George Orwell Diaries

Footnotes are numbered from 1 for this Volume; they are placed within or at the foot of the relevant dates.

5.27.39:_[D] Overcast in the morning, fine & warm in the afternoon. Blue speedwell & bugle out everywhere. Buttercups about at their tallest. Dandelions seeding. Large toadstools in the fields.

Strawed strawberries. Applied sodium chlorate to the remaining patch under the walnut tree.

Yesterday watched a thrush cracking a snail on a flat stone. Not, as I had thought, by pecking at it, but picking it up & knocking it on the stone.

15 eggs. Sold 50 eggs today, the largest batch sold hitherto. (1/10 a score).

Eggs to date (see vol. I) 565

Week starts tomorrow.

[Newspaper cuttings: ‘Gelatine Moulds’ – for plaster casting; ‘A Seed-Sowing Tip’ – using an old cocoa tin; ‘Capturing Queen Wasps’]

5.28.39:_[D] (Whit Sunday): Very chilly in early morning, the rest of the day fine & sunny. Some salvias were planted last night. Daily Mail rose now almost ready to open, buds on Dorothy Perkins & Albertine. Delphinium buds forming, peonies not far from opening.

13 eggs (plus 7 laid out = 20). Today starts new egg week.

5.29.39:_[D] Very fine & warm. Netted strawberries. Took M[uriel] to the billy but fear she is not on heat. Mr. N.1 says they usually only are on autumn-spring. M. greatly afraid of a cow. The cow, on the other hand, frightened of a half-grown billy kid which was there.

16 eggs.

[Newspaper cuttings: ‘Wet Mash for Laying Period’; ‘Feeding Chicks’; ‘Feeding Ducklings’]

5.30.39:_[D] Very fine & warm. Planted tomatoes (12), putting sacking over to protect them from the sun. One cheddar pink is out. A fine drizzle for a little while in the morning. Note that netting strawberries does not seem to inhibit the bees to any extent.

14 eggs

5.31.39:_[D] Fine & warm, but strikes very chilly as soon as the sun begins to go in. Tomatoes (protected from the sun with sacking) are O.K. A few French & runner beans showing.

M’s mating no good. When bringing her back found she had not been milked since taking her there (ie. 48 hours) & her udders were very distended. Milked her & obtained a quart, which seemed not soured or otherwise unsatisfactory. Do not know whether this will put her milk-yield back.

17 eggs (sold 50 at 2/– a score).

Saw a white owl this evening.

6.1.39:_[D] Cold in the morning, warmed up later. Very windy. Began sticking peas, put new perches in new henhouse. Uncovered tomatoes.

11 eggs.

6.2.39:_[D] Very hot, very dry, a good deal of wind. Young seedlings tending to droop. Titley has peonies, columbines full out. Honeysuckle also full out. A sweet william here & there beginning to open. Apples on the grenadier about the size of marbles. Ditto T’s cherries.

Stacked up some dried nettles etc. for litter. Set 10 duck eggs. Prepared ground for lettuces. Moved chicks.

M’s milk has gone right back as a result of the upset. Less than a pint yesterday.

15 eggs. Weighed some eggs & found that only a very few are under 2 oz.

M. gave about 1½ pts., so perhaps is going back to normal.

6.3.39:_[D] Very hot & dry. Planted 1 score of T’s lettuces & about a dozen (smaller) of our own. Protected with sacking, as with the tomatoes. E[ileen] planted 7 dahlias.

The hen had pushed away 4 of the duck eggs, which had become quite cold.

Put on another hen, removing one egg. Not certain whether this will have killed these eggs (which had been sat on 24 hours.)

12 eggs. Sold 40 at 2/– a score. Total this week 98 (+7 = 105).

6.4.39:_[D] Extremely hot & dry. Made larger runs for chicks, putting sacking over as shade. Had to take the sacking from the lettuces, which had not wilted owing to being covered. A few sweet williams coming out. The other very small dianthus is coming out. These shut up at night, the cheddar pinks do not. Many greenfly on the roses. Squirted them with soap & water. M. gave 1¾ pts. today, so is about back to normal.

14 eggs.

E[ileen] saw a white owl again last night.

6.5.39:_[D] Unbearably hot. Everything is drying up. A sweet william out. Ragged robin out.

Sowed peas (English wonder). Mulched tomatoes. French & runner beans have germinated very badly, so am sowing some in a box for fill-ups. New potatoes ready to be earthed up, a few of the maincrop showing.

5 eggs! (Presumably something to do with heat).

NB. that ½ pint of peas sows one of our rows (about 12 yards) thickly.

6.6.39:_[D] Too hot to do much in the garden. Earthed up early potatoes.

We are changing the hens on to Full-o-Pep, which is somewhat cheaper than Clarke’s laying mash. Also getting corn etc. by the cwt., which effects a small saving. NB. that 1 cwt. each of Full-o-Pep & mixed corn begun today, & at 3 lb. a day of each should last till about July 12th. Great trouble with the broody hen, which at feeding time tries to rejoin the others. When caught & put into the coop, however, she goes back to her eggs.

Many turtle doves about.

11 eggs.

6.7.39:_[D] Extremely dry & hot, but a little wind. There is fairly heavy dew at nights.

Planted out 2 bush marrows, putting tins over them. E[ileen] cut the lawn with shears & then with the mower, which Albert H.2 has sharpened (paid for sharpening 1/6). Continued sticking peas.

M. giving nearly a quart. Have sent for another goat, British-Alpine cross, kidded last month, £3.

9 eggs (plus 5 laid out = 14). Sold 1 score (2/–.)

6.8.39:_[D] Very dry, not quite so hot.

Prepared another marrow-bed, this time digging it less deeply & putting on 4-inch layer of lawn-clippings. Shall compare results of this style of bed with the other. Weeded & hoed the French & runner beans. Not much more than half of them are germinating. Uncovered the lettuces. Thinned out apples on the grenadier. About 60 left, but presumably not more than a dozen will stay on.

D.M.3 rose is full out, delphiniums almost out.

M. is hardly eating any hard food, but her milk is not down.

12 eggs (plus 7 laid out = 19).

Duck eggs said to take 28 days or a month, so these are due out about June 30 – July 2.

6.9.39:_[D] Very dry, less hot. No signs of rain.

Planted two more marrows & removed the covers from the others. Did more weeding. The turnips have completely disappeared & very few onions are left, & some of those wilting. Shall re-sow & plant after it has rained. Except the lettuces very little has germinated in the seed-bed. Eg. only 11 broccoli out of a packet. Maincrop potatoes now mostly up & look pretty good.

E[ileen] put six broodies in a sort of cage of wire netting, which may perhaps cure them.

The new goat arrived. Evidently had not been milked, so milked her, obtaining 1½ pints, & another ½ pint tonight. Supposed to give 3–4 pints, but this business will no doubt have put her off, as with M. a few days back. Am not stripping M. & shall gradually get her down to one milking a day, also reducing her feed. M. very jealous, butting the other goat, stealing her food etc., the other goat (name Kate) not resisting.

10 eggs.

6.10.39:_[D] Extremely dry & pretty hot. Began hoeing main crop potatoes, which are mostly through. Lettuces & marrows seem O.K. Many flowers in the garden drooping. The rainwater tank is now almost empty (the first time this has happened, but E[ileen] was here alone last summer).

K. wound herself up to her stake, then caught her hind leg & wound this so that it was twisted behind her neck & held there so tightly that I could only extricate her by undoing her collar. Very lame in consequence & ankle-joint swollen, but evidently nothing broken. Her yield today between 2 & 2½ pts. M. (not stripped) about 1½ pts.

8 eggs (plus 9 laid out = 17). Sold 2 score @ 2/–.

No. this week: 90.

6.11.39:_[D] Last night fairly heavy rain for 4–6 hours, which has freshened things up greatly. Today overcast & cooler.

Wild Flowers now out: dogrose, poppies, campion, knapweed (a few), egg & bacon, scabious (a few), elder, sanfoin.4 A few fruits on the wild plum tree. K.’s leg better but her yield only about 2¼ pints, so am increasing her feed. 15 eggs.

6.12.39:_[D] There was evidently some rain during last night. This morning overcast & rather chilly, then from 4–6 in the afternoon heavy rain.

Finished hoeing maincrop potatoes, which are now practically all up. (There are 4 rows Epicure, 10 of Red King & 2 of King Edward. Excluding the Epicures, this ought to give about 3 cwt. of potatoes).

The hen sitting the duck eggs has twice moved them across the coop, presumably because moles burrowing below trouble her, but she seems to be sitting them all right.

E[ileen] planted out lobelia.

12 eggs.

6.13.39:_[D] Overcast, sunny intervals, some rain.

Took up tulips & planted out to finish their growth, also narcissi. Began putting up new hen-house (a shop-soiled one, price 17/6, which arrived uncreosoted & without roofing felt. Would accommodate 10–12 full-grown hens.) Old H.5 planted out more lettuces. Began earthing up early potatoes for the second time. One gap in the 4 rows. Let out the broody hens, hoping that some at least will have gone off by this time. Had to throw away 1 duck egg (now only 8) as the hen had turned it out.

A jackdaw has twice been hanging round the chicken coops, obviously with designs on the chickens.

11 eggs.

6.14.39:_[D] Bought 8 new R.I.R.6 pullets, 3 to 3½ months old, well forward, 4/6 each.

Finished putting up new house, which however is not creosoted or roof-felted yet, also the door needs adjustments. The old hen guarding the first lot of chicks has some sort of infection in her eye & will probably have to be destroyed.

3rd lot of peas (dwarf, sown 6.5.39) just showing. Runner & dwarf beans sown in box (6.6.39) coming up.

The broodies E[ileen] put in the cage, released yesterday, have all (seven) gone back to normal.

K[ate] now having 11 handfuls of feed at a meal, & yield rising very slightly (nearly 2½ pts.)

12 eggs. Sold 30 @ 2/– score.

6.15.39:_[D] Windy, coldish & occasional drizzle. Put up stakes & wires upon which to stretch strings for runner beans. Fixed door of henhouse & supported it off the ground.

K.’s milk yield increasing slightly.

15 eggs.

(NB began new bottle of iron pills yesterday).

6.16.39:_[D] Heavy rain in the night, raining on & off most of the day, till about 5 pm when it cleared up. Too wet to do much out of doors. Placed strings for beans (much too low), began preparing a patch for turnips in place of those which failed in the drought.

Am giving the hens grit & shell – the first time they have had it, as I thought it was not necessary on a chalky soil. However, of late some of the eggshells, though not thin, have been of rather bad texture. Now that the new house is raised the pullets get out under the edges in the mornings, so it is nowhere near foxproof until floored.

A few strawberries now red. Canterbury bells well out but want sticking. Grass is a lot better after the rain. Seem to be no gaps in maincrop potatoes.

15 eggs.

[Newspaper cutting: ‘Cream Cheese from Goat’s Milk’]

6.17.39:_[D] Fine, fairly warm.

Sowed carnations (mixed perennial). Put roofing felt on henhouse. Paid for felt 9d a yard.

Both goats’ milk badly down, no doubt owing to being unable to graze yesterday. Being indoors also seems to affect their appetite for hard food.

14 eggs. Sold 30 @ 2/– score.

No. this week: 94.

[Newspaper cutting: making corner posts for gates and fences]

6.18.39:_[D] Fine in the morning, raining fairly heavily most of the afternoon.

The first ripe strawberry today. In spite of the net the birds are already getting at the partially ripe ones.

K’s milk still down, only about 1 quart today.

13 eggs.

6.19.39:_[D] Fine most of the morning, raining most of the afternoon. Not cold. Ground now too wet to do much in garden. Put out runner beans to fill up gaps in row, sowed sweet williams & wallflowers, mended frame, substituting windolite for glass. Note that windolite tends to develop small holes & [I] do not know whether it is repairable. Began thinning carrots, which, however, are largely° gaps already, thanks to drought.

K’s milk going up again (about 47 oz.)

15 eggs.

6.20.39:_[D] Fine in the morning, thunderstorm & fairly heavy rain in the afternoon. Earth too wet to do much. Started preparing place for a row of broccoli. Peonies almost out. Rambler (yellow) well out.

16 eggs.

[On facing page, in Orwell’s hand:]

Mould° for concrete slabs. The shaded bits are nailed on (simpler than cutting tenons). A & C are each made in one piece, then jammed up against B, the ends of the sidepieces fitted into slots & weights placed against the ends. A & C can then be drawn away as the concrete begins to set. Except for B, the whole could be made of 2" by ½".

6.21.39:_[D] Cold, windy & some drizzle. Fire in the house all day. Did nothing out of doors. Did not put the goats out, owing to cold. Perennial Canterbury Bell (very poor flower) is well out.

11 eggs. Sold 40 @ 2/2 score.

6.22.39:_[D] Cold all day & very windy. Dense mist in the morning. Did nothing in garden.

14 eggs.

6.23.39:_[D] Overcast & drizzle but somewhat less cold. Did nothing in garden. Wallflowers sown 6.19.39 (in frame) beginning to show & carnations sown a day earlier also germinating. Thanks to the rain, a few carrots beginning to sprout in what were previously the gaps. Much of Innes’s hay in & stacked. Peonies out. In Mrs B’s garden mulleins out.

13 eggs.

[On June 24 Orwell went to Southwold to be with his father, who was very ill. Richard Blair died of cancer of the rectum on June 28. Orwell was by his bedside. He returned to Wallington on June 30. From June 24–30 the Diary is written in Eileen’s hand.]

6.24.39:_[D] Overcast & showery all the morning but sunny periods late & less cold. Goats out all day for the first time this week. A few very fine scabious out in the hedgerows but wild flowers much scarcer than a week or two ago. Albertine rose7 showing colour but not yet out; this & the bush roses have been in bud for a fortnight or more. Began earthing up maincrop potatoes. No gaps, though rather uneven growth.

14 eggs. Total for week: 96

vi°.25.39:_[D] Fine all day & fairly warm until evening. Sweet williams, two red roses & one Albertine full out. A salvia & a marigold in bud. Some stonecrop in full flower. Stonecrop appears to flower erratically as one clump has been out for two or three weeks & others (all contemporary) are still in bud.

15 eggs.

6.26.39:_[D] Warm sunny morning. Threats of thunderstorms in afternoon but no thunder & little rain. Potatoes earthed up. Gaps filled in french bean rows with extras sown in a box in the frame when the original rows were found to have germinated badly – i.e. after an interval of ten days or so. There is very little difference in development. Blackfly have already settled on about a quarter of the broad beans, though not in great numbers; pinched out growing points. The strings for the runner beans were tangled & stretched by rain & wind. Apparently four or five stakes are necessary for one of our rows. Weeded & hoed onions which are now three or four inches tall but with many gaps in the rows. Beans & peas have grown very rapidly, some runner bean tendrils lengthening by a couple of inches since Saturday.

12 eggs.

6.27.39:_[D] Very hot & sunny. Thinned carrots & hoed peas etc. Planted out 48 larkspurs, removing some poor sweet williams. Apparently sweet williams sometimes ‘shoot up’ for several years but cannot be made to do so.

15 eggs + 8 found in a nest.

6.28.39:_[D] Much cooler & occasional showers. Mr H[atchett] finished cutting the hay & collected it today. Sowed turnips & planted out a row of mixed greens from the seed bed. Both broody hens with chickens laid today, & one (the youngest) had three other eggs hidden at the back of the coop. 14 eggs + 3 in coop.

6.29.39:_[D] Hot & sunny most of the day. One duck had hatched this morning. Later moved the hen to new coop & left the more backward eggs with another broody. By evening 7 ducks; the eighth egg shows no sign of hatching but have put it under the hen for the night. The first ducks are fluffed up but show no disposition to walk about. Apparently ducklings are much slower to walk than chickens, being ‘weak in the legs’ (Mrs R.).8 Made an awning with adjustable sacking cover & put flat dish of water in coop.

Rehoed onions which are growing at last. Marrows also growing, one strongly. White rose out.

15 eggs.

6.30.39:_[D] Ducklings still under hen this morning but in the afternoon came out to eat (brown bread crumbled with milk & dried a little with a sprinkling of chickmeal).

Thundery weather with heavy showers.

14 eggs.

7.1.39:_[D] Fine most of morning, very heavy showers in afternoon. Garden mostly in good condition. Some strawberries ripe, a few broad beans fit to pick, onions improving, runner beans just starting to climb strings. Hay is cut & stacked in small stack about 6’ by 5’, but not certain yet whether we can preserve this. M.’s milk going off considerably. Ducklings all healthy & lively, young chicks making good growth. Such currants as there are are ripening.

Marigolds (a few) in flower. Wild scabius° appearing.

10 eggs (plus 14 laid out = 24).

Sold this week 72 @ 2/2d. Total this week = 120.

7.2.39:_[D] Overcast most of day, a heavy shower in the afternoon, & cold enough to have a fire.

Both the hens guarding chicks have begun laying eggs the younger one showed a tendency to stray away. E[ileen] therefore put her with the other hens & put all chicks together with the other hen. This morning two of the youngest badly pecked, especially the one which for some reason is white. Have segregated these two, & we are going to wean the others at once. Three of the elder ones are already perching.

Picked about 1½ lb. of strawberries & had some broad beans (young, eaten pod & all). These are about the first produce of the garden. A few loganberries reddening. Apples on the grenadier as large as golf balls. Clarkia beginning to flower.

11 eggs.

Cylinder of Calor gas, started 6.8.39, gave out today.

Cwt. of Full-o-Pep, started 6.6.39, getting low in the bin. Should last till 7.12.39. Actually might last till about 8th or 10th, but some of it has been fed to the pullets occasionally.

DIARY OF EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE WAR

This Diary of Events Leading Up to the War is, in the main, a handwritten list of extracts from newspapers from July 2 to September 1, 1939, the day Germany invaded Poland. It concludes with a summary dated September 3, the day Britain declared war on Germany following Germany’s refusal to withdraw from Poland. No record was made for ten of the days covered by this Diary. However, items for days not specifically recorded were sometimes included later. After the break from August 25th to 27th there is a summary on the 28th. The manuscript comprises fifty-five pages each page being divided horizontally, the upper half recording events and the lower the sources of information; the pages are divided into five columns headed Foreign & General, Social, Party Politics, Miscellaneous, and Remarks. Except for August 24 (to which two pages are devoted) there is one page per day. The writing is often small and cramped. The allocation of topics and the arrangement of the information as reproduced here are sometimes arbitrary but they are Orwell’s. When Orwell gives a source and date, the source is noted in square brackets but the date is given only if it differs from that at the head of the section. Orwell’s remarks follow the item to which they refer and are marked ‘[Orwell’s note]’. Some very slight corrections have been made silently. When entries from both sources are on the same date, the Domestic Diary entry precedes that for the Events Leading Up to the War.

Orwell quotes from forty-one sources for the 297 items. Of these, 138 (46.5%) are from the Daily Telegraph. There is a noticeable increase in references to The Times and the News Chronicle ( which tended to share the stance of the Liberal Party) and a proportionate decrease in references to the Daily Telegraph when Orwell went to stay with L. H. Myers at Ringwood on August 24. Orwell evidently looked to the Daily Telegraph for factual information during these months. Of these sources, Socialist Correspondence and Revolutionary Proletarian are worth some attention. The first was run by a ‘right-wing opposition’ within the left-wing ILP. Members were followers of Nikolai Bukharin, victim of a show trial in 1938 and then executed. Among its members was W.W. Sawyer, a mathematician at Manchester University and author of a popular Penguin book, Mathematician’s Delight. Socialist Correspondence was an octavo of eight to sixteen pages, some of which were blank but marked ‘To Let’, and described itself as ‘An Organ of Marxist Theory’. Revolutionary Proletarian was La Révolution Prolétarienne, founded January 1, 1925; suspended after issue 301, August 25, 1939; issue 302 was published in April 1947. Its line was anti-Stalinist. In its issue 255, September 25, 1937, it published the French translation of Orwell’s ‘Eye-Witness in Barcelona’ on the suppression of the POUM in Barcelona which the New Statesman had refused to publish, but which was taken by the ILP journal, Controversy (see CW, XI, pp. 54–60). For further details, see CW, XI, pp. 362–3.

