Bogg, 21 August 1873

This letter is to James Bryden, still not quite married to Marion Glencross. More on the aftermath of Tam Scott's jail time--"a queer time about the Bogg." Tam is still not well, and "I think Aunt will never get over it." Marion cites the "ado" as her reason for not writing in a while. Are there many letters telling the family's story of a jailing? If not, this correspondence is rare in another dimension!

The reference to James Bryden having his back "painted" must be about a medical treatment--painted with a topical medication, I assume. Any idea what the phrase "he never liked the dodders" means? I've looked in a few dialect dictionaries, and dodders has several given meanings, but none of them really fits this context.

The Bogg
August 21st 1873

My Dear Friend

You will be thinking me long in writting but you will likely have heard the great ado that has been about Tom and if you have you will think I was not in very good trim for writting for I can tell you it was a queer time about the Bogg when Tom was away at the Jail but Tom was like you he never liked the dodders and I am sure he will think less of them now as ever he did and no wonder for it was such an ado to make about nothing I think Aunt will never get over it and for Tom he cannot think to see a person. you may tell Marion from me that John Hunter was not such a great man about the bogg as he talks about but it is best just to hear them and never speek

My Dear Friend I must say that I am very much obliged to you for your kind offer and I have no doubht but I will execpt of it if spared and well till the spring but it is getting to far in the season now for me to set out but I will change my mind greatly or some thing come in my way that I dont know of if I don't come out in the spring but you need not say anything about it to make a great talk so long before the time and if you and Marion waits till then I may have a dance at your wedding and tell Marion that she is to write me a long letter and tell me all about her new house Aunt sends her kind love to you and wishes you had been here to cheer her up since Tom was away Anthony sends his kind love to you but he has not been well but is on the way of recovering I hope your back is got quite better now I know what your back would be like when they were painting it we are busy with the hay but it has been very bad weather for it and Tom is wearing to get it past now I must come to a close hopping this will find you well and all the rest of our friends well and be sure and write soon and execpt of kind love to you and all friends from your loving friend Marion Brown
Ps be sure and write soon

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, 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, 25 July 1872

[Image at left: My hand holding this letter, in front of my iMac screen and keyboard]

A letter to James Bryden, now safely landed in America, after a seasick twelve days crossing the Atlantic. Aunt dreams and chides, and laughs at Marion's anxious searching for news of his ship in the newspapers (apparently they didn't always get a newspaper--but when James was at sea, they got one "almost every day"). Aunt even jokes that maybe Marion Glencross won't want James for a husband, and he can come back to Scotland and to Sanquhar to help with the haying. The sending of a verbena plant is discussed, but Marion thinks it would be a "torment" to the folks who had to carry it to America.

This letter seems to be incomplete.

The Bogg
Thursday July 25th 1872

Dear Friend,

I received your very welcome letter on Monday and we was all very glad to see from it that you arrived all safe altho you got a heave going across Aunt always told us that you would be getting a heave after you went away for she dreamed about you so often but you had not a very long voyage when you got there in twelve days. I got a paper almost every day and I could never see the arrival of your boat and Aunt used to laugh and say his is sure to be at the bottom of the sea I am sure your ears might ring for many a time you have been talked about since you went away.

We was very glad to see from your letter that all friends was well when you landed and I know one that would be so glad to see you. We have had a visit of John Johnstone two or three times since you went away and Sarah is a fine strong healthy like girl I think she is very like her Mother in some ways she wants me to set her a verbena plant to take over to Marion she is sure she would be so proud over it. I could plant one with right good will but it would do nothing but torment them going across.

We are started our hay but it has been very wet weather as yet and Tam says if it does not dry up he will run off the field but I think he will not run away so quick Aunt bids me say that you are to come over and give us a hand to get our hay put up and brought into the stackyard now when you have seen Marion and Aunt says if she does not want you to come away and leave her again you are just to bring her with you and she can help to make hay along with you for Aunt is sure she would be the better of a smell of the Scotch hills. Aunt says when so many Scotchmen has come to see there old native country uncle John might come and see his friends to, she is just working as hard as she can now since the hay began she is just running about as hard as she can.

