Brontës (185 page)

116.
CB to PB, 23 Sept 1829: MS Bon 159, BPM [
LCB
, i, 105].

117.
CB, untitled note, 25 Sept 1829: MS Bon 108, BPM.

118.
PB,
LM
, 14 Nov 1829 p.4 [
LRPB
, 70]. The Brontës may have been among the 600–700 people who attended a lecture in Keighley in March 1830 ‘On the moral influence of unrestricted commerce' by the editor of the
Leeds Mercury
, Edward Baines jnr, who had been one of the chief characters in the Young Men plays:
LM
, 6 Mar 1830 p.3.

119.
Ibid., 1May 1830 p.3;
LI
, 29 Apr 1830 p.3.

120.
Ibid., 6May 1830 p.4[
LRPB
, 72]. The government introduced a measure of reform in 1832, removing house-breaking, sheep-stealing and forgery but leaving over 200 crimes still on the list of capital offences; it was not until 1838 that the position for which Patrick had campaigned so long was adopted, abolishing the death penalty for all crimes except murder or attempted murder, treason and piracy on the high seas.

121.
LM
, 17 Apr 1830 p.3. There had been an epidemic of smallpox in Haworth and its neighbourhood in the winter and early spring: one Haworth man, Jesse Murgatroyd, lost all his 5 children to the disease: ibid., 23 Jan 1830 p.3.

122.
PB to Mrs Franks, 28 Apr 1831: MS BS 182 pp.2–3, BPM [
LCB
, i, 107]. Patrick's last duty before he was forced to take to his bed was a funeral on 18 June. Thomas Plummer took all the duties between 20 June and 10 July: Baptisms, Burials and Marriages, Haworth.

123.
CB, ‘The following strange occurrence', 22 June 1830: MS Eng 35.5, Harvard [JB
CBJ
, 74–5]. Mr Midgley, a Haworth contemporary of the Brontës, identified the mysterious caller as ‘an eccentric rather well to do gentleman farmer' who eventually died in a lunatic asylum: Edward Harrison to Revd A. Wilkes, 26 Nov 1879: MS BS ix, H, p.3, BPM [
BST
:12:63:204].

124.
PB to Mrs Franks, 28 Apr 1831: MS BS 182 pp.2–3, BPM [
LCB
, i, 107].

CHAPTER SEVEN: EMULATION REWARDED

Title: inscription on the silver medal awarded to Charlotte at Roe Head: HAOBP:J25, BPM.

1.
H.N. Pobjoy,
A History of Mirfield
(Driffield, 1969), 103. Roe Head is now part of a large residential school for children and young people with severe and multiple disabilities run by a charity, The Hollybank Trust.

2.
Leah and Maria Brooke were daughters of John Brooke, son-in-law of John Halliley snr and a partner in Halliley, Brooke and Co., carpet manufacturers of Dewsbury; Hannah Haigh was probably a member of the family at Longlands where Patrick stayed overnight with Mr Firth in 1817: see above, p.1002 n.52.

3.
Charlotte's fellow-pupils at Roe Head in 1831–2 included Ellen Nussey, Mary and Martha Taylor, Susan Ledgard, Hannah Haigh and Maria Brooke, whose names Charlotte recorded in a list inside the front cover of her copy of Mangnall's
Historical and Miscellaneous Questions
: HAOBP:bb215, BPM. These names correlate with those mentioned in Martha Taylor to EN, 17 May 1832: MS in Texas [
L&L
, i, 102], to which she adds Miss Hall and Miss Allison. Another pupil is identified by CB, pencil drawing ‘Amelia Walker', 17 Mar 1831 [A&S no.51]; she was Mrs Atkinson's niece. There were only 7 pupils in the school in 1841 by which time it had removed to Dewsbury Moor: Census Returns for Dewsbury Moor, 1841: Microfilm, WYAS, Kirklees. Ellen said that, during one half-holiday the girls held a ‘ball' but had only sufficient numbers for a quadrille and two Scotch reels, implying 4couples: EN, Reminiscences [
LCB
, i, 592]. The Brookes were from Dewsbury, Ellen from Birstall, the Taylors from Gomersal
and Hannah Haigh from Batley, all of which were within a 3–mile radius of Roe Head.

4.
PB to ECG, 20 June 1855: MS EL B121 p.4, Rylands [
LRPB
, 234];
L&L
, i, 84 n.1 quoting ‘a pupil'; CB to EN, May 1842: MS in Law [
LCB
, i, 284].

5.
There were 2 ladies' boarding schools in Keighley, one in High Street and one in Skipton Road: Pigot,
National & Commercial Directory
(1828–9), 989. For schools in Bradford and Halifax see ibid., 908–9, 937.

