Bronte biographers part I (till 1900) I am still busy with this blog, so it can change.

I am reading the Bronte Myth of Lucaste Miller

In the years after Elisabeth Gaskell till  1900

• Rumours about the relationship between Charlotte Bronte and Constantin Heger.
• Biographers and writers believed or attached these rumours.
• Biographers believed that everythng Charlotte wrote is from her life
• Working class education started.
• Cheap editions of the novels flooded the market
• English literature began to take root as an academic subject.
• Concept ideal women artist. A new spiritality. Charlotte's subdued social manner is spiritual superiority.
• Emily appeared as child of the moors.
• No careful examination of the evidence, but devotion to the subjects
• The question came up: Who did write Wuthering Heights? Branwell or Emily Bronte or together?
• Women wanted  role models who symbolized female freedom from social conventions.

BIOGRAPHERS  ( and writers)

 

1867 William Dearden "Who wrote Wuthering Heights"?

 

Under the headline 'Who wrote Wuthering Heights?' Dearden described a meeting which had taken place in the summer of 1842 between himself, Branwell and their sculptor friend Joseph Leyland at the Cross Roads Inn between Haworth and Keighley. A month earlier, the two poets had each agreed to produce a verse composition set in the mythical time before the Deluge. But when Branwell arrived at the appointed pub to show off his handiwork, he found that he had accidentally picked up the wrong manuscript. What he read out was not the antediluvian poem 'Azrael or the Eve of Destruction' he had written in answer to Dearden's challenge, but a fragment whose scene and characters 'so far as then developed' were, according to Dearden, 'the same as those in Wuthering Heights, which Charlotte Bronté [sic] confidently asserts was the production of her sister Emily'. bronteblog/wuthering-heights-at-cross-roads-inn
kleurrijkbrontesisters/william-dearden

 

 

 

1883 Laura Carter Holloway An hour with Charlotte Bronte  

 

1877   Thomas Wemyss Reid- Charlotte Brontë: A monograph e-book charlottebronte 

Had been given access by Ellen Nussey to correspondence

 of Charlotte's which Mrs. Gaskell had not seen

He hinted that Charlotte ""had tasted strange joys"" at the Pensonnat Heger

 

1883 Gutenberg/ EMILY BRONTË/ Mary Robinson (click the link to read the book)

The Life of Emily Brontë

Mary Robinson wrote to Ellen Nussey asking for help with material.

She wanted  to humanize Emily, a free spirit, child of the moors.

She wanted to give a "Death blow"" once and for all to the theory that Branwell Bronte had written Wuthering Heights

-----------

How could a simple young woman, a clergyman's daughter, have created the brutal and passionate Heathcliff? The first biography of Emily was by A. Mary F. Robinson, Emily Brontë (1883, reprinted 1978) Mary Robinson, thought she had found the answer. Emily herself was not a bad person; no, she was a bright, charming girl. It was her older brother Branwell, who had put such evil thoughts into her head. Emily was, in Robinson's biography, an innocent victim of his depravity—so close to Branwell that she had no choice but to pour her agonized soul and his agonized sufferings into a strange book. (Miller, 238-241) maidsbrmyths

 

1899  Marion Harland Charlotte Bronte at home

Believed Charlotte could not be emotially attached to Heger.

  

1911 gutenberg/ Malham Dembleby/The key tot the Bronte's work

There is nothing in Charlotte' s novels that is not a direct copy from life.

He believed Charlotte Bronte wrote also Wuthering Heights 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crimson curtains

facebook/Bronte-Parsonage-Museum=stream: At long last our new, specially-woven curtains - as close as we can get to those ordered by Charlotte for the room - are up! Made from union cloth and dyed crimson, Charlotte was unhappy with the colour. The good news is, we love them!

The dining room would also have been used to entertain visitors, and therefore it is the room most often described in articles and contemporary accounts. Like the bedroom directly above, this room was enlarged by Charlotte in 1850. The dining room, sometimes called the parlour, is furnished in a simple style. Elizabeth Gaskell said, 'The parlour has evidently been refurbished within the last few years, since Miss Brontë's success has enabled her to have a little more money to spend... The prevailing colour of the room is crimson... bronte/museum-and-library/inside-the-parsonage

Late last year a document in faded brown ink fluttered out of a book

Every so often a Brontë object or document so rare and precious comes up for sale that it's hard to believe it could end up anywhere but here at the Parsonage. Late last year a document in faded brown ink fluttered out of a book whose owners had never before suspected its existence. Closer inspection revealed it was addressed to 'M Heger', and, anticipating that it might be something very special, its owners took it to a London agent for identification. A very important appeal from the Brontë Society:

Photographs on Pennistone and the Bluebell

hathawaysofhaworth had a photograph taking day yesterday

 and  took several photographs on Pennistone.

