92. Proceedings of the Directors of the Manchester and Leeds Railway, 1841–2, 11 Apr 1842: MS RAIL 343/10 p.184, NA.
93. See, for example, the following prosecutions reported in the Halifax Guardian: William Babington, imprisoned for 2months at the company’s request for failing to display the red flag when taking up track at Mytholmroyd, though no accident took place: 28 Nov 1840 p.2; 3men prosecuted for taking 2 cranes along the line without displaying lights or signals, thereby causing a crash at Sowerby Bridge: 16 Jan 1841 p.4; Joseph Cobden, dismissed and prosecuted for derailing a train at Brighouse because he forgot to change the points: 27 Mar 1841 p.2; 4 men arrested for causing a crash at Luddenden Foot in which 2of them were seriously injured when they travelled along the line on a truck after a drinking bout and ran into a train: 4Dec 1841 p.7. The drunken driver from Leeds, who had worked on the railway for 10 years, was sentenced to 2months hard labour at Wakefield House of Correction: 6 Mar 1841 p.3.
94. PBB to Francis Grundy, 22 May 1842: MS n.l. [Grundy, 85 wrongly dated to 1845]; CB to EN, 14 Apr 1846: MS HM 24444 p.4, Huntington [LCB, i, 463].
95. BO, 13 Jan 1842 p.7.
96. Ibid. The proposal was made and seconded by 2Dissenters, William Thomas and William Greenwood jr of Oxenhope. The Bradford churchwardens had spent £53 4s.11d. in getting the writ against Haworth: this was more than two-thirds of the total sum they were claiming as a rate, indicating how serious the confrontation had become: Writ of Mandamus against Haworth: MS MM 55/6/3, WYAS, Bradford; PB, BO, 3 Feb 1842 p.4[LRPB, 135].
97. Ibid. p.3. Patrick was away in Brussels when the goods were distributed so presumably Weightman acted in his stead.
98. PB, French notebook, 1842: MS BS 178 p.1, BPM [JB ST, no.15].
99. Ibid., pp.9, 13. Though Patrick meant ‘secs’, ‘sec’ and ‘privé’ he wrote ‘sees’, ‘see’ and ‘priver’.
100. EJB, Diary Paper, 30 July 1845: MS p.1, in private hands [facsimile in Shorter, 145; LCB, i, 407].
101. ECG, Life, 285.
102. MT to ECG, [1857]: MS n.l. [Stevens, 165].
103. CB to EN, 14 Oct 1850: MS Bon 226 p.1, BPM [LCB, ii, 482–3].
104. CB, Villette, 58–9.
105. Ibid., 58.
106.PB, French notebook, 1842: MS BS 178 p.22, BPM [JB ST, no.15].
107. I have assumed Charlotte followed the same arrangements as on her return to Brussels the following year and have taken my description of this first journey from her own account of the second: CB to EN, 30 Jan 1843: MS TC [LCB, i, 308]; WG CB, 185 quoting Ostend police registers. Ibid. says the party arrived about midnight on Saturday and went straight to their hotel, assuming the voyage took only 14 hours.
108. PB, French notebook, 1842: MS BS 178 pp.7, 16–17, BPM.
109. CB, The Professor, 49–50.
110. WG CB, 186 quoting Brussels police registers.
111. CB, Villette, 131. Frederika Macdonald, who was at the Pensionnat Heger 19 years after Charlotte, recognized the passages in Villette as a graphic description of the school and its surroundings: Frederika Macdonald, ‘The Brontës at Brussels’, The Woman at Home, (July 1894), 277–80.
112. Chadwick, 210–11.
113. Ibid., 213–14.
114. Prospectus for ‘Maison d’éducation pour les jeunes Demoiselles sous la direction de Madame Heger-Parent’, 1842: MS BS x, H, BPM [facsimile in Chadwick, opp. 190; LCB, i, 287–8]; Abraham Dixon snr to Mary Dixon, 24 July 1843: MS Dixon 13, BPM. I am grateful to Margaret Smith for drawing my attention to this collection which is now in the BPM. In this letter Dixon has had to abandon plans to place Ellen Taylor at Mme Heger’s and bear part of the expense: ‘The terms are including Music, drawing and every other expense fr[anc]s 1055 or £42 pr year as particularized below. There will also be the cost of her clothes in addition, which will I suppose cost much the same as in England. Pension yearly fcs 650; Music – 15fcs pr mth 180; Drawing – 8 ditto 96; Dancing 6ms in winter 30; Washing 60; Servants 5; Use of bed & linen 34; [total] fcs 1055’. The terms for yearly pension and use of bed and linen are identical to those quoted in the prospectus, so I assume the other fees were the same for Charlotte and Emily.
