Murphy's letter from Edinburgh

 

Thanking all 303,944 of you

In all honesty, when I set my websites up in June 2004, I didn't know how they would go.  In fact my skills on the Internet were very limited in the fact that I didn't come on to the Internet until May this year, and I didn't put up an Internet site until June.

When I set up my sites I had a rough idea what I wanted to do and what I wanted show on my sites, it was just a case of getting them up and running.  The first program I used came off a magazine for nothing, so there was no expenses spared as I set to work building my sites up.  Since June the sites have taken on a life of their own.  The first program that I used was changed for something slightly better, so it gave me a chance to continue working on my photography and sites trying to improve them.

I have been astounded by the amount of hits that I have received since I set up my first site in June which was linked up with the other a few weeks later to make it all one.

Because I didn't quite understand the power of the Internet I was flabbergasted when I added the up figures today to see that 303,944 people have logged onto my site since mid June - around about five and a half months. There have been a few changes since  I set up my first sites, and the material that I have accumulated over a number of years has all fallen into place as I try to show off the city that I never get fed up with and the city that have spent most of my life in.

The last part of setting the site up was to put some of the documentaries that I had made in the mid 1990's on to it so that people could get a better understanding of where the site was going, even though some of the events have changed since then.

I went on to my site two days running when I put up the sound files and I was finding it a bit hard to access.  I thought I had a problem with my sites at that time.  It wasn't until I looked at the figures the next day that I found that there had been 6,000 people on it one day and 5,000 on it the other day - I then realised why it was running a bit slow at that time.

Most people will be getting in to the Christmas and New Year spirit at this time of year, so I think this is the time to genuinely wish everyone worldwide Season Greetings and a large thank you for logging on to my site.

Written by Andrew Murphy 13 December 2004

 

The Yorkshire Goose Pie of Long Ago

[Dated 1791]

Take a large fat goose, split it down the back, and remove all bones.  Bone a turkey and two ducks the same way.

Season them very well with salt and pepper and with six woodcocks.  Lay the goose down on a clean dish with skin-side down and lay the turkey into the goose with the skin down.

Have a large hare ready.  Well cleaned and cut in pieces, and stewed in the oven, with 1 Ib of butter, 1/4 oz of mace.  Beat fine the same of white pepper, and salt to taste till the meat will leave the bones.

Scum the butter off the gravy and pick the meat clean off and heat it in a marble mortar very fine with the butter you took off and lay it in the turkey.

Take 24 Ib of the finest flour, 6 Ib of butter, 1/2 Ib of fresh rendered suet, make the paste pretty thick and raise the pie oval.  Roll out a lump of paste and cut into vine-leaves or what form you please.

Rub the pie with the yolks of eggs, then turn the hare, turkey, and goose upside down and lay them in your pie, with the ducks at each end, and the woodcocks on the sides.  Make your lid pretty thick and put it on.

You may lay flowers or the shape of the fowls on the paste for the pie lid.  Make a hole in the middle of the pie lid.

The walls of the pie are to be one and a half inches higher than the lid, then rub it all over with the yolk of eggs and bind it round with three-fold paper, and lay the same over the top.

It will take 4 hours baking in a brown-bread oven.  When it comes out melt 2 Ib of butter in the gravy that comes from the hare and pour it hot in the pie through a tun-dish.

Close it well up and let it be 8 days or 10 before you cut it.  If you are sending it any distance, make up the hole in the middle with cold butter to prevent the air from getting in.

I just wonder what they had for their pudding?  Or was it a case of that's that, I wonder what's for our pudding?

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