Townfoot, 17 January 1883

 Marion Brown, "helpless as ever," and four years into a phase of not being able to walk, reports on the winter weather in Sanquhar.*  She's also very grateful for a gift from America, and concerned about Aunt's ever declining health. (Spoiler alert: Aunt Agnes will live almost another twenty years from when this letter was written.) Mention of the men in the family knitting socks around the fire, in the old days; and the mention of swine curds, of course.

*Given the date, I was kind of hoping this extreme weather might be an echo of Krakatoa, which created worldwide weather havoc when it exploded in 1883--but that wouldn't happen for another few months after Marion's letter was written.  Nope, just the usual rotten winter along the Nith.

Townfoot
Sanquhar
17th January 1883

My Dear Friends

I write to let you know that I received your very welcome letter all right give Uncle John my kind regards and say to execpt my best thanks for the present he sent me I can not write in words the gratitude I feel in my heart for his kindness to me as the saying goes a friend in need is a friend indeed, and I hope you will always have plenty and may God give you a blessing and good health for what in this world can we enjoy if we have not health.

I was glad to see from your letter that you was all well when you wrote and I hope this will find you still enjoying the same precious blessing. Aunt sends her kind regards to you all and many thanks for your kindness you are to tell uncle John that she has got a pair of new clogs of the money he sent but she can not get them so neat now as when uncle Joseph and him used to be knitting stockings at the Bogg fire for she is bothered with corns. She was just telling me she thinks she sees them and hears them talking, poor body there is not so much difference of her to look at but her strength is failing and she is much stifer, I have to tell you she would not join the waggon with you but she could milk the cow and make you swine curds yet but she is a little slower in the step now as when you saw her. 

I hope you will get on well with your market but you must have patience and give it a fair trial a person cannot get on all at once, you have pretty long hours but there is always a something so we must just put up. We had a very severe snow storm here Aunt saw Mr. Kennedy of Brandley one day and he told her he had never seen so much snow it was three days before they could get a cart from Brandleys to William Halberts and there was four men working all the time it was not on that road alone but round the whole district there was a complete block up Tam could not get to Wanlockhead with the carts for more than a week and two days there was more than fifty men from Wanlockhead working on Mennock road to get it cleared but the thaw came very mildly which was a good thing if it had come quickly the melting of so much snow might have done great damage. 

I am glad to be able to tell you that Tam and his wife and two boys are all well in the meantime. Uncle William and his wife & family are all well my Sister Sarah is very poorly from what accounts I get there is no hope of her geting better her youngest child died on Christmas morning. I don't feel any better as yet I am lying in bed as helpless as ever but I am very thankful I have the use of my hands it is four years next month since I could walk any and I have suffered a good deal in that time and God alone knows how long I have to lie but I must just hope for the best and leave the result in God's hands he knows what is best for us. 

now I must stop with kind regards to you all in which Aunt and all the rest joins Aunt says you are to write sooner hoping this will find you all well I am your affectionate friend Marion Brown

Another note about cheese

When I started this blog, I had no idea that the mentions of cheese and knitting would get so most attention from readers.  Last week, someone I knew in college thirty(!) years ago contacted me; he'd come across Marion Brown's letters here, and he has first-hand knowledge of swine cheese.  Here's his story:

When I was around ten to twelve years old my sister and I were living with a relative in a New Scotland, a rural town in upstate New York that (back in the 1970s) still had a number of working farms.  One of our neighbors kept a few pigs and sometimes made swine cheese from a recipe her grandmother had brought over from Scotland.  I only had the stuff a couple of times, but it was nowhere near as unpleasant as Richard Foss fears.  My memories are a bit foggy on the details, but I recall it as being similar in texture to feta cheese and having a similar sort of "gamey" flavor to it.  A fairly strong and odd taste but not bad, just strange.  The woman's farm shut down about the time I entered middle school and she moved away shortly thereafter.  Never encountered the stuff since then, although I never realized how rare it was until I followed up on that blog posting of yours.

He also mentioned a blog about milking pigs; sure enough, "To Milk A Pig" posted this year (so it wasn't there last time I was looking for information on the topic).  As such things do, that led me to another blog, where a travel writer describes Tuscan pig cheese, and seems to agree with my old friend's assessment above--it's a soft cheese, strong flavors, not bad just strange. 

In further emails, he also suggested that Marion Brown might have experienced a vocal cord disorder, which can impair speech and breathing, and even cause some of the muddled "stupid" feeling Marion sometimes mentions.  Definitely a possibility, I'd say.  Thanks, and small world! 

Townfoot, 16 January 1882

A six-page letter in pencil, from the winter of 1882.  No mention of weather or crops or neighbors--Marion's confined to bed, in pain.  Her "stupid fits" kept her from writing; but she expresses the same religious resignation as ever.  Aunt is "failed" but still asking for news from America; she cannot promise swine curds to any visitors nowadays, but would still enjoy a visit.  Marion starts the letter thanking her cousin for a cash gift which has "relieved [her] mind greatly."  (Considering the content of the previous surviving letter in this collection, it's likely that Robina Boyle Scott's nasty accusations have left Marion feeling insecure in Tam's household.)

Townfoot

Sanquhar
16th January 1882

Dear Friends

I write you in answer to your very kind and welcome letter which I received all right for which except my most sincere thanks and I hope you will always have plenty and good health to enjoy it. when a person is in need it makes them feel the more thankful for such a present as you have just sent me for I can asure you it has relieved my mind greatly in the meantime and I hope you will not feel the want of it as much as the good it has done me

I am not getting any stronger as yet the Doctor has to come to me every day and is still close confined to bed.  If it is God's will for me to be as I am why should I grumble but be content in whatever condition I may be sometimes I suffer a great deal of pain and sometimes not so much and I ought to be thankful when I am moderate. 

Tam and his wife and two boys are all well Aunt sends her kind compliments to you all and you are not to be long in writing to let us know how you are all getting on some times she takes such wearing fits she just talks on about you all and sometimes wonders if James Bryden will not take it into his head to take a trip over again and see us all but she will not can give him any swine curds this time. 

