Brontës
Page 155
12. CB to EN, [?24 Sept 1849]: MS pp.1–2, Harvard [LCB, ii, 263]; CB to EN, 28 Sept 1849: MS Bon 251 p.1, BPM [LCB, ii, 265].
13. CB to WSW, 29 Aug 1849: MS p.1, Law, photograph in MCP [LCB, ii, 241]; CB to WSW, 21 Aug 1849: MS pp.1–2, Brotherton [LCB, ii, 237]; CB to WSW, 24 Aug 1849: MS Bon 211 p.1, BPM [LCB, ii, 239].
14. Ibid., pp.1–3[LCB, ii, 239–40].
15. CB to James Taylor, 3Sept 1849: MS n.l. [LCB, ii, 247]; CB to EN, [4and 5 Apr 1851]: MS Gr. E21 pp.2–4, BPM [LCB, ii, 598]; CB to GS, 14 Sept 1849: MS SG 22 p.2, BPM [LCB, ii, 253].
16. CB to James Taylor, 20 Sept 1849: MS p.1, Texas [LCB, ii, 258]. The clergyman was Patrick’s friend Revd Thomas Crowther, who preached twice in Haworth church on Sunday 16 September to raise money towards defraying the cost of gas lighting in the church: LI, 22 Sept 1849 p.5. For the letters to Williams, and two to George Smith, see LCB, ii, 251–8.
17. CB to WSW, 17 Sept 1849: MS Bon 214, BPM [LCB, ii, 255].
18. CB to WSW, [?c.15 Sept 1849]: MS Bon 212 pp.1–2, BPM [LCB, ii, 254]; CB to WSW, 13 Sept 1849: MS n.l. [LCB, ii, 251].
19. CB to WSW, [?c.20 Sept 1849]: MS EL 400, Rylands [LCB, ii, 257].
20. CB to WSW, 2 Jan 1849: MS p.1, Berg [LCB, ii, 165].
21. CB to WSW, 16 Aug 1849: MS Gr. F8 p.4, BPM [LCB, ii, 236]; CB, Preface: A Word to the Quarterly, 29 Aug 1849: MS SG 96 p.1, BPM [LCB, ii, 242].
22. Ibid., pp.3–7 [LCB, ii, 243–5].
23. CB to WSW, [?31 Aug 1849]: MS n.l. [LCB, ii, 245–66]; CB to GS, 31 Aug 1849: MS SG 21 p.1, BPM [LCB, ii, 216]; CB to WSW, 4Sept 1849: MS BS 71.5, BPM [LCB, ii, 248].
24. CB, Shirley, 375–6; ‘A word to the “Quarterly”: Charlotte Brontë’s rejected Preface to “Shirley”‘, BST:16:85:337.
25. CB to WSW, 16 Aug 1849: MS Gr. F8 p.4, BPM [LCB, ii, 236]; CB to WSW, 21 Sept 1849: MS Gr. F9 p.2, BPM [LCB, ii, 260].
26. CB to GS, 26 Dec 1849: MS SG 31 p.3, BPM [LCB, ii, 317].
27. CB to WSW, 21 Sept 1849: MS Gr. F9 pp.1–2, BPM [LCB, ii, 260].
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid.; CB to WSW, 19 Sept 1849: MS BS 71.6, BPM [LCB, ii, 256]; CB to WSW, [?1Oct 1849]: MS n.l. [LCB, ii, 266].
30. CB to EN, [?20 Oct 1849]: MS Bon 216 pp.1–2, BPM [LCB, ii, 216]. Charlotte’s dentist was Mr Atkinson of 30 Portland Crescent; she also called on Mr Gray of 14 Park Row, Leeds: CB, Cash Book, [1848–9]: MS BS 22 p.9, BPM.