115. ECG, Life, 171.
116. Prospectus for ‘Maison d’éducation pour les jeunes Demoiselles sous la direction de Madame Heger-Parent’, 1842: MS BS x, H, BPM [facsimile in Chadwick, opp. 190; LCB, i, 287–8]. this stated ‘Cet établissement est situé dans l’endroit le plus salubre de la ville … La santé des élèves est l’objet d’une surveillance active les parents peuvent se reposer avec sécurité sur les mesures qui ont été prises à cet égard dans l’établissement.’
117. Chadwick, 225, quoting Mrs Jenkins. The Dixons’ address is quoted in Abraham Dixon snr to Mary Dixon, 24 July 1843: MS HAOBP 2001/13, BPM. The Jenkins’s address is given in ECG to Laetitia Wheelwright, c.13 June 1856 [C&P, 391].
118. [Benjamin Binns], BO, 17 Feb 1894 p.6.
119. PB, French notebook, 1843: MS BS 178 pp.21–2, BPM [JB ST, no.15].
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: ISOLATED IN THE MIDST OF NUMBERS
Title: referring to life at the Pensionnat Heger: ‘The difference in Country and religion makes a broad line of demarcation between us & all the rest we are completely isolated in the midst of numbers’: CB to EN, [May 1842]: MS in Law [LCB, i, 284].
1. CB to EN, [May 1842]: MS in Law [LCB, i, 284]. The Taylors, by comparison, were making little progress in French because they were still awaiting the arrival of a French teacher: MT to EN, [Mar–Apr 1842]: MS p.3, PM [Stevens, 29–30].
2. Emily apparently wrote only 3 poems throughout the 9 months she spent in Brussels: see below, n.43.
3. CB to EN, [May 1842]: MS in Law [LCB, i, 283–4]. A few months later Charlotte said the school had 90 pupils: CB to EN, [?July 1842]: MS HM 24431 p.2, Huntington [LCB, i, 289].
4. CB to EN, [May 1842]: MS in Law [LCB, i, 283–4].
5. Ibid. [LCB, i, 284].
6. ECG, Life, 178–9.
7. Macdonald, ‘The Brontës at Brussels’, 283–4. This practice is borne out by the number of Charlotte’s and Emily’s essays preserved by Heger.
8. CB, La Jeune Fille Malade, 18 Apr 1842: MS in Parrish Coll, Princeton and its model, Alexandre Soumet, La Pauvre Fille, in CB, notebook of dictations, [1842]: MS Bon 115 pp.1–4, BPM [Lonoff, 12–22].
9. CB, La Prière du Soir dans un camp, 26 Apr 1842: MS in Parrish Coll, Princeton, and its model, Chateaubriand, Prière du Soir à bord d’un vaisseau, in CB, notebook of dictations, [1842]: MS Bon 115 pp.5–6, 11–14, BPM [Lonoff, 24–37]. The soldiers were men from General Abercrombie’s brigade who defeated the remnants of Napoleon’s Egyptian garrison at the battle of Aboukir (1801) in which Abercrombie himself was killed. Charlotte sketched a highly romanticized portrait of Abercrombie in Highland dress in one of her French exercise books: MS Bon 122 p.6 (loose leaf), BPM [A&S no.160].
10. CB, Anne Askew, 2 June 1842: MS HM 2560, Huntington, and Chateaubriand, Eudore Moeurs Chretiennes IV Siècle in CB, notebook of dictations, [1842]: MS Bon 115 pp.8, 11, BPM [Lonoff, 80–94].
11. ECG, Life, 180. Victor Hugo, Mirabeau à la Tribune, is quoted at length in CB, note-book of dictations, [1842]: MS Bon 115 pp.19–23, BPM [Lonoff, 108–111].
12. CB, Imitation Portrait de Pierre l’Hermite, 31 July 1842: MS EL fB91 p.4, Rylands [Lonoff, 128]. This and the other translations quoted from the essays are my own.
