner (early because busy in the hay) with her little boy and 1 of Mr. Roger’s children - they would have us sit down and partake of her mutton chop, and cold roast etc a good family dinner; and her own good humour and quiet good heartedness made all agreeable - Mr. HP- came in about ¼ hour, and we staid 50 minutes - A- too was comfortable - and I am always more at ease at Haughend than anywhere else hereabouts - then to Thrope, and sat 10 minutes with Mr. John Priestley - A- does and always did like him far the best of all her Priestley set - then to Mill house nobody at home then to Mrs. William Rawson - saw her for a moment in her chair in the garden - put her hip out the other day - cannot walk or stand - aetatis 90 - always cheerful and happy after having had a life of usefulness - a pattern to all old people - then called on Miss Briggs not at home - then on Miss Ralph - taken in to Miss Hannah Ralph (elderly cousin whom I did not know but A- recognised her having seen her with the late Mrs. Briggs) - found Miss Sarah Ralph whom I ought to have asked for, not at home so took my leave - then to Wellhead nobody at home - then I got out at Mrs. Veitch about 3 ½ and sent A- forward to Akeds’ road to call on Mrs. Bramley and walk from there to me at Mrs. Veitch’s while the horses baited - the carriage to wait for us at Whitleys’ - from Mrs. V-‘s (A- and I) about 4 ¾ and called and sat sometime with Mrs. Catherine Rawson and then got into the carriage at Whitleys’ door - then a long while shopping at Nicholson’s (frocks for the Sunday school girls etc) and scissors for them at Roper’s - returned by the vicarage and left a card directed in pencil to ‘Mr. and Mrs. Musgrave’ lest Mr. Stewart the curate and his family (living in the house) should take it to themselves - home about 6 ½ - it began to rain just before we got back and turned out a very rainy evening after the fine day - kind letter from Lady Stuart de Rothesay 3 pp. of ½ sheet - had been so busy had not written till perhaps my travels were commenced - ‘your cousins the ‘Granby Listers’ told me of a courier they thought might suit you - so you must come and hear particulars - I will keep on the lookout in the meantime’ - forgets to give me Chevalet’s address - the Cannings were just set off per steam to make visits in Scotland - dinner at 7 - coffee - A- did her French - wearied with our day of visiting - with my aunt - we so tired that we went early to bed - rubbed A-‘s beck eight minutes just before getting into bed

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wrotetheaboveoftoday · 4 years

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1831 Thurs. 20 January

7 10/..

12 20/..

F46º at 7 10/.., soft damp morning with a little rain while I was out - out at 8 10/.. to the Muette gate Boulevard de Beauséjour and back at 10 10/.. - dressed - 1 5/.. hour reading Le Temps - breakfast in 25 minutes - 15 11 35/.. had my hair done - had 1/2 hour's nap - Letter from Mariana (Leamington) about 12 1/2 - at my desk at one - read my letter - dated 1/2 down the 2nd page from Warren's hotel London 3 pages and the ends and under the seal -

Mention of the death of Mr. John Charles of Newton Kyme - neither of the executors can act with her Mr. Charles (John late the banker) residing out of the kingdom and writes Mrs. Charles to Mariana ‘Mr. Raper you know from his conduct is banished [from] the kingdom’ Death of your old and faithful housekeeper Mrs. Tatham - William Milne not well - inquired after the school recommissioned by Miss MacLean (my poor dear Sibella) Miss Clomels, Yorkgate, much pleased with it - expense till the age of 14 or 15 £100 a year and Mariana will make a sacrifice to send her niece there - of course as I ought to know I have not much to expect from her in the money way

Mr. Willoughby Crewe writes her that the people began to threaten in Cheshire - she had thought much of what I told her about returning to England - I shall most likely be at 'home in July which perhaps is the best place for us to be together in' such a chance as Scarbro' 2 years ago is not to be expected -

