NORA LEVICK Diary for Wivelsfield, Sussex, 1902 April 7, 1902 We moved here just after the Easter holidays but it is rather difficult to make enough to live on without either stock or Capital, however with Faith & Strength there's nothing difficult, so I expect we shall be alright, as Mamma has the faith & Papa the strength, and I go share's in both. However, I must describe the place so that if you ever see it you will know it (if it is not pulled down). To begin with it has a half-acre field & half an acre of garden including the ground the house stands on. The house has stood for about three hundred years and is getting so tired of standing that it is beginning to stoop or rather sink. It is really two cottages knocked into one & contains three bedrooms, an attic reaching over all the bedrooms, one half of it being boarded with oak boards, & a little room we call the drawing room just large enough to swing a cat round. Next to it is the dairy which is a very nice one, will keep meat fresh for a week, puddings also if the mice don't get at them. Next to the dairy is a disused stairway boarded up at the top which does duty as a store-cupboard & mouse's refuge. The stairs make nice shelves to put stores on. Next comes a sort of kitchen, so draughty that it nearly blows your head off, in fact Papa is going a bit bald on the top. On the left of the drawing-room is the real kitchen as it contains a proper cooking range fixed in an old fashioned open chimney place originally built for dogs to burn great trees on just sawn into huge logs. We think of moving the range into our draughty kitchen & having dogs ourselves, as the brick floor is very damp as all the floors downstairs are, being brick & below the foundations, having sunk I suppose. The old fashioned chimney room is the biggest in the house and we use it for a dining room in the summer, but in the winter I am afraid we shall have to use the little room as the other is so cold and damp without a fire. The range burns such a lot of coal that we only use it once a week for the oven & Mamma makes enough pies, etc, for the week. We have an ordinary grate in the little room which does any little things well. If we get the dogs we shall be able to live in it altogether. The ceilings are very low but that does not matter as we are not tall. We don't receive tall visitors unless their lives are insured, in case they receive a fatal blow on the head from the beams in the dining room, as we can not afford to pay damages. The drawing room is the height as the dining room but has no beams which makes it better. The wet floors rot the carpet dreadfully & makes the wall paper damp as the damp spreads up the wall. Papa papered the walls and painted the doors when we came here & generally repaired the place. We are very comfortable and cosy here. I must not forget to mention the outbuilding. We have a stable built against the house which has been used as a wash house by some former tenant who took in washing. The stable has a copper in it, next comes to that a cow shed with room for two cows & next a fowl house. We hope to be snug and dry when ditches are completed. The garden is right enough, has nice fruit trees, etc. and contains some of the finest slugs I have ever seen (there was one in the dairy when we first came and I thought it was a young snake) (we pot them now in acid). There is a nice pond at the end of the garden which we use for our ducks and a half-acre field adjoining, we had a nice amount of hay from it this year. I must now introduce the animals, first & foremost comes "Topsy" the donkey, a special pet, next a black cat and splendid ratter and her son "Peter", a noble Persian (mouser). Queen of the birds is goosie, next in size are the ducks and last but not least the poultry. I forgot to mention this corner of the common is called "Hell corner" on account of the mud. We are going to spend Xmas with Grandma at Brighton. Uncle Justin has returned from Australia in time for Xmas. Dec. 29th, 1902 Spent Xmas at Grandpa's, enjoyed ourselves very much and had several presents. End of first year at Jack o' Clubs April, 1903 We are still here, freed from all delusions regarding old fashioned country cottages, the winter showed the place up in its true colours. The dining room carpet is ruined entirely & the drawing room ditto will be soon too, we have had to live in small room all the winter on account of the cold, and a smell like an old corpse arises occasionally from under the floor. Mamma says it is either dead rats or a baby or something buried under the floor. Papa has bought a duck's nest for the dining room and turned the kitchen stove into the kitchen and has carefully stopped all the holes in the old chimney with bricks and mortar and knocked some of the wall out to make the stove fit in and after a lot of trouble got it to burn, but still the smoke comes down the chimney when the wind is not in a favourable quarter, but we are happy enough although we are being turned into smoked pork. The corpse still putrefies the atmosphere when the doors are kept shut, but we have not got typhoid yet as the microbes are killed with fresh air as fast as they come. July, 1903 I must now devote a page or so to our menagerie, we have not a great variety owning to limited space. I will commence with the smallest first, as in this case they are the youngest. We have a fair quantity of young chicks left (I expect the various ailments did not take a fancy to them so their lives are spared.) We had two broods, about twenty-six in May, but a cheap kind of assorted microbe killed all but about seven. Afterwards Mamma discovered the presence of a kind of magnificent microbe which can be cured with Kealings Powder and now the species are nearly extinct. I do not as a rule insert free advertisements but I always try to be merciful to the large portion of the community which has an unlimited supply of undesirables on hand they would like to get rid of. Our next articles are