Brontës (220 page)

95.
Ibid, 4Mar 1854 p.5; 18 Mar 1854 p.5.

96.
CB to Francis Bennoch, 27 Jan 1854: MS BS 92 p.2, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 222].

97.
CB to Sydney Dobell, 3 Feb 1854: MS n.l. [
LCB
, iii, 224].

98.
Miss Wooler's brother William, for instance, a medical practitioner who had already published
The Philosophy of Temperance, and the Physical Causes of Moral Sadness
(1840) consulted Charlotte about publishing more of his ‘political progress' work: she advised him that Smith, Elder & Co. were unlikely to accept it as they dealt chiefly with fiction, warned him against publishing at his own risk and suggested he made disposal of the copyright ‘an indispensable preliminary' so as to avoid loss: CB to Dr W.M. Wooler, 31 Mar 1853: MS BS 88, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 147, 148 n.1]. See also CB to MW, 13 Apr 1853: MS FM 21 p.4, Fitzwilliam [
LCB
, iii, 154–5].

99.
CB to Henry Garrs, 22 Feb 1854: MS BS 93 p.1, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 227]; CB to Henry Garrs, 17 Mar 1854: MS BS 94 p.3, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 234]. Scruton, 114–15, quoting Abraham Holroyd, gives this story a very different slant, saying that Garrs first came to Holroyd for advice; on learning of his relationship with the Brontë servants, Holroyd advised him to consult Charlotte so he travelled to Haworth where Charlotte instantly recognized him (‘Why, you are
Nancy's brother') despite never having met him before. She listened to his plans, advised him against publishing, citing the difficulties
Poems
1846 had encountered, and later, though unwell, dictated a letter to her father urging Garrs not to publish. A few weeks later £5 came from the Earl of Carlisle, clearly procured through her intervention. Though one can see where the story came from it is contradicted in all its most important aspects by Charlotte's own letters to Garrs: there is no suggestion of a personal meeting (certainly not before the first letter), both are in her own hand and her advice
was
to publish. Garrs later sent Patrick his patriotic verses on the Crimean War: PB to Henry Garrs, 2 Apr 1856: MS BS 202, BPM [
LRPB
, 244].

100.
CB to T.C. Newby, 18 Mar 1854: MS BS 94.1, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 235].

101.
CB to EN, 1 Mar 1854: MS Montague [
LCB
, iii, 230–1]; CB to EN, 7 Mar 1853: MS HM 26004, Huntington [
LCB
, iii, 231–2]; CB to EN, [?22 Mar 1854]: MS Bon 249, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 236], where Charlotte avoids telling Ellen that she was expecting a visit from Nicholls by saying that ‘a prior engagement this month' prevented her going to stay with Miss Wooler at Hornsea.

102.
CB to EN, [28 Mar 1854]: MS pp.2–3, Princeton [
LCB
, iii, 237].This letter was evidently a reply to one from Ellen turning down an invitation to Haworth.

103.
CB to EN, [1Apr 1854]: MS BS 94.5 pp.1–2, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 238]; CB to ECG, 3 Apr 1854: MS EL fB91 p.2, Rylands [
LCB
, iii, 239].

104.
CB to EN, 11 Apr 1854: MS p.3, Pforzheimer [
LCB
, iii, 240].

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: SO HAPPY

Title: Charlotte to Nicholls: ‘Oh! I am not going to die, am I? He will not separate us, we have been so happy': ECG,
Life
, 455.

1.
CB to EN, 11 Apr 1854: MS pp.3–5, Pforzheimer [
LCB
, iii, 240].

2.
CB to MW, 12 Apr 1854: MS FM 26 p.3, Fitzwilliam [
LCB
, iii, 242].

3.
CB to EN, [15 Apr 1854]: MS BS 95.2 p.3, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 244]; CB to ECG, [?18 Apr 1854]: MS n.l. [
LCB
, iii, 247]; CB to EN, 28 Apr 1854: MS BS 95.4 pp.1–2, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 253].

4.
CBto EN, [15 Apr 1854]: MS BS 95.2 pp.2–4, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 244].

5.
LI
, 22 Apr 1854 p.6. ‘The meeting deeply regretted the inability of their incumbent, the Rev. P. Brontë, to be present, he having for some time been in a weak state of health.'

6.
PB to Revd James Cheadle, 18 Apr 1854: MS BS 198.5, BPM [
LRPB
, 221]; CB to MW, 12 Apr 1854: MS FM 26 p.4, Fitzwilliam [
LCB
, iii, 243].

7.
CB to Francis Bennoch, 11 Apr 1854: MS BS 95, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 241]; CB to EN, [15 Apr 1854]: MS BS 95.2 p.1, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 244].

8.
CB to EN, 11 Apr 1854: MS p.3, Pforzheimer [
LCB
, iii, 240]; CB to EN, [21 May 1854]: MS Gr. E27 pp.2–3, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 263]. For part of the conversion cost, amounting to £915s 17d, see CB, Expenses of House Repairs, 22 Apr 1854: MS p.1, in private hands.

