38. PB to ECG, 23 Jan 1856: MS EL B121, Rylands [LRPB, 243–4].
39. MT to EN, 4–8Jan 1857: MS p.2, Berg [Stevens, 130]; MT to ECG, 18 Jan 1856: MS n.l. [Stevens, 157–62].
40. ECG to GS, [?1Aug 1855] [C&P, 366]. See also ECG to GS, [?29 Apr 1856] [C&P, 388]; ECG to Laetitia Wheelwright, [?30 Apr 1856] [C&P, 388]; ECG to GS, [?1Aug 1855] [C&P, 366]. WG CB, 520 says that Charlotte ‘pledged [George Smith] to refuse and to prevent a French translation’ of Villette, that he kept his word till after Charlotte’s death and that it was a pirated edition of 1855 that fell into the Hegers’ hands. On the contrary, Gaskell knew as early as April 1853 that Smith had secured Charlotte £100 for a French translation of Villette: ECG to [?John Forster], [?late Apr 1853] [C&P, 231].
41. Constantin Heger to ECG, 22 May 1856: MS EL fB91, Rylands; ECG to EN, 9 July 1856 [C&P, 394]; ECG to Emily Shaen, [7–8Sept 1856] [C&P, 409]; ECG, Life, 209–11, suggesting Charlotte’s growing antipathy to Roman Catholicism and fears about Branwell and her father’s failing sight were the reasons why she left Brussels.
42. ECG to EN, 9July 1856 [C&P, 395–6]; EN to ECG, [July 1856]: MS n.l. [L&L, iv, 205].
43. ECG to EN, 9July 1856 [C&P, 394–5]; Marianne Gaskell pp. ECG to EN, 15 July 1856 [C&P, 881].
44. EN to ECG, [July 1856]: MS n.l. [L&L, iv, 204–5].
45. PB to Revd William Gaskell, 23 July 1856: MS BR f823.81 G pp.1, 2, Manchester [LRPB, 247]. Accompanying notes give a resumé of the sermon, delivered at the Cross Street Chapel on 4 May 1856.
46. Marianne Gaskell pp. ECG to EN, 15 July 1856 [C&P, 881].
47. ECG to GS, [?25 July 1856] [C&P, 398–9]. See ECG to EN, 9July 1856 [C&P, 395] for a previous attempt to get the portrait photographed.
48. ECG to GS, [?25 July 1856] [C&P, 398]. Interestingly, Gaskell describes them as being like some manuscripts of William Blake which she had recently seen.
49. ECG to GS, [1 Aug 1856] [C&P, 400–1].
50. ECG to Emily Shaen, [7–8Sept 1856] [C&P, 409–10]; ECG to GS, 13 Aug [1856] [C&P, 403]; ECG to GS, [1Aug 1856] [C&P, 401].
51. ECG to Emily Shaen, [7–8Sept 1856] [C&P, 410]; ABN to GS, 21 Aug 1856: MS File 8no.22, JMA [BST:19:3:99].
52. ABN to GS, 20 Sept 1856: MS File 8no.23, JMA [BST:19:3:99].
53. ECG to GS, [17 Mar 1858] [C&P, 496]; Fraser, Charlotte Brontë, 496 quoting EN to T.W. Reid. Ellen later told Reid that Nicholls’ ‘whole anxiety … was that she should cease entirely to be the author’ and that ‘she was compelled to place a severe strain upon herself in order to comply with her husband’s wishes, and once, as we have seen, her strength of self-repression gave way, and she indulged in the forbidden luxury of work with the pen’: Reid, 186.
54. ABN to GS, 1Oct 1856: MS File 8no.1, JMA [BST:19:3:100]; ECG to Emily Shaen, [7–8Sept 1856] [C&P, 410]; ABN to GS, 26 Sept 1856: MS File 8no.24, JMA.
55. ECG to GS, 2 Oct [1856] [C&P, 417].
56. Ibid.; ABN to GS, 4Oct 1856: MS File 8no.25, JMA [BST:19:3:100].
57. PB to ECG, 3 Nov 1856: MS EL B1221 pp.3–6, Rylands [LRPB, 248–9].
58. Ibid. pp.6–7 [LRPB, 249].
59. ECG to GS, 11 Dec [1856] [C&P, 425]; ECG to [?WSW], [?19 Jan 1857] [C&P, 439]. Contrary to Gaskell’s claim, Patrick never even mentioned Ellen, let alone ‘especially forbids my showing the MS of my biography to her’: see above, p.934.
