30. Ibid., pp.1–2[LCB, i, 212]; CB to EN, [?7Apr 1840]: MS HM 24422 p.1, Huntington [LCB, i, 213]; CB to EN, [?end June 1840]: MS BS 46, BPM [LCB, i, 222]; CB to EN, [14 July 1840]: MS Bon 165, BPM [LCB, i, 223–4].
31. See, for example, CB to EN, [30 Apr 1840]: MS HM 24423 p.1 crossed, Huntington [LCB, i, 216–7]; CB to EN, [15 May 1840]: MS n.l. [LCB, i, 217–8]; CB to Henry Nussey, 26 May 1840: MS in private hands [LCB, i, 219].
32. CB to EN, [15 May 1840]: MS n.l. [LCB, i, 217–8].
33. BO, 2Apr 1840 p.2. See also LI, 28 Mar 1840 p.5.
34. CB to EN, [?7Apr 1840]: MS HM 24422 p.3 crossed, Huntington [LCB, i, 214]; BO, 30 Apr 1840 p.2. Patrick is likely to have been persuaded to do the sermon when Morgan paid a 3–day visit in March. Charlotte found the ‘fat Welshman’s prosing’ unendurable but Weightman relieved the burden by listening with patience and good temper to all his long stories: CB to EN, [17 Mar 1840]: MS HM 24421 p.2, Huntington [LCB, i, 211].
35. CB to EN, [12 Jan 1840]: MS BS 44 pp.1–2, BPM [LCB, i, 209]; CB to EN, [24 Jan 1840]: MS MA 2696 R-V, PM [LCB, i, 210].
36. Census Returns for Thorpe Underwoods, in the parish of Little Ouseburn, 1841: Microfilm, Harrogate. Anne is not included on the census as she was on holiday at home in June 1841. The Inghams at Blake Hall employed only 5 live-in servants, as well as a governess and a gardener who lived in a cottage in the grounds: Census Returns for Mirfield, 1841: Kirklees Reference Library, Central Library, Huddersfield. For the value of the Robinson estate see Edmund Robinson, draft conveyance of Thorp Green Estate to Harry Thompson, 4 Apr 1866: MS in Robinson Papers no 52, BPM.
37. White, ii, 789–90; Census Returns for Great Ouseburn and Little Ouseburn, 1841: Microfilm, Harrogate. The wealthiest family, the Thompsons, lived at Kirkby Hall, just a mile away from Thorp Green: they employed 6 male and 9 female live-in domestic servants and a gardener and a lodge-keeper living in cottages on the estate: Census Returns for Kirkby Hall, in the parish of Little Ouseburn, 1841:Microfilm, Harrogate.
38. Anne was still at home on 17 March when Charlotte noted that ‘Anne’s cold is better – but I don’t consider her strong yet’: CB to EN, [17 Mar 1840]: MS HM 24421 p.3, Huntington [LCB, i, 212]. She is not mentioned again in Charlotte’s letters until 9May 1841 but was clearly established at Thorp Green by 28 August 1840 when she wrote ‘Lines Written at Thorp Green’: MS in Law [facsimile in Poems, 1934, 355; Chitham, 75]. Chitham, 10–11 argues persuasively that Anne started her employment on 8 May 1840, the quarter day on which she was paid.
39. Census Returns for Thorpe Underwoods, in the parish of Little Ouseburn, 1841: Microfilm, Harrogate. For Mrs Robinson’s portrait see plate 24.
40. Lydia Robinson was born on 6October 1825, Elizabeth on 16 November 1826, Mary on 21 March 1828 and Edmund on 19 December 1831; Georgina Jane, born in 1838, died on 15 March 1841 aged 2 years 8months and 3 weeks: Helier Hibbs (ed.), Victorian Ouseburn: George Whitehead’s Journal (York, 1990), 302–4, 502 (f).
41. Leyland, i, 250.
42. James Thorne, Rambles by Rivers (London, 1844), 36, 28, 26, 37: HAOBP:bb61, BPM. On the illustration of Seathwaite Chapel (p.23) Branwell wrote ‘The bell rope’ and drew a hand pointing to it.
43. PBB, Blackcomb, [Spring 1840]: MS n.l. Branwell published the poem under the pseudonym ‘Northangerland’ in the Yorkshire Gazette, 10 May 1845 p.7; Leyland, i, 251 gives much the same version with slightly different punctuation [VN PBB, 209].
