Mary Ann Prout's Diaries
- Her Home Life

The house at Vicarage certainly had a garden, or land attached to it, because, as well as a pig, some fowls and ducks were kept. Keeping a pig was the salvation of many an impoverished Cornish household and the only way many could afford meat, as well as sometimes gain a little money for shoes and other necessities by selling part of the carcase.

The pigsty was usually close to the house and a pig was bought as a 'slip', that is a young pig about six to eight weeks old. It was fattened on household scraps as far as possible, though grain might have to be bought as it grew larger. In fishing villages, fish offal and 'train' (pilchard oil) was often used to help fatten the animal, and discerning purchasers made sure they bought their meat from inland villages where it was more likely to have been dairy fed.

When the day came for the pig to be killed, the local pig killer would be called in. A good housewife prided herself on being able to make use of 'everything except the squeal'. Leg joints were salted, to be used later for boiling, fat was rendered down into lard, sometimes to be used, flavoured with rosemary, instead of butter. Hogspuddings, still a favourite Cornish dish, were made as well as knuckle pies and many other dishes. Gifts of meat, puddings or pies would be sent to neighbours who had helped by contributing their kitchen scraps, or who had sent similar gifts when their own pig was killed.

Altogether the amount of work to be done must have been daunting, so when Mary Ann writes, on 17th April, 1877:

"Dry, cold weather. We are washing today. Our pig was killed this evening. Miss James came down this evening and we went out for a walk. We went up to see the new burial ground up to Goonown."

She is writing of a real marathon of a day, with even more work looming on the morrow, after the pig had hung overnight. Did she and Miss James go for their walk to avoid the pig killing? If so, who could blame her, except perhaps Nancy who must have borne the brunt of the work, because pig killing usually brought round a throng of neighbours.

The household kept poultry, as well as the pig, because Mary Ann writes:

"Sunday, 3rd June, 1877. D.W. One of our fouls and one of our ducks died this morning. Mr Warburton preached this morning. I went up to Beacon. Mr Peters preached a very good sermon."

What did Mr Warburton do that Mary Ann avoided him by going to Beacon Chapel.

Keeping the house clean must have been hard work, with no running hot water, the pig sty and poultry no doubt near the house, the roads rough surfaced and muddy and the lanes even muddier. As for sanitation, that was almost certainly an earth closet somewhere in the garden or yard, with a shovel and a bucket of ashes or dry earth standing beside the wooden seat.

Although there were water-flushed latrines in the ancient cities of the Indus valley, some 2000 years BC, and the Romans of the Housesteads fort on Hadrian's Wall used the surplus water from tanks and baths to flush latrines, 19th century Britain lagged somewhat behind.

Even if an adequate water supply had been available - and, in Cornwall, pumping from the mines often depleted the supply so that some places were actually short of water - there was no underground sewage system to remove the waste. The soil from the earth closets would be used on the land, or dumped into cesspits and perhaps collected two or three times a year.

No wonder the early 1800s were the cholera years. In 1832 cholera killed 779 people in Plymouth and in 1849, the year the first train reached there, successive waves of cholera killed 2000 people, one in 25 of the population.

Bathrooms were rare in Nancy's day, even among the well-to-do. Full length baths were unusual until the 1860s and after, and most people made do with hip baths, basins or a pail. In fact, during my childhood in the 1920s, bathrooms were still scarce in smaller houses.

Although great improvements were made in some areas, progress in others was slow and I well remember using an earth closet on a farm within ten miles of Exeter in the early 1930s. Even when a flush system was installed, the destination of the sewage was suspect and more than one Cornish household's waste went into a disused mine shaft, and possibly still does.

Still, although there was a great deal of work to be done, Nancy did have some occasional help in the house besides her daughter and niece. Two different 'helps' are mentioned in Mary Ann's diaries, as well as someone to give a hand with sewing. On Friday, 18th May, 1877, Mary Ann says:

"Priscilla Daniel is working here today. Tom went out to St.Day today and he brought Tom Bennetts home with him."

Tom Bennetts was possibly a school friend of Tom's and he stayed until 8th June when Tom went back with him to stop for a week or two. When Tom returned, on 22nd June:

"He brought Johnny Thomas with him."

Was that yet another surprise guest for Nancy, or had Tom written to ask permission? Tom, now nearly eleven, was a boarder at Trevarth School. He seems to have been blessed with very long school holidays, and somewhat earlier in the summer than now, or perhaps the school was temporarily closed because of an infection or something similar. Mary Ann was not apparently interested enough in Tom's affairs to say.

By 1882 there was help with the washing, at least sometimes.

"Tuesday, 16th May, 1882. Sarah here washing today. We have had beautiful weather."

A Mrs Peters came several times that Spring to work on a new quilt. She finished it in June.

"Thursday, 15th June, 1882 Mrs Peters was up here yesterday and today, quilting a quilt for Mother. She had finished it tonight. Mrs Peters, Mother, M.E. and me went out for a walk. We went in to Aunt Kitty's. Her brother Dick is very ill. She thinks he has had a seizure."

