Brontës (77 page)

This colourful, if grim, picture of Branwell's ruin at Luddenden Foot has been accepted unquestioningly by biographers. This period, it is said, proved his downfall. Branwell spent his time in the pubs of the Calder Valley, neglected his job, doodled in the margins of the company ledgers and, as Grundy would have it, went thoroughly to the bad. In support of this view a passage from one of Branwell's letters to Grundy is always quoted:

I would rather give my hand than undergo again the grovelling carelessness, the malignant yet cold debauchery, the determination to find how far mind could carry body without both being chucked into hell, which too often marked my conduct when there
⁶¹

But Grundy, writing nearly forty years later, is an extremely unreliable witness, misdating Branwell's letters to him by several years, delighting in wild exaggeration and having the doubtful benefit of being able to bend his memories to suit Mrs Gaskell's portrait of the black sheep of the Brontë family.
⁶²

It was simply not true, for instance, that there was no village near at hand. About half a mile from the station was the ancient and pretty village
of Luddenden, a thriving centre of the textile trade where stuff-weaving was still carried on in the tall, many-windowed houses and in the larger premises of the new mills. As a railway employee Branwell was allowed to travel free of charge and, by simply getting on the train, he could be in Sowerby Bridge or Hebden Bridge in a matter of minutes or even in Leeds or Manchester in under two hours. He is known to have visited Manchester on at least one occasion, returning full of enthusiasm at the ‘lightsome' beauty of the parish church which he described in detail to Sutcliffe Sowden, a young clergyman friend. Nor did he have ‘no prospects, and wretched pay'.
⁶³
His promotion within six months of starting work on the railway had shown that he could rise rapidly if his work gave satisfaction. His salary was better than anything he had ever earned before and was almost a third more than Weightman, for instance, earned as curate of Haworth.
⁶⁴

Branwell's personal notebook – not the company ledgers – was indeed a strange mix of notes on railway affairs, poetry and sketches, but it also gives a brief glimpse into the sort of life he led at the time. He noted a concert by the Halifax Quarterly Choral Society at the Old Assembly Rooms in the Talbot Inn, Halifax, for instance, when a selection of sacred music – including one of his favourites, Haydn's
Creation
– was to be performed on
11
November 1841. He also seems to have sent a subscription to the Motet Society, who were based in London, and, from the numerous inscriptions of ‘HOLY IESU', ‘IESU' and ‘SALVATOR' which abound in the notebook,
⁶⁵
we can presume that he attended other concerts of sacred music in Halifax. The Halifax Quarterly Choral Society performed regularly, including an annual Christmas recital of another of Branwell's favourites, Handel's
Messiah
. Branwell is also unlikely to have missed the opportunity of seeing and hearing a rare performance in Halifax by the virtuoso pianist and ‘modern musical wonder', Franz Liszt. His brilliant playing captivated the discerning Halifax audiences and he brought the house down with an impromptu set of variations on the National Anthem. Even the normally staid
Halifax Guardian
was swept away: ‘We never remember a concert which was marked by so much enthusiasm, or so many rapturous encores as that of last night.'
⁶⁶