Entries from Orwell’s Diary of Events Leading Up to the War, are intercalated with those from the Domestic Diary. ‘Diary of Events’ entries (as they are headed) are easily identified because they follow their sub-headings. Their footnotes immediately follow the last entry for each day. They are numbered from 1 for each day. Later references to these footnotes are by the word ‘Events’ plus the relevant date. These entries are marked with E after the date. Domestic Diary entries are each marked with D . Their footnotes are numbered sequentially continuing from note 8 on page 154 and follow the relevant day.

7.2.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Poland states that Danzig1 will be occupied if Danzig Senate declares for the Reich. [Sunday Times]

2. N.L.C.2 of Labour Party broadcast in German in much the same terms as at September crisis. [Observer]

PARTY POLITICS

Sinclair,3 Ramsay Muir,4 Amery,5 Eden,6 Cripps,7 Burgin8 make virtually identical statements re. resistance to German agression.° [Sunday Times]

7.3.39:_[D] Warmer, sunny most of day.

Planted pumpkin (somewhat too late, & in a too shady position). Earthed up north side of maincrop potatoes. No gaps, but some very immature. Lifted tulip bulbs. One early potato withered up – trust not disease. Turnips (sown 6.28.39) are showing. One pullet limping.

15 eggs.

7.4.39:_[D] Fine & hot. A few raspberries reddening. Phloxes in bud, also ber-gamot. Goats escaped this morning & ate a lot of fruit tree shoots, rose shoots & some tops of phloxes. Pullet still limping badly & fear some kind of paralysis, tho’ she seems otherwise in good condition. Put gate on duck run & allowed the ducklings out of the coop. Today started new cwt. of Full-o-Pep & cwt. of corn. The pullets are also having from the latter, but of course not having laying mash. On the other hand 4 old fowls sold today. The mash therefore has to do for 24 hens, the corn for 32. Mash should therefore last about 35 days, corn about the same (allowing 1½ oz. per bird.) Shall try & reach the end before ordering new stuff next time, in order to see how it lasts out. This lot ought to give out about the August 8th, which is a Tuesday. Started the hens on a course of Karswood spice today.

10 eggs.

7.4.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Fighting reported on Manchukuo1 -Mongolian border. [Daily Telegraph]

SOCIAL

1. Unemployment now down to about 1,350,000. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Egg-production of England & Wales in 1937 about 3,250 million. [Smallholder, 6.24.39]

7.5.39:_[D] Hot. A short shower in the evening. Bergamot in bud. The white chick looks bad, & the pullet which is limping no better. A few loganberries ripe enough to pick. Started creosoting henhouse. Sowed radishes, cos lettuce, parsley. E[ileen] sowed F[rench] beans.

10 eggs. Sold 2 score @ 2/6.

7.5.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. More fighting reported on Manchukuo border. [Daily Telegraph]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Conservative M.P.s to petition for Churchill’s1 entry into Cabinet.

Following D. T. ’s2 article, many letters to this effect. [Daily Telegraph]

7.6.39:_[D] Very windy, & raining lightly most of the day. Too wet to do anything outside. Nasturtiums in flower. Roses now extremely good. Another 2 lb. strawberries. (3½ lb. to date – am noting amounts in order to see what weight of fruit that space produces).

11 eggs.

7.6.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Britain to grant arms credit of £100 million to Poland, Turkey & Rumania. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Polish, Turkish & Chinese gov.ts said to believe Stalin genuinely desires pact. [Daily Telegraph]

PARTY POLITICS

1. McGovern1 again attacking L.P.2 in Parliament. [Daily Telegraph]

7.7.39:_[D] Some rain in the morning, hot in the afternoon. Transplanted onions as well as possible, but there are still some gaps. New cylinder of Calor gas begun today.

9 eggs. Sold 8 @ 1½d.

7.7.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Fighting on Manchukuo border reported this time from Russian sources (Tass agency). [Daily Telegraph]

PARTY POLITICS

1. At Zurich conference of I.F.T.U.,1 British T.U. leaders now advocating affiliation of Russian unions. [Manchester Guardian Weekly]

7.8.39:_[D] Raining much of the day, a fine interval in the evening, very windy. Picked some more loganberries. One hollyhock beginning to flower. A few runner beans show buds. Tomatoes flowering, also several marrows. One or two snapdragons beginning to flower. Have evidently been overfeeding the pullets, which are leaving some of their mash. The limping one no better, though otherwise seemingly all right in health, so shall segregate her tomorrow. A few self-sown potatoes uprooted today have potatoes only about the size of marbles on them. Putting the ducklings on mash from today.

10 eggs. Sold ½ score @ 2/6. No. this week: 76

7.8.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Public Information Leaflet No.1 (Civil Defence) issued by the Post Office today. Large-scale A.R.P.1 practice to take place tonight over S. E. England. [No separate reference]

PARTY POLITICS

1. I.F.T.U. now apparently refusing Russian affiliation, France, Mexico, Norway & G.Britain voting for (the last two conditionally), U.S.A. & most European countries against. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Trial of Julien* Besteiro2 begins in Madrid today. (J.B. took part in Casado3 junta). [Daily Telegraph]

MISCELLANEOUS

1. Rat population of G. Britain estimated at 4–5 million. [Smallholder, 7.7.39]

7.9.39:_[D] Warm, no rain. The little apple tree (grenadier pippin)† so weighted down with apples that we are obliged to support the branches. Kate is unwell, refused food this evening & was sick, or threw up her cud. Muriel also somewhat off her feed. I suspect this is due to their being tethered in the hot sun without shade.

Found wild canterbury bells. Wood pigeons still sitting on nests. No crab apples on the big tree this year, though the garden apples are everywhere good. Seemingly no wild cherries. The birds have had the few red currants there were in our garden. This evening caught & brought home some newt tadpoles in varying stages of development. They get the front legs first* (toads get hind legs – not certain about frogs) & have 4 fingers on each hand. Much more agile than toad tadpoles, diving into the mud when pursued. According to Edie W.9 adult newts if put into the aquarium with tadpoles will devour them. Found a water snail whose shell was as long as the top two joints of my forefinger; have never before seen one approaching this size.

Planted a slip of rambler rose, but believe this is too early.† Picked more loganberries.

12 eggs.

7.9.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Madame Tabouis1 considers chances of full Russian-French-British pact are now small & hints that Russians wish to regain position of Czarist Empire in the Baltic provinces. [Sunday Dispatch]

SOCIAL

1. Population of Scotland now more than 5 million. [Sunday Times]

PARTY POLITICS

1. I.F.T.U. rejected motion to invite Russian affiliation, but not v. large majority.§ [Sunday Times]

7.10.39:_[D] Overcast, warm & still. Some hollyhocks flowering. Madonna lilies & bergamot almost out. Did nothing in garden except weeding. K’s appetite somewhat improved but bad drop in her milk today (only about 1¼ pt.) E[ileen] picked about 1½ lb. strawberries yesterday.

10 eggs.

7.10.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Germany said to be demanding entire Rumanian wheat crop, also part of what is left over from 1938 crop. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Large-scale practice blackout1 on Sat. night said to have gone off successfully. [Daily Telegraph]

SOCIAL

1. Groups of friends entering militia are being2 split up, sufficiently noticeably for this to call for explanation by the W.O.3 [Daily Telegraph]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Papers which appealed on July 3 for inclusion of Churchill in cabinet were D. Tel., Yorkshire Post, News-C, M. Guardian & Dy. Mirror. It is alleged that Communist party after demanding C’s inclusion for some months are becoming alarmed now that it appears likely to happen. [Socialist Correspondence, 7.8.39]

2. Bela Kun4 again reported shot in Moscow. [La Revolution Proletarienne]

7.11.39:_[D] Warm but not very sunny. Pricked out 90 wallflowers (flame). T.10 thinks the lame pullet may have “the disease” (presumably coccidiosis) in which case it would be better to kill her. The infallible symptom is yellow dung, but apparently it usually starts with lameness in the left leg.

Started the goats on cotton cake to see whether they will eat it. K.’s milk normal again (2½ pts.) 2 lb. strawberries. Sussex hen is moulting.

12 eggs.

7.11.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. More reports of fighting on Manchukuo border, sufficient to indicate that fighting (prob. inconclusive) has actually taken place. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Chamberlain’s1 speech reiterates that we shall support Poles in case of Danzig coup, but seems to leave initiative to Poles. [Daily Telegraph]

3. German reports that Russian submarine fleet is larger than anticipated. Warships using Stalin canal2 for first time. [Daily Telegraph]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Further letters in D. Tel. demanding inclusion of Churchill. These however do not imply very strong criticism of Chamberlain. D. Tel. prints a few against. Times said to be printing none for. [Daily Telegraph]

MISCELLANEOUS

1. Death of Havelock Ellis,3 aged 80, gets small front page mention in D. Tel. [Daily Telegraph]

7.12.39:_[D] Hot. Madonna lilies out.

Bedstraw, mallows & knapweed in flower. Robin’s pincushions on briars. Goats will not eat cake every time so shall give it them about once a week.

12 eggs. Sold 1½ score @ 2/8.

7.12.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Expulsion of foreigners from Italian Tyrol does not include Americans.1 Rumours that purpose is to cover movements of German troops into Italy. E. Standard correspondent declares this is a mare’s nest. [Daily Telegraph; London Evening Standard]

2. Chamberlain’s speech apparently taken seriously throughout most of world. [Daily Herald]

SOCIAL

1. J.A. Spender published letter in Times attacking Sir A. Sinclair. Sinclair’s reply refused publication. Today various prominent Liberals sent joint letter to D. Tel. exposing this, which D. Tel. published.2 [Daily Telegraph]

2. Labour amendment to Agricultural Development Bill, to make farm labourers’ minimum wage £2 (present average 35/–) defeated by only 4 votes. [Daily Herald]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Catholic press as represented by the Universe is now strongly anti-Nazi but scarcely as yet anti-Italian & still strongly anti-red as regards Spain. [Universe, 7.7.39]

7.13.39:_[D] Hot. The lame hen segregated to watch developments.

14 eggs. Bergamot flowering.

7.13.39:_[E]

SOCIAL

1. J. A. Spender continues his attack on Sinclair. Times prints other letters to same effect, none contradicting.1 [The Times]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Labour Party has more or less refused conditional affiliation of I.L.P.2 I.L.P. evidently considering all-but unconditional affiliation. [The Times; New Leader, 7.14.39]

7.14.39:_[D] Warm, but rainy. Took nets off strawberries & began weeding, which is almost impossible owing to the growth of the bindweed.

Phloxes (perennial) beginning to flower.

12 eggs.

7.14.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Public Information Leaflet No. 2 (masking windows etc.) issued today. German visitors state gas masks have not been distributed in Germany. [No reference]

SOCIAL

1. M. G. Weekly prints facts about the Spender letter, & letter from Bonham Carter1 etc. [Manchester Guardian Weekly]

PARTY POLITICS

1. M. G. Weekly considers pro-Churchill move inside the Conservative party has been checkmated. [Manchester Guardian Weekly]

2. Communist party pamphlet against conscription withdrawn from circulation after 3 weeks. [Left Forum, July 1939]

7.15.39:_[D] Warm. A very short light shower in the evening. Weeded out the strawberries, as well as could be done, & picked off such as were ripe. More berries forming, but doubt if we shall get any now the nets are off.* Yesterday found a late thrush’s nest with one egg (bird on it). One white hen missing – possibly sitting somewhere on a nest, but afraid she is lost, as she has been gone since yesterday.

14 eggs. Sold 2 score @ 2/8. Total this week: 86.†

Butcher says hens are laying better again, so eggs will go down [in price].

7.15.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Large demonstration against British Embassy in Tokio. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Celebration of 150th anniversary of taking of Bastille included march-past of 30,000 troops including British. [Daily Telegraph]

3. Conscription of all persons 18–55 ordered in Hong Kong, but evidently so phrased as to apply chiefly to Chinese & allow exemption to most of the whites. [Daily Telegraph]

SOCIAL

1. Cmr. Stephen King-Hall’s1 German circular letters thought to have reached 50,000 people in Germany, evading the Gestapo by different-sized envelopes & different methods of folding. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Beginning of what are evidently large spy-revelations in France (cf. U.S.A.) by arrest of various persons connected with right-wing newspapers. [Daily Telegraph]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Economic League accuses P.P.U.2 of being vehicle of Nazi propaganda.[Daily Telegraph]

2. Individual membership of N.C.L.3 now said to be 4,500. Affiliations: 281 Women’s Co-op Guilds, 30 Trades Councils & T.U. branches, 37 Labour parties & Women’s sections, 10 Co-op parties etc., 53 P.P.U. branches, & miscellaneous. Communist press accuses N.C.L. of being a Fascist body. [No Conscription, July–August 1939; Daily Worker, 6.13.39]

MISCELLANEOUS

1. Crowds at Eton-Harrow match4 estimated at 10,000 & said to be smartest gathering for some years. [No reference]

7.16.39:_[D] Sharp shower in the morning, otherwise fairly warm. The white hen has turned up, evidently having slept out somewhere. Note that Innes has coppered over some of the chains, bolts etc. in his haymaking machinery in the same way as I did experimentally with the nails, so evidently it is not so impracticable after all. The copper where I attempted it crusted the threads of bolts so that they would not turn.

All the small pools in the woods have dried up. Note that on one a waterhen had built a nest & then had to clear out when the pool dried up.

Seeds formed on bluebells, hips forming on briars.

12 eggs.

[On facing page, in Orwell’s hand]

To drill holes in Glass (according to Smallholder): Use small twist drill. Mark spot with glass-cutter, give a turn or two of the drill, then smear on grease, sprinkle with emery or carborundum powder & drill gently, not pressing.

7.16.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. 12,000 naval reservists to be called up July 31 for about 7 weeks. [Sunday Times]

2. General impression that Anglo-Russian pact is going to fall through. [Sunday Times; Sunday Express]

3. Sunday Express states that move to include Churchill in Cabinet is really move to get rid of Chamberlain. [Sunday Express]

SOCIAL

1. No mention of dissentients among 30,000 militiamen called up yesterday. [No reference]

2. More or less scaremongering article (submarine menace) by Liddell Hart1 in Sunday Express. [Sunday Express]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Liberal retains N. Cornwall seat, slightly increasing previous small majority. Both candidates’ polls rose largely. [Daily Telegraph, 7.15.39]

2. Beaverbrook press2 accuses P.P.U. of being pro-Nazi, misquoting article. [Peace News, 7.14.39]

MISCELLANEOUS

1. Eton Harrow match ends in a fight, the first time since 1919?3 [Sunday Express]

7.17.39:_[D] Warmish in morning, thunderstorms & heavy rain most of afternoon.

Picked first peas, about 1 lb. Thinned out turnips, which are very good & untouched by the fly. Began digging patch for greens, but too wet to do much.

Hens which have made nests outside will apparently continue to sit there in the middle of pouring rain. Very small newt tadpoles put into aquarium seem to disappear. Fear the large ones may be eating them, but if so this must only occur at night. Note that the water-snail is able in some way to elevate himself to the top of the water & remain floating there – or possibly is naturally buoyant & only remains down when using suction.*

11 eggs. (1 double egg – the first for some time).

7.17.39: _[E]`

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. British send cruiser & thus prevent threatened anti-British demonstration at Tsingtao.1 Tokyo conversations evidently not getting anywhere. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Anglo-Russian pact only just makes front page of D. Tel. [Daily Telegraph]

SOCIAL

1. Definitely stated in D. Tel. that Saturday’s militia draft (34,000 men) turned up with not one absentee (except cases of illness etc). [Daily Telegraph]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Left wing of Indian Congress party (as judged by Congress Socialist) more vigorously anti-war than before. Publishes vicious attack on C.P.2 from Trotskyist angle, but another article demands democratic bloc. [Congress Socialist; no date given]

2. Serious trouble in I.L.P. on pacifist-revolutionary controversy & long statement from I.L.P.’ers (London group) published in Socialist Correspondence, which also takes other opportunities of attacking McGovern. [Socialist Correspondence]

7.18.39:_[D] Raining almost the whole day. Too wet to do much outside.

Female flowers coming on first marrow.

11 eggs.

7.19.39:_[D] Showers, but mostly fine. Everything now growing very fast. Many peas. A few tomatoes about the size of marbles. One or two marrows about size of peanuts.

Not certain whether a pullet has begun laying prematurely or whether the mother hen which is still in the youngsters’ run (& which lays a small egg) had laid out, but found an egg in that run today.

Sowed canterbury bells (prob. too late, but they do very well if treated as triennials.)

13 eggs (2 very small). Sold 35 for 4/3 (2/6 a score – should have been 4/4½).

7.19.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Gov.t advising all householders to lay in supply of non-perishable food. Leaflet on the subject to be issued shortly. [Daily Telegraph]

2. D. Tel. gives over 2 pages to scale pictures of entire British battle fleet. [Daily Telegraph]

3. German economic mission in Moscow said to be making no more progress than Anglo-Russian pact, with implication that 3-cornered bargaining is going on. [No reference]

PARTY POLITICS

1. First appearance of People’s Party in Hythe by-election. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Appears that Lidell° Hart’s book Defence of Britain1 boosts Hore Belisha.°[Daily Telegraph, 7.18.39]

MISCELLANEOUS

1. General estimation that harvest this year will be good, not (as last year) wheat only. [No reference]

7.20.39:_[D] Some sun in the morning, otherwise almost continuous rain all day. Impossible to do anything outside. Notice that hens always eat less in this weather. Top of the hay under a few sacks is still dry in spite of the constant rain. Goats show slight tendency to diarrhea from eating wet grass. Stated today in letter in D. Tel. that for 1 person using electricity for all purposes, except a periodical coal fire for warming, 1800–2000 units is annual minimum consumption.

12 eggs (1 v. small – it is the mother hen that lays these).

7.20.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Public Information Leaflet no. 3 (evacuation1) issued today. Never less than 4 searchlights visible at night from this village. [No reference]

2. News from Danzig seems to indicate that all there expect Danzig to fall into German hands in near future. [Daily Telegraph]

3. France said to be in favour of acceptance of Russian terms for Anglo-Russian pact, which have not been altered re. the Baltic States. [Daily Telegraph]

SOCIAL

1. One of the editors of Humanité2 questioned by the Paris police with ref. to spy revelations, but no indication from report whether merely in advisory capacity or under suspicion of complicity. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Recent W.O.3 regulation has forbidden army officers to resign their commissions & seemingly steps are being taken to prevent N.C.Os buying out from the service (present cost £35).4 [Daily Telegraph]

7.21.39:_[D] Fine part of the day, but overcast & damp in the morning, & a thunderstorm in the afternoon. Wheat yellowing. Planted out leeks (38 make a row). Weeds very bad everywhere. This morning a female flower on a marrow opened; shut again this evening so presumably fertilised. Goats’ yield down, owing to yesterday. Gooseberries almost ripe.

13 eggs.

7.21.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Polish official assassinated on Danzig frontier & consequent “tension.”1 [Daily Telegraph]

SOCIAL

1. Times has leading article explaining (not very satisfactorily) the business of the Spender letter. [The Times, 7.20.39]

2. M. G. Weekly prints long letter extolling the Italian regime in Abyssinia & another answering this. [Manchester Guardian Weekly]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Conservatives hold Hythe with reduced majority. Only 37% of electorate voted. People’s Party candidate polled 5–600 votes. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Internal row in London I.L.P. still obscure, but evidently reduces to a quarrel between the E.C.2 who wish to attract pacifists into the party & the London Divisional Council who are more or less Trotskyist. Apparently some hope of getting rid of the latter. [New Leader]

3. Parliamentary debate on Palestine, illegal immigration etc., passed off with less row than had been anticipated. [Daily Telegraph]

7.22.39:_[D] Overcast & oppressive. A good deal of rain for about an hour in the evening. E[ileen] raised 3 roots of early potatoes (only 3 months sown). Few potatoes, about 1 lb. on the 3, but many young ones coming.