 

From this weblog: The past image is of  the gown with a correct shaped collar which I made myself out of vintage Victorian lace as early collars from the 1830s are too expensive for everyday work wear so I thought I would share the shots of the collar these are taken at  the St Ives estate nr Bingley, the bluebells are just starting to come out there so its a nice trio if your staying in Haworth as it’s not far from Haworth.

 

 

The Bluebell

The Bluebell is the sweetest flower
That waves in summer air:
Its blossoms have the mightiest power
To soothe my spirit's care.

Emily Bronte
literature/bronte

A fine and subtle spirit dwells
In every little flower,
Each one its own sweet feeling breathes
With more or less of power.
There is a silent eloquence
In every wild bluebell
That fills my softened heart with bliss
That words could never tell.

Anne Bronte
The_Bluebell-by-Anne_Bronte

L'Amour Filial

Keighley News gives more details about the Brontë Society appeal for bringing to Haworth an unpublished manuscript by Charlotte Brontë, L'Amour Filial:

The Brontë Society is seeking help raising funds to buy the work, a homework essay written by Charlotte for the man she loved.
The society was told in December of the previously unknown piece, which is in private ownership.
A single-page document, written in French on both sides, it was assigned as homework by Charlotte’s teacher, Monsieur Constantin Heger, at the Pensionnat Heger school he and his wife ran in Brussels. Heger has added his corrections to the work.(...)
The Bronte Society declined to say how much it needed to buy the manuscript, entitled L’Amour Filial, but said it had already been “generously supported” by the Victoria & Albert Purchase Fund and the Friends of National Libraries.
Society chairman, Sally McDonald, said: “The fact this work is unpublished adds enormously to its significance. We are delighted to launch this appeal and thank all those who have so far contributed.”
Visit bronte.org.uk to make a donation.

thebrusselsbrontegroup/heger 

We had very early cherished the dream of one day becoming authors.

 This dream, never relinquished even when distance divided and absorbing tasks occupied us, now suddenly acquired strength and consistency: it took the character of a resolve. We agreed to arrange a small selection of our poems, and, if possible, get them printed. Averse to personal publicity, we veiled our own names under those of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell; the ambiguous choice being dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because—without at that time suspecting our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called "feminine"—we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice; we had noticed how critics sometimes use for their chastisement the weapon of personality, and for their reward, a flattery, which is not true praise.

Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell, 1850
(as reproduced in Wuthering Heights, Norton edition, page 308)

edu//lesson01

Art inspiration Charlotte Bronte

 

 

bbc/yourpaintings/paintings/charlotte-bronte

 

I am thinking for a long time

 to make a watercolor of Charlotte Bronte

On Internet I was searching for some ideas

 I asked myself what did other artist do?

 

lyndallgordon

 

 

reconstructionists/

You can find here more portraits of famous women

 

best-graphic-novels-graphic-nonfiction-2012

 

etsy/jane-eyre-art

 

etsy/jane-eyre-Charlotte

 

bbc/paintings/charlotte-bronte

Charlotte Bronte and her clothes

Ann Dinsdale's new book At Home with the Brontës

The Telegraph & Argus carries an article about Ann Dinsdale's new book At Home with the Brontës and the  paperback release of The Brontës at Haworth: So much has been written about the Brontës, you might wonder what could be said about them that hasn’t been said before.  But local expert Ann Dinsdale has found enough material for two quite different books drawing on the famous family of writers.

The Brontës at Haworth is published by Frances Lincoln while At Home with the Brontës is from Amberley Publishing, both costing £14 99.  In the first book Ann, the librarian at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, presents a thorough, comprehensive account of the Brontës and the people and places that shaped them.  She considers the family and their work within the social and historic context of Haworth, and explores how the village came to be a world-famous literary shrine.


