The James Losh Diaries, 1802-1833 The James Losh Diaries, 1802-1833: Life and Weather in Early Nineteenth Century Newcastle-upon-Tyne By Deborah Smith The James Losh Diaries, 1802-1833: Life and Weather in Early Nineteenth Century Newcastle-upon-Tyne By Deborah Smith This book first published 2019 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2019 by Deborah Smith All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-3114-7 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-3114-7 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures............................................................................................ vii List of Tables ............................................................................................... x Preface ....................................................................................................... xii Acknowledgements .................................................................................. xiii Chapter One ................................................................................................. 1 Introduction and Background Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 19 The James Losh Weather Diaries and the Climate of Early Nineteenth Century Newcastle-upon-Tyne Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 33 The James Losh Diaries (1802 to 1833) Transcribed and Annotated Appendix A ............................................................................................. 258 The James Losh Weather Diary of January to May 1787 Appendix B .............................................................................................. 274 The Weather of James Losh’s Newcastle-upon-Tyne at a Glance Appendix C .............................................................................................. 277 Summary Tables of James Losh’s Instrumental Observations Appendix D ............................................................................................. 297 January 1814: The Coldest Month in the James Losh Record Appendix E .............................................................................................. 301 Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s Experience of 1816: The Year without a Summer Appendix F .............................................................................................. 306 The Asiatic Cholera Outbreak of 1831 and 1832 vi Table of Contents Appendix G ............................................................................................. 310 James Losh’s Christmases Appendix H ............................................................................................. 314 A List of Supplementary Observations in Volume 7 of the James Losh Diaries Index ........................................................................................................ 318 LIST OF FIGURES Frontispiece A portrait of James Losh in later life by James Ramsey Figure 1-1 The statue of James Losh that stands on the stairs leading to the Reading Room of the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society. The portrait to the right is of Charles, Earl Grey (by James Ramsey. See also frontispiece of his portrait of James Losh), and to the left of Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex who laid the foundation stone for the building in 1822 Figure 1-2 Woodside, at it appeared in Losh’s formative years. It remained the family home throughout his life and he returned often making frequent reference in his diaries to his visits and to the local weather Figure 1-3 Front cover of the third volume of the James Losh weather diaries Figures 1-4a and b A typical pair of pages from the James Losh weather diaries and for June/July 1816. All six volumes are set out in this fashion of instrumental data on the right-hand facing page, and narrative on the left Figure 1-5a and b Copies from the 1787 weather diary. a) a typically scant left-hand facing page with general, and only occasional, notes not always meteorological in nature, and b) a right-hand facing page for the period February 15th to 19th Figure 1-6 Single day account for February 11th 1816. This entry draws attention to the cold conditions of the time (see also Appendix E) Figure 1-7 View of Jesmond in 1845. By Elizabeth Burdon Sanderson. Although some years after Losh’s time, this rural aspect would have been familiar to him Figure 1-8 The rural setting of the Grove, Jesmond in the mid-nineteenth century viii List of Figures Figure 1-9 The Grove, Jesmond, as it appeared in the early twentieth century Figure 1-10 A section of Losh’s diary February 7th to 9th 1816 during a notably cold spell (see also Appendix E). The arrangement of a few descriptive words in the main central column followed by a single term in the next is standard through all six diaries. Figure 1-11 Losh’s diary entry for March 3rd 1807 noting his garden additions for the entertainment of his children Figure 2-1 The annual sunspot series from 1700 to the present. The eleven-year quasi-cycle is evident as is the quiescent period of the Dalton Minimum seen clearly in the two cycles of the early nineteenth century Figure 2-2 An example of the summary pages that introduce each of the Losh weather diary volumes. It includes only the annual extremes of temperature and air pressure and is probably a later addition and not part of the original diaries Figure 2-3 Annual temperature series from the adjusted James Losh data (solid line) and the Central England Temperature series (broken line). The “year without a summer” (1816) stands out clearly in both Figure 2-4 Wind rose of direction frequencies (by percentage of total time) from the James Losh diaries (1802 - 1832) Figure AD-1 Frost fair on the Thames, February 1814. Drawn by Luke Clennell. This picture of entertainments and temporary installations is similar to those described for the Tyne at the same time Figure AD-2 Graph of the thrice-daily temperatures recorded in Jesmond during January 1814 Figure AD-3 The River Tyne frozen above Newcastle. Taken at Prudhoe on January 1st 1993 Figure AE-1 Monthly counts of rain, snow, frost and ice days for 1816 derived from the Losh diaries The James Losh Diaries, 1802-1833 ix Figure AE-2 Losh’s entry for last fall of snow for the winter 1815/16 on May 11th. “We had today, for two hours, the heaviest fall of snow I ever recollect to have seen at any season.” Figure AF-1 Poster distributed by the newly-formed Sunderland Board of Health in response to the cholera outbreak of 1831 Figure AG-1 Tiny Tim carried aloft through the snow by his father. This charming illustration is by C.E. Brook and taken from the 1905 edition of “A Christmas Carol” published by Dent & Co. Figure AH-1 A silhouette of James Losh taken from William Turner’s published eulogy LIST OF TABLES Table 1-1 Various daily and general descriptions of the weather all of which, despite their variety, were followed by the specific description “fair” in the next column of the diary (see figure 1-10) Table 1-2 General weather vocabulary from James Losh’s 1816 diary. Most of these terms were, at one stage or another, qualified with adjectives such as “very”, “extremely” or “frequent” and were often used in combination, e.g. “calm and cloudy” Table 2-1 Monthly mean temperatures (deg. C) for Newcastle-upon-Tyne and for Jesmond. The former are abstracted from a report published by the University of Newcastle and represents the most recent reliable long-term series available for the city Table 2-2 Average number of rain days per month in Losh’s record. The highest and lowest monthly and annual totals are also shown Table 2-3 Average number of snow days for twentieth century Newcastle- upon-Tyne and for nineteenth century Jesmond. The former are abstracted from a report published by the University of Newcastle and represents the most recent reliable long-term series available for the city Table AE-1 Monthly Losh averages (adjusted for fixed hour observations) in degrees Celsius for 1816 set against the lowest such months in the more recent Newcastle-upon-Tyne record. In the case of six months – March, April, May, June, July and August – new records for coolness would have been set by the 1816 figures Table AE-2 Percentages of wind each month in 1816 from the eight points of the compass. Figures in bold indicate the dominant direction for that month Table AG-1 Summary of Losh’s Christmases. Items in bold indicate the “White” Christmases. In these cases a White Christmas is taken as a The James Losh Diaries, 1802-1833 xi day when snow is either lying on the ground or falling on 25th. Consequently 1815 an 1817 whilst exceptionally cold and frosty, do not qualify under this heading as they were dry but might, nonetheless, be regarded as “Dickensian” PREFACE When this undertaking was begun it was conceived of as a traditional exercise in “historical climatology” drawing upon James Losh’s excellent set of instrumental data – one of the best for its time – and according very much to the former research interests of the current author and set within the now compelling need to determine and understand past, as well as future, climates.