Does every book have a story ? This is what I have discovered about this rather ordinary book. It is now six years since I cleared out my mother's home. Little was kept, I already have everything I need in my own home, so the main purpose was clearing the property and selling as much as could be sold. Only a few things were salvaged, and this was one. It is old, it is handwritten, and contains recipes. It is not in my mother's handwriting. It is something that she had acquired from someone, but as she had never shown it to me I had no idea how long she had had it, or where it had come from. For a long time I assumed it had come from one person who had an association with Darlington, and whose family had had a confectioner's shop there, as there are many recipes for both cakes and sweets. From time to time I picked it up and flicked through it, some of the recipes were annotated with names. I had no idea who they were, so put it back in my desk again. There is a hopeful recipe on how to cook a husband - beginning with “first catch him” warning that some are spoiled in the cooking - “ some women go about it as if their husbands were bladders and blow them up; whilst others keep them constantly in hot water, others freeze them by conjugal coolness….” and a warning about serving them up with tongue sauce ! However, the perfect way is to cover him with affection and have a large jar of carefulness ….. This page has recipes for Ginger Beer, Walnut Caramel, Sponge Cake, Rhubarb and Orange Jam and Rhubarb Wine. Two were attributed to named people, Mrs Graham and Mrs Waite. Other recipes were culled from publications such as the Girls' Own Paper, Every Woman’s Encyclopedia and the Daily Mail. Many are dated between 1911 and 1928. It took me a while to work out that G.O.P. indicated the Girls' Own Paper, and each has a date. The Girls' Own Paper was published from 1880 to 1956 by the Religious Tract Society with improving articles, advice and serials and short stories. The owner of the book had a sweet tooth! Cocoanut Ice, Turkish Delight, Mint Delight , Fondant, Marzipan ! She could have started a sweet shop. Analysis of the recipes reveals early twentieth century diet. Lots of plain cooking; lots and lots of puddings; preserves - chutneys, jams and jellies; sauces both savoury and sweet, no doubt to enhance the plain puddings, and a surprising number of confectionery recipes. Toffee was a great favourite with different flavours. Right at the end of the recipes, after 1927, a variety of soup recipes . Some have lists of ingredients but no method, e.g. Lemon Sponge - 4 or 6 leaves of gelatine, the juice of 3 lemons, 3 or 4 whites of eggs, 1 pint of water, sugar to taste. And that was it, the only indication of what to do was "mix all cold". Then what ? Any ideas ? The other difference between then and now is that cakes were made with dripping or lard, whereas we would use butter or margarine. The writer was economical, as she turned the book upside down and began to use it from the back for copying poetry. She did not get very far with this and only filled in three pages. The first is part of a poem attributed to “Thompson” beginning with the lines “Then spring the living herbs profusely wild / O’er all the deep green earth beyond the power / Of botanist do number up their tribes ….” The poem is very long, and begins “Come, gentle Spring! ethereal Mildness come/ And from the bosom of yon dropping cloud/ While music wakes around, veil’d in a shower/ Of shadowing roses, on our plains descend.” The poet was James Thompson born about 1700, a Scot, who went to London, and wrote a collection of poems called “The Seasons”. The quote in the recipe book was from “Spring” written in 1728. Amazingly he wrote the words for “Rule Britannia” for the music of Thomas Arne and the Prince of Wales gave him a pension of £100. The next snippet of verse is - “But transient is the smile of Fate! / A little rule, a little sway, / A sunbeam in a winter’s day, / Is all the proud and mighty have / Between the cradle and the grave” by John Dyer, another very long poem Then a snippet from Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. And the last poem is “A Farewell” by Charles Kingsley. So the owner of the book collected recipes from friends and out of magazines and newspapers and liked poetry. From the left, Scottish poet James Thompson, Lord Byron and Charles Kingsley. But overlooked at previous perusings of this little book right at the bottom of a page were some notes that on the 18th December 1908 the writer found dog’s mercury near Melmerby and she wondered how far up Coverdale it grew. She saw the first winter aconite on the 2nd February 1909 and the first snowdrop in bloom on the 3rd February 1909. No more botanical notes, just three . But this placed the writer in the vicinity of Melmerby. Dog's Mercury is the first plant to flower, with rather insignificant green flowers, in spring; the yellow winter aconite is always a welcome cheery sight; and the snowdrops always gladden the heart. We look out for them every year. I pondered long and