Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

This morning, after lessons, we had a paper chase. In the afternoon we had English history, writing and compo. Then Mr Gray, Bob and I went out for another paper-chase. I went to Mr Appleton’s and got buried in the straw. This evening we did our French lessons and then played at family coach. Mr Gray had really an extraordinary capacity for interesting one, whether in work or play, and among other good schemes he used to make us go out into the hall and read aloud to him while he sat in a room out of sight. The point was that we should make him hear every word, and many are the parsons who would do well to practise elocution under similar conditions.

Order the book

Subscribe to the free daily email

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

Comment

Something to say? Get in touch

Original

Mr Gray was a tall young man, something of the Mr Barlow type, but more sensible. His wife was a daughter of Callcott, the artist, and the only other boy committed to Mr Gray’s control was her young brother Bob, about the same age as myself. It was in 1862 that I went to Cundale, and Mr Gray’s system of dealing with us was certainly good, for much of his teaching is fresh in my memory still. With him I soon lost all nervousness. He had a judicious method of leading you up to your work. I quote an illustration of this very briefly from an old diary which I kept in the early part of 1863:

23rd Feb. 1863.
This morning, after lessons, we had a paper chase. In the afternoon we had English history, writing and compo. Then Mr Gray, Bob and I went out for another paper-chase. I went to Mr Appleton’s and got buried in the straw. This evening we did our French lessons and then played at Family Coach.

4th March.
This morning we went to the sale for the Lancashire people. It did not commence until the afternoon. I bought two pictures and two book markers. This evening there was a Bran pie, for which we had to pay 3d. a dip. I got a kettle-holder and a pin-cushion. Bob and I rode a donkey home.

However charitably inclined, I appear to have had an eye to business even at that period, for the very next day, 5th March 1863, comes the entry:

This morning I got the prize for Caesar, half-a-crown. I also sold a picture for 1s. which I bought for 3d.

Mr Gray had really an extraordinary capacity for interesting one, whether in work or play, and among other good schemes he used to make us go out into the hall and read aloud to him while he sat in a room out of sight. The point was that we should make him hear every word, and many are the parsons who would do well to practise elocution under similar conditions.

The above allusion to “the Lancashire people” touches the distress among the cotton operatives, in consequence of the American War, and it may be added here that I have to thank Mr Gray for what is now a useful habit viz. that I want no sugar in tea or coffee. He told us at the time under notice that it would be good for us to deny ourselves something for the benefit of the Lancashire people, and if we would do without sugar in tea or coffee, he would give us each sixpence a week to send to the fund which was being raised for these poor people. We agreed to do so, and the result was that after taking tea without sugar for a fortnight, nothing would have induced me to take sugared tea again, but I never told Mr Gray this, and continued to draw sixpence a week for the Lancashire operatives as long as I remained with him. The merest suspicion of sugar in tea is hateful to me to-day.

542 words.

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.

• Allison, William (1851-1925) (12), Yorkshire-born sporting journalist ·
• American Civil War (3) ·
• Augustus Wall Callcott (1) ·
• Cundall, North Yorkshire (4) ·
• Donkey (5) ·
• Education (8) ·
• Elocution (1) ·
• French language (5) ·
• Lancashire (34) ·
• Paper Chase (game) (1) ·
• Sugar (4) ·
• Tea (7) ·
• Textile manufacturing (59) ·

All tags.

Similar

• 10 March 1863: William Allison (11) rides two miles on a donkey from Cundall to Brafferton to help celebrate the marriage of the future Edward VII to Alexandra of Denmark
• 28 February 1863: William Allison (11) goes mouse-hunting with a fellow-pupil at Cundall (Ripon)
• 16 August 1842: Lancastrian plug-drawing rioters invade Skipton in an attempt to halt the mills
• 15 April 1985: Hervey Rhodes tells his fellow-lords how, on the abolition of the Ridings in 1974, Saddleworth was lost to Greater Manchester
• 21 February 1835: The Spectator summarises the respective preoccupations of Leeds’s Tory and Whig establishments – partying, and preventing implementation of the child labour provisions of the Factory Act
• 16 June 1863: William Allison (12) travels from Coxwold to the circus at Easingwold, hoping to see Tom King, ‘The fighting sailor’
• 1 December 1851: John (65) and Betty (73) of Wibsey are at long last united in a “funny wedding” at Bradford
• 7 February 2018: On Twitter, Terry Robinson of Fleetwood (Lancs) discovers the true origin of Yorkshire tea
• 2 January 1863: William Allison (11) fails to shoot any rabbits at Coxwold
• 19 October 1816: Serenaded by the military, decorated barges leave Leeds for Liverpool to celebrate the completion, after almost 50 years, of the canal uniting east and west