George Orwell: Letter to Jack Common

Handwritten

New Hostel, Preston Hall, Aylesford, Kent[1]

Dear Jack,

Thanks for yours. Bad job about the cock. I expect he picked up a bit of poison or something. We won’t get another till about next Feb when we start breeding again, as it is no use feeding an idle bird during the winter. He wasn’t a bad cock. We called him Henry Ford because he had such a brisk businesslike way of going about his job, in fact he trod his first hen literally within 5 seconds of being out in the run. Muriel [2] should stay in milk easily for a year, ie. till next July, but I expect we’ll get her mated again when we come back from Africa. As to the milking you’ll probably find it easier by degrees. I did tell you to grease your fingers, didn’t I? It makes it easier. She ought to give 2-3 pints a day, & you can generally send the yield up or down a bit according to the amount of fat-producing food (especially flaked maize), but of course they have to have a fair amount of oats etc. to keep up their strength as well. She come son heat once in 3 weeks & is usually a bit of a nuisance then, stamping round & bleating instead of grazing quietly.

We’re going to leave England by Sept. 2nd. We’ve booked as far as Gibraltar, then we take another boat to Casa Blanca° & then I’m not sure, but I think we head for the Atlas mountains, wherever they may be. Our geography was so poor that both E.[3] and I thought French Morocco gave on the Mediterranean, whereas it’s really the Atlantic. As soon as we’ve a permanent adress° we’ll let you know. We’ve just been down for two days to Southwold to see my father who is very old & has been ill but I am glad to say is rather better.

Love to all.

Yours
Eric

P.S. I don’t know whether these milking hints may be of use. Give the goat her food, then get her up against the wall (if she gives you trouble you can steady her with your shoulder), & having greased your fingers massage the udder a little & grip the nearest teat pretty firmly at the root, ie. where it joins the udder. If you are gripping it at the right place you will feel it fill with milk & thicken in your hand. Then, still gripping pretty hard (if you are hurting her she will soon let you know) draw the hand down the teat, being careful not to relax the pressure till you reach the end. When no more milk comes out of this teat, go on to the other. When that is exhausted return to the first & milk each teat a second time. Between the first & second operations it is better to massage the udder again & give a slight upward knocking with your hand, the same as the kid does with its head. The whole operation should take about 5 minutes. It is better to do it at regular times of the day. I used to do it at about 8 am & 7pm in the winter, but somewhat later in the evenings in the summer as she can go on grazing longer as it is light.

Notes

[1] Orwell suffered a tubercular lesion in one lung on 8 March 1938. He was a patient at Preston Hall Sanatorium at Aylesford, Kent, from 15 March to 1 September 1938. It was thought, erroneously as it proved, that Orwell’s health might improve if he spent the winter in a hot, dry climate and Morocco was chosen. An anonymous gift of £300 from the novelist L. H. Myers (1881-1944), a Communist, enabled Orwell and his wife, Eileen, to travel to Marrakesh and spent seven months there (2 September 1938 to 26 March 1939). Orwell never knew Myers provided the money; he always regarded it as a loan and later repaid it. While in Marrakesh he wrote the novel Coming Up for Air (1939). See Crick, 368-70, 419-20; Shelden, 316-19; 324-5; and A Literary Life, 111-12, 129.

[2] Muriel was Orwell’s favourite goat. She is illustrated in Crick, plate 19, and Muriel was immortalized by Orwell in Animal Farm.

[3] Eileen (née O'Shaughnessy), Orwell's wife.

Notes by Peter Davison and Ben Pimlott.