Arthur seems to have been a little premature in rejecting Ellen’s suggestion out of hand. Patrick’s first reaction may have been to laugh, but when he thought the matter over, the idea of an authorized biography of his daughter, written by one of her own friends, herself a celebrated author, not unnaturally appealed to his paternal pride. Perhaps Ellen wrote to him too, hoping that he might be persuaded where Arthur could not and pointing out that it was only a matter of time until someone less well qualified and less sympathetic than Mrs Gaskell produced a biography of his daughter. There must have been considerable argument between the two men but in the end Arthur bowed to Patrick’s wishes. Only five days after his son-in-law had turned the idea down flat, Patrick himself wrote to Mrs Gaskell.
Finding that a great many scribblers, as well as some clever and truthful writers, have published articles, in Newspapers, and tracts – respecting my Dear Daughter Charlotte, since her death – and seeing that many things that have been stated, are true, but more false – and having reason to think/ that, some may venture to write her life, who will be ill qualified for the undertaking, I can see no better plan, under these circumstances, than to apply to some established Author, to write a brief account of her life – and to make some remarks on her works – You, seem to me, to be the best qualified, for doing what I wish should be done – If therefore, you will be so kind, as to publish a long or short account of her life and works, just as you may deem expedient & proper – Mr Nicholls, and I, will give you, such information, as you may require –
I should expect, and request that you would affix your name,
Curiously enough, the idea of writing a memoir of her friend had already occurred to Mrs Gaskell. Thinking over her last visit to Haworth in the September of 1853 and realizing how much of what Charlotte told her then she had already forgotten, she had decided to spend the summer writing down her personal recollections of Charlotte from the time of their first meeting in the Lake District and here and there ‘copying out characteristic extracts from her letters’. Originally, she had thought to do this simply for her daughters to read, but in confiding the idea to George Smith, and in telling him that ‘the time may come when her wild sad life, and the beautiful character that grew out of it may be made public’, she was clearly staking her claim to any future biography. Even so, she admitted that ‘this sort of record of her could not be made public at present without giving pain’.17
She was therefore both surprised and delighted to receive Patrick’s letter inviting her to undertake precisely this sort of memoir and promising her every cooperation. ‘I have taken some time to consider the request’, Mrs Gaskell wrote to George Smith only the day after she received Patrick’s letter,’… but I have consented to write it, as well as I cam Mrs Gaskell was well aware of the problems she would face, not least because she had already formed unfavourable notions about Patrick which she believed had considerable bearing on the formation of his daughter’s character: such details would now have to be omitted or ‘merely indicated’ during Patrick’s life-time.18 The news that Mrs Gaskell had accepted the commission ‘has broken in like a ray of light on our gloomy solitude’, Patrick wrote, enclosing for her assistance a rough outline of his own and his children’s lives. He also paid his own handsome tribute to his daughter: ‘I never knew one, less selfish than she was, or more disposed to suffer, herself – to save others from suffering –’.19
It was not until 23 July 1855, some five weeks later, that Mrs Gaskell at last found time in her busy schedule to pay a visit to Haworth. Obviously feeling that she would need moral support in facing her friend’s fearsome father again, she took Katie Winkworth with her. They arrived in ‘broiling heat’ about one o’clock in the afternoon. The normally loquacious Mrs Gaskell was reduced to an unusually terse description of the few hours she spent at the parsonage. ‘It was a most painful visit. Both Mr Brontë & Mr Nicholls cried sadly. I like Mr Nicholls.’20 Though frequently accused of not caring about his children, the depth of Patrick’s emotion can perhaps be gauged by the fact that, a full year after his daughter’s death, he could still confess that ‘my grief is so deep and lasting, that I cannot long dwell on my sad privation – I try to look to God, for consolation, and pray that he will give me grace, and strength equal to my day – and resignation to his will’.21
No one could doubt Mrs Gaskell’s sensibility and it was with the kindest of motives, leavened with a not unnatural reluctance to repeat the exercise, that she left Haworth determined not to seek future information from the two people who had been closest of all to the subject of her biography. Instead, she would rely on friends and acquaintances, some of whom had their own axe to grind. Far from saving Patrick and Arthur from future grief, she was unintentionally to inflict further trauma upon them.
The day after her visit, both Mrs Gaskell and Arthur Nicholls wrote to Ellen Nussey, requesting that she would make her letters available for the biography. Mrs Gaskell made it clear that both men had agreed to her suggestion that the book should make Charlotte’s ‘most unusual character (as taken separately from her genius,)’ known to her readers who would ‘expect to be informed as to the circumstances which made her what she was’. Despite their agreement, Mrs Gaskell was shrewd enough to realize that Patrick did not fully appreciate the scale of interest felt by strangers in his daughter’s personal history. He wanted her life to be written, and written by Mrs Gaskell, his last words being, ‘No quailing, Mrs Gaskell! no drawing back!’ ‘Mr Nicholls was far more aware of the kind of particulars which people would look for; and saw how they had snatched at every gossiping account of her, and how desirable it was to have a full and authorized
Arthur’s letter echoed Mrs Gaskell’s but it is clear that he expected to be consulted about the material that was to be used in the book.