9.
CB to GS, 18 Apr 1854: MS SG 89 pp.1–3, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 245].

10.
CB to GS, 25 Apr 1854: MS SG 90 pp.1–4, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 250–1].

11.
BO
, 20 Apr 1854 p.5;
LI
, 22 Apr 1854 p.8; CB to ECG, 26 Apr 1854: MS EL fB91 p.2, Rylands [
LCB
, iii, 251–2]. Patrick himself preached on the Day of National Humiliation and Prayer: CB to EN, 28 Apr 1854: MS BS 95.4 p.1, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 253].

12.
CB to ECG, 26 Apr 1854: MS EL fB91 pp.2–3, Rylands [
LCB
, iii, 252]. Charlotte repeated similar remarks in conversation with Catherine Winkworth a few days later: ‘He is a Puseyite and very stiff; I fear it will stand in the way of my intercourse with some of my friends. But I shall always be the same in my heart towards them. I shall never let him make me a bigot. I don't think differences of opinion ought to interfere with friendship, do you?': Catherine Winkworth to Emma Shaen, 8May 1854 [Shaen (ed),
Memorials of Two Sisters
, 113]. The reference which made Nicholls groan was to ‘The present successors of the apostles, disciples of Dr Pusey and tools of the Propaganda, were at that time being hatched under cradle-blankets, or undergoing regeneration by nursery-baptism in wash-hand-basins': CB,
Shirley
, 6.

13.
CB to EN, 28 Apr 1854: MS BS 95.4 pp.2–3, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 253].

14.
ECG to John Forster, [17 May 1854] [C&P, 289]. Gaskell was wrong in thinking Patrick ‘sightless': see above p.1116 n.44.

15.
ECG to Richard Monckton Milnes, 20 Apr [1854] [C&P, 277–8]. It seems unlikely that Nicholls ever received any financial benefit from Gaskell's intervention: he turned down the posts offered and does not
seem to have received a pension. This letter suggests the benefit was purely psychological: ‘I can't help fancying your kind words may have made him feel that he was not so friendless as he represented & believed himself to be at first; and might rouse his despondency up to a fresh effort.' For the letter describing Nicholls' puzzlement see ECG to John Forster, [17 May 1854] [C&P, 289].

16.
Catherine Winkworth to Emma Shaen, 8 May 1854 [Shaen (ed),
Memorials of Two Sisters
, 112–13].

17.
Ibid., 114–15.

18.
CB to EN, 6 May [1854]: MS Bon 250 pp.1–2, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 255]; CB to Amelia Taylor, [late Dec 1854]: MS p.2, Brotherton [
LCB
, iii, 311].

19.
CB to EN, 6May [1854]: MS Bon 250 pp.1–2, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 255]; CB to EN, [15 Apr 1854]: MS BS 95.2, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 244]. CB to [?Mrs Gaskell], [?early June 1854]: MS BS 95.7, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 266] describes the wedding-dress and Charlotte's purchase of a ‘sort of fawn-coloured silk' and a ‘drab barège [silk gauze] with a little green spot in it'. For the wedding-dress see below n.30. The silk dress (actually a two-piece) is preserved intact as HAOBP:D51, BPM; pieces from the spotted barège, or its left-over material, were cut up as mementoes for souvenir hunters: see for example, HAOBP: D59, BPM. ‘I got my dresses from Halifax a day or two since – but have not had time yet to take the cord off the box – so I don't know what they are like': CB to EN, [11 June 1854]: MS Gr. E28 p.3, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 268].

20.
CB to EN, 14 May 1854: MS HM 26005 pp.2–3, Huntington [
LCB
, iii, 260]; CB to EN, 7 June 1854: MS HM 26007 p.3, Huntington [
LCB
, iii, 267].

21.
CB to EN, [11 June 1854]: MS Gr. E28 p.2, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 268]; CB to EN, [16 June 1854]: MS Gr. E29 pp.1–2, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 269–70]. Charlotte was being unfair to de Renzy as he returned to Haworth to assist while Patrick was on his own. Among the substitutes Nicholls found were William Mayne, incumbent of Ingrow near Keighley (30 June), de Renzy himself (21 July) and Joseph Grant (29 July): Baptisms, Haworth. De Renzy also performed 5 bap-tisms on 16 July and Thomas Crowther 10 on 23 July, the day he preached the Sunday school sermons and raised £18 12s: Baptisms, Haworth;
LI
, 29 July 1854 p.6. On 10 July Patrick personally performed the only marriage during the honeymoon period: Marriages, Haworth.

22.
CB to EN, [21 May 1854]: MS Gr. E27 pp.3–4, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 253]. Chadwick, 477 quoting Martha Brown, says that when the specialist pronounced that there was no hope for Charlotte, Patrick had come down to the kitchen and said to her ‘I told you, Martha, that there was no sense in Charlotte marrying at all, for she was not strong enough for marriage': this suggests that Patrick had feared that pregnancy or child-birth might prove fatal for his daughter.

