Brontës (180 page)

71.
Franks actually dined with Elizabeth Firth the night she rejected Patrick: ibid., 14 Dec 1821. Margot Peters,
Unquiet Soul
(New York, 1975), 4says Patrick was rejected in ‘a friendly but decisive way' but a 2-year refusal to have anything to do with him seems anything but ‘friendly'. Patrick called to ‘renew acquaintance' on 4October 1823 which is presumably when the quarrel was patched up: Firth, 4Oct 1823.

72.
ECG,
Life
, 43. The older biographies follow this line without exception as does Peters,
Unquiet Soul
, 6–8. Chitham,
A Life of Emily Brontë
, 19–23 seems to believe all the stories against Patrick and even Fraser, 27–9, with some qualifications, accepts the subdued view of life at the parsonage.

73.
[Nancy Garrs],
IllustratedWeeklyTelegraph
, 10 Jan 1885 p.1. Nancy said Aunt Branwell was a ‘bit of a tyke', keeping the key to the cellar herself and personally dispensing a gill of beer to each servant daily: Helen Arnold, ‘The Reminiscences of Emma Huidekoper Cortazzo: A Friend of Ellen Nussey',
BST
: 13:68:227.

74.
ECG,
Life
, 470. The Garrs sisters were so upset by Martha Wright's accusations that they obtained a testimonial from Patrick stating that, whilst in his service, they ‘were kind to my children, and honest, and not wasteful': PB to Whom it May Concern, 17 Aug 1857: MS BS 204, BPM [
LRPB
, 259].

75.
PB to Revd William Gaskell, 7Apr 1857: MS EL B121 p.1, Rylands [
LRPB,
252]; [Nancy Garrs],
Illustrated Weekly Telegraph
, 10 Jan 1885 p.1; William Dearden,
BO
, 20 Aug 1857 p.8. A meat jack was the mechanism for turning a spit to roast meat.

76.
See, for example, EJB/AB, Diary Paper, 24 Nov 1834: MS Bon 131, BPM [JB
BLL
, 29–30]; CB to EJB, 1 Oct 1843: MS n.l. [
LCB
, i, 331]; EN, Reminiscences: MS p.62, KSC [
LCB
, i, 600].

77.
ECG,
Life
, 46.

78.
Ibid., 469–72; PB to Revd William Gaskell, 7Apr 1857: MS EL B121 p.3, Rylands [
LRPB,
253]; [Nancy Garrs],
Illustrated Weekly Telegraph
, 10 Jan 1885 p.1. Lady Kay Shuttleworth, whose home at Gawthorpe Hall was close to Burnley, where Wright lived, passed on the anecdotes to Mrs Gaskell when she and Charlotte were her guests in the Lakes in 1850: ECG to Catherine Winkworth, [25 Aug 1850] [C&P, 124–5].

79.
William Dearden,
BO
, 20 Aug 1857 p.8; [Nancy Garrs],
Illustrated Weekly Telegraph
, 10 Jan 1885 p.1.

80.
William Dearden,
BO
, 20 Aug 1857 p.8. Though Gaskell protested that Charlotte herself had told her the anecdote, Patrick flatly denied it: ‘With respect to tearing my wife's slik [sic] gown, my dear little daughter must have been misinform'd', pointing out that he had always advised his children to wear silk or wool as being less flammable than cotton: PB to ECG, 30 July 1857: MS EL B121 p.2, Rylands [
LRPB
, 258].

81.
ECG,
Life
, 46.

82.
William Dearden,
BO
, 20 Aug 1857 p.8.

83.
William Dearden,
BO
, 27 June 1861 p.7.

84.
Ibid., 20 Aug 1857 p.8. Dearden quotes an American review of ECG,
Life
, which described Patrick as ‘this moody, wretched parson, a man who, like a mad dog, ought to have been shot, or like a victim of its bite, smothered between two feather beds. Society is far too tolerant of these domestic hyenas, who are perpetual glooms upon their households'; Maria is portrayed as ‘this poor, persecuted woman [who] died, a victim to the dogged, gloomy ascet[ic]ism of the believer in the Thirty-Nine Articles'. Though an extreme view, this review still represents the popular view of Patrick, derived from Gaskell, which persists today.

85.
William Dearden,
BO
, 27 June 1861 p.7.

86.
PB to ECG, 24 July 1855: MS EL B121 pp.2–3, Rylands [
LRPB
, 237]; ECG,
Life
, 47.

87.
PB to ECG, 30 July 1855: MS EL B121 pp.5–7, Rylands [
LRPB
, 239]; ECG,
Life
, 47–8.

88.
Marian Harland,
Charlotte Brontë at Home
(New York, 1899), 32 quoting Sarah Garrs.

89.
Ibid., 17–24.

90.
Chadwick, 63, possibly on the authority of Nancy Garrs, says that Patrick ‘made a practice of telling them stories to illustrate a geographical or history lesson, and they had to write it out the next morning. Consequently they thought it out in bed – a habit Charlotte continued all her life in connection with her stories.' Dearden also says ‘Mr Bronté was in the habit of giving instruction to his children at stated times during the day, adapted to their respective ages and capacities. He had too high an appreciation of the value of education to neglect his duty in that particular, as a father of a family': William Dearden,
BO
, 20 Aug 1857 p.8.

