Journal entry – John Grey – 4 Nov 1833

Monday 4th November



Went to Newcastle to attend meeting to consider the propriety of erecting a monument, by public subscription, in commemoration of my late much valued friend, Mr Losh.  Lord Durham was called to the Chair and the proposition unanimously adopted, upwards of £400 being immediately subscribed.  Having received Mr Jay’s Letter of the 2nd Instant by the way, I wrote from Newcastle to inform Mr Thomson that the Commissioners accepted his resignation of the Lease of Chesterhill, but declined for the present making him the allowance on account of the repair of the Boiler.  Also wrote to my Son directing him to go there & find some suitable person to show the farm when advertised, giving him instructions as to the plan of management which I had left with him, the fields to be kept in permanent grass , & the division of the two fields, which I had fixed upon, in which the soil is in very dissimular quality therefore not suited to the same kind of management.  Returned home in the evening.  With regard to the case of Mrs Thomson of Glororum, referred for my opinion in Mr Jay’s Letter, I certainly think that an abatement is necessary m probably to the amount of from £80 to £100 a year - and to prevent that being drawn in as a president [sic] by the other Tenants, & exciting discontent among them, it might be either allowed to Mrs Thomson, in promise of secrecy, or she might be permitted to pay so much short for the two ensuing years of the Lease, on the understanding that if the farm was left in good condition it should be struck off in the shape of Arrears at the end.  In either case it must be a strictly private arrangement on the ground of the peculiarity of her situation and the Boards regulation not to grant abatement without a previous surrender of the term.  



Dodd of Allerwash Mill stands in Arrear £69 and has given notice of his resignation at May day next.  He had no chance to go on under so many disadvantages - the Machinery in part out of repair - water in Summer very scarce & too little land to keep Horses & a Cow.  His claim is for work done by his Horses etc to repair the Reservoir, during which time the Mill was standing, & therefore unproductive of Rent & any thing else - & this he assigns with seeming reason as the cause of his Arrears.   I fear there will be a difficulty getting clear with him even after allowing the £27:3:11 as I suspect the little capital he had is already lost.  Were it advisable to put the Mill in to complete repair, it would be needful to lay more land to it, that it might be occupied to advantage & that land I have examined and fixed upon, to be recommended to the Board in case of a separate occupation from the farm;  but the Mill Property of the Hospital is generally a source of so much expense & such inadequate profit, that I must question if it would not be better to let it go with the farm at a moderate rent, in the state in which it is, than to lay out money in repairing the machinery, & should  the railway go on, perhaps have it removed altogether, for by the present plan, the line of the railway seems to run directly through the premises.