60. See above, p.924, 927–8and, for example, PB to ECG, 23 Jan 1856: MS EL B121 pp.2–4, Rylands [LRPB, 244]; ABN to ECG, 24 Dec 1855: MS pp.2–3, Brotherton [L&L, iv, 197]; ABN to GS, 3Dec 1856: MS File 8no.28, JMA; EN to GS, 1June [1860]: MS File 7no.5, JMA, where Ellen says she expected Gaskell to write an article, not a book, did not expect any actual transcripts of her letters to appear and obtained from Gaskell a verbal promise that, before publication, she could see ‘any extracts she might think to make’.
61. ECG to GS, 19 Aug [1856] [C&P, 405].
62. ECG to GS, [c.15 Nov 1856] [C&P, 420–1].
63. ECG to GS, 22 Nov [1856] [C&P, 422]; ABN to GS, 3Dec 1856: MS File 8no.28, JMA.
64. ABN to GS, 28 Nov 1856: MS File 8no.26 pp.1–2, 5, JMA.
65. ABN to GS, 3Dec 1856: MS File 8no.28 p.2, JMA.
66. ABN to GS, 1Dec 1856: MS File 8no.27 pp.1–3, JMA.
67. ECG to GS, 11 Dec [1856] [C&P, 425].
68. ECG to GS, [?early Nov 1856] [C&P, 420]; ECG to GS, [?Dec 1856] [C&P, 427].
69. ECG to GS, 26 Dec [1856] [C&P, 429–30]. ‘I suppose Mr Williams thought that I was going to print that part relating to his being like a “faded Tom Dixon”. If I had no delicacy of feeling, I have at least a consciousness of what would or ought to/ interest readers, and I should have certainly scored out, so that no one could have read it through my marks all that related to any one’s appearance, style of living &c, in whose character as indicated by these things the public were not directly interested.’ The proofs came much too slowly for Gaskell’s liking: see her letters to George Smith [C&P, 436–8].
70. ECG to GS, 26 Dec [1856] [C&P, 430]; ECG to GS, 29 Dec 1856 [C&P, 431–427]. Gaskell signed a receipt for £800 for the copyright of ECG, Life on 2Feb 1857: MS SG 105b, BPM.
71. ECG to GS, 4Feb [1857] [C&P, 442]; ECG to GS, 6 Feb 1857 [C&P, 443]; ECG to GS, [?11 Feb 1857] [C&P, 446]. Nicholls commented on the engraving that ‘Haworth Church and Parsonage are commonplace enough, but not quite such queer things as they are represented in the view’: ABN to GS, 2 Apr 1857: MS File 8 no.32 p.3, JMA.
72. Smith, Elder & Co. Ledgers, vol i, 369, JMA. To the cost of purchasing the copyright (£800) were added £50 for printing in English on the Continent, 10 guineas for permission to publish the Richmond portrait of Charlotte and 22 guineas to Armytage for engraving the portrait and Gaskell’s drawing.
73. [John Skelton], Fraser’s Magazine, May 1857 pp.569–82 [Allott, 331].
74. Unsigned review, Christian Remembrancer, July 1857 pp. 87–145 [Allott, 364].
75. [Margaret Sweat], North American Review, Oct 1857 pp.293–329 [Allott, 379–80].
76. Charles Kingsley to ECG, 14 May 1857 [Allott, 343].
77. [W.C. Roscoe], National Review, June 1857 pp.127–64 [Allott, 346].
78. Ibid [Allott, 347].
79. G.H. Lewes to ECG, 15 Apr 1857 [Allott, 329]; Charles Kingsley to ECG, 14 May 1857 [Allott, 343]; Revd William Gaskell to EN, 15 Apr 1857 [L&L, iv, 122].
80. The Spectator, quoted in a summary of the reviews in BO, 9 Apr 1857 p.7.
81. G.H. Lewes to ECG, 15 Apr 1857 [Allott, 330].
82. PB to GS, 30 Mar 1857: MS File 10 no.4 JMA [LRPB, 251]; PB to ECG, 2Apr 1857: MS EL B121 pp.3–4, Rylands [LRPB, 251–2].
83. ABN to GS, 2Apr 1857: MS File 8no.32 pp.1–2, JMA.
84. See, for example, BO, 30 Apr 1857 p.7.
85. ’J.W.E.’, ‘A Pilgrimage to Haworth’, BO, 30 Apr 1857 p.7; LI, 2May 1857 p.7.
86. PB to Revd William Gaskell, 7 Apr 1857: MS EL B121 pp.1–3, Rylands [LRPB, 252–3]. The ‘Eccentick Movements’ were burning hearthrugs and sawing the backs off chairs.
