Thursday 14 March 1839
Damp thick foggy morning Fahrenheit 40 1/2 inside and 39 1/2 outside at 8 35/60 had had Ann 10 minutes or 1/4 hour - breakfast at 8 35/60 Ann had Mr. Horner at 9
I sat reading till about 9 1/2 Lardner's Grecian and Roman Antiquities volume i. then a little while with the joiners - then reading again till Booth came soon after 10 about rubbling the road in St. Anne's street Northgate
204 1/2 yards already brought away and 100 yards more ought to come to make the rise regular - agreed - ordered - Booth thought tuppence per square yard super for laying on spreading and breaking rubble, Halifax sandstone, 6 inches thick = 4/2 per rood of 4 yards wide road - I thought penny ha'penny per yard enough = 3/0 1/2 per rood - but thought 3/6 per rood enough - then talk about the boiler house &c. &c. Washington's worse than folly - till Ann came at 11 for me to speak to Mr. Horner
Told him to settle about his son's coming to take Ann's likeness & mine - and begged Mr. Horner to get Ann as far-forward in colouring as he possibly could - then with Ann and Booth till 11 1/2
Then had Mark Hepworth - he asked tuppence per yard for rubbling - said I thought that a very good price he said he included ashes, 2 inches thick, laying on - I came away leaving him and Booth to settle it
Mark to tell Wood the mole catcher of Norwood Green to come - Smith who has lately caught the moles wanting more price - said he had agreed with Frank, and had his own price - he ought to have known at first what to ask - I paid the same as others - would therefore charge, whatever I paid
Ann had ordered Booth to reset Dentons, Hipperholme lane ends Travellers Inn cottages, grate and oven, having consented to it before (vide 11 February) - but this not to be made a precedent
Came upstairs again about 11 3/4 - read a few pages - then till 12 1/2 wrote so far of today
Wrote and sent by Mr. Booth (before 12) note to 'Messrs. Parker and Adam Solicitors Halifax' to say that before giving any answer respecting the memorandum to Mr. Shaw's lease, I wished to see Mr. Mitchell's valuation
From 12 1/2 to about 1 1/2 read forward to page 51 Lardner's Grecian and Roman Antiquities volume 1 then had Ann till very near 2 when she rode off to Cliff hill
From then to 4 1/2 with Robert Norton ordering about ceiled off entrance from gallery into North chamber - pulling down old doorway into the room - moving things out of library passage ready for taking the floor up, and looking about till now 4 1/2
So thick a fog can hardly see a dozen yards out into the flower garden
Out at 4 3/4 no! Ann came to me and staid with me or I with her downstairs 1/2 hour
From about 5 1/2 to 7 making extracts from Murray's Summer in the Pyrenees, volume 2, respecting his ascent of Mont Perdu - dinner at 7 5/60 - Ann read French - coffee
Books from Crowder this evening the librarian - volume 3 Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians for me - and volume 1 Keightley's Outlines of History Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia and volume 1 Mitford's Greece and volume 1 Thirwall's Greece (Cabinet Cyclopædia) for Ann of the last named volume I read chapters 2 and 3 from page 32 to 79 on the earliest inhabitants of Greece and on the foreign settlers in Greece - the Pelasgians perhaps the principal inhabitants, very anciently, of Greece and Italy vide page 56/448 - 'the portion or element which the 'Latin language has in common with the Greek, was immediately derived from the Pelasgians. It will then 'follow that their language was at least the basis of the Greek itself, and that it may be far more correctly considered 'either as a dialect of it, than as totally foreign to it. This general result seems to be well 'established' .... 'the most ancient architectural monuments in Europe ..... clearly appear to have been 'the works of their hands' ... 'in Epirus, Italy, and the western coast of Asia minor' called 'Cyclopean 'because according to the Greek legend, the Cyclopes built the walls of Tiryus and Mycenæ' 61/648 'It has been suspected, not without great appearance of probability, that the Phœnicians are often described in the 'legends of the Greek seas under different names' e.g. Telechines &c. 76/448
Reading the above second and third chapters and writing the last 14 1/2 lines till 11
Damp thick-fog regular thaw day - so thick this afternoon could scarce a dozen yards before one
Then read aloud to Ann the 1st. chapter volume 1 quarto of Mitford's Greece - the style a relief after the heavy style the Cabinet Cyclopædia History of Greece
Came upstairs at 11 1/2 at which hour Fahrenheit 43 1/2 inside and 45 1/2 outside warm muggy rainy night.
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