Brontës (215 page)

103.
AB, ‘A dreadful darkness closes in', 7–28 Jan 1849: MS Bon 137, BPM [‘I hoped that with the brave and strong', 1850, omitting ll.1–16, 29–36, 41–52 and substituting ll.25–8].

104.
CB to EN, 23 Oct 1850: MS HM 24476 pp.2–3, Huntington [
LCB
, ii, 487].

105.
CB to WSW, [?
c
.19 Nov 1850]: MS HM 24397 p.2, Huntington [
LCB
, ii, 513–4].

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: RUNNING AWAY FROM HOME

Title: CB to ECG, 6Nov 1851: MS EL fB91 p.2, Rylands [
LCB
, ii, 710].

1.
[Jane Forster] to ECG, 3Oct 1850 [ECG,
Life
, 363–4]. Gaskell does not identify the author of this letter but I have assumed it is Jane Forster because she uses ‘W—' to refer to her husband William and was a friend of both Gaskell and Martineau (either of whom could have sent her an introduction to Charlotte) as well as daughter of Thomas Arnold, whose family Charlotte had just visited in the Lakes: see above, p.769–70. 1106 NOTES TO PAGES 778–84
Charlotte refers to the Forsters making ‘another of their sudden calls here' in CB to EN, 5 Oct 1852: MS in Berg [
LCB
, iii, 69].

2.
CB to John Stores Smith, 25 July 1850: MS 2696 R-V, PM [
LCB
, ii, 428–9]. See also
BST
:16:81:22–3 for Smith's own account of his visit, written in 1868.

3.
Ibid, 25–8. Smith's description of Patrick is suspect: he ‘remembered' him being blind, which he was not, and that he rambled on in senile fashion about his daughters' deaths and Charlotte's unexpected success. Smith also noted that Charlotte had told him she had met Dickens during her recent visit to London (a fact not recorded elsewhere) and, while admiring his genius, disliked him personally.

4.
'K.T.' to CB, [
c
.8 Nov 1850]: MS Bon 230(1) p.2, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 497]; CB to ‘K.T.', 9 Nov 1850: MS HM 20069 p.2, Huntington [
LCB
, ii, 500].

5.
'K.T.' to CB, [13 Nov 1850]: MS Bon 230(2) pp.4, 8, 9, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 504–7]; CB to ‘K.T.', 6 Dec 1850: MS pp.1–2, Harvard [
LCB
, ii, 515]. See also CB to ‘K.T.', 21 Nov 1850: MS p.2, Princeton [
LCB
, ii, 460]; ‘K.T.' to CB, 25 Nov 1850: MS Bon 230(4) BPM [
LCB
, ii, 519–21]. In his final letter, ‘K.T.' to CB, 11 Dec 1850: MS Bon 231 p.2, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 529–21], ‘K.T.' admits to being 30 but still does not reveal his name. Drafts of Charlotte's letters to ‘K.T.' are MSS Bon 230(3) and 231, BPM.

6.
CB to EN, [?14 Oct 1850]: MS Bon 226 p.2, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 483]; CB to EN, 16 Aug 1850: MS HM 24472 p.3, Huntington [
LCB
, ii, 444].

7.
CB to G.H. Lewes, 17 Oct 1850: MS Add 39763(9) p.2, BL [
LCB
, ii, 485]; Charlotte returned the books in the same box as those lent her by Smith, Elder & Co.: CB to [?WSW], 21 Oct 1850: MS in private hands [
LCB
, ii, 486].

8.
CB to James Taylor, 6Nov 1850: MS pp.3–4, Texas [
LCB
, ii, 496]. See also WSW, 25 Oct 1850: MS HM 24398 p.1, Huntington [
LCB
, ii, 488–9].

9.
CB to WSW, 9Nov 1850: MS p.1, Brotherton [
LCB
, ii, 501].

10.
PB in
LI
, 19 Oct 1850 p.6[
LRPB
, 204]. For examples of speculation about Papal intentions see articles and editorials in
BO
, 1 Aug 1850 p.5;
HG
, 23 Nov 1850 pp.3, 4.

