Now! Then! Wild daffodils in the hedges at Wickersley (Rotherham)

13 March 1728: Wild daffodils in the hedges at Wickersley (Rotherham)

John Hobson. 1877. The Journal of Mr. John Hobson, Late of Dodworth Green. Yorkshire Diaries and Autobiographies in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Ed. Charles Jackson. Durham: Surtees Society. A (morbid) compendium of everyday England. It is sometimes unclear whether the date given is that of an occurrence or that on which news reached his capacious ears. Get it:

Excerpt

12th, 13th. – At Stainton. Aunt Fretwell sold her part of her house to cousin Robert Pashley for 7 guineas. The daffodil grows wild in the hedges near Wickersley.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.
Abbreviations:

ER: East Riding
GM: Greater Manchester
NR: North Riding
NY: North Yorkshire
SY: South Yorkshire
WR: West Riding
WY: West Yorkshire

Comment

Is this is a new phenomenon, or are they particularly early, or does Hobson’s appreciation of his environment extend beyond its death?

Twigs Way:

Daffodils of all sizes and shapes have been seen in England since the 17th century; Shakespeare celebrated them as the flower that “comes before the swallow dares”, and bunches of wild blooms were sold by flower girls on the streets of London. However, the farming of daffodils for cut-flower sales did not start until the late 19th century.

In 1875, William Trevellick, a potato farmer on the Isles of Scilly, was struck by the semi-wild narcissi in full flower on the tracks and verges of his farm in January. He realised that by using the weekly freighter from the island then the railway link from Penzance to London – opened in 1859 – he could get these early blooms to the London markets within 48 hours of picking, and more importantly, weeks before they flowered on the mainland. Thirty experimental bunches, sent in a hatbox, earned Trevellick seven shillings and sixpence (37.5 pence), and a week later, more bunches brought him £1 (Way 2022/03/13).

The Winter’s Tale:

A Road near the Shepherd’s Cottage. Enter Autolycus, singing.

When daffodils begin to peer,
With heigh! The doxy over the dale,
Why, then comes in the sweet o’ the year;
For the red blood reigns in the winter’s pale.

The white sheet bleaching on the hedge,
With heigh! the sweet birds, O, how they sing!
Doth set my pugging tooth on edge;
For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.

The lark, that tirra-lyra chants,
With heigh! with heigh! the thrush and the jay,
Are summer songs for me and for my aunts,
While we lie tumbling in the hay.
(Shakespeare [1623])

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Original

12th, 13th. – At Stainton. Aunt Fretwell sold her part of her house to cousin Robert Pashley for 7 guineas. The daffodil grows wild in the hedges near Wickersley.

29 words.