31. CB to EN, [?22 Jan 1849]: MS HM 24464 p.2, Huntington [LCB, ii, 172]; ECG, Life, 315. Mary Taylor was equally blasé about featuring in her friend’s novel: ‘On Wednesday I began Shirley & continued in a curious confusion of mind till now principally abt the handsome foreigner who was nursed in our house when I was a little girl. – By the way you’ve put him in the Servant’s bedroom. You make us all talk much as I think we shd have done if we’d ventured to speak at all – What a little lump of perfection you’ve made me! There is a strange feeling in reading it of hearing us all talkking [sic]. I have not seen the matted hall & painted parlour window so plain these 5 years. But my Father is not like. He hates well enough & perhaps loves too but he is not honest enough. It was from my father I learnt not to marry for money nor to tolerate any one who did & he never wd
32. CB to WSW, 1 Nov 1849: MS MA 2696 R-V, PM [LCB, ii, 272].
33. Ibid., pp.3–4 [LCB, ii, 272]; unsigned review, Daily News, 31 Oct 1849 p.2 [Allott, 117–18].
34. Unsigned reviews, Atlas, 3 Nov 1849 pp.696–7, Critic, 15 Nov 1849 pp.519–21 and Fraser’s Magazine, Dec 1849 pp.691–4[Allott, 120, 141, 154].
35. CB to WSW, [?5Nov 1849]: MS n.l. [LCB, ii, 278].
36. [Albany Fonblanque], Examiner, 3Nov 1849 pp.692–4[Allott, 125–9]. For a similar range of criticisms see Allott, 117–70.
37. See, for example, the reviews in the Britannia, Fraser’s Magazine and Westminster Review [Allott, 139, 153, 158].
38. ECG, Life, 315. Ellen told Charlotte she ‘could recognize the originals of all except the heroines’: CB to EN, 16 Nov 1849: MS p.3, Harvard [LCB, ii, 285].
39. CB to WSW, 15 Nov 1849: MS HM 24394 pp.2–3, Huntington [LCB, ii, 282].
40. CB to G.H. Lewes, 1Nov 1849: MS Add 39763(1) pp.1–2, BL [LCB, ii, 275].
41. CB to WSW, [?5Nov 1849]: MS n.l. [LCB, ii, 279].
42. [G.H. Lewes], Edinburgh Review, Jan 1850 pp.153–73 [Allott, 163, 165, 167, 161].
43. CB to WSW, 10 Jan 1850: MS pp.1–2, Berg [LCB, ii, 328].
44. CB to G.H. Lewes, [c.10 Jan 1850]: MS Add 39763(7), BL [LCB, ii, 330].
45. CB to G.H. Lewes, 19 Jan 1850: MS Add 39763(8) pp.1–3, BL [LCB, ii, 332–3].
46. ECG to Eliza Fox, 26 Nov 1849 [C&P, 90]. Dr Epps was the London physician whom Charlotte had consulted about Emily’s symptoms: see above, p.675–6.
47. CB to WSW, [?17 Nov 1849]: MS p.1, Brotherton [LCB, ii, 286].
48. CB to ECG, 17 Nov 1849: MS BS 71.7(a), BPM [LCB, ii, 288].
49. ECG to [Catherine Winkworth], [late Nov 1849] [C&P, 93].
50. CB to WSW, [?17 Nov 1849]: MS pp.2–3, Brotherton [LCB, ii, 286–7].
51. CB to WSW, 19 Nov 1849: MS p.4crossed, Berg [LCB, ii, 291]. See also CB to WSW, [c.24 Nov 1849]: MS n.l. [LCB, ii, 296]; CB to WSW, 22 Nov [1849]: MS p.2, Berg [LCB, ii, 295].
52. Ibid., pp.3–4[LCB, ii, 295].
53. CB to G.H. Lewes, 1Nov 1849: MS Add 39763(6) p.1, BL [LCB, ii, 275].
54. CB to WSW, 15 Nov 1849: MS HM 24392 p.3, Huntington [LCB, ii, 282].
55. CB to GS, 19 Nov 1849: MS SG 28 pp.1–2, BPM [LCB, ii, 289].
56. Ibid., pp.2–3[LCB, ii, 289–90]; CB to EN, 16 Nov 1849: MS p.4, Harvard [LCB, ii, 285]; CB to EN, 26 Nov 1849: MS Bon 217 p.2, BPM [LCB, ii, 298]. See above, p.662.
