Your patience has been tested, dear reader. You WEARY for the return of Brighton’s Regency Housekeeper Perhaps some of you have even begun to despair
The Waiting is Over
(or very nearly)
My chronicle will be restored to you next week, but not as you know it
I am not saying I will never answer a question again. As an acknowledged AUTHORITY on heartache, backache and MORAL philosophy that would be unfair, but I have found a new way of serving as SAGE to the labouring classes – I introduce you to:
Mrs Finnegan’s Almanac
How can one get along without an almanac? Not at all!
Every man and woman must have an almanac to regulate their affairs. Without them not only individual kernels in the great hopper of the year may be badly ground, but the whole grist may show more bran than meal.
I hope this reasoning may satisfy every reader of the importance of the business of almanac-making and prepare them for what is to come.
Aha! Mrs Finnegan, I hear you say. Almanacs are – by their very definition – year books and here we are at the spring equinox and not a word published.
True! I have been delayed by unpaid bills and overdue accounts, but this has proved to be a lucky accident as my almanac can be thrown to eager readers at the start of THE OTHER new year.
I am, of course, referring to the financial year.
When my father was a boy the New Year was still celebrated on March 25th (also known as “Lady Day” to mark the occasion when the angel Gabriel flew down to surprise the Virgin Mary with the news she was pregnant).
She took it well…
The new year starting in March makes sense.
Look out the window and you can see lambs playing in the field and birds building nests or at the very least the grass making an attempt to grow. Everything IS new. January, on the other hand, is a wheezing, chill-riddled old month, at best devoid of all comfort and at worst devoid of food and the means to find it. If I were a lady I’d spend it under an eiderdown.
It all changed back in 1752 when this country finally adopted the new Gregorian Calendar (which was old by then as most of Europe had been using it for nearly 200 years) To get everything to fit in tidily that first year 11 days went missing from September (including the day of my father’s birthday. He never got over it.)
The Treasury, however, stuck to the old ways and to make sure that there was no loss of tax revenues they added 11 days at the end of the tax year so April 5th became the start of the new tax year and it stayed like that… Until they changed it again in 1800 for reasons too tedious to relate and it was pushed forward a day to April 6th. (The fuss my father made, you’d think it was done to spite him) and that’s the way it is for the present.
So, next week will see the launch of my very own almanac, full of similar HIGHLY educational information and also a few carefully selected and perfectly respectable advertisements such as this one. And it will be a New Year of sorts.
Make sure you don’t MISS the THRILLING first issue!
ClickHERE and you will be sent a note every TUESDAY to let you know when the ink is dry and the almanac ready to read.
It’s no TROUBLE at all and this service is provided ENTIRELY FREE of charges, taxes and tips.
Good luck in your endeavour!
I have often reflected that starting the new year on Lady Day makes sense of letting the fires out and thoroughly cleaning the grate and all through the house the day before, because who’s going to let their fires out in the middle of winter?
BRIDGET WHELAN writer 
Good luck in your endeavour!
I have often reflected that starting the new year on Lady Day makes sense of letting the fires out and thoroughly cleaning the grate and all through the house the day before, because who’s going to let their fires out in the middle of winter?
Mrs Finnegan is glad to have your good wishes and as for letting the fire go out in January, all she can say is “Exactly!”
what a wonderful decision and I look forward to it –
Mrs Finnegan fervently hopes/expects you will not be disappointed.