The Tale of Hawthorn House Page 30

  ½ teaspoon cloves

  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, soak the raisins and currants in the tea for 6-8 hours. Stir in the sugar, egg, and margarine or butter. Sift together the flour, soda, cinnamon, and cloves and mix into the sugar-egg mixture. Pour into a lightly greased and lined loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 60-75 minutes, until top springs back from a touch. Cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack. Slice.

  Dimity Woodcock’s Lemon Curd

  Traditionally, lemon curd is spread on scones at afternoon tea, but you can also use it as a tart filling or spread it between the layers of trifles or cakes. Dimity used caster sugar (so called because the grains are fine enough to pass through a sugar “caster” or shaker). If superfine sugar is available, use it—otherwise, plain sugar will do. Do remember to stir.

  4 large egg yolks

  2 large whole eggs

  ¾ cup sugar

  ½ cup fresh lemon juice (don’t use bottled juice)

  4 tablespoons unsalted butter

  grated zest of 2 lemons

  Beat together the egg yolks and the eggs in a medium bowl. Put the sugar and lemon juice into a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Stir in the eggs. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a metal spoon, about 8-10 minutes. Pour the curd through a fine strainer to remove any lumps. Cut the butter into four pieces and add a piece at a time, stirring until smooth. Stir in the zest. Cover the surface with plastic wrap so a skin doesn’t form. Cool completely before using, or refrigerate for up to 4 days. Makes 1½ cups.

  Glossary

  Some of the words included in this glossary are dialect forms; others are sufficiently uncommon that a definition may be helpful. My main source for dialect is William Rollinson’s The Cumbrian Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition and Folklore. For other definitions, I have consulted the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (London: Oxford University, Press, 1989).

  Awt. Something, anything.

  Betimes. Sometimes.

  Bodder. bodderment, boddering. Trouble.

  Character. Recommendation from an employer.

  Dusta. Doest thou, do you?

  Ga, gaen, gang. Go, going.

  Gammy. Lame, injured. “Laid up wi’ a gammy leg.”

  Gannan-folk. Traveling people, gypsies.

  Goosy. Foolish.

  How. Hill, as in “Holly How,” the hill where Badger lives.

  Laid on. Installed.

  Nawt. Nothing.

  Off-comer. A stranger, someone who comes from far away.

  Pattens. Farm shoes with wooden soles and leather uppers.

  Reet. Right.

  Sae. So.

  Seed wigs. Small, oblong cakes, like tea cakes, flavored with caraway seeds.

  Se’nnight. Seven nights, a week. A contraction similar to fortnight, fourteen nights, or two weeks.

  Stook. To set up in sheaves.

  Trice. Very quickly, all at once, “in a trice.”

  Trippers, daytrippers. Tourists, visitors who come for the day.

  Turf. A slab of earth, with the grass left on it, sometimes used to construct small temporary huts.

  Up to London. In nineteenth century railway schedules, “up trains” always meant trains traveling to London, “down trains” traveling away from London, regardless of the direction.

  Verra or varra. Very.

  Wudsta. Wouldest thou? Would you?

  Yoller. Call out, yoo-hoo.