Brontës

by Juliet Barker

  83. Hibbs, Victorian Ouseburn, 15(g).

  84. Edmund Robinson, Cash Book, 1845: MS 93/2, Robinson Papers, BPM (5and 16 July 1845).

  85. Yorkshire Courant, 10 July 1845 pp.7–8.

  86. Mrs Rhodes pp. Mrs Taylor to J.A. Erskine Stuart, 5Mar 1887: MS BS xi, 48 pp.1–2, BPM; GS, ‘Recollections’: MS Acc 6713, Box 5item 4p.105, NLS, quoted in Christian, ‘Branwell Brontë and the Robinsons of Thorp Green’, 21–2. For the location of the boathouse see O.S. map of Scarborough, 1850.

  87. George Whitehead notes ‘Robert Pottage left and finish’d all up at Thorp Green Feb 13th 1846’; ‘Richard Bowser began gardening at Thorp Green February 16th’; ‘Robert Pottage (Gardener) died Jul 10th 1849’: Hibbs, Victorian Ouseburn, 18(j), 18 (l), 516(g). See also Edmund Robinson, Cash Book, 1845: MS 93/2, Robinson Papers, BPM [5July 1845]. The payment occurs after those for other servants.

  88. PBB to Francis Grundy, Oct 1845: MS n.l. [Grundy, 87–8]. Branwell also said that one of Robinson’s executors had threatened to shoot him if he saw him again: PBB to JBL, [June 1846]: MS p.1, Brotherton [L&L, ii, 95].

  89. Edmund Robinson, Cash Book, 1845: MS 93/2, Robinson Papers, BPM.

  90. Fraser, 231–3. This is the best weighing up of the argument as to whether there was an affair or not on the evidence then available. Gaskell reports that Mrs Robinson also had a clandestine meeting in Harrogate with Branwell ‘some months after’ his dismissal. She offered to elope with him but a ‘strange lingering of conscience’ prevented him doing so: ECG, Life, 523. One might suspect this was a confusion with the younger Lydia Robinson’s elopement with Roxby (see above, n.62) but Robinson noted spending £2on expenses at Harrogate on 3September 1845: Edmund Robinson, Cash Book, 1845: MS 93/2, Robinson Papers, BPM.

  91. CB to EN, 31 July [1845]: MS Gr. E6 pp.3–4, BPM [LCB, i, 412].

  92. Mrs Rhodes pp. Mrs Taylor to J.A. Erskine Stuart, 5Mar 1887: MS BS xi, 48 pp.1–2, BPM.

  93. CB to EN, 31 July [1845]: MS Gr. E6 p.4, BPM [LCB, i, 412].

  94. There is a rough outline sketch of mountains, the largest of which is labelled ‘PENMAENMAWR’ across the top half of the page on which Branwell wrote his poem ‘Cannot my soul depart –’, [c.29 July–3Aug 1845]: MS p.1, Brotherton [VN PBB, pp.275–6]. Mountains are also sketched in outline across PBB, Penmaenmawr, [Nov 1845]: MS pp.2–3, Brotherton [VN PBB, pp.276–8]: a revised version was published in HG, 20 Dec 1845 p.6. A 3–day pleasure excursion to Liverpool, organized by the Bradford Tea-Totallers’ Association in September 1845, attracted 1400 trippers: BO, 28 Aug 1845 p.5; 11 Sept 1845 p.5; HG, 13 Sept 1845 p.5.

  95. PBB, ‘Cannot my soul depart –’, [c.29 July–3Aug 1845]: MS p.1, Brotherton [VN PBB, pp.275–6]. There is an indecipherable cancelled line between ll.221 and 22. Lydia Gisborne was Mrs Robinson’s maiden name. The poem is written on a page which was part of the missing Thorp Green note-book: Flintoff, ‘Some Unpublished Poems of Branwell Brontë’, 241, 244–5.

  96. PBB to JBL, 4 Aug 1845: MS p.1, Brotherton [L&L, ii, 57].

  97. PB to ECG, 2 Apr 1857: MS EL fB91 p.3, Rylands [LRPB, 252]. Patrick regarded Gaskell’s portrait of Mrs Robinson in her Life as a masterpiece: see below, p.941.

  98. Grundy, 90; EJB, Diary Paper, 30 July 1845: MS p.2, in private hands [LCB, i, 408].

  99. CB to EN, [?30 Dec 1845]: MS n.l. [LCB, i, 441–2]. For Joseph Nussey’s alcoholism see Whitehead, Charlotte Brontë and her ‘dearest Nell’, 102, 106, 122–3, 127.

