{"id":1962,"date":"2020-10-23T08:30:55","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T08:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/?p=1962"},"modified":"2020-12-18T14:28:37","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T14:28:37","slug":"the-diary-of-john-foss-october-1851","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/2020\/10\/23\/the-diary-of-john-foss-october-1851\/","title":{"rendered":"The Diary of John Foss: October 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.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

October 1851<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

A trip to London<\/h3>\n

We last left John as he arrived in London to visit the Great Exhibition<\/span><\/a>. H<\/span>e wakes up<\/span>\u00a0the next day<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span>not very well very sick &\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Poorley<\/span><\/i>\u201d<\/span>\u00a0\u2013 a bad sign for the rest of the day<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>After a\u00a0<\/span>restful morning,\u00a0<\/span>the party<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>travel to Crystal\u00a0<\/span>Palace<\/span>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/span>\u201ca<\/span><\/i>\u00a0very grand sight<\/span><\/i>\u201d<\/span>\u00a0\u2013 where they\u00a0<\/span>paid a\u00a0<\/span>one\u00a0<\/span>shilling entry fee<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>Unfortunately, that\u2019s all John writes of the\u00a0<\/span>Exhibition<\/span>:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>I was not able to be there long such a weakness came over me I do believed I should have\u00a0<\/span><\/i>dropt<\/span><\/i>\u00a0if Mr\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Beart<\/span><\/i>\u00a0had not\u00a0<\/span><\/i>helpd<\/span><\/i>\u00a0me out<\/span><\/i>\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Was it the excitement of the exhibition that affected John<\/span>?\u00a0<\/span>Or p<\/span>erhaps the Crystal Palace\u00a0<\/span>was exceptionally warm\u00a0<\/span>under the sun?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

John sat and recovered for half an hour,\u00a0<\/span>before heading back to\u00a0<\/span>the\u00a0<\/span>Beart\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0home<\/span>. Mrs\u00a0<\/span>Beart<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span>kindly got me something which don me a great deal of good<\/span><\/i>\u201d<\/span>, and\u00a0<\/span>that evening\u00a0<\/span>John\u00a0<\/span>travels\u00a0<\/span>to Harrow\u00a0<\/span>to meet more friends and family<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The next day, John seems to\u00a0<\/span>be back to normal, as he meets up with William\u00a0<\/span>& James\u00a0<\/span>and head<\/span>s\u00a0<\/span>out into town:\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span>[we] had a little refreshment,\u00a0<\/span><\/i>went about seeing sights to the Picture Gallery &\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Bazzar<\/span><\/i>\u00a0& Pantheon<\/span><\/i>\u201d<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0They took the 7 o\u2019clock train\u00a0<\/span>home<\/span>\u00a0and arrived in Dorchester at\u00a0<\/span>half<\/span>\u00a0past two\u00a0<\/span>in the morning.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Back to the farm<\/h3>\n

Life returns to normal almost immediately<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>with John up and milking\u00a0<\/span>as soon as<\/span>\u00a0they get\u00a0<\/span>back to\u00a0<\/span>Pitcombe<\/span>\u00a0Dairy<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>Throughout the rest of the month, he churns, milks and makes cheese\u00a0<\/span>to sell at the Dorchester Fair each Saturday.\u00a0<\/span>On the\u00a0<\/span>9<\/span>th<\/span>, he s<\/span>old\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span>7\u00a0<\/span><\/i>tubbs<\/span><\/i>\u00a0of Salt Butter<\/span><\/i>\u201d to<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Mr Style & Day of Weymouth<\/span>\u00a0for\u00a0<\/span>\u00a335 and 11s<\/span>. This equates to approximately\u00a0<\/span>\u00a32,850 today<\/span>!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
\u2018Mound of Butter\u2019, Antoine Vollon, c1875, Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The dairy received a visit from the local tailor, Mr Palmer<\/span>, who came to buy some pigs. Whilst he was there, John writes that \u201c<\/span>Tailor Palmer<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>…<\/span><\/i>\u00a0measured me for the make me Breaches<\/span><\/i>\u201d<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>Mr<\/span>\u00a0Palmer\u00a0<\/span>visits again later in the month to measure William for some new school clothes.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A new\u00a0railroad?<\/h3>\n

There is chatter around the village of a new\u00a0<\/span>railroad<\/span>. John first writes of it on the 19<\/span>th<\/span>, when\u00a0<\/span>Mr Foot overtook the family on the way home from church: \u201c<\/span>Mr Foot<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>…\u00a0<\/span><\/i>told us the railroad\u00a0<\/span><\/i>certenly<\/span><\/i>\u00a0was coming by us<\/span><\/i>\u201d.\u00a0<\/span>At the end of the month,\u00a0<\/span>Robert<\/span>\u00a0Williams of\u00a0<\/span>Bridehead<\/span>\u00a0travels down to Axminster with the Reverend Lundy Foot, to take part in \u201c<\/span>a great meeting<\/span><\/i>\u00a0about the Rail Road<\/span><\/i>\u201d<\/span>, and t<\/span>he next day, a Mr Henning from Dorchester visits the dairy to\u00a0<\/span>survey the land<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

It seems that this railroad was part of a larger scheme to connect Bridport to the larger\u00a0<\/span>London to Exeter line. Proposals were made until 1853,\u00a0<\/span>but the project\u00a0<\/span>was never completed. Instead, the present-day line\u00a0<\/span>through Yeovil was built.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

—<\/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

 <\/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.\u00a0\u00a0 October 1851\u00a0 A trip to London We last left John as he arrived in London to visit the Great Exhibition. He wakes up\u00a0the next day\u00a0\u201cnot very well very sick &\u00a0Poorley\u201d\u00a0\u2013 a bad… Read more The Diary of John Foss: October 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":[82,124,149,123,109],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1962"}],"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=1962"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2122,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1962\/revisions\/2122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}