Fri 8th [August]. About leading hay out of Near High Whiney: pretty full of grass. Hot sultry weather.
The Farming Year: August: Commentary
Isaac Fletcher’s entries for August 1766 provide a picture of a typical summer month at Underwood. Farm work (the latter days of the hay harvest and the beginnings of the corn harvest) dominate the month, but Fletcher also visited Carlisle to attend the Assizes, and there were summer visitors at Underwood: Tabitha Candler, a Whitehaven schoolmistress, who visited Fletcher and his family twice a year, at Christmas and in the summer, and Revd Thomas Mirehouse, a canon of Peterborough, who was born at Loweswater.
Dr. William Gill, who accompanied Fletcher to Carlisle, was a physician and nephew of Fletcher's wife, Susanna. The 'man' referred to is Fletcher's hired farm servant, Peter Murray.
Diary
Fri 1st August 1766. Weather showry. About the hay. Mowing in High Whinney.
Sat 2nd. A very wet day. About mowing hay &c.
Sun 3rd. Sett forward to Carlisle with William Gill. Lodged at Upperby, John Dockray's. Got from William Gill half an ounce of Arnott's Bulbocastanum Bunium or earth nutt, a sort of dying stuff used for to colour cheese a fine orange colour. A small quantity will do. I suppose an ounce will serve a year. It has neither smell nor taste in the milk or cheese. It gives the cheese a fine bright orange colour and a small quantity put in a rag & strained into the milk before the steep put in will do.
Mon 4th. At Upperby. Went to Carlisle. Attended the Assizes; heard several causes. Lodged at William Nicholson's.
Wed 6th. At Wigton. Came away about 1 p.m.; dined at Cock Bridge and got home about 7. Hot sultry weather.
Thu 7th. Went to Meeting in forenoon. About leading peats in afternoon.
Fri 8th. About leading hay out of Near High Whiney: pretty full of grass. Hot sultry weather.
Sat 9th. Mowing in Whinney. Hot & sultry.
Mon 11th. Went to Cockermouth. Hot sultry weather. Bought of John Dixon 1 loaf of sugar, 36 lb. @ 8d: £1 4s 2d.
Tue 12th. About the hay in Low Near Whinney. Tabitha Candler here: came on 1st day [i.e. Sunday]. Warm weather.
Wed 13th. Man at Workington markett.
Thu 14th. At Meeting: silent. About Whinney hay; begun with Pasture.
Wed 20th. About Pasture hay.
Thu 21st. Parson Mirehouse here from Peterborough in Northamptonshire.
Fri 22nd. Shearing barley in Low Orchard. 19½ shocks.
Sat 23rd. About the Pasture; making it ready for the stack.
Tue 26th. Unwell. Finished the stack of hay in Pasture & got 2 loads barley.
Wed 27th. Man gone to Workington market. A showry day. Thrashing barley for bread. Early potatoes sold until this day amount to £2 6s 0d.
Thu 28th. Did not get to Meeting. Jackson here about buying beasts. Did not agree. A windy day.
Fri 29th. Two taylors here to mend our cloths. Rag man here. Very stormy.
Sat 30th. Shearing and getting potatoes for markett. Taylors here.
Extracts from The Diary of Isaac Fletcher of Underwood, Cumberland, 1756-1781, edited by Angus J L Winchester (Kendal, 1994).