6.
Elizabeth Franks and Frances Atkinson had taken tea with the ‘Miss Woolers' at Purlwell: Firth, 15 May 1829.

7.
WG
CB
, 54, 67, probably following Yates, 100 and Chadwick, 91–2. There is no evidence to support this claim. The shortness of Charlotte's time at Roe Head suggests that 18 months was all that Patrick could afford; she worked hard at school out of a sense of moral obligation to her family because she regarded herself as ‘an object of expense to those at home', again suggesting that her father (or possibly her aunt) paid the fees: EN, Reminiscences [
LCB
, i, 591]. PB to Mrs Franks, 28 Apr 1831: MS BS 182, BPM [
LCB
, i, 106–7] implies that there had been no recent contact between him and Mrs Franks, suggesting that she cannot have played a role in the decision to send Charlotte to Roe Head.

8.
MT to ECG, 18 Jan 1856: MS n.l. [Stevens, 157–8]. This is the only source ever to suggest that Charlotte had an Irish accent. If Mary was right, then the accent must have been lost during Charlotte's schooldays. Though Branwell was sometimes labelled by his Irish ancestry (see below, pp. 314, 1060 n.71) no one ever claimed he had an Irish accent. Nor was one ever ascribed to Emily or Anne, though they had least contact with the world outside their home and might therefore have been expected to pick up any brogue Patrick retained after 30 years in England.

9.
EN, Reminiscenses [
LCB
, i, 589]. Ellen was taken to Roe Head on 25 Jan 1831 by her brother: Henry Nussey, Journal, 1830–2: MS Egerton 3268A p.16, BL.

10.
MT to ECG, 18 Jan 1856: MS n.l. [Stevens, 158–9]; EN, Reminiscences [
LCB
, i, 590].

11.
MT to ECG, 18 Jan 1856: MS n.l. [Stevens, 158].

12.
Ibid.; EN, Reminiscences [
LCB
, i, 590].

13.
MT to ECG, 18 Jan 1856: MS n.l. [Stevens, 158–9].

14.
Charlotte's copies of Richmall Mangnall,
Historical and Miscellaneous Questions
(London, 1813) and Mr Tocquot's
New and Easy Guide to the
…
French Language
(London, 1806), both inscribed ‘C Bront¯e Jany 17 1831' are HAOBP:Bb215 and bb62, BPM. Her copies of W. Pinnock,
A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language
(London, 1830) inscribed ‘C Bronte', and her annotated Lindley Murray,
English Grammar
(York, 1818) are HAOBP:bb46 and bb216, BPM. The last is variously inscribed ‘Jany 17 1832', ‘July 29th 1832 and ‘Augt 29th 1832', the first possibly not being genuine. It may be, therefore, that Charlotte acquired the book to use when teaching her sisters after she left school.

15.
CB, silver medal for achievement, HAOBP:J25, BPM. The inscription on
Le Nouveau Testament
(Edimbourg, 1829): HAOBPbb6, BPM has faded to the point of illegibility but is quoted from its entry in the Stock Book, BPM.

16.
CB, watercolours of wild roses ‘from nature', 13 July 1830, copy of a portrait of her mother, Oct 1830, and ‘Lycidas', Mar 1830: HAOBP:P.Br. C9.5, C10.5 and C13, BPM [A&S nos.28, 36, 129]. Charlotte's portrait of her mother is typically ‘prettified' by the addition of a frilly cap, puffed sleeves, curls and a less square chin than the original: the result, which Charlotte presented to her ‘her dear Aunt' Branwell, is that she looks like a young girl, instead of the more matronly figure of the original. ‘Lycidas' was copied from Fuseli's painting ‘Solitude at Dawn' (inspired by Milton's poem ‘Lycidas'), which was exhibited at Somerset House and reviewed by
BM
, xiv (1823), 10. Another of Charlotte's water-colours of this period, Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, 15 Dec 1830: HAOBP:P.Br C11, BPM [A&S no.39] was an illustration to a poem by Delta in
BM
, ii (1817), 165–6.

17.
CB, pencil drawing ‘Amelia Walker', 17 Mar 1831: HAOBP:P.Br C62, BPM [A&S no.51] was sold as lot 375 with lot 380, ‘Portrait of Susan Ledgerd', at the Binns' sale of Brontë Relics, 27 Jan 1886. Charlotte and Anne drew identical portraits in this same style, indicating they were from copy-books rather than from life: HAOBP:P.Br. C59 and Bon 7, BPM [A&S nos.52, 340]. For further examples of Charlotte's Roe Head drawings see A&S nos.42–77. Her drawing of Roe Head, unsigned and undated but authenticated by her father is virtually identical to those drawn by Anne Brontë and Susan Carter: HAOBP:P.Br. A9
and P136, BPM [A&S nos.62 and 339, p.42].

18.
EN, Reminiscences [
LCB
, i, 590].

19.
Ibid., 591.

20.
MT to ECG, [1857]: MS n.l. [Stevens, 163].

21.
MT to ECG, 18 Jan 1856: MS n.l. [Stevens, 158].

22.
EN, Reminiscences [
LCB
, i, 592].

23.
Ibid., 591. The half-holiday and ‘coronation performance' were probably to celebrate the coronation of William IV and his Queen on 8 Sept 1831:
LM
, 10 Sept 1831 p.3.