Ann traces the story of each family member, explores their novels and poetry, and presents a detailed picture of Haworth in the mid-19th century.  The book is beautifully illustrated with rarely-seen images from the Haworth archives, including drawings by Charlotte and Emily, and haunting pictures by photographer Simon Warner.  While Ann creates a vivid picture of 19th century Haworth, she doesn’t romanticise the place. (...)At Home with the Brontës has been published to coincide with a new exhibition at the museum which focuses on the building and those who lived in it.
Ann explores the impact of the Brontës’ home on the sisters’ writing and what it was like for their successors living in a literary shrine. (...)  Ann uses a variety of sources, mostly unpublished, to portray the stories. bronteblog/a-vivd-picture-of-19th-century-haworth

While I am searching on Google I find another book of Ann Dinsdale. I didn't know this book.

Haworth has long been labelled Bronte country' but did you know that Cumbria, Derbyshire and the East Coast can also lay claim to the literary clan? As the title suggests, Bronte Connections explores the family's link with areas around the county, from Rawdon to Scarborough. The illustrated volume contains 43 photographs of places associated with the Brontes' lives and works, and a map tracing the locations. The book wouldn't be complete without photographs of Haworth. These include Main Street - "with its higgledy-piggledy cottages and ginnels, looking much as the Brontes would have known it" - and Haworth Old Hall which served as Wuthering Heights in the first film adaptation of Emily's novel. There's a lovely 1900 photograph of the Haworth Ramblers, all wearing bowler hats and pocket watches, congregating outside Middle Witherns, a moorland farmhouse familiar to the Brontes, and also included is Top Withens, the inspiration for Wuthering Heights.

Read on: thetelegraphandargus

It is a pleasure to honour her in this modest way, in the coastal town she loved so much.”

 

The Scarborough News covers the story of the recent ceremony at Anne Brontë's grave, including a video as well.

Overlooking the serene South Bay, nestled among the ageing headstones in what is now partly a car park, is the burial place of one of England’s great literary heroines.
However, the passing of time left Anne Bronte’s grave at St Mary’s Church almost undetectable, with weather scarring the headstone as crumbling chunks of lettering fell from the frontage. The decaying dedication posed a dilemma for The Bronte Society, which wanted to preserve the grave but not disturb the tribute that had been put in place by Anne’s sister Charlotte. The resolution was to place a new plaque at the site of the grave, carrying the wording of the original headstone as well as the correction of a few mistakes. To mark the installion of the interpretive plaque members of The Bronte Society travelled from far and wide for a dedication and blessing service at the Scarborough church, paying respect to the author famous for writing Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Led by the Rev Martin Dunning, the service featured prayers and readings of several of Anne’s works by members of the Society.
Speaking from the graveside following the service, Sally McDonald, chairman of The Bronte Society’s council, said: “Today is the culmination of several years of decision work about what to do to make sure that the headstone is preserved but that the grave isn’t disturbed. Read on: bronteblog/it-is-pleasure-to-honour-her-in-this

Charlotte Brontë: Astrology and Birth Chart

astrotheme/Charlotte Bronte

“Do you know that I was in Leeds......

maggieblanck 

“Do you know that I was in Leeds on the very same day with you last Wednesday? I had thought of telling you where I was going, and having your help and company in buying a bonnet, &c., but then I

reflected this would merely be making a selfish use of you, so I determined to manage or mismanage the matter alone. I went to Hurst and Hall’s for the bonnet, and got one which seemed grave and
quiet there amongst all the splendours; but now it looks infinitely too gay with its pink lining. I saw some beautiful silks of pale sweet colours, but had not the spirit nor the means to launch out at the rate of five shillings per yard, and went and bought a black silk at three shillings after all. I rather regret this, because papa says he would have lent me a sovereign if he had known. I believe, if you had been there, you would have forced me to get into debt.... arthursbookshelf 

The Illustrated London News of September 11, 1858 stated that Leeds was the "largest and most flourishing" city in Yorkshire, the fifth in England "in point of population and commercial activity. The population in 1851 was 172,270. The number of inhabited houses in 1851 was 36,165
 Leeds


 

29, 30, & 31 August 2014 at the Scarman Conference Centre, Warwick University

The Brontë Society is pleased to announce that the conference will take place on 29, 30, & 31 August 2014 at the Scarman Conference Centre, Warwick University

In the nineteenth century the term, ‘Condition of England’ was applied mainly to the economic and commercial problems of the nation. For this conference we would like to broaden the meaning to include, if possible, some of the other major national concerns of the day, which would have impacted on the Brontë family and possibly influenced their works. Some of the most obvious examples are: development of the railways; controversy over home-rule for Ireland; abolition of slavery; Catholic emancipation; Law reform; and the Chartist Movement. The last topic is particularly pertinent, as Haworth was at the very centre of the rapid industrialisation of the former cottage industries of wool-combing, spinning, and weaving.