the Ducks (Of course we have the old hens besides chicks). We have a duck and a drake, the drake is the larger and is always distinguished by the two curled feathers in its tail. The curls are quite natural as we do not keep any of Hende's Curlers in the out-houses for their toilette. They are both snow white with yellow beaks and feet. Our duck has laid at intervals through out the summer and we have hatched all her eggs, or rather, tried to. Some turned out not fertilized, others went rotten and the remainder turned into weak ducklings which had one foot in the grave at hatching and speedily popped their remainder in too. However, "all's well that ends well". (I do not know whether it ended well for those ducks or not, as birds, I have been told, have no soul. I am sure they could have done nothing unChristian-like during the time the spark of life was in them. They were not flirts, they did not attract sparks long). Anyway, we have 8 fine young ducks, the ninth died from undue pressure caused by our best cock, Tommy Athros, jumping on it. We call the survivors the "Howling Brigade". They all come together like soldiers, shouting and squawking as they come. (I forgot to mention we might have had four more ducks only our neighbour Mrs. got the eggs and hatched them herself. I saw them one day, she told me she bought them some where. It must have been a cheap place and she had never before had such bad luck as to loose a duck, she lost two of these, they died owing to rain she said but I knew better. All our first ducks died the same way as hers owing to young stock so she got paid out a little. We missed our duck's eggs for a time and knew it had laid astray. So much for Sussex honesty). August, 1903 Our six goslings have grown into fine young geese or ganders (we cannot determine the sex yet.) These birds rule the roost entirely and strut about with heads high up in the air, stumbling over stones, etc. as they go.They are extremely tame now, they will be still tamer when they are on the table ready for dinner I expect. We mean to sell all but one gander and our old stock goose. They are all grey and white. Since January we have been the enviable possessors of a sweet little pig which Mamma has christened Venus. We all rejoiced when it arrived, thinking that good Fortune had indeed stepped this way, but it is now ten months old and not thinking of having any young ones. As it has grown a very nice sized sow we are disappointed that it has not yet behaved itself as every self respecting sow should, however we hope she will in time fully justify, in a double sense, the old proverb "Everything comes to those that wait". I expect it means tardy sows to waiting boars as well. A more docile, affectionate, tamer creature never existed. One has only to call "Tig Tig" and its runs up the field at once. It does not answer to its swell name at all, unlike the present generation of people it finds the old fashioned names and pursuits of its ancestors quite good enough and as far as we know has no higher aspirations that to have the run of the place, uprooting of everything and a plentiful supply of food. It resembles mankind in that when the food is rather later its temper will not bear criticism. I am sorry to say that our black piggy is a great bugbear to the donkey who views it with abhorrent eyes. It may be that Topsy, like the Indian Fakirs, dare not allow it to approach too near for fear of coming in contact with the unholy creature. However, whatever the cause, Topsy always gallops off at the sound of a grunt at her heels. I think I described Topsy before, but as she is going to be sold when we can get anyone to buy her, a little more detail will do no harm. To begin with, she is two years old, medium size, has respectable dark brown coat and nicely marked face, she is the pet of the place and with her mischievous ways has caused more bad language in thought as well as expression than anything else here. Her misdeeds are too numerous to mention really but I will give a few sample ones. When some wheat is growing nicely in the back garden and the sunflowers blooming a treat it is very disheartening to find that the field gate has been broken off its hinges, the latch of the garden gate carefully pulled open, things trampled down, wheat eaten up, and half the sunflowers broken, it demolished by a donkey in the dead of night. Also, when the donkey is tied to a tree it is very aggravating to find all the bark off it, and the picture in one's mind's eye of a wrathful landlord demanding satisfaction for damages done. But she has good points also, and a more intelligent donkey it would be difficult to find. In fact , like Basilin's ass, her intelligence is speaking; which makes us want a fair price for her, descendants of the aforesaid ass being scarce. Unlike many foolish persons who talk for talkings sake or to hear the sound of their own sweet voices, our Topsy only talks when she wants anything, and only those who know her intimately understand what she is asking for. Her pleading tones only the most hardhearted could withstand. I think this is about all I have to say as regards our animals. I forgot to say that in July, in spite of the vagaries of the English climate, we managed to get in our hay alright. Papa cut it with a scythe and Mama and I made it, Papa and I carrying it in. We have not had it thatched yet, August has been a terrible month, hardly one fine day in it. We have had fires in the small room to keep the piano from ruin & the carpet is mouldy in places. If it were not for the ditches we should be swamped I think. This is old fashioned country cottage life with a vengeance. I believe I failed to mention our cat has had three more kittens. One we drowned & two we kept. We thought they were going to turn out Persian, but they were another set of frauds, turning into more commonplace looking tabbies. We have given one away, and the other one which was destined to grace Uncle Justin's English Farmhouse