  100. CB to EN, 8 Sept [1845]: MS BS 55 pp.1–2, BPM [LCB, i, 420]; CN to EN, 23 Jan [1846]: MS HM 24442 p.4, Huntington [LCB, i, 444].

  101. CB to MW, 30 Jan 1846: MS FM 2p.3, Fitzwilliam [LCB, i, 447–8].

  102. AB, Diary Paper, 31 July 1845: MS p.2, in private hands [LCB, i, 410].

  103. CB to Constantin Heger, 18 Nov 1845: MS Add 38732C pp.1–2, BL [LCB, i, 433–4].

  104. LI, 11 Oct 1845, 2nd supplement p.4; PBB to Manchester & Hebden Bridge & Keighley & Carlisle Junction Railway, [c. Oct 1845]: MS BS 139, BPM [LCB, i, 431].

  105. CB to EN, [4Nov 1845]: MS p.2, Berg [LCB, i, 432].

  106. PBB to Francis Grundy, [June 1846]: MS n.l. [Grundy, 89]; PBB to JBL, 4Aug 1845: MS p.1, Brotherton [L&L, ii, 58–9]; HG, 23 Aug 1845 p.5.

  107. Ibid., 8Nov 1845 p.6.

  108. PBB to JBL, [25 Nov 1845]: MS pp.1–2, Brotherton [L&L, ii, 72].

  109. HG, 20 Dec 1845 p.6.

  110. Ibid.

  111. PBB to JBL, [Aug–Sept 1845]: MS p.1, Brotherton [L&L, ii, 137]. The letter is undated and not post-marked but is usually ascribed to 1847: in terms of handwriting and signature (‘P.B. Bronté) an 1845 date seems more likely. In a letter of 10 September Branwell urged Leyland to ‘never mind the lines I put into your hands’ which would tie in with the contents of this letter: PBB to JBP, 10 Sept [1845]: MS p.1, Brotherton [L&L, ii, 60]. Both letters contain sketches: the first of a cross with ‘POBRE!’ written upon it and Branwell’s note ‘The best Epitaph ever written – It is carved on a rude cross, in Spain, over a murdered traveller – and simply means “Poor Fellow!”‘[A&S no.301]; the second (10 Sept) [A&S no.285], based on the Abolitionists’ propaganda image of a chained slave and one who has just been released, is labelled ‘Bendigo “taking a sight”. “Alas! Poor Caunt!”‘: This is a reference to the third and final revenge match for the Championship of England on 9 September 1845 between two famous bareknuckle fighters, Benjamin Caunt (1815–61) and William Abednego Thompson (1811–80), nicknamed ‘Bendigo’; Caunt lost after 93 rounds in a disputed decision that he had gone down without being hit. ‘Taking a sight’, according to Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, is a gesture expressing incredulity made by applying the right thumb to the nose and spreading out the fingers, just as the ‘Bendigo’ figure appears to be doing in the sketch.

  112. PBB to JBL, 10 Sept [1845]: MS pp.1–2, Brotherton [L&L, ii, 60].

  113. PBB, [Angria and the Angrians IV(l)] 30 Dec 1837: MS Bon 149(7) p.5, BPM [Neufeldt, iii, 192].

  114. PBB, And the Weary are at Rest, [Aug–Sept 1845]: MS p.65, Princeton [Neufeldt, iii, 460].

  115. Ibid., pp.80–1 [Neufeldt, iii, 465].

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: THE BOOK OF RHYMES

  Title: Emily’s description of Poems 1846: CB to WSW, [?early Sept 1848]: MS Ashley 164 p.5, BL [LCB, ii, 119].

  1. CB, Biographical Notice, 359–60.

  2. Ibid., 360.

  3. Charlotte enjoyed anonymity while writing but also craved the public recognition which would allow her to move in literary circles: once Emily and Anne were dead she immediately allowed her true identity to be known.