11.
LI
, 23 Nov 1850 p.5. Patrick and Nicholls are not listed among the signatories calling for the meeting but Nicholls attended it and presumably gave his sanction to the resolution: ibid., 30 Nov 1850 pp.7–8.

12.
CB to GS, 31 Oct 1850: MS SG 41 pp.2–5, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 491–2].

13.
HM to G.H. Lewes, 10 Dec [1850] [
LCB
, ii, 527]. See also CB to EN, 26 Nov 1850: MS Bon 229 p.1, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 521–2]; CB to ECG, 13 Dec 1850: MS EL fB91 pp.1–2, Rylands [
LCB
, ii, 532–3]; CB to EN, 18 Dec 1850: MS HM 24477 p.1, Huntington [
LCB
, ii, 535]. Martineau had invited Charlotte nearly a year before, soon after their first meeting in London, and had reissued her invitation several times since then: CB to WSW, 3Jan 1850: MS BS 73 p.3, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 323]; CB to EN, 26 Nov 1850: MS Bon 229 p.1, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 521–2].

14.
CB to PB, 21 Dec 1850: MS BS 80.5 p.3, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 538]; CB to EN, 18 Dec 1850: MS HM 24477 p.2, Huntington [
LCB
, ii, 535]. The Knoll is still standing and relatively untouched by the passage of time.

15.
CB to EN, 21 Dec 1850: MS p.2, Harvard [
LCB
, ii, 537]. Lady Kay Shuttleworth was near her confinement, Sir James still suffering the ill effects of stress.

16.
Ebba Hutchinson, Diary, 20 Dec 1850–May 1851: MS WLMS H2/3/5(22 Dec 1850). Ebba notes ‘Mr Q[uillinan] & Mima [Quillinan's daughter by his first marriage] called also Mrs Arnold and Miss Martineau and Jane Eyre whose meeting clashed in the passage making a curious blunder –'. Quillinan may have met Charlotte on her first visit to the Lakes: just days after she left, Mary Wordsworth gave him Branwell's letters to her husband, as he noted on the wrapper of PBB to William Wordsworth, 10 Jan 1837: MS Wordsworth Trust; see also Edward Quillinan, Diary, 1850: MS WLMS/13/5/8(22 Aug 1850), Wordsworth Trust. Quillinan either sought the letters as a Brontë memento or intended to return them to Charlotte, as the sender's representative, as was customary after the death of the recipient.

17.
Matthew Arnold to Miss Wightman, 21 Dec 1850 [G.W. Russell (ed.),
Letters of Matthew Arnold, 1848–88
(London, 1895), 13]; CB to James Taylor, 15 Jan 1851: MS p.3, Texas [
LCB
, ii, 554].

18.
HM,
Autobiography
, 350; Matthew Arnold to Miss Wightman, 21 Dec 1850 [Russell (ed.),
Letters of Matthew Arnold, 1848–88
, 13]; CB to James Taylor, 11 Feb 1851: MS p.1, Texas [
LCB
, ii, 574].

19.
HM,
Autobiography
, 380–1; ECG,
Life
, 372.

20.
Ibid.; CB to James Taylor, 15 Feb 1851: MS p.5, Texas [
LCB
, ii, 554].

21.
CB to WSW, 1 Jan 185[1]: MS Gr. F10 p.2, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 542].

22.
Ibid.; CB to EN, 21 Dec 1850: MS p.1, Harvard [
LCB
, ii, 536–7]; CB to PB, [21 Dec] 1850: MS BS 80.5 p.1, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 537].

23.
CB to EN, [1Jan 1851]: MS n.l. [
LCB
, ii, 541]; CB to WSW, 1Jan 185[1]: MS Gr. F10 p.2, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 542]. Charlotte mistakenly dated her letters to Williams and James Taylor, both written on New Year's Day, to 1850 instead of 1851.