87. G.H. Lewes to ECG, 15 Apr 1857 [Allott, 330]; J.Hodgson Ramsbotham, LI 18 Apr 1857 p.7(see above, pp.96–9); ECG to EN, 16 June 1857 [C&P, 453].
88. ECG to GS, 2Oct [1856] [C&P, 418].
89. ECG to GS, 26 Dec [1856] [C&P, 428–9].
90. ECG to GS, 29 Dec [1856] [C&P, 432]; Times, 30 May 1857 p.5. The retraction also appeared in the Athenaeum, 6June 1857: I am grateful to Margaret Smith for this reference. The letters themselves are dated 26 and 27 May, so they predate Gaskell’s return, though the publication of the retraction did not.
91. ABN to GS, 23 May 1857: MS File 8no.30 pp.2–3, 5–6, JMA; ABN in HG, 6June 1857 p.6. W.W.C. Wilson’s letters, quoting Miss Andrews, were published in the Leeds Intelligencer and Leeds Mercury on 16 May 1857.
92. ABN to GS, 1 June 1857: MS File 8no.33 pp.2–3, JMA. The fullest range of correspondence was published in the Halifax Guardian with letters appearing each week from May to the end of July 1857.
93. ABN
to GS, 6June 1857: MS File 8no.31 p.2, JMA; PB to GS, 9June 1857: MS File 10 no.8pp.1–2, JMA [LRPB, 254].
94. PB to GS, 15 June 1857: MS File 10 no.7pp.2–3, JMA [LRPB, 255].
95. As Mary Crowther, age 14, she had been admitted on 12 Jan 1830: CDSAR no.230. In common with many other entries her Christian name appears to have been wrongly entered.
96. PB to the Editor of Halifax Guardian, 22 July 1857: MS Bon 257, BPM [LRPB, 257]; HG, 25 July 1857 p.8. The editor wearily complained that he had received for insertion that week alone ‘1. Another letter of four pages (note size) from Mr Wilson. 2. A letter of a little more than three pages foolscap from the Rev. Mr Nicholls. 3. A letter (note size) of four pages from the “E” of Mr Nicholls’ last letter. And last, but not least, a letter of six closely-written foolscap pages from Mrs Baldwin.’
97. Sarah Baldwin, Advertisement: ‘To the Readers of the Halifax Guardian’, HG, 1Aug 1857 p.6. Nicholls appears to have written privately to Mrs Baldwin, rebuking her for not accepting the editor’s conclusion: this prompted a furious reply which I quote as an example of the vituperative nature of her correspondence: ‘You could not expect after your grossly abusive letters to me that I should submit to such a closing of the Controversy … Surely it would have been a greater adorning to your Gown to have adopted a less Crooked Course than you have been led to do by some few prejudiced minds – I am sorry you could condescend to such Coarseness, as to partake of my Father’s hospitality as you have done, then make such mean remarks about him [Nicholls had quoted Crowther’s disparaging comments about the school when withdrawing his daughter] – Your mind seems to be fully made up to believe nothing but evil – I am no partisan nor in any way interested as you so meanly insinuate – Your hard words have not excited in me any angry feeling: contempt I do feel, more expecially that you could condescend to be so little as by any such evidence
98. ABN in HG, 8Aug 1857 p.3; Revd William Baldwin to ABN, 13 Aug 1857: MS p.2, in private hands.
99. William Dearden and Francis Leyland in BO, 3Sept 1857 p.8. During this interview Dearden noticed that Patrick was ‘very cold and distant’ with Leyland and later discovered the reason: Branwell’s friend, the sculptor J.B. Leyland, had died on 28 January 1851 and his brother had responsibility for disposing of his effects. Charlotte and Patrick had sent John Brown to collect the medallion portrait of Branwell (see above, p.1081, n.42), thinking it belonged to them, but Brown had returned saying that Leyland had demanded £66s for it. They had had some difficulty in putting the sum together but had succeeded and Brown had duly delivered the portrait. In fact Francis Leyland had intended to send it as a gift and given Brown a verbal message to that effect. The Brontës never received the message, Brown had pocketed the money and Patrick understandably felt aggrieved that Leyland had charged him for his own property: Francis Leyland, draft letter to ABN, 17 Aug 1883: MS E.2008.3, BPM.
100. PB to GS, 9 June 1857: MS File 10 no.8JMA [LRPB, 254]; PB to ECG, 30 July 1857: MS EL B121 pp.1–4, Rylands [LRPB, 258–9]. See also PB to GS, 16 July 1857: MS EL B121 pp.1–2, Rylands [LRPB, 256–7].
