D4661/3/1 March 1882 "i did spend [Easter Sunday] very well for i had plenty to eat...

D4661/3/1 March 1882 "i did spend [Easter Sunday] very well for i had plenty to eat and to drink and some work to do and...i have got my health and strength to do it"

D4661/3/3 21 May 1882 "It have been very quiet with me this evening for i have no one at all to talk to except i goes to the Public i can get plenty of company there if i wants them but Dear its no use of going there except you have got some money"

D4661/3/9 14 January 1883 "please to excuse the scribbling for i am not much of a writer myself but so as i can do it as any one can understand it that it all as i do want"

D4661/3/11 21 March 1882 "we had a grand wedding up here last Monday it was Bill Cuff to Fanny Smith they had been as long time by people talk but we gave them the ruff band and you may depend upon it there was a very good noice"

D4661/3/12 May 1883 "i went to Gloucester...to try and get in the Engines Sheds but it was of no use for they where all full and they had a good many names down"

D4661/3/13 23 May 1883 "i bought a little Clock of the Cheap Jack when he was at Cambridge i gave three shillings for it and he goes very well at the present"

D4661/3/19 28 June 1883 "it is true that Mrs Harding's girl his in the Family way but by who i havint heard She talked about Drowning herself in the Canal before she started away so she said in a letter as she left at the farm"

D4661/3/21 18 July 1883 "i whent upon Stinchombe Hill on Sunday last to see the soldiers and i seen Caratine Jenkins as was...there was a sight of people up there. Joseph Hardings girl his started away...and they dont know where she has gone"

D4661/3/22 20 August 1883 "i suppose you didint see anything off Purton Mill been burnt down... I seen the fire very plain from our place"

D4661/3/26 1 November 1883 "Thank you very much for the newspaper...i am very fond of Reading Newspapers perhaps it may be better for me if i was to take more interest in some other Book"

D4661/3/27 12 December [1883] "i whent over to Cambridge last night to see a mans its the bigest man in the World he weighs over a quarter of a ton and stands six feet high or more and he was seven feet all but an inch round the waist"

D4661/3/31 February 1884 "My master...had a cow die or at least they had to kill him...so that is a smart loss to him but them as havent got nothing cant lose nothing"

D4661/3/32 13 March 1884 "i suppose that your mistress had some thought weather we had been talking about being married...its a very bad time to get a servant in May or June"

D4661/3/35 12 May 1884 "i suppose this will be the last letter that i shall send to you at Berkeley House"

(The letters numbered 36-42 were without dates; approximate dates have been noted on the document labels where possible)

Letters written by Samuel to his future wife, Annie, while he was working as a cowman in Slimbridge. Annie was then a dairymaid in Berkeley

(Mrs. Carter has also presented to this Office a locket which Samuel gave to Annie on her birthday in 1881; the letter which enclosed the gift is missing from this collection)

The letters are fairly brief and mainly concerned with making arrangements to meet. However, there are some references to local events such as comments on weddings, travelling fairs and entertainments. A few examples are as follows