In addition to formal papers, we are looking to include a limited number of seminar sessions on the conference theme, and are calling for proposals and leaders for these sessions.

Abstracts for papers and proposals for seminar sessions should be sent to: The Conference Organiser, Brontë Society, Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth, Keighley BD22 8DR, or by email here.

Deadline for receipt of submissions: February 28, 2014

Abstracts should be limited to no more than 300 words.

Successful speakers will be notified no later than March 31, 2014

Ceremony at Anne Brontë's grave

The Yorkshire Post reports on Saturday's ceremony at Anne Brontë's grave.

BRONTË fans from across the country gathered at Anne Brontë’s grave at the weekend to dedicate a new memorial slab which corrects a 164-year-old mistake in the original headstone. [...]

Charlotte made the burial arrangements from Haworth and while she attended the service, it is thought she must have failed to check the headstone’s inscription, resulting in her sister’s age appearing as 28.

The Brontë Society had grown increasingly concerned about both the error and weather damage which has left the headstone’s writing almost unreadable. On Saturday, a service of dedication was held at the graveside to mark the official unveiling of the plaque, laid without publicity in 2011.
Brontë Society chairman Sally McDonald said: “This was a place Anne very much loved. I do not ever think of this as a tourist destination. I think of it as a place of pilgrimage and it is right Anne’s resting place is properly identified for those who arrive here.” bronteblog/a-place-of-pilgrimage

Timetable. (Under construction)

13-12-1852      Mr. Nicolls proposed marriage to Charlotte
05-01-1853      Charlotte set out for London. Correcting the proofs for Vilette.
     02-1853      Back in Haworth

 

The Bishop of Ripon, Reverend  Dr. Charles Longley paid a visit. 
Charlotte:"" Mr. N. demeaned himself not quite pleasantly.  I thought he made no effort to struggle with his dejection but gave way to it in a manner to draw notice; the Bishop was obviously puzzled by it.  Mr. Nicholls also showed temper once or twice in speaking to papa.  Martha was beginning to tell me of certain “flaysome” looks also, but I desired not to hear of them:""wiki/Charles_Longley

      04-1853     Charlotte visits Mrs. Gaskell in Manchester.

15-05-1853      Last communion service Mr. Nicolls.

"Having ventured on Whit Sunday to stop the sacrament, I got a lesson not to be repeated.  He struggled, faltered, then lost command over himself—stood before my eyes and in the sight of all the communicants white, shaking, voiceless. Joseph Redman spoke some words to him.  He made a great effort, but could only with difficulty whisper and falter through the service.  I suppose he thought this would be the last time; he goes either this week or the next.  I heard the women sobbing round, and I could not quite check my own tears".

      08-1853     Mr Nicolls is writing to Charlotte that he will become the the curate of Kirk Smeaton. After let many letters unanswered Charlotte writes back. By the autumn they were in regular
correspondence.

     09-1853     Mr Gaskell is visiting Haworth. Elizabeth Gaskell asks Richard Monckton Milnes to give Mr. Nicolls a pension. Richard_Monckton_Milnes

During the troubled period when Patrick was opposing his daughter’s connection with Arthur Bell Nicholls he met him (his family seat was close to Kirk Smeaton, whither Nicholls had “exiled” himself) and dangled in front of him two chances of possible Church preferment, which Nicholls refused. At Mrs Gaskell’s instigation he attempted to get him a pension, but he was – unusually for him – unsuccessful. blackwellreference


21-11-1853 Charlotte receives a letter from Mrs. Smith about the wedding plans of George Smith.This may have helped finally to pave the way for mr. Nicolls. She braved her father's wrath  and demanded to be allowed the meeting for which Mr. Nicolls had asked.the meeting.

• George Smith was unmarried, and, though eight years younger than Charlotte, she was clearly attracted to him, writing to her friend Ellen Nussey in January 1851:

‘Were there no vast barrier of age, fortune etc. there is perhaps enough personal regard to make things possible which are now impossible. If men and women married because they like each others’ temper, look, conversation, nature and so on – and if besides, years were more closely equal – the chance you allude to might be admitted as a chance – but other reasons regulate matrimony – reasons of convenience, of connection, of money. Meantime I am content to have him as a friend – and pray to God to continue to me the commonsense to look on one so young, so rising and so hopeful in no other light...’

