Brontës (201 page)

6.
For Charlotte's translation of Scott's
Lady of the Lake
, canto iii, 16 see CB, ‘coronach pour un montagnard écossais', [Spring 1843]: MS in Brotherton, bound with CB, ‘l'Immensité de Dieu', [1843]: [VN,
CB
, 364–5]. Her translation of Byron's
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
, canto iv, 140–1 is in CB, [William Wallace and other essays], [1843]: MS Ashley 160, BL [VN
CB
, 365–70]. Charlotte's translations of Louis Belmontet's ‘Les Orphelins' as ‘The Orphans', Feb 1843, and Auguste Barbier's ‘L'Idole' as ‘Napoleon', Mar 1843, are in CB Cahier of English Translations: MS MA 2696 R-V pp.1–5, 6–9, PM [VN,
CB
, 485–7, 355–6]. Draft lines for ‘Napoleon' are CB, ‘Thy France O straight-haired Corsican' and ‘O Corsican thou of the stern contour', [Mar 1843]: MS Bon 116 pp.1–2, BPM [VN,
CB
, 488–9].

7.
Manchester Athenaeum Album
(1850), 9–12.

8.
Astonishingly, the importance of these
devoirs
and their subject matter was not recognized until the publication of Sue Lonoff, ‘Charlotte Brontë's Belgian Essays: The Discourse of Empowerment',
Victorian Studies
, 32 no.3. (Indiana, 1989), 387–409.

9.
See above, p.453.

10.
CB, La Chute des Feuilles, 30 Mar 1843: MS in private hands [Lonoff, 242–5]. The original poem by Millevoye is one of the items in CB, Copy Book, [1842–3]: MS Bon 115 pp.14–16, BPM.

11.
CB, La Chute des Feuilles, 30 Mar 1843: MS in private hands [Lonoff, 246–7].

12.
Constantin Heger,
observation
, ibid., 246–9. I am grateful to Allegra Huston for suggesting the analogy between Calvinism and Charlotte's concept of genius.

13.
CB, La Mort de Napoléon, 31 May [1843]: MS BS 20 p.2, BPM [Lonoff, 270–1].

14.
Ibid., 272–3.

15.
Lonoff, ‘Charlotte Brontë's Belgian Essays', 396.

16.
CB, La Mort de Napoléon, 31 May [1843]: MS BS 20 p.2, BPM [Lonoff, 278–9].

17.
Lonoff, ‘Charlotte Brontë's Belgian Essays', 396.

18.
CB, Lettre d'un Pauvre Peintre à un grand Seigneur, 17 Oct 1843: MS p.3, Berg [Lonoff, 360–1]

19.
Ibid., 6–7 [Lonoff, 362–3].

20.
Ibid., 10–11 [Lonoff, 366–7].

21.
CB to Constantin Heger, 24 Oct 1844: MS Add 38732(B) p.4, BL [
LCB
, i, 371] says she has 2copies of Heger's speeches in her little library of books he had given her. For the copy he gave Emily see above, p.1064 n.41.

22.
CB, Lettre d'un Pauvre Peintre à un grand Seigneur, 17 Oct 1843: MS p.10, Berg [Lonoff, 364–5].

23.
CB,
The Professor
, 122–3.

24.
CB,
Villette
, 504–5; CB,
Shirley
, 485–90. Moore also makes Shirley recite Bossuet's ‘Le Cheval Dompté', which Charlotte had copied into her own notebook: MS Bon 115, 38–9, BPM.

25.
Constantin Heger to unidentified, n.d.: MS n.l. [Edith Weir, ‘New Brontë Material Come to Light',
BST
:11:59:256–7].

26.
Mr Westwood to unidentified, 21 Nov 1869–21 Feb 1870: MS 52,298 pp.3–4, Brown. Westwood's wife's cousin was also a former pupil and ‘just one of those intellectual pupils whom he was wont to single out for preference'. Heger had not only told her Charlotte's story but also shown her Charlotte's letters. ‘He is a finished specimen of a Jesuit,' Westwood commented, ‘but with all that a worthy & warm-hearted man … He remembers her with affection, Madame Beck with wrath.': ibid, pp.4, 2.

27.
CB to EN, 6 Mar [1843]: MS BS 50.4 p.2, BPM [
LCB
, i, 311].

28.
Ibid., p.2[
LCB
, i, 311].

29.
CB to EN, [?Apr 1843]: MS HM 24432 p.2, Huntington [
LCB
, i, 315].

30.
Ibid., p.2[
LCB
, i, 315].

31.
CB to PBB, 1May 1843: MS Ashley 161 pp.2–3, BL. [
LCB
, i 316–7].

32.
Ibid., pp.3–4[
LCB
, i, 317]; Das Neue Testament (London, 1835): HAOBP:bb98, BPM, inscribed on flyleaf in a mock-gothic script by Charlotte ‘Herr Heger hat mir dieses Buch gegeben Brussel Mai 1843 CB'. The gift coincides with, and may have prompted, Charlotte's resumption of German lessons.