91.
Herbert, ‘Charlotte Brontë: Pleasant Interview with the Old French Governess of This Famous Author': special correspondence to ‘The Post': typescript of original cutting from scrapbook of Mary Stull, a descendant of Sarah Garrs. BPM.

92.
EN, Reminiscences [
LCB
, i, 593].

93.
PB to John Buckworth, 27 Nov 1821:
The Cottage Magazine
(1822), 245 [
LRPB
, 43]; ECG,
Life
, 50, 64, 95, 98.

94.
Harland,
Charlotte Brontë at Home
, 31–22 quoting Sarah Garrs. For the Brontë children's books see below, p.173–4.

95.
ECG,
Life
, 43, 46; Harland,
Charlotte Brontë at Home
, 19–20; Peters,
Unquiet Soul
, 6–7.

96.
In 1829 Charlotte wrote that they took the
Leeds Intelligencer
(Tory) and the
Leeds Mercury
(Whig) and saw three other papers each week: CB, History of the Year, 12 Mar 1829: MS Bon 80(11), BPM [
JB CBJ
, 2]; ECG,
Life
, 69.

97.
LM
, 20 July 1822 p.3. The exact date of the death of Patrick's mother is not known though L&D, 25 say she died in 1822.

98.
LM
, 21 Dec 1822 p.3. Wilson was founder and governor of the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge, see below, pp.138 ff.

99.
LM
, 8 Feb 1823 p.3.

100.
Isabella Dury to Miss Mariner, 14 Feb 1823: MS BS ix, D p.1, BPM [L&D, 237].

101.
PB to Mrs Burder, 21 Apr 1823: MS n.l. [
LRPB
, 45–6].

102.
MS Minute Book of the Wesleyan Academy, Woodhouse Grove: MS at WGS [11 Apr and July 1823]; Methodist Conference, 30 July 1823:
Minutes of the Methodist Conferences
(London, 1864), v, 419.

103.
PB to Mary Burder, 28 July 1823: MS n.l. [
LRPB
, 47–8].

104.
PB to Mary Burder, 1 Jan 1824: MS n.l. [
LRPB
, 49].

105.
Mary Burder to PB, 8Aug 1823: MS n.l. [
L&L
, i, 65–6].

106.
PB to Mary Burder, 1Jan 1824: MS n.l. [
LRPB
, 49].

107.
Ibid., 50.

CHAPTER FIVE: CHARITY-CHILDREN

Title: CB,
Jane Eyre
, 50.

1.
Firth, 4 and 6 Oct 1823.

2.
Though Florence Nightingale is famous for changing Victorian attitudes towards nursing, this was not to happen till the 1850s: at this period it was still a despised profession restricted exclusively to the working classes.

3.
PB,
The Maid of Killarney
, 115 [
Brontëana
, 178]. In fairness to Patrick it should be pointed out that he qualifies the remark by saying that although, as a general rule, women should not be educated like men, there were honourable exceptions. He also encouraged his own daughters in their pursuit of learning well beyond the standards of the day.

4.
Richmal Mangnall,
Historical and Miscellaneous Questions for the Use of Young People
(London, 1813). The Brontës had their own copy of this book which Charlotte and Anne used at Roe Head: HAOBP:bb215, BPM.

5.
Obituary of Richmal Mangnall in
LM
, 13 May 1820 p.3.

6.
Elizabeth Firth, Prize Cards, 11 Apr 1811 and 25 Mar 1813: MS 58 C5.i and ii, University of Sheffield.

7.
Firth, 1812, 1813.

8.
See, for instance, WG
AB
, 17.

9.
PB to ECG, 20 June 1855: MS EL B121 p.4, Rylands [
LRPB
, 234].

10.
LI
, 4Dec 1823 p.1. A pseudo-prospectus, drawn up as a joke and featuring a ‘Singing and Scourge-Mistress', has unfortunately been accepted at face value by a number of biographers after it was published by Edith Weir, ‘Cowan Bridge: New Light from Old Documents',
BST
:11:56:20–1. Its authenticity was first questioned by Myra Curtis, ‘Cowan Bridge School: An Old Prospectus Re-examined:
BST
:12:63:187–92.

11.
LI
, 4Dec 1823 p.1.

12.
A typical school of this period, such as Robinson's Academy for young ladies at
Spring Wood Field near Huddersfield, cost £27 p.a., with an additional one guinea entrance fee and 14s. a quarter charge for laundry: Ibid., 1 June 1824 p.1.