has committed suicide by jumping into the well. It is very fashionable to commit suicide now, but it is a cowardly way of shirking ones earthly troubles. No doubt that kitten, which had the honour of being called after her master, or rather the end of his name (Tinny) had the gift of second sight and it must have been revealed to her in a vision that Uncle was not going to get his farm in England at all, consequently he would not require her invaluable services in the larder (she was an awful thief), so out of pique she decided to end a useless existence, which was very kind of her indeed, as it saved us the trouble. Only she need not have drowned herself in the well, there is a pond at the end of the garden which would have done quite well enough to drown in and she would have met some brothers and sisters there also. Only this is where the spiteful cattish nature comes in, she wanted to try and contaminate our well water. I have heard that a cat has microbes round its mouth, and I cannot help wondering whether we have swallowed any or not. The shock to my nerves was something terrific too, for on Sunday morning, instead of drawing a pail of water up, I drew a pail of cat, which to my excited fancy looked like a hippopotamus. But I had strength of mind, or rather arm, left to draw it up to the top and very gingerly to lug it out. Papa buried it in the garden and it is to be hoped that it will act as a good fertilizer to the soil. We still catch great snake-like slugs here, & think of changing the name of the place to "Slug's Retreat", but we found out in the winter that this corner of the common is called "Hell Corner" on account of the mud and other inconveniences that Papa suggested calling the house "Devil's Abode" or something nice and quaint like that, as "Jack o' Clubs" sounds like a public house. September has been abominable, everybody expected a fine month after the August specimen to finish their harvesting, but did not get it. It was so cold that we had to go to our little room in the evenings and we have had very nasty mists too. Everyone growls about the weather and from many counties come tales of woe and floods, ruined wheat & hay crops, fruitless trees, diseased potato crops, & shortage of vegetables in general. The hens and chickens have also been affected by the vagaries of this climate & refuse to do their duty like Britishers. We do not dream of looking for eggs now, having got over the delusion that hens pay here. We find food too dear, hens too greedy & buyers too stingy to allow of much profit. I am beginning to think that even with "faith & strength" we shall not do here with poultry. With any amount of strength we could not squeeze an egg out of one of our hens, and we have not enough faith in them to believe they have any this time of the year, so it's a bad case. The boar still waits for our sow to appear (another bad case). Topsy is not sold yet, nobody seems to care to have her. Hard times that with all her accomplishments she does not take. Of course, she has not been trained to draw a cart yet. She is like the girls at school who learn French and German, etc., before they can do an addition sum or spell English correctly. The house is now soaking wet owing to bad weather and we have decided to depart from this coast next Michaelmas for California if possible, and I am now going out to earn as much of my fare as possible. Oct 24, 1903 We have had nothing but rain all this year and not one fine day without rain this month. Pa has told a butcher to come and look at the pig. She has not done her duty in this world so we are going to let her chance the next. We think of buying calves when she is sold, having no more time to bother with the unclean beasts. Topsy is also sold and we parted without one tear. It was raining hard at the time and she went off at a gallop with two men hanging on to the reins (or rather, rope) for dear life. One of the geese has also departed to another world, it made a very nice dinner indeed. Our rabbits have not been mentioned, so here goes. We bought three Dutch ones in 1902 in the summer, one each. Pa was supposed to have the buck and Mama and I the two does. They were 5 weeks old when we bought them and we waited till they got about 8 months old before we let them breed, but fate was against us again. Pa's buck turned out a doe, so we tried to buy a new buck and after a lot of trouble we got a white one with fluffy hair, we call him "Dandy". Now Ma and I have a litter of rabbits each, but Pa's has not come up to the scratch yet. I think we have 7 each. They are born with eyes shut and without hair, but open their eyes in 9 days and gradually get their coats too. Uncle Justin has written a wretched account of California. It seems he has got to one of the sandy wastes, so after a few days of sojourn there he condemns the whole of the country, but he has not frightened us at all. I am thinking of going to Haywards Heath but am not sure. January 1, 1904 I have been with Auntie Annie since Nov & like my quarters greatly. Auntie lives in a place called Streatham, which is a London suburb. Pathfield Road where we are, is a peculiar one, or rather it is the people in it that make it so. Blushing young brides with shy, happy husbands come and take up their abode and stop about a year, then its a case of, "Yes, Mrs. Jones, you know we really can't stay here, the road is becoming so common, quite an undesirable place for the twins." Mrs. Jones quite agrees with Wifie, says it is dreadful, the way in which Mrs. Newcomer's children are permitted to play up & down, & next thing that happens, is darling Mrs. Jones telling Mrs. Snooks that dear Wifie is going to try flat life, or the twins expenses do not leave a great margin for sundries, such as taxes, costumes & suits. * * * * * * Nora then did not keep a diary for a number of years, and when she resumed journal keeping, the entries were not nearly so entertaining as these! Nora emigrated to Canada in 1919.