12 eggs. Sold 1½ score @ 2/6. Total this week: 84.

7.22.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Rumours of impending Anglo-American deal with Germany, which is said to be connected with Herr Wohltat’s visit but not as yet sponsored by the Cabinet.1 Conditions to be loan of £1000 million & access to raw materials, in return for disarmament under international surveyance.° [Daily Telegraph]

2. Russian fleet exercises evidently designed to impress Baltic States. [Daily Telegraph]

SOCIAL

1. D. Tel. gossip column notes that nearly 100 Conservative MPs. are officers in the territorials, R.A.F. voluntary reserve etc. [Daily Telegraph]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Queipo de Llano2 relieved of his post. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Friendly review of my novel in “ Daily Worker.”3 [Daily Worker, 7.19.39]

7.23.39:_[D] A little rain in the evening, otherwise dry, but overcast & not very warm. Many harebells. Found the first ripe dewberry. Oats almost ripe in some fields, wheat grains still milky. Seagulls about – one does not usually see them here. The Ridleys have a dahlia in bloom.

12 eggs.

7.23.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Appears from today’s press that the offer referred to in this column yesterday has actually been talked of, but only unofficially. Cabinet disclaim knowledge but evidently know all about it. Presumption is that it has been allowed to leak out to see how the public take it. Terms were: loan (amount not stated) to Germany, raw materials & possible condominium in certain African possessions, against partial disarmament & withdrawal from Czechoslovakia. [Sunday Times; Sunday Express]

2. Now evident that Russian pact will fall through. [Sunday Express]

3. Calling up of territorials & naval reservists suggests that danger moment will be first week in August. [Sunday Times]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Cause of Queipo de Llano’s dismissal said to be that he protested against tying Spain to the Axis & threatened to declare independence of Andalusia.1 [Sunday Express]

2. Nat. Liberals intend to split Gov.t vote in Brecon by-election.2 [Sunday Express]

3. Editor (Grey)3 of pro-Fascist Aeroplane has resigned for unexplained reasons.4 [Sunday Express]

4. Beaverbrook press now more openly against the Russian pact & for isolationism than for some months past. [No reference]

7.24.39:_[D] Fine in morning, cold & miserable in afternoon. Wildflowers now in bloom: agrimony, perforated St. John’s Wort, red dead nettle, wild mignonette, self-heal, woody nightshade, stitchwort. Found nest of wild bees in grass in churchyard. Nest of moss rather like that made by dormouse. Dahlias budding. Picked first of our own lettuces today, & first ripe gooseberries yesterday. Many peas.

14 eggs (1 small). A little rain this evening.

7.24.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. The conversation with Wohltat was held by R. S. Hudson (Overseas Trade) who reported to the P.M. following day. Obviously the affair has been allowed to leak out intentionally. Italian press reported as suggesting that this (tie-up with Germany) is a threat aimed at impressing U.S.S.R. Anglo-Russian pact back on front page with suggestion that Stalin really wants it. German trade talks are also being resumed, this presumably a threat aimed at England. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Fighting on Mongolia border evidently genuine. [Daily Telegraph]

3. Japanese press giving advance forecast of terms to Britain over Tientsin1 which would clearly not be accepted. [Daily Telegraph]

7.25.39:_[D] Fine & fairly hot. Endeavouring to stack the hay. 12 eggs (1 small).

About July 26, 1939, Orwell wrote to the Scientific Poultry Breeders’ Association about the Food Purchase Scheme it ran for members. His letter has not survived, but one from S. R. Harvey, General Manager and Secretary of S.P.B.A. Supplies, Ltd., dated July 28, gives details of discounts allowed on poultry feedstuffs, and also encloses details of association membership.

7.25.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Brit-Japanese agreement very vaguely worded but amounts to climbing down on Britain’s part as in effect it amounts to a promise not to help Chinese. Chamberlain denies any alteration in British policy. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Anglo-Soviet pact back on front page & appears more probable. [Daily Telegraph]

SOCIAL

1. Bill to deal with I.R.A. provides for power to prohibit entry of aliens, deportation of aliens, & compulsory registration of aliens. Also emergency power to Sup.ts of Police to search without warrant. Bill said to be for 2 years only. Not seriously opposed (passed 218–17.) [Daily Telegraph]

7.26.39:_[D] Fine & warm. Finished thatching hay, as well as it can be done, which is not very well. However this is practice for another occasion when there is more hay. Stack is about 8´ x 6´ by 5´ at highest point. Hoed out cabbages & turnips, both doing well.

11 eggs (1 small). Sold 35 @ 2/6 score (4/3 – ought to have been 4/4½).

7.26.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. General impression in world press that Gt. Britain has climbed down in Tokyo agreement. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Another demonstration flight of 240 aeroplanes over France. Joint French-British aeroplane production now claimed to equal German. [Daily Telegraph]

SOCIAL

1. Proposal to affiliate N.U.J.1 to T.U.C.2 lost by very narrow margin (ballot showed actual majority for but not ⅔ majority). [Daily Telegraph]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Franco evidently standing by his Axis commitments & seems about due for his June purge against de Llano, Yague3 & others. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Litvinoff4 apparently in disgrace. [Daily Telegraph]

7.27.39:_[D] Hot. A very few drops of rain in the evening.

Red mite is bad in the henhouses, partly no doubt owing to one or two hot days. Dealt with them with boiling water & sulphur afterwards, hoping this will be effective. NB. that plumber’s blowlamp would be the best thing. Hen’s° appetite is off as usual in hot weather. Planted out a few cos lettuce, otherwise nothing except weeding. The pumpkin has now taken hold but is still a small plant. The watersnail has laid some eggs. Don’t [know] whether these creatures are bisexual or not.

NB. that for storage purposes in tanks etc., 20 gallons* space will about hold 1 cwt. of meal, or more of grain (say 1¼ cwt.)

14 eggs (2 small – believe 1 pullet is now laying).

7.27.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. More fighting on Manchukuo border. Japanese said to be contemplating blockade of Russian half of Sakhalin. [Daily Telegraph]

2. French-British-Russian staff talks being arranged for. Question of Baltic states apparently unsettled. [Daily Telegraph]

3. Public Information leaflet No. 4 (food storage) issued today. [No reference]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Conservatives held Monmouth div.n with reduced majority. Both polls dropped. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Queipo de Llano appointed ambassador to Argentine.1 [Daily Telegraph]

3. Summary of efforts of the various anti-war groups to be found in New English Weekly 7.20 & 27.39 [New English Weekly, 7.20, 27.39]

4. The M.P.s (19) who voted against the I.R.A. bill included Gallacher, Pritt,2 Cripps. [New Leader, 7.28.39]

7.28.39:_[D] Some rain during last night. Hot. Nothing except weeding, mowing down thistles etc.

9 eggs.

7.28.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Americans evidently deciding to denounce commercial treaty with Japan. [Daily Telegraph]

SOCIAL

1. Gov.t apparently considering raising of old age pension, no doubt with an eye to general election. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Rich gold deposits said to have been found near Great Slave Lake in Canada. [Daily Telegraph]

3. Smallholders & small farmers evidently being incommoded by conscription. First special tribunal under M.T. act1 had 20 objectors to deal with, none apparently on political grounds. [Smallholder; Daily Telegraph]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Fresh purge in Moscow, including Tarioff, Soviet Minister to Outer Mongolia. [Daily Telegraph]

2. French handing over £8 millions of Spanish gold to Franco. [Daily Telegraph]

3. P.P.U., N.C.L, Friends & Fellowship of Reconciliation were able to be represented at first tribunal under M.T. Act. [Daily Telegraph]

7.29.39:_[D] Apparently a few spots of rain in the night. Hot today. Mowed nettles. 6 eggs! (possibly something to do with heat.) Sold 25 @ 2/6 score. Total this week: 78

7.29.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. French general election to be postponed by decree for 2 years (ie. until 1942). [Daily Telegraph]

2. Evidently° that fairly severe struggle is going on in Spain between Axis supporters (Suñer1) & Traditionalists (esp. the generals, Yague etc.) & that there is likelihood of Franco remaining neutral in case of war. [Manchester Guardian Weekly; Daily Telegraph]

SOCIAL

1. Editor of Humanité who was tried in test case for printing various allegations about German espionage in France, acquitted. Order of arrest issued against another journalist for writing anti-Semitic article.* [Daily Telegraph]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Labour held Colne Valley constituency with increased majority. (Labour vote rose about 1000, Liberal & Cons, each dropped 2–3 thousand.) [Daily Telegraph]

2. According to figures given in MG., 3–300 people a week (Republicans) have been being° shot in Catalonia from May onwards.2 [Manchester Guardian Weekly]

MISCELLANEOUS

1. Guards trooped the colours in 3’s3 for the first time yesterday. [Daily Telegraph]

7.30.39:_[D] A little rain during last night. Today hot. Canterbury bell seeds germinating. Pulled first carrots today. Earwigs now very troublesome.

10 eggs (2 small).

7.30.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Seems clear that Parliament will adjourn as usual with no previous arrangements for recall before October.1 [Sunday Times]

2. There are now 60,000 German troops (ie. including police, storm troopers etc.) in Danzig. [Sunday Times]

3. Seemingly authoritative article in S. Times states that in case of war Jugoslavia will certainly be neutral but more likely to be pro-ally if the Russian pact goes through & the Croats are given the degree of autonomy they want. Population of 14 m. includes 5 m. Serbs, 5 m. Croats, ½m. Hungarians, ½m. Germans, the rest presumably Slovenes. Pan-Slav feeling strong among the poorer classes. [Sunday Times]

SOCIAL

1. One of Daladier’s2 decrees sets up separate propaganda dep.t under P.M.’s control. Working hours of civil service raised from 40 to 45.

France’s gold reserve now said to be second only to that of U.S.A. Gold holding of Bank of France is £560m. [Sunday Times]

2. I.R.A. suspects already being deported in fairly large numbers (about 20 hitherto). [Sunday Times; Daily Telegraph, 7.29.39]

7.31.39:_[D] Most of day overcast, heavy showers & thunder about mid-day. Weeded onions. Pricked out 35 carnations. The wallflowers planted on 7.11.39 about 3" to 4" high. One hollyhock which is coming into flower is white. There are therefore 4 colours (dark red, light red, pale pink, white) from the original dark seed. Peas are very good, much more than we can eat. Last cwt. of corn finished this morning. Begun on 7.4.39, should by calculation have lasted to about August 10th, but the 8 pullets have been fed on it for the last 3 weeks, also to some extent the 6 next chicks. Full-o-pep bought at same time only about ⅔ gone.

11 eggs (3 pullets? Evidently at least 1 pullet is now laying.)

8.1.39:_[D] Warm. A few drops of rain. Pricked out wallflowers (yellow) & sweet williams. Calculate roughly that each row of peas (about 12 yards) will yield 15–20 lb. Started new cwt. of wheat & kibbled maize today. This has to do for 23 adult fowls & 8 pullets (almost full grown). At 1½ oz per bird per day should last till about September 8th.

10 eggs (3 small – 3 pullets laying now.)

8.1.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Military mission probably leaving for Moscow this week. Leader (Admiral Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax1) took part in mission to Tsarist Russia just before Great War. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Polish Gov.t taking economic sanctions against Danzig amounting to refusal to import products of certain factories. [Daily Telegraph]

3. British authorities apparently agreeing to hand over the 4 Chinese alleged terrorists hiding in the Tientsin concession.2 [Daily Telegraph]

SOCIAL

1. Number of unemployed for July about 1¼ millions,* ½ million less than same period in 1938. Total number in insured employment close on 13 million, more than ½ million more than a year ago. [Daily Telegraph]

2. In first 34,000 militia men called up only 58 absented themselves without leave. [Daily Telegraph]

3. Prohibition inaugurated in Bombay Presidency.3 [Daily Telegraph]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Queipo de Llano appointed chief of Spanish military mission to Italy. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Socialist Correspondence claims that Labour Members who voted against I.R.A. bill are being threatened with discipline by Parliamentary Group. [Socialist Correspondence, 7.29.39]

3. P.O U.M.4 Youth Group managing to issue leaflets. [Socialist Correspondence, 7.29.39]

MISCELLANEOUS

1. New method of bracken destruction by mowing plus sodium chlorate successfully extirpates bracken using only 20 lb. of s.c. per acre. [Daily Telegraph; Farmer & Stockbreeder]

2. This year’s European wheat production, excluding U.S.S.R., estimated at 44 million metric tons, slightly above average but 14% less than last year’s [Daily Telegraph]

8.2.39:_[D] Most of day overcast & rather chilly. Only weeding etc.

12 eggs. (2 pullets?). Sold 30 @ 2/6 score.

8.2.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Announced today that ration cards are already printed & ready. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Chamberlain’s speech broadcast throughout U.S.S.R.1 [Daily Telegraph]

3. Number of Ukrainian leaders arrested in Poland. [Daily Telegraph]

SOCIAL

1. Labour MPs’ complaints in Parliament about conditions in militia turn upon such things as militiamen sleeping 8 in a tent. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Appears that German Jewish refugees are settling in great numbers in certain parts of London, eg. Golders Green, & buying houses which they have plenty of money to do. [Private (C.W.)2]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Rumour of quarrels among Spanish refugee higher-ups in Paris over money & disagreement between Negrín & Prieto.3 [Private (R.R.)4]

2. Col. Wedgwood’s5 Catholic Constituents (to number of 5000, mostly working-class) in Newcastle under Lyne,° have memorialised stating that they will vote against him. [Private (C.W.)]

8.3.39:_[D] Unbroken rain from early this morning till about 8 pm. One or two dahlias now in flower. Examining yesterday one of the large black slugs common at this time of year (about 4" long when extended) noticed that the curious hole they have a little way behind the head opens & shuts more or less rhythmically, & has inside whitish tissue like sago pudding. Possibly this is their breathing hole?

Some oats cut, barley mostly ripe & looks very good, no wheat ripe. Toadflax in flower. Only one or two plums on the wild plum tree.

Gave M[uriel] her worm powder, with great difficulty, having kept her more or less without food all day.

12 eggs (1 small – 1 pullet is now laying larger eggs.)

8.4.39:_[D] Raining most of day, with sunny intervals, windy. Ground now very sodden, everything growing very fast. Lifted some more early potatoes (about 3½ months). Not many on each root. Saw the lost hen again this morning. Mrs A[nderson] says she has seen her several mornings & thinks she is in the thick bushes up the west end of the field. She occasionally comes out to eat, usually in the very early morning. The trouble is that a fox or dog may get her before she has finished brooding.

13 eggs (3 small.)

8.4.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. French-Brit, military mission leaving tomorrow on slow liner which will take a week to reach Leningrad. The Week1 suggests that the move is not intended seriously. Quotations from Finnish papers & Swedish Foreign Minister’s speech suggest that Baltic States are genuinely nervous. [Daily Telegraph; Manchester Guardian Weekly; The Week, 8.2.39]

2. Germany said to be considering transference of Slovakia from Hungary in order to detach the latter from Poland.2 Said also to be systematically depleting Slovakia of timber, foodstuffs & machinery. [Manchester Guardian Weekly.]

SOCIAL

1. Mander M.P. (Lib.)3 declares Anglo-German Fellowship4 a pro-German organisation & asks whether Home Sec. can suppress it. Hoare5 replies unable to do anything unless an organisation breaks the law. [Daily Telegraph]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Labour won Brecon & Radnor by 2500 majority.6 Labour vote rose about 750, Gov.t vote dropped about 4000, & total poll dropped. [Daily Telegraph]

MISCELLANEOUS

1. Albatross Press7 arranging for publication of my last book require excision of certain (though not all) unfriendly references to Hitler. Say they are obliged to do this as their books circulate largely in Germany. Also excision of a passage of about a page suggesting that war is imminent. [F.8 Personal]

8.5.39:_[D] Raining almost continuously until about 6.30 pm. Parts of the day rain extremely heavy. Baldock high street said to have been flooded. Marrows swelling very rapidly. French & runner beans 3" or 4" long. Apples growing very fast.

Cylinder of calor gas, started 7.7.39, gave out yesterday (27 days). Started new cylinder today.

9 eggs (2 small). Sold 30 @ 2/6 score. Total this week: 77 of which 15 small.

8.6.39:_[D] No rain, fairly warm. The big crab tree in the lane has failed to produce any apples, but found others with fruit. Blackberries still only in flower. Hazel nuts still solid inside. Innes’s cows due to calve shortly. Waterhens still have quite small chicks. Many young rabbits. Found dead cat in lane. Notice that hens will eat the large black slugs. Forgot to mention that on Thursday saw what I think must be a hawfinch. Greenfinches in the hen run from time to time, but goldfinches uncommon here.

11 eggs (3 small).

8.6.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Purge of Sudeten1 leaders taking place, evidently as result of Czech pressure & as prelude to milder methods. [Sunday Times])

2. Polish gov.t evidently now ready to allow Russians to use Polish air bases. [Sunday Times]

3. S. Express considers Franco has definitely come down on the side of the Axis, but hints that French & Swiss banks who have hitherto lent him £5m. are putting pressure on him by withholding further loans. [No reference given, but evidently Sunday Express]

SOCIAL

1. Evidently there has been trouble about the food in the militia. Number of first draft who declared themselves conscientious objectors stated at 2%. [Sunday Times]

2. Earnings throughout life from cabinet posts etc. of various politicians estimated by Peter Howard2 thus: Runciman £71, Lloyd George £94, Baldwin £70, Hoare £79, Simon £78, Churchill £92 (all in thousands).3 [SundayExpress]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Peter Howard considers Sir A. Wilson4 is becoming unpopular in Hitchin Div.n owing to pro-German sentiments.* [Sunday Express]

2. Mosley’s5 Earls Court Stadium meeting said to have been attended by 25,000. M. said to have lost some of his East End working-class support but gained following among small business men etc. [Left Forum, August]

3. ‘The Link’6 said to be actively pro-Nazi & also recommended by P.P.U. [Left Forum, August]

4. Evidently the French spy scandals are being officially hushed up to some extent. La Rocque7 asks Daladier8 to pass decree – law making receipt of foreign money for other than commercial purpose a criminal offence. [Observer]

5. Sunday Express prints friendly article about Japan (gossip article). [Sunday Express]

8.7.39:_[D] Finer. In the morning rather cold & a little rain, afternoon overcast & warm. Finished preparing ground for winter greens. Put slugs in prepared box to test what kinds of foodstuff they go after most. Yesterday found dead newt in the road, so they must be leaving the water now. A certain number of this year’s frogs about, about the size of runner beans.

9 eggs (1 small).

8.7.39:_[E]

SOCIAL

1. Soc. Corresp. repeats complaints about food etc. in militia camps with implication that the men are being treated rough more or less wilfully. [Socialist Correspondence]

2. 57 people reported shot in connection with recent political murders in Madrid (number of people murdered was apparently 3). [Daily Telegraph]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Members of the P.S.O.P.1 arrested in France in connection with anti-war activities. C.P. making accusations of Nazi agency etc. [Socialist Correspondence; The Week, 8.2.39]

2. Bela Kun2 again reported shot (from Vienna source this time). [Daily Telegraph]

3. Adm.l Sir Barry Domville3 chairman of “The Link”, describes statement of Hoare & Mander as a lie4 & hopes they will repeat it outside Parliament.5 [Daily Telegraph]6

8.8.39:_[D] Some rain & thunder, but most of day fairly fine though not hot. Goats’ milk is badly off, less than a quart from the two, no doubt owing to the several days without grazing. Evenings now drawing in noticeably.