  4. CB, Biographical Notice, 359–60.

  5. For Miss Currer’s local philanthropy see, for instance, LI, 4Dec 1824 p.1; LM, 21 July 1838 p.7; BO, 15 July 1847 p.8; PBB, THE LIFE OF WARNER HOWARD WARNER ESQR, Feb 1838: MS Bon 152 p.2, BPM [Neufeldt, iii, 209] and see above, p.121, 138; For the marriage of William Ellis jnr see LM, 5 July 1845 (supp.) p.9and for Ellis Cunliffe-Lister-Kay’s obituary see ibid., 26 Nov 1853 p.5. The words ‘ACTON’ and ‘OUSEBURN’ appear on a page from Branwell’s missing Thorp Green notebook: PBB, Penmaenmawr, [Nov 1845]: MS p.2, Brotherton [VN PBB, 276–8]. For the new bells see BO, 6 Nov 1845 p.8.

  6. The 3poems for which there are no extant mss are ‘Preference’, ‘Gilbert’ and ‘The Missionary’, the last 2 probably dating from her recent trip to Hathersage.

  7. CB to Miss Alexander, 18 Mar 1850: MS p.3, Brotherton [LCB, ii, 363].

  8. CB to ECG, 26 Sept 1850: MS MA 2696 R-V, PM [LCB, ii, 475]. See also CB to WSW, [?early Sept 1848]: MS Ashley 164 pp.4–5, BL [LCB, ii, 119].

  9. AB, Self Congratulation, based on ‘Maiden, thou wert thoughtless once’, 1 Jan 1840: MS MA 2696 R-V pp.2–6, PM [Chitham, 71–2]. Anne contributed the following poems (dates are those of ms composition; those marked with an asterisk are undated but attributed to that year): 1840: Appeal, Self-Congratulation; 1842: To Cowper, Lines Composed in a Wood on a Windy Day; 1843: Music on Christmas Morning*, The Doubter
’s Prayer, A Word to the Elect, Past Days, The Consolation, The Captive Dove; 1844: A Reminiscence, Home*, The Student’s Serenade, Fluctuations; 1845: The Arbour*, Vanitas Vanitatum, Omnia Vanitas, The Penitent, Stanzas, ‘If this be all’, Memory, Views of Life.

  10. Emily contributed the following (dates are those of ms composition; those marked with an asterisk are undated but attributed to that year): 1839: Sympathy, Stanzas to –; 1840: Stanzas; 1841: The Old Stoic; 1842–3: Self-Interrogation; 1844: Faith and Despondency, A Death Scene, Song, A Day-Dream, To Imagination, Plead for Me, Honour’s Martyr, My Comforter; 1845: Stars, The Philosopher, Remembrance, Anticipation, The Prisoner, Death. Six poems (Faith and Despondency, Remembrance, A Death Scene, Song, The Prisoner and Honour’s Martyr were taken from EJB, notebook entitled Gondal Poems, transcribed Feb 1844: MS Add 43483 pp.45, 47–8, 49–50, 51–2, 52–3, 59–62, BL; the remaining 15 were taken from EJB, untitled notebook, transcribed Feb 1844: MS in Law [facsimile in Poems 1934, 309–10, 313–14, 316–28].

  11. CB to WSW, [?early Sept 1848]: MS Ashley 164 p.5, BL [LCB, ii, 119].

  12. EJB, ‘Cold in the earth – and the deep snow piled above thee!’, 3Mar 1845: MS Add 43483 pp.52–3, BL; EJB, Remembrance, Poems 1846, 31–2.

  13. EJB, The Prisoner, Poems 1846, 76–9. EJB, ‘Silent is the House – all are laid asleep’, 9 Oct 1845: MS Add 43483 pp.60–1, BL. The published version is composed of lines 13–44 and 65–92 of the ms: see JB SP, 131–2for this and another extract from the same poem published by Charlotte as The Visionary in 1850.

  14. See above, pp.276–7, 295–7.

  15. EJB, ‘Enough of Thought, Philosopher’, 3Feb 1845: MS in Law [facsimile in Poems 1934, 325–6]; EJB, The Philosopher, Poems 1846, 25. Emily cancelled the last 4 lines of the ms and replaced them with new lines for Poems 1846.

  16. The last dated lines by Emily are ‘Why ask to know what date, what clime’, 13 May 1848: MS Add 43483 p.68, BL [Roper, 192–3].

  17. EJB, ‘No coward soul is mine’, 25 Jan 1846: MS in Law [facsimile in Poems 1934, 329; Roper, 183–4].

  18. The exact date of the poem is difficult to read: it may be ‘Jan 25’ or possibly ‘Jan 23’ but Roper, 183 reads ‘Jan 2d’. The poem was probably begun in December as the initial letter of ‘Jan’ has been written over a capital D. Two versions of ‘Why ask to know what date what clime’ dated 14 Sept 1846 and 13 May 1848 were written in the ‘Gondal Poems’ notebook, MS Add 43483 pp.62–8, BL [Roper, 184–92, 192–3], but these would appear to be working drafts rather than fair copies of a completed poem.