57. MT to ECG, [1857]: MS n.l. [Stevens, 166].
58. CB to GS, 14 Sept 1849: MS SG 22 pp.1–2, BPM [LCB, ii, 253]; CB to GS, 20 Sept 1849: MS SG 23 pp.1–2, BPM [LCB, ii, 258]; CB to GS, 22 Sept 1849: MS SG 24 pp.1–3, BPM [LCB, ii, 262].
59. CB to GS, 4Oct 1849: MS SG 26 pp.1–3, BPM [LCB, ii, 267]. See also CB to GS, 27 Sept 1849: MS SG 25, BPM [LCB, ii, 264]. Charlotte’s concern at her father’s reaction may have been misplaced: he had already had to deal with the probates of her sisters’ estates, Anne’s only a month previously: both included shares in the same railway so he must have been aware of the state of his daughter’s finances. See EJB, Probate Papers, 31 Jan 1849: MS PROBATE, Borthwick; EJB, Administration Papers, 5Feb 1849: MS Bon 73, BPM; AB, Probate Papers, 5Sept 1849: MS PROBATE, Borthwick; AB, Administration Papers, 5Sept 1849: MS Bon 74, BPM.
60. CB to EN, [?5Dec 1849]: MS MA 2696 R-V pp.2–3, PM [LCB, ii, 299].
61. Ibid., p.3[LCB, ii, 299]; CB to EN, [9 Dec 1849]: MS in Berg [LCB, ii, 306].
62. CB to EN, [?5Dec 1849]: MS MA 2696 R-V p.1, PM [LCB, ii, 299]; CB to MW, 14 Feb 1850: MS FM 8 pp.5–6, Fitzwilliam [LCB, ii, 344].
63. Ibid., pp.6–7 [LCB, ii, 344].
64. CB to EN, [9Dec 1849]: MS in Berg [LCB, ii, 306]; CB to WSW, 19 Dec 1849: MS pp.1–3, Princeton [LCB, ii, 312].
65. CB to Laetitia Wheelwright, 17 Dec 1849: MS BS 72 pp.1–2, BPM [LCB, ii, 309].
66. CB to EN, [9Dec 1849]: MS in Berg [LCB, ii, 306]; CB to WSW, 19 Dec 1849: MS pp.3–4, Princeton [LCB, ii, 312].
67. W.M. Thackeray, ‘The Last Sketch’, Cornhill, i (June 1860) p.486.
68. CB to PB, 5 Dec 1849: MS pp.1–3, Berg [LCB, ii, 301].
69. ECG, Life, 326; CB, Jane Eyre, 250, where the smell of Rochester’s cigar warns Jane that he is nearby; CB to PB, 5Dec 1849: MS p.3, Berg [LCB, ii, 301].
70. HM, Autobiography, 323–5.
71. Lucy Martineau to Jack Martineau, 10 Dec 1849: MS pp.3–4, in private hands [Juliet Barker, ‘“Innocent and Un-Londony”
: Impressions of Charlotte Brontë’, BST:19:1&2:46–7].
72. HM, Autobiography, 326. By 5December, when the interview took place, at least one friend of Miss Martineau’s, Catherine Winkworth, already knew that ‘the author is herself threatened with consumption at this time, and has lost two sisters, Ellis and Acton Bell, by it. Their real name is Brontë, they are of the Nelson family’: Catherine Winkworth to Eliza Paterson, 5Dec 1849 [Shaen (ed.), Memorials of Two Sisters, 53]. The reference to the Brontës being related to Nelson ties in with the gossip spread by Lewes: CB to WSW, [?5Nov 1849]: MS n.l. [LCB, ii, 278–9] and see above, p.724–5.
73. ECG to Anne Shaen, [?20 Dec 1849] [C&P, 97]; Lucy Martineau to Jack Martineau, 10 Dec 1849: MS pp.3–4, in private hands [Juliet Barker, ‘“Innocent and Un-Londony”‘,BST:19:1&2:46–7].