24.
EN, Reminiscences [
LCB
, i, 595]; C.W. Hatfield and C.M. Edgerley, ‘The Relatives of Miss Ellen Nussey',
BST
: 9:49:53–6. For the fullest account of Ellen and her family see Barbara Whitehead,
Charlotte Brontë and her ‘dearest Nell'
(Otley, 1993). The Rydings now stands incongruously in the midst of a paint factory: its beautiful land-scaped gardens have been destroyed.

25.
LM
, 4 Feb 1826 p.3; 18 Feb 1826 p.3. For a slightly different version see Whitehead,
Charlotte Brontë and her ‘dearest Nell'
, 20–1.

26.
MT to ECG, 18 Jan 1856 and [1857]: MSS n.l. [Stevens, 159, 162]. The Red House, Gomersal, refurbished as it was when Charlotte visited, is now a museum.

27.
Mrs Abraham Hirst of Roberttown was always sent to escort Charlotte to and from Green House: Yates, 100–1.

28.
EN, Reminiscences [
LCB
, i, 594].

29.
CB to Mrs Franks, May 1831: MS BS 38, BPM [
LCB
, i, 108]. The presents may have been for Charlotte's 15th birthday on 21 April 1831. The letter is signed ‘C Brontë', Charlotte apparently using the diaeresis on her surname for the first time.

30.
The memorial, together with one from the gentlemen, merchants, yeomen and tradesmen of what is now the Kirklees area, was signed on 6 December 1830:
LM
, 5 Feb 1831 p.3. Stocks had been acquitted by 24 March 1831 but as late as July letters were still flooding in to the Lord Lieutenant, most of them urging that he should not be readmitted to the magistracy: ibid, 24 Mar 1831 p.3; MSS in Harewood Archives, Lieutenancy Papers, Box 1, WYAS, Leeds. Stocks was readmitted at the end of June, incurring a condemnatory editorial in the Tory
Leeds Intelligencer
which disapproved of him and the support given him by the Whig
Leeds Mercury
:
LI
, 23 June 1831 p.3 and 14 July 1831 pp.2–3.

31.
PB to Mrs Franks, 28 Apr 1831: MS BS 182 pp.1–2, BPM [
LCB
, i, 106]. Patrick was in what his Tory friends would consider unsavoury company on this issue: Moses Saunders, the Baptist Minister of Haworth, and Abraham Wildman of Keighley, a notorious Radical and later Chartist, were among those agitating for the passing of the Bill:
LI
, 17 Mar 1831 p.3.

32.
CB to PBB, 17 May 1832: MS Gr. A pp.1–2, BPM [
LCB
, i, 112]. Ibid., 113 n.1 argues that the formal style and hand-writing suggest that this was a school exercise rather than a genuine letter home.

33.
Ibid., 112.

34.
PBB, The History of the Young Men, vol i, 15 Dec 1830–7 May 1831: MS Ashley 2468, BL [Neufeldt, i, 137–69]. This is the first of the children's little books to be written in the minuscule hand but on much larger pages, a format Branwell later adopted for all his books.

35.
PBB, Letters from an Englishman, vol ii, 8June 1831: MS in Brotherton [Neufeldt, i, 170–9]. ‘White bread' was loaves made from arsenic and oil of vitriol and ‘Prussian Butter' was prussic acid ‘transformed by a process with which I am not acquainted' into butter. The Brontës had a running joke about these poisons: for an advert for sale by auction of '20 loaves of the best white BREAD impregnated with Prussian BUTTER', placed by ‘Captain Make Thousands NOT EAT any more food for THE Remainder of their precious LIVES' see CB, YMM for November 1829, 9Sept 1829: MS Lowell 1(4), Harvard [CA, i, 87–8]. Adulteration of food, particularly flour by arsenic, was a serious problem at this time: more than 220 people were poisoned by arsenic trioxide in cheap peppermints in Bradford in November 1858 and 22 died: Robert Elmsley,
The Elements of Murder
(Oxford, 2005), 100.

36.
[EJB?], note on verso of title page of PBB, Letters from an Englishman, vol ii, 8June 1831: MS in Brotherton [Neufeldt, i, 170 n.1].

37.
Ibid., vol iii, 9–11 June 1831: MS in Brotherton [Neufeldt, i, 180–90]. CA
EW
, 74 argues that Branwell wrote almost all his ‘Letters from an Englishman' when Charlotte was at home, her enthusiasm and presence encouraging him to write. This argument cannot be substantiated. The dates of the Roe Head holidays are unclear but from the few letters of 1831–2 and 1835–8, when Charlotte was a teacher there, it would appear there were only 3annual holidays corresponding to the end of 3terms. The summer holiday seems to have been the 6weeks from around 17 June to the
last week in July, so Branwell's ‘Letters' must have been written before Charlotte's return home. The winter holiday began around 17 December and the new term began around 17 January. A possible Easter holiday in April is implicit in CB to EN, 10 May 1836: MS HM 24411 pp.1–2, Huntington [
LCB
, i, 143].