33.
CB to EJB, 29 May 1843: MS n.l. [
LCB
, i, 320].

34.
CB to EJB, 2 Sept 1843: MS n.l. [
LCB
, i, 329], where Charlotte says ‘Mdlle Blanche's character is so false and so contemptible I can't force myself to associate with her. She perceives my utter dislike and never now speaks to me – a great relief.'

35.
CB to EJB, 29 May 1843: MS n.l. [
LCB
, i, 320].

36.
CB to EN, [?late June 1843]: MS 2696 R-v pp.3–4, PM [
LCB
, i, 325].

37.
Abraham Dixon snr to Mary Dixon, 24 July 1843: MS E2002.13, BPM. Jenkins's duties appear to have been taken at least temporarily by either his brother, David Jenkins, incumbent of Pudsey, or more likely, his nephew, who was curate of Batley. At the beginning of August Charlotte heard ‘a voice proceed from the pulpit' of the Chapelle Royale ‘which instantly brought all Birstal and all Battley before my mind's eye': though she could not see him, it was Jenkins, who later called round with news that Ellen's sister Sarah had died and that Ellen herself had gone to Harrogate: CB to EN, 6 Aug 1843: MS BS 50.6 pp.1–2, 4, BPM [
LCB
, i, 327–8].

38.
CB to EN, 13 Oct [1843]: MS HM 24433 p.2, Huntington [
LCB
, i, 354]. Susanna Mills is not mentioned in any correspondence but she wrote to the
South Wales Echo
in May 1901 to say she had been a contemporary of Charlotte, Emily and the Wheelwrights at the school. She offered no insights or memories of them, though she did say that she remem-bered them well: C.K. Shorter,
The Brontës: Life and Letters
(London, 1908), i, 233 n. For Maria Miller see CB to Laetitia Wheelwright, [
c
.23 June 1852]: MS n.l. [
LCB
, iii, 54]. Maria was particularly friendly with Laetitia Wheelwright at the school and the family considered her to be the model for Ginevra Fanshawe in
Villette
: Green, ‘The Brontë-Wheelwright Friendship', i, 33.

39.
CB to EN, 6Aug 1843: MS BS 50.6 pp.1–2, BPM [
LCB
, i, 327].

40.
CB to EJB, 2Sept 1843: MS n.l. [
LCB
, i, 329–30].

41.
Ibid., 330.

42.
CB,
Villette
, 199–200.

43.
Ibid., 201–2.

44.
CB to EJB, [1 Oct 1843]: MS n.l. [
LCB
, i, 331]. Tiger was the family cat.

45.
CB to EN, 13 Oct [1843]: MS HM 24433 p.2, Huntington [
LCB
, i, 334].

46.
CB,
Villette
, 440; CB, Cahier d'Arithmétique, Sept 1843: MS Bon 119, BPM, in which Charlotte noted that her Professor was Heger: only 8 pages were completed, suggesting that the lessons did not last long.

47.
Charlotte's last 2devoirs were written in October: CB, Athènes sauvée par la Poësie, 6Oct 1843: MS Bon 120, BPM; CB, Lettre d'un Pauvre Peintre à un grand Seigneur, 17 Oct 1843: see above, pp.490–1. A fair copy revision of the first essay is the last piece of work she produced for Heger: CB, Athènes sauvée par la Poësie, 22 Dec 1843: MS in Bonnell Coll, PM.

48.
CB to EN, 13 Oct [1843]: MS HM 24433 p.2, Huntington [
LCB
, i, 334]; CB note inside the back cover of Russell's
General Atlas of Modern Geography
(London, n.d.): MS 2696 R-V, PM.

49.
CB to Mary Dixon, 16 Oct 1843: MS p.2, Princeton [
LCB
, i, 336]; CB to EN, [?late June 1843]: MS 2696 R-V p.2, PM [
LCB
, i, 324], to which Charlotte adds ‘This opinion is for you only, mind –'. See also, CB to EN, 13 Oct [1843]: MS HM 24433 p.2, Huntington [
LCB
, i, 334].

50.
CB to EJB, 19 Dec 1843: MS n.l. [
LCB
, i, 339].

51.
CB to Laetitia Wheelwright, [Dec 1843]: MS in Kentucky; Abraham Dixon snr to Mary Dixon, 30 Dec 1843: MS Dixon 13, BPM. The note, ‘Denk op my on ik zal op u denken N Vrindinne Pensez à moi et je penserai toujours à Vous Votre amie Charlotte', purports to be Charlotte's autograph but appears to me to be in another hand. The Dixon letter was given to Charlotte to deliver to Mary in England, thus avoiding the huge postal charges incurred by sending from Belgium.

52.
CB to EN, 23 Jan 1844: MS in Law, photograph in MCP, BPM [
LCB
, i, 341].

53.
Ibid.

54.
Ibid. Charlotte later apparently corresponded on affection terms with Mathilde, a former pupil, belying her claims to have loathed all her Belgian students: Mathilde to CB, [?July 1844]: MS ix, M, BPM [
LCB
, i, 352–4]. It was addressed to ‘Mademoiselle Charlotte Brontë Angleterre' so must have been in a properly addressed package of letters from Brussels. Though found in Charlotte's writing desk it is possible that this was not a genuine letter but actually a school exercise.