24.
CB to EN, [1Jan 1851]: MS n.l. [
LCB
, ii, 541]. See, for example, unsigned review,
Examiner
, 21 Dec 1850 p.815; [G.H. Lewes],
Leader
, 28 Dec 1850 p.953 and unsigned review,
Athenaeum
, 28 Dec 1850 pp.1368–9 [Allott, 288–95].

25.
CB to WSW, 1Jan 185[1]: MS Gr. F10, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 542]; CB to James Taylor, 1Jan 185[1]: MS in Texas [
LCB
, ii, 543–4]; CB to ECG, 4 Jan 1851: MS n.l. [
LCB
, ii, 544].

26.
CB to GS, 7 Jan 1851: MS SG 43 pp.2–3, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 546].

27.
CB to EN, [?8 Jan 1851]: MS Bon 223 pp.1–2, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 550]; CB to EN, [?20 Jan 1851]: MS pp.2–3, Law, photograph in MCP [
LCB
, ii, 557].

28.
CB to EN, [?14 Oct 1850]: MS Bon 226, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 483]; CB to EN, [?20 Jan 1851]: MS p.1, Law, photograph in MCP [
LCB
, ii, 557]; CB to EN, 30 Jan 1851: MS Gr. E20 p.3, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 566].

29.
Ibid., p.2 [
LCB
, ii, 566];
BO
, 2Jan 1851 p.5. The same notice appeared in the
Westmoreland Gazette
, 21 Dec 1850 p.2.

30.
'A Mountaineer of the Wild West' to CB, pm 10 Dec 1850: MS in private hands. The ‘Wild West' at this time referred to Ireland, rather than America.

31.
John Abbott to CB, 22 Feb 1851: MS in private hands [
LCB
, ii, 576–7]. A few years previously, Abbott had met Dr Scoresby, the former vicar of Bradford, who was then on his travels, and had learnt something of his old Yorkshire friends from him.

32.
CB to WSW, 1Feb 1851: MS HM 24399 pp.1–2, Huntington [
LCB
, ii, 570–1].

33.
CB to GS, 5Feb 1851: MS SG 45 pp.2–3, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 572–3]. Redundant paper was then used for lining butter-barrels and travelling trunks.

34.
CB to EN, [?20 Jan 1851]: MS pp.3–4, Law, photograph in MCP [
LCB
, ii, 557–8]. Smith later gave up the Rhine-tour idea: CB to GS, 31 Mar 1851: MS SG 47 p.2, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 593].

35.
CB to GS, 5Feb 1851: MS SG 45 pp.3–4, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 573].

36.
CB to GS, 8and 11 Mar 1851: MS SG 46 p.2, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 582].

37.
CB to EN, 26 Feb 1851: MS Bon 234 p.3, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 580].

38.
CB to ECG, 25 Mar 1851: MS EL fB91 p.2, Rylands [
LCB
, ii, 590].

39.
Sydney Dobell to CB, [?early Apr 1851] [
LCB
, ii, 595–6].

40.
CB to Sydney Dobell, [
c
.14 Apr 1851]: MS n.l. [
LCB
, ii, 603]; Sydney Dobell to CB, 17 Apr [1851] [
LCB
, ii, 605].

41.
CB to EN, [?5Dec 1849]: MS 2696 R-V p.3, PM [
LCB
, ii, 299]; CB to EN, 30 Jan 1851: MS Gr. E20 p.4, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 567].

42.
CB to James Taylor, 22 Mar 1851: MS in Texas [
LCB
, ii, 588]; CB to James Taylor, 24 Mar 1851: MS in Texas [
LCB
, ii, 589].