• Many years after Charlotte’s death the author Mrs Humphry Ward asked Smith directly whether he had ever been in love with Charlotte. He replied:

‘No, I was never in the least bit in love with Charlotte Brontë... The truth is I never could have loved any woman who had not some charm or grace of person, and Charlotte Brontë had none. I liked her and was interested by her, and I admired her – especially when she was in Yorkshire and I was in London. I never was coxcomb enough to suppose that she was in love with me. But I believe that my mother was at one time rather alarmed.’

• Smith’s mother had no cause for alarm, however. In February 1854 he married the pretty, very sociable, eminently suitable Elizabeth Blakeway. Four months later Charlotte herself was married to Arthur Bell Nicholls, her father’s curate. george-smith 

    

01-1854 Mr. Nicolls came to stay for 10 days with his friend  Mr Sowden at Oxenhope. Here in the bitterly cold weather  Charlotte and Mr. Nicolls met and walked. Charlotte had the opportunaty to become better acquainted.   the-blue-snow-of-new-england

Elizabeth Gaskell  wrote that Charlotte told her father

Father, I am not a young girl, nor a young woman, even--I never was pretty. I now am ugly. At your death I will have £300 besides the little I have earned myself--do you think there are many men who would serve seven years for me?... Yes, I must marry a curate if I marry at all; not merely a curate but your curate; not merely your curate but he must live in the house with you, for I cannot leave you.

In a letter to Miss Wooler, a friend, she wrote of her engagement:
"I must tell you then, that since I wrote last, papa's mind has gradually come round to a view very different to that which he once took; and that after some correspondence, and as the result of a visit Mr. Nicholls paid here about a week ago, it was agreed that he was to resume the curacy of Haworth, as soon as papa's present assistant is provided with a situation, and in due course of time he is to be received as an inmate into this house.

24-02-1854   The situation had caused a cooling in the friendship on Nussey's part, who was probably jealous of Brontë's attachment to Nicholls, having thought they would both live as spinsters.
Answer of  MARY TAYLOR to ELLEN NUSSEY on a letter Ellen waswriting.

""You talk wonderful nonsense abt C. Bronte in yr letter. What do you mean about "bearing her position so long, & enduring to the end"? & still better -- "bearing our lot whatever it is". If it's C's lot to be married shd n't she bear that too? Or does your strange morality mean that she shd refuse to ameliorate her lot when it lies in her power. how wd. she be inconsistent with herself in marrying? Because she considers her own pleasure? If this is so new for her to do, it is high time she began to make it more common. It is an outrageous exaction to expect her to give up her choice in a manner so important, & I think her to blame in having been hitherto so yielding that her friends can think of making such an impudent demand"".

11-04-1854 Charlotte announced her engagement in a letter to Ellen Nussey

18-04-1854   Charlotte Bronte made up a marriage settlement in anticipation of her marriage to Arthur Bell Nicholls. Charlotte.s marriage settlement was unusual because most marriage settlements stated that if the wife predeceased the husband and was childless, only then would the money revert to the husband. In Charlotte Brontë.s case, the intention of the marriage settlement was to exclude Arthur Bell Nicholls altogether, because if Charlotte died childless, the money would go to her father, Patrick Brontë. As it turned out, Charlotte later revoked this marriage settlement before her death by

changing her will, and leaving everything to her husband.

22-05-1854   Before her marriage in 1854 Charlotte converted the room into a study for her future husband, the Revd. Arthur Bell Nicholls, who in 1845 had come to assist her father as curate at Haworth Church. A fireplace was added to the room and the present doorway created into the entrance hall.

Describing her preparations for the room's conversion in a letter dated 22 May 1854, Charlotte wrote: '...I have been very busy stitching - the little new room is got into order now and the green and white curtains are up - they exactly suit the papering and look neat and clean enough.' Three wallpaper samples were found in Charlotte's writing desk. A fourth sample, held in the New York Public Library, is accompanied by a note, authenticated by Elizabeth Gaskell, which describes it as being a 'Slip of the paper with which Charlotte Brontë papered her future husband's study, before they were married'. bronte-parsonage

08-05-1854           CATHERINE WINKWORTH to EMMA SHAEN,

If only he is not altogether far too narrow for her, one can fancy her much more really happy with such a man than with one who might have made her more in love, and I am sure she will be really good to him. But I guess the true love was Paul Emanuel [Charlotte's character in VILLETTE based off M. Heger] after all, and is