55.
CB to PB, [?2June 1843]: MS n.l. [
LCB
, i, 321].

56.
BO
, 9 Mar 1843 p.5; Burials, Haworth. On 12 March Smith simply signed his name; seven days later he signed it again adding the title ‘curate'.

57.
LI
, 18 Mar 1843 p.5.

58.
BO
, 30 Mar 1843 p.5. Busfeild, who had also failed in his attempt to lay a church rate, retaliated by ordering the Keighley church clock to be stopped, allegedly so that Dissenters did not have the benefit of its services: it was not restarted till the beginning of November. He engaged in further petty persecutions, stopping his subscription to Mr Crabtree's newspaper reading rooms because an antichurch rate poster had been displayed there: Ibid, 13 July 1843 pp.5, 7; 17 Aug 1843 p.5; 20 July 1843 p.6. Since Patrick had to rely on a voluntary subscription instead of a formal church rate he made economies, similarly stopping the Haworth church clock so that the clock-winder did not have to be paid and temporarily dispensing with the services of the bell-ringers for the same reason: PB to Revd John Sinclair, 4 Aug 1843: MS in National Society Coll, CERC [
LRPB
, 147];
BO
, 13 July 1843 p.5.

59.
PB,
LI
, 27 May 1843 p.6 [
LRPB
, 140].

60.
PB,
HG
, 29 July 1843 p.3 [
LRPB
, 144–5]. The letter was written on 29 June in response to a discussion with the editor whom Patrick had met at the last annual visitation to the archdeaconry of Craven. Patrick is referring to the agitation in Ireland to repeal the Act of Union (1801); the secession in May 1843 from the Church of Scotland of 474 ministers who would found a separate church; the campaign to repeal the corn laws which, despite poor harvests and famine, kept the price of corn artificially high in England; and the ‘Rebecca' riots against tolls on roads in Wales.

61.
PB to Hugh Bront¯e, 20 Nov 1843: MS BS 191 pp.1–4, BPM [
LRPB
, 155]. Patrick asks for their brother William's address and sends greetings to his ‘Brothers, and Sisters, and all old Friends, who may now be living', implying he had lost contact with them. William may have merited a separate letter because he had fought as a United Irishman in 1798: see above, p.4.

62.
PB,
LM
, 15 July 1843 p.6[
LRPB
, 140–1].

63.
PB,
LI
, 2 Sept 1843 p.8[
LRPB
, 150–1].

64.
PB,
LI
, 22 July 1843 p.8[
LRPB
, 142]. Dissenters' objections to the bill are neatly summarized in the biography of a leading Bradford campaigner, G.., Condor,
Memoir and Remains of the Late Rev. Jonathan Glyde, Pastor of Horton Lane Chapel
(London, 1858), 106–11.

65.
Patrick was signatory to a bill calling for the inauguration of a Bradford Church Institution:
BO
, 6July 1843 p.8. See also William Morgan, ibid., 13 July 1843 p.8. The vicar and all the parish incumbents except Morgan signed the bill.

66.
PB to Revd John Sinclair, 4Aug 1843: MS in National Society Collection, CERC [
LRPB
, 147].

67.
BO
, 26 Oct 1843 p.8.

68.
Ibid., 28 Dec 1843 p.5;
LI
, 3Feb 1844 p.5. The importance of the opening of a Church day-school was immediately recognized by the Dissenters in the township. A month later the Haworth Wesleyan Methodists opened their own day-school run on the Glasgow training system and offering ‘a good English and commercial education':
BO
, 29 Feb 1844 p.5.

69.
PB to Revd W.J. Kennedy, 27 Nov 1843, copying Revd John Sinclair to PB, 6Oct 1843: MS in National Society Colln, CERC [
LRPB
, 156]; PB to principal inhabitants of Haworth, 28 Jan 1844: MS RMP 746a, WYAS, Calderdale. This copy, sent to Mrs Taylor of Stanbury, is not in Patrick's hand – a reflection of his deteriorating eye-sight. The National School did not have its own dedicated premises but used the Sunday school buildings.

70.
PB to Revd W.J. Kennedy, 9 Jan 1844: MS in National Society Collection, CERC [
LRPB
, 163]. The quotation is from Proverbs: ch.3v.17.

71.
Dr Scoresby to PB, 4Jan 1844: MS Heaton B143 p.6, WYAS, Bradford. Patrick sent this letter on to one of the trustees, Robert Heaton, whose address he wrote on its wrapper. See also
HG
, 3Feb 1844 p.5;
BO
, 8Feb 1844 p.8. The latter paper later declared that the original endowment providing £20 p.a., which was to be divided into £18 for the schoolmaster's salary and £2for distribution among the poor, was now worth £80. It therefore argued that £72 (a mistake for £62) should now be given to the poor.