The greatest difficulty seems to be in obtaining materials to shew the development of Charlotte’s Character – For this reason Mrs G. is anxious to see any of her letters – Especially those of an early date – I think I understood you to say that you had some – if so – we should feel obliged by your letting us have any, that you may think proper – not for publication, but merely to give the writer an insight into her mode of thought – Of course they will be returned after a little time –
I confess that the course most consonant with my own feelings would be to take no steps in the matter but I do not think it right to offer any opposition to Mr Brontës wishes – We have the same object in view, but should differ in our mode of proceeding –23
Ellen was actually staying with Miss Wooler in Ilkley when Mrs Gaskell’s letter was forwarded to her: it was an indication of their respective attitudes towards the biography that Ellen wished very much to invite Mrs Gaskell to join them but that Miss Wooler refused to allow her to do so.24 On her return home Ellen went through all her letters from Charlotte, carefully reading over every one, erasing names of persons and places, and putting them into date order. From 500 letters, she selected some 300 for Mrs Gaskell’s perusal, handing them over to her in person when she called at Brookroyd in the middle of August.25 ‘They give one a very beautiful idea of her character’, Mrs Gaskell wrote after she had read them, adding, T am sure the more fully she, Charlotte Brontë – the friend the daughter the sister the wife is known – and known wh
ere need be in her own words – the more highly will she be appreciated.’26 Through Ellen’s offices, Mrs Gaskell eventually secured an interview with the reluctant Miss Wooler at Brookroyd and impressed her sufficiently to persuade her to part with her letters: ‘I hardly know how it is,’ she told Miss Wooler, ‘but I like them better than any other series of letters of hers that I have seen.’27
Not surprisingly, George Smith proved equally reluctant to part with his letters. After an increasingly irate set of missives from Mrs Gaskell, he finally lent her about twenty letters, some of them only fragments, principally concerned with the Newby transactions and Charlotte’s criticisms of Thackeray. Forewarned by Ellen Nussey, Mrs Gaskell knew that this was only the tip of the iceberg and refused to be put off. ‘The remainder’, Mr Smith suavely announced, ‘contain matter of too purely personal a nature to be generally interesting.’ He offered to lend them on condition that they were returned: ‘He is very civil, more civil than satisfactory’, Mrs Gaskell observed darkly to Ellen, who advised her that an unannounced visit to Cornhill might prove more productive. Williams, too, was persuaded to part with his letters, which Mrs Gaskell again liked better than any others she had seen apart from those to Miss Wooler: by this time she had gathered enough material to notice that ‘it is curious how much the spirit in which she wrote varies according to the correspondent whom she was addressing’.28
In addition to Charlotte’s own letters, Mrs Gaskell was assiduous in contacting people who might be able to help her. John Greenwood was set to work transcribing the Brontë memorial tablet in the church; another friend was deployed to find books about the ‘peculiar customs &c-/ character of the population’ of Haworth; a chance meeting with Dr Scoresby at a house party provided an opportunity to pump him for ‘many curious anecdotes about the extraordinary character of the people round Haworth’.29 Above all, however, it was Ellen Nussey who provided information, stories and contacts. Unlike Charlotte’s husband, she was a willing, even eager, participant in the exercise and, perhaps inevitably, Mrs Gaskell absorbed many of her opinions and prejudices without questioning them. Inevitably, too, Patrick and Arthur came out badly and, since it was easier and less painful to accept Ellen’s versions of events than to interrogate Charlotte’s father and widower, Mrs Gaskell made no attempt to counterbalance the evidence she was building up.