Despite Grundy's claims, Branwell also had access to plenty of books. Tradition has it that he was a member of the Luddenden Library, a large private collection of books housed in the upper chamber of the Lord Nelson Inn. This seems unlikely as there is no record of his name in the
membership or receipt books and there were strict rules against admitting non-members to meetings.
⁶⁷
There were, however, a number of much larger libraries in Halifax, including a circulating library run by the Leylands at their shop in Cornmarket and a newly opened subscription library, containing 1900 volumes and taking in fifteen periodicals, at the Old Cock Inn.
⁶⁸
In his notebook Branwell noted down new titles that interested him:
Manhood– the cause of its premature decline
by J.I. Curtis, his old passion
Blackwood's Magazine
, and the shortly to be published
Wakefield's Miscellany
. As he also copied out the addresses and directions to the Manchester warehouses of Mr Pearson and Mr Warburton, he presumably found his way there in pursuit of the second-hand books they advertised.
⁶⁹
Nor was it the case that Branwell was continually in bad company at Luddenden Foot, as Grundy claimed, and the drunken Irish labourers introduced by later biographers simply did not exist at the time.
⁷⁰
However, there were incidents to suggest Branwell was occasionally quarrelsome, possibly as the result of drink. He recorded in his notebook, for instance, that he had spent the previous evening with several men – including George Thompson, a Luddenden corn dealer and maltster, James or John Titterington, both local worsted manufacturers, and Henry Killiner, the railway porter. Branwell notes that he had ‘quarrelled with J T about going but after a wrestle met him on the road and became friends – Quarrelled almost on the subject with G Thompson
Will have no more of it
. P. B. B.'
⁷¹
Grundy himself, though piously suggesting that ‘I did him so much good that he recovered himself of his habits there after my advent', seems to have been an influence for the bad. On one occasion, Branwell thought Grundy had treated him distantly at a party and responded by leaving in a temper and then sending him a set of reproving verses:

However mean a man may be,

Know –
man
is man as well as
thee
;

However high thy gentle line,

Know, He who writes can rank with thine.

And, though his frame be worn and dead,

Some
light still glitters round his head:
⁷²

Grundy also accompanied Branwell on several jaunts back to Haworth to consult a well known fortune teller, something of which Patrick would have heartily disapproved.
⁷³

In fact, Branwell enjoyed some very respectable company at Luddenden Foot. A frequent visitor to his station offices, for instance, was the Reverend Sutcliffe Sowden, a young clergyman who was newly ordained and had only taken up his first appointment as incumbent of St James' Church at Mytholmroyd on 1 May 1841, moving to Hebden Bridge later that year. The two had much in common, being about the same age and sharing a love of the wild beauty of the Calderdale scenery. Sowden was a great walker and noted geologist and Branwell spent many happy hours exploring the countryside with him. Branwell was also well known among the local manufacturers: he possibly painted formal portraits in oils of John Titterington and his wife and certainly drew sketches of John Murgatroyd or George Richardson in his notebook.
⁷⁴
Significantly, it was the ‘merchants and mill-owners' of the Upper Calder Valley who raised and put their names to a petition on Branwell's behalf when he was dismissed from the railway, so he must have had many friends among this class.
⁷⁵
He was not simply mixing with the weavers and factory hands who formed the bulk of the population.

In Halifax, too, Branwell was able to enjoy the company of some of the most respected Yorkshire musicians, artists and writers of the day. Prominent among the first was John Frobisher, who had a finger in every musical pie in the district and had organized Liszt's triumphant concert. Leyland, the sculptor, was already an old friend and John Wilson Anderson, an artist Branwell knew from his days in Bradford, was a regular visitor.
⁷⁶
Among the writers were also old friends and new: William Dearden, for instance, a native of Hebden Bridge and an old family friend, who had known him as a child. Dearden was now based in Huddersfield, where he was principal of the King Street Academy, but he was a poet in his own right, known as the ‘Bard of Caldene', and had had his poetry published in the local press. John Nicholson, too, ‘The Airedale Poet', whom Branwell had probably met in Bradford, was a regular contributor to the Halifax and Leeds papers. Branwell must also have been introduced to the Halifax-based Thomas Crossley, the ‘Bard of Ovenden', who was a mainstay of the poetry columns of Yorkshire newspapers.
⁷⁷
Another minor poet who certainly did meet Branwell was William Heaton, who later produced a volume of poems entitled
Flowers of Caldervale
. Heaton, like Anderson and Dearden, was part of the Leyland circle and, like them, an admirer of Branwell Brontë.

