Two and two don't always make five

In last week's Memories, there were excerpts printed of William Emerson's Weardale diary. Emerson was the great Hurworth mathematician and sun dial maker who went annually to visit his estate near Wolsingham.

This, for example, is the 1769 entry in the diary:

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Went into Weardale, May 21 Thursday. Fryday gath'd for fishing. Saturday put taties on y'r bar-hrad Bire. Sunday, wet. Not at Chappel, got to Mary Vicars. Monday. Did some jobs. Saw Phoebe. Tuesday, mended foredoor. Wed. Came home. A dam'd wet day.'

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Naturally, I jumped to salacious conclusions. I put two and two together and made five about the great mathematician, who wrote some of his tracts under the name of Merones (Emerson scrambled).

I assumed that he was having affairs with both Phoebe and Mary Vicars.

How wrong I was.

I've just received this fascinating translation of Emerson's diary from William Pearson in Stockton:

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Some folk perhaps think that I am a bit quirky, which trait might assist in handling the problems set by Merones. I offer the following contribution, which I will try to keep brief.

Any contact with W.E. reveals a man with a convoluted mind. One should be wary of anything written by one who called himself 'Merones'. Far from indicating affairs in Weardale, his lady friends were his code for something else. For instance, my father Robert Pearson was of south Durham farming stock and I used to wonder why he regularly referred to the Sun as Phoebe (rather than Phoebus, an alternative for the Greek sun-god Apollo). Phoebe was female and sometimes equated with the moon-goddess Selena. I now suspect my dad picked up this use of 'Phoebe' because he spent several late Edwardian years at Low Harperley, near Wolsingham.

When W.E. wrote that he 'saw Phoebe' he meant he was experiencing sunshine. This was important since he was working on sundials. His way of recording such outdoor work was that he was 'at hay', his shorthand for 'made hay while the Sun shone'. Thus in April 1770 on Monday he mended Phoebe's clock and crutches (a dial and gnomon), on Tuesday he was at hay and set up dial. On Wednesday he again took advantage of sunshine both to work and eat outside - 'at hay and dined with Phoebe'.

Then there was Mary Vicars. On Sundays he managed both to go to Chapel and Mary Vicars. The former was presumably the church at St. John's Chapel. The latter is his code for Vicar of St. Mary's. From his dwelling near East Gate he apparently went upstream to church in the morning. Downstream to the east Stanhope's church is not dedicated to St. Mary, but does have a sundial dated 1727. Is this what W.E. was correcting later in the century? Mary Vicars however would seem to refer to Wolsingham church, formerly dedicated to Mary and Stephen. One might infer that W.E. worshipped here because he was working for this vicar (otherwise why not go to the nearer church at Stanhope?). For some reason in June 1771 he only made it to Mary Vicars. When this church was almost entirely rebuilt in 1848 was the sundial lost?

The next day he went to 'Whesthop Fell at East Yit (i.e. Gate). The former seems to refer to the present Westernhope Moor. This 'hope' (valley) lies further west on the opposite southern bank of the Wear. Otherwise the place-names are tricky. the estate was called Castle Gate. The only castle is at Stanhope. Did the name perhaps refer to a Deerpark gate on the south bank facing towards this?

In June 1772 he 'set the water off billing'. Billing Shield lies across the Wear from East Gate, but the 'billing' itself was the adjacent ridge to the south.

His contact with Weardale was coming to an end. In June 1771 he 'got the deed signed' on Saturday and 'got the lease signed' on Wednesday. Did he sell the estate and lease the house back for a while?

He mentions activity at a byre. From his words it would also seem he fished, but not with rod and line. In July 1768 he had gone fishing on Friday, worked on the net on Saturday and Monday, then fished again on Wednesday. He seems to have set up some arrangement of fish traps. At this time he 'killed' 21 trout, 17 in the Wellburn. Here Wellhope Burn is tempting, especially as there is a High Byre near the hamlet of Wellhope. Yet this is too remote to the west. One might suspect Wellburn was the small stream between Billing Shield and Westernhopeburn, and marked by the house called Ludwell. In May 1769 he apparently prepared for fishing on the day after he arrived. In August 1770 he spent 2 hours on Saturday doing something, after which he caught 4 trout. The Willy Burn with whom he went to Weardale in 1771 is presumably a silly disguise for Wellburn. In 1772 he fished on Thursday, then 'set the water off' at Billing and opened the rimmel-wood. The latter should perhaps be runnel, a launder. The structure was being decommissioned and the water released because he was leaving for ever. He reported the death and burial of Phoebe (as far as he was concerned). He missed Chapel (it was raining) and only went to Mary Vicars on Monday, presumably to say his goodbyes.

Remaining completely indecypherable are 'a getting 4 Gribo' and 'put taties on y'r bar-hrad Bire'.