101. William Dearden, BO, 13 Aug 1857 p.7 and 20 Aug 1857 p.8.
102. PB to ECG, 20 Aug 1857: MS EL B121 pp.2–4, Rylands [LRPB, 260].
103. HM, Daily News, 24 Aug 1857, quoted in BO, 27 Aug 1857 p.8.
104. William Dearden, BO, 3Sept 1857 p.7; PB to William Dearden, 31 Aug 1857: MS BS 205 pp.1–3, BPM [LRPB, 263].
105. PB to ECG, 31 Aug 1857: MS EL B121 p.3, Rylands [LRPB, 264].
106. William Dearden, BO, 3Sept 1857 p.8. Corroborative accounts of Dearden’s conversation with Patrick by Francis Leyland and William Brooksbank, who had accompanied him on his 2 visits, were published with his letter. Martineau commented on seeing Patrick’s first letter to Gaskell praising ECG, Life, (see above, p.941) ‘The old monster! Any thing so appalling as one sentence in it I am sure I never saw come from a human hand. Beautiful as the book is in many ways, I do mourn that Mrs G. ever came in the way of that awful family’: HM to Catherine Winkworth, 13 June [1857] [Valerie Sanders (ed.), Harriet Martineau: Selected Letters (Oxford, 1990), 143]. The appalling sentence was probably Patrick’s comment that he would have written a memoir himself ‘rather than have left all, to selfish, hostile or ignorant scribblers’: Martineau was likely to take offence having herself written Charlotte’s obituary for the Daily News.
107. Article in the Spectator, ‘The Revd P. Bronte, Mrs Gaskell, and Miss Martineau’, reprinted in BO, 3Sept 1857 p.7.
108. ECG to EN, 16 June [1857] [C&P, 454]; ECG to GS, 3June [1857] [C&P, 449].
109. PB to ECG, 9Sept 1857: MS EL B121 pp.2–3, Rylands [LRPB, 265–6].
110. PB to HM, 5 Nov 1857: MS HM 90, Birmingham [LRPB, 266]; HM to PB, 5Nov 1857: MS HM 89, Birmingham.
111. ABN to HM, 6 Nov 1857: MS HM 91 pp.2–3, Birmingham. Nicholls also informed Martineau that he had supplied Gaskell with a copy of the letter and Charlotte’s reply to it.
112. HM to ABN, [c.7Nov 1857]: MS HM 105 pp.1, 4, Birmingham.
113. ABN to HM, 9Nov 1857: MS HM 93 p.3, Birmingham.
114. HM to ABN, 10 Nov 1857: MS HM 94, Birmingham; ABN to HM, 11 Nov 1857: MS HM 95 p.3, Birmingham; PB to HM, 11 Nov 1857: MS HM 96 p.3, Birmingham [LRPB, 267–8].
115. HM to ABN, 13 Nov 1857: 13 Nov 1857: MS HM 98, Birmingham; John Greenwood to ABN, 12 Nov 1857: MS HM 97, Birmingham; ABN to HM, 14 Nov 1857: MS HM 99 p.3, Birmingham.
116. HM to ABN, 13 Nov 1857: 13 Nov 1857: MS HM 98, Birmingham; ABN to HM, 14 Nov 1857: MS HM 100, Birmingham.
117. HM to Mr Graves, 23 Nov 1857: MS BS ix, M, BPM [BST:18:95:396], where Martineau claims Nicholls had earnestly requested her to burn his last letter which was ‘wholly self-excusing … he desired to obtain my good opinion before we parted’. See also HM to Mr Graves, 16 Nov [1857]: MS BS ix, M, BPM [BST:16:83:199].
118. PB to ECG, 30 July 1857: MS EL B121 p.3, Rylands [LRPB, 258].
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: THE END OF ALL
Title: PBB, The End of All, 15 Dec 1837 [HG, 5 June 1847 p.6].
1. ABN to GS, 9May 1857: MS File 8 no.29 pp.1–2, JMA; ABN to GS, 23 May 1857: MS File 8no.30 p.1, JMA. Nicholls’ foreword, dated 22 Sept 1856, appeared after Charlotte’s preface in the first edition [CB, The Professor, Clarendon Edn, 4]; CB, Draft Preface to The Professor, [c.Nov 1849]: MS MA 32, PM [CB, The Professor, 1–2]. The manuscript of the book, originally entitled ‘The Master’, is dated 27 June 1846: MS MA 31, PM.
2. Smith, Elder & Co. Publication Ledgers, ii, 882 (The Professor); i, 406–8(Jane Eyre); ii, 944–5(Shirley); ii, 944–6 (Villette); ii, 997 (Wuthering Heights & Agnes Grey), JMA. A cheap edition of The Professor, with the addition of some poems, was published in August 1860: I am grateful to Margaret Smith for this reference.