  19. CB to WSW, [?early Sept 1848]: MS Ashley 164 pp.5–6, BL [LCB, ii, 119].

  20. CB, Biographical Notice, 360. Chambers could find no record of their correspondence with Charlotte when Gaskell wrote to them ten years later: ECG, Life, 229.

  21. CB to Aylott & Jones, 28 Jan 1846: MS Bon 169 p.1, BPM [LCB, i, 445].

  22. CB to Aylott & Jones, 31 Jan 1846: MS Bon 170 pp.1–2, BPM [LCB, i, 449]; CB to Aylott & Jones, 6Feb 1846: MS Bon 171 p.1, BPM [LCB, i, 451]. For the further enquiries about its safe arrival see CB to Aylott & Jones, 15 Feb 1846: MS Bon 172 p.1, BPM [LCB, i, 452]; CB to Aylott & Jones, 16 Feb 1846: MS Bon 173 p.3, BPM [LCB, i, 453].

  23. Ibid., pp.1–3[LCB, i, 453]; CB to Aylott & Jones, 21 Feb 1846: MS Princeton [LCB, i, 453]; CB to Aylott & Jones, 3Mar 1846: MS Bon 174 p.1, BPM [LCB, i, 454].

  24. CB to EN, [?13 Feb 1846]: MS n.l. [LCB, i, 452]. The decision to go must have been taken suddenly because on 30 January she had written to Miss Wooler saying that she had not visited Ellen for more than a year and implying she had no plans to do so: CB to MW, 30 Jan 1846: MS FM 2, Fitzwilliam [LCB, i, 447]. The day after she wrote this letter, she heard that Aylott & Jones had accepted Poems 1846 for publication, which may have changed her mind.

  25. EJB to EN, 25 Feb 1846: MS bms Eng 870 (98) p.1, Harvard [LCB, i, 454].

  26. CB to [Eliza Kingston], [?3 Mar 1846]: MS BS 56 p.2, BPM [LCB, i, 456]; CB to EN, 3Mar [1846]: MS BS Bon 175 pp.2–3, BPM [LCB, i, 455].

  27. Ibid., pp.3–4 [LCB, i, 455]; PBB, notice of a shooting match, 2 Mar 1846: MS BS 148, BPM. As Branwell was presumably one of the 9 subscribers who each put up 5s. he must have used part of his father’s sovereign for this purpose.

  28. CB to Aylott & Jones, 11 Mar 1846: MS Bon 176 p.1, BPM [LCB, i, 457–8]; CB to Aylott & Jones, 13 Mar 1846: MS Bon 177 p.1, BPM [LCB, i, 458].

  29. CB to Aylott & Jones, 6 Feb 1846: MS Bon 171 p.1, BPM [LCB, i, 451].

  30. CB to Aylott & Jones, 28 Mar 1846: MS Bon 178 p.1, BPM [LCB, i, 459].

  31. See, for example, CB to Mr Rand, 22 Jan 1846: MS at Knox [LCB, i, 442], where Charlotte explains ‘Papa’s sight is still very bad and consequently he wishes me to answer your last letter in his stead.’ She records his interpolations throughout the letter.

  32. CB to WSW, 2Oct 1848: MS MA 2696 R-V, PM [LCB, ii, 123]; January Searle, ‘Branwell Brontë’, The Mirror, 28 Dec 1872 pp.278–9; William Oakendale [Dearden] HG, 15 June 1867 p.7. There are a number of anomalies in Searle’s article, not least his claim that Branwell told him that the number of visitors to Haworth had increased dramatically since the publication of Jane Eyre even though its author’s real identity did not become public knowledge till after Branwell’s death.

