When rummaging through a box from the Fox Strangways Estate archive, we came across a book so small it can fit in the palm of your hand. It has a worn leather cover and tiny metal clasps and looks as though it has been well-used. Naturally, we wanted to know what it was!
Closer inspection revealed it to be an almanac for the year 1681, belonging to Thomas Strangways. Almanacs are publications, produced annually, that provide useful information for a given year, such as the dates of religious festivals, times of the sun rising and setting and changes in the moon. This information is generally arranged according to the calendar. Perhaps you even received one yourself last Christmas!
If so, we’ll bet that yours doesn’t include everything that Thomas Strangways’ one did. Besides the normal dates and times, his almanack also includes instructions for how to use your palm as a sundial (no, we haven’t tried it yet); a page entitled “The Dominion of the Moon in Mans Body, under the 12 Zodiacal Constellations”, which contains a diagram that appears to show links between areas of the body and the star signs (unfortunately we don’t have a resident astrologist who can explain it to us); and “A Compendious Chronology”, which includes Deucalion’s deluge and the building of London by Brute, alongside more factually-grounded events like the arrival of William the Conqueror and the execution of Charles I.
Thomas Strangways clearly made good use of his almanac, as many of the blank pages have been written on. One lovely entry refers to the birth of his son…
“My son Thomas was born the 18th of October being Wednesday and likewise St Luke’s day about six of the clock in the morning and was baptised the first of November it being the same day my brother Giles was christened…”
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Finding this brilliant little book led us to wonder what other almanacs might be hiding in our collection. A quick search of the catalogue revealed several more. Like modern almanacs, many of the others we discovered are ‘themed’, in that they contain information about specific subjects alongside the more general dates and statistical information. We have part of a farmers’ almanac from 1894, and one that includes select pages from White’s Natural History of Selborne from 1856. One, dated 1890, is even written in Yorkshire dialect (also D-SSA/Z/9)!
At the bottom of many of its pages, the latter includes a section entitled “Whisperins” which provides readers with many witty pearls of wisdom, like “A chap ’at knows as mich when he’s sober as he thinks he knows when he’s druffen is a wise man” and “When aw see a lass ’at’s over fond o’ dancing, aw allus think shoo’s like a cheap sofa – all wind and springs, an when th’ aghtside beauty is won off, shoo’s nowt worth”. Perhaps wisdom was the wrong word to use…
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Not an almanac by name, but something very similar, the 1940 Ladies’ Year Book includes some charming – and arguably far more useful – entries at the foot of its pages. The hints for home and garden include:
“When poaching eggs, add a few drops of lemon juice or vinegar to the water. The whites will be a better colour” and “When packing sandwiches for picnics, wrap them in lettuce leaves and then in a cloth and they will keep quite moist.”
Also included in this year book are seating plans for all the major London theatres, presumably so one could choose one’s seats before making a booking over the telephone (what did people do before Google?!), as well as tips for the home dress maker – because, of course, every lady needs to carry instructions for making a welted pocket in their handbag.
We also discovered a couple of unusual almanacs which are not books. One is a poster entitled the Stinsford Parish Almanac. Dating from 1898, this beautiful almanac is surrounded by illustrations of Britain’s cathedrals. The other is a small, handmade object called The Perpetual Almanac, which could be used to calculate the date of every day of any given year. A bit of testing revealed that it still works! Although the calendar app on our computers is somewhat faster…
While not strictly relevant to the discussion of almanacs, we couldn’t end without including our favourite entry from a diary found in the Filliter Family archive. On 3rd February, the writer recorded “Father unwell had leeches”. We’re glad medical knowledge has improved since 1836!
These are amazing! I love the photos you’ve included (and the helpful transcriptions). These are exactly the kind of treasures you always hope to find stashed away in attics – tiny handwritten notes, apposite advice… The Perpetual Almanac is downright mystical lol. I also love the seating plan for the theatre as a way to book your place, that’s so very logical and conjures a clear image.
I hope you’ll share more of these!