You are to be sure and send us word what the two boys are like and what uncle John is like for if he is like her he will be very much failed. Excuse me for being so long in writing I meant to write last week but I had one of my stupid fits and knew nothing for most of the week so I could not write. with kind regards to you all in which all here joins and hoping to hear from you soon I am your affectionate cousin Marion Brown

Townfoot, 5 November 1880

This letter seems to be addressed to a different "uncle" in Pennsylvania--not to John Glencross, but to his brother.  

Another pencilled letter, and a two-writer letter again--the first half is harder to read, by Tam Scott, mostly reporting on market prices and bad weather and his Irish horse.  I can't promise I've got all the words right in that section--his handwriting isn't as smooth or legible as Marion Brown's, and his spelling is especially non-standard.  But one certainly gets the sense that he's in good spirits for the cold winter, happy to be working and happy to have a fast, spirited horse.  Marion's half of the letter reports that her health is still poor, with gravel (kidney stones, usually), and that she has been unwell for seventeen years now (so that takes us back to 1863, when she was in an infirmary apparently). 

The winter 1880-81 was one of the most severe in North America also--with deep snows in October, just as Tam describes--interesting to consider now, in the middle of another severe winter with terrible weather affecting much of North America and also the British Isles.  "Heavy mortality among sheep stocks" related to the 1880-81 winter storms is mentioned in a Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland from the era.

Townfoot 
Sanquhar 
Nov 5th 1880

Dear Uncle

I drop you a few lines to let you know that I am still to the fore hopping this will find you well and all the rest of my friends we have the affliction of a very sever winter hear we have had some very sever snows on the 27th of last month the snow was so heavy the Mennock house was Blocked up and out By Moffit the Pearnes[?] was so large that over one score of sheep was smothered and the continued casting for several dayes the Market is very high hear just now it is a real Extortion Sanquhar is Mad up at a lot of Bogues Butter her is 9s chese 10 cence per Pound and all the market is on advance I do not know what the men at all as the niver has been such good crops this year before I am still with William Slimmons It is steady but long hours and Wet and dry I have to be on the Road and from 5 in the morning till 7 and 9 at night and I have got the Best flinging horse that is in DumfriesShire a 'amserting' he is an Irish horse and has Irish Temper I do ashure you an Monday night he kicked himself out of the long cart with Tom on him he will kick for a day long and get leg in every side of the shaft and kick on and he is the best runer out of the cart I ever saw and when he hs mastered with the whip he squels and pushes you are not safe of your life with him there is scarce one in Sanquhar will cum near him and me the Laghear cumes Scotland Pady he can send his heels as high as the Shafts of the cart when he runs but we have had the largest potato crop that has been for 40 years I supose.  the are 3/per hunderwight I have not much more to say but that we have got a 3 year old horse and had him at Wanlockhead you might tell Tam to write to me I am yours T. G. Scott

PP hopping the Blessing of god will follow you and all your family and wife 

Dear uncle Tom has begun this letter but has left me to finish it so I will try to say what I can do I am still close confined to bed and the doctor has to be at me every day the gravel is a very painful complaint and other things connected with hit makes it worse I have very little power in my left arm but I ought to be very thankful as long as I have my senses but sometimes my head is very stupid.  Our heavenly Father is kind to us far above on asking and why should a living man complain but human nature is hard to bend and some times I think my lot has been a hard one somes ways it is now going on seventeen years since I was at the Infirmary and since then I have not been able to do much, now I have to tell you from Aunt that you are to tell Tom to write a long letter and tell her all the news for many a time she wonders what he is like now and he is to tell her what Willie and Samuel is like and all the rest of them.  Uncle William and his family are all well uncle is still working with Mr. Pearson at the woods my Brother James and his family are all well and still at Heucklands with Mr. [???], I was to send you McWhir's kind regards and say he was asking for you. Aunt joins me in kind regards to you and everyone John Marion & Bryden and may god be with you [?????pencil smudged] affectionate neice, Marion Brown

be sure and write soon

Townfoot, 11 October 1880

This letter is in pencil, so it's harder to read than most of Marion Brown's letters.  Maybe she lost track of her ink and pen in the move from Castle Mains?  It also features a child's scribbles, perhaps made long after Marion's pencil left the page.  It's a newsy letter:  Aunt is working as a cheesemaker at Auchengruith, at the George White farm, while the usual family member is recovering from childbirth; Tam is trying work beyond farm labour, hoping it will be steadier.  Marion isn't well, but she's expressing religious resignation, and she's glad that her right arm remains unaffected by the current version of her troubles.

(George White of Auchengruith farm was buried in Sanquhar Kirkyard, grave number 63 in Wilson.  Not clear if this is the same George White mentioned in an 1866 letter from Marion Brown, though a longtime familiarity might explain why Aunt Agnes was asked to come to his aid.)

Townfoot

Sanquhar 
11th October 1880

My Dear Friends

We was all glad to see your very welcome letter we weary to hear from you when you are so long in writing Aunt and me was talking about you all a night or two before your letter came and wondering how you was all going on and we was glad to see from your letter that you was all well when you wrote and I hope this will find you all still enjoying the same precious blessing for it is truly said that good health is nine tenths of all the Lord has ever given to any man for what is all this world to us if we have not health to enjoy it 

I am glad to be able to tell you that Aunt is in moderate health but is trubled very much with pains in her legs and back she has been at Auchengruith at George White's for six weeks making his cheese one of his daughters has a baby and he was very anxious for Aunt to go and make the cheese till she was able to work again, we are wearing to get her home again at least I am I don't like when she is away if I had not been close confined to bed, but I do feel the want of her very much for her to be away from home and making cheese now but poor body she has always the spirit and there is nothing lifts her spirits like making cheese.  

Tam and his wife and little Samuel are all well Tam has been ????? [line of penciled writing is smudged at the crease] this some time he thought it would be a more steady job than labouring for labouring work is very scarce and for myself I may say I am a poor helpless creature lying in bed and scarce able to ???? [another smudged line on the fold] self  I have very little power in my left arm but I ought to be very thankful as long as my right arm is not affected but our heavenly father has promised that he will lay no more on us than we are able to bear but human nature is hard to bend and some times I feel it very hard to look at the bright side of the dark[?] clouds that comes before me, 

Aunt bids me tell you that she is pleased to know you have such a nice cow and she hops she will do well but she is not much taken up with the turkeys, as far as I hear there has not been good crops this year and potatoes especially and they are moderate in price in the meantime two shillings and four pence per hunderweight for the best early potatoes.

