Domestic Diary, 12/8/46

An extract from Orwell's diary, written on Jura

Not so fine as yesterday. A few showers, & looks as though it would be wet tonight. Applied sodium chlorate to some of the rushes. On one patch applied at the same rate as for the nettles, ie. 1 lb to a gallon & about 1 gallon to 10 sq. yards, & on another tried the experiment of scattering the sodium chlorate dry, trusting to the rain to wash it in.

Wind in west.

Yesterday saw another fawn-coloured rabbit (baby one). Put away half dozen of the cured rabbit skins in a drawer, considering that they had dried sufficiently. Shall put moth balls with them, & see what they look like next year. One would, I think, only get on average an oblong of 8″ by 4″ or 5″ inches out of each pelt, so that one would need about 100 to make a good bed rug. On the other hand about 4 or perhaps 6 should make a pair of bedroom slippers.

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In May 1946, Orwell moved to the island of Jura in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, renting a farmhouse, Barnhill, from the Fletcher family. He was back in London later that year, before returning again in 1947 to complete Nineteen Eighty-Four. Jura was an escape from Orwell’s busy life in London as a newly famous author, and his doctors hoped that the environment would help with his recovery from tuberculosis (most likely caught in Spain). He left Jura for the last time in January 1949.