13. EJB, Portrait, Le Roi Harold avant la Bataille de Hastings, June 1842: MS Bon 129 pp.2–4, BPM [Lonoff, 100–103]. For an uncorrected draft of this essay and Heger’s fair copy see Lonoff, 96–9, 104–7.
14. ECG, Life, 184. Emily’s weaker French is readily apparent from the number of both corrections inserted by Heger and English words she uses when a more appropriate French word exists.
15. CB, Le Siège d’Oudenarde, [1842]: MS p.3, Swarthmore [Lonoff, 74–5].
16. Ibid., pp.3–4 [Lonoff, 74–5]. Marcus Curtius was a mythical Roman who, in obedience to an oracle which
declared that this was the only way to save his country, leapt fully armed and on horseback into a fissure which had opened in the Roman Forum.
17. EJB, Le Siège d’Oudenarde, [1842]: MS p.1, Swarthmore [Lonoff, 68–9].
18. Ibid., pp.2–3[Lonoff, 68–9].
19. Ibid., [Lonoff, 70–1]
20. EJB, Le Chat, 15 May 1842: MS p.1, Berg [Lonoff, 56–9].
21. EJB, L’Amour Filial, 5 Aug [1842]: MS Bon 130 p.2, BPM [Lonoff, 156–7].
22. Ibid., p.4[Lonoff, 158–9].
23. CB, La Chenille, 11 Aug 1842: MS in private hands [Lonoff, 180–5, esp. 180].
24. EJB, Le Papillon, 11 Aug 1842: MS pp.2–3, Berg [Lonoff, 176–7].
25. Ibid., pp.4–5[Lonoff, 178–9].
26. CB, Le Palais de la Mort, 16 Oct [1842]: MS BS 21 p.8, BPM [Lonoff, 222].
27. EJB, Le Palais de la Mort, 18 Oct 1824: MS BS 106 pp.7–8, BPM [Lonoff, 228]. For the model for this essay see Lonoff, 232–3.
28. ECG, Life, 184, comments on how frequently Charlotte chose to write about Old Testament scenes and characters. Ellen was deeply upset by accusations of Charlotte’s ‘irreligion’: EN, Reminiscences, BST: 2:10:58–9.
29. Prospectus for ‘Maison d’éducation pour les jeunes Demoiselles sous la direction de Madame Heger-Parent’, 1842: MS BS x, H, BPM [facsimile in Chadwick, opp. 190; LCB, i, 287–8]; ECG, Life, 176, quoting a French lady resident in Brussels.
30. Ibid., 184. Heger’s phrase was ‘Elle était nourrie de la Bible’.
31. CB, Sacrifice d’une veuve Indienne, 17 Apr 1842: MS BS 17 BPM [Lonoff, 2–7; CB, La jeune fille malade, 18 Apr 1842: MS in Parrish Collection, Princeton, and CB, Le Nid, 30 Apr 1842: MS in Berg [Lonoff, 12–15, 36–43]. The subject of suttee, though probably dictated by Charlotte’s source, was one which had given rise to much anguished correspondence from Indian missionaries to Evangelical magazines, including The Cottage Magazine, so Charlotte would have been well briefed on the matter.
32. Constantin Heger, conseil at end of CB, Le Nid, 30 Apr 1842: MS p.4, Berg [Lonoff, 42–3].
33. Constantin Heger, marginal and other annotations on CB, Imitation Portrait de Pierre l’Hermite, 31 July 1842: MS EL fB91, Rylands [Lonoff, 126–31].
34. Charlotte’s poetic style certainly reflected her verbose prose style but this may not necessarily be true of Emily: her diary papers, for instance, are just as uncontrolled as Charlotte’s prose, flitting from subject to subject and running on at length.
35. ECG, Life, 177. Emily’s essay on Harold on the eve of Hastings (see above, p.453–4) bears out Heger’s judgement that she would have written history superbly well.
