Of papering, pikes and peas

[biffvernon]

Reading Dorothy Wordsworth's journal (as one does) I came across this entry:

2nd Saturday morning. William and Coleridge went to Keswick. John went with them to Wytheburn, and staid all day fishing, and brought home 2 small pikes at night. I accompanied them to Lewthwaite's cottage, and on my return papered William's room, I afterwards lay down till tea time and after tea worked at my shifts in the orchard. A grey evening. About 8 o'clock it gathered for rain, and I had the scatterings of a shower, but afterwards the lake became of a glassy calmness, and all still. I sate till I could see no longer, and then continued my work in the house.

The next day she makes pies, stuffs the pike and has peas for dinner.

Any suggestions as to what the phrase "papered William's room" means in this context?

 

[Penners]

A wild guess: gathered up all the bits of paper strewn around William's room.

Her syntax and grammar leave something to be desired, which is quite a surprise.

 

[Ian Bond]

There's some unusual wall papering to be seen on the guided tour (upstairs, childrens room)

http://www.wordsworth.org.uk/Default.asp?Page=28

I was looking at the site just the other day, after seeing a TV programme about Dove Cottage.

Not sure if I'd want to try this on my own house, even with my desire to save money...

 

[Penners]

I find it difficult to believe that Wordsworth's sister wallpapered his room - especially before tea after spending all day fishing! I don't think a woman would have done that in 1800. Particularly not the daughter of a lawyer.

 

[biffvernon]

Thanks for that link, Ian. I liked the description of the buttery where

There is a small spring under the slate floor, and this ensures that the larder is always cool in the summer and frost-free in winter, and therefore an excellent store for hard fruits and for root vegetables.

How very sensible. Every house should have one.

And that newspaper room is certainly something - maybe it could have been done in a short afternoon. There's a reference earlier in the journal to 'put in the window', somewhere between doing the ironing and shelling the peas. Women were made of stern stuff.

 

[Penners]

Women were made of stern stuff.

"Were"?

Come on - you've met my wife.

 

[Ian Bond]

So that's where I'd seen the spring in the cellar reference!

I couldn't remember, but it rang a bell when I was reading another post here regarding an unusual water feature in a cellar.

Nemesis suggested that it could be a way of keeping things cool.

It sounds as though Dorothy was very handy about the house, probably had to do everything whilst Will was off wandering around in the daffodils.

 

[Nemesis]

She was an astonisheing woman, although so many were at that time.

Here's a bit about her early life:

http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4803

As well as letters and a diary, she also wrote poetry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Wordsworth

The Grasmere Journal
For nearly a century, Wordsworth was relegated to a footnote in her brother's life. Then, in 1931, Dove Cottage, the Lake District home where Dorothy and William lived for several years, was bought by Beatrix Potter, author of Peter Rabbit and other children's books. In the barn, Potter found a bundle of old papers and realized that they were Dorothy's journals.

Potter's discovery was published in 1933 as The Grasmere Journal. The journal eloquently described her day-to-day life in the Lake District, long walks she and her brother took through the countryside, and detailed portraits of literary lights of the early 19th century, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sir Walter Scott, Charles Lamb and Robert Southey, a close friend who popularized the fairytale Goldilocks and the Three Bears

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dorothy_Wordsworth


http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/wordsworths_05.shtml



WHY DOROTHY WORDSWORTH IS NOT AS FAMOUS AS HER BROTHER – Lynn Peters

‘I wandered lonely as a . . .
They’re in your top drawer, William,
Under your socks –
I wandered lonely as a –
No, not that drawer, the top one.
I wandered by myself –
Well wear the ones you can find,
No, don’t get overwrought, my dear,
I’m coming.’

‘ I was out one day wandering
Lonely as a cloud, when –
Softboiled egg, yes my dear,
As usual, three minutes –
As a cloud when all of a sudden –
Look, I said I’ll cook it,
Just hold on, will you –
All right. I’m coming.

‘One day I was out for a walk
When I saw this flock –
It can’t be too hard, it had three minutes,
Well put some butter in it.
- This host of golden daffodils
- As I was out for a stroll one –

‘Oh you fancy a stroll, do you.
Yes, all right William. I’m coming.
It’s on the peg. Under your hat.
I’ll bring my pad, shall I, in case
You want to jot something down?’

 

[NT]

Does newspaper not crinkle when it gets wet?

NT

 

[Penners]

WHY DOROTHY WORDSWORTH IS NOT AS FAMOUS AS HER BROTHER – Lynn Peters

Nem - that's absolutely wonderful! Is there any more of it?

 

[Nemesis]

'Fraid that's it... it's quite well known, at least amongst 'lady poets' and literary academiccie types.


Says it all really...

PS I know that astonishing isn't spelt as I did above.

Must get some new glasses...

 

[Penners]

Neither is "spelled", unless we're discussing a form of wheat.

P. Edant

 

[Nemesis]

Neither is "spelled", unless we're discussing a form of wheat.

P. Edant

Spelt is also the simple past tense and past participle of the verb to spell.

I've just been baking a loaf with spelt and it's on my mind!

