The Diary of Nathaniel Bryceson (Part 8)

[Ruskie]

Thanks snowyw. 

And there was this on Sunday:

A birth also took place in our house, first floor back room: the wife of Mr George Mitchell, bricklayer, was delivered of a daughter this morning at 11 o’clock.  The husband during his wife’s confinement takes his rest in the bed occupied by Uncle John Sheppard (back attic).

Attic?
Garret?
 

[deb usa]

If Matthew Ward was always at # 9 can we work out the Vaggs number somehow? I would assume the enumerator would start at # 1 


Ummm maybe I'll go back and reread earlier entries of the diary.

Hi Snowyw ...Is the cake ready yet? 

[Ruskie]

Not sure Deb. You'd expect them to either start and the top and work down or vice versa. If the rooms have numbers wouldn't they start with room 1 at the bottom (on street level)? How many rooms might there be on each floor?... 

Nat often refers to the rooms by how they're situated rather than by numbers, as with Uncle John's room. Might some have numbers and some not?

[drykid]

I'm fully in agreement with the genereal sentiment about this being one of the best entries of the diary so far.  Probably the best, indeed. The idea of Nat not being in the least bit surprised or taken aback that someone else had assumed he was insane, is priceless.  It also I think clarifies a little his behaviour I think, since the word 'odd' has been used to describe him in this thread numerous times, but I've never been quite sure to what extent that strangeness is due to Nat personally or merely down to our unfamiliarity with day-to-day life back then (well, unfamiliarity on my part anyway; I shouldn't presume it on behalf of others.)  But this entry seems to settle that in a way by suggesting that his behaviour was very much odd for its time also.

I'm confused about the 35 shillings for a dead horse, which was diseased to begin with, since cut open and half-eaten by a cat (apologies to anyone eating...) That would've been quite a bit of money back then?  Why on earth would a horse in that state be of such value? Also the effort expounded in establishing the cause of death seems odd.

[deb usa]

Hi Drykid

I also wondered about that ... Didn't George Lea have a penchant fo buying horses? Maybe he wanted to make sure the horse had not been poisoned 

Paying for a dead, ravaged horse does seem stange ...maybe it was taken to a glue factory  where more shillings changed hands.

deb 

[Daisy Loo]

Were the Vaggs ever found in 1851?

If NB was living in the garret before he moved to the Marshall rooms, wouldn't have lived there with his mother and Matt Ward?  I thought he was living with them?

[dee-jay]

The smell in the stable would have come from the entrails but there was nothing wrong with the horsemeat!  Everything - including skins, hair, hooves & bones - could be utilised.  Sadly, the strain placed on the horses by the weight of the loads they pulled did irreparable damage to their 'innards'.

Having established a cause of death other than poisoning enabled butchering for human consumption:  a cat would probably have been satiated with a handful of flesh.   

[Aniseed]

I thought that the cat would probably have eaten the bits that came out when the horse was opened up...intestines, liver, stomach, heart, kidneys, that sort of thing. I assumed that the rest of it would then have been taken by the knacker's man.

As for the difference between an attic and a garret, I'm not sure. You hear of poets starving in garrets in Paris, but a house (especially a biggish house) often had several attics. Maybe a garret is at the top of a small tower? Or perhaps there was a front attic, a back attic, and then another floor above that, the garret (what would nowadays be called the penthouse!).

[dee-jay]

Were the Vaggs ever found in 1851?

If NB was living in the garret before he moved to the Marshall rooms, wouldn't have lived there with his mother and Matt Ward?  I thought he was living with them?

28 Feb Matthew Ward suggested it was time Nathaniel paid towards rent.

29 Apr Received information from Mother of the Marshalls going to leave their lodgings in the second floor Richmonds Buildings, and the intention of Granny Shepard’s moving thence if terms can be agreed upon between the landlord and her, but at present it is only talked of.

12 May Granny Shepard at Richmonds Buildings cleaning the two rooms on the second floor back to be in readiness for our occupation next week.

18 May Took 2 rooms on second floor, 9 Richmonds Buildings, for self and Granny from this day. 

I can't find any mention of Uncle John's whereabouts during that period but I think I detected a 'J'[ourneyman] in his 1841 census entry.