| Citation |
NM.772.021
27 Jul 1772:31 (725)
Mr. Southwick, The new regulation of ringing a bell at
sunrise, one o'clock, afternoon, and nine in the evening, is
very agreeable in several respects; the first tells us that
it is time to rouse from our beds; the second, that dinner
ought to be ready; and the last, that it is time for people
to prepare for taking their repose; but as the
inconveniences many times arise from things well intended,
so it has happened to me, my means of this custom.---My
husband is a labouring man, and ringing the bell at one
o'clock brings him home for his dinner; and when he finds it
not ready, he fumes, frets, and abuses me. . . . Now, sir, I
beg that you would inform the gentlemen who direct those
matters, that it is absolutely necessary, for the sake of
family peace, that they either desist from ringing the one
o'clock bell, or that they will direct a bell to be rung at
eleven in the forenoon, in order that one housewife, whose
task it is to get the dinner, may know when to begin her
work, as well as the husband has time to come home from his
labour, to begin an angry dispute, when his victual may not
be ready. [signed] Patience Meanwell.
|