Uncle William and his family are all well I must stop for it has taken me a long time to write this and I am very tired I hope you will not be long in writing give our united love to uncle Joseph and all enquiring friends and except of the same to you all every one from your affectionate cousin, Marion Brown

Would Marion Brown have an Etsy shop?

I have a google alert set up for mentions of Sanquhar history.  It's not very active--usually just mentions of the post office.  But today, the link it brought me was to an Etsy story, about Sanquhar knit gloves.  It even mentions the author's father growing up on a dairy farm near Sanquhar.   Now I'm picturing Marion Brown with an Etsy shop, selling her knitting, just to bring in a little extra money; or Aunt Agnes, selling her artisanal cheeses online, to hipsters in Brooklyn...

Castle Mains, 4 June 1879

This is not a letter by Marion Brown.  She is referred to as "May" in this letter, and has apparently "had a very bad turn."  So her cousin, Tam Scott, is writing instead.  Tam's handwriting is fairly legible for a man's hand, but his spelling, capitalization, grammar, and punctuation are less standard than Marion's, and quite a few words are hard to work out.  Nonetheless, it's a newsy partial letter that gives a glimpse of Tam's personality, and shows Marion Brown's situation from another perspective.

Tam is a new father, it seems, with young Samuel Glencross Scott already 9 weeks old.  We know from other letters that Robina moved into the Castle Mains residence as Tam's wife at the end of January; she must have been quite pregnant at the time, if their son was born in early April.  His mother (Aunt Agnes Scott) is "fair daft" about her first grandchild, but at the time of this letter's writing, she was away from the home, teaching cheesemaking at dairies near Auchengruick (not sure where that is on current maps).  That leaves Marion at home, too ill even to write; a newborn, Samuel; a new mother, Robina; and Tam, who is unable to work from having "smashed ribs."  And, apparently, chickens. Sounds stressful!

Tam says work is scarce, very scarce, especially since the "Duck" (the local landowner; Tam misspells "Duke," or does he?) isn't hiring at the moment.  But Tam is making some money with his prize poultry.  He's obviously proud of his Hamburgs, and travels to various shows to compete with other breeders.  But rats (or "rates") ate a bunch of his best chickens, which made a significant dent in his prospects for earning. 

There's also mention of Robert McWhir, who has turned up in at least two past letters.

Castle Mains
Sanquhar
June 4th 1879

Dear Uncle I take the pleasure of droping you a few lines to let you know how we are all getting on  hopping this will find you all well I may say that May is getting a little better But has had a very bad turn and my mother is well but Bothered with Rehumatism  She is at Auchengruick just now larning them to make the chease she has both the dairs to lairn  She is standing her age well i do not know much els of her but scarce so fast as in formar days I may say that the Wife is well and the Son he is 9 weeks old today and a fine Strong Healthy Boy but i dout he will get too much of his one [own?] will with them.  Mother is fair daft about him and May not much Better I will depart from this topic But first i will give you the Son's name I call him Samuel Glencross Scott 

I may say that Robert McWhir is cum hear for man [men?].  I am of work just now with Smashed Ribs which i got at my work but work hear is very scarce and will be scarcer before it is mor plentful.  the Duck is stoped puting on his repairs sing[?] to his son standing for Mid Lothian and it is a grate pity if he would get on for he is puting this place in a pitful state we are just finishing up old jobs that we had not done it is sed that it will be 3 years before it is any better as the Duck is deep in det their is nothing going on at nothing it dos not mater what it is their is 100 on the Road that cannot get work no place.

Every part is alick their is no use leaving one place and going to another for all is alick bad and markets high you sed I had shurly a good stock of Poultry I have the best Stock of Hamburgs I think in Scottland the have to cum from York and Leads Lincolnshire the best Breeders in England the do nothing else but attend Shows and make their living of them and a good one to I sold eggs of my Birds this year at 6 shillings and 6 pence a dozen their were 2 settings sent to Nottingham and i am going to have a Draw for 4 Pair of my Prize Birds I am getting them Printed at Dumfries i intend to make a little mony of it in this dull tumes I will not stick at nothing I had 44 chickins some 10 weeks old and on Monday night the Rates found them and thought they would make a good supper and killed 6 of them and the Best to I could have got 1 pound a peace for them It will tell hard against me this year for the Shows as you can Scarce get them to run[?], the Shows too years althoe I have an old cock this year has only been shown two times took 1 at Sanquhar and First and Special at New Cumnock show the judge told me he was the Best Cock that he had seen and he put it in the Papers to and I took 2 to at New Cumnock my next hshow will be Dumfries Union Show which is in August i mean to take First at it to if i am well 

I was to give you Robert McWhir's kind love you and Uncle John and you have to send word what sort of a country you are in I could fill the letter about my Birds with Prizes and Remarks at Shows but i will let them drop I hop trade is getting better with you Tom will be a man by this time His cousin Tam is 6 feet and Built from the ground he was home hear at the Saison [?] he always calls it his Home you know he never knew anything els you might tell him to write a letter to me as i fell as  [rest of letter is missing]

Castle Mains, 11 February 1878

A new year and a new return address for Marion Brown, Aunt and Tam Scott:  Castle Mains by Sanquhar.  This is the only surviving 1878 letter, but it's a long chatty one that shows how precarious the health of all three Sanquhar family members has been--Tam Scott with his ongoing lung issues, Aunt with her bad chest cold, and Marion unable to walk, barely able to speak.  Perhaps in response to the financial straits that prompted their move, James Bryden has sent the household a gift of (presumably) money.   The spurs a reflection on dependence and gratitude from Marion, and lavish thanks and well wishes for the American kin.  There's still mention of trying to get Aunt to emigrate; and further mention of Aunt's cheesemaking skills.  The Americans are instructed to get photos taken, so that Aunt can consider who young John Bryden resembles most. 

Castle Mains

By Sanquhar

Feb 11th 1878

Dear Friends

We was all very glad to see your kind and very welcome letter for we was wearing very much to hear from you.  I hope this will find you all well when it reaches you and I am glad to be able to say that Aunt is just about her useal way again she got a bad cold when we flitted but I think has got clear of it now  Tam was off work for a fortnight with a bad cold to his chest is not very strong and when he has a cold it always takes hold of his lungs but he is a good deal better and able to work but he is drinking cod liver oil and the doctor says he has to drink it always to keep his lungs soft.