44. PBB, Sir Henry Tunstall, 15 Apr 1840: MS bms Eng 1009(1) pp.7–8, Harvard [VN PBB, 480]. For the earlier version see above, p.1046 n.21.
45. PBB, Translations of Horace, Odes, Book I, nos.xv, xi, ix, xxxi, xix, 15 Apr 1840: MS bms Eng 1009(1) p.16, Harvard [VN PBB, 530].
46. Alexander Japp, The De Quincey Memorials (London, 1891), ii, 212 believed the mss had been preserved only because they were ‘swallowed up in his vast pile of papers and never recovered till after his death’. Japp published both ‘Sir Henry Tunstall’ and the translations: ibid., 208–33.
47. PBB to Hartley Coleridge, 20 Apr 1840: MS in Law, transcript in Ratchford Papers, Texas [VN PBB, 442–3].
48. PBB, ‘At dead of midnight – drearily’, 20 Apr 1840: MS in Law [VN PBB, 202–9]. For the earlier versions see ibid., 443–52.
49. PBB to Hartley Coleridge, 20 Apr 1840: MS in Law, transcript in Ratchford Papers, Texas [VN PBB, 443].
50. When he came to translate the 38th ode of Book I, Branwell simply wrote, ‘This ode I have no heart to attempt, after having heard Mr H Coleridges translation, on May day, at Ambleside.’: PBB, Translation of the Odes of Horace, Book I: MS p.64, Brotherton [facsimile in M&U, ii, 465]. Branwell also referred to the visit in PBB to Hartley Coleridge, 27 June 1840: MS n.l. [L&L, i, 210].
51. Cockerill, ‘A Brontë at Broughton-in-Furness’, BST;15:76:35; WG PBB, 174–5.
52. Lord Houghton, Commonplace Book, 1857–60: MS p.338, TCC.
53. PBB, Letter from a Father on Earth to his Child in her Grave, [3Apr 1846], published in HG, 18 Apr 1846 p.6. The lost ms of the poem was apparently dated 3Apr 1846: Leyland, ii, 128.
54. Descendants of Mary Ann Judson, who was born at Buckley Farm near Stanbury in 1839, believe she was Branwell’s illegitimate daughter by Martha Judson, a 26-year-old married woman who already had 4children by her husband but there is no contempo-rary evidence to support the claim.
55. Census Returns for Broughton West, 1841: Microfilm, BFRL. The Fishes had left High Syke House by the time the 1851 census was taken; I have not been able to find out where they went. There are no records of the family in the Broughton parish registers though Mrs Fish, described as 81 and widow of the late Edward Fish surgeon of Broughton, was buried in St Mary’s Church at Ulverston: Burial Register, 1859–65, St Mary’s Church, Ulverston: MS BPR/2I 1/40, CRO, Barrow-in-Furness. I am grate-ful to Eileen Maughan for locating this reference. I was unable to find any other references to members of the Fish family in the Ulverston church records, ruling out the possibility that Margaret Fish had been sent to her mother’s relations there in order to have her child.
56. Register of Baptisms, 1813–51, St Mary Magdalene Church, Broughton-in-Furness: MS BPR/6I 2/1 nos.1192, 1209 and 1219, CRO, Barrow-in-Furness. I am indebted to Eileen Maughan for her initial searches and identifications of the possible candidates in the Broughton parish registers and 1841 census.
57. Census Returns for Broughton West, 1841 and 1851: Microfilm, BFRL. After Armer’s death Eleanor returned to Broughton to marry William Park, a skinner: Register of Marriages, 1837–1915, St Mary Magdalene Church, Broughton-in-Furness: MS BPR/6I 3/3 (2 Oct 1841, 1Jan 1849), CRO, Barrow-in-Furness. James Nelson was not living with his mother and her family, nor with his grandfather, in the 1851 census.
58. Census Returns for Broughton West, 1841 and 1851: Microfilm, BFRL; Register of Burials, 1813–73, St Mary Magdalene Church, Broughton-in-Furness: MS BPR/6I 4/1no.1096, CRO, Barrow-in-Furness.
