Address: Kempston Manor, Bedford. Living at Kempston Manor in the 1850s were the four unmarried daughters of the Reverend Edmond Williamson (d. 1839): Frances, Catherine, Elizabeth, and Ann. The eldest was somewhat more than fifty when the items listed below appeared in H.W.; the youngest, somewhat more than forty (information from the County Record Office, Bedford). The visit to Norway told of in "Notes from Norway" extended from the summer of 1851 to the winter of that year, lasting perhaps into the early months of 1852. The County Record Office, Bedford, reports that there are at the Office no letters or papers that establish which of the Miss Williamsons made the trip.

The second item listed  [Lohrli lists two items as contributed by Miss Williamson—DJO Ed.] is recorded in the Office Book without author or payment notation. It is probably by Miss Williamson. "Notes from Norway" ends with a section titled "Frosty Weather". It seems probable that "Christmas Customs" was originally a section following "Frosty Weather" and that Wills reserved that section for insertion in H.W. at a more appropriate time of the year than May.

Author: Anne Lohrli; © University of Toronto Press, 1971.