1889 diary p26 Bowkers

[Deskman]

Yes mysterious.

I don't think any possible team name works here,

Could the second word be  fcalling?

I offer the 'calling on' below as support.

The first word is so mysterious. Freely? I attach a free and freedom in hope they might be comparable.

[Karen McDonald]

Hmmm... I don't know. 

I had been wondering whether it was "filthy", but I can't see as that would fit. Also, I can't see an "f" there. OK, so his letters vary wildly, but it looks like a "g" to me. Compare with our jolly girls  :


What about guilty/guiltily (?)

Second word:
I agree that stalling/calling/whatever does look as though it has been amended, but it really does look like a beautifully clear "t" and 2 x "ll". Having said that, his "t" is NEVER as clear as that! 

I wondered about "stealing" (guiltily stealing to my rooms...), but the letters don't fit. (Not that that means much..!  )
 
The squiggles at the end are occupying my time. There is something similar in Chapel:


With that one, we never did manage to come up with a suggestion. The most obvious word would be "and", but why would he write a "d" like that?

The head-scratching continues...

Karen

[Deskman]

Dear Karen McDonald,

Yes, head scratching.

I think we need inspiration. Are there any word forms you would like to see?
I can't find a guilt in the diary but there is a guinea (in my Tubbs posting) and lots of greats; here are the first two examples and the last two examples.

[arthurk]

'stalling' was sometimes used to mean 'living' or 'dwelling', but also 'stopping' or 'sticking' - see OED and Wright's Dialect Dictionary. So I wonder if what Bowker was thinking was that the writer was upsetting the household in two separate ways - first by keeping to his room, and second by going out to the football:

...old B thinks I'm rather upsetting two household _______ stalling in my room & out to football so often

So might the mystery word be something meaning 'rules' or 'conventions'?

[Deskman]

Now that's a new light arthurk. Thank you.
I don't think it is a two. Two is one of the few words that is written clearly!
Examples below.

 

[Greensleeves]

Been following these threads without contributing, but I think he was upsetting the household greatly   stalling (staying) in his room & out to football etc.

Regards
GS

[Deskman]

Thanks Greensleeves,

Thanks for contributing.

Greatly has been discussed and not forgotten.

However there are problems, the diarist is not lodging at the rectory, rather at another nearby household.

The S like character I don't think is an S by this hand. Here are three examples of staying whi has some commonality with stalling

Feeling stuck.

[Deskman]

Hi, Just in case it helps any of you fine folk the diary sentence ends

...out to football so often, so for the present am “living low & sayin nuffin”

BTW 'living low & sayin nuffin' is a reference to Brer rabbit of Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings: The Folk-Lore of the Old Plantation, by Joel Chandler Harris, 1881 which the diarist had been reading in recent days.

[bbart]

Thanks for adding the ending, Deskman.  It does help, as I was starting to wonder if the "stalling" part was a new thought and not related to the Bowker issues.

More thoughts on the word that looks like "stallxx" :
He always seems to just put "g" for "ing", so what if the final squiggle that looks like a "y" is a second "abbreviation".  Assume the first part of the word is stall, just to clarify what I mean:  with two shortened sections, he is spelling out Stallingxxxy. I can't think of a word that it would make, but perhaps it's a name?

Also, could the first letter (the weird S)  be a capitol E?