74. Ibid., p.4. For a typically garbled version, probably based on this letter, see ECG to Anne Shaen, [?20 Dec 1849] [C&P, 96–7]: Gaskell wrongly describes the interview taking place in Hyde Park Square: ‘when lo! and behold, as the clock struck, in walked a little, very little, bright haired spright, looking not above 15, very unsophisticated, neat & tidy. She sat down & had tea with them; her name being still unknown; she said to HM, “What did you really think of ‘Jane Eyre’?” HM. I thought it a first rate book, whereupon the little sprite went red all over with pleasure. After tea Mr & Mrs RM withdrew & left sprite to a 2 hours tete-a-tete with HM, to whom she revealed her name & the history of her life. Her father a Yorkshire clergyman who has never slept out of his house for 26 years; she has lived a most retired life; –her first visit to London, never been in society, and many other particulars which HM is not at liberty to divulge any more than her name, which she keeps a profound secret; but Thackeray does not’.
75. CB to PB, 5Dec 1849: MS p.3, Berg [LCB, ii, 301].
76. CB to Laetitia Wheelwright, 17 Dec 1849: MS BS 72 pp.1–2[LCB, ii, 309]; ECG, Life, 327–8. Rhadamanthus, son of Zeus and Europa, was judge of the dead and ruler of Elysium in Greek mythology.
77. Unsigned review, Times, 7Dec 1849 [Allott, 149–51]; ECG, Life, 326.
78. CB to MW, 14 Feb 1850: MS FM 8 p.5, Fitzwilliam [LCB, ii, 343–4].
79. CB to WSW, 19 Dec 1849: MS pp.5–6, Princeton [LCB, ii, 313].
80. CB to Laetitia Wheelwright, 17 Dec 1849: MS BS 72 pp.1–2[LCB, ii, 309].
81. CB to GS, 17 Dec 1849: MS SG 30 pp.1–2, BPM [LCB, ii, 308]. Charlotte wrote thank-you letters to Mrs Smith and Laeititia Wheelwright the same day: see LCB, ii, 307, 309].
82. CB to GS, 26 Dec 1849: MS SG 31 p.1, BPM [LCB, ii, 317].
83. Ibid., pp.3–5[LCB, ii, 317–8]. The 3 principals are George Smith, William Smith Williams and James Taylor; the identity of P— is not known though he was clearly responsible for despatches at Smith, Elder & Co.’s. Knowing Smith’s tastes so well as she did it is probably significant that Charlotte herself acquired ‘the prettiest little pink drawn-silk’ bonnet for one of her later trips to London: HAOBP: D141, BPM.
84. CB to GS, 15 Jan 1850: MS SG33 pp.2–3, BPM [LCB, ii, 331].
85. CB to WSW, 19 Dec 1849: MS p.1, Princeton [LCB, ii, 312]; CB to WSW, 19 Nov 1849: MS pp.1–2, Berg [LCB, ii, 294].
86. CB to EN, 19 Dec [1849]: MS p.3, Berg [LCB, ii, 311]; CB to EN, [22 Dec 1849]: MS in Beinecke [LCB, ii, 316].
87. ’P.B.’, A Christmas Hymn, LI, 22 Dec 1849 p.7; ‘P.B.’, ‘Our Church, it is pure and unstain’d’, 18 Dec 1849: MS BS x, B, BPM.
88. CB to EN, [22 Dec 1849]: MS in Beinecke [LCB, ii, 316].
89. CB to Amelia Ringrose, [?16 Nov 1849]: MS p.1, Brotherton [LCB, ii, 284]; CB to EN, 16 Nov 1849: MS pp.1–3, Harvard [LCB, ii, 285]; CB to EN, [9Dec 1849]: MS in Berg [LCB, ii, 306].
90. CB to EN, [22 Dec 1849]: MS in Beinecke [LCB, ii, 316].
91. CB to WSW, 3 Jan 1850: MS BS 73 pp.2–3, BPM [LCB, ii, 323].
92. William Margetson Heald to EN, 8 Jan 1850: MS BS ix, H, BPM [LCB, ii, 324–5]. The quote was from Robert Burns, ‘On the late Captain Grose’s Peregrinations through Scotland’, stanza 1.
