| Description | Farming diary, no. 19.
This thick volume has a black cover and some of its pages are loose. The diary's dates are written on a sticker on the front. The volume is lined and the writing is generally neat and legible. Scots words, particularly farming-related terms, and idioms appear in the text. The action of the diary is mostly limited to areas in and around Mosshead, Mr Mathieson's farm.
Most diary entries record Mr Mathieson's agricultural tasks, which vary according to the season; they finish with a brief summary of the day's weather. On Sundays Mr Mathieson usually worships at Church along with his wife Bella, and other family members. Friends and relatives often come to Mosshead to visit.
Notable events from this diary: leaves £10 with Bella for her to give to William Barclay for foal; the Don floods in late October; 'a perfect storm of wind & rain' on 4 November 1992; attends communion at Echt Free Church with Bella - 'Mr Mckay is very much failed since I heard him preach last five & half years ago'; visits sales, corn market and bank in Aberdeen; sells four stots to Mr Alsop for £86; Julia Reynolds comes to help Bella as Isa is ill with rheumatism; engages William Lawson to work the horses for the winter half year at £13 and engages a boy, William Coutts, at £4..10; pays rent at Kemnay House; pays poor rates, the smith, joiner and saddler; unable to read on Sunday afternoon because the house is too busy!; finishes the harvest after just ten weeks and three days; attends thanksgiving service at Church for the harvest; pays seat rents and pays Mr Dymock for their daily portion and the Annals of the Disruption; attends natural history lecture; Mr Dymock gives lecture on Stanley in Africa 'with lime light views'; wearies of the December frost; uses 'pluck' to take up turnips; attends political meeting and hears Dr Farquharson and Mr Dickson, an Irishman, speak - 'the latter was very much appreciated'; buys two queys for £25..10 from Barclay and receives payment for sold pigs; children's soiree and tree at the F.C. on 30 December 1892; pays £1..1 tax for buggy at Inland Revenue Office in Aberdeen; journeys to Pittarrow; attends Fordoun F.C. on the Sabbath - 'enjoyed the sermon very much'; the Flora cow calves; attends a 'temperance soiree' at the F.C.; hears Sir Arthur Grant, Bart., of Monymusk lecture on Uganda (Mr Dymock was also there with his magic lantern); 'blinding showers of snow' in January; attends funeral of Mr Petrie's son, 'a boy about eleven years of age'; sells two stots to Mr Lyon for £39; Miss Bothwell from Paisley visits; deposits £50 with the Town & County Bank in Kemnay; the Betty cow calves; pays £1.2.6 for insurance of stock and implements on the farm; the Bell cow calves; Lawson attends the minister's (Mr Peter's) ploughing match; buys two cattle for £10 at Duncan's sale; heavy snow in February; the Jamie cow calves; Lawson votes for a new minister at the E.C. in Kemnay - Hood Smith gains the most votes; signs the peace petition at Gordon the merchant's; attends magic lantern lecture on Rome; attends Mrs Henderson's funeral; commences sowing in late March; the Jennie cow calves a dead calf; sows Cormack's croft; Bella buys a 'Cultha Cylinder Churn' at Watson's for 13/; hears Mr Stapleton's account of his work as a medical missionary in the Congo Free State; attends Mr Dymock's lantern lecture on the history of the Church of Scotland at F.C. Kemnay; sells two queys and the shargar to Mr Alsop for £34..10; reads from the Life of James Gilmour, a missionary; gives Lawson a holiday because of Kemnay ordination day on 3 May 1893; the ferrier castrates the colt; celebrates Uncle Robert and Auntie's silver wedding; buys two steers from Mr Alsop at Oyne for £28; engages Lawson for another six months at £14 and a boy, Jamieson, at £5..5 at Inverurie feeing market; Lawson attends wedding and misses the start of the next day's work; receives £2..10 for the sheep pasture; the Maggie cow calves; pays rent at Kemnay House and also pays the smith, joiner and saddler; takes Mr Emslie to Lewis Esson's funeral; a yearling stirk falls ill and dies; pays account to William Stewart - £2.2.1; pays £15..16 manure account; hard drought in June - 'burning the grass'; pays the molecatcher for taking forty-nine moles; Mr Trail preaches on the Sabbath at Church - '[I] didn't like the preacher at all'; Willie Smith arrives from Aberdeen by bike; visits Mr Mellis, the farrier, then enjoys some splendid violin and piano music; at Kemnay F.C. hears a Mr Annand speak on his missionary work in China - 'I was delighted with him. He appeared in China Costume'; gives Lawson and Jamieson the Kemnay holiday; visits the Williamsons at Tersets Drumoak with Bella and looks round the farm; pays Mr McGillvray assurance money for the Employers' Liability Act; Lawson, Jamieson, Tom Smith and the boys got to Sanger's Circus at Inverurie; very heavy rain with thunder and lightning in mid-August; attends North Aquithie meeting addressed by Mr Hardy, a Congregational minister; Johnnie attends the Sabbath School picnic; finished cutting for the year; attends funeral of Mrs Smith Meddens Straloch in Oldmeldrum; goes to Aberdeen and does no business but visits Uncle Robert; gets harvest home on 7 October 1893; Ben Emslie Jr brings up a young pigeon for the boys; Mr Reid of Roquharold loses one of his best feeding cattle to anthrax; Bella has a holiday in Aberdeen and Pittarrow; visits Mrs Wilson and family with Bella - 'found them all well'; Andrew and Johnnie go to Banff and Buckie for a holiday - they return 'highly delighted with their trip'; Lawson attends the funeral of his Uncle's baby; Mrs Mutch of Thainstone Lodge ill with influenza; attends Church thanksgiving for the good harvest; helps Peter Dunbar evaluate his new croft beside Boghead; sells two stots to Mr Reid for £41; blows 'a hurricane' with sleet and snow in November; engages Lawson to stoop for the winter at £14; takes train to Alford to attend displenish sale; pays rent at Kemnay House; attends a lantern lecture at the F.C. with Johnnie; sells six stots to Mr Alsop for £135; attends funeral of Mrs Smith (Isa Wilson) in Aberdeen with Bella; Cormack buys the pig from Bella for £3; James Valentine visits form India; pays Mr McGillvray assurance for the cornyard; the Rev. Hood Smith visits to see William Lawson - 'a nice frank manner about him'; buys a quey and calf at Tillybin for £18; the doctor is called for Isa - she being unwell; buys two stirks for £22 from Charles Lawie; goes to the funeral of the Mother of Mr White, the poor inspector; sustains a knock on the head from one of the cattle and later injures a thumb; attends a lantern lecture for the young with Andrew, Johnnie and Mary; enjoys a lantern lecture on 'a Stroll through the United States'; Andrew hurts a finger with a turnip-cutter at dinner; attends performance of the Messiah in Aberdeen - '[it] was almost past criticism for its excellence'; the doctor is called for Isa; intense frost in early January; the Flora cow calves; attends lantern lecture at the F.C. Kemnay on New Zealand; Lawson has tooth extracted in Inverurie; goes out to Pittarrow with Uncle Robert and Mr Emslie; visits Mr and Mrs Strachan at the home farm at Thornton Castle and also Robert Adam and family at Inglismaldie; attends Laurencekirk F.C. on the Sabbath - 'liked but middling'; the ferrier is called and he cuts away the calf from John Cameron's calving quey; Mrs Cormack is unwell; attends funeral of John Rhonald the Weaver; visits Mrs Wilson and family - 'found them all well'; attends Mrs Christie's funeral; pays Mr McGillvray assurance money for cattle, horses and implements - £1..2..6; the Jennie cow calves; the Betty cow calves; Lawson attends his Grandmother's funeral; attends Alec Rothney's funeral; hears the evangelist Mr Wallace speak at Kemnay F.C. - 'liked him very much'; sees his cow sold at Middleton's fat stock sale; takes the boys to the evangelistic meeting at the Church; sowing starts in March; Alexander Moir, the foreman at the quarry, dies one March morning; attends Alexander Moir of Kemhill's funeral with Uncle Robert; buys two queys for £22..10; hears an address on the Congo Mission by a Mr Cameron, 'who had been there'; attends lantern lecture on Canada; records vote in poll for school board members at Kemnay. |