Mrs Finnegan’s Almanac: Everything You Need to Know About January

Please don’t write to tell me the date is wrong. I know it is but alas! I have only just noticed. You may write on any other subject and I would be VERY pleased to hear from you, but NOT that one, I beg of you.

Do not COMPLAIN about the cold.*
If in January the sun much appears,
In March and April we will pay in full, my dears,
Also, if I may be so bold,
a dry January off times means
Frequent frosty February scenes
While a BITTER January
is a sure guarantee
Of a hot sultry July
and to dark clouds we can say goodbye
Mrs Finnegan’s Words of Wisdom
*The facts belong to nature, the rhymes are my own

Other Things You Should Know About January

You should never do washing on New Year’s Day lest you wash someone out of your life and it would your own FAULT. I probably should have mentioned that sooner.

Some say that whatever you do on New Year’s Day you will do for the rest of the year. I have only just heard that one myself. Looking back at my journal I see the following occurred on January 1st:

Row with the mistress about not washing any linen (see above)

Row with HER from at Number 58 (about something or other).

Master Peregrine and I dined on left overs which the cook kindly provided. From memory, it included half a pork pie, enough white soup for two and bit bowls (made with almonds, veal, bread, lemons & egg yokes), ENOUGH cauliflower with lumpy veloute sauce to feed a brigade, three anchovies, two squashed mincemeat pies made from boiled bullock’s tongue, ONE slice of apple cake and a generous bowl of baked custard on the point of turning sour.

It would appear I have a lot to look forward to in 1837

Since Saxon times January 2nd is said to be the unluckiest day of the year and people born on that day should ENJOY themselves while they can. I say no more.

January 13th is supposed to be the coldest day in any year. We shall see.

Today January 9th is the 44th anniversary of income being taxed because of the war with France. All with incomes over £200 a year were taxed at 10 per cent, while those between £60 and £200 were taxed from just under one per cent to 10 per cent. (Naturally, no one was taxed on an annual income below £60.)

It only lasted 22 years, being abolished in 1815 after the Battle of Waterloo. I cannot see any prime minster being foolish enough to bring it back.

Saint of the Week
St Distaff January 7th (who was not a saint at all)

Before we women had the spinning wheel, we had a distaff to spin wool into thread. St Distaff’s Day falls on the day after twelfth night and was traditionally the day women returned to work. (I cannot conceive that there was ever a time when women were allowed MORE than one day off from her labours, but I’ll say no more. Tradition must be respected even if it is not ENTIRELY believed.)

I’m not sure there was much proper work involved as the men were required the thwart the spinners at every turn, often with fire….Fun and fire are not a good mix in my opinion and who could blame the women for pouring buckets of water over the flames and then over the men.

Partly work and partly play
You must on St. Distaff’s Day:
From the plough, soon free your team;
Then come home and fother them;
If the maids a-spinning go,
Burn the flax and fire the tow.
Bring in pails of water then,
Let the maids bewash the men.
Give St. Distaff all the right;
Then bid Christmas sport good night,
And next morrow every one
To his own vocation.
Robert Herrick
(I think my rhymes are superior but I allow you to be the judge.)

By the by, men return to work on Plough Monday, the first Monday after Twelfth Night. Naming the day of the week rather than the date is quite a cunning move. This year, 1837, January 6th fell on a Friday so Plough Monday was yesterday, the 8th.

HOWEVER in 1835 it fell on a Tuesday and I am sure the men were very sorry that they were not required to start ploughing until Monday the 12th.

Improve your Vocabulary One Word at a Time

The old English word uhtceare (I think you say ucht-kay-ara) seems appropriate for this time of year. It means dawn sorrow or, for those of you without a poetic nature, lying awake at night worrying.

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