I am glad to be able to tell you that I feel no worse this two or three weeks I can speak a little but not much I have to do the most of my talking in writting yet and I am very bad at walking but it is my back  that makes me so bad at walking it takes the power from my legs altogether at times.

Now James you must give uncle our very best thanks for his kindness in sending us such a present.  The truth is this if it was not the kindness of my friends to me I dont know how I would do for I have never been able to work for myself and seems to be as unfit for work as ever but our heavenly Father is always kind to us and gives us far more than we deserve and I ought to be very thankful that I have always had kind friends to take care of me for Aunt has been a Mother to me and I have to tell you from her that she hopes you will always have plenty and she would be very glad to see you come steping in.  in summer and perhaps she would not be so hard to advise to go over with you this time and she thinks altho the cows is not her own she could get you some curds when you come and she says you are to be sure and get your son's likeness taken uncle Marion you and John altogether  and then she will see who he is like.

Uncle William and all his family is well in the meantime my Brother and his wife and family is all well but the youngest one that is my namesake Marion she has had a very bad turn with Bronchitis but is a little better if she continues and I hope she will.  You must give uncle Joseph and them all our best respects we have had a very mild winter and I hope the spring will continue as mild.  

Now I have to tell you from Aunt you are not to be so long in writting for she says if you had not been so far away she would have tried to have gone to see what was keeping you from writting now I will stop hopping this will find you all well and also hopping you will writing sooner and with kind love to you all and all friends I am your affectionate Cousin Marion Brown

Women in the dairy industry, Sanquhar 2012

Regular readers of the Letters from Sanquhar blog will know that "Aunt," Agnes Glencross Scott (1817-1902), was a cheesemaker near Sanquhar, apparently a woman of some skill in that field. So I was interested to see that a young woman from Sanquhar named Grace Smith was recently the first woman to win the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers’ Dairy Crest Student of the Year Award. I'm sure the industry has changed a great deal since Aunt Agnes's time, but I'm also thinking she might recognize a bit of her own love for dairy work in young Grace.

Bogg, 31 October 1872

The last letter surviving from 1872, a fall report delayed until news of the next year's rent was known. Aunt's cheese production has suffered from sick cows, and the landlord says he won't raise their rent this year in light of that--but the threat of future rent increases remains.

The weather is wet and an uncle's hay isn't up. And a neighbor has died suddenly. "Mr. Hyslop Cleneries" probably means "Mr. Hyslop who lives at Clenries," a nearby house. There was a John Hyslop living at Clenries who won an award from the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland in 1872, for a "cheviot tup" (a kind of breeding ram)--maybe it was him? "Ten hours illness" seems to be a phrase that often refers to cholera, and there were cholera epidemics about this time (1873 in the US, 1872 in India).

This letter includes a rare reference to Marion's own siblings (her sister Sarah is marrying in London soon). And a not-so-rare reference to Marion's dreams of seeing James Bryden back in Sanquhar, offering to take Marion away to America.

The Bogg
October 31st 1872

My Dear Cousin

You will be thinking I am not a woman to my word at all when I am so long in writing after sending you word that I would write last week. I would have written but Aunt would not let me till once we got our first lot of cheese away and then I could send you word whither Mr. Kennedy was going to make the rent more this year or not so he was here yesterday and he said seeing as the cows had the disease last spring he would not ask any more rent for another year. we got 115 cheese away last week but they were not near so heavy as they were last year. There is a want of thirty stone and that is a good deal. Aunt thinks she will can make up a few stones yet but we had no turnips and the cows are greatly failed. Uncle William has had a very bad time the weather has been so wet that he could not get his hay up and I don't know if it is all up yet and it is past the time of the year for hay wining[?]

I am going on and writting and never asking how you are. I hope you and all friends beside you are well how is your Jeamie getting on I was dreaming about him the other night I thought he was come to take me away to America but when I wakened it was but a dream but I must say I was quite disapointed when I wakened and did not see him many a time we talk over the fun we had when he was here and you can tell him that I could dance a polka with him now I have to tell you from Cousin John Glencross that he is wearing very much for the card you said you would send him he is not getting very strong yet but is better as he has been.

We had a very sudden death beside us last week you can tell uncle Joseph he knows who it is. his name is Mr. Hyslop Cleneries he died in the ten hours illness this is his funeral day. I have some thing more to tell you my sister Sarah is going to be married in about a fortnight after this but she will be married in London so I will not be at her marriage her intended husband is a Jewler I have never seen him so I dont know what he will be like.

Aunt sends her kind love to you and you are to be sure and write and let us know how you are all getting on there was a spree at Brandleys last night and I suppose it was a very merry night there was above forty at it and Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy danced till the last I had a busy day getting them all dressed for it but I was not there I waited at home and was housekeeper. now I must come to a close and give uncle Joseph and aunt Marion my kind love remember me kindly to John Johnstone and Sarah and also your father and Jeamie Bryden not forgetting your own dear self from your affectionate friend Marion Brown

PS be sure and write soon M. B

Bogg, 10 October 1872

This is a long, eight-sided letter, full of interest, to James Bryden in Dunmore. Marion mentions her burnt hand (three times) and a toothache, but also says that she can walk a distance with minimal assistance, which is a big improvement from past letters. The weather is wet and the crops are bad; the cows aren't producing quite as much milk as they had in the spring; Tam Scott isn't home much, and uncle William's hay still isn't got up. Prices are high and getting higher, so much that Marion worried about keeping a supply of coals for the fire.

It's a busy, hard fall at the Bogg. Marion Brown, however, has her mind on other things--Halloween, marriage, dreams, a ring, apples, and the fervent, repeated hope that James will visit Sanquhar again soon. Her joking about her own romantic prospects here is more blatant than in most letters--she says she's in no hurry (at age 29), that she'll maybe come to America first, that one young man had even offered to give her a glass of brandy and put her to bed. It says something about the intimacy of the friendship between James Bryden and Marion Brown that she'd feel comfortable writing such things to a man not yet kin.

The Bogg
October 10th 1872

My Dear Friend

It is with much pleasure that I take my pen to try & write you a few lines altho I have not written to you I have had you many a time in my mind. but I am glad that my hand is better for it was in the way of many a thing as well as writting. I hope you will forgive me for this time for if I could have wrote to you I would before this time.