“If your aunt's health will admit of a return to England possibly she might sit down comfortably at Shibden - certainly such an arrangement would set you more at liberty than any other, and now that you are in such good luck as to society, and stumbling on eligible companions for seeing all you may desire of other countries, I would certainly have you follow it up - you will not be less inclined to go again, should opportunity offer, and if it should not, it will always be an advantage to both that even one has seen the world"

She thinks 'somehow' the continent will not be long open to us - will 'count the time like a school girl' to July - voila tout on this subject well it is all very well I must make my plans and then tell her them never expecting her advice to help them much - Lady, I mean Mme. de Polignac was a Parkinson daughter says Mariana of the last sister of the present Lord Rancliffe - niece to the Lady of Mrs. Salmon's brother Captain Barrow - from 1 3/4 to 4 25/.. wrote 3 pages and the ends, long, and under the seal, all very small and close to Mariana from 4 1/2 to 6 wrote page 4, and the ends and crossed page 1 and finished my letter to Mrs. William Priestly begun Monday the 10th instant (vide lines 1 and 8 of page 16)

Dinner at 6 10/.. - read the paper - came to my room at 7 1/2 - _twenty five minutes preparing napkin for my cousin came gently between one and two this afternoon - have wrote to Mariana, surprised to find her in London -

"It is impossible ever to count upon anything like fixity in their case, quite as much so as in my own - as to myself, nothing is more settled than when I wrote last - no communication has as yet passed on the subject of returning, between my father and me - but you shall know all as soon as you can - I have no reason, at present, to think my aunt will not be able to bear the journey; tho' it is probably enough, if she does not go next summer, she may never go at all - However, perhaps the chances are, we shall make the attempt - as for my traveling schemes, I see your uncertainty, but I do talk, and must talk of them, because I cannot calculate upon being able to remain comfortably in England - even you yourself, weighing all things justly on the balance, will not, I think, be for my staying longer than necessary beyond the time where we have been as much together as circumstances will permit - my aunt may do very well at Shibden - rien à dire contre - quant à moi, c'est une autre paire de manches - I do not expect the chance of Scarbro' encore, and only ask for 3 weeks, because I think you would have a right to claim the time certain - But we shall see by and by comment tout cela doit d'arranger - as for my 3 possible, just possible traveling companions, I do not count upon any one of them; and all would be very temporary - Lady S- [Stuart] (Gordon) may perhaps be persuaded to go to Spain - Miss Mackenzie is still, I believe, at, or not far from Naples and Miss Pickford is I know not where - and perhaps, after all, [your wid[?]] is as likely as anybody - je n'en sais rien - sufficient till the day etc. etc. and I shall not pother myself by attempting to fin[al] anything till the time comes - I shall be delighted and satisfied to see you, and this will be enough for me -

Poor dear Sibbella! I have lost the ostensible and now, I find, the real object I cared to wait for here; and, I confess, I have felt more than usually unsettled since my last return - I can understand the regret for [totality] - It is a serious thing, more serious than we sometimes fancy, to lose anyone to whom we have been long accustomed - I refuse going anywhere in an evening, for I am not in a humor for it and morning visits I make as seldom as I can - Mrs. Hamilton promised to introduce me to Lady Granville; but she has not yet been called upon for the fulfillment of her promise; and I am in no hurry - now that my mind is almost made up to be off from here in the summer, I am indifferent about things that would otherwise have interested me much - nous verrons - I am not much above concert-pitch; and now that I have done enough of at my accounts for the present (expense of last year not much above thirteen-hundred) I am seriously meditating a return to my little apartment, and turning back to something more mental than the commonplace of rue Godot - By the way, 13 hundreds are more than I wish to spend just now; but, in the status quo, I am quite sure I cannot make less do - economy goes for something in my not visiting this winter, tho' I am not sorry to have this excuse to make to myself"