23.
CB to EN, 27 May 1854: MS HM 26006 pp.1–3, Huntington [
LCB
, iii, 264–5].

24.
CB, Marriage Settlement, 24 May 1854: MS BS x, B, BPM. The settlement is transcribed and discussed in Juliet Barker ‘Subdued Expectations: Charlotte Brontë's Marriage Settlement',
BST
:19:1&2:33–9.

25.
The small discrepancy between this sum and the £1684 7s 6d which Charlotte thought she had invested may be an error or, more likely, the cost of setting up and stamping the settlement deeds: ibid., 35. Charlotte had originally suggested that George Smith should remain responsible for remitting the dividends but had deferred to Joe Taylor's opinion on the matter: CB to Mr Carr, 22 May 1854: MS BS 95.6, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 264].

26.
CB to EN, [15 Apr 1854]: MS BS 95.2 p.3, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 244]. In my original article I suggested that the clause reflected Charlotte's unease about Nicholls' motives in marrying her. Fraser,
Charlotte Brontë
, 463 argues that Patrick was more likely to have insisted on the arrangement for Charlotte's protection. I now believe that Charlotte was trying to ensure that her father would not lose financially by her marriage: she wanted to give him the security of her capital if she died before him.

27.
CB to EN, [11 June 1854]: MS Gr. E28 pp.3, 1–2, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 268]. A deleted couple of lines on p.2seem to indicate irritation: ‘.

28.
CB to EN, 27 May 1854: MS HM 26006 p.4, Huntington [
LCB
, iii, 265]; CB to EN, 7June 1854: MS HM 26007 p.4, Huntington [
LCB
, iii, 267]; CB to EN, [11 June 1854]: MS Gr. E28 p.3, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 268]; CB to EN, [16 June 1854]: MS Gr. E28 pp.2–4, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 270]. See also CB to MW, 16 June 1854: MS FM 27 pp.1–2, Fitzwilliam [
LCB
, iii, 271].

29.
[John Robinson], ‘Love Story of Charlotte Brontë: Wedding Recollected',
Keighley News
, 27 Oct 1923 p.8. Robinson was 86 years old when he was interviewed on the occasion of his diamond wedding anniversary.

30.
CB to MW, 22 Aug 1854: MS FM 29 p.4, Fitzwilliam [
LCB
, iii, 286]; ECG,
Life
, 450. The wedding-dress was preserved by Nicholls who bequeathed it to his niece, Charlotte Brontë Nicholls, but with instructions that she should burn it before she died so that it could not be sold. His wishes were carried out in 1954 but Miss Nicholls's own niece, Margaret Ross, saw it and described it, enabling a copy to be made which periodically has been lent for display at the Brontë Parsonage Museum: see
Yorkshire Post
, 19 June 1967 p.5 for a photograph. The bonnet is HAOBP:D2, BPM; the lace mantle (described as the veil but not matching Charlotte's description of it (see above, p.889) and too large to be one) is HAOBP:D97, BPM [JB
ST
, no.53].

31.
CB to MW, 16 June 1854: MS FM 27 pp.2–3, Fitzwilliam [
LCB
, iii, 271]; ECG,
Life
, 450. No other guests were invited. The 18 names on Charlotte's wedding list were to receive cards informing them of the marriage, not invitations to the ceremony, as suggested by Fraser,
Charlotte Brontë
, 465–6.

32.
CB to Martha Brown, 28 July 1854: MS BS 96 p.1, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 281]. Patrick's last-minute abstention from the marriage of his only daughter was not unique: Wordsworth had withdrawn in similar circumstances when his daughter Dora married Edward Quillinan in 1841, and in 1849, when his friend Benson Harrison was unequal to the task of giving away his daughter in marriage, acted in his stead: Juliet Barker,
Wordsworth: A Life
(London, 2000), 717, 798.

33.
CB/ABN, Marriage Certificate, 29 June 1854: MS BS Copy Docs, BPM; [John Robinson], ‘Love Story of Charlotte Brontë: Wedding Recollected',
Keighley News
, 27 Oct 1923 p.8; EN to GS, 28 Mar [1860]: MS File 7 no.4, JMA; CB to ECG, [early June 1854]: MS BS 95.7, BPM [
LCB
, iii, 266]. The dress is HAOBP:D74, BPM. For notices of the wedding in the local press see
HG
, 1 July 1854 p.8;
LI
, 1July 1854 p.8;
BO
, 6 July 1854 p.5.

34.
CB to EN, [29 June 1854]: MS p.1, Berg [
LCB
, iii, 274]. This is the first extant letter to bear Charlotte's married name ‘C.B.N[icholls]' though it is inconceivable that she did not write to her father at the same time.