I was very glad to see from your letter that you was all well and I hope when this reaches you that you will still be enjoying the same precious blessing. We have had a very busy time for it has been such wet weather here they could not get on with the work and every thing has just been kept in a turmoil but we got in all our hay the other day and now they are going to commence to raise the potatoes there is not many diseased potatoes but they are very thin in the ground and for tunips Aunt has none this year they are all rotton with what they call finger & toe I don't know whither the master will allow her anything for the bad crop or not. the cows is all very healthy now but they have never given the same quantity of milk the whole summer as they did before they had the trouble. Mr. Kennedy was here the other day and sold our cheese to a Mr. Crow[?] he lives at Kirkconnel he gets thirteen and six pens a stone for them.

everything is very dear here I think we will soon get no fire the coals is so dear and there is a talk of them rising yet and everything else is as high you say in your letter that uncle John has had a great quantity of fruit this year I wish I had been beside you to get some for I have scarcly ever seen an apple or pear this summer they seem to be scarce in this country.

you want to know if there is any lads coming to see me now it was with pouring out tea to lads that I got my hand burned and Halbert came in last night and asked me when I was going to be married for some one asked him when I was to be cried if it was first Sunday but Jeamie they will have to wait awhile before they hear me cried yet I am not in a hurry to get married I think I will come to America first there is a young man going to be here at Halloween that says he will make me drink a glass of Brandy and then he will have the pleasure of puting me to my bed but I don't think I will give him that pleasure if he thinks it one, you might come over at Halloween and bring Marion alone with you to see the fun. I think by that time I will can dance a jig with you if I keep well.

I have been over at James Hunters two or three times since you was here I can walk over to Brandleys with a very little asistance and not be very tired so you see I am greatly improved in walking I have been very bad with the toothach this last fortnight so you will can understand that my patience will not be very good.

What did you send me the 15 sents for was it to pay the postage of my letter when I saw it I just said that makes my dream true for I dreamed the night before I got your letter that I got a registered letter and a nice ring in it and my name inside so you see I am still going on with my dreaming yet. do you ever talk any through your sleep now. I hope you will not tell them any queer stories about love at my rate.

Katty Hunter bids me tell you that you are to be sure and come over and bring Marion with you and a lot of apples and we will have a Halloween when you come Aunt sends her kind love to you and she is very proud to see your letter to let us know how you are all getting on and you are to remember her to them all and she thinks you may give us another visit if once you was married and let Marion see this country before she leaves it.

uncle William and family is all well but he has not got up all his hay yet and I think it will be in a queer state now Tam has been at Brandleys for a long time and will be for some time yet tell uncle John he will just have to come and take us all across for I don't think Tam & me will ever get Aunt to start. give Marion my kind love and say I will write a letter to her this day week if well give my kind love to uncle Joseph & Marion and you will likely get some fun when the young one comes home or she will not be her useal.

Anthony sends his kind love to you and he says it is high time you was here to look after me I am turning bad enough give my kind love to all that ask for me and execpt of the same to your own dear self. now I will stop my nonsense and hopping this will find you all well I remain your affectionate friend Marion Brown

PS be sure and write soon and not take example by me but perhaps you will have got your hand burned to. MB

Bogg, 11 September 1872

A chatty letter from the Bogg to John Glencross, mostly on the subjects of crops and cows. Turnips, potatoes, corn, and the haying are covered, as well as the cow disease hitting Brandley's. There's a list of what the Bogg folks recently sent to Dunmore--two pairs of men's drawers, two men's shirts, a boy's shirt and cravat, an apron and a bow of ribbon for various relations, old and young.

Dear Uncle

You will be thinking me long in answering your very welcome letter for we are always glad to see a letter from you. I hope this will find you & Marion and all the rest of our friends beside you in moderate good health when it reaches you and I am glad to be able to tell you that this leaves us all wonderful well Aunt has not been so strong this last week but I think it is just with working to hard in the hay time when she had none of the girls in the house to help her However I hope she will soon gain her useal strength again.

We have got all our hay up a good while since but it has been such wet weather this some time that we have got none in yet we had it all in ricks before Thornhill fair this year so I don't think we was far behind. We have a fair crop of potatoes and not many diseased yet but the turnips crop is very bad they tell me the turnips is so bad they are not worth pulling so I don't know what Aunt will do this back end for she will have nothing for her cows at all. they are failing sooner this year I think it is oweing to them having the disease in the spring. The same kind of disease is at old Brandleys just now but I hope it will not come to ours again or it will be a bad job.

There is a great deal of repairs going on about Brandleys and they tell me they have not near done yet we have got up a good big hay shed and that will be a great help our byre is all to be repaired to before the cows begins to lie in again so they will not have to be long till they are at it.

Tom is going to be at Brandleys in the harvest time so we will not have him much for some time. Uncle William gave us a call today as he was going down to Sanquhar and he has a good deal of his hay to put up yet and some of it has been lying cut for three weeks and it will not be in good order now he has a very bad turnip crop they are mostly rotten but his potatoes and corn is a wonderful good crop he is wearing very much to have his hay finished for it has been a long hay time for his first year.

Aunt sends her kind love to you all and she sent a pair of drawers to you and uncle Joseph with John Johnstone your ones is the pair with no top band and he has a shirt to you & uncle Joseph and a shirt for Tom and a cravat for little James & Nannie as they got none before and a apron for Aunt Marion and I sent a bow of ribbon for Cousin Marion's hair we would have sent more but Johnstone had not much room.

I dont know what Mr Kennedy is going to do about the cows yet Aunt thinks he will say nothing till the first lift[?] of cheese goes and then he will say what he means to do. Give all our friends my kind regards and except of the same to your self not forgetting James Bryden tell him he must excuse me for being so long in writting to him as I have had a burned hand and has not been good at writting say to him he might write and let me know if his thumb is better now I will say goodbye expecting to hear from you soon I remain your loving neice Marion Brown

PS be sure to write soon MB

Bogg, 23 May 1872

An incomplete letter to James Bryden, a man from Maybole, Ayrshire, who is engaged to marry Marion Glencross. He hasn't left for America yet, but he's been visiting his future wife's family at the Bogg, dancing and eating Aunt Agnes's famous swine curds. Marion Brown clearly has a close friendship with James Bryden--close enough to make fun of a relative's portrait, close enough to say "I have wearied for your company since you went away." James will carry various gifts to America, including "trimings" and blankets.

