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7th-15th June Rain threatens to spoil the hay harvest. Bräker laments that on a Sunday it is thought permissible to hunt and play silly games, but not to rescue the hay crop on the first fine day for a week. [Chronik, p 327]
Bräker stopped writing his diary at this point and did not resume it until the end of September, so the events of the next three months were recorded quite a long time after they happened. [Chronik, p 327]
6th July Pastor Imhof, expecting a visit from Johann Heinrich Füssli, sends Bräker to Wil with a letter of introduction. Füssli was at Wil because Zürich was one of the "Schirmorte" [Protector cities] of St Gallen. His brother-in-law Mathias Schulthess was being installed as a representative of Zürich, sent there every two years to keep an eye on the way the Toggenburg was being governed. [Chronik, p 328]
Bräker writes: "At eight o'clock in the morning I came to Wil - full of conjectures - and the most burning curiosity - to make the acquaintance of such a good and amiable - and famous gentleman... I gave him the letter I had brought from the pastor - which will doubtless inform him that I am the poor bungler of an author, grown up in the wilderness - the first sight of Councillor Füssli was already having a sympathetic effect upon me, poor worm that I am". [Chronik, pp 327-328]
7th July "Monday the 7th of July was a day which I reckon among the happiest in my life
142
- there came indeed - the philanthropist Füssli with his gentle wife to our lowly town of Lichtensteig. I made my way to the house of the young councillor Herr Steger143
- and - would you believe it - the esteemed couple came - over the Thur on foot - together with our beloved pastor and Councillor Steger - to Hochsteig - to grant poor Näbis-Uli a visit - what condescension." Füssli's wife condescends to accept a cup of milk from Salome and Füssli smokes some of Bräker's [probably home-cured] tobacco. Füssli makes Bräker an offer for his autobiography and one volume of the diary [probably the 1782-85 volume], which Bräker at first rejects, later he regrets doing this. [Chronik, p 328]27th July Bräker writes to Imhof saying that he wants to accept an advance after all, and asks Imhof to approach Füssli on the matter. Imhof did in fact obtain a honorarium of 10 louis d'ors, some of which was passed on at once, the rest deposited with Imhof. In a letter to Imhof on 18th August Bräker says that rumour has greatly exaggerated the amount of money he has received, but that his credit rating has gone up as a result, and he is delighted that his scribblings are finding recognition. He asks Imhof to convey his thanks to Füssli, because he "in all his life has never written to a great gentleman, and never had one of those handbooks on letter-writing". [Chronik, pp 328-9]. Böning [p 119] says that Bräker asked that Salome should be present when the money was handed over to him.
8th Sept. Bräker resumes his diary. The cotton business is not doing well, and in spite of a good harvest the price of bread remains high and wages low. [Chronik, p 329]
5th Oct. Bräker writes in his diary a "Dialogue of the dead", which Voellmy thinks was imitated from Schubart. From what Voellmy says, it seems this may not have been the dialogue of the same title that was published in 1793. [Voellmy, v 2 p 55] Bräker introduces it as follows:
"In these last few days various corpses have been buried here. Amongst others a respected lady of uncommonly good reputation and a man of means who was respected for his property but
142
There is some ambivalence here, in the published version he says that he was in a "dark mood" at the time.
143
Abraham Steger, later Füssli's son-in-law.
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