12 eggs (3 small).

8.8.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Chinese dollar has now dropped below 4d. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Danzig senate appears to have climbed down in dispute over Polish customs officials. [Daily Telegraph]

3. Again reported that largish number of Asturian soldiers are still holding out in the mountains.1 [Daily Telegraph]

SOCIAL

1. Complete column given in D. Tel. to “The Link”, besides extra piece on front page. Statement by organisers that they are not propaganda agents etc. Statement that Prof. Laurie received £150 for The Case for Germany from German publishing firm, British firms having refused to publish book which was “pro-German”. Statement that Leeds branch of “The Link” was voluntarily dissolved as organisers considered the German end was under Nazi control. [Daily Telegraph]

2. D. Tel. gives a column (in news section) to summarising “Germany’s War Chances”,2 the Gollancz book translated from the Hungarian, for publication of which the author is being persecuted in Hungary. [Daily Telegraph]

MISCELLANEOUS

1. Death of Leonard Merrick3 makes front page (just) of D. Tel. [Daily Telegraph]

8.9.39:_[D] Some rain in the evening, otherwise warm, but overcast. Planted out 60 broccoli, rather late & all rather leggy & unpromising, but hope they may take. Impossible to get any kale etc., for which of course it is rather late.

10 eggs (2 small). Sold 30 @ 2/6 score.

8.10.39:_[D] Rain during much of the day. Cut side-shoots out of tomatoes (this should have been done much earlier), began preparing another patch for greens, put up another coop for the ducks, as the 7 of them can hardly crowd into one coop now. Note that fresh goat manure when piled sets up a certain amount of heat, though seemingly not so much as horse manure.

10 eggs (2 small).

8.10.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Franco assumes more or less full powers of dictator. [Daily Telegraph]

2. The King inspects Reserve Fleet of 133 warships. [Daily Telegraph]

SOCIAL

1. Complaints (not very important) at militia camp in Devon reveal that reservists in large numbers have been called up as instructors. [Daily Telegraph]

2. 14 C[onscientious] O[bjector]s tried by tribunals, not harshly treated but work of national importance insisted on. Questions much as in Great War. No report of C.Os on other than religious-moral grounds. Secretary of S. Wales Miners’ Federation on the tribunal. [Daily Telegraph]

3. Anti-Hitler jokes in Eggs.1 [Eggs, 8.8.39]

4. Interior lamps of London buses now fitted with removable blue cowls for use in air-raids. [Daily Telegraph, 8.9.39]

PARTY POLITICS

1. After 6 weeks of no gov.t, Dutch national gov.t formed of several parties including two social-democrats. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Reported that at September conference I.L.P. National Council will advocate unconditional affiliation to L.P.2 [Daily Telegraph]

8.11.39:_[D] Warm & fine. In the reservoir came upon waterhen with one very small chick. This was in close to the side & remained absolutely still, on my prodding it & turning it over with a stalk of hemlock it still made no move, so that I thought it was dead, then suddenly dived & remained under water for several minutes.

The watersnail’s eggs appear to have hatched & the creatures are moving about, but they are still jellified & in some kind of embryonic state, not, as I had thought, fully developed before they come out.

Cut first marrow today. Fair amount of beans now.

11 eggs (3 small).

8.11.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Chinese dollar reaches about 3½d. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Twenty Bulgarian MPs. received in Moscow. [Daily Telegraph]

3. British-French military delegation arrives Leningrad. [Daily Telegraph]

SOCIAL

1. Fresh reports of trials of objectors by tribunals do not in any case indicate objection on political lines (normally members of Christadelphian etc. churches). [Daily Telegraph]

2. Attack on “The Link” in Time & Tide, with implication that it should be suppressed. [Daily Telegraph]

3. Again denied that banning of Time by Federation of Wholesalers has political motive, though evidently it has. [Daily Telegraph]

PARTY POLITICS

1. I.L.P. Nat. Council again speaks of unconditional affiliation, but in referring to intentions within L.P. suggests activities which would amount to flatly opposing L.P.’s present line on rearmament etc. & presumably will not be accepted. [New Leader]

2. Those present at House of C. reception to Menna Schocat,1 representing League for Jewish-Arab Unity included H.W. Nevinson, Chalmers Mitchell, Lord Faringdon, Wilson (Cecil), Lansbury, A. Maclaren, M.Ps.2 [New Leader]

3. Various arrests in France in connection with anti-war & anti-imperialist activities include Lucien Weitz3 & R. Louzon4 (18 months). [New Leader]

8.12.39:_[D] Warm & fine. Some carnations now well out.

10 eggs (2 small). Sold 25 @ 2/6 score & 10 (pullets) @ 2/2 score.

Total this week: 73 (16 small).

8.12.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. M. G. correspondent reports that German mobilization will be at full strength halfway through August & that some attempt to terrorise Poland will be made. War stated to be likeliest issue (as also in yesterday’s Time & Tide). The striking thing is the perfunctory air with which these statements are made in all papers, as though with an inner certainty that nothing of the kind can happen. [Manchester Guardian Weekly, 8.11.39; Orwell incorrectly dates this as 8.12.39]

2. Appearances seem to show that fighting on Manchurian border from Changkufeng incident1 onwards has been fairly heavy but inconclusive. [Manchester Guardian Weekly, 8.11.39; misdated as 8.12.39; La Révolution Prolétarienne, undated]

SOCIAL

1. Refugee problem stated to be becoming serious in London especially East End. Mosley said to have not greatly increased his following however. [Private]

2. It appears that the P[ost] O[ffice] authorities are now able to read a letter, sufficient to determine nature of its contents, without opening it. [Private]

MISCELLANEOUS

1. All my books from the Obelisk Press2 this morning seized by the police, with warning from Public Prosecutor that I am liable to be prosecuted if importing such things again. They had opened my letter addressed to Obelisk Press3 evidently at Hitchin. Do not know yet whether because of the address or because my own mail is now scutinised. [No reference]

2. Potato & tomato said to have been successfully crossed in U.S.S.R. [Smallholder]

8.13.39:_[D] Warm & fine.

10 eggs (2 small).

8.14.39:_[D] Warm & fine. Damsons (such as there are) almost ripe. Finished getting ground ready for greens. At last found the lost hen, which was sitting on 13 eggs. She has been gone just a month. Altogether 6 broodies now (out of 23 hens). Put them all in E[ileen]’s cage this afternoon. Yesterday with great difficulty we weighed a duck, &, if we were not wrong, it was about 3¾ lb (6½ weeks). So we are going to send the 2 biggest to market tomorrow to see what they fetch.

10 eggs (3 small).

Cwt. of Full-o-Pep gave out today. Started on 7.4.39 – about 40 days. Should have been 35, so perhaps have been underfeeding them a bit. On the other hand in warm weather they often don’t eat all they are given.

Saw a cuckoo this morning. They have been silent for some time & are about due to leave. Found a dead shrew mouse on the road. I do not know why, one always finds them dead about this time of year.

8.14.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. German-Italian “compromise” scheme for Polish problem alleged to have been formulated, in a form that would obviously not be accepted by Poland. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Staff talks in Moscow have begun. [Daily Telegraph]

SOCIAL

1. Yesterday’s Sunday Express had scare article on the illegal Jewish immigration into Palestine which was in effect anti-Jew propaganda. [Sunday Express, 8.13.39]

2. It appears that the opening of letters to persons connected with leftwing° parties is now so normal as to excite no remark. [E. H.1]

3. G. K.2 claims that the C.P. are so strongly entrenched in the French police & other public services that the gov.t can do nothing against them. [File S.P. 1]

PARTY POLITICS

1. According to G. K., membership of the PSOP is now only 4000. [File S.P.1]

2. According to E. H., the Bermondsey anti-war conference was prevented from arriving at anything definite by the action of a few Trotskyists who will have no truck with pacifists & said so so violently as to antagonise the latter. [E. H.]

3. According to E. H., the older members of the I.L.P. are on the whole opposed to affiliation, the newer members in favour, but the only leading I.L.P’er who is uncompromisingly against is C. A. Smith3 [E. H.]

8.15.39:_[D] Hot. Had some damsons stewed (rather sour.) Ground dries up very rapidly. A few larkspurs coming into flower, roses coming into second bloom (most of them not good owing to the species of blight they have this year). The pumpkin’s largest shoot now about a yard long & 1 female flower. Not certain whether it can make its growth in time, ie. in the next 6–8 weeks. Found another dead shrew. Wasps beginning to be troublesome. The new snail has laid a lot of eggs. Now that the white broody is off her nest, something finds & eats the eggs. Suspect cat, but might be rats, jackdaws or other hens.

Only 2/11 each (ie. 2/8 without commission) for 7-week ducklings weighing 4½lb. At this rate there is only a few pence profit on each bird, but we are buying mash in small quantities at which it costs 1½ lb.11 At the price of Full-o-Pep (1⅒ d per lb) there would be more.

11 eggs (2 small).

8.16.39:_[D] Hot. Ground again very dried up. Hoed onions & flowers in nursery beds, watered pumpkin & tomatoes, cut down broad beans, which have got too big & are not worth leaving to ripen. Some turnips almost fit to pull. Cut second marrow. Grass which E[ileen] has cut is now quite good.

10 eggs (3 small). Sold 25 @ 2/6 score.

Ripe plums now only 2d lb.

8.17.39:_[D] Hot. Some blackberries reddening. Found a few mushrooms. Most of the corn now cut, & everyone working fast to get in the remainder while the good weather lasts. Coveys of partridges are mostly large (8–12 birds) but the young birds seem rather small. Saw bird which I cannot identify. In size colour & type by flight it resembled a waterhen, but apparently was not a waterhen, as it flew too well & took to the wing too readily, & also it was nowhere near water. It got up together with a hen pheasant, but was certainly not a pheasant at any stage of development. When Marx put up a covey of partridges the mother did the well known trick (it is sometimes denied that this really happens) of leading M. off by flying rather slowly & squawking, while the young ones flew away in a different direction. Saw what I believe was a fieldfare, though this seems very early. Cock goldfinch calling to mate makes sound rather like “chee-wa” (less like “cheese” than that of greenfinch).

8 eggs (3 small).

8.17.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Announced that full scheme for national register is now ready.1 [Daily Telegraph]

PARTY POLITICS

1. I.L.P. dissociating itself from P.P.U.’s friendly attitude towards “The Link.” [New Leader, 8.18.39]

2. More evidences° of struggle going on between Negrín & Prieto,2 cf. 8.2.39. [File S.P. 1 (as ‘i’)]

3. Speakers at Keir Hardie3 memorial to be: Maxton, Dallas (L.P.E.C.),4 Ebby Edwards (T.U.C.), Jas. Barr MP., Duncan Graham MP. [New Leader, 8.18.39]

8.18.39:_[D] Hot. Refitted door to henhouse.

10 eggs (3 small).

8.18.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. M.G. diplomatic correspondent considers Spain will almost certainly remain neutral in case of war. The new cabinet balances the soldiers fairly evenly against the Falangists. [Manchester Guardian Weekly]

SOCIAL

1. Appears now fairly certain that the 4 Chinese alleged terrorists will be handed over to Japanese, in spite of plea in London for writ of habeas corpus.1 [Manchester Guardian Weekly]

2. Details of national register now worked out, but announced that actual registration will not take place except on outbreak of war or possibly at 1941 census. [Manchester Guardian Weekly]

3. Spanish immigration into Mexico said to be proving very successful . [File S.P.i]

8.19.39:_[D] Hot. Planted out 1 score each Brussels, savoys & purple sprouting broccoli. Paid 3d per score. Not very good plants & very dry, but fairly good roots, so they should take. Suspicion of club-root (which we have never had here) in one plant which I got rid of. Some white turnips (sown 6.28.39) ready to pull.

Smallholder claims wireworm in carrot beds etc. can be dealt with by 2 oz. per sq. yard of mixed napthaline° & freshly slaked lime.

9 eggs (3 small). Sold 20 @ 2/6 score & 10 @ 2/– score.

Total this week: 68 (19 small).

8.19.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Germans are buying heavily in copper & rubber for immediate delivery, & price of rubber rising rapidly. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Indications that difference of some kind has arisen in Moscow staff talks (stated by Tass agency not to be connected with Far East). [Daily Telegraph]

3. Stated more or less officially in Madrid that Spain will remain neutral. [No reference]

SOCIAL

1. Inquiries into the activities of the Bund1 in U.S.A., rather as into those of “The Link” here. Evident that i. all these associations have been used for Nazi propaganda & ii. that attempts will be progressively made to break down cultural relations between Germany & the democracies. [Daily Telegraph]

2. The police are getting wise to the marriage of convenience (as a way of obtaining Brit. nationality for German women) & are going to recommend deportation in these cases. [Daily Telegraph]

3. Number of I.R.A. suspects expelled up to date is about 90. [Daily Telegraph]

4. Numbers of militiamen said to have been found to be completely illiterate. [News Chronicle]

MISCELLANEOUS

1. Ministry of Agric. returns for first ½ of 1939 indicate following developments: total acreage under crops & grass about 24¾ mill., decrease of about 80,000 acres, but arable land increased by about 50,000 acres & permanent grass decreased by 130,000 acres. (Change said to have taken place before gov.t’s subsidy for ploughing-up took effect.)

Area under wheat decreased by 150,000 acres, potatoes by about 20,000 acres, peas & cabbages also decreased, field beans increased & oats & barley increased by 56,000 & 25,000 acres resp.

Most stock increased largely, except pigs & work horses, which decreased by about 50,000 & 14,000 resp. Fowls increased by 200,000 head. [Smallholder]

8.20.39:_[D] Hot in the morning. Then thunder & heavy showers. Raining hard tonight. Goats greatly terrified by the thunder, & M[uriel] managed to break loose from her chain.

Pinched out growing point of pumpkin. Gave onions their final thinning out. First peas about finished. Larkspurs flowering. Side shoots of tomatoes grow so fast that it is impossible to keep pace with them.

8 eggs (4 small – evidently another pullet laying.)

8.20.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Lloyd George predicts the Danzig crisis coming to a head very shortly. Also hints (S. Express puts this in leaded type) that if the Poles deliberately back down we are under no obligation to act. [Sunday Express]

2. Tokyo conversations suspended, owing to G. Britain declaring necessity of consulting other nations on Chinese currency question. [Sunday Times]

SOCIAL

1. Row over Spender’s articles still reverberating in Sunday Times. [Sunday Times]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Peter Howard1 speaks of general election more or less as a certainty & predicts that increased old age pensions will be one of the gov.t’s bribes. [Sunday Express]

2. In case of general election happening this autumn, a bill will be passed to keep the existing gov.t in being during the election period,2 owing to the crisis. [Sunday Times]

8.21.39:_[D] Hot till evening, then heavy thunder & rain. Cut side-shoots out of tomatoes, dug in a little ash from bonfire round their roots, cleared & burnt first lot of dwarf peas & began digging over this patch of ground, which will do for leeks. Planted some of those yellow flowers (sort of summer chrysanthemum) which Mrs Hollingsworth gave us, though do not know whether they will take, as some are already in flower. Gave liquid manure to some of the larkspurs. A good many self-sown antirrhinums about.

Weighed the remaining 5 ducks, which go to market tomorrow. The 5 weigh just on 24 lb., the heaviest about 5¼lb. They are just 7½ weeks old.

8 eggs (2 small).

8.21.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Fresh enquiries by American I.P.O.1 indicates that number of people believing U.S.A. would be involved in world war has greatly increased (to about 75%). Number thinking U.S.A. would send troops to Europe still only 25%. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Japanese preparing blockade of Hong Kong, obviously in order to put pressure on London over the silver & currency question. [Daily Telegraph]

3. £10m. 2 year trade agreement signed between Germany & U.S.S.R. for exchange of German manufactured goods versus Russian raw materials. [Daily Telegraph]

4. Strategic bridge from Danzig into E. Prussia completed. [Daily Telegraph]

SOCIAL

1. Railway strike for 50/– minimum wage2 likely within the next week or two. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Stated that England can now supply herself with optical glass in case of war. [Daily Telegraph]

8.22.39:_[D] Drizzle in the morning, rest of day fine & hot. The mist is now very thick in the early mornings. Dug some more of the patch for the leeks, gave liquid manure to larkspurs etc. E[ileen] planted some more godetias. Only 11/– for 5 ducks weighing 24 lb. Complete account is in the egg book, but worth noting here that, putting aside the bread & milk of their first week, 91 lb. of mash (actually more – say 95 lb – as they occasionally had some of the other birds’ food) equals 32 lb. of meat, or about (allowing for everything) 3¼lb. of feed for 1 lb of meat.

One of the newts is now mature. Its gill formations are gone & it lies on top of the water with its head in the air much of the time. The watersnail was yesterday sucking at the piece of raw meat we put in for the newts.

Marx discovered to be very lousy, ears full of nits, no doubt partly owing to the hot weather. E[ileen] treating him with antiseptic soap, flea powder & also vinegar, which loosens the nits, allowing them to be combed out.

11 eggs (4 small). Cwt. of corn begun today.

8.22.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Officially stated in Berlin that Ribbentropp°1 flies to Moscow tomorrow to sign non-agression° pact with U.S.S.R. News later confirmed from Moscow by Tass Agency, in a way that seems to make it clear that pact will go through. Little comment in any of the papers, the news having evidently arrived in the small hours of this morning & the Russian confirmation only in time for the stop press. Reported suggestion from Washington that it may be a Russian manoeuvre (ie. to bring England & France to heel) but everyone else seems to take it at face-value. Shares on the whole have dropped. Germans still buying shellac etc. heavily. The military talks were still proceeding yesterday. [Daily Telegraph; Daily Mail; News Chronicle; Daily Mirror]

SOCIAL

1. Illegal radio, somewhat on the lines of German Freiheit movement’s radio,2 has been broadcasting anti-conscription propaganda. Secretary of P.P.U. (Rowntree?)* denies knowledge but does not dissociate himself from the talks. P.O. engineers state that they have tracked down location of radio to within a few houses & will soon run it to earth. Indication is that it takes at least some days to locate an illegal radio. [Daily Telegraph]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Letchworth Citizen3 reprints long article on Sir A. Wilson4 from Sunday Pictorial with evident approval. [Letchworth Citizen, no date]

2. Soc. Corresp. prints long statement on war issue by Comm. Opp.5 setting forth hopelessly complicated programme of supporting anti-Fascist war & at same time disillusioning the working class etc., etc. But makes statement (probably true as Thalheimer6 & others would have knowledge of Russian conditions of at any rate a few years ago) that tho’ the Red Army is now more or less as other armies, the reserves still receive more or less the training of a revolutionary army. Also violent attack on I.L.P. signed by 3 sets of initials one Audrey Brockway’s,7 launching slogan of 4th International.8 [Socialist Correspondence]

8.23.39:_[D] Hot. Dug some more of the patch for leeks, transferred the cockerels (5) to the small pen, deloused the hen-houses. Great trouble getting rid of the red mite, which multiplies very fast in this weather. They have to be burned out, but even so it is hard to make sure of them. A plumber’s blowlamp is what one needs. When a house is infested badly the hens will not go into it. Found nest of 14 (Rhode) eggs laid out, evidently not very new, so shall not sell them or enter them in the account, though the one I tried was not bad.

8 eggs (4 small). Sold 20 @ 2/6, & 10 @ 1/– score.

