Dear daughter and son in law and grandchildren

This comes with our kind love to all and I hope to find you all in good health as it leaves all of us at present, thanks be to God, for it it is all the blessing we have. Our trade is very slow and every person is complaining for want of trade and labour. Our workhouses are filled with able bodied men, and rates and expenses are so much we do not know how to live. Railroads to all parts of our country from Yarmouth to Norwich and London [mean] that our markets are so high that we can scarce get any meats. Beef is 8 1/2 and 9 per stone, and mutton the same. Pork is 7 1/2 and 8 per stone. Potatoes have been 16 shillings to 18 per sack, and vegetables of all sorts very scarce and sent to London by the train. They go from Norwich to London in 4 hours. We have such disease among the meat stock as we never witnessed before - their mouths sore and tongues - and flea all over and feet so sore they can scarce walk. The claws come off and, worse than that, the lights get diseased and grow to the side and kill them very soon. Rolling the dewlap and blistering, but the butcher is the best doctor. The loss is not too much if taken in time. They are packed up and sent to London in great numbers. I hope you have no such disease in America. If you have a sore mouth , give 1 h[andful?] of salts and 1 oz of grated ginger and drop the mouth with salt every day. They begin to slaver in the mouth, but if it be the lights they will lay about and rent the heaven and the ground and eat very little. At times will [look] well and feed a little. If you have any of the disease, butcher directly. I can see nothing better

Dear daughter we received your kind letter on the 20 of March 1847 with the greatest of pleasure, and hope to have better news this letter. Mrs Dorven is dead and buried last Michaelmas time. The family is all well at present and send their love to you all. Brother William and wife and child are well and send their love to you all. Mary and husband and children are all well, 4 in number and expect to be confined about the end of this month. They send their love to you all. They were at mine the 25^th of July last. Christain and family are all well and send their love to you all, 5 in number and girls. Susan and boy Henry send their love to you all, and Hannah sends her love to all. She is living at Thorpe in her same place. Charles is well and sends his love to you all. Charlotte is well and sends her love to you all. Uncle Richard is well the last time I heard from him. He has buried his wife Bette more than a year. Cousin Richard is married and has a child. Uncle Henry and wife and children are well and send their love to you all. Cousin Henry is a soldier in the 77th Regiment of Foot and is north in Ireland, and expects to embark for America very soon. Uncle Christmas is well and sends his love to you all. He is in the Oulton House for the old people. he is so infirm and not able to work. Evan Marsham got him in that house before his age. He has been 6 years in that place. It is a good place for him, he can come to see me when he likes to ask leave. He steals out sometimes and gets confined a day for it. He gets to Oulton some new time if he has any money. Our flour is 2-10 to 3 shillings per stone. We have very fine crops of corn of every sort and expect to begin harvest the latter end of this week or the beginning of the next. They complain of brand in the wheat. There is some every year. Our hay in general light and [it is a] very fickle time for making up land hay, but a remarkable time for pasture hay. We expect a fickle time for wheat harvest, but let us hope to get it in in good order. It is not like to be cheap at present. The potato crop looks well at present. There is a little disease as last year, but we hope it will not be so serious as last year. Election at Norwich last week and we expect one for the country soon. Mrs. Fritter's best respects to you and she is glad to hear from you, and brother John Broughton and family all well and send their love to you. There is a great supply at Norwich market with horses and bullocks and milch cows from Holland. The cows are good milkers and lead team by the horses. Susan Remmington is well and sends her love to you. She is living in service close by Hannah at Thorpe. Frettenham common was inclosed last year, 1846. The labourers lost not 1 half day, for the winter was so favourable as I never knew before. They began ditching on the 1 of January. It is allotted 1/2 acres to cottages; Foulger[1] has the Corthill and up to the Norwich Road I have about 3 acres by the marshole for feeding land pasture. The crops look well this year in general. The rent is 13-6 a year. Mrs. Bell is dead and buried. Uncle James Catton[2] and family are well. We shall be glad to hear from you as soon as possible as our time grow short in this world, as we lose all our old friends. Mrs. Bons is dead in America and sister Lily Smith[3] is living, and the old house and land is sold, and the gravel pit is Broughton cultivations. Excuse my not writing before. I hoped to send you a better account nearer harvest. Joseph Danty is living and is in the workhouse. No more at present from your affectionate father and mother.

William and Christain Remmington

Footnotes

1: Francis Foulger is listed as the landlord of the Rose and Crown in Frettenham in White's 1845 Norfolk Directory
2: There are two James Catton families in the 1851 census. One James is a farm labourer from Colkirk; the other is a bricklayer from Felbrigg - take your pick
3: Possibly a sister of either William Remmington (b.1780) or his wife Ann