The Bogg
May 23rd 1872

Dear Friend

I received your very welcome letter today and was glad to see from it that you got safe home and there is one thing I can tell you I have wearied for your company since you went away but I have to tell you from Aunt that she will be glad to see you back to get some more swine curds she is making a big tubful every day now and she bids me say that she hopes you will be as supple and nimble to dance as you was the last night you was here.

I had a letter from America yesterday it was from uncle Joseph they were all well when it left and I got Aunt Marion's card and James I will just tell you what I think she has been like when it was taken I told Aunt that she was just like as if she had been scolding uncle Joseph she is so staring like you will tell me your opinion if spared and will to come back and I hope it will not be long till we see you again. I sent away a letter to your own Marion on Monday and sent her a pattern of the trimings you have got for her and told her to write as soon as she got my letter and let us know if she was pleased with them. And I sent a pattern of the dress you gave Aunt & me. Aunt Marion had a long story in her letter about what you are going to take to Marion if spared to go back I hope Marion will not let her see the letter I sent away to her on Monday or she will know the most of the things you have bought before you go back with them. you must tell her the next letter you write to keep all her letters to herself and not let Aunt Marion see all she gets.

I sent down to Sanquhar today and told Mrs. Macqueen about your blankets and she sent back word that she would send them away from Sanquhar with the mid day train on Saturday so you may be on the outlook for them at Kilkerran Station I think you will get this letter

Bogg, 14 September 1871

Disease and harvest work are the main topics here: Aunt Agnes and cousin John Glencross have both been ill in recent times as Marion Brown writes this letter. Aunt, however, is so hard-working, "she will make cheese till she falls into the whey tub." The crops have also been diseased, both the potatoes and the turnips, but they hay was plentiful and Aunt made a lot of cheese in its season.

Dear Uncle

You will be thinking I am long in answering your most welcome letter and welcome it was for we was wearing very much to get a letter from yourself altho we was always hearing how you & Marion was getting on when uncle Joseph wrote that did not satisify us for many a time both Aunt & myself wondered what was come over you However we was very glad to see from your letter that you was well and I am happy to say this leaves us in moderate health but I think Aunt will do as you said in your letter she will make cheese till she falls into the whey tub she has not been so strong this summer she is often troubled with a pain in her back and when it comes in she can scarcly walk and it is a queer house when she can not go about in her useal way but I hope she will keep well if it is Gods will without his help we can do nothing and we ought to be very thankful as long as we are in a moderate state of health.

I must begin and tell you what is going on about the Bogg all the hay is in now and Tam tells me there is as much as was last year we have two as big stacks and the shed filled and those big ricks so I think what ever is wanting there will be no want of hay the potatoe crop is not so good in some parts they are mostly gone with disease our potatoes are diseased to but not so bad yet as some of our neighbours is they tell me the turnips is not very good either they are going with that finger and toe disease so I think the hay will be the most plentiful crop we have. the cows has been wonderful good this year Aunt thinks her cheese will be heavier this year as they were last year. and for pigs Aunt has not so many this year she will have three ready to kill about Martinmas and one breader she thinks will be a good one and another breeder she does not know what it will do yet there is a disease among swine here just now and a great many people is lossing there swine out and out

I have to tell you from uncle William that he has been at Brandleys in harvest they have all the corn cut but none in yet uncle Williams wife & family are all well at present my father and Brother and all the rest of our friends here are all in moderate health.

Cousin John Glencross at Carmacoup has been very bad he has had inflammation of the lung and liver he was very bad for six weeks but the last letter I got from him he was a little better and able to sit up an hour or two. You are to tell uncle Joseph that we got in all our hay in three days there was five hourse one day and four the other two and you are to say from Aunt that she was well served for forkers she had three young men and one married one John Laing Samuel Ballingtyne Robert Hannen these were the three young ones and Thomas McGeachan and you are to tell him from Tam that the day the five horse was on Robert Hannen and him was very hard kept for there was just three forkers at the stack for three at the field and by the time they were at the head of the stack Tam was begun to spell uncle William had to keep the stack for James Hunter was among sheep.

now I will stop as I am going to write a piece to Marion so I will say goodbye remaining your affectionate neice Marion

be sure and write before long you don't believe how Aunt wearies to hear from you M. B.

Bogg, 28 October 1870

This is a short, four-page letter, sent to coincide with the journey of Joseph Glencross and his wife Marion (another Marion!) and son James and others, from Sanquhar to Dunmore, Pennsylvania. Joseph had been one of the last men of the family remaining in Sanquhar; with his departure, Marion Brown's life became a little more precarious, and her reasons to write letters increased. We get a lot of details of the departure, from the perspective of the left-behind family members: was the little boy feeling well? did Aunt Marion keep the velvet safe? How was their passage across the Irish Channel (rumors said it might have been rough)? Marion Brown begs for details.

The other topic of this letter: cheese and potatoes. It's been a good season at the Bogg, and Aunt Agnes wants her brothers to know she's looking at a better-than-average winter this time.

The "Miss Law" who will be receiving the imported velvet might be the Jane Law who was depicted in the portrait with Marion Glencross, which I posted last month.

"The Bogg"
October 28th 1870

My Dear Cousin

I expected to have wrote to you last week but with the hurry of uncle Joseph going away I did not get it done however I hope this will find you and your father both in good health and if all has gone right by the time you get this letter you will have uncle Joseph and his family beside you. I was very sorry to see him going away but if it has to be better for him in America as here we should not grumble at him going away. Aunt Nannie is very dull since he left and she sends her kind regards to you and wishes you to write soon as you get this letter and let her know how they were all on their journey and how little James is for Aunt thought he was not well that morning they left here

you may tell uncle Joseph that Dr. Kennedy was up seeing us the Sunday after he left and was saying he would be getting a rough day on the Irish Channel I may tell you that we have got our potatoes in and we have fourteen carts of good potatoes and surely that was a good crop and we have got our cheeses weighed and got 131 away yesterday and that is a good left of them for they took a good deal of work to keep them clean and Aunt says you have to tell your father and uncle Joseph that she thinks she will get better on as she did last year for the cheeses has weighed better and tell uncle Joseph that William Cron of Kirkconnel has got the cheese this year for there is a talk of Mr. Baird going to fail but for the truth of it I don't know you must let me know if Aunt Marion got the velvet safe to Miss Law it was the only thing she had I was feared about for it was not cut. I have scarcly been so well since uncle left so with kind love to all friends you must excuse me writting more at this time I am your loving Cousin Marion Brown "The Bogg" Sanquhar Dumfriesshire Scotland

PS please write as soon as you get this M. B.