3. [E.S. Dallas], BM, July 1857 pp.77–94 [Allott, 361]; [W.C. Roscoe], National Review, June 1857 pp.127–64 [Allott, 355–6]. Roscoe’s opinion echoes that of Gaskell who thought it the only justification for publishing the novel: ECG to Emily Shaen, 7–8Sept 1856 [C&P, 410]. For reviewers who doubted the wisdom of publishing The Professor see, for example, [W.C. Roscoe], National Review, June 1857 pp.127–64 [Allott, 355]; unsigned review, Athenaeum, 13 June 1857 pp.755–7 [Allott, 344–5]; [Margaret Sweat], North American Review, Oct 1857 pp.293–329 [Allott, 383–4].
4. ABN to GS, 27 June 1857: MS File 8no.2 p.2, JMA.
5. BO, 7May 1857 p.5.
6. ABN to GS, 23 May 1857: MS File 8no.30 p.3, JMA. The example he cited was that of Elizabeth Greenwood, who had been seduced by her brother-in-law, William Sugden, during her sister’s pregnancy: she was readily identifiable from Gaskell’s description: Sarah Fermi, ‘A “Religious” Family Disgraced’, BST:20:5:289–95.
7. ABN to GS, 23 May 1857: MS File 8no.30 pp.6–7, JMA.
8. BO, 2July 1857 p.5; LI, 4 July 1857 p.7. Inn-keepers were known as ‘bonifaces’ after Boniface, the inn-keeper in
George Farquhar’s play The Beaux’ Stratagem (1707).
9. ’J.W.E.’, ‘A Day at Haworth’, [Aug 1857], BO, 19 Nov 1857 p.8; J. Copley, ‘An Early Visitor to Haworth [Walter White]’, BST:16:83:220–1.
10. PB to ECG, 31 Aug 1857: MS EL B121 p.4, Rylands [LRPB, 264].
11. LI, 22 Aug 1857 p.7; PB to ECG, 24 Aug 1857: MS EL B121 p.4, Rylands [LRPB, 261]. The invitation is inferred from a scrap of paper dated ‘Bolton Abbey Aug 27 1857’, bearing the ducal coronet, on the back of which is written ‘I venture to propose that in September which is a good time for seeing this [lacuna] he’: Duke of Devonshire to ABN, 27 Aug 1857: MS in private hands.
12. ’J.W.E.’, ‘A Day at Haworth’, [Aug 1857], BO, 19 Nov 1857 p.8.
13. Benson’s account of his visit was published in The Times, 22 Sept 1933 and reprinted in BST:8:44:36. See also E.W. Benson to Lightfoot, 25 Jan 1858 [Benson, The Life of Edward White Benson, i, 133] announcing his visit that day. He became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1882.
14. PB to Sir Joseph Paxton, 16 Jan 1858: MS MA 269 R-V pp.2–3, PM [LRPB, 270]. The ‘mercenary’ may actually have been Gaskell who, in September 1857, stayed at Chatsworth where Paxton acted ‘quite the master of the place’ on behalf of the deaf and wheelchair-bound duke: she was quite capable of suggesting that the duke should contribute to the Haworth subscription fund: ECG to Marianne Gaskell, [13–14 Sept 1857] [C&P, 470–3].
15. PB to Revd James Cheadle, 29 Aug 1857: MS BS 204.5 pp.1–2, BPM [LRPB, 262].
16. PB to Mrs Nunn, 1 Feb 1858: MS n.l. [LRPB, 270–1]; PB to Mrs Nunn, 26 Oct 1859: MS n.l. [LRPB, 284].
17. PB to Revd Robinson Pool, 18 Mar 1858: MS BS 206 p.1, BPM [LRPB, 272].
18. BO, 1Apr 1858 p.4. Morgan’s funeral sermon was preached at his former church, Christ Church, Bradford, on 11 April 1858 by Revd Joshua Fawcett, ‘one of Mr Morgan’s oldest friends in the parish’: ibid., 8Apr 1858 p.5.
19. Ibid., 1Apr 1858 p.5; LI, 3 Apr 1858 p.7; BO, 6May 1858 p.5. The new tablet was erected on 1April 1858. See also Meta Gaskell to unidentified, 25 Oct 1860: MS Ashley 2829, BL [L&D, 521] for Brown’s account of breaking up and burying the old memorials. J.B. Leyland, who might other-wise have secured the commission for the new tablet, had died on 26 January 1851: HG, 10 May 1851 p.8.
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