On 27 Aug 2008, Chris O. wrote: > > >>Yes - we have yet to explain how the Cloughs came by their > instruments. How could Henry (I) afford a set of >>Reid pastoral > pipes, for example
At the time of the Napoleonic wars, many of the miners had enlisted, and the mineowners were being forced to pay (to them) ridiculous wages, and bonding bonuses to keep their skilled staff. This is noted in the book "The Gay Delavals" who - fortuitously - owned the mines in Hartley at the time of HC (1). I only found it a couple of years ago. The cost of a Reid 7 key set in blackwood and brass such as the Clough family had was at this time around a week's wages.(Less than it is now!) I think the older Cloughs HC1 and possibly TC2, may have been sinkers -# a skilled job - from their movement patterns and dates. So able to have things that the generality of "drunken labourers" could not, if they were careful. I think the pastoral set might have been donated (by someone who no longer wanted it?), or maybe won in a contest. >and why is Tom (II)'s headstone made from > polished Cheviot granite. Tom died at a time (1885) when an impressive headstone, almost beggaring the family, would have been a way of showing their respect. See any Victorian cemetery for lots of examples. I think we should just be grateful it is - you'd never have found him otherwise. The majority of the stones in the same cemetery are sandstone, for those from away, and many are indecipherable, since it lies just behind the South Blyth dunes and is regularly sandblasted. >From the position I would judge that he was one of the first buried there. Julia To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
