Sunday 6th (July)
Quite an unpleasant morning. I did not go to Sunday school and
in fact did not go out all day. In the morning father and Mr Printiss went to the
country and did not return until 7 in the evening. In the afternoon William Spooner
but was very cool towards Celly (?) and me. In the evening William Lewis preached
his trial sermon but none of us went to hear him. Mr Printiss Caroline and I cleared
away the table and washed the dishes, but had no dishcloth or towel. Before retiring,
I asked Mr Printiss his meaning of Precocious, he said forward, which so shocked
me that I was quite vexed, and he also was angry, and I have not seen him since.
The dishcloths and towels must have all been sent away with
the laundry. Serena’s family may send their laundry out because Serena never
mentions needing to do it herself during the periods when they have no
servants.
When laundry is done at home, it is usually takes most of
the day on Monday. This is the traditional wash day because there should be
enough leftovers from Sunday dinner so that the housewife would not need to
cook a full meal in addition to doing the laundry. The dirtiest items are
soaked in lye or caustic soda and then boiled in a large pot. They are agitated
by hand-operated wooden “peg dolly” or rubbed over a ridged washboard. Lighter
articles are washed in a tub of lukewarm or cool water. Stains are removed by
using Fuller’s earth (a type of clay), lemon juice, onion juice, or even urine.
Linen is bleached by soaking it in urine, which contains ammonia. On sunny days
linens can be bleached by laying them out in the sunshine. Men’s shirts and
collars are starched stiff as boards. After the laundry is rinsed, it must be
hung to dry. It must first be wrung as much as possible to minimize the drying
time. Hand-cranked wringing machines are available in the nineteenth century.
Laundry is hung on lines in the yard (or possibly hedges and bushes) or racks
in the kitchen. Finally, ironing is done using flatirons heated on the kitchen
range or box irons filled with hot charcoal. There are a multitude of special tools
used to iron ruffles and frills (Seymour 278-287).
William Lewis is Serena’s cousin, the son of Uncle Samuel
and Aunt Charlotte.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the definition
of the word “precocious” is:
Of a
person (now esp. a child): prematurely developed or showing an unusual degree
of advancement in some faculty, ability, or proclivity; (hence, of attributes,
behaviour, etc.) indicative of such development. Now freq. mildly derogatory,
with connotations of overconfidence, self-assertiveness, or pretension.
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