1843. Some summer entries:

‘Rain. Tremendous weather, most like Noah’s Flood. Never fair.

‘Such a disagreeable season never was seen in this part of the country by the oldest person, I cannot recollect since we had a fair day. It is doubtful about the growing crops of corn and grass, the servants are just laying about the place doing nothing, we neither can get on the land or hedges or can even stand out to do nothing. How the turnips will be got in it remains a mystery …

‘Great disturbances in Ireland. O’Connell and his party are collected 50,000 strong suing for what they call the charter …

‘Leading hard stones from the river with three carts and five men.’

William Brewis farmed at Throphill Hall, near Mitford, Northumberland. He was also an overseer of the poor and a high constable for the west division of Morpeth. His diary entries cover the progress of his farming against the background of the Repeal of the Corn Laws. Fairs and markets, weather, crops and livestock are all included. Wider political events such as battles in India compete for space with outspoken comments about local people, the prowess of the Morpeth hangman and Queen Victoria’s child-bearing.

The diaries have been preserved in the Robinson Special collection at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. They are compulsive reading. The late Henry Brewis, Britain’s greatest 20th century humorist of farming life, is a descendant of William.

The book is illustrated with photographs and prints.