59. Census Returns for Broughton West, 1841: Microfilm, BFRL. A Mary Riley who was buried on 27 July 1845 was only 11 months old, according to her death certificate, so cannot be the same child baptized on 21 Mar 1841: Register of Burials, 1813–73, St Mary Magdalene Church, Broughton-in-Furness: MS BPR/6I 4/1no. 842, CRO, Barrow-in-Furness. I am grateful to Janet Crockett, Superintendent Registrar of Ulverston, for identifying the second Mary Riley and to Phil Ramsay of Victoria, Australia, for the information on Agnes Riley and her second family.
60. He was at home by 27 June 1840 when he completed his fair copy of his translations, dating it from Haworth: PBB, translation of Horace Odes, Book I: MS p.64, Brotherton [M&U, ii, 465]. There is always the rather dull possibility that Postlethwaite simply terminated Branwell’s employment at Midsummer, 24 June, the customary pay-day, perhaps because he was not satisfied with the standard of his teaching or the post was only meant to be temporary. Another possibility is that Branwell himself may only have intended a six-month posting: in his letter to Brown he mentions his return at Midsummer
and though I have taken this to be a reference to his expected holiday then, it is open to interpretation as a statement of intent to give up his job: PBB to John Brown, [13 Mar 1840]: see above, n.6. WG PBB, 175 suggests Branwell persuaded his father to write requesting his return home but there is no evidence, contemporary or otherwise, to support this.
61. PBB to Hartley Coleridge, 27 June 1840: MS n.l. [L&L, i, 210–11].
62. Blackwood’s Magazine, for instance, regularly published translations from the classics such as the two series by William Hay, ‘Translations from the Greek Anthology’ (1836–7) and ‘The Latin Anthology’ (1838). Individual articles also dealt with classical subjects, for example, Chapman’s translation of Aeschylus, The Eumenides, which appeared in 1839.
63. Hartley Coleridge to PBB, 30 Nov–1Dec 1840: draft MS, Texas [VN PBB, 522–3]. I am grateful to Mrs A. H. B. Coleridge for permission to quote from this letter.
64. CB, Caroline Vernon: [c. July 1839–Spring 1840]: MS in Widener Coll, Harvard [Glen, 323–440]. This ms appears to have been begun on Charlotte’s return from Stonegappe as she says ‘Scarce three moons have waxed & waned’ since she wrote her last story but there seems to have been a break in the writing before the Parisian episode so I have tentatively given it a later date than is usually suggested.
65. CB to EN, [20 Aug 1840]: MS HM 24425 pp.2–3, Huntington [LCB, i, 226].
66. CB, ‘Alexander Percy was a man’, [Spring 1840]: MS MA 2696 R-V, PM [part only in BST:10:50:18–24].
67. CB to Hartley Coleridge, [Dec 1840]: MS MA 2696 R-V pp.1–3, PM [LCB, i, 236–7]. Charlotte toned down some of her remarks in the fair copy she sent to Coleridge but the content is essentially the same: CB to Hartley Coleridge, 10 Dec 1840: MS in Texas [LCB, i, 239–41]. ECG, Life, 149–50 wrongly assumed the letter was to Wordsworth.
68. CB to EN, [?2June 1840]: MS HM 24424 p.1, Huntington [LCB, i, 221]; CB to EN, [end June 1840]: MS BS 46 p.1, BPM [LCB, i, 222].
69. CB to EN, [20 Nov 1840]: MS HM 24426 p.3, Huntington [LCB, i, 234]: the lines in square brackets were so heavily deleted by EN I could not decipher them; they are supplied by LCB.
70. CB to EN, [14 July 1840]: MS Bon 165 p.1, BPM [LCB, i, 223–4]; CB to EN, [end June 1840]: MS BS 46 pp.1–2, BPM [LCB, i, 222].
71. LI, 25 July 1840 p.7. CB to EN, [14 July 1840]: MS Bon 165 p.1 crossed, BPM [LCB, i, 224], noting Weightman left Haworth that morning said ‘I have no doubt he will get nobly through his examination he is a clever lad’. Chitham, 18–19 unjustly denies Weightman had any examinations to pass, suggesting that this was part and parcel of his ‘charming … unreliable’ character, his ‘half-truths and exaggerations’. All candidates for priesthood had to undergo oral examination before their ordaining bishop: see, for example, Patrick’s comments on Robert Cox being unable to undergo the bishop of Lincoln’s examination: PB to Revd Mr Campbell, 12 Nov 1808: MS pp.1–2, Princeton [LRPB, 24].
