Canny lass

Did ye not call them 'the hoppins' like we did in Netherton? I once won a goldfish at the hoppins. My mother wasn't at all happy about having to buy a goldfish bowl and thought my father was an idiot for letting me choose a goldfish. My father thought it was OK, a jam jar would do as the fish would be dead in a couple of weeks, he said. She had to give in after a month or so and it lived to the ripe old age of 14 years. sorry about the underlining. I have lost all Control over bold face, italics, underlining and crossing out. Capital letters seem to have developed a mind of their own as well!

And so it is Malcolm. It can be made with fruit.

Thanks Malcolm & Maggie. Is the Northumbrian tartan black & White or is it just the photo?

I never knew that Northumberland had a flag! Any Pictures?

John Darling was in my class at Westridge. Fantastic voice! He was in the Choir at St. Cuthberts Church. I don't know if he was related to Audrey.

I go with scone mixture, Malcolm. However if you consult the Wiki- Oracle, and more important - if you Believe the Wiki-oracle - you'll find it can be made with dumplings as well. It's actually got quite an interesting history our cobbler. Did you know that there are several variations on the recipe in the USA, where it originated among the British colonials? They have some wonderful names like slump, grump, dump, buckle and sonker (the cobblers, not the Colonials). Can I expect to find cobblers on the menu in France?

Now there's a thing Maggie! They talk about ivy as though it is a tree here as well. "of all the trees that are in the Woods, the Holly bears the Crown".

What a shame!

Still having trouble with the font I see!

I've Always sung that as 'The oak and the ash and the Bonny ivy' (Pronounced i-ivy, to keep the rhythm right).: Never Heard the Rowan mentioned Before or any ivy tree. As you say, it's not a tree.

Perhaps it'll become known as 'Bedrock'.

Fantastic Maggie! How old is the book? Can't be too old I would imagine as the recipe contains ketchup.

Anybody ever Heard the word 'collops'? There's a very popular, every-day dish here called 'kalops'. It's a kind of beef stew flavoured with Alspice (whole peppercorns only) and Bay-leaves. It usually contains carrots and leeks but these can be omitted. I learned a few Days ago that the Word kalops originates from the English Word collops. When I started researching it I found that the Word collops may originate from the french 'escalope' meaning slice of meat. I also learned that the Word collops was in common use up until the mid 16th Century when it was the generally accepted name for bacon and eggs! However, Another source gives the origin as Scandinavian. In that case it's gone full circle. I personally have never Heard the Word collops in England, though I've eaten my fair share of stews and bacon & egg. Has anybody Heard of collops, and if so what was it?

Not so difficult Maggie. Try Ancestry.co.uk. You can get quite a lot of info without paying a penny.

Sorry, should have said that their marriage was registered in the first quarter of 1859 - not 1959.

Here's what I've been able to find out about the Croudace family mentioned here. Dorothy Croudace, maiden name Swann, appears to have been born in 1840 while her husband, Thomas, a couple of years older was born in 1838. Their marriage was registered in Newcastle in the first quarter of 1959. Their son, Robert Swann, was born some months later around July/August 1859. There's no explanation as to why he was given his mother's surname. The name Robert, however, may have been given in memory of his maternal grandfather who died the same year. Just when this happened, I haven't been able to find out. At the time of their marriage Thomas was 'of age', having had his 21st birthday. He did not therefore require his parent's permission to marry. Dorothy, on the other hand was only 19 years old. This may have meant that Dorothy required parental consent to marry. I can't really make any sense of the information about the legal age for marriage at the time as the information available is often contradictory. From what I understand though, it was usual at that time for parents to act as witnesses and sign the marriage register. In the case of Dorothy and Thomas, however, the parent's names do not appear. The witnesses were James Nellis and Elenor Brooks. It may well have been that Dorothy's parents were against the marriage or that they had already passed away. Dorothy's lot was not an easy one but she clearly loved her family.

Djingis Khan?

Pleased to be able to help Maggie. It might be possible to find the date of Death in the Church records.

My hubby thanks you for this. He Thinks it's very good and very time-saving.

This is a lovely one Maggie! You really feel that you get to know the woman rather than just a name. As you say, you can't read the date of death here but the language gives us a few clues. First of all there is a widespread use of a letter that no longer exists in the English language. That's the letter that, at first glance, looks like the letter f. However, if you look closely, you will see that the 'cross piece' doesn't actually cross the upright. It is only attached to the left-hand side of the upright. It's known 'in the trade' as a long-s. I don't have access to it on the computer so I'll use an italic f ( f ) instead. If you look at the 'real' letter f in the words 'fewer', 'fall', and 'features', to mention just a few, you'll see the difference. Here the cross piece sits on the right of the upright. On the grave stone you can see the long-s in the words : faid (said) pofsefsed (possessed) ufually (usually) fhare (share) diftingui fhing(distinguishing) senfe (sense) excesfes (excesses) pafsion (passion) fentiment (sentiment) fpirited (spirited) impofsible (impossible) pofsefsing (possessing) reafon (reason) lofs (loss) thofe (those) happinef s (happiness) confumption (consumption) No need to tell you that it is pronounced as an s. It was very common in certain combinations, particularly si, st and ss – the latter occurs very often here. Long-s was in common use in medial position, that's to say in the middle of words rather than at the beginning or the end, right up until the late 18th century but disappeared completely in the early 19th century. The Times was still using it up until 1803 but it's been found in a few printed materials as late as 1815. I think it was found even later in handwritten documents but certainly not after the first half of the century. Interesting here is that the stonemason is still using it at the beginning of some words. This is unusual after 1800. Then there's the use of capital letters. As you know we use them to start sentences and for proper nouns but this hasn't always been the case. If you go back to the 10th century they were hardly used at all. In the 18th century, however there was an abundance of capital letters as almost every noun - proper or otherwise - was written with a capital letter. That's not the case on this gravestone so I think we've crossed the threshold into the 19th century. The stonemason is actually very sparse in his use of capitals and most sentences begin with small letters which could be indicative of a desire on his part to keep up with the times but going a little bit OTT. The phenomenon is seen quite often in old texts. Then there's the use of the word 'consumption'. Consumption is the old word for Tuberculosis and while the disease has been around for thousands of years the name Tuberculosis has not. The disease was discovered at the beginning of the 19th century and was given its name sometime around the 1830s. Prior to that time it was called consumption. From a linguistic point of view, I think we can safely say the stone was carved some time at the turn of the century, 1790 -1810 or thereabouts. Does anybody know when the cemetery at West Lea opened?

Well, you obviously weren't a mouse in a former Life Malcolm! I was always a dog kind of person myself before I moved here, to a house in the forest over run with mice. Couldn't live without one (or two) now.

Thanks threegee, that's really useful information.

I like these humanist funerals. Couple of years ago I Went to the funeral of a gay friend. Shirley Bassey all the way! Everybody left the funeral happy and laughing. Just the way he Always was would have wanted us to be.

and now the font size is being its own boss

Still having bother with these fonts! Now I've got capital letters popping up everywhere!