36. CB to WSW, 15 Feb 1848 [LCB, ii, 28].
37. Chadwick, 225.
38. ECG, Life, 178.
39. CB to EN, [?July 1842]: MS HM 24431 pp.2–3, Huntington [LCB, i, 289].
40. ECG, Life, 177; Chadwick, 226; Joseph Green ‘The Brontë–Wheelwright Friendship’, 1915: Typescript, i, 23, in Brotherton. Ellen also commented on their changed appearance: ‘none of the Brontës understood dress with its right and simple advantages till Charlotte and Emily had been in Brussels; they then began to perceive the elegance of a well-fitting garment made with simplicity and neatness
41. Though Heger told Gaskell (ECG, Life, 177) that he found Emily ‘egotistical and exacting compared to Charlotte’, over whom she exerted ‘a kind of unconscious tyranny’, he evidently grew fond of her, sending her a copy of a speech he gave at the Athénée Royal prize-giving after she had left Brussels: he inscribed it ‘A Miss Emily Bro[n]të témoignage de sincère affection. C Heger Bruxelles 13 Septembre 1843’: Constantin Heger, Discours prononcés à la Distribution des Prix faite aux élèves de l’Athénée Royal de Bruxelles. Le 15 août 1843 (Brussels, 1843), in Wellesley.
42. CB to EN, [?July 1842]: MS HM 24431 p.1, Huntington [LCB, i, 289].
43. CB, Preface to ‘Selections from the Poems of Ellis Bell’, 1850: MS n.l. [EJB, Wuthering Heights, 370]. The poems are EJB, ‘In the same place, when Nature wore’, 17 May 1842: MS Add 43483 pp.53–4, BL [Roper, 129–30] which was the only one she completed; two other poems were begun in Brussels but finished at home, EJB, ‘How do I love on summer nights’, 20 Aug 1842–6Feb 1843 [ibid., pp.8–10] and ‘The evening passes fast away’ 23 Oct 1842–6Feb 1843: MS in Law [facsimile in Poems 1934, 316–7; Roper, 131–3, 134–5].
44. Green, ‘The Brontë–Wheelwright Friendship’, i, 4–5, 10; WG CB, 221 calls it ‘Cluysenaar’; WG EJB, 130 ‘Cluysenaer’. The name appears to come from the Dutch ‘kluiznaar’, meaning hermit.
45. Green, ‘The Brontë–Wheelwright Friendship’, i, 23–4 quoting Laetitia Wheelwright to C.K. Shorter, Jan 1896.
46. Chadwick, 227; Green, ‘The Brontë–Wheelwright Friendship’, i, 14. EJB, pencil drawing of tree, [1842]: HAOBP:P.Br E8, BPM [A&S no.326]; the drawing was presented to the BPM by the de Bassompierre family.
47. MT to EN, [24 Sept 1842]: MS pp.3–4, Texas [Stevens, 38].
48. HG, 7 May 1842 p.5. He was found hanged in his own barn on 26 April.
49. BO, 5 May 1842 p.8. He died on 30 April.
50. PBB to JBL, 29 June 1842: MS in Brotherton [L&L, i, 266]. See also PBB to JBL, 15 May 1842: MS in Brotherton [L&L, i, 262–3].
51. HG, 30 July 1842, p.5; 27 Aug 1842 p.2; PBB to JBL, 12 July 1842: MS in Brotherton [L&L, i, 269].
52. HG, 7May 1842, p.5. Similar action was taken against the churchwardens of Wilsden: see also LI, 18 June 1842 p.7; BO, 30 June 1842 p.6.
53. Ibid., 30 June 1842 p.5; 21 July 1842 p.5; 28 July 1842 p.5; Greenwood, ‘Who was Who in Haworth during the Brontë Era, 1820–61’, 77. For the Winterbotham family details see Haworth Census, 1841. The Nemesis ran aground off New York: John Winterbotham, BO, 13 Oct 1842 p.6.
54. PBB, pen and ink sketch, n.d., enclosed in PBB to JBL, 15 May 1842: MS in Brotherton [A&S no.281]. ‘Resurgam’ is the sole inscription on the gravestone of Lady Rosamund Wellesley, Zamorna’s abandoned mistress who committed suicide in CB, [Henry Hastings], 26 Mar 1839: MS in Widener Collection, Harvard [Glen, 299]; Helen Burns’s gravestone also has Resurgam engraved below her name in CB, Jane Eyre, 83.
55. PBB to Francis Grundy, 22 May 1842: MS n.l. [L&L, i, 263–4].
56. PBB to Francis Grundy, 25 Oct 1842: MS n.l. [L&L, i, 272–3]. The visitor lists published in the local newspaper reveal that the Revd E. Robinson and his family were in residence at No.15, The Cliff by 7 July and had left by 18 August, though his mother and sister stayed on for a further week at No.3, The Cliff: Scarborough Herald, 1 July 1842 p.3; 18 Aug 1842 p.3; 25 Aug 1842 p.3.