8.23.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Parliament meeting tomorrow. Emergency Powers Act will be passed. Certain classes of reservists called up. The King returning to London. Reservists being called up in France & Germany. Legislation to be hurried through in Parliament to prevent further buying of nickle,° copper etc. by Germany. Almost all shares have dropped, no doubt in anticipation of this. World press comments as quoted by D. Tel. are very non-committal but the Axis powers evidently greatly pleased by the Russian demarche. [Daily Telegraph]

SOCIAL

1. Railway strike now arranged to begin in a few days’ time. [Daily Telegraph]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Communist Party membership stated as 17,000,* which is increase of 2000 over last year. C.P. again applying for application to L.P.1 [Daily Telegraph]

8.24.39:_[D] Hot. Planted 2 rows leeks (about 75 plants). There are 5 different colours of larkspurs coming out.

9 eggs (4 small).

8.24.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Russo-German Pact signed. Terms given in Berlin (File War etc).1 suggest close pact & no “escape” clause. This evening’s radio news gives confirmation in Moscow in same terms. Official statement from Moscow that “enemies of both countries” have tried to drive Russia & Germany into enmity. Brit. Ambassador calls on Hitler & is told no action of ours can influence German decision. Japanese opinion evidently seriously angered by what amounts to German desertion of anti-Comintern pact, & Spanish (Franco) opinion evidently similarly affected. Rumania said to have declared neutrality. Chamberlain’s speech as reported on wireless very strong & hardly seems to allow loophole for escape from aiding Poles.

E[ileen] on visiting W.O.2 today derived impression that war is almost certain. Police arrived this morning to arrange for billeting of soldiers. Some people (foreigners) arrived in afternoon looking for rooms – the second lot in 3 days. In spite of careful listening, impossible in pubs etc. to overhear any spontaneous comment or sign of slightest interest in the situation, in spite of fact that almost everyone when questioned believes it will be war. [The Times; Daily Telegraph; News Chronicle; Manchester Guardian; Daily Express; Daily Herald; Daily Mail; London Evening News]

SOCIAL

1. Emergency Powers Act passed evidently without much trouble. Contains clauses allowing preventive arrest, search without warrant & trial in camera. But not industrial conscription as yet. [Wireless 6 pm]3

2. Moscow airport was decorated with swastikas for Ribbentrop’s arrival. M. Guardian adds that they were screened so as to hide them from the rest of Moscow. [Manchester Guardian]

PARTY POLITICS

1. C.P. putting good face on Russo-German pact which is declared to be move for peace. Signature of Anglo-Soviet pact demanded as before. D. Worker does not print terms of pact but reprints portions of an earlier Russo-Polish pact containing an “escape” clause, in order to convey impression that this pact must contain the same. [Daily Worker]

2. In today’s debate Sinclair & Greenwood4 spoke strongly in support of Gov.t. Mander5 spoke demanding “strengthening of Cabinet”. Maxton6 declared I.L.P. would not support Gov.t in war. [Wireless 6 pm]

8.28.39:_[E]

[No section headings]

Have been travelling1 etc. during the past days & therefore unable to keep up the diary in the ordinary way.

The main developments have been as follow:

Hitler has proposed some or other kind of plan which was flown across by N. Henderson2 & has been discussed at several Cabinet meetings including one yesterday (Sunday) afternoon, but no statement has been made by the gov.t as to the Nature° of Hitler’s communication. H. is to fly back today with the Brit. gov.t’s reply, but even so there is no sure indication that either H.’s3 proposal or the gov.t’s reply will be communicated to the public. Various papers have published statements, all of which are officially declared to be unfounded.

No clear indication of the meaning of the Russian-German pact as yet. Papers of left tendency continue to suggest that it does not amount to very much, but it seems to be generally taken for granted that Russia will supply Germany with raw materials, & possibly that there has been a large-scale bargain which amounts to handing Europe over to Germany & Asia to Russia. Molotov4 is to make an announcement shortly. It is clear that the Russian explanation will be, at any rate at first, that the British were playing double & did not really wish for the Anglo-French-Russian pact. Public opinion in U.S.S.R. said to be still somewhat taken aback by the change of front, & ditto left wing opinion in the West. Left wing papers continue to blame Chamberlain while making some attempt to exhonorate° Stalin, but are clearly dismayed. In France there has evidently been a swing of opinion against the Communist Party, from which there are said to be large-scale resignations (D. Tel. repeating Reuter). Humanité has been temporarily suspended. The Anglo-French military mission is already returning.

Germany & Poland now more or less fully mobilised. France has called up several more classes of reservists & is said to have 4,000,000* men under arms. No more reservists yet called up in Britain. Admiralty has taken over control of all shipping. Sale of foreign shares is being controlled by gov.t. Main buildings in London being sandbagged. Practice evacuation of children in evacuation areas today. Little or no excitement in London. For the last day or two it is possible to overhear people in the street discussing the situation, but only in terms of “is there going to be war?” Yesterday afternoon during the Cabinet meeting about 1000 people in Downing St., mostly rubbernecks, & no banners etc. No demonstrations in Hyde Park. The only political speaker there a Trotskyist5 who was getting a good hearing (about 200 people).* No mass-exodus from the railway stations, but immense quantities of luggage waiting to leave, by the look of it the luggage of fairly well-to-do people.

L.M.6 is of opinion that if we do not involve Italy in the war she will sit tight until we are in difficulties & have alienated the smaller European countries & will then come in on the German side. He is of the opinion that virtually the whole of the wealthy class are entirely treacherous & quite ready to do a deal with Germany, either without war or after a short sham war, which could be presented as an honourable peace, & would allow for the imposition of fascism in England.† Spain is at present making declarations of neutrality, & Turkey still declaring she will stand by France & England.

The price of gold has risen to record heights (about 155/– per ounce).7 Price of wheat still extremely low (price in wholesale markets recently quoted at less than 4/– the cwt.)

P.P.U. evidently completely quiescent & not intending to do anything. I.L.P. has issued official declaration that they will not support the government in war.

The Emergency Powers Act passed by over 400 votes to 4. Dissentients were Maxton (the other 2 I.L.P. MPs acted as tellers), Lansbury, Cecil Wilson & an Independent8. Gallacher abstained.9 Some of the extremists, eg. Ellen Wilkinson10 & A. Bevan11 voted for the bill.

[Daily Telegraph; News Chronicle; Daily Mirror; Daily Express; New Statesman; Sunday Times; Observer; Reynolds’s News ˚; Empire News; no dates given]

8.29.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. N. Henderson has returned to Berlin with Brit. gov.t’s reply & Parliament meets this afternoon when presumably the affair will be elucidated.

2. E. P. Act1 coming into force. Admiralty has not only assumed control of shipping but ordered all British shipping out of the Mediterranean & the Baltic.

3. Practice evacuation of school children said to have gone off successfully. Children to stand by in schools though this is not term time.

4. Japanese Cabinet has resigned as result of Russo-German pact. Evident that Japanese policy will now become pro-British.

[Items 1, 2, 3, and 4 are bracketed and next to them The Times, News Chronicle – both 8.29.39 – and Bournemouth Echo,2 9.28.39; separate: Daily Telegraph, 8.29.39; and Radio, no date]

SOCIAL

1. Private motorists for some days past have been buying up large quantities of petrol. [No reference]

PARTY POLITICS

1. Labour Party still declaring against accepting office. Said that in case of war a Labour representative would accept office but only on terms defined by the party & so stringent as to be probably unacceptable to the Nat. gov.t. [News Chronicle]

MISCELLANEOUS

1. It appears from reliable private information that Sir O. Mosley is a masochist of the extreme type in his sexual life. [Private]

8.30.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

Virtually no news. Communications are passing to & fro but the Cabinet are revealing nothing. Parliament adjurned° for a week. King of the Belgians offering to mediate, which Poles have accepted & Germans express themselves sympathetic to, but meanwhile troop movements & frontier outrages continue. Rumania is fortifying her Russian frontier. 2–300,000 Russian troops said to be moving to Western frontier.

Soviet Parliament will not ratify the pact till the end of the week, obviously in order to give a different interpretation to it according to the then circumstances. If necessary it is still open to them to refuse ratification which could be used as demonstration of Soviet democracy.

Harold Nicolson1 claims that U.S.S.R. cannot supply Germany with much oil in case of war. Third-hand information via the Stock Exchange* indicates that 3 days back the Cabinet were confident Hitler could not move. On the other hand L. M[yers] says that a few weeks back W. Churchill expressed very pessimistic views to him, based on talks with German generals. [The Times; News Chronicle; Daily Mirror; undated, Radio; * Private]

SOCIAL

1. Adjurnment° of Parliament for a week passed without a division. [The Times]

8.31.39:_[D] Ringwood (Hants). 8.24–29.39. Hot, yesterday & today fairly heavy rain. Blackberries are ripening in this district. Finches beginning to flock. Very heavy mists in the early mornings.

8.31.39:_[E]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. No definite news. Poland has called up more reserves but this does not yet amount to full mobilisation. German occupation of Slovakia continues & 300,000 men said to be now at strategic points on Polish frontier. Hitler has set up inner cabinet of 6 not including Ribbentrop.

16,000 children already evacuated from Paris. Evacuation of London children thought to be likely before long. No news one way or the other about ratification of Russo-German pact. Such slight indications as exist suggest pact will be ratified. German persecution of Jews said to be slightly diminished, anti-German film withdrawn from Soviet pavilion at New York world fair. Voroshilov1 reported as stating that U.S.S.R. would supply Poland with arms. [Daily Telegraph; News Chronicle; Daily Mirror]

SOCIAL

1. Sir J. Anderson2 requests the public not to buy extra stores of food & to conserve those they have, & states that there is no food shortage. [Daily Telegraph]

2. A.E.U.3 is now agreeing to dilution of labour. [Daily Telegraph]

PARTY POLITICS

1. E[ileen]’s report of speeches in Hyde Park suggest that Communist Party are taking more left wing line but not anxious to thrash out question of Russo-German pact. Speaker (Ted Bramley) claimed that MPs who voted against E.P.Act were Gallacher, Wilkinson & A. Bevan & 1 other.4 (Actually Maxton, Lansbury, C. Wilson & 1 other). [Private]

9.1.39:_[E]

Invasion of Poland began this morning. Warsaw bombed. General mobilisation proclaimed in England, ditto in France plus martial law. [Radio]

FOREIGN & GENERAL

1. Hitler’s terms to Poland boil down to return of Danzig & plebiscite in the corridor,1 to be held 1 year hence & based on 1918 census. There is some hanky panky about time the terms were presented, & as they were to be answered by night of 8.30.39., H.2 claims that they are already refused. [Daily Telegraph]

2. Naval reservists and rest of army and R.A.F. reservists called up. Evacuation of children etc. begins today, involving 3 m. people & expected to take 3 days. [Radio; undated]

3. Russo-German pact ratified. Russian armed forces to be further increased. Voroshilov’s speech taken as meaning that Russo-German alliance is not contemplated. [Daily Express]

4. Berlin report states Russian military mission is expected to arrive there shortly. [Daily Telegraph]

9.3.39 (Greenwich).:_[E]

Have again been travelling etc. Shall close this diary today, & it will as it stands serve as a diary of events leading up to the war.

We have apparently been in a state of war since 11 am. this morning. No reply was received from the German gov.t to the demand to evacuate Polish territory. The Italian gov.t made some kind of last-minute appeal for a conference to settle differences peacefully, which made some of the papers as late as this morning show a faint doubt as to whether war would actually break out. Daladier made grateful reference to the “noble effort” of Italy which may be taken as meaning that Italy’s neutrality is to be respected.

No definite news yet as to what military operations are actually taking place. The Germans have taken Danzig & are attacking the corridor from 4 points north & south. Otherwise only the usual claims & counterclaims about air raids, number of aeroplanes shot down etc. From reports in Sunday Express & elsewhere it seems clear that the first attempted raid on Warsaw failed to get as far as the town itself. It is rumoured that there is already a British force in France. Bodies of troops with full kits constantly leaving from Waterloo, but not in enormous numbers at any one moment. Air-raid practice this morning immediately after the proclamation of state of war. Seems to have gone off satisfactorily though believed by many people to be real raid. There are now great numbers of public air-raid shelters, though most of them will take another day or two to complete. Gasmasks° being handed out free, & the public appears to take them seriously. Voluntary fire-brigades etc. all active & look quite efficient. Police from now on wear steel helmets. No panic, on the other hand no enthusiasm, & in fact not much interest. Balloon barrage1 completely covers London & would evidently make low-flying quite impossible. Black-out at nights fairly complete but they are instituting very stringent penalties for infringement. Evacuation involving 3 m. people (over 1 m. from London alone) going on rapidly. Train services somewhat disorganised in consequence.

Churchill & Eden are coming into the cabinet. Labour are refusing office for the time being. Labour MPs. in the house make violent protestations of loyalty but tone of the left press very sour as they evidently realise the wind has been taken out of their sails. Controversy about the Russo-German pact continues to some extent. All the letters printed in Reynolds’s2 extol the pact but have shifted the emphasis from this being a “peace move” to its being a self-protecting move by U.S.S.R. Action of 9.2.39. still agitating against the war. No atrocity stories or violent propaganda posters as yet. M.T. Act3 extended to all men between 18–41. It is however clear that they do not as yet want large numbers of men but are passing the act in order to be able to pick on anyone they choose, & for purpose of later enforcing industrial conscription.

This concludes Orwell’s record of events leading up to the war.

The continuation of the Domestic Diary now follows.

DOMESTIC DIARY VOLUME II CONTINUED

Footnote numbering continues from that which began at the start of this diary volume, May 27, 1939.

9.5.39:_[D] Have not been able to keep up the diary owing to travelling to & fro, dislocation caused by the war etc. The weather has been mainly hot & still. On the night of 9.2.39 a tremendous thunderstorm which went on almost continuously all night.

On returning to Wallington after 10 days absence find weeds are terrible. Turnips good & some carrots have now reached a very large size. Runner beans fairly good. The last lot of peas did not come to much. A number of marrows. One pumpkin about the size of a billiard ball. Apples on the grenadier almost ripe. Damsons & bullaces ripe. All the winter vegetables have taken all right. Early potatoes rather poor, only about 5–6 potatoes to a plant, but the later ones look as if they would be good. Onions fair. Lettuces have all gone to seed. Flowers in nursery beds (wallflowers 2 kinds, sweet williams & carnations) doing all right. Hollyhocks & marigolds almost over. Roses (not ramblers) blooming again. Larkspurs quite good. Bergamot over, & phloxes almost over. Dahlias full out. Some michaelmas daisies out. Grass has grown very tall in 10 days.

It seems that since 8.24.39 (ie. 12 days) the hens have laid only 85 eggs, mostly big ones. All the older hens are moulting. Goats have been a week on grass only owing to Clarke’s failing to deliver grain last week but in good condition & still giving a reasonable amount of milk.

9.6.39:_[D] Very hot. Rooted up first lot of French beans & dug over that patch, which will do for spring cabbage. Cut side shoots out of tomatoes. These have not done at all well. All leaf & stalk, the plants growing so huge that it is almost impossible to get them to stand upright, & few & poor tomatoes (one or two now ripening.) Probable cause too much animal manure & not enough light.

10 eggs.

9.7.39:_[D] Very hot. Weeded out first lot of broccoli & dug between. Cut down nettles under the apple tree & applied 1 lb. sodium chlorate. A lot of apples but they are not very good or big, & many windfalls. Made 2–3 lb. apple jelly out of the windfalls.

8 eggs (1 small).

Forgot to mention that at Ringwood I several times saw large flocks of goldfinches, in one case over 30 in the flock.

NB. to count eggs for earlier days of this week at 7 a day, as during our absence they laid 85 in 12 days.

9.8.39:_[D] Hot. Blackberries not ripe yet. Have lifted the remainder of the early potatoes, which are very poor, only about 5 potatoes to a root.

8 eggs.

[Newspaper cuttings: ‘Curing a Goat Skin’;12 ‘For Gathering Out-of-Reach Fruit’]

9.9.39:_[D] Very hot. Dug up 3rd batch of peas & dug over that piece of ground. Red mite again very bad. Most of the leghorns now moulting but not so many of the Rhodes. Notice that the birds’ appetites always drop off in this weather, ditto the goats, though they don’t drink much.

11 eggs. Sold 35 @ 3/– score. Total this week: 58

[Newspaper cutting: ‘Feeding all Home-Grown Foods’]

9.10.39:_[D] Warmish, but overcast. Dug the 2 rows of King Edward potatoes (actually most of them are not K.E. but another larger kind, perhaps Great Scott). Again very poor though better than the earlies. The best had 16 sizeable potatoes to the root, average about 8. A great many I had to throw away as they were squashy. Everyone here is making the same complaint, so evidently we have some disease about. The first bush marrow has produced a great number of marrows. We had already cut 2 or 3 off it & now it has 4 more sizeable ones & others coming. The pumpkin has at last got hold & is swelling rapidly, so should have time to reach a fair size before the frosts.

8 eggs.

NB. that M[uriel] was showing signs of heat about 8th & 9th, so should come on again about the 30th.

9.11.39:_[D] Somewhat less warm, overcast, a very few drops of rain about dark. Last night’s rain had made no difference to the soil.

Weeded out the onions. These will be ready to pick in 2–3 weeks, but are not good. Applied sodium chlorate to the nettles beyond the walnut tree. Picked 1 lb. of damsons & 3¼ of bullaces. The damsons made almost 2 lb. jam, so the bullaces should make 5 or 6. The 2 rows of potatoes made 3 small sacks, I should say 50 or at most 60 lb. so if the main crop are equally bad we shall have at most another 300 lb., which is not nearly enough.

Picked out 2 boiling fowls (the old light Sussex & the one which mothered the 2nd lot of chicks) to go to market tomorrow.

Swallows beginning to gather on the telegraph wires.

9 eggs.

9.12.39:_[D] Chilly (enough to have a fire), overcast & windy. Some light rain in the evening. Began cleaning out the maincrop potatoes & cutting the haulm preparatory to digging. They may as well however stay in the ground another fortnight to let the skins harden. Titley’s spring cabbages are too young to plant out yet, but will be ready in a fortnight, so about 9.25.3913 will be the date for this. There should be room for 6 or 7 rows, ie. 100–150 plants. The bullaces only made 4 lb. of jam.

Sold the two old boiling fowls, 6/6 for the two, ie. about 7/6 but commission comes off this.

This morning saw what I am virtually certain was a flight of woodcock. Possibly they flock together for migration. About 8.30 a flight of about a dozen birds went over, & by their long beaks & general shape I thought for a moment they were curlews, which are never seen round here. However they were just a little too small for curlews & their flight a little too fast. At a little distance past me they made the characteristic sideways dip, & I realised they were woodcock. The thing that still makes me slightly uncertain is not there being a dozen of them together, but their being so early. Others I have seen just arriving on the Suffolk coast came in October.

NB. to save seed (about 28 lb.) when digging the maincrop potatoes.

9 eggs. (Not listing the pullets’ eggs separately now as they are somewhat larger & sell for the same price. Titley says he is getting 3/4 a score from Moss’s.)

9.13.39:_[D] Overcast in the morning, a sunny patch in the afternoon, then some drizzle. Finished cleaning out potato patch, began digging the bit next to the tomatoes. One or two cockerels almost big enough for market.

7 eggs. Sold 30 @ 3/– score.

9.14.39:_[D] Overcast, a little drizzling rain, but fairly warm. Finished digging the patch next the tomatoes. Lifted the first row of Red King as the whole of that patch needs liming & it is simpler to lift the potatoes at once. They are poor, but a little better than the K. Edwards, & only one or two rotten ones among them. Am going to scrap the tomatoes as they will come to nothing. Arranged to sell off all the fowls, as it is evident that we shall only be able to come down here at weekends & it is impossible to continue with any livestock. Shall probably make Mr N.14 a present of the goats.

8 eggs.

9.15.39:_[D] Rainy, with sunny & windy intervals.