Sometimes he was blithe and gay and at others he looked downcast and sad but if the conversation turned upon some topic that he was well acquainted with or
some Author that he loved he would rise from his seat and in beautiful and flowery language vindicate the man's character with a zeal that I never saw equal[le]d[.] Real[l]y his talents were of a superior kind. I have heard him quote pieces from the Bard of Avon, Shell[e]y Wordsworth and Byron as well as from Butler's Hudibrass in such a man[n]er as often made me wish that I was a scholler[.] At that time I was just beginning to write poetry tis true I had written many Pieces but they had never seen the light so one day I showed him one, which he pronounced very good considering the means that I had at my disposal[.] He lent me books that I had never seen before and was always ready to give me instruction[.] His temper was always mild towards me tis true he loved his cup as he frequently called his glass of Brandy but I shall never forget his love for the sublime and beautiful[.] he loved the beautiful works of nature and would tell us little stories about some pretty thing that he had seen[,] some lovely flower and some scarce thing that he had observed[.] the mountain stream and the woodland rill had their excel[l]encies for him and I have often heard him dillate on the sweet strains of the Nightingale and the bewitching thoughts that crost his mind the first time he heard one.
⁷⁸

In the company of friends such as these, Branwell received encouragement and helpful criticism. They formed a sort of informal society, meeting in the George Hotel in Market Street, Bradford, the Anchor and Shuttle at Luddenden Foot, the Lord Nelson at Luddenden and the Broad Tree, Union Cross, Talbot and Old Cock in Halifax. They even ventured out into Branwell's home territory, occasionally meeting at the Black Bull in Haworth and the Cross Roads, between Haworth and Keighley. The object of the meetings was not simply conviviality: those who were writers read aloud to the group the manuscripts of their latest books and poems for criticism by the other members.
⁷⁹

Branwell clearly took the advice of these friends to heart. His work at this period shows constant revisions, suggesting a painstaking search for the perfect turn of phrase which he had been too impatient to achieve in his juvenile work. Equally important, their example encouraged him to pursue again his lifelong ambition to see his poems in print. Within a month of taking up his post at Luddenden Foot, Branwell had his first poem published in the
Halifax Guardian
– some five years before his sisters achieved publication. It is often suggested that Branwell only got his poems in print through the offices of J. B. Leyland and that newspaper publication hardly qualifies as a recognition of talent. This is both churlish and unlikely.
Though Roberts Leyland had been the publisher and printer of the
Halifax Guardian
until 1837, there is no evidence to suggest that the Leylands had any influence with its current publisher, James Uriah Walker. More conclusively, Francis Leyland, in his biography of the Brontës, seems unaware that Branwell was actually published in the local press.
⁸⁰

The
Halifax Guardian
was justly proud of its poetry columns, welcoming gifts of ‘Original Poetry' but also publishing pieces by all the famous poets of the day. Nor did it hesitate to reject material which it considered beneath the high standards of which it openly boasted. The little editorial column addressed ‘To our Readers and Correspondents' frequently contained a stinging rebuke to some poor soul who had presumed to send his ‘feeble' verses for publication. On the other hand, it gave particular encouragement to poetry written specially for the
Halifax Guardian
, so that its poetry columns were usually fresher, more original and often of a higher standard than the conventional gushings from the likes of Mrs Hemans and Caroline Norton, which were reproduced in the Leeds and Yorkshire papers.

It was therefore a real achievement when Branwell had his first poem printed in the
Halifax Guardian
. There is no doubt that he sent the poem in himself, not through Leyland. A note appeared in the ‘To the Readers and Correspondents' section on 22 May 1841 stating that the editor could not find room for certain items sent that week and addressing ‘P.B.B.' in particular, adding, ‘The Poetry must for the above reason, stand over for a week.'
⁸¹
It was in fact a further two weeks before Branwell's poem, ‘Heaven and Earth' by ‘Northangerland', appeared under the banner of ‘Original Poetry (For the Halifax Guardian)'. Perhaps surprisingly, the poem was an affirmation of religious faith, contrasting the ‘circumscribed … scene' of human life with the infinity of Heaven.

On
Earth
we see our own abode,

A smoky town, a dusty road,

A neighbouring hill, or grove;

In
Heaven
a thousand worlds of light

Revolving through the gloom of night

O'er endless pathways rove.

While daylight shows this little Earth

It hides that mighty Heaven,