Bogg, 14 July 1870

[Image: A portrait of Marion Glencross, seated, with her friend Jane Law, standing, c.1870; both women are wearing elaborate hairstyles and white lacy dresses with dark sashes at the waist.]

Marion Brown writes in better health, but she can still "walk none" in the summer of 1870. She's writing to Marion Glencross, who is nearly 18 at the time. Maybe the woman-to-woman dynamic is becoming especially noticeable in this letter, as Marion Brown writes lightly about young men they know, hairstyles in fashion in America and Scotland, gardening, and cheese. I've speculated in other places that Marion Brown's choice of topics with young Marion Glencross is no accident. She knows her younger cousin has no mother or older sister or nearby aunt, and by addressing feminine culture, she may be making a claim to unique usefulness, as a kinswoman and a female mentor.

The image of Tam taking Marion on a ride in a cart is charming, and emphasizes how little she gets out of the house at The Bogg. "I was just like a bird out of a cage every thing was like new to me."

There's a discussion of "waterfalls" in this letter--she means the elaborate (in this case curly) hairpieces some women wore to augment their coiffures. From Betty J. Mills, Calico Chronicle: Texas Women and their Fashions 1830-1910 (Texas Tech UP 1985; on Google Books): "Available by mail were fake curls, buns, and waterfalls that could be pinned in place. Many women kept such hair pieces on hand for the sake of style." (132)

Finally, sixty-pound cheeses? Yup. The 1823 Encyclopedia Brittanica (also on Google Books) entry on Agriculture quotes an agricultural expert as saying "The process of making Cheshire cheese is as follows, viz. on a farm capable of keeping 25 cows, a cheese of about sixty pounds weight may be daily made in the months of May, June, and July." The entry goes on to explain how to get enough milk together to make that much cheese daily... let's just say, Aunt was very busy in the summertime.

"The Bogg" Thursday July 14th 1870

Dear Cousin

You will be thinking by the time this reaches you that I have been very careless in not writting you sooner. I am here at last and I hope this will find you both in good Health as good Health is the greatest blessing we can enjoy in this world. Aunt Nanny has not been so well this summer she had a bad turn with her head and stomach about the middle of May and she has never got the better of it but we ought to be very thankful when she is able to go about for it is a queer house when Aunt has to be in bed I am a great deal better as when I wrote you last I can sit up all day and altho I can walk none I just think I am well when I am able to sit up.

I was very glad to see by your letter that your garden was looking so well and if I was well and able to walk I would take the advantage of your invitation for I should come over and help you to pull your fruit and very likely I would be eating all the time I was pulling. I think you are quite right in wanting your father to get a cow for you will not like to want milk I dont know what your fields are like in America but I have never mind of seeing so much grass as is this year Cousin Tom just got one of Brandley carts and took me out one day and I was greatly delighted for I was just like a bird out of a cage every thing was like new to me. our cows has been very good this year but they have plenty of grass and that helps them to give more milk.

I have to give you Aunt Nannys compliments and say she is making a cheese sixty pounds and some times more every day just now and if you would come over and learn cheese making she thinks she would go home with you when you went away but if all goes well she has sent you a little cheese with a young man that is going to leave Wanlockhead today and if he gets it safe to you, you are to send her word if it is a good one They young mans name is James Weir he used to come and help Aunt at the hay stakings

you speak of John White being a Greenhorn I suppose you will think all the old country folk Greenhorns for they speak so much different from the Yankees but altho the scotch folk is slow they are sure and I hope all that has gone to America will do well there is one John Nicol gone to Pittstown brave young man and is a good fiddler. there was one Robert Watson went with him and we sent a parcle with him to you and I hope by this time you will have got it. you say that David Williamson has given up buisness in Dunmore and I am sure you will miss him very much for he is a fine lad and would be very good company, but you must tell him from me he is not to think the lasses here does not wear waterfalls for some has a waterfall nearly as big as their own head but the hair is worn in a nicer fashion now for it is mostly in curls and I like to see hair in curls

give Mrs. Moffat my kind regards and say saying how soon she will have to make me my tea and give my kind regards to all enquiring friends not forgetting your own self I am your loving Cousin Marion Brown

PS Please write soon and let us know how all goes with you MB

An overdue note about cheese

The last letter posted here mentions Aunt Agnes having a "wee cheese in the chesle." What's a chesle? I emailed Richard Foss, a local foodie friend who teaches culinary history. He didn't know himself, but he wrote off to a Scottish culinary historian, Cathy Jacobs, who kindly provided this answer:

"I thought I knew the definition, but to be sure I checked in my Scots dialect dictionary (compiled by Alexander Warrack). There are a number of terms, all with similar phonetic sounds, and all of which mean a tub for pressing cheese. These include chessart, chessirt, chessel, chessil, and cheswell."

Okay then, one mystery solved. While I was talking about this with Richard, I mentioned that Aunt's special treat was "swine curds," or cheese made from pig's milk. Now, it is very rare to find a strange food that Richard Foss (a) hasn't tried, and (b) doesn't want to try, but swine curds met those criteria easily. He sent back the following research on the subject:

The Hungarian health authorities have uncovered a conspiracy involving a shipment of salmonella-infected disznasajt (pork cheese) that was off-loaded to unwitting consumers in several towns in and around Pest county. According to Origo.hu, for Ft 5 million (€20,000) and a promise he wouldn’t be fired from his job, one Zsigmond Zsolt R. agreed to take responsibility for the poisonous pork-by-product-product, which even when not infected with salmonella is known to cause nausea and other unpleasant symptoms among those who consume it.