Lifted the remainder of the Red King. Very poor. As well as I can estimate, I should say 300 lbs at most (10 rows – 200 plants). Scrapped the tomatoes. Cut down the nearer row of raspberries, which are perhaps worth keeping, very drastically, & shall manure them heavily later, as I think it possible that row may do something. Shall probably scrap the other one. Began digging patch next the raspberries. Made 2 lb. blackberry jelly out of about 2 lb. blackberries (garden) bought from Mrs Hollingsworth for 6d. Forgot to mention that I picked the apples off the grenadier, which is I think 5 years old. 22 apples, weighing 7½ lb. The apples on the big tree are mostly rotting but some will be all right.

8 eggs.

9.16.39:_[D] Chilly & misty in the morning, sunny but not too warm in the day, a shower in the afternoon.

Took up & burnt the final lot of peas, & dug over that patch. Arranged to sell off the March 8 pullets @ 5/6 a bird (paid 4/6 for them).

11 eggs. Sold 1 score @ 3/–. Total this week: 60.

9.17.39:_[D] Windy. Sacked the potatoes, evidently about 300 lb. Gave the sprouting broccoli some wood ash. Arranged to dispose of the goats. Picked about 2 lb. blackberries.

6 eggs.

9.28.39:_[D] Have not been able to keep up the diary, as I have been away.15 The eggs are, however, entered in the hen book, though I think a certain number were not recorded.

Typical autumn weather, except that of late the mornings have not been misty. Nights very clear, & the moon, which is a little past full, very fine. A certain amount of leaves yellowing.

Today planted out 60 spring cabbage. Paid 2d score for plants. Continued clearing front flower bed. The chief difficulty is the loganberry against the fence, which is now presumably too old to move. Some of the stems have grown to 15 or 20 feet. Michaelmas daisies in flower, chrysanthemums not yet. The pumpkin is about the size of a football, but I am afraid is going to ripen at that size, as the leaves are turning a little. Most of the young broccoli etc. doing well. E[ileen] gave them superphosphate last week. Made another 3½ lb. apple jelly.

Decided after all not to get rid of the older hens. Shall reduce the size of the run the young ones are in now & use it for a breeding pen (Leghorn x Rhode) in the spring if we are here. The other part can be dug over for potatoes. If actually here we might also go in for rabbits & bees. Rabbits are not to be rationed. The butcher says that people will not as a rule buy tame rabbits for eating but their ideas change when meat gets short. Titley says he made a lot of money out of rabbits at the end of the last war.

4 eggs! (To date this week, including today 36).

Field & others are still getting in hay which has only just been cut, & say it still has some nutritive value in it.

9.29.39:_[D] Cloudy but not cold. The nights & early mornings are reasonably warm at present. Finished cleaning out main flower bed & cleaned out the one in front of the kitchen . Smallholder advises sowing broad beans now & planting shallots, so shall do so if I get time.

6 eggs.

Put apples to soak for apple wine.

9.30.39:_[D] Fine, still & fairly warm. Continued clearing & got nearly to the trellis. Note that the white rambler rose has layered itself here & there. Gave all the broccoli nitrate of potash. Picked more apples. There is still 10–15 lb. on the tree, but how many will keep I do not know. I am only trying to keep the larger ones.

5 eggs. Sold 15 @ 3/– score. (Also sold 15 on Wed.) Total for week: 47. This must be low record for this year.

10.1.39:_[D] Fine but rather chilly. Made another 2 lb. apple jelly. Picked a few blackberries but had not time to go to the good places. Picked some more apples. There are not many large ones left now. Have put about 10–15 lb. on shelf behind a sack to keep the light out, hoping they may keep at any rate for a month or two.

Five eggs.

10.2.39:_[D] Fine, rather cold. Beech nuts are now ripe. Yesterday saw good number of young pheasants, fairly well grown.

Selected two cockerels for market tomorrow, about 10 lb. the two.

Continued clearing out beds & got as far as the shed. Can finish tomorrow, then shall spread manure & leave it for a few days before turning in.

4 eggs.

Made a pound or two of blackberry jam, but it has come rather thick.

10.3.39:_[D] Fine & chilly. A very few drops of rain in the afternoon. Finished clearing out the garden & transplanted a few small plants which were in the way, so tomorrow the manure can be spread.

5 eggs. Got 6/6 for the two cockerels (ie. 7/– less commission). This works out at about 8d lb.

[Newspaper cutting: ‘Making Coal Briquettes’16]

10.4.39:_[D] Rather cold, violent wind. Picked up the first ripe walnut today. There are very few, however. Spread the manure. Hoed leeks. Spring cabbages have not taken root very well, owing to the drought. Uprooted the onions, which are very poor.

6 eggs. Sold 14 @ 3/– score.

Made about 3 lb. apple ginger, which I am afraid is a little too gingery.

10.5.39:_[D] Some rain in the night, the day overcast & rather muggy. A light shower or two in the afternoon. The ground is still very dry a few inches under the surface. Dug over all the flower garden except the small beds. After the earth has settled the new flowers can go in.

6 eggs.

10.6.39:_[D] Some more rain in the night & a little this morning. Some sunny periods, & not cold.

Finished the flower garden. Planted 2 rows cabbage (36 plants). Cleared the place where the gooseberries are to go (it is too early to move them yet). Made experimentally a few briquettes of coal dust & clay. If successful will make a mould & sieve for making them on a larger scale. Evidently it is important to use only fine dust, also one must have a large metal receptacle for mixing in.

Tonight found a kind of phosphorescent worm or millipede, a thing I have never seen or heard of before. Going out on the lawn I noticed some phosphorescence, & noticed that this made a streak which constantly grew larger. I thought it must be a glowworm, except that I had never seen a glowworm which left its phosphorescence behind. After searching with an electric torch found it was a long very slender wormlike creature with many thin legs down each side & two sort° of antennae on the head. The whole length about 1¼". Managed to catch him in a test-tube & bring him in, but his phosphorescence soon faded.

5 eggs.

On facing page:

pale yellow, very wriggly (legs relatively thinner than this.)

10.7.39:_[D] Misty & still. A very few drops of rain. Beech nuts now ripe. Skinned & took the pith out of a largish marrow (about 18" long), & note that after doing this there is only about 2½ lb. of flesh. Bought Adco, 2/3 for 71b, which is said to be enough to make 7 cwt. of compost. It appears however that you must not put woody material among the rubbish, nor very large roots. Began digging shallow pit for compost. The briquettes burn fairly well when used together with coal, so shall make arrangements for making some more. Evidently the method is to mix clay & water till it is sloppy, then mix in with your coal dust, using only so much clay as is needed to bind the dust to a very stiff paste. Moulds must be very strong, as the stuff has to be tamped down forcibly.

7 eggs. Sold 15 @ 3/– score. Total this week 38. (NB. started cylinder of calor gas today).

10.8.39:_[D] Picked about 2½ lb. blackberries. Finished making the pit for rubbish & treated the first two layers with Adco. Weather misty, still & rather cold.

6 eggs

10.9.39:_[D] Continuous & mostly heavy rain till about 4 pm. Violent wind, strong enough to loosen some of the rose bushes & lift some broccoli plants almost out of the ground. Staked some of the latter, otherwise too wet to do anything out of doors.

5 eggs.

10.10.39:_[D] Very still, warm & fairly sunny. A very few spots of rain in the evening. Ground greatly sodden, & a lot of chrysanthemums loosened by the wind. Dug trench for broad beans but cannot yet get the ground into sowing condition. That piece (beyond the runner beans) is full of lumps of fine clay. Took out some of the worst & dug in some sand & wood ash. Changed the manure into a larger container as I want the other for leaf mould. Moved the henhouse. Brought in the onions, which are extremely poor, & hung them up to dry. Only 10 large bunches, of which only 3 or 4 will really keep. Picked up a few walnuts but there are very few this year.

Yesterday made 2 lb. blackberry jelly. Note that 2½ lb. blackberries = 2 pints juice = 2 lb. jelly (actually a little over).

5 eggs.

10.11.39:_[D] Still, sunny & fairly warm. Ground a good deal dryer. Planted out 10 Canterbury bells, about 20 sweet williams, 20 carnations, 25 wallflowers (flame). Continue tomorrow if not raining. Added some more to compost heap. Staked some of the crysanthemums° etc. T[itley] has not got the stakes yet so cannot finish off hen-run. Yesterday snapped the handle of the spade, but it seems one can get a new handle without having to buy a whole spade. Made a little apple jam, experimentally, but does not seem great success. Have made about 25 lb. of jam altogether.

8 eggs. Sold 25 @ 3/– score.

10.12.39:_[D] Fine autumn weather, as yesterday. Planted out about 25 more wallflowers, a few hollyhock seedlings, 20 bought tulip bulbs (2 black) & about 15 of our own, & about 30 daffodils, some bought, some of our own. Cut leaves off marrows to let them ripen. I have left one on each plant, one of them a very large one.

8 eggs.

10.13.39:_[D] Misty but not cold. Some swallows still about, flying very high. Mowed the lawn. Could not make much impression on it, as it has got long again, but this will probably have to be its last cut this year. Nothing more now to be done in the flower garden except the little patch up by the trellis & to trim off edges of the grass & make up paths, but I cannot do all this until the spade is mended. Cleared out the patch where the rhubarb is, preparatory to digging. Gave all the broccoli etc. superphosphate. This will be their last feed. Some savoys ready to cut & a few sprouts almost ready, but all that first lot are very poor. Planted 2 doz. snowdrop bulbs. Put some hen-manure in the shed to dry. Tried mixture of coal-dust & tea leaves in a paper bag, which will burn more or less, so shall keep sugar cartons for this purpose.

5 eggs (1 double egg.)

10.14.39:_[D] Extremely heavy rain all night & in the morning. Cleared up a little in the afternoon. Began digging patch by rhubarb, otherwise impossible to do much out of doors.

5 eggs. Sold 15 @ 3/– score. Total this week 42.

10.15.39:_[D] Continuous & mostly heavy rain all day. Impossible to do anything out of doors.

8 eggs.

10.16.39:_[D] Sunny, very still, fairly warm. I believe there was a slight frost last night. Saw the white owl again yesterday evening. Limed part of the vacant patch, the part nearest the raspberries. That bit is not to be manured as I want it for root-crops. Dug a little more of the patch by the rhubarb. Soil here rather sour & must be limed when dug. Cut down the runner beans & added a layer to the compost heap. Made up a little more of the garden path.

Sold 4 cockerels for 9/– – poor price but they were very small.

3 eggs!

10.17.39:_[D] Still, fairly fine, not cold. Went into Baldock & bought mattock, 6/–. Also a little napthaline°, said to be good weed-killer when mixed in equal quantities with lime. Cleared out place where the blackberries are to go. Elm trees are all yellowing, beech trees not so much.

6 eggs.

10.18.39:_[D] Rather cold, with some sharp showers. Could not do much out of doors. Cleaned up some of the path, & put in some stakes for the blackberries. Two more stakes are needed.

7 eggs. Sold 20 @ 3/– score.

10.19.39:_[D] Raining almost continuously till late evening. Impossible to do much out of doors. Dug a very little more of the rhubarb bed, cleaned up the remaining bit of the path, which however cannot be re-gravelled till I have got some more cinders (no coal delivered for the past 10 days). Tried experimentally some of the lime & napthalene° mixture,* also crushed rock salt, both said to be good weed-killers. Tits are common about the house now. In the elm trees in the field some kind of bird makes a sawing noise every night. Don’t know whether this can be the owls.

If possible the following things have to be done before the end of November:17

Move wire of hen-run.

Clear all the grass off the new patch & the bit joining it to the old garden.

Heap turf so as to rot.

Rough-dig the new patch.

Transplant all the fruit bushes.

Clean out & dig the patch where the fruit bushes have been.

Lime the vacant piece, the empty part of the rhubarb bed, & the place where the fruit bushes have been.

Clear out the remaining patch under the hedge & prepare bed for rambler.

Remove most of the chrysanthemums when they have withered back.

Take up & store dahlia roots.

Plant shallots.

Sow broad beans.

Plant phloxes, michaelmas daisies (if not too early.)

Plant roses, rambler & polyantha. Transplant peonies.

Transplant apple tree.

Procure and plant blackberries.

Collect several sacks dead leaves.

Clean out strawberry bed.

Possibly also:18

Make up paths in kitchen garden.

Make new bed by gate.

5 eggs.

10.20.39:_[D] Fine, still, sunny but not particularly warm. Finished digging the rhubarb bed, prepared the frame for dead leaves, made up a little more of the path, grubbed up the last lot of French beans. T[itley] cannot get any stakes so shall have to buy some iron ones.

5 eggs.

10.21.39:_[D] Very fine, clear, still autumn weather, with a touch of mist. Distinctly chilly morning & evening. E[ileen], Lydia19 & self picked 4½ lb. blackberries. Nuts seem to be already ripened & fallen. Oak trees now mostly yellow, hawthorn & ash leaves falling.

7 eggs. Sold 15 @ 3/– score. Total this week: 41.

10.22.39:_[D] Very misty, not cold, a short spell of sun in the afternoon. No wind. Turned out & examined some of the bags of potatoes. Found that some K. Edwards had gone bad, but no Red Kings, or very few. Threw away the bad ones, changed into fresh bags & scattered a little lime on the heap. Hope this will be enough to prevent serious damage. Planted out a few clumps of aubretia. Cut the pumpkin which was ripening. Only about 10 lb. T[itley] is selling first-rate cooking apples (called locally Meetrop or some such name – have not seen this apple before) at 1d lb., eating apples (Blenheims) @ 1½ lb. Cut the first savoy today. Arranged to let the milkman have our eggs @ 3/6 score instead of the 3/– the butcher has been paying. T. says you can get 3/8 at the market, but in that case there are commissions to come off.

6 eggs.

10.23.39:_[D] Not cold & fairly fine, but a few drops of drizzling rain in the evening. Cleaned out the piece between the rockery & the trellis, made a bed of sorts, planted 20 forget-me-nots in it, made a bed ready for the rambler. There is now nothing to be done in the flower garden except to plant the flowers (phlox etc.) when they are ready, make up paths & perhaps cut the grass once again. Made 2 lb. apple jelly yesterday. Found some eggs of either worm or snail, about the size of match-heads, whitish, translucent.

6 eggs.

10.24.39:_[D] Evidently a good deal of rain last night. Today overcast, not cold, a few spots of rain in the afternoon. Leaves coming down pretty fast now.

Today went into Baldock. Bought small sieve (2/–). Impossible to get iron stakes for wire netting. Timber also almost unprocurable. Managed to get 2 very poor 6 ft. stakes for gate-posts of hen-run. Put them up this evening, & shall shift wire tomorrow if not raining. Tried to mow grass, but the machine in its present state makes no impression. Shall have to leave it till the spring, then get it scythed. Mr K20 mended the spade by using the handle of the broken fork. Quite a good mend but leaves the spade a bit short. Paid 1/–. Impossible to sow broad beans yet as the ground will not get fine. Clarke’s21 sent shallots today & shall plant them by way of experiment when I get time. NB. that 2 lb. shallots = about 60 bulbs (say 2 rows). There are now 2 barn owls which live in the stumpy elm tree, & evidently it is they that make the sawing noise. I suppose these are the ones that used to be called screech-owls, & the ordinary brown owl is the one that makes the to-whoo noise.

6 eggs. Started hens on course of Karswood today.* Also giving them more shell grit.

10.25.39:_[D] Fine, sunny, cold wind. Began clearing the vacant ground between the old garden & the new patch. Burnt a little of the rubbish. Limed another strip, also the rhubarb patch, but have not turned the lime in here. Collected the first sack of dead leaves (beech). Had noticed for 2 days that a brown hen was sitting out somewhere. Tonight found her nest – 10 eggs, 1 broken. Took the eggs, which may possibly be good, being unfertilised. Tonight she had gone back to the empty nest. Put her in the house, & hope she may be cured in a few days. This morning shifted the wire of the run. Posts are not long enough for gate posts, but can have an extra piece fitted on if I can get hold of some timber. Yesterday when sinking holes for the posts found that the chalk is only about 6" beneath the surface, but possibly it isn’t so all over the patch.

4 eggs. Sold 20 @ 3/6 (to milkman).

10.26.39:_[D] A very sharp white frost last night, the first severe frost of the year. The day overcast with a short sunny interval, & rather cold. Water in the hens’ basin frozen solid this morning. Turned it, & this evening there was still a little ice left. The dahlias blackened immediately, & I am afraid the marrows I had left to ripen are done for, as they had gone a funny colour. Brought them in & added the haulm to the compost-heap, which is now completed except for the old straw which is still in the flower garden. Finished clearing the waste patch, piled the turf in a heap & marked out where the path is to go. This leaves another yard width of soil. Began digging this as it will do for the shallots. Collected another sack of dead leaves & sprinkled a little saltpetre (advised in Smallholder) among them. Shall try & note the number of sacks collected so as to see what amount of mould they make. The turves old H[atchett] stacked earlier in the year have rotted down into beautiful fine loam, but I think I had first killed the grass on these with sodium chlorate, so presumably what I am stacking now will not rot so rapidly or completely. Put some wood-ash on the place for the broad beans. If I can’t get that bit fine I must try & find space elsewhere & simply give the bad clayey patch a good liming. The broody hen goes to her nest every night. Last night she would have frozen to death if I had not happened to find her. Considerable number of goldfinches in the garden today.

7 eggs.

10.27.39:_[D] I think there must have been a slight frost again last night. Today about midday heavy rumbling sound which may have been either thunder or gunfire, & soon afterwards heavy sleety rain. More showers in the afternoon. Ground is very soggy again. Could not do much out of doors owing to the rain. Dug a little of the patch for the shallots.

6 eggs.

10.28.39:_[D] Frost again last night (not so hard as before). All today raining almost continuously. Impossible to do anything out of doors. One double egg today.

6 eggs Total this week 41.

11.3.39:_[D] Have been away since last Sunday (28th),22 only returning this evening. Everything is extremely sodden. Planted a few more crocus bulbs & took up dahlia roots, which maybe worth keeping. In this time the hens have apparently only laid 28 eggs, less than 5 a day. Had not noted that before leaving on Sunday sold 1 score @ 4/–.

11.4.39:_[D] Damp, but not raining to any great extent. Finished digging the ground for the shallots (still very sodden & will need several fine days to dry it), manured the rhubarb, began clearing the new patch of thistles etc. Saw the white owl in the daytime. Very beautiful toadstools in the field now, pale bluey-green, slender stalk of same colour, mauve gills, the whole toadstool coated with sort of slimy stuff. Added another ½ sack of dead leaves to heap.

5 eggs. Total this week 33 (Mrs A[nderson] has obviously underfed them).

11.5.39:_[D] Some wind in the morning, then nice sunny weather. Ground has dried up somewhat. In the evening violent wind & a few drops of rain. The wind actually blew the roof off the small henhouse. Enormous flocks of starlings, some tens of thousands at a time, going over with a noise that sounds like heavy rain. The leaves are mostly down now. Elder leaves just coming down. As I remember it, the elms are being stripped much earlier this year than most.

Transplanted the gooseberry bushes. Trust I haven’t damaged them. One or two still had green or greenish leaves, & others were so deep in the ground I had to damage their roots considerably getting them up. The soil there (this end of garden) is in places pure clay at only 1 foot below the surface. Dug some of this out & lightened the ground as well as possible with sand & turf-mould. Then limed the ground between the bushes & dug in, also pruned the bushes a little. Hope this wind will not blow them all loose again. Added another sack of leaves.

9 eggs (probably some of these laid yesterday). Sold 30 @ 4/– score.

[Total sacks of leaves on facing page: 3½.]

11.6.39:_[D] Evidently it rained very heavily during last night. Today windy, a few showers but most of the day sunny. Transplanted the peonies. They are said not to stand this well, but they had withered back & I took a good ball of soil with each. Planted the little rambler cutting, the one that was in a pot. This has rooted well but is of course a very tiny plant. Dug & manured a trench to plant the first lot of currants, but don’t like to plant them till the ground is a little less sodden. Limed another small patch of ground. Forgot to mention that one of the gooseberry bushes I moved yesterday had layered itself. Evidently they do this spontaneously sometimes.