57. PBB, On Landseer’s painting – The Shepherd’s Chief Mourner, Bradford Herald, 28 Apr 1842 p.4. The undated poem is in PBB, [LFN], 1840–2: MS p.1, Brotherton [VN PBB, 222] and a fair copy, possibly the one sent to the newspaper, is MS BS 132, BPM. PBB, On the Callousness produced by Cares, Bradford Herald, 5 May 1842 p.4 and HG, 7May 1842 p.6. The first version of this poem is PBB, Sonnet, 13 Dec 1837: MS BS 125 p.60, BPM [VN PBB, 457–8] and the fair copy, again possibly the one sent to the papers, is MS BS 133, BPM. The original ms is lost of PBB, The Afghan War, LI, 7May 1842 p.7but he may have adapted some lines he had written in April: PBB, ‘When side by side at twilight sitting’ [LFN], 25 Apr 1842: MS BS 127 pp.21–3, BPM [VN PBB, 221].
58. PBB, ON PEACEFUL DEATH AND PAINFUL LIFE, Bradford Herald, 12 May 1842 p.6. The poem was originally PERCY’S LAST SONNET, October 1837: see above, p.323. the fair copy is MS BS 131, BPM [VN PBB, 459].
59. PBB, Caroline’s Prayer, Bradford Herald, 2 June 1842 p.4; HG, 4June 1842 p.6; taken from Sir Henry Tunstall, the earliest version being PBB, ‘‘Tis only afternoon, but mid-nights gloom’, 31 July 1838: MS Ashley 176, ll.352–71, BL [VN PBB, 470–1]. PBB, Song, Bradford Herald, 9 June 1842 p.4; HG, 11 June 1842 p.6: Branwell’s variant of Auld Lang Syne, it appears in the middle of the long poem ‘How Eden li
ke seem Palace Halls’, 27 Aug 1837: MS BS 122 ll.258–77, BPM [VN PBB, 193]. PBB, An Epicurean’s Song, Bradford Herald, 7July 1842 p.4; HG, 9July 1842 p.6: originally ‘written’ by Henry Hastings, it was published under the name Northangerland: PBB, ‘Song … The present days Sorrow’, 11 Dec 1837: MS BS 125 pp.59–60, BPM [VN PBB, 460–1]. PBB, On Caroline, Bradford Herald, 14 July 1842 p.4; HG, 16 July 1842 p.6: there is apparently no extant ms of this poem but Caroline and her sister Harriet had featured in Branwell’s Angrian poetry since at least 1838: VN PBB, 124, 443–52.
60. PBB to Francis Grundy, 9June 1842: MS BS 138 pp.1–2, BPM [L&L, i, 265]. The other ‘literary gentleman’ may have been Hartley Coleridge, (see above, p.389–90) though Branwell would surely have named him: the context implies a more recent acquaintance.
61. Ibid, p.1[L&L, i, 265].
62. William Oakendale [Dearden] in HG, 15 June 1867 p.7. Dearden said that when they met to read their poems, Branwell discovered he had brought the wrong one but nevertheless read aloud a long portion from it. Dearden later assumed that this was Wuthering Heights, giving rise to the persistent myth that Branwell had written this novel. In fact it was probably Branwell’s very similar descriptions of Darkwall: see above, p.324.
63. BO, 27 June 1861 p.7.
64. PBB, Azrael. or the Eve of Destruction, [July–Aug, 1842]: MS BS 125 pp.70, 73, BPM [VN PBB, 233].
65. PBB, NOAH’S WARNING OVER METHUSELAH’S GRAVE, Bradford Herald, 25 Aug 1842 p.4.
66. PBB to Editor of Blackwood’s Magazine, 6 Sept 1842: MS 4060, NLS [VN PBB, 462]. For the fair copy see MS BS 127 p.26, BPM. Mrs Southey, whose support Branwell had obtained, was Robert Southey’s second wife, Caroline Bowles: it is possible that, like Charlotte, Branwell had actually sent his poem to Robert Southey himself, but the Poet Laureate was in an advanced state of dementia and his wife dealt with all his affairs: he died on 21 March 1843: Barker, Wordsworth: A Life, 714–5, 740–1.
67. PBB, ‘The Triumph of mind over body’, [Sept–Oct 1842]: MS Bon 155, BPM [VN PBB, 253–60].
Brontës Page 146
