Yorkshire Almanac 2025

Unedited excerpt

The excerpt in the book is shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

Mr. J. Dixon, keep of the Unicorn inn, without Monk Bar, in the suburbs of the city, has now in his possession a yearling sheep, of the Shetland breed, which has got a very peculiar relish for the good things of this life. It will eat butter, bacon, cheese, onions, apples, sugar, fish, either raw or cooked, pickled herrings, plum cake, currants, raisins, lemons, and not excepting beef and mutton. The animal will drink ale, brandy, and rum, or coffee and rum, but it will not deign even to smell at gin when offered it, but to crown all it will chew tobacco. The above are facts which cannot be disputed.

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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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Via Huddersfield Exposed:

I'm going to put "The above are facts which cannot be disputed" at the end of every email I send ;-P This is from 1841 about an extraordinary sheep in York that refused to drink gin: pic.twitter.com/nRM4n0zSf7

— Huddersfield Exposed (@HuddExposed) October 31, 2022

Perhaps the sheep had suffered from the recommendations of the agricultural writer, William Ellis:

This Author’s Receipt for curing a Sheep of that common Ail, the Gripes: A SHEEP, when troubled with this Malady, will tumble, like a Horse that is griped. If this happens in Summer-time, cut cross the Inside of the Sheep’s Tail pretty high; if in Winter, you may cut a Bit of its Tail quite off without Danger, and do nothing to it. And why they don’t cut off the Tail in Summer, is, because the Fly is apt to blow it and breed Maggots, and ’tis hard to stop the Bleeding. Mix as much Barley-Meal with a Quarter of a Pint of Gin, as the Gin will take up to make it into a Paste, and give it forthwith to a griped Sheep at twice or thrice; one Parcel immediately to follow the other, till it is all given; and when it is all given, then pour down a Sheep’s Throat, a short Half Quartern of naked Gin. Barley-Meal being a drier, rougher Sort than Wheat-Meal, is thought to be more proper for this Purpose than Wheat-Meal; but if the first cannot be got, the last will do: With this very Remedy, a Shepherd, that is at this Time working for me, assures me, he believes he has cured Half a Score Sheep in his Time, by this Remedy, and never knew it once fail (Ellis 1749).

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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.

• Alcohol (drug) (62) W/G ·
• Apple (7) W/G ·
• Bacon (1) W/G ·
• Beef (4) W/G ·
• Beer (36) W/G ·
• Brandy (6) W/G ·
• Butter (3) W/G ·
• Cheese (1) W/G ·
• Coffee (4) W/G ·
• Fish (10) W/G ·
• Gin (5) W/G ·
• Herring (2) W/G ·
• Lamb and mutton (2) W/G ·
• Lemon (1) W/G ·
• Onion (1) W/G ·
• Pickled herring (1) W/G ·
• Plum cake (1) W/G ·
• Pork (3) W/G ·
• Pub (20) W/G ·
• Raisin (2) W/G ·
• Rum (5) W/G ·
• Scotland (38) W/G ·
• Sheep (28) W/G ·
• Shetland sheep (1) W/G ·
• Shetland (5) W/G ·
• Sugar (4) W/G ·
• Tobacco (3) W/G ·
• William Ellis (writer on agriculture) (1) W/G ·
• Currant (1) W/G ·

All tags.

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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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Via Huddersfield Exposed:

I'm going to put "The above are facts which cannot be disputed" at the end of every email I send ;-P This is from 1841 about an extraordinary sheep in York that refused to drink gin: pic.twitter.com/nRM4n0zSf7

— Huddersfield Exposed (@HuddExposed) October 31, 2022

Perhaps the sheep had suffered from the recommendations of the agricultural writer, William Ellis:

This Author’s Receipt for curing a Sheep of that common Ail, the Gripes: A SHEEP, when troubled with this Malady, will tumble, like a Horse that is griped. If this happens in Summer-time, cut cross the Inside of the Sheep’s Tail pretty high; if in Winter, you may cut a Bit of its Tail quite off without Danger, and do nothing to it. And why they don’t cut off the Tail in Summer, is, because the Fly is apt to blow it and breed Maggots, and ’tis hard to stop the Bleeding. Mix as much Barley-Meal with a Quarter of a Pint of Gin, as the Gin will take up to make it into a Paste, and give it forthwith to a griped Sheep at twice or thrice; one Parcel immediately to follow the other, till it is all given; and when it is all given, then pour down a Sheep’s Throat, a short Half Quartern of naked Gin. Barley-Meal being a drier, rougher Sort than Wheat-Meal, is thought to be more proper for this Purpose than Wheat-Meal; but if the first cannot be got, the last will do: With this very Remedy, a Shepherd, that is at this Time working for me, assures me, he believes he has cured Half a Score Sheep in his Time, by this Remedy, and never knew it once fail (Ellis 1749).

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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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Via Leeds Riot Map:

A great number of the tickets were overstamped “Men only”, and the door stewards were commanded to not allow any woman not holding one thus stamped; this was because the organisers knew that the suffragettes could disguise themselves to make them appear fully respectable members of a Liberal audience. Meanwhile, in Victoria Square, a large meeting of unemployed took place by the Leeds Permanent Committee on Unemployment, chaired by a man, Mr. Kitson. As the PM Asquith approached the Coliseum, some 600 or so men moved up the hill to where Ms Baines was declaring that unemployment was “more a woman’s question than a man’s, for it was the wife that had to meet the landlord’s demand for rent”. Precisely what happened next, and what was intended, remains unclear. The press, in the form of the Evening News and the Leeds Mercury, agreed that Ms Baines was heard to say “Break down the barricades and compel a hearing”, but it is not clear if this was intended as an explicit incitement to the men to interpret her literally. Whatsoever, there was a rush of people which was subsequently interpreted as a riot, although the only recorded damage was a broken pane of glass. It seems one stone was thrown which a policeman claimed had hit him, but no injury was recorded, to him or anyone else. In Leeds, Kitson and five suffragettes were arrested. Trial proceedings dragged on into the next year and the excitement subsided, but Jennie Baines is recorded the honour of being the first suffragette to be imprisoned after conviction.

Who was Vera Lambert? Who was Mr Kitson? Presumably no relative of Lord Airedale. I hope I’ve tagged the right Gladstone.

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