72. CB to EN, [20 Aug 1840]: MS HM 24425 p.1, Huntington [LCB, i, 226]. See also CB to EN, [end June 1840]: MS BS 46 p.3, BPM [LCB, i, 222]; CB to EN, [?29 Sept 1840]: MS n.l. [LCB, i, 228]. Weightman’s return is indicated by his signing the registers on 13 September for the first time since July: Baptisms, Haworth.
73. CB to EN, [?29 Sept 1840]: MS n.l. [LCB, i, 228–9].
74. See, for example, the generously worded tribute on Weightman’s memorial in Haworth church, quoted below, p.473; Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, Haworth.
75. PB, A Funeral Sermon for … Weightman, 8–9, 11 [Brontëana, 256–8].
76. LM, 1Aug 1840 p.5; BO, 17 Sept 1840 p.2; LM, 8 Aug 1840 p.5.
77. Ibid., 26 Sept 1840 p.5; 17 Jan 1852 p.10; 15 Aug 1840 p.5.
78. HG, 5 Sept 1840 p.4.
79. CB to EN, [12 Nov 1840]: MS n.l. [LCB, i, 231].
80. John Collins signed the Keighley registers without a title until 25 Sept 1840 when he became ‘Assistant Curate’. His last signature occurs at a baptism on 18 April 1841 (Bishop’s Transcripts, 1838–54, Keighley: Microfilm, Keighley), though he appears in the Clergy Lists as Busfield’s curate in 1843–6 and again, with no named curacy, in 1847: I am grateful to Margaret Smith for this information which accords with the fact that Mrs Collins later had a second child by her husband and was abandoned by him in Manchester in 1847: see below, p.400–1.
81. CB to EN, [?4Apr 1847]: MS pp.2–3, Princeton [LCB, i, 521].
82. AB, The Bluebell, 22 Aug 1840: MS 2696 R-V pp.17–18, PM [Chitham, 73–4]. There is no doubt that Anne meant the harebell, though she calls the flower a bluebell: see above, p.1048 n.35.
83. AB, ‘O! I am very weary’, 28 Aug 1840: MS in Law [facsimile in Poems 1934, 355]. In this fair copy book, compiled in 1845, the poem is given the title ‘Lines Written at Thorp Green’, apparently as an after-thought. When she amended and published it in Poems 1846, 140 she gave it the same title as Emily’s poem ‘Appeal’.
84. WG AB, 167 wrongly dates the poem to 1841, says it was only published posthumously and, with Chitham, 169–70, asserts the autobiographical nature of the poem and its association with Scarborough. The Robinsons do not feature in the list of visitors published in Scarborough Herald, 13 Aug 1840 p.3, though they were usually resident at this time in later years. It is possible the Robinsons visited earlier but there are no extant editions of the Scarborough Herald before this date to confirm this. As Anne had only started her job in May it is possible that Mrs Robinson did not allow her to take what was to become her usual summer holiday just before her employers went to Scarborough: see also below, p.1066 n.88. Mrs Bloomfield cut short her gov-erness’s holiday because she had only recently arrived in AB, AG, 31–2.
85. EJB, ‘If greif for greif can touch thee’, 18 May 1840: MS in Law [facsimile in Poems 1934, 310–11; Roper, 106]. In this ms note-book, the poem is untitled but shares the same metre and vocabulary as Anne’s poem: JB SP, 122–3, 134.
86. CB to EN, [12 Nov 1840]: MS n.l. [LCB, i, 231]. Charlotte also lost the chance of a becoming governess to the Thornton family at Cottingley Hall because she could not teach music: Harry Speight, Chronicles and Stories of Old Bingley (London, 1898), 350. I am grateful to Sarah Fermi for this reference.
87. CB to EN, [12 Nov 1840]: MS n.l. [LCB, i, 231].
88. CB to EN, [17 Mar 1840]: MS HM 24421 p.3, Huntington [LCB, i, 212]; CB to EN, [end June 1840]: MS BS 46 p.3, BPM [LCB, i, 222]; CB to EN, [20 Aug 1840]: MS HM 24425 p.3, Huntington [LCB, i, 226]. Charlotte’s use of ‘Charivari’ and ‘Ça Ira’ reflects her French reading at this time; Punch did not use the title ‘The London Charivari’ until 1841.