All our cows is better now and that is a good thing she can keep her mind easy over them. I have to tell you if you was here now you could get better swine curds as you got the last time you was here and she is sure she would give you as many as she could sup;

I am very glad you gto all the things safe and I hope they will please her now when you have got them there you must send me word when you write next and I have to tell you from Aunt that you are to mind and not forget what you said that you would write every month Aunt is sure you cannot think that to often

Bogg, 31 May 1872

James is about to visit the Bogg, perhaps for the last time before he leaves for America. Marion has sent him blankets to carry over, and mentions that Tom Scott is injured from a horse. But mainly she's asserting their warm past together--their meeting rituals, her expectations of his visit, private jokes between them, and jokes about swine curds and Aunt's singing. (What are red mouths? From context, I'm guessing young birds?)

The Bogg
May 31st 1872

My Dear Friend

I received your very welcome letter today and was glad to see by it that you was well when you wrote. I saw by your letter that you are going to Glasgow on Monday if well so I have just taken it into my head to write to you so that you may get it before you go away and I hope you will be here on Thursday night and I will be on the outlook for you but I fear I will not be able to meet you at Sanquhar so you will just come up the road yourself and if I see you coming I will try and meet you at the end of the house as I did before but there is one thing I will not let you pass me without speaking as I did the first time I saw you.

I have to tell you from Aunt that she will not promise to sing to you but if spared and well she will have a bowelful of curds ready for you and will be very glad to see you to spend a day or two with us. You speak about me telling the red mouths when you are coming but you need not fear for that for I can soon give them an answer when they ask for you.

I am glad you have got the blankets all right and I hope they please you, but you will tell me when you come. they are busy putting in our turnips just now but I think they will be all done on Monday or Tuesday. Tom has met with a slight accident today a horse ran away with him and he has got one of his legs hurt but I hope it will soon be better. Uncle William is away to his new place and Katty went up with him and she thinks he will be very well put up if once he had got time to put things all right now I will stop for this time and we will can go over all things when we meet if spared and well so I will say goodnight and except of my kind love to you from your affectionate friend Marion Brown

P. S. now mind I will be on the outlook for you on Thursday night M. B.

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, 11 April 1867

Another letter on black-bordered stationery this week--different stationery, the border is wider, but it still means a death reported. This time it's Aunt Elspeth, another resident of the Bogg (not sure how she's related to the rest just now). The Miss Kennedy mentioned as living at Brandleys is probably Mary Kennedy (b. 1848), who would eventually marry a doctor named Hyslop. Robert McWhir, who was mentioned in the 1865 letter, reappears here. Marion is still 23 at the writing of this letter, and makes no mention of her own health status in this letter.

Paragraph breaks and links for dialect words added.

My Dear Uncle

I lift my pen to write you a few lines to let yo know how things moves about the Bogg. perhaps before this reaches you you will have heard that there is another blank made in our home, Aunt Elspeth got her journey finished here on the 24 of March she was only a week close confined to bed but she was very weak for a long time before, it was water that was her trouble in the end the cough and the breathing was very hard for some time but it was much easier nearer the end

Dear uncle we have had a great deal of trouble at the Bogg within this last two years but such is the way of this world. All things decays and goes away and man is compaired to A flower that blooms in the morning and is withered at night and that may show us the uncertainity of our time here, we don't know how soon we may be called from this to another world where there is no change all is either happiness or misery.

Dear uncle Aunt Nannie is thinking you have forgot us altogether you have been so long in sending us a letter she wearies more since she was left alone. I may say alone for we have A big house but death is makeing it empty but we ought not to pine at what God sees fit to lay upon us but submit willingly and say 'thy will be done.'