...and another article about why pig cheese isn't more common, though it is apparently eaten in parts of Mexico:

From Dave Barbano: “Pig milk contains about 6.8 percent fat, 2.8 percent casein, 2.0 percent whey protein, 5.5 percent lactose, and 1.0 percent ash. Thus, from a composition point of view it is a fairly rich milk. However, since the pig is a nonruminant, the milk fat will be primarily long-chain fatty acids (probably a lot of C16:0). The short-chain fatty acids that provide the typical flavor to dairy products produced from ruminant milks (e.g. cow, goat, sheep, etc.) would not be present in pig milk. The fatty acid composition of the fat in the milk from pigs will be a function of the diet of the pig, just like it is for milk fat in human milk. Thus, I don’t think there is much of a future for pig milk cheese.”

Now we knew that Aunt Agnes was a talented and tireless cheesemaker, but she was also, apparently, skilled at making good edible cheese from pig's milk, a rarity indeed. Or maybe the Sanquhar folks just had very sturdy stomachs.

Bogg, 28 July 1869

A long newsy eight-page letter on green stationery reports that Marion's been very unwell, and who's working where this year. There's a short note about Helen Brown's mother (Marion Glencross's maternal grandmother) being in service at Dabton. Another photo of Marion Glencross, age 17, has been sent to Sanquhar--and all approve, including Tam Scott and Mr. Kennedy the landowner. This letter gives a strong sense of what, besides letters, is crossing from Sanquhar to Dunmore: Aunt will be sending John Glencross a pair of trousers, and a "wee cheese" she's made, and Tam Scott included a feather from one of his prized chickens, and a photo or two are also promised.

Bogg July 28th 1869

My Dear uncle

You may well think me very careless in not writting to you sooner but I will make no apology about not writting sooner for I will just tell the truth and I suppose it stands longest, I have been very bad since about a week before I got your letter. I was nearly blind for five weeks but I am very thankful that my eyes are better now for I felt rather lonely when I could neither speak nor see, I made Aunt laugh that day I got your letter I was vomiting when the post came in and after I got hold of the letter I vomited no more for an hour and she laughed and told the doctor when he came up that uncle Johns letter had feared me from vomiting for one hour and he wished you was here if you would have any effect to make me better, but let me be thankful I am rather stronger this two weeks past but not able to be up any yet. Dear uncle you see I need a great deal of nursing and every one is so kind to me it makes me take many a serious though [sic] when I think I can do nothing for my self and to see every one so willing to serve me--

I think it is high time I was asking for you and Marion now I hope you are both in good health and getting on well with your work you was just in the midst of it when you wrote to me so I hope you got well through your garding plainting and what other work you had to do I was very proud over the card Marion sent me and I think it must be like her for the most of our friends that has seen it points out some resemblings she has to some of us. I was letting Mr. Kennedy see it the other day and says she is very like what her mother was when she was young. he was asking very kindly for you and wondered if you never took a notion to come home. there is great changes now about Brandleys MissKennedy is going to be married on the eleventh of August, and John went away to a farm at Whitsundy. you will know it, it is the Stenes down in Tynron, so you see in a short time Mr. Kennedy will be left with his second wife the same as when he brought home his first, but one thing the present Mrs. Kennedy never will be like the first one she is a very high proud woman just as if there was nobody like her but the master is the same yet he comes in and askes for us all as homely as if we were his equal

you wanted to know if I knew any thing about Helen's mother. it is about six months since my Aunt was up from Carronbridge and she told me that she was always working at Dabton and was wonderful well but I have heard no word of her since. Now here is Aunt come ben she has been busy baking and I have to tell you that she is standing the works wonderful well this summer but just about roasted in the boiler house this hot weather it ias been so hot this some time past

Dear uncle it is wonderful to see Aunt standing so well for she has so much to do now although Tom does very well he has ot so much sense about things yet Aunt made nearly out with the cows last year she wanted three stones but the master was very kind he said it was the first time ever there was any of the rent wanting since she came to the Bogg so he would just let it go, we have a good lot of swine this summer we have two breeders and one of them had six and that served ourselves and the other had twelve and they were all sold at twenty five shillings each and Aunt says the price of the twelve pigs will pay the winning of her hay and to appearance we are going to have a good crop of turnips and potatoes and we are begun our hay this week but they say it is not so good as it was last year the dry weather has been against it uncle Joseph and uncle William and one James Menzies is our mowers and we have William Halberts daughter for one of our girls and a sister of uncle William's wife for the other she was with us all winter she is a very quite [sic] girl and can help Aunt very well and that is a good thing, and Aunt says I have to tell you she has plenty of cloth for two pairs of trousers to you but she is getting a new web made and she wants you to get a pair of it and John White is speaking about going to America after the harvest and she expects to get them over with him and she has a wee cheese in the chesle for you and she will be very glad if she gets it over when it is in season.

uncle Josephs wife and family are all well he has four three boys and one girl their names are Tom, William, Samuel, and Agnes, and I was to tell you uncle Joseph would write to you soon but he is very lazy at writting or he might have wrote you long before this. uncle Williams wife and family are all in good health to he has five three in the first family and two in the second Helen the oldest girl is our cow herd this summer and Tom and William and these are what Martha had and John and James are what Janet Young has I have to tell you from Tom that he has four kinds of hens silver penciled and golden penciled and silver spangled and golden spangled and he gave seven shillings for one of the hens and these are some of the golden penciled ones feathers and that is one of his card he has sent to Marion. and I will just tell you what he said when he saw her card that she was the best looking friend he had and he thought he would soon be over to see her. he does not incline to work among the cows very much but I think he is not sure what he would like to do yet.

I told you about Robert Wylie in my last letter and he was here last week he is going to give me one of his cards to send to you the next time I write he is a mason and working at Penpont just now, his father and mother and all our Douglas friends were well when he was here. Brother James is at the Tower this summer and he is Mr. Hyslops cheese maker but he is not agreeing with it very well but perhaps he will get used to it his wife and his son George is in a moderate state of health they have had the measles but are in a bettering way my father is wonderful well in health but is very bad at walking.

now uncle I have given you a pretty fair account of things here, but I had nearly forgot Aunty and Mary at Mennock are wonderful Aunty is spinning the yarn for the new web you have to get your trousers of Aunt joins with me in kind love to you and Marion and tell Marion I will write to her next time for I am tired of writting lying in bed and perhaps I will can sit up next time give my kind regards to all enquiring friends and except of the same to your self from your affectionate neice Marion Brown

pleas write soon and if well I will not be so long in answering you