Unaware of the direction the biography was taking, Patrick and Arthur had resumed the threads of their normal life as far as was possible in the wake of Charlotte’s death. A fortnight after that event, Patrick had bought a dog of mixed Newfoundland and retriever ancestry from Mr Summerscale, the National schoolmaster. He named it Cato, after the classical orator, and though it was clearly intended for companionship, a note in his account book that ‘My Dr D-t-r Ch.tte, greatly admired him’ suggests another reason for the purchase. A couple of months later, Patrick bought another dog, this time a cross between a Newfoundland and a water spaniel, from Mr Summerscale, which was named Plato in honour of the classical philosopher.30 There were other changes in the household too. Martha Brown, worn out after her labours running the house singlehandedly while nursing Tabby and Charlotte, had herself fallen ill. She could not be cared for at the parsonage and, as her father was terminally ill, there was no place for her at home: she was therefore sent to Leeds to Mrs Dean’s alms-houses, where she was gradually restored to health. In her absence, the household duties devolved on her younger sister, Eliza, who Patrick hastened to reassure her was ‘Very steady, and does her work very well’.31
Other old and faithful servants were also in touch again as news of Charlotte’s death spread. Nancy Garrs had come back to Haworth, possibly to attend Charlotte’s funeral, and her sister, Sarah, who had emigrated to the States, wrote to Patrick from Iowa. Replying with a brief sketch of the family’s history since her departure, he added, with justifiable pride, ‘You probably, little thought, that the children you nursed on your knees, would have been so much noticed by the world – as they have been – Emily and Anne, wrote and published Clever Books – and Charlotte’s writings, and fame, are known in all parts where Genius, and learning are held in due estimation.’ Referring to the ‘happy union’ between his daughter and Arthur Nicholls, ‘a very worthy and respectable Clergyman’, he described how ‘her loving Husband, and, I,
Though Patrick continued to preach at least once and often twice every Sunday, he had effectively handed over all the responsibility for taking duties to Arthur, performing only one or two burials and baptisms a year. It therefore fell to Arthur’s lot to perform the burial service for John Brown, Martha’s father, Branwell’s friend and sexton of Haworth, on 13 August 1855.34
Throughout the autumn Mrs Gaskell was busy in her search for materials. She visited Brookroyd twice, once on her way to stay with the Kay Shuttleworths at Gawthorpe Hall in August and again in early October, when Ellen had arranged for Miss Wooler to be staying there. Mrs Gaskell did not gain much ‘ direct information’ from Miss Wooler, but Ellen supplied that deficiency with a will. She wrote her own account of Anne’s last days at Scarborough, copying out and embellishing notes she had made at the time in her pocketbook. She also sent extracts from Charlotte’s letters, which she suggested should be included in the memoir. One of these was Charlotte’s commentary on the death of Anne’s schoolfriend, Ann Cook, Ellen’s reason for including it being ‘I think the young lady’s friends would most probably be gratified if dear C.’s comments on her decease were inserted – they are monied and influential people in this neighbourhood, some of them not very friendly to Currer Bell’s emanations. Would they not be won by her kindly thought of one of their own?’35
Ellen was even employed as an intermediary in securing Mrs Brontës letters to Patrick, since Mrs Gaskell ‘dare not’ ask him herself. Patrick had sent her four letters containing a mixture of facts and anecdote to assist her, but otherwise there was no communication between them.36 Partly this was due to Mrs Gaskell’s reluctance to revive painful memories and partly to Arthur Nicholls’ unwillingness to give the biographer anything more than he was absolutely required to do. Nevertheless, both he and Patrick had been concerned by the silence: ‘We have neither heard nor seen anything of Mrs Gaskell –’, he wrote to Ellen Nussey in December. ‘I have every confidence that she will do ample justice to Charlotte – but I am quite sensible that she has undertaken a very difficult task with only slender material.’37 His sentiments were echoed by Patrick in a letter to Mrs Gaskell herself on 23 January 1856. ‘You will find herewith, a letter, and verses, which I have received from a Lady with whom I have no acquaintance –’, he told her,
You will exercise your own judgement, in reference to them, and all other concerns, connected with the arduous, and
, by an accession of subject matter – But I must have done – an oppressive sadness comes over my heart, when I reflect that my Dear Daughter is forever gone –38
What neither Patrick nor Arthur realized was the vast number of Charlotte’s letters to which Mrs Gaskell now had access nor, more importantly, the extent to which she was planning to quote from them.
She had begun to write in February 1856, but was continually frustrated and forced to rewrite as new material came to light. Enquiries to Mary Taylor in New Zealand had revealed that Mary had destroyed all her letters from Charlotte, a fact she now bitterly regretted. ‘They would have been much better evidence than my imperfect recollection & infinitely more interesting.’ Mary did respond with a lively account of their schooldays at Roe Head, however, from which Mrs Gaskell was to quote extensively in her biography.39 Mrs Gaskell had also unearthed the Wheelwrights and, more importantly, the Hegers. Charlotte had been reluctant to sanction the translation of Villette into French and had tried to prevent its publication in Belgium, fearing that the portrait of the Pensionnat Heger and its principals was all too easily recognizable. Inevitably, the book had made its way to Brussels and the Hegers had been made aware of their unconscious contribution to English literature. There were even rumours that the Pensionnat Heger had suffered a loss of pupils as a result.40 Certainly, Madame Heger had taken justifiable umbrage at her portrait in the novel and when Mrs Gaskell travelled over to Brussels in the early summer of 1856 she flatly refused to see her. Constantin Heger, however, more aware of his former pupil’s genius and more sympathetic to her sufferings, was quite prepared to assist her biographer. He sent her examples of both Emily’s and Charlotte’s devoirs, described his teaching methods and transcribed carefully selected extracts from Charlotte’s letters to him for Mrs Gaskell’s edification. When she came to Brussels, he not only agreed to see her, but swiftly won both her liking and her respect, not least because he had refused to defend himself by publishing Charlotte’s letters to him. Displaying a tact that was not evident elsewhere in her biography, Mrs Gaskell protected Monsieur Heger (and Charlotte’s reputation) as best she could by deliberately glossing over the reasons for Charlotte’s estrangement from his wife and her eventual departure from Brussels.41
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