  33. CB to Aylott & Jones, 7 May 1846: MS Bon 183 p.3, BPM [LCB, i, 470].

  34. See, for example, CB to WSW, 15 Dec 1847: MS Bon 195 p.1, BPM [LCB, i, 576].

  35. CB to Aylott & Jones, 11 Apr 1846: MS Bon 180 pp.1–2, BPM [LCB, i, 462].

  36. PBB to JBL, [?28 Apr 1846]: MS pp.2–4, Brotherton [LCB, i, 467].

  37. CB to WSW, 2Oct 1848: MS MA 2696 R-V, PM [LCB, ii, 123].

  38. PBB to John Frobisher, [Mar 1846] and 21 Mar 1846: MSS in WYAS, Calderdale [BST:12:65:410]; JB SP, 17–18, 107.

  39. PBB to JBL, [?28 Apr 1846]: MS p.2, Brotherton [LCB, i, 467], where Branwell refers to ‘prosecuting enquiries about situations suitable to me whereby I could have a voyage abroad’; PBB, endorsement of bill for 2s.6d. for an advertisement in the HG, 9Apr 1846: MS BS 149, BPM.

  40. Ibid., 18 Apr 1846 p.6[VN PBB, 280]. Leyland, ii, 128 says the ms was dated 3April 1846. The phrase ‘The troubled pleasure soon chastis’d by fear’, is from the parting of Hector and Andromache in book vi of Pope’s translation of Homer’s The Iliad: Theodore Buckley (ed.) The Iliad of Homer translated by Alexander Pope [1899] (Pennsylvania State University, 2006: www.2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/a~pope/P ope-Iliad.pdf), 156. Branwell had used the phrase before: see above, p.541.

  41. HG, 18 Apr 1846 p.6[VN PBB, 280].

  42. Francis Leyland, draft letter to ABN, 17 Aug 1883: MS E.2008.3, BPM; Leyland, ii, 111, 132, 242–9. Leyland had already produced a bust of Branwell the previous summer: see ibid, ii, 85; PBB to JBL, [25 Nov 1845]: MS pp.2–3, Brotherton [L&L, ii, 73] and PBB drawing, ‘A Cast – cast down but not castaway’ 10 Sept 1845: n.l. [A&S no.286]. For references to the medal-lion see, for example, PBB to JBL, [?28 Apr 1846]: MS p.2, Brotherton [LCB, i, 467]. In PBB to JBL, [Oct 1846]: MS p.2, Brotherton [L&L, ii, 113], Branwell sketched it and wrote ‘Is the medallion cracked that Thorwaldsen executed of AUGUSTUS CAESAR?’, the last name being written round the sketch in the manner of a Roman coin. Bertel Thorwaldsen (1768–1844) was a Danish sculptor specializing in statues and bas-reliefs of classical mythology, who is regarded as the leader of the classical revival. The medallion, which is now in the dining room, BPM, is visibly cracked at the bottom: see below, p.1129 n.99. An incomplete 90 line ms of PBB, Morley Hall: MS BS 134, BPM [Leyland, ii, 246–9] does not square with Branwell’s own reference to the poem being; ‘in the eighth month of her preganancy and expects ere long to be delivered of a fine thumping boy’: PBB to JBL, [Oct 1846]: MS pp.1–2, Brotherton [L&L, ii, 113]. Another longer ms may be missing.

  43. CB to Aylott & Jones, 7May 1846: MS Bon 183 p.3, BPM [LCB, i, 470]. Two first editions of Poems 1846 are MS Bon 294 and HAOBP:bb235, BPM. The collector William Law claimed to have Emily and Anne’s copies of
the book, the latter’s inscribed ‘A Brontë May 7th 1846’: William Law to Butler Wood, 9Mar 1895: MS D B28/21, WYAS, Bradford. A copy, said to be Emily’s, inscribed with her name and the same date, is item X821.B78.184, Illinois, but it is clearly a forgery as the title page bears the Smith, Elder imprint of 1848 (see below, p.684). The emendations and insertion of dates of composition do not indicate that the book belonged to a Brontë, as the emendations are taken from the printed list of errata published with the book and the dates of composition were available after Clement Shorter’s editions of the poems were published in 1923. The intriguing possibility is that this copy may be a forgery by T.J. Wise, who worked closely with Shorter, and was responsible for other forged rare first editions. The location of Charlotte’s copy is not known.

  44. CB to Aylott & Jones, 7 May 1846: MS Bon 183 p.1, BPM [LCB, i, 470]. The 10 recipients of review copies were Colburn’s New Monthly [Athenaeum], Bentley’s Miscellany [Literary Gazette], Hood’s Magazine [Critic], Jerrold’s Shilling Magazine [Times], Blackwood’s Magazine, The Edinburgh Review, Tait’s Edinburgh Mazazine, The Dublin University Magazine, Daily News and Britannia Newspaper. The names in brackets were added in another hand after Charlotte’s titles, possibly by someone at the publisher’s.