Yorkshire Almanac 2026

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

[Letter to Edward Davenport written from Foston] I have taken lodgings in York for myself and family during the Assizes, to enable them to stare out of the window, there being nothing visible where we live but crows.

Mrs. F___, the liberty woman, is in York. There are several Scotch families staying there. No bad place for change, cheapness, and comparative warmth.

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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.

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Is Mrs. F Elizabeth Fry? If so, there are various other references, e.g. an undated letter to Lady Mary Bennett:

I am glad you liked what I said of Mrs. Fry. She is very unpopular with the clergy: examples of living, active virtue disturb our repose, and give birth to distressing comparisons: we long to burn her alive.

Then, perhaps she is Fanny Trollope, the subsequent anti-slavery campaigner.

To Lady Grey from Foston, 27 March 1821:

We have been at the Assizes at York for three weeks, where there is always a great deal of dancing and provincial joy.

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Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Assizes (24) W/G ·
• Boredom (1) W/G ·
• Church of England (94) W/G ·
• Climate (1) W/G ·
• Corvus (1) W/G ·
• Elizabeth Fry (1) W/G ·
• 📌Foston, North Yorkshire (5) W/G ·
• Frances Milton Trollope (2) W/G ·
• Quakers (14) W/G ·
• Scotland (38) W/G ·
• Smith, Sydney (1771-1845) (7), wit, writer, Anglican cleric W/G ·
• 📌York (165) W/G ·

All tags.

Order the book:

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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.

Comment

Comment

Is Mrs. F Elizabeth Fry? If so, there are various other references, e.g. an undated letter to Lady Mary Bennett:

I am glad you liked what I said of Mrs. Fry. She is very unpopular with the clergy: examples of living, active virtue disturb our repose, and give birth to distressing comparisons: we long to burn her alive.

Then, perhaps she is Fanny Trollope, the subsequent anti-slavery campaigner.

To Lady Grey from Foston, 27 March 1821:

We have been at the Assizes at York for three weeks, where there is always a great deal of dancing and provincial joy.

Something to say? Get in touch

Similar

24 June 1809: Exiled from London to York, the Rev. Sydney Smith promises Lady Holland not to smite the partridge

13 August 1821: The laments of the adulterous poisoner Ann Barber on the scaffold at York

1 February 1829: Jonathan Martin’s attempt to burn down York Minster is frustrated by a frolicsome chorister

6 December 1811: Sydney Smith to John Murray on “the privileges of the North”

7 July 1819: The Rev. Sydney Smith complains from Foston to the historian John Allen of summer colds

3 January 1820: Following Peterloo, the Rev Sydney Smith (Foston, Ryedale) tell the Whig Edward Davenport that literacy and the populist press make parliamentary reform inevitable

16 September 1821: The Rev Sydney Smith tells Lady Grey how the harvest was saved at Foston (Ryedale)

2 October 1800: Part of an obituary to Harry Rowe, Punch and Judy man, trumpeter at the Battle of Culloden and the York assizes, who died today, old and ill, in the York poorhouse

18 October 1835: A Keighley churchwarden and constable drag one Mr Aken, a local bookseller and printer, into Sunday service

7 April 1687: James II’s declaration of freedom of conscience arrives in Yorkshire, but fails in its alleged underlying intention – to drive people into the arms of the Catholic church

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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.

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