13.
Ibid., 6 Nov 1823 p.3.

14.
Ibid., 22 Jan 1824 p.2.

15.
Charlotte may have read Charles Dickens' savage indictment of Yorkshire schools in
Nicholas Nickleby
(1838–9) as she scrawled ‘Dotheboys Hall' and ‘Squeers' on the back of a ms: CB, ‘I have now written a great many books', n.d. [
c
.1839]: MS Bon 125(1) verso, BPM.

16.
LI
, 4 Dec 1823 p.1.

17.
Wilson preached regularly in Keighley, for instance, on behalf of the Bible Society, Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, the Keighley National Schools and Sunday Schools: ibid., 30 Dec 1822 p.3; 25 Oct 1827 p.3;
LM
, 21 Oct 1826 p.3; 28 Oct 1826 p.3; 25 Oct 1828 p.3; 30 Oct 1830 p.3.

18.
Dury was a trustee by 1827 and with his wife, sister and father, was also a donor or subscriber to the school:
[Report on the] School for Clergymen's Daughters
(Kirby Lonsdale, 1827), 3, 14.

19.
See, for example, WG
CB
, 1–16; WG
PBB
, 9–10; Chitham,
A Life of Emily Brontë
, 29–47.

20.
ECG,
Life
, 51.

21.
CB to WSW, 4Jan 1848: MS HM 26008, Huntington [
LCB
, ii, 3–4].

22.
ECG,
Life
, 51.

23.
Ibid., 51–62.

24.
Ibid., 53–4; CB,
Jane Eyre
, 48. At Woodhouse Grove each boy also had ‘a piece of ground about three yards long and two yards and a half broad for a garden, which we are to cultivate ourselves': John S. Stamp to his father, 29 Feb 1812 [Slugg, 340].

25.
See above, pp.61, 62.

26.
CB,
Jane Eyre
, 50.

27.
[Report on the] School for Clergymen's Daughters
(Kirby Lonsdale, 1827), 5.

28.
LI
, 6Nov 1823 p.3; Slugg, 165 referring to 1822–8 when the boys were provided with a ‘seal-skin' cap, dark blue cloth jacket and corduroy trousers which had to last the year.

29.
CDSAR, nos. 1–44 inclusive. Charlotte was no. 30, Emily no. 44. ECG,
Life
, 48 quoting Miss Evans, one of the superin-tendents of the school during the Brontë period.

30.
CDSAR, nos. 38 (Mellany Hane) and 37 (Charlotte Hane); PB to ECG, 30 July 1855: MS BL B121 p.1, Rylands [
LRPB
, 238–9]. ECG,
Life
, 61 wrongly states that Mellany's fees were paid by her brother: according to the CDSAR, he only paid her sister's: Mellany's were paid by the Clergy Orphans' Society. WG
CB
, 9 wrongly asserts that Charlotte was the youngest girl at the school: Elizabeth Hayes and Martha Thompson, both 6, were already there when Charlotte arrived; 2 months later she was joined by her own 6-year-old sister Emily and 3 other girls aged 8: CDSAR, nos. 16, 26, 35, 42, 43.

31.
CB,
Jane Eyre
, 52–3.

32.
LI
, 22 Jan 1824 p.2. At Bowes school, 300 boys washed without running water in a single horse trough and shared 2towels between them: ibid., 6Nov 1823 p.3; Slugg, 22–3. At Woodhouse Grove in 1855–61 one boy complained that when the open-air water tank was low the washing water had ‘a number of grubs, worms and decaying leaves' in it: C.W. Towlson,
Woodhouse Grove School, 1812–1962
(Rawdon, 1962), 32.

33.
CB,
Jane Eyre
, 44–52.

34.
Guide leaflet, Parish Church of St John the Baptist, Tunstall, Cumbria.

35.
‘CMR' to ABN, 26 May 1857: MS p.4in private hands. I have been unable to iden-tify ‘CMR': there are no girls with those initials or the initials ‘CM' as forenames in CDSAR. She was living in Leeds when she wrote to Nicholls.

36.
‘Clericus' to ABN, July 1857: MS p.3in private hands. ‘Clericus' was writing on behalf of his wife, Maria Gauntlett, see below n.41. It is worth noting that Charlotte's supporters all used initials or pseudonyms rather than their own names. As Gaskell said, ‘many who are now offering me testimony in proof of my correctness are poor people, – I mean governesses, strug-gling surgeons' wives, schoolmistresses &c. – who say I
may
make use of their names, if absolutely necessary – but that it may seriously injure them if I do. And of course I must do anything rather than bring them into trouble': ECG to GS, 5June [1857] [C&P, 451].

37.
John S. Stamp to his father, 11 April 1812 [Slugg, 341–2].