A succession of guests kept Nancy busy: aunts, cousins, her son's friends, some just passing and some to stay for several days or more. When relatives were staying the opportunity would often be taken to visit others living nearby.

"Tuesday, 3rd July, 1877 Aunt Kitty, Mr Henwood and Mr Stephens and his eldest daughter, Mother and me rode down to Aunt Mary's in Hancock's wagonette. Mr Bray drove us. We all went up on the Carn and in the Monument, with the exception of Mr Stephens and Aunt Kitty.

We spent a very comfortable day. We went to see Mr Trevethan's greenhouse and garden. We had some nice strawberries and we went into Mr Trevethan's house and he played the harmonium and Mary Jane sang."

It was Father's turn for an outing next day.

"Wednesday, 4th July. Father, Tom, James Holman and Johnny Thomas went down to Aunt Mary's this afternoon. There was no-one home. They were all gone down to Portreath. Johnny Thomas stayed behind."

There was a great deal of coming and going that July and August. A general holiday spirit seemed to prevail. It may have had something to do with the event recorded by Mary Ann at the end of July:

"Tuesday, 31st July, 1877. We went over to Mount Hawke this afternoon to see the burial ground consecrated and the foundation stone laid for a church. There was hundreds of people over there. There was a public tea and there was going to be a lecture in the evening. We did not stop to the tea nor to the lecture."

By December that year Nancy's mother, Mary Ann Pearce (formerly Henwood), was living at the Vicarage House. She was by then 78 and had been a widow for 33 years. That was an unhappy Christmas. In the night of Saturday, 22nd December, she was heard calling out and John, Mother and Father went into Grandma's room and found Grandma down on the floor. She was so weak she could not stand.

By Monday she was weaker and 'quite dead in her right side' and the doctor was called, and again the next day.

"Tuesday, 25th December, 1877. It is Xmas today. I went to chapel this morning and so did Mother. Aunt Priscilla staid home to cook dinner and M.E. staid with Grandma. Grandma is very bad."

The next day was Nancy's birthday. Mary Ann went to Goonown to a special service, followed by a tea and a 'speaking meeting' in the evening.

Our choir was in attendance and sang some very nice pieces. Miss Bennetts plaid the harmonium. It was a beautiful meeting. It was full of people.

Grandma held on until the New Year, with various friends and relations calling in to see her.

"Monday 31st December, 1877. Grandma is very ill. She is quite dead in her right side. I don't think she will live long. Aunt Kitty and Aunt Betsy came up to see her today. She is very fond of holding anybody's hand."

Grandma lived for a few more days.

"On Friday we had Grandma sitting out, raped in a blanket and Mother's paisley shawl. but on Saturday, just as Mary Ann came back into the room after cleaning the lamps and tidying, she died.

She died holding Aunt Priscilla's hand. Father, Aunt Priscilla and me was in the room when her soul fled away to be with Jesus. Mother was in the room a few minutes before but went down. I don't think I shall ever forget it. M.E. and T.A.P. (Tom) was down also when she died."

Grandma was buried the following Wednesday in St. Agnes. Family tradition has always held that one of the more or less permanent paying guests in the house at Vicarage was a doctor. I eventually found him on the 1881 Census return, a Dr. Whitley, but it is unlikely that he was living there at the time of Grandma's death in January 1878. He was still there in 1882, however, as on Sunday, 20th July, Mary Ann writes:

"Dr Whitley gave me Twig as a present yesterday. He is going to pay the licence for him."

Twig was, presumably, a dog (dog licensing was introduced in 1796). It is to be hoped that Dr Whitley had received sanction from Mary Ann's parents before he gave her the animal, but perhaps, as she was by then 21 and beginning to think of a home of her own, he didn't think it necessary.

Often guests at the house were visiting preachers, who would have been hosted without charge, but temporary paying guests sometimes helped out the family income:

"Wednesday 26th July, 1882 The mine dinner for Wheal Kitty mine was had at John Paul's hotel today. Sixty had dinner. Mr Rudd and Mrs came here today. He has shares in the mine. They are very nice people indeed. Mother is greatly taken up with them."

Nancy's judgment was sound:

"Friday 28th Mr Rudd left this morning. Gave Mother 8 shillings more than she charged them."

Possibly on the strength of the extra eight shillings, Nancy went off to Truro the following week.

"Wednesday 2nd August, 1882 Mother went to Truro today. Had her portrait taken. Mother bought an embroidered collar for me, and striped material for a skirt for me and cretonne for a pair of window curtains."

Whenever Nancy managed to get to Truro she would bring back little presents for Mary Ann. After the episode of 'The Willie' she bought her a sunshade for ten shillings which, considering the times, seems very expensive, but perhaps it was a very superior sunshade.

Next chapter - A Soul To Be Saved
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St Agnes

St. Agnes - now seaside village

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Alan Taylor
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Created on
4th July 2004