Very good stuff, as eaten by the Romans.

http://www.dictionary.net/spelt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelt


PS I have now a vintage Kenwood Chefette to add to the collection.

Charity shop find.

 

[NT]

"and on my return papered William's room"

It might be a case of differing perspective. In centuries past this would be a normal description often applied to any of the following:

I had the servants do it
I got the kids to do most of it and did a bit myself
etc


NT

 

[biffvernon]

Not in this context. The Wordsworths lived without any servants at this time, or children.

 

[MDE]

You can use newspaper to polish things, apparently. Perhaps she cleaned the windows and polished the brasswork?

 

[Nemesis]

She doe seem quite taken with papered rooms though, this from her diary of a journey to the Isle of Man in 1828:

July15th, Tuesday. A lovely sunny morning. Sate an hour with Mrs. King, then with Mrs. Putnam to the crescent. 2 excellent houses for £400, 2 parlours, both good, good kitchens, grates, dressers, and every convenience and all the rooms with paper, 5 papered rooms ; upstairs bells, grabs etc. and still above the same number.

Another ref:

Upstairs is Wordsworth's study where his poetry was set to paper. Another bedroom used by several people, a small room papered in newspaper, and a storage room complete this floor.

http://www.thecumbriadirectory.com/Tourist_Attractions/Historic_Houses_and_Buildings/Dove_Cottage/Dove_Cottage.php

(see link in post above to Wordsworth Trust for picture).

Wordsworth House at Cockermouth, the childhood home, is well worth a visit (National Trust) and there was a good feature on its restoration on Country Life a couple of weeks' ago.

 

[biffvernon]

Just got back from hols in Cumbria. Dropped in on Dove Cottage, Grassmere, and had a look at the papered room. Actually it's not original, as the National Trust re-papered it a few years ago - with copies of The Times from 1800. It is a very small room and the papering is pretty crude so, leaping to the assumption that the NT got it somewhere near right, Dorethy could have 'papered the room' in a short afternoon.

Other rooms are oak panelled so there might have been some reason to cover the wall with something, particularly if the surface was dusty. Which brings one to the question of what were the walls covered with. The kitchen and buttery are now lime plastered and lime-washed but this is not the 1800 finish. A small section of the underlying material has been left exposed to show how gloomy the kitchen must have been. It is a muddy colour. Maybe that's because it is mud, but I didn't feel it appropriate to start hacking into it to find out.

When the house was built, probably sometime in the 17th century, and for a good while thereafter, this area of the central Lake District had no roads suitable for a cart. All transport was by trains of pack horses and mules. The nearest limestone was a long way off to the south. It seems very likely that most of the houses in this area were built without the use of any lime, either as a mortar, render, plaster or wash.

Many buildings remain un-rendered, with the appearance of dry stone walling, though there is mortar, presumably earth, within the wall well back from the surface. Each stone is carefully laid so as to slope slightly downwards and outwards to shed the rain. This construction is seen in both Victorian villas (by which time lime would have been available for the mortar) and in the much older barns and outbuildings. Most of the 17th and 18th century houses have been rendered and lime-washed, with windows painted black to give the white and black look so typical of places such as Hawkshead as well as of the isolated farmsteads.

I suspect that this appearance is far from original and postdates the construction of roads along which lime could be more easily transported.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who actually knows something about Cumbrian vernacular architecture, and who can tell me whether this is all rubbish or not.

 

[Nemesis]

I think I said about the NT repapering earlier in the thread.

Upstairs is Wordsworth's study where his poetry was set to paper. Another bedroom used by several people, a small room papered in newspaper, and a storage room complete this floor.

http://www.thecumbriadirectory.com/Tourist_Attractions/Historic_Houses_and_Buildings/Historic_Houses_and_Buildings.php

The experts on Cumbrian vernacular architecture - Ron Brunskill, esp The Traditional Buildings of Cumbria, and Nina Jennings on clay dabbin. Dabbin is the Cumbrian version of cob. Blake Tyson, Susan Denyer... there is much research.

Cumbrian - possibly includes Westmorland as well as Cumbria? Vernacular varies hugely from place to place, as well as timescale.

Some of it was defensive!

The Romans built in Cumbria too. And there is lime in places.

It's a vast area with many varied building types and materials though.

http://www.cwaas.org.uk/


http://www.penrithandnorthlakesu3a.org.uk/NewNewsletters/October%202003/vernacular_architecture_in_cumbr.htm

PS in the places where it was hard to move stuff with wheels, sleds were at times used.

 

[biffvernon]

Thanks Nemesis, I’ve ordered the Brunskill, a snip at £19.80 from a well known on line book store. I’ll see if he has a view on when the white stuff arrived. Meanwhile, I found this in A.G.Bradley Highways & Byways in the Lake District from 1901.

Lime was dispensed with as hard to procure, and an amusing story is told of the first consignment of it that went into Borrowdale; the bearer carrying it across his saddle bow. A thunderstorm coming on, however, the lime began to fizzle. Upon this the astonished rustic dismounted and poured water over it, the effect of which so alarmed him that he thought the devil was in the sack and throwing it into the beck, rode home as fast as his horse could carry him.