hard, who could the book have belonged to ? My mother was a member of the WI and made many friends through meetings and outings and produce and handicraft shows. Had this come from a WI friend somewhere ? But having pinpointed that the owner lived in the Leyburn District I started to put the names of the donors of the recipes into the 1911 census limiting the results to the Leyburn registration district. Up they all came. Undoubtedly these were Leyburn folk, with a few from East or West Witton, and then as the book progressed into the 1920s, some were from Hunton. At the beginning a recipe from Mrs Butterworth , who I found lived on Kelberdale Terrace in Leyburn, then there was a Mrs Gregory, also from Leyburn, some were a bit more vague, Miss Eyles ? well there were families called Eyles at both Hunton and Barden. There were Stirkes at Heselton, Grazing Nook and in Hunton. The break through was the name Waite. Looking at all possible people with the surname Waite one stuck out, Jane Waite. She was at Thornborough Hall in Leyburn with her husband George who was a gardener and with them was a niece called Mary Firby ! I knew who she was . Thornborough is the current spelling, in the past it was Thornburgh (and other variations). This from the 1901 census and shows George and Jane Waite and Mary Firby at Thornborough Hall, Leyburn. Mary was described as niece, but was she related to Mrs Waite or Mr Waite ? The picture below is Thornborough Hall in Leyburn. Miss Firby had lived at Lilac Cottage in Hunton and was a Very Old Lady when I was a little girl, and my mother used to visit her. Slightly ironic that she remained a “Miss”, when she had hopefully copied out the recipe for cooking a husband. She had been a school teacher, and when she was a girl had gone to a school that was in Thornborough Hall in Leyburn. So I began to look at her Uncle George Waite, and Aunt Jane Waite to find out who they were, and then look at Miss Mary Ann (in one census it was Mary Jane) Firby born 1888 in Tupton , Derbyshire. How and why had she come to Leyburn and ended up in Hunton ? This is the 1891 census for Escrick with George and Jane Waite. The Aunt Jane Waite said that she was born in Hunton, and her husband, George the gardener was born in Newcastle upon Tyne. Chasing them backwards through time before they came to Leyburn they had been at the Gardener’s Cottage at The Villa in Escrick just south of York. And before that George had been with his parents at Aldbrough St John north of Richmond, before that in Gayles, and before that in Grantley near Ripon. Many families moved frequently for work . So who was Jane Waite? She said she had been born in Hunton, so looking for a possibly marriage of a George Waite to a Jane, I found a match in a marriage in the summer of 1881 between a George Waite and Jane Firby in the Leyburn registration district. So this was how Jane Waite was the aunt to Miss Mary Firby. This is the 1851 census for Hunton showing Jane as a little girl with her family. Jane had been a servant, first in Hunton, and then became Cook at Carlton near Aldbrough St John, which is when she must have met her husband to be. Perhaps the recipe on how to cook a husband came from her ? So turning to Miss Mary Firby born Tupton in Derbyshire what was her story ? She was born in 1888 to George Firby, born Hunton and his wife Hannah from Clay Cross. He worked as a railway clerk, a job which gave mobility . He is also on the 1851 census for Hunton, the baby brother of Jane. When he moved away from Hunton I know not, but he married in the Chesterfield district in 1881 and had sons Tom, Fred and George and daughters Mary, Annie and Victoria. In 1901 all the children were with their parents except young Mary who was in Leyburn. Why had she been sent away when the others were at home ? Mary did not return, and ten years later in 1911 she was still at Thornborough Hall as a Pupil Teacher. At one time Thornborough Hall in Leyburn was a school, called the Bulcote School. So although I thought it very sad to find little Mary in Leyburn, so far from her parents and brothers and sisters in Derbyshire, in the end she did return “home” as in her latter years she returned to the village where her father had been born. In conclusion, here is a little group of ladies on an outing. I can name about half of them. My mother was holding the camera. I think that it is an outing of the WI, and I think that Miss Firby is the lady wearing the white coat with four buttons, a dark hat and little round glasses, on the left side of the group. And one last thought, was it a book of poetry that was turned upside down and used for recipes ? The poetry and annotations about botany pre-date the recipes . Every book does tell a story, we just have to tease it out.
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AuthorThis is where you can share creativity with me. I believe that everyone has something creative within them, and it is a joy to find ways of being creative. Blogging is NEW to me, so here goes ..... Archives
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