93. CB to EN, [19 Jan 1850]: MS p.2, Law, photograph in MCP [LCB, ii, 324]. Nicholls is said to have presented Charlotte with a Book of Common Prayer on the pub-lication of Shirley (Rare Book Ritd.775.1., UCL) but this letter implies he knew nothing of her authorship until after her return from London.
94. CB to EN, [?28 Jan 1850]: MS p.4, Harvard [LCB, ii, 337]. Nicholls received a more favourable portrayal in Shirley than his fellow curates: ‘I am happy to be able to inform you, with truth, that this gentleman did as much credit to his country as Malone had done it discredit: he proved himself … decent, decorous, and conscientious’ and made the Sunday- and Day-schools flourish ‘like green bay-trees’. Nevertheless, as Mr Macarthey, he still came in for his share of Charlotte’s acerbic wit: ‘Being human, of course he had his faults; these, however, were proper, steady-going, clerical faults; what many would call virtues: the circumstance of finding himself invited to tea with a Dissenter would unhinge him for a week; the spectacle of a Quaker wearing his hat in the church – the thought of an unbaptized fellow-creature being interred with Christian rites – these things could make strange havoc in Mr Macarthey’s physical and mental economy; otherwise, he was sane and rational, diligent and charitable.’: CB, Shirley, 634.
95. CB to EN, [?5 Feb 1850]: MS pp.1–2, Berg [LCB, ii, 340].
96. Ibid., p.2 [LCB, ii, 340].
97. CB to EN, [?16 Feb 1850]: MS Gr. E17 p.2, BPM [LCB, ii, 346].
98. CB to WSW, 3Apr 1850: MS pp.3–4, Berg [LCB, ii, 375]; CB to EN, 30 Mar 1850: MS 24469 pp.3–4, Huntington [LCB, ii, 371]. The ‘working man’ was John Greenwood (1807–63), a former wool-comber, who became a tea-dealer and stationer in Haworth: he recorded his reminiscences of the Brontës and was one of Gaskell’s informants: [LCB, ii, 372 n.5]. See also below, pp.912–4, 918–9, 925, 952, 964.
99. John Berry to the Editor, Boston Weekly Museum, 2Mar 1850 [BST:16:83:206]; CB to EN, 30 Mar 1850: MS 24469 p.2, Huntington [LCB, ii, 371].
100. CB to WSW, 3Apr 1850: MS pp.5–6, Berg [LCB, ii, 376].
101. CB to WSW, 22 Feb 1850: MS HM 24393 p.4, Huntington [LCB, ii, 350].
102. CB to EN, [?16 Feb 1849]: MS Gr. E17 pp.5–7, BPM [LCB, ii, 347–8]. Most printed sources wrongly identify the rum-bustious parson as Revd John Barber, vicar of Bierley: even though the name has been heavily deleted in the ms it is still clearly legible as that of Andrew Cassels of Batley.
103. BO, 28 Feb 1850 p.5.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: THE SOCIETY OF CLEVER PEOPLE
Title: referring to Charlotte, ‘This was her notion of literary fame – a passport to the society of clever people’: MT to ECG, [1857]: MS n.l. [Stevens, 166].
1. CB, ‘I have never had time for much writing’, 23 Jan 1850: MS Bon 124(1), BPM [CB, Villette, Clarendon Edn, 753–5]. See also the ensuing 3fragments, MSS Bon 124(2–4), BPM [ibid., 755–64].
2. CB to EN, [?16 Feb 1849]: MS Gr. E17 p.3, BPM [LCB, ii, 347].
3. Ibid.; CB to MW, 14 Feb 1850: MS FM 8pp.3–4, Fitzwilliam [LCB, ii, 343].
4. CB to EN, [?16 Feb 1849]: MS Gr. E17 p.3, BPM [LCB, ii, 347].
5. CB to Lady Kay Shuttleworth, [?5Mar 1850]: MS p.1, Harvard [LCB, ii, 352]; For Kay Shuttleworth see Dictionary of National Biography, x, 1138–40.
6. CB to EN, [?11 Mar 1850]: MS n.l. [LCB, ii, 353–4].
7. CB to EN, 19 Mar 1850: MS pp.1–2, Law, photograph in MCP [LCB, ii, 366]. The house is now owned by the National Trust and open to the public.
8. CB to WSW, 16 Mar 1850: MS p.3, Law, photograph in MCP [LCB, ii, 355]; CB to EN, 19 Mar 1850: MS pp.1–2, Law, photograph in MCP [LCB, ii, 366–7].
9. CB to WSW, 16 Mar 1850: MS p.3, Law, photograph in MCP [LCB, ii, 355]; CB to Lady Kay Shuttleworth, 22 Mar 1850: MS in private hands [LCB, ii, 368].
10. CB to EN, 19 Mar 1850: MS pp.4–5, Law, photograph in MCP [LCB, ii, 366–7].
11. CB to Thornton Hunt, 16 Mar 1850: MS Bon 218, BPM [LCB, ii, 360]; CB to GS, 16 Mar 1850: MS SG
34 pp.1–2, BPM [LCB, ii, 358].
12. CB to EN, [?28 Jan 1850]: MS p.3, Harvard [LCB, ii, 336]; CB to Mr Lovejoy, 5Feb [?5Mar] 1850: MS BS 75, BPM [LCB, ii, 339]; CB to Miss Alexander, 18 Mar 1850: MS in Brotherton [LCB, ii, 363]. Charlotte still signed the note ‘C Bell’ and did not give Miss Alexander the satisfaction of her address or real name.
13. CB to WSW, [19 Mar 1850]: MS n.l. [LCB, ii, 364]; CB, List of books from Smith & Elder’, 18 Mar 1850: MS BS 23, BPM [LCB, ii, 361 and notes]. As this is the only extant list of books in a Smith, Elder & Co. parcel it is worth giving it in full: C.C. Southey, Life and Correspondence of the late Robert Southey, 3 vols (the remaining 3were not yet published); Julia Kavanagh, Woman in France during the Eighteenth Century, 2 vols; Theresa Pulzsky, Memoirs of a Hungarian Lady; T.N. Talfourd, The Letters of Charles Lamb; Maria Grey and A. Emily Shirreff, Thoughts on Self-Culture, Addressed to Women; W. Hazlitt, Winterslow. Essays and Characters Written There; R.W. Emerson, Representative Men: Seven Lectures; W. Meinhold, The Amber Witch; Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, Emma and Pride and Prejudice; Elizabeth O. Benger, Marian: A Novel; William Carleton, The Tithe Proctor: A Novel Being a Tale of the Tithe Rebellion in Ireland; Washington Irvine, The Life of Mahomet, 1st of 2vols; J.G. Lockhart, Valerius: A Roman Story; Grace Aguilar, Woman’s Friendship: A Story of Domestic Life; Samuel Brown, The Tragedy of Galileo Galilei; G.H. Lewes, The Noble Heart: A Tragedy; A.J. Scott, Suggestions on Female Education; Lady Sydney Morgan, Woman and her Master. Virtually all were new publications of 1849–50 from a wide variety of publishers; some were cheap single-volume reprints of earlier works.
14. CB to WSW, 12 Apr 1850: MS HM 24394 pp.4–5, Huntington [LCB, ii, 383].
15. CB to WSW, 3Apr 1850: MS p.7, Berg [LCB, ii, 376]; CB to EN, [?12 Apr 1850]: MS BS 75.6 pp.1–2, BPM [LCB, ii, 384].
16. Petition from the principal inhabitants of Haworth to the General Board of Health, 29 Aug 1849: MS n.l. [L&D, 43].
17. PB to the Secretary of the General Board of Health, 5 Feb 1850: MS n.l. [LRPB, 195–6]. Babbage, 12, 26–7. See also above, pp.109–10.
18. CB to EN, [?12 Apr 1850]: MS BS 75.6 pp.1–2, BPM [LCB, ii, 384]; CB to Amelia Ringrose, 6Apr 1850: MS p.2, Brotherton [LCB, ii, 381].