43.
CB to EN, 9Apr 1851: MS BS 81 pp.2–3, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 599–600].

44.
CB to EN, [4and 5Apr 1851]: MS Gr. E21 pp.1–2, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 598].

45.
CB to EN, 23 Apr 1851: MS Gr. E22 pp.2–3, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 609].

46.
CB to EN, 5May 1851: MS HM 24478 p.2, Huntington [
LCB
, ii, 611].

47.
Ibid.; CB to EN, 14 Sept 1850: MS pp.1–2, Rochester [
LCB
, ii, 468]. The second half of this letter is MS HM 24475, Huntington.

48.
CB to EN, [?24 May 1851]: MS HM 24480 p.2, Huntington [
LCB
, ii, 622]; CB to EN, 5May 1851: MS HM 24478 pp.2–3, Huntington [
LCB
, ii, 611].

49.
CB to EN, [4and 5Apr 1851]: MS Gr. E21 pp.2–3, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 598].

50.
CB to EN, 9Apr 1851: MS BS 81 p.2, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 599]; MT to EN, 11 Mar 1851: MS p.1, Berg [
LCB
, ii, 585].

51.
CB to EN, 12 Apr 1851: MS Bon 235 pp.1–2, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 601].

52.
PB to Secretary to the General Board of Health, 12 Feb 1851 and 1Apr 1851: MSS n.l. [
LRPB
, 205, 207].

53.
PB to Secretary to the General Board of Health, 10 July 1851: MS n.l. [
LRPB
, 209]. Objectors included the Merrall brothers, William and Richard Thomas, Tobias Lambert and Joseph Hartley.

54.
PB to Revd A.P. Irvine, District Secretary of the Church Pastoral Aid Society, 15 Apr 1851: MS BS 194.5 pp.2–3, BPM [
LRPB
, 208]. See also PB to the Secretary, Church Pastoral Aid Society, 24 Feb 1851: MS in private hands [partial
LRPB
, 205–6]. Patrick's letter suggests Nicholls cannot have been as rabid a Puseyite as he is usually depicted by Charlotte and Gaskell.

55.
CB to Amelia Taylor, 12 Apr 1851: MS n.l. [
LCB
, ii, 537]. In CB to EN, 12 Apr 1851: MS Bon 235 p.2, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 601]
Charlotte remarked ‘I wish Amelia had her business well over and was hearty and happy with her chit on her knee – or yelping in that basinet you are to buy'. A month later she wrote, ‘I wish the female had its nest furnished with the expected nestling – I believe it would then be more interesting – the small egotism rather repels me just now': CB to EN, 10 May 1851: MS HM 24479 p.3, Huntington [
LCB
, ii, 613].

56.
CB to Mrs Smith, 17 Apr 1851: MS SG 96 p.1, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 603–4].

57.
CB to GS, 19 Apr 1851: MS SG 48 pp.2–3, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 606–7]. Gaskell and Martineau are inferred from Charlotte's description of them as ‘Two ladies – neither of them unknown to Fame – whom I reverence for their talents and love for their amiability'. Gaskell had procured Charlotte an invitation to the Shaens at Crix in December 1850, Martineau one to Sydney Dobell's in Gloucestershire in March 1851.

58.
CB to EN, 12 Apr 1851: MS Bon 235 pp.2–3, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 601–2]; CB to EN, 23 Apr 1851: MS Gr. E22 pp.1–2, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 608].

59.
CB to EN, 10 May 1851: MS HM 24479 p.3, Huntington [
LCB
, ii, 613].

60.
CB to GS, 12 May 1851: MS SG 10b p.3, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 615]. Charlotte told Mrs Smith ‘I will not say much about about being glad to see you all. Long ago, when I was a little girl, I received a somewhat sharp lesson on the duty of being glad in peace and quietness – in fear and moderation; this lesson did me good and has never been forgotten': CB to Mrs Smith, 20 May 1851: MS SG 11b p.2, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 618].

61.
CB to ECG, 10 May 1851: MS EL fB91 p.2, Rylands [
LCB
, ii, 614]; CB to EN, [22 May 1851]: MS Bon 236 p.1, BPM [
LCB
, ii, 620–1].