89. Ibid., p.2 [LCB, i, 226]; CB to EN, [?14 Aug 1840]: MS Bon 166, BPM [LCB, i, 224–5].
90. HG, 29 Aug 1840 p.2.
91. CB to EN, [?29 Sept 1840]: MS n.l. [LCB, i, 228]. The references are from the Bible, Mark ch.3 v.17 and 2Chronicles ch.8 v.4.
92. WG PBB, 180; Proceedings of the Directors of the Manchester and Leeds Railway, 1841–2, 31 Aug 1840: MS RAIL 343/10, NA. The clerk-in-charge, George Duncan, was engaged at an annual salary of £130, rising to a possible £150. Thomas Sugden, whom Branwell first offered as surety in place of his aunt, was not landlord of the Black Bull, as Gérin claims but a wool-stapler: White, Directory of the … West Riding of Yorkshire (1843), 372. See above, p.339–40, for Branwell’s seeking employment as a bank clerk.
93. HG, 10 Oct 1840 p.2; 19 Dec 1840 p.3; 26 Dec 1840 p.4.
94. Ibid., 2Oct 1840 p.2; 20 Feb 1841 p.1.
95. Ibid., 17 Oct 1840 p.2. Passions were roused to such an extent that the head waiter of the White Swan Hotel was later prosecuted for an assault on the guard of the rival Union Hotel omnibus: ibid., 28 Nov 1840, p.3.
96. White, Directory of the … West Riding of Yorkshire (1843), 444.
97. Du Maurier, 117 and WG PBB, 183–4both cite ‘local tradition’ for which I have been unable to find a contemporary source. White, Directory of the … West Riding of Yorkshire (1843), 444 does not list a ‘Pear Tree Inn’ though it identifies Edward (not Ely) Ba
tes as the owner of a beer-house.
98. A concert of sacred music was held in the Old Assembly Rooms in the Talbot Inn, Halifax, on 9 September 1840 and there was a performance of Messiah in the Oddfellows’ Hall on 28 December: HG, 9Nov 1840 p.1; 28 Dec 1840 p.2; 2Jan 1841 p.3. Two lectures by Mr Burns, a New Zealand chief in full regalia, were given in the Old Assembly Rooms: ibid., 5 Dec 1840 p.3. Halifax Theatre reopened under the management of Mr Skerrett in December: ibid., 26 Dec 1840 p.2; 2Jan 1841 p.3.
99. Leyland, i, 266–7.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: A WISH FOR WINGS
Title: ‘I hardly know what swelled to my throat as I read her letter … such a strong wish for wings – wings such as wealth can furnish’: CB to EN, 7 Aug 1841 [LCB, i, 266].
1. CB to EN, [3Jan 1841]: MS Gr. E3 p.1, BPM [LCB, i, 242].
2. CB to EN, [20 Nov 1840]: HM 24426 pp.1, 2–3, Huntington [LCB, i, 233].
3. Ellen enigmatically referred to Charlotte ‘helping to cook a certain hash which has been concocted at Earnley’, this being Henry Nussey’s home: CB to Henry Nussey, 11 Jan 1841: MS BS 47 p.2, BPM [LCB, i, 244–5].
4. CB to Henry Nussey, 26 May 1840: MS in private hands [LCB, i, 220]. I am grateful to William Self for permission to quote from this ms and to Margaret Smith for the use of her transcript of it.
5. CB to Henry Nussey, 11 Jan 1841: MS BS 47 p.3, BPM [LCB, i, 245].
6. CB to EN, [?3Mar 1841]: MS n.l. [LCB, i, 246].
7. Ibid.; Anne’s salary was £10 per quarter: Edmund Robinson, Cash Book, 1845–6: MS 93/2, Robinson Papers, BPM.
8. Monument to John White, St Wilfrid’s Parish Church, Calverley. The entire inscription reads ‘Sacred to the memory of John White of Upperwood House, Rawdon Gentleman who died 30th October 1860 in the 70th year of his age & was interred near the east window of this church on the 6th day of the following month. This Monument is erected by his sorrowing widow in affectionate remembrance of his amiable upright and truly Christian demeanour in every relation of life.’ For his children see Brontë House – the First Fifty Years: 1934–1984 (Woodhouse Grove School, 1984), 4. When Upperwood House was demolished, Brontë House, the preparatory school for Woodhouse Grove, was built in its grounds.
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