{"id":1232,"date":"2020-02-10T09:10:42","date_gmt":"2020-02-10T09:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/?p=1232"},"modified":"2020-12-18T14:25:44","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T14:25:44","slug":"the-diary-of-john-foss-february-1851","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/2020\/02\/10\/the-diary-of-john-foss-february-1851\/","title":{"rendered":"The Diary of John Foss: February 1851"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are sharing a monthly look at the farm diary of John Foss, written from his dairy farm in Kingston Russell in 1851.<\/p>\n

February 1851<\/strong><\/h2>\n

February starts with \u201ca very rough wet morning new moon & Eclips in the sun<\/em>\u201d. Whilst there was an eclipse on the 1st<\/sup> 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<\/sup> century?<\/p>\n

Unfair deals<\/h3>\n

On Friday 14th<\/sup>, 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\u2019s farm, the man would not take the calves – someone else had made him a better offer! In John\u2019s words:<\/p>\n

\u201cThing is this some one else wanted the pigs [and] would give more money for them so the man wanted to run from his word<\/em>\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"
Pitcombe Dairy, north of Little Bredy, shown on the 1901 OS map…<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Neighbourly kindness<\/h3>\n

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\u2019s sister and her husband drop by, and names like George Groves or Mrs Eaton show up regularly.<\/p>\n

On Friday 21st<\/sup>, 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 \u201ctook Mr Litchfield to Dorchester to go by the train to London\u201d<\/em>. \u00a0As thanks, \u201cMrs Litchfield send her Maid to milk for us\u201d<\/em>, and over the next few days she drops in and out of the farmhouse to share a meal or give an update: \u201cheard from Mr L. his Father was very ill don\u2019t think he will recover\u201d. <\/em>Unfortunately, Mrs Litchfield came by again at the end of the month \u201cto tell us of old Mr Litchfield\u2019s death. He died Thursday morning about 6\u201d. <\/em>The next day, John \u201cgets up 3 in the morn \u2026 to take Mrs Litchfield to the 6 oclock train\u201d<\/em>. He takes the opportunity to visit the Saturday market in Dorchester early.<\/p>\n

Dorset dialect<\/h3>\n

John often writes with a Dorset accent. For example, he \u201c…goes to Whitehill Barn … goes to Maiden Newton to sell some Butter … Thretchers Barn umpty\u201d<\/em>. In January, he made a pen for the new calves from \u201cHurdils\u201d,<\/em> and a few days later Emma and Susan are unwell with \u201csoar throats\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

The \u201ce\u201d is often dropped in past tense verbs, (e.g. \u201ccalld\u201d, \u201clookd\u201d, \u201cchurnd\u201d<\/em>), or the suffix is switched for \u201c-t\u201d, such as \u201cdrest\u201d<\/em>, meaning \u201cdressed\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

—<\/i><\/p>\n

Interested in learning more about John Foss? Explore the other months of his 1851 from the list below:<\/p>\n

January 1851<\/a><\/p>\n

February 1851<\/a><\/p>\n

March 1851<\/a><\/p>\n

April 1851<\/a><\/p>\n

May 1851<\/a><\/p>\n

June 1851<\/a><\/p>\n

July 1851<\/a><\/p>\n

August 1851<\/a><\/p>\n

September 1851<\/a><\/p>\n

October 1851<\/a><\/p>\n

November 1851<\/a><\/p>\n

December 1851<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 \u201ca very rough wet morning new moon & Eclips in the sun\u201d. Whilst there was an eclipse on the 1st Feb 1851, it was in the southern… Read more The Diary of John Foss: February 1851<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1892,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[82,124,123],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1892"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1232"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2114,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232\/revisions\/2114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}