"A continual storm of rain & a great flood occasiond by the melting of the snow." 12 March 1762
The Farming Year - March
Commentary:
The extracts illustrating the cheerless Lenten month of March come from 1762. This cold month was dominated first by lime-burning at Fletcher's kiln near Pardshaw Crag, then by cleaning and tidying (‘rudding’) hedges and ploughing the ‘ley’ fields, land which had been put down to grass for several years and was now being ploughed for oats. But Isaac Fletcher himself, then aged 48, was preoccupied by an injury to his right arm caused by a fall in frosty weather on the 8th.
William Lawson, helping with lime-burning, hedging and threshing, was the drainer and hedger from Dean. ‘Pen’ or ‘Penny’ (Pennington) Hutchinson, who came to plough, was a farmer in his own right at Pardshaw Hall, who laboured for Fletcher fairly frequently in the early 1760s.
Illustration: wind-blasted tree near Moresby, 1964. Photo by Patrick L Winchester (private collection)
Diary:
Tue 2nd March 1762. A very snowy day. William Lawson here working at the lime kiln.
Fri 5th. Went with wife to Cragend. Made and executed John Allason's will. Cold weather; frost & snow.
Mon 8th. Went to Cockermouth. With Robert Baynes & sundries about business. Cold weather; frost & snow.
Tue 9th. Got a bad hurt last night by a fall upon my right arm. Very painfull. A snowy day.
Wed 10th. William Lawson at the lime killn. Very cold: snow thick upon the ground.
Thu 11th. About leading lime from the killn. A good deal sleak'd by the snow.
Fri 12th. A continual storm of rain & a great flood occasiond by the melting of the snow.
Sat 13th. W.L. [William Lawson] finished at lime killn. Settled with him. A fine day. Very lame.
Mon 15th. Wife gone to Cockermouth. Man leading lime. My arm s[t]ill very ill and painful in the nights.
Tue 16th. Monthly Meeting held this day. Could not get out. Seised with a stitch in my right breast. Got blooded & took physick. Doctor doubts an inflamatory fevour.
Thu 18th. Keep'd in bed most of this day. Sweat much. Better in the evening.
Fri 19th. Got up this day. Sundry people here to visit me. Moderate weather.
Sat 20th. Got to going out into the house again. The fevourish complaint gone.
Mon 22nd. Dare not yet go much out. Wife gone to Cockermouth. William Lawson to come.
Tue 23rd. W. Lawson & man came this day, making new hedge in the Bank. Ploughing ley.
Wed 24th. Ploughing. P. Hutchinson here. A very fine day & pretty warm.
Thu 25th. W. Lawson man here ruding Bank hedge. W.L. gone to Whitehaven.
Fri 26th. Ploughing ley in Near Whiney. Pen Hutchinson here; finished it.
Sat 27th. Lawson man ruding Corn Close hedge. W.L. [William Lawson] not here last 3 days. Very cold.
Mon 29th. A very cold snowy day. W. Lawson man here threshing. Wife went to Cockermouth in afternoon.
Tue 30th. W. Lawson & man here ruding hedge. Weather a little more moderate. Much snow on the hills.
Wed 31st. Reading some of the magazines. My arm mends slow. Can do little business.
Extracts from The Diary of Isaac Fletcher of Underwood, Cumberland, 1756-1781, edited by Angus J L Winchester (Kendal, 1994).
