We are sharing a monthly look at the farm diary of John Foss, written from his dairy farm in Kingston Russell in 1851.
February 1851
February starts with “a very rough wet morning new moon & Eclips in the sun”. Whilst there was an eclipse on the 1st Feb 1851, it was in the southern hemisphere and would have been visible in Australia and Antarctica, not Dorset. Perhaps eclipse had a wider meaning in the 19th century?
Unfair deals
On Friday 14th, John heads into Dorchester Fair with his nephew Stephen Vine. He bought two sows with piglets in exchange for four calves, and agreed to exchange the animals later that day. When he goes to gentleman’s farm, the man would not take the calves – someone else had made him a better offer! In John’s words:
“Thing is this some one else wanted the pigs [and] would give more money for them so the man wanted to run from his word”.
Neighbourly kindness
There is a steady flow of visitors to Pitcombe Dairy, usually dropping in to buy churns of butter, or for dinner and a chat. John’s sister and her husband drop by, and names like George Groves or Mrs Eaton show up regularly.
On Friday 21st, a Mrs Litchfield arrives to ask John if he could take her husband to Dorchester, in order to see his ailing father in London. John agreed, and the next day he “took Mr Litchfield to Dorchester to go by the train to London”. As thanks, “Mrs Litchfield send her Maid to milk for us”, and over the next few days she drops in and out of the farmhouse to share a meal or give an update: “heard from Mr L. his Father was very ill don’t think he will recover”. Unfortunately, Mrs Litchfield came by again at the end of the month “to tell us of old Mr Litchfield’s death. He died Thursday morning about 6”. The next day, John “gets up 3 in the morn … to take Mrs Litchfield to the 6 oclock train”. He takes the opportunity to visit the Saturday market in Dorchester early.
Dorset dialect
John often writes with a Dorset accent. For example, he “…goes to Whitehill Barn … goes to Maiden Newton to sell some Butter … Thretchers Barn umpty”. In January, he made a pen for the new calves from “Hurdils”, and a few days later Emma and Susan are unwell with “soar throats”.
The “e” is often dropped in past tense verbs, (e.g. “calld”, “lookd”, “churnd”), or the suffix is switched for “-t”, such as “drest”, meaning “dressed”.
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Interested in learning more about John Foss? Explore the other months of his 1851 from the list below: