59. CB to EN, 7Nov 1854: MS MS MA 2696 R-V p.2, PM [LCB, iii, 298]. Ellen deleted the first sentence of this quote when making the letter available for publication, substituting her own phrase ‘Arthur wishes you would burn my letters’, which appeared in all printed editions of the letters before LCB. Ellen was deliberately trying to conceal the fact that she had reneged on her promise to burn Charlotte’s letters.
60. CB to EN, 7Nov 1854: MS MA 2696 R-V p.3, PM [LCB, iii, 298]. George Sowden (1822–99) later wrote of this visit that Charlotte was ‘a thoroughly lady-like woman and very self-possessed. I could imagine her somewhat reserved with strangers, though with us she was not so in the slightest degree. There was not a word of high-flown conversation. In fact, all was so simple that I have almost forgotten what we talked about. She shewed me two beautifully illustrated volumes of French Fables (La Fontaine’s) which she was evidently proud of as the gift to her of Wm Makepeace Thackeray … As I came down stairs one morning, she was ascending the steps from the cellar which opened on the passage, with a tea-cake in her hand; and she took it into the kitchen to toast for our breakfast, perfectly unconcerned and natural, never dreaming of an apology for being caught in a domestic employment. It is this simplicity which I chiefly remember as lending a charm to our visit.’: George Sowden, Recollections of the Brontës, edited by Ian and Catherine Emberson (Todmorden, 2005), 7–8. Charlotte’s copy of Fables de la Fontaine (Paris, 1839), 2 vols, is HAOBP: Bon 47, BPM.
61. CB to EN, 14 Nov 1854: MS Ashley 168, BL [LCB, iii, 299]; CB to MW, 15 Nov 1854: MS FM 31 pp.3–4, Fitzwilliam [LCB, iii, 301]. Charlotte touchingly chose to view the offer as ‘a gratifying proof of respect for my dear Arthur’: ibid., p.3.
62. CB to EN, 14 Nov 1854: MS Ashley 168, BL [LCB, iii, 299–300]; CB to EN, 21 Nov 1854: MS pp.2–3, Berg [LCB, iii, 303]. Charlotte’s insistence that ‘Mr S— is most anxious that the affair should be kept absolutely quiet – in the event of disappointment it would be both painful and injurious to him if it should be rumoured at Hebden-Bridge that he has had thoughts of leaving. Arthur says if a whisper gets out – these things fly from parson to parson like wild-fire’, is clear evidence that her husband was not censoring her letters at this time as Ellen later claimed.
63. CB to MW, 15 Nov 1854: MS FM 31 pp.3–4, Fitzwilliam [LCB, iii, 301].
64. Ibid., pp.1–2[LCB, iii, 301]; CB to EN, 14 Nov 1854: MS Ashley 168 p.3, BL [LCB, iii, 300].
65. CB to Amelia Taylor, [late Dec 1854]: MS p.3, Brotherton [LCB, iii, 311].
66. CB to Amelia Taylor, [early Dec 1854]: MS p.3, Brotherton [LCB, iii, 309].
67. CB to EN, 21 Nov 1854: MS p.1, Berg [LCB, iii, 302–3]; CB to EN, 29 Nov 1854: MS Ashley 2452(5) p.3, BL [LCB, iii, 304]; CB to MW, 6 Dec 1854: MS FM 32 pp.1–2, Fitzwilliam [LCB, iii, 305].
68. Ibid., p.2[LCB, iii, 305]; CB to EN, 7 Dec 1854: MS Gr.E30 pp.1–4, BPM [LCB, iii, 306–7].
69. Ibid., p.3 [LCB, iii, 306]; CB to Mr Ingham, [?Dec 1854 or 2Jan 1855]: MS BS 98, BPM [LCB, iii, 314].
70. CB to MW, 6Dec 1854: MS FM 32 pp.3–4, Fitzwilliam [LCB, iii, 305].
71. CB pp. PB to unidentified, 13 Dec 1854: MS, Woodhouse Grove School, Rawdon. I am grateful to the Headmaster for allowing me to see this letter: the addressee’s name is hidden by its frame. See also ABN pp. PB to Messrs Heaton, 13 Dec 1854: MS Heaton B143 p.4, WYAS, Bradford. Both letters are in Patrick’s name, including the signature, but are in Charlotte and Nicholls’ hands respectively. Haworth was slow in responding to the Royal Proclamation setting up the Patriotic Fund which had been reported in LI, 14 Oct 1854 p.5 and BO, 19 Oct 1853 p.7. The Bradford meeting at the end of October raised over £3000: HG, 4 Nov 1854 p.5.
72. CB to EN, 26 Dec [1854]: MS BS 97 p.2, BPM [LCB, iii, 312].
73. BO, 21 Dec 1854 p.5; 4Jan 1855 p.6; HG, 13 Jan 1855 p.5.
74. ABN to GS, 11 Oct 1859: MS File 8 no.3pp.2–3, JMA.
75. CB, ‘Emma’, 27 Nov 1853: MS at Princeton [CB, ‘The Last Sketch’, Cornhill Magazine, i, (Jan–June 1860), 487–98].
76. CB to EN, 19 Jan 1855: MS BS 99 pp.1–2, BPM [LCB, iii, 318–19]. The exact date of the visit to Gawthorpe is uncertain: their intention was to arrive on 9Jan and stay 2–3days: LCB, iii, 318 n.1. There are no entries in the parish registers between 6and 16 January.
77. ECG, Life, 453–4; CB to EN, 29 Nov 1854: MS Ashley 2452(5) pp.1–2, BL [LCB, iii, 304]; EN to CB, 7Dec 1854: MS Gr. E30 p.2, BPM [LCB, iii, 306]; CB to EN, 26 Dec 1854: MS BS 97 p.2, BPM [LCB, iii, 312].
78. CB to EN, 19 Jan 1855: MS BS 99 pp.2–3, BPM [LCB, iii, 319].
79. CB to Amelia Taylor, [?21 Jan 1855]: MS pp.3–4, Brotherton [LCB, iii, 321].
80. Ibid., p.1 [LCB, iii, 320].
81. CB to EN, 31 Oct 1854: MS BS 96.5 p.3, BPM [LCB, iii, 297]; ABN to EN, 23 Jan 1855: MS pp.1–2, Brotherton [LCB, iii, 321]; ABN to EN, 29 Jan 1855: MS p.1, Brotherton [LCB, iii, 322]; ABN to EN, 1Feb 1855: MS p.1, Brotherton [LCB, iii, 323].
82. PB to Sir James Kay Shuttleworth, 3Feb 1855: MS pp.1–2, Brotherton [LCB, iii, 321].
83. ABN to EN, 14 Feb 1855: MS pp.1–2, Brotherton [LCB, iii, 324–5].
84. CB, Last Will & Testament, 17 Feb 1855: MS in Borthwick.
85. Tabitha Ackroyd, gravestone, Haworth Churchyard; Burials, Haworth (21 Feb 1855).
86. CB to EN, [21 Feb 1855]: MS BS 101 p.1, BPM [LCB, iii, 326].
87. CB to EN, [?early Mar 1955]: MS BS 100 p.1, BPM [LCB, iii, 328]. Mary Hewitt’s baby had been born in December 1854: CB to EN, 7 Dec 1854: MS Gr. E30 pp.2–3, BPM [LCB, iii, 306].
88. CB to Amelia Taylor, [?late Feb 1855]: MS BS 103 p.1, BPM [LCB, iii, 327].
89. CB to Amelia Taylor, [?early Mar 1855]: MS BS 102 p.1, BPM [LCB, iii, 327]; ECG, Life, 454.
90. CB to EN, [?early Mar 1955]: MS BS 100 p.1, BPM [LCB, iii, 328].
91. ABN to EN, 15 Mar 1855: MS pp.1–2, Brotherton [LCB, iii, 329].
92. ECG, Life, 455.
93. LI, 17 Mar 1855 p.3; 24 Mar 1855 p.7; Burials, Haworth (27 Mar 1855).
94. PB to EN, 30 Mar 1855: MS pp.1–3, Princeton [LCB, iii, 329–30].
95. ABN to EN, 31 Mar 1855: MS BS247.2, BPM [LCB, iii, 330]; ABN to Mary Hewitt, 11 Apr 1855: MS pp.2–3, Brotherton [L&L, iv, 178].
96. CB, Death Certificate, 31 Mar 1855: MS Copy Docs, XA, C, BPM. The dispute over the cause of Charlotte’s death has raged for many years owing chiefly to Nicholls’s failure to mention pregnancy when describing her last illness in ABN to EN, 14 Feb 1855: MS in Brotherton [LCB, iii, 324–5] and the ‘phthisis’ verdict of the death certificate which is a cause normally associated with tuberculosis. Opinions have ranged from a severe wasting disease or tuberculosis alone to a hydatidiform mole (a rare complication in which the fertilized ovum develops into a bag of cysts instead of a foetus). For a summary of the arguments see H.W. Gallagher, ‘Charlotte Brontë: A Surgeon’s Assessment’, BST:18:95:368–9. However there can be no doubt that Charlotte was pregnant: her family and friends had ample opportunity to contradict that express statement in ECG, Life, 454; Charlotte herself implied as much when comparing her case to that of Mary Hewitt: see above, p.909. All her symptoms suggest a classic case of hyperemesis gravidarum (severe vomiting in pregnancy). In modern medical practice this would lead to early screening for hydatidiform mole, multiple pregnancy and urinary infection, all of which can cause hyperemesis. The severe sickness, which usually lasts until about the 15th week, can now be treated with intravenous feeding and antiemetics but sometimes an abortion is still necessary to save the mother’s life. The feverish symptoms exhibited by Charlotte are consistent with a urinary infection as the cause and would now be successfully treated with antibiotics. In Charlotte’s case, her small frame and thinness would have led to a more rapid and severe deterioration in her condition: by 15 weeks she would have been so worn and emaciated by her vomiting, which in itself would have caused poisoning of her body fluids as her kidneys failed, that the death certificate verdict of ‘phthisis’, general wasting, would have been appropriate.
I am grateful to Ian Beck, Consultant Gynaecologist and Obstetrician, for this information and opinion.
97. EN to GS, 1 June [1860]: MS File 7no.5, JMA; EN to GS, 28 Mar [1860]: MS File 7no.4, JMA.
98. PB to ECG, 27 Aug 1855: MS EL B121 p.3, Rylands [LRPB, 242]. Charlotte had sent the blind girl an annual donation.
99. Burials, Haworth (4Apr 1855). William Cartman, headmaster of Skipton Grammar School and one of Patrick’s oldest friends, later delivered the funeral sermon on the text from Luke ch.8 v.52: ‘And all wept and bewailed her’: Turner, A Spring-Time Saunter Round and About Brontëland, 199.
100. CB to Amelia Taylor, [?21 Jan 1855]: MS p.4, Brotherton [LCB, iii, 321].
101. EN to GS, 1June [1860]: MS File 7no.5, JMA.
102. CB to WSW, 25 Apr 1850: MS HM 24395 pp.1–2, Huntington [LCB, ii, 388–9]; CB to WSW, 6 May 1850: MS p.2, Harvard [LCB, ii, 396]. Gaskell reports that Charlotte took her several times to see Greenwood when she stayed in Haworth and that Charlotte asked her to send a message to him when she was staying in Manchester: ECG to GS, 4June [1855] [C&P, 346]. This hardly constitutes the sort of intimate friendship to which Greenwood himself seems to have laid claim.
103. ECG to John Greenwood, 4Apr [1855] [C&P, 335–6]. L&D, 477 suggest that Gaskell was invited to Charlotte’s funeral but it is clear from the date of this letter (the day of the funeral) and the fact that Gaskell learnt of Charlotte’s death from Greenwood, rather than anyone at the parsonage, that this was not the case.
104. PB to ECG, 5 Apr 1855: MS EL B121 pp.1–3, Rylands [LRPB, 227].
105. ECG to John Greenwood, 12 Apr [1855] [C&P, 337].
106. HM to John Greenwood, Apr 1855: MS n.l. but printed in a newspaper cutting held as HM 107, Birmingham: a note on the cutting says it is from a correspondent of Harper’s Weekly but it is more likely to be from the Daily News, with which Martineau had connections. Greenwood clearly knew nothing of the estrangement between Charlotte and Martineau which is further evidence that his claim to friendship with Charlotte was exaggerated.
107. [HM], ‘Obituary of Charlotte Brontë’, Daily News, 6 Apr 1855 [Allott, 302, 304]. Martineau’s magnanimity towards Charlotte may have been due, in part at least, to the fact that she believed herself to be mortally ill at the time.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: SAINTLINESS, TREASON AND PLOT
1. Burials, Haworth. Sowden performed interments on 3, 4 (Charlotte’s), 7 (two) and 8 April LI, 14 Apr 1855 p.6. The collections were in aid of the organist.
2. LM, 14 Apr 1855 p.7. The Haworth Mechanics’ Institute now had 116 members and 600 volumes in its library: Halifax Courier, 14 Apr 1855 p.5.
3. PB to the Bishop of Ripon, 10 Apr 1855: MS Lambeth [Wilks, ‘A Bishop, Bed and Breakfast, a Mystery Dessert and a Poignant Letter’, BST:32:2:94–5]. See also PB to GS, 20 Apr 1855: MS File 10 no.3 JMA [LRPB, 228]; ABN to Mary Hewitt, 11 Apr 1855: MS in Brotherton [L&L, iv, 178].
4. [Matthew Arnold], ‘Haworth Churchyard’, Fraser’s Magazine (May 1855), pp.527–30 [Allott, 306–20 esp.308]. Arnold published the poem anonymously but told his mother that ‘There will be some lines of mine in the next Fraser (without name) on poor Charlotte Bronté’: Matthew Arnold to Mrs Arnold, 25 Apr 1855 [Russell (ed.), Letters of Matthew Arnold 1848–1888, 44]. The poem referred to his meeting Charlotte in Martineau’s company during her visit to Ambleside in December 1850.
5. Matthew Arnold to ECG, 1 June 1855 [Allott, 306]. ‘I am almost sorry you told me about the place of their burial. It really seems to me to put the finishing touch to the strange cross-grained character of the fortunes of that ill-fated family that they should even be placed after death in the wrong, uncongenial spot’. Arnold’s references to Patrick and Arthur were contained in 2verses: ‘See! in the desolate house/ The childless father! Alas –/ Age, whom the most of us chide/ Chide, and put back, and delay –/ Come, unupbraided for once!/ Lay thy benumbing hand,/ Gratefully cold, on this brow!/ Shut out the grief, the despair!/ Weaken the sense of his loss!/ Deaden the infinite pain!/ Another grief I see,/ Younger; but this the Muse,/ In pity and silent awe/ Revering what she cannot soothe,/ With veil’d face and bow’d head,/ Salutes, and passes by.’ [Allott, 308].
6. See, for example, LI, 7Apr 1855 p.5; Westmoreland Gazette, 21 Apr 1855 p.6; Halifax Courier, 21 Apr 1855 p.6.
7. Literary Gazette, 14 Apr 1855 p.235 no.1995.
8. The story was reprinted, for example, in BO, 10 May 1855 p.5; LI, 12 May 1855 p.5; HG, 12 May 1855 p.8; Westmoreland Gazette, 5 May 1855 p.3and even reached Mary Taylor in New Zealand: MT to EN, 19 Apr 1856: MS p.1, Berg [Stevens, 126]. For Nicholls’ rejection by the Haworth church trustees see below, pp.968 ff.
9. ECG to John Greenwood, 5May [1855] [C&P, 342–3]. Gaskell, to her eternal credit, rose stoutly to Nicholls’ defence, pointing out that it was too early to press such things on the bereaved and repudiating snide insinuations about Nicholls’ character: ‘I know of better curacies being offered to him, & one living indeed, the refusal of which also seems to prove that he is not a worldly man, so that I can not understand how he should slight any one for another, inferior in character & attainments, but superior in fortune. A man who could do that would have snatched at opportunities of improving his own worldly condition’: ECG to John Greenwood [after 5May 1855] [C&P, 343–4].
10. MW to ABN, 30 Apr 1855: MS pp.1–4, in private hands. For the assumption that the letter was about James Taylor see EN to GS, 27 Feb 1869: MS File 7no.17, JMA. Charlotte’s letter to Miss Wooler must have fallen in the period when Charlotte had heard twice from Taylor in India and was troubled about her response: see above, pp.810–11.
11. Ibid.
12. Sharpe’s London Magazine, June 1855 pp.339–42.
13. EN to ABN, 6June 1855: MS in private hands [L&L, iv, 189].
14. ECG to Catherine Winkworth [25 Aug 1850] [C&P, 123–6]; ECG to unidentified [c.25 Aug 1850] [C&P, 127]. See above, p.122–4, 768.
15. ABN to EN, 11 June 1855: MS n.l. [L&L, iv, 189–90].
16. PB to ECG, 16 June 1855: MS EL B121 pp.1–3, Rylands [LRPB, 232–3].
17. ECG to GS, 4June [1855] [C&P, 347–8]. Five days earlier Gaskell had written: ‘Sometime, it may be years hence – but if I live long enough, and no one is living whom such a publication would hurt, I will publish what I know of her, and make the world (if I am but strong enough in expression?) honour the woman as much as they have admired the writer’: ECG to GS, 31 May [1855] [C&P, 345].
18. ECG to GS, 18 June [1855] [C&P, 349].
19. PB to ECG, 20 June 1855: MS EL B121 pp.7, 6, Rylands [LRPB, 235, 234].
20. ECG to Marianne Gaskell, [27 July 1855] [C&P, 364].
21. PB to Henry Garrs, 2 Apr 1856: MS BS 202 pp.1–3, BPM [LRPB, 244].
22. ECG to EN, [24] July [1855] [C&P, 361].
23. ABN to EN, 24 July 1855: MS pp.2–4, Brotherton [L&L, iv, 191]. In her letter Gaskell also used the phrase ‘if you would allow us [my italics] to see as much of her correspondence with you as you might feel inclined to trust me with’: ECG to EN, [24] July [1855] [L&L, iv, 192; C&P, 361, however, has ‘me’].
24. EN to ECG, 26 July 1855: MS n.l. [L&L, iv, 193].
25. EN to GS, 1 June [1860]: MS File 7 no.5, JMA. Ellen later said that she had burnt the remaining 200 letters not lent to Gaskell: EN to T.J. Wise, 18 Nov 1892: MS in ‘Brontëana’ file of bound miscellaneous EN correspondence, Brotherton. Gaskell said she had ‘a series of 350 to one friend’ who could be Ellen: ECG to GS, [?late Oct 1855] [C&P, 372]. Gaskell planned to go to Brookroyd on 14 August: ECG to EN, 11 Aug [1855] [C&P, 869–70]. See also ECG to EN, 6 Sept [1855] [C&P, 870].
26. Ibid, 871.
27. ECG to EN, 25 Sept 1855 [C&P, 871–2]; ECG to MW, 12 Nov [1855] [C&P, 372].
28. ECG to GS, 10 Oct 1855 and 20 Oct 1855 [C&P, 371]; ECG to EN, 3 Nov 1855 [C&P, 874]; ECG to WSW, 15 Dec [1855] [C&P, 375].
29. ECG to John Greenwood, [c.5 Aug 1855] [C&P, 368]. Gaskell had asked Martha to take her to see the Brontë memorial tablets in th
e church, thinking it would be too painful for Nicholls to take her, but he had insisted on accompanying her and she did not like to transcribe them in his presence: ECG to John Greenwood, 25 July [1855] [C&P, 362]; ECG to unidentified, 23 Aug [1855] [C&P, 369]; ECG to EN, 25 Sept 1855 [C&P, 872].
30. PB, Account Book, c.1845–61: MS BS 173 pp.17, 1, BPM. The dogs cost £3each and had been bred from a Newfoundland bitch originally owned by Mr Ferrand of Harden Grange, Bingley.
31. PB to Martha Brown, 9 June 1855: MS BS 201 p.2, BPM [LRPB, 231].
32. PB to Sarah Newsome, 12 June 1855: MS BS 201.5 pp.2–4, BPM [LRPB, 231–2].
33. PB, Last Will & Testament, 20 June 1855: MS Bon 75, BPM (copy) [L&L, iv, 245–6]. Revealing once again the vindictive side of her nature, Ellen put the worst possible construction on the will, snidely informing George Smith that her own ‘unfavourable impressions’ of Nicholls ‘afterwards deep-ened still more through what seemed a most selfish appropriation of everything to him-self in permitting Mr Brontë to execute a Deed of Gift solely in his favour when near relations on both Mr & Mrs Brontës side were living’: EN to GS, 27 Feb 1869: MS File 7no.17, JMA.
34. Burials, Haworth (4 Sept 1855; 6June 1856; 13 Aug 1855); Baptisms, Haworth (1July 1855; 27 Nov 1855; 30 Mar 1856).
35. ECG to Mrs Alcock, 13 Aug 1855 [C&P, 368]; ECG to EN, 11 Aug [1855] [C&P, 869–70]; ECG to EN, 6Sept [1855] [C&P, 870]; ECG to EN, [c.20 Oct 1855] [C&P, 873]; EN to ECG, 15 Nov [1855]: MS n.l. [L&L, iv, 196].
36. ECG to EN, [c.20 Oct 1855] [C&P, 873]. Ellen evidently prepared the way for Maria’s letters were provided: ABN to EN, 24 Dec 1855: MS p.4, end missing, Brotherton [L&L, iv, 198]. Patrick’s own letters to ECG, giving family biographical details, dated 20 June, 24 July, 30 July and 27 Aug 1855 are in MS EL B121, Rylands [LRPB, 233–5, 237–8, 238–40, 241–2].
37. ABN to EN, 24 Dec 1855: MS pp.2–3, Brotherton [L&L, iv, 197].
Brontës Page 161