5 eggs.

11.7.39:_[D] Rather wet, too much so to do much out of doors: Considerable rain this evening. Planted first row of currants (ie. 6 red, 5 black). Have started using chaff instead of straw for nesting-boxes. Do not know whether it will prove too expensive, but should be easier to clean out & to rot down.

6 eggs.

There was a nest of field mice at the roots of one of the currant bushes, & they came running out, 5 in all, as I levered the plant up. Fatter & lighter-coloured than the house-mouse, with a long tail (I had always had an idea they had short ones) & rather slow-moving, with a sort of hopping movement, though they all managed to get away from me.

11.8.39:_[D] Dry, windy, sunny, not cold. Many goldfinches about. Took the remaining nettles, or most of them, out of the new patch. Put in 2 more stakes for blackberries. Limed another patch. Added 1 sack dead leaves. [Total on facing page: 4½.]

6 eggs. Sold 20 @ 4/4.

11.9.39:_[D] Sunny & still. Everything still seems very wet, but evidently there was no rain last night. Made up some more of the path. Unable to do much else, as the wheelbarrow is about at its last & I was trying to repair it.

5 eggs.

11.10.39:_[D] Very fine, sunny, still weather. Dug the first trench of the new patch, planted shallots (not quite enough to make up the 2 rows), transplanted 3 rambler rose cuttings, 1 Albertine, one of the yellowy-white kind, the other I don’t know what kind. Made up path as far as trellis. Titley says in storing dahlia bulbs the important thing is to suspend them for a while stalk downwards, as the reason they rot is that moisture runs down the hole in the stalk into the roots. Bought some more apples (Blenheims) still 1½. lb. T. says he is getting 4/6 score for eggs.

9 eggs.

11.11.39:_[D] Very fine weather, as yesterday. Birds all singing almost as though it were spring. Notice that horse dung of some mares & their foals out in the fields is extremely dark, almost black, presumably from being out at grass with no corn. Added another sackful of leaves. [Total on facing page: 6.]

5 eggs. Sold 1 score @ 4/4. Total this week 45.

11.12.39:_[D] Windless, misty, sun just visible, rather chilly. Many fungi in the woods, including one which at a certain stage gets a sort of white fluffy mildew on it & smells rather like bad meat. Immense quantities of wood pigeons & large flights of starlings. Came on a field of what appeared to be weeds but think it may possibly be buckwheat, which is sometimes grown about here for the sake of the partridges. Small black three-cornered seed like a miniature beech nut. Brought home a patch of a kind of rough moss & stuck it on the rockery, hoping it will grow. Today at 3 pm hung out a lump of fat for the tits. They had found it at before 5 pm.

5 eggs.

11.13.39:_[D] Beautiful still, sunny day. Last night not at all cold. Cannot make sure whether when shallots spring out of the ground it is of their own accord or partly done by the pigeons. Sometimes they are about 1´ from where they were planted. Dug 2 rows of the new patch, turned the compost heap, limed another patch, added one more sackful dead leaves. [Total on facing page: 7.] One hen is definitely broody.

6 eggs.

11.14.39:_[D] Rather windy, looked like rain in middle of day but actually did not rain. Dug 2 more trenches in new patch. Cannot get on faster than this owing to chalky stony streak in the middle which is hard to break into. Dug trench for remaining blackcurrants.

6 eggs.

11.15.39:_[D] Last night a little rain, today fine, still & mild. Dug 2 more trenches. Cut down some of the herbaceous plants. Some of the phloxes will have to be split up. Another double egg. By the look of them all the double eggs I have had recently come from the same bird, tho’ it is always said locally that a double egg means the beginning or ending of a clutch.

9 eggs. Sold 1 score @ 4/4.

11.16.39:_[D] Some rain last night & almost continuous light rain all today. Impossible to do much out of doors. Limed another strip (lime now running short), transplanted a couple of currant bushes. Most of the trees are now completely bare. A few leaves still on the elms. Of the deciduous trees the ashes seem the last to go.

4 eggs.

11.17.39:_[D] Still, overcast but not more than a few spots of rain. Transplanted the remaining currant bushes except 2, which still have their leaves rather green. One of the bushes had layered itself. Cut the layer off & planted it experimentally. Limed another strip. There will be just enough lime for the remainder of the vacant patch but not for where the bushes have been. To do the whole garden would need a cwt. or somewhat over. Collected another sack of dead leaves. [Total on facing page: 8.] Added a little to compost heap.

7 eggs (actually 8 but one broken).

11.18.39:_[D] Rather rainy. Went into Baldock but failed to get any rose bushes. Bought a peony root which perhaps I can plant at the corner instead of a rose. Clarke’s say the shortage of grains, or difficulty of sending them to & fro, is actually much greater than the papers make out. Saw a bird which I think must have been a golden plover, though so far as I know they are not found round here. Slightly larger than a snipe (it was certainly not a snipe), redshank type of flight, but its back was brownish. Too far away to see its beak. The only thing that makes me doubtful is that its belly was almost white.

9 eggs. Sold 1 score @ 4/4. (According to Clarke’s the Gov.t are controlling the price at 4/–). Total this week 46.

11.19.39:_[D] Some rain last night. Today still, fairly fine. Winter time (deferred 2 months owing to the war) starts today so have to give the hens their evening meal about 3 pm. Dug one trench, transplanted the little rose (the one that was overgrown by the lavender) & planted peony (price of root 6d). These don’t generally bloom the following year. Afraid I may have put the 3 peonies too close together.

5 eggs. (Notice nearly always a bad lay after a wet day, as yesterday).

11.20.39:_[D] Fine, still, reasonably warm. Planted 6 lupins (paid 9d), said to be mixed colours. NB. that T[itley] says that with lupins one should spread their roots out & not insert them too deep. Limed & began digging the final strip. This will need more doing than the rest as the ground is very sour & full of weeds. Cut down the remaining phloxes, tied up some of the chrysanthemums which had been blown over. Difficult to do much these afternoons now it is winter-time. The chrysanths now in full flower, mostly dark reddy-brown, & few ugly purple & white ones which I shan’t keep. Roses still attempting to flower, otherwise no flowers in the garden now. Michaelmas daisies are over & I have cut some of them down. The 2nd lot of Brussels sprouts (planted as little plants 8.19.39) sprouting up, also some of the savoys planted at the same time beginning to hearten up a little. All that lot are small kinds. None of my broccoli yet heading to any extent, though the plants have grown well. T. says oak leaves make the best mould, & then beech.

8 eggs. Sold 8 @ 2d each (a mistake – price miscalculated).

11.21.39:_[D] Still, overcast, rather chilly. Did nothing out of doors. New cwt. Full-o-Pep begun today. Clarke’s say the grain-shortage, such as there is, is of maize & dari (weatings).23 The former comes from the Argentine. The latter was usually imported ready ground, & at present the English mills are not turning it out fast enough, though there is no shortage of wheat.

8 eggs.

11.22.39:_[D] Much as yesterday. Dug some more of the limed patch, planted out the remaining black currants. A double egg again & also an egg of the type the Smallholder describes as pimpled. Tom R[idley] says he saw a rat come out of our garden yesterday.

9 eggs.

11.23.39:_[D] Rain last night, light rain all day. Cold. Impossible to do much out of doors. Dug some more of the limed patch.

8 eggs.

11.24.39:_[D] Fine, still, rather cold. Finished digging limed patch. Transplanted apple tree. Had great difficulty uprooting it & fear I damaged its roots seriously. Cut down remaining michaelmas daisies & transplanted one clump. Found nest of 11 eggs, not sat on & seemingly O. K., so will do for the house, but shall not enter them in book.

4 eggs.

11.25.39:_[D] Hard frost last night, which started about 4 pm. Thawed this morning about 10 am, cold & miserable all day. Lumps of ice turned out of hens’ basins were still frozen in the evening. Made bonfire, added some of the hay which had rotted to the compost-heap. This uses up the Adco, which will not have made the 7 cwt. of manure as specified, but perhaps I used it too liberally.

7 eggs. Sold 20 @ 4/4. Total this week: 49. + 11 laid out = 60.

11.26.39:_[D] Cold & windy, rain some of the day. Stuck a root of wild briar in, experimentally, but not certain whether it will take as it had not much root. Shall plant some more as I want to try budding next year.

10 eggs. Sold 4 @ 2d each & 5 at 5 for 1/–.

11.27.39:_[D] Heavy rain in the night & all this morning. Finer & windless this afternoon. Everything very sodden. Dug another trench. Have now almost finished the amount I intend doing of the new bit. Stuck in 2 more briar roots. Shall plant about 6 of different heights & see how they do. Collected another sack of dead leaves. This amount (about 10 sacks) fills the frame. Covered over with fine soil & shall not disturb till next year.

7 eggs.

11.28.39:_[D] Still not too warm. Some frost in the night. Finished the new patch. This will take 5 or 6 rows of potatoes. Showed the briar stocks to T[itley], who explained that one must cut the side shoots off & bud onto those which appear in spring.

7 eggs.

11.29.39:_[D] Rained in the night, fine today & reasonably warm. Started digging the patch where the bushes were. This is in a terrible state & will take a long time to do, also is poor chalky soil & needs a lot of enriching. Began making path for henhouses, as the mud is very bad.

6 eggs. Sold 1 score @ 4/4.

11.30.39:_[D] Very mild & still. A very few light spots of rain. Bats were out (noticed midges flying about the other day, in spite of the recent frosts). Dug a little more of the weedy patch. Made up the front part of the path. Pruned the white rambler, I hope correctly. Have not seen or heard the owls for some time past.

8 eggs.

12.1.39:_[D] A little windier & colder than yesterday. Did some more weeding, turned the compost heap, planted another root of briar, this time a much older one.

9 eggs.

12.2.39:_[D] Fine, still, not very warm.

9 eggs. Sold 20 @ 4/4. Total this week: 56.

12.3.39:_[D] Frost last night. Today fine, windy, coldish. The common lane waterlogged almost knee-deep in parts. Planted another briar root. Note that on post hammered in on 10.18.39 fungi are growing (the horizontal hard kind that look like ears) about 1" broad, so evidently these things grow fairly rapidly.

7 eggs.

12.4.39:_[D] Heavy rain in the early part of last night, then frost. A little rain this morning. Windy & cold.

10 eggs. Sold 1 score @ 4/4.

12.5.39:_[D] Windy, overcast & decidedly cold. Some sloes still on the bushes. Plovers sitting on the ground & crying.

10 eggs.

12.6.39:_[D] Cold last night but no frost. Today fine & cold.

5 eggs. Sold 1 score @ 4/2.

12.7.39:_[D] Very hard frost last night, which did not begin to thaw till afternoon. Thick mist in the evening. Mr R[idley] turns over the frosted ground, digging the frost in, which he says kills the wireworms etc.

9 eggs.

12.8.39:_[D] Raining all day.

10 eggs.

12.9.39:_[D] Fine & rather cold. A little rain in the evening.

8 eggs. Total this week: 59.

12.10.39:_[D] Sunny in the morning, overcast in the afternoon, not cold. Transplanted another root of wild rose. Transferred the 4 young pullets to the main houses.

8 eggs.

12.11.39:_[D] Raw, chilly, thick mist most of day.

7 eggs.

12.12.39:_[D] (In London) Cold & overcast.

12.13.39:_[D] Cold, overcast, not windy.

12.28.39:_[D] Back at Wallington. Very cold, but no wind. In London there were a few frosts &, round about Xmas, extremely dense mists, making traffic almost impossible. Here freezing hard since yesterday, & snowing all today. Extremely light dry snow, which clings to everything, even wire netting. One of the plants that carries the snow most beautifully is lavender. Even corrugated iron looks attractive with snow on it. White Leghorn hens on the snow look quite dark yellow.

In the time we have been away, ie. since 12.12.39 there have apparently been 101 eggs – a falling off but not so bad as I expected. Shall have to make the weeks up by guesswork but can get the actual numbers right. Mice have been very bad in the house during my absence, tearing up newspaper etc., etc. Must try poisoning them.

4 eggs (no doubt owing to cold.)

[NB. As to egg account: – the total number of eggs, including those laid on the 2 (unentered) days before we went away, & today’s, is 120. I have entered the last two weeks @ 45 a week, which leaves 30 to be added to those of Friday–Sat. of this week: ie. this week’s eggs will equal Friday. Sat’s eggs + 30. This will make the total right even if the weeks are incorrect.]24

12.29.39:_[D] Freezing hard all day, but no fresh snow. Water pipes frozen this morning. Saw a rabbit run across a pool on the ice. Oat stack being thrashed at the farm.

4 eggs.

12.30.39:_[D] No thaw. A few light spots of snow.

5 eggs. Total this week (see above): 39. Yesterday sold 5 @ 1/–.

12.31.39:_[D] Considerably warmer, & thawing this afternoon, but appears to be freezing again tonight.

5 eggs.

1.1.40:_[D] Freezing again last night. Today thawing in the sun but freezing in the shade. Some children able to slide on the ice of one of the ponds. They are ploughing in places, which the earth is not too hard for with a tractor plough. Frost turned into the soil said to be good for it, but snow is bad (ie. presumably bad for a heavy soil). The £2 an acre subsidy for ploughing up grassland said to cover the costs of ploughing including labour. Tractor said to use about 10 galls. paraffin to plough an acre.

3 eggs!

1.2.40:_[D] No thaw. Fallen ash-boughs all stripped & gnawed by rabbits. Pan of water left out all day is thickly frozen by evening.

6 eggs.

1.9.40:_[D] Back home again after nearly a week in London. The frost has now broken but it is still cold, generally damp & misty, & there is still a good deal of ice left on the pools. W.C. has at last unfrozen but there was still ice in the cistern. Chrysanthemums have now withered back, so shall cut them down & remove those that are of bad colours. The others ought also to be removed & divided in the spring, but probably there won’t be time.

In 7 days the hens appear to have laid only 25 eggs. This is far worse than they were doing before & evidently Mrs A[nderson] has again underfed them. Mrs. A. sold 1 score @ 3/4

[On facing page:]

To even the eggs up: to end of week: 27.

New week up to & including 1.9.39°: 12.

(This includes those laid before I went away + 25).

1.10.40:_[D] Freezing very hard again. Water left outside has ice on it in only an hour or two. The pond by the church will bear my weight, but not that in the field called the Warren. The reservoir is not frozen at all. Turned up 2 rabbits in the field. They have a hole there, but whether used I am not quite certain. On the church wall found a jay & a grey squirrel, presumably shot by somebody & thrown there. Did not know the grey squirrel was found round here or that they came out of hibernation in this weather. Cut down the chrysanthemums. Made several attempts to start a bonfire, but things in frosty weather are not so dry as they look. One or two of the shallots (planted 11.10.39) beginning to show buds. One of the pullets (hatched May) has come into lay.

7 eggs.

1.11.40:_[D] No thaw. It would be possible to skate on the church pond, but unfortunately I have no skates here. The other ponds not bearing. Water beetles (the kind whose legs look like oars) can be seen moving about under the ice. When a brick lies on the bottom in shallow water, there appears in the ice above it a curious formation the size & shape of the brick itself, presumably something to do with the temperature of the brick when thrown in being higher than that of the water. Turned up a woodcock in the common lane. No rabbits in the field today. Birds very bold & hungry. Rooks in the vegetable garden, where they do not usually come. One or two primroses & polyanthi budding, in spite of the frost upon them. One of the elm trees apparently bleeds a brown-coloured stuff, sap or something, & large icicles of this hanging down, looking like toffee. Milk when frozen goes into a curious flaky stuff like flaky pastry.

7 eggs.

1.12.40:_[D] Appeared to stop freezing for about an hour in the afternoon, otherwise no thaw. Still & sunny. Poultry manure frozen hard & easy to break up, so scattered a patch with this, which can be dug in later. This patch (next the unmanured patch this side of the raspberries) will do for onions.

9 eggs.

1.13.40:_[D] Thawed a little in the sun in the afternoon, then freezing again.

4 eggs. Sold 1 score (presumably 3/4^d). Total this week: 39.

1.14.40:_[D] No thaw. Thickish mist. Extremely still, no sun visible but not particularly cold.

1.15.40:_[D] Some sun today, & for a little while in the afternoon a little thaw in the sun, everywhere else freezing hard. Evidently the frost has been harder the last night or two, as the indoor water pipes are frozen again. Dishes of water left in the kitchen sink now freeze almost solid. This must be the longest cold snap since 1916–17, when we had very similar weather (about end of February 1917).

9 eggs.

The rime everywhere is almost like snow. Today an egg rolled out of one of the houses & got frozen. On breaking it find that the white goes to a substance like jelly with bubbles in it, & the yoke° goes to a consistency like that of stiff putty.

1.16.40:_[D] No thaw. In the afternoon violent & very cold wind & a little snow.

6 eggs.

1.17.40:_[D] No thaw. A little snow in the night, making about 1 inch depth. Last night seemingly the hardest frost of all, as even the village pump was frozen. Snow very dry & crunchy. Dung in the hen houses frozen quite hard, so broke this up & scattered on another strip, which will do for beans or peas.

5 eggs. Sold 25 @ 3/6 score.

1.18.40:_[D] No thaw. Unable to unfreeze pipes etc. Saw a little owl today – have not previously seen any of these round here.

11 eggs.

1.19.40:_[D] No thaw. A little more snow last night. Cannot unfreeze kitchen tap but unfroze the waste pipe by pouring boiling water down the straight part & hanging a hot water bottle over the bend. Tried to dig a hole to bury some refuse but found it impossible even with the pick. Even at 6" depth the ground is like a stone.

9 eggs.

1.20.40:_[D] No thaw. They are now skating on the pool in the Warren. Potatoes brought in from the shed are frozen right through, with thick crust of ice under the skin. These were ones that were not covered up. Have not looked at those that are.

7 eggs. Total this week: 57. Sold 1 score @ 3/6.

1.21.40:_[D] Colder, more wind, & a good deal of light & rather damp snow. Tom Ridley says best way of thawing out pipes is to run a blowlamp along them.

12 eggs. (best for some months past)

Said to have been 21° frost yesterday.25

1.22.40:_[D] Some more snow last night, making about 4". A little also today. Not actually thawing today, but definitely less cold. Put oilstove in the kitchen, whereupon the pipes unfroze, disclosing the fact that one is burst. Kitchen & small room flooded 1" deep before I discovered what was happening.

Wood pigeon walking about in kitchen garden & unable to fly, presumably from hunger & cold. Did not care to molest it, though it was pecking at cabbages etc.

8 eggs. Sold 1 score @ 3/6.

1.23.40:_[D] Evidently a little more snow in the night. Milder, but no thaw.

6 eggs. Am not counting one that was laid on the floor of the pullets’ house & was broken. There were 3 there altogether, so at any rate 2 pullets are laying.

[Newspaper cutting: ‘How to make Macon’, i.e., how to cure mutton as a substitute for bacon; bacon was then in short supply.]

1.24.40:_[D] No thaw. Rather windy.

6 eggs (not counting 1 broken one). Sold 1 score @ 3/6.

1.25.40:_[D] No thaw. Still & not cold.

11 eggs. (3 pullets definitely laying).

1.26.40:_[D] No thaw. In the afternoon considerable wind & some very cold rain which froze as soon as it fell, leaving a thin skin of ice over everything. Then some heavy & rather squashy snow.

4 eggs.

1.27.40:_[D] No thaw. Last night distinctly milder, then heavy sloshy snow. Freezing very hard again this evening. Birds very hungry. A thrush hanging round the shed today, seemingly weak with hunger.

9 eggs. Total this week: 56. Sold 1 score @ 3/6.