I may let you know what is going on about the Bogg the cows is begun to calve and you know from that that the work is fairly commenced for another year there is twelve cows calved but the queys is very scarce we have only three yet and we have two litters of pigs one has 8 and the other has 7 and one of them is so ill natured she will not let the pigs be beside her so you see the swine is as thrawn as ever yet. As for the hens Tom Scott has great work with them he is always wanting his mother to get some new kinds for he thinks the old ones is not very good he is a great man among beasts of all kinds he has three pets and they have all lambs and he can scarcly get sleeping about them I think I have given you an account of the most of things but we are going to be rather scarce of hay--which is not a very good thing but they think they will get through. I may let you know what the people is thinking about doing at Brandleys this year. Mr. John Kennedy is going away to South America he sails on the 21 of this month and it will be an empty house at Brandleys for there will be nobody but Miss Kennedy and her papa left. And Robert McWhir is going to leave at Martinmas and he has been a long time among us

[no signature, may not be the end of the letter]

Bogg, 25 July 1866

This week's letter is written on black-edged stationery, which nearly always means a letter reporting a death in the family. Marion, age 23, still in bed, is writing about the death of her uncle James Glencross (1824-1866), brother of her letter's intended reader, John Glencross in Pennsylvania. James was heading the household at the Bogg, and doing the outside work before he fell ill from a "belling throat" (badly infected throat and ear)*, and died from "congestion of the Brain." This untimely death required some family rearrangements--another uncle, Joseph, will come stay a while to work and head the Bogg household as well as of his own family.

This is a six-sided letter, and I've inserted minimal paragraph breaks where they seemed necessary (Marion rarely breaks up her writing with punctuation, let alone paragraph breaks, but a little spacing does help in the reading).

*A bealing throat is mentioned in this 1827 letter by Thomas Carlyle; there's also a passage in Amelia E. Barr's 1886 novel The Bow of Orange Ribbon, where a character is mentioned "making a plaster for black Tom's bealing finger." The word "bealing" was noted in use in Appalachia as recently as the 1920s, used for the same meaning Marion uses it here (see Carey Woofter, "Dialect Words and Phrases from West-Central West Virginia," American Speech 2(8)(May 1927): 347-367).

Dear uncle I take the pen to write you A few lines to let you know how we are getting on and I have sad news to tell you this time but as God sees fit we ought to be willing to submit to his will for he knows what is best for us for I had little thought that the first letter I was to write to you was to inform you of uncle James's Death for although he was not very strong we little expected we was to lose him so "soon"

he was not very strong the whole Spring and he took A bad cold about two months since and he was just getting A little better when he took A belling throat and after that he had congestion of the Brain which is A very dangerous trouble and the Docters said it proceeded from A sore ear he has had for A long time he was confined to his bed for three weeks and I think the most of his pain was past before he took the bed for he never complained of any thing scarcly after he took the bed but one great blessing we ought to be thankful for that he was sensible to the last but it is A sore trial for we never was left without A head before and he was like A father to every one of us and I was to give you Aunt Nanies compliments and say she losed one head and now another but she thinks this is the worst and it will be the worst for us all and we are very lonly for he had always A cheerie word to every one.

I may let you know how things is to go on for me A while we had Mr. Kennedy over on Monday and he thinks it is best for Aunt Nanie to go on with the cheeses till Martinmas and uncle Joseph is to come to stop with us and look after the cows and out door things for we could not get on without A man to stay in the house with us and he is not very strong he was away in the North draining an he came home to the funeral and he is not fairly railed yet uncle Joseph family is all well just no and so is uncle Williams we had him here two weeks the time uncle James was ill, as for myself I am still confined to bed but I think I am A little stronger than I was in the winter all the rest here is wonderful and the busy time is commenced and when one has plenty of work it helps to keep up the mind they commenced the hay today and we have George White and my Brother James to mow it this year again and they will be very busy for A while all friends and acquatinces is well as far as I know but we dont know how soon A chance may come

give my kind regards to Marion and I hope by this time She is quite strong again for we heard she had been very ill since you last wrote kind regards to yourself and all inquiring friends pleas write soon and let us know how you are both getting on and I will add no more remaining your affectionate niece Marion Brown

now uncle uncle James had A line in the Bank and uncle Joseph says you have to send home word what claim you have and if the money is lifted you will look to him and not the Bank for your share of it and you must write soon and let him know yours, MB