Mention Kinnersy having changed 5/. for transmitting the money - 'the accounts I have from Briggs are much better than I expected - all my rents were paid' - remember hearing 'my poor dear friend speak of Miss Clomel's (Yorkgate, London) school'. She at one time wished to have her nieces there - 'It is a nice situation, from all I remember about it, a very likely one to suit their people' ask the age of 'Mariana Lajeune' - 'I am glad you think her such a nice girl, and shall be anxious to hear what you determine about her - at her age, she certainly has no time to lose' - ask after Steph - fear she can expect no great advice from that quarter - will inquire about Mme Thomas rue des filles St. Thomas no. 23 Mde des modes - mention have several 2 or 3 times met a lady I should have fancied Mrs. John Raper had I not beheld her to be at St. Bues in Cumberland. Beg Mariana not to forget her French and if she sends little Mariana to Miss Clomel to 'beg that this language may be particularly attended to' - all the rest of my letter chit-chat of no consequence

my letter to Mrs. W. Priestly - chit chat - had received her letter on my return home 'for which I should have made a point of thanking you immediately, had my mind been more at ease' - she would see by the papers the death of my poor friend Miss MacLean 'for the nearness of which I was strangely unprepared - Deceived to the last, she herself was not aware of the real state she was in, till the last 3 or 4 days; and the 1st account that met me on my return was that of her death' - Congratulation on the Sutherlands being returned to Crownest -

'I can easily understand and join in their sentiments on this subject - I am accustomed to give you credit in matters of both of feeling and of judgement; and it is not in this instance that I should be inclined to dissent, in spite of the opinions, the wishes, or the interests of others’

say 'I had a very interesting tour last summer - a week on the Spanish side of the mountains and at the 1st Spanish town found the contrast between the French and Spaniards as striking as that between the French and English on first landing at Calais - from Narbonne to near Marseilles disappointed with the shores of the Mediterrtanian but M- Toulon and Hières made us regret that our arrangements did not allow of our going farther' -

I find my aunt surprisingly well - she had behaved admirably during the revolution, having been much calm and composed than many younger and stronger people - she says she never felt alarmed but once, and that only for a little while when Marmont threatened to blow up the whole street if they did not instantly cease making the barricade, which, however, was completed in the night - we had no fear during the trial of the ex ministers - 100,000 men under arms - sense enough' -

All as quiet here now as the P-s [Priestleys] themselves can be at Lightcliffe - mention Laffitte’s being ruined by the revolution - conclude with

‘I know your time is a thousand (crossing on the 1st page) times better employed than in writing to me, and therefore and therefore only I do not expect to hear from you very soon - If you wait 6 or 7 months, perhaps you may have an opportunity of answering in person - Do not name this to any one but Mr. Priestley because our plans are at this moment not fixed, and therefore not mentioned even to our friends at Shibden - I am too much accustomed to trust to your discretion to doubt it in any case - you may see us both - it depends this time as I told you it did 2 years ago, on my father - I fancy you can read my crossing without much difficulty - I did not wish to write the last sentence where Mrs. Bagnold could read it too easily - my aunt’s kind regards to yourself (had before joined in mine to Mr. Priestley) - and my own, too, and believe me, my dear Mrs. Priestley, affectionately and very truly yours A L- Anne Lister’

dated ‘Friday 21 January 1831’ - from 7 1/2 to 9 1/4 (coffee at 9 20/.. and came to my room at 10 55/..) and from 11 to 11 1/4 wrote all but the first 22 lines of today - did not talk much to my aunt tonight - read her what M- [Mariana] wrote on the subject of our going to Shibden , and said, I took it, that she did not particularly advise but said nothing at all against it - spoke as if hesitating on the subject - but my aunt herself says she thinks it best on all accounts to go - Soft damp disagreeable day - a little rain in the morning while I was out - and gentle rain from about 2 p.m. for a considerable time - F48º now at 11 20/.. p.m. and damp, wet night - raining a little - rainy night -

#anne lister #anne lister code breaker #mariana lawton #eliza priestley #1831 #paris winter 1831

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