1.28.40:_[D] Very cold. Heavy snow last night, making about one foot deep. A little snow most of the day.

8 eggs.

1.29.40:_[D] The coldest weather hitherto. Heavy snow last night, everything snowed up, drifts 4–6´ deep in places, roads more or less impassable, so that there has been no traffic of any kind all day. Violent wind. In spite of all this the tap of the village pump is not frozen, though almost completely buried in snow this morning. Some days back after being thawed out with boiling water it was muffled in sacking, after which it has remained unfrozen.

5 eggs.

There is a break in keeping the Diary until March 13, 1940.

On March 11, 1940, Victor Gollancz published Inside the Whale and Other Essays. Only 1,000 copies were printed and some were destroyed by bombing. Orwell received £20 on publication.

3.13.40:_[D] Re-opening this diary after a long absence due to ’flu etc.

The day we left, 1.30.40, the roads were so completely snowed up that of the 3½ miles to Baldock we were only able to do about ½ mile on the road. For the rest we had to strike across the fields, where the snow was frozen hard & there were not so many drifts. In the road they were at least 6´ deep in places. It was sometimes impossible to see where the road lay, as the snow covered the tops of the banks on either side. Flocks of hares, sometimes about 20 together, were wandering over the fields.

As a result of the frost all kinds of cabbages, except a few Brussels sprouts, are completely destroyed. The spring cabbages have not only died but entirely disappeared, no doubt eaten off by the birds. The leeks have survived, though rather sorry for themselves. Most of the wallflowers have survived. Some 2-years old ones which I had left in are all dead. The older carnations are also dead, but the young ones are all right. All the rose cuttings have survived except one. Snowdrops are out & some yellow crocuses, a few polyanthi trying to flower, tulips & daffodils showing, rhubarb just sprouting, ditto peonies, black currants budding, red currants not, gooseberries budding. The compost I made with Adco has not rotted down very completely. Grass everywhere very brown & sickly-looking. The soil is very fine & friable as a result of the frost.

Have now lost accurate count of the eggs & shall have to close the egg-account book, which however gives an accurate account stretching over 7 months, useful for future reference. From the milkman’s account it appears the hens have laid 270 eggs since 1.29.40 (6 weeks about). Yesterday 10. It is now difficult to sell eggs, as there is a glut, so shall put some in water-glass. The last few days fine spring-like weather. Today colder & this afternoon raining hard.

Did a little digging. Hoed leeks.

14 eggs.

3.14.40:_[D] Heavy snow in the night & during a good deal of the day. Nasty slushy snow which will not lie long, but makes everything very nasty. Impossible to do anything out of doors.

Began water-glassing some eggs, experimentally. It appears you should use eggs 5–12 hours old, as if they have been laid a day or two it takes several months off the time they will stay good. Put 20–30 older eggs (laid about 6 days) in a glass jar, & these can be used first. Am using a large enamelled pan for newer eggs, & shall put in none more than 24 hours old.

16 eggs.

3.15.40:_[D] Hard frost in the night & roads very slippery this morning. Today fairly sunny & warm. Thawing fast, but most of the grass still covered with snow. A few blue crocuses appearing.

16 eggs.

3.16.40:_[D] Fairly fine day. The snow has now almost gone.

19 eggs. Total this week (5 days): 75.

3.17.40:_[D] Raining much of the day. Everything now very sodden. Roses are budding well. Alfred H[atchett] says it is not too late to plant blackberry runners, though they will do no good this year.

16 eggs.

3.18.40:_[D] Somewhat drier. A few drops of rain. Forked over the ground for the onion bed & applied superphosphate. A few wallflowers just beginning to bud. But there are very few that are really undamaged by the frost.

15 eggs.

3.19.40:_[D] Violent wind, & raining slightly on & off.

Prepared a row for broad beans & another for cauliflowers, but impossible to get the surface soil fine yet.

16 eggs.

3.20.40:_[D] Somewhat drier, but a few showers. Dug a little more & prepared place for blackberries.

9 eggs.

3.21.40:_[D] It is drying, but very slowly. Again a few showers. Sorted out potatoes, of which at least a third have rotted owing to frost. However if the remaining ones don’t rot there are enough to last several months at present rate of consumption. Dug a little more. A little aubretia beginning to flower. A few scillas also. Perennials all budding pretty strongly. No. of eggs in waterglass about 100.

16 eggs.

3.22.40:_[D] Somewhat drier but a few drops of rain. Planted 3 blackberries (runners) & 2 roots of rhubarb. Began clearing out the strawberry bed. Blue & white crocuses now out.

13 eggs.

3.23.40:_[D] About the first nice spring weather, except for a shower or two in the afternoon. Buds on bullace trees.

13 eggs. Total this week: 98.

3.24.40:_[D] Nice spring weather most of the day. Blackthorn just budding. Catkins & female flowers on the hawthorn. Found some frogs mating. In most places they have already spawned & some of the spawn is beginning to develop. Brought a few bits home. A primrose out in the garden (also polyanthi) but could find none in the woods, though Mrs Nicholls, whom we met,26 had found a very few, also violets. Anemones not out.

18 eggs.

3.25.40:_[D] Most of day nice weather, turning damper at night. Cleaned out a little of strawberry bed.

15 eggs. (Sold 30 for 2/–).

3.26.40:_[D] Raining almost without cease all day, & decidedly cold. Tadpoles I brought home are already more or less formed & working their way out of the spawn.

15 eggs.

3.27.40:_[D] Finer. Still impossible to sow seeds. Dug a little more, applied wood-ash to bed for onions. Tadpoles now almost fully formed & beginning to wriggle their tails.

16 eggs. Sold 1 score @ 2/10.

3.28.40:_[D] Sharp frost in the night, which does not appear to have done any damage, however. Today fine but rather cold. Cleared out some more of the strawberry bed, prepared the onion bed, which may be fit to sow tomorrow. Some of the tadpoles swimming about. The first daffodil in the field out. None yet in the garden, though some in other people’s gardens. Five of the six briar stocks I planted budding.

20 eggs.

3.29.40:_[D] Sowed onions (3 rows Jas. Keeping). 2 oz. seed supposed to do 200 feet but only did about 100, no doubt because I sowed too thick. Today cold, overcast & windy, with some rain in the afternoon.

17 eggs.

3.30.40:_[D] Nice spring weather. Sowed 1 row carrots. Finished weeding strawberries, & applied a little manure. Place for broad beans now about fit to sow.

One or two daffodils opening in garden. Except for Innes’ meadow beyond the Lodge, it is now ploughed up all the way from Wallington to Baldock, thanks to the subsidy.

19 eggs. Total this week: 120 (25 hens – probably our record lay.)

3.31.40:_[D] Rather cold, & violent wind all day. A certain number of primroses out, also white & blue violets, & celandine. No other wild flowers. Saw a sheep with two newborn lambs, the first I have seen this year. Notice that the spawn in the pond, from which I took a little a week ago, is still at about the same stage, whereas the bit I brought home has developed & tadpoles swimming about. No doubt due to difference in temperature.

18 eggs.

4.1.40:_[D] Strong wind, which has dried the soil greatly, but beautiful spring weather in the morning. In the evening overcast, but no rain. Violets out in great numbers everywhere. Larks singing, the first I have heard this year, though most years one hears them much earlier than this. Partridges pairing, rooks & seagulls not yet. A few tulips forming heads. Arabis well out. Note that a few of the carrots I left in the ground were not destroyed by the frost, though most went to mush.

Sowed broad beans, & some in box to fill up gaps. Cleared the ground where peas & parsnips are to go. Dug a little more.

17 eggs.

4.2.40:_[D] Most of day nice weather, but a heavy shower lasting about half an hour in the evening, & a light shower at midday. A few grape hyacinths forming heads. Some wallflowers almost in flower. Saw a bat, the first I have seen this year. Fruit trees budding fairly strongly.

Prepared the patch for artichokes, which can be sowed tomorrow if fine. Weeded large flower bed.

15 eggs. Sold 3 score @ 2/7 (7/– less commission).

4.3.40:_[D] Seems to have rained fairly heavily during last night. Light drizzle all this morning. Fine most of the afternoon. Sowed artichokes on the new patch, which is very stony but probably good enough for this purpose. This used 7 lb., so still have 7 lb. left. Weeded out the turf heap under the bullace tree, which will do for a marrow-bed. Pigeons are cooing.

16 eggs. Sold 1 score @ 2/6.

4.4.40:_[D] Thin drizzle early this morning, then sunny & windy, rain for about 2 hours in the middle of the day, then again sunny & windy. Dug some more. Soil is again extremely soggy. Applied nitrate of potash to leeks & such shallotts° as there are. Walnut tree shows things like tiny fir-cones which are presumably male flowers. Planted some roots of perennial sunflower, given me by Mr Hatchett.

15 eggs. Sold 1 score @ 2/6 (? Milkman).

4.5.40:_[D] Overcast but not actually raining. Dug some more, hoed strawberries, planted some more roots of sunflower.

15 eggs.

4.6.40:_[D] Sharp frost last night. Beautiful still sunny day, turning rather cold again this evening. Dug some more. Frost has improved the soil considerably. Weeded the patch between the currants & the strawberries, & applied lime. (Paid Titley 6d for about 7–10 lb lime). After this has been turned in the patch can lie fallow till June, when it will do for winter greens. Sowed marrows & pumpkins in pots. NB. that marrows are in the pots nearest the road.

19 eggs. 1 double egg. Sold 2 score @ 2/– (reduced price). Total this week: 115.

4.7.40:_[D] Fine & most of day reasonably warm. Ground has dried up a good deal. Apple trees are budding well. Finished digging the potato patch & the place for the peas. Nothing to be dug now except the limed patch. Picked up an owl’s pellet in the field, very large, so perhaps the barn owls are back again. Arabis well out.

13 eggs.

4.8.40:_[D] Cold, overcast & a very little light drizzle. Ground has not dried up, so cannot sow peas yet. Dug the limed patch, leaving it very rough. It can remain thus for about 2 months. No more digging now remains to be done. A great deal of bindweed root in the soil, but none coming up yet. It seems to come up later than most perennial weeds. Weeded the forget-me-nots.

17 eggs.

4.9.40:_[D] Fine but rather cold. Hares are mating. Saw sparrow-hawks courting in the air. Sowed carrots (short-horn) & parsnips, 1 row each. Can sow peas tomorrow.

16 eggs.

4.10.40:_[D] A very few drops of rain last night. Today cold & windy. Sowed peas (next lot to be sown about 25th).

17 eggs. Sold 1 score @ 2/–, 1 score @ 2/6 (? milkman).

4.11.40:_[D] Sharp frost last night. Today clear, still & sunny, but not particularly warm. Ground now decidedly dry. Cut grass as best I could. Weeded flower bed by the shed. Gave manure mulch to hollyhocks etc. Planted 3 dwarf michaelmas daisies (pd. 2d each).

17 eggs. Dropped them & broke every one. Did not suppose they could all have broken without exception, but so it was.

Forgot to mention 2 days back that Peter Hollingsworth had found magpie’s nest with 3 eggs, & one of the farm men a robin’s nest with eggs. These are the first nests I have heard of this year, & have found none. The magpie’s eggs like a blackbird’s but somewhat darker, ie. like a rook’s, & hardly larger than a blackbird’s but very pointed.

4.12.40:_[D] Evidently a little rain in the night, but it had dried up by the afternoon. Gathered sticks for dwarf m. daisies. Prepared a place to sow canary creeper (about 10 days hence), burnt up a little rubbish, gave wallflowers liquid manure, roughly raked the potato ground. This is still in rather poor state but probably good enough to sow. There seems to be room for about 250–300 plants. Have only ordered 2 stone seed, so better to order another stone.27

Saw blackbird sitting on nest. Wood pigeons evidently have nests. Still no wildflowers except primroses, violets & celandines. Buds shooting pretty well. Bluebells are out in some gardens.

15 eggs. Sold 1 score @ 2/–.

4.13.40:_[D] Still, not very warm, overcast but no rain. Sowed kale, savoys, sprouts, lettuce (cos), radishes. (Not broccoli, as the seed I have is of a late kind, to be sowed about May–June). Also leeks, 10-week stocks, foxgloves. Planted out 1 score cos lettuce. (Paid 4^d). Don’t know whether they will survive – probably not if there is a sharp frost. Put awning of sacking over the plants. Applied a little fertiliser (Woolworths, 6^d) to the grass. Ground could now do with a spot of rain.

19 eggs. Total this week: 114 (of which 17 broken).

[On facing page:] Order in seedbed (starting from rose cuttings): kale, stocks, sprouts, lettuces, savoys, leeks, foxgloves, radishes, clarkia.

4.14.40:_[D] Fine, dry, not particularly warm. Raked the bare patches of the lawn & sowed some grass seed. Put up the wires for the blackberries. Sowed clarkia (in seed bed). Did some weeding.

17 eggs. Sold 44 @ 2/6 score.

4.15.40:_[D] Seems to have been a little rain last night. Today very variable weather. Most of day windy, some sunshine but not very warm, a few spots of rain. Then in the afternoon a few flakes of sleet & afterwards about 6 pm a sharp shower of hail. Rolled the grass, gave liquid manure to cottage tulips which are budding, prepared 3 marrow beds.

17 eggs.

4.16.40:_[D] Frost again last night. Most of day sunny but not too warm. Some falls of snow or sleet in the afternoon. Grape hyacinths, what there are of them, now well out. Some of the shallots branching. Planted 28 lb potatoes (Majestic). This did 12 rows, or about 225 plants. Room for another 4 rows, so shall get about another 10 lb. of seed. Had to halve a good many of the potatoes, which I don’t like doing, & they were not sprouted to speak of. A few bad ones among them. Soil is not in very good heart, so, what with one thing & another, probably a long time before anything will show. Got place ready for turnips (room for 2 rows).

18 eggs.

4.17.40:_[D] Frost last night. Today still, sunny & fairly warm. Cut the grass, took out some of the worst of the dandelions etc., sowed a few seeds of canary creeper, got places ready to sow clarkia etc. Notice that tobacco powder does not seem very successful in keeping the sparrows off the seeds. A thrush with a white patch on top of its head is always in & out of the garden. When one has some means of identifying a bird one realises that each bird has its beat & the same individual is always to be seen about the same spot.

16 eggs. Sold 50 @ 3/– score.

4.18.40:_[D] Violent wind & horribly cold most of day. In the afternoon about an hour’s heavy rain, after which it is warmer & more still. Narcissi are out. Wild thyme out. Daffs beginning to go off a little. Sowed sweet peas, clarkia, phlox, sunflowers (dwarf), all where they are to flower. Resticked some of the roses, & put sticks for Canterbury bells. Too cold & wet to do much out of doors.

17 eggs.

4.19.40:_[D] Evidently fairly heavy rain again last night. This morning overcast, the afternoon still, sunny, & fairly warm. This evening rain again, but more like April showers than the previous rain. Saw the first swallow this afternoon (two. The one I saw close to was swallow, not martin. I usually see sand martins first of all.) This is a little later than usual, but not as much as a week later. Sowed a few more sunflower seeds. Rolled the grass.

19 eggs.

4.20.40:_[D] Overcast but not particularly cold. Some people heard the cuckoo this morning, but I did not. Some rain about midday. Hedges are still decidedly bare. Winter wheat looks good in most places. Tulips are out in some gardens. Black currants forming their flowers. Planted 3 lupin roots (may possibly take but not flower this year). Purchased another 10 lb seed potatoes (K. Edward, 2/3^d stone). This morning some time after 9 heard an explosion. In this evening’s paper it is reported that a munition works in London blew up at about that time, so this must have been the bang. Distance of round about 45 miles, & not much less as the crow flies.

14 eggs. Total this week: 118.

Onions (sown 3.29.40) are coming up thickly, also a few carrots (sown 3.30.40).

4.21.40:_[D] Sunny & warm. The first real spring day. Cowslips starting. Periwinkles out. Blossom forming on forget-me-nots. Still no cuckoo. E[ileen] sowed godetias & cornflowers.28 One or two of the peas (sown 4.10.40) are showing, but no broad beans.

18 eggs. Sold 68 @ 3/3 score. (Actually 50 @ 3/3 score & 18 for 2/9).

10°.22.40:_[D] Sunny & quite warm, but very windy. On a day like this the opening of a tulip can be watched & a distinct difference noted every few hours. Sowed turnips (2 rows, white), peas (English wonder – a bit early after the others, but these were not soaked, which will set them back a day or two), & the remaining potatoes (K. Edward). This makes 16 rows of 20–25 plants a row, ie. about 350 plants. If they do reasonably well this should yield about 5 cwt.

Blackthorn almost out in some places. A few blossoms on the wild plum.

18 eggs.

4.23.40:_[D] Still, overcast & warm. A very few drops of rain in the afternoon. Tulips, forgetmenots° & wallflowers coming out. Fruits forming on currants & gooseberries. Plums & pear blossom full out (very late – about 3 weeks later than ordinary years). Rooks sitting on nests. Field beans well up. Planted 1 score cauliflowers (small kind I think.)

13 eggs (collected about 3 pm).

4.24.40:_[D] Almost continuous drizzling rain from dusk yesterday to this evening. Various seeds sown 10–15th are coming up. Clarkia sown only about a week ago coming up.

20 eggs (some presumably laid yesterday.)

4.25.40:_[D] Beautiful spring weather. Heard the cuckoo (first time). Many midges about now. Bullace blossom pretty well out. Cut the grass, dug a trench for 3rd row of peas, gave the strawberries a little more manure. These are now free of weeds. If they have one more good weeding after the bindweed has shown itself & the annual weeds have begun, they can then be strawed & netted up. A few broad beans up.

16 eggs. Sold 1 score @ 3/3 (? milkman).

4.26.40:_[D] Beautiful day again. 1 pumpkin seed coming up (sown 4.6.40). Carrots sown 4.9.40 are up, but not parsnips. Took up all but one row of the leeks, which were not very good anyway, & dug trench for runner beans. Hoed strawberries. There seem to be very few fruits on the gooseberries, perhaps because of their move. Currants are somewhat better.

14 eggs.

4.27.40:_[D] Rain during last night, fine & fairly warm during the morning, some showers this evening. Wild plum tree has plenty of blossom on it. Saw large flock, about 100, of what appeared to be turtle doves, sitting on telephone wires. Presumably migrants which had just arrived. Planted out 2 doz. antirrhinums (dark red & flame) & 1 doz. stocks (mixed). Paid 8^d a doz. – very expensive, but it is rather early. Price of sodium chlorate now 10½^d lb (before the war 8^d).

18 eggs. Sold ½ score @ 2/6. Total this week: 117.

Dandelions flowering, also dead nettle.

4.28.40:_[D] Some rain during last night. Today fine, warm & still. One or two nasturtiums up (self sown.) Turnips sown 4.22.40 are just up. The fly is already at these & at the seedlings of sprouts etc. A few parsnips (sown 4.9.40) are showing. One or two artichokes (sown 4.3.40) just showing. Applied sodium chlorate to waste patch by the walnut tree. Began putting up the strings for beans, but not enough time to complete the row. Planted out 1 doz. of the very tiny lettuces, putting sack° for protection. Tried to thin the clarkia, which, however, is too small to handle.

17 eggs.

4.29.40:_[D] I think a little rain in the night. All day overcast, with sometimes fine mist almost amounting to rain, but not exactly cold. Mended the fence, which cannot be done completely as there are not enough stakes. Planted out 1 doz. largish lettuces got from T[itley] (2^d dozen). Uncovered the little ones. Let the tadpoles go, as not certain how many days I shall be away. Gave the grass a quick cut. Leeks are just showing. Some apple blossom showing in some gardens. Find it is held locally there is always frost at the full moon (ie. in May) & people sow their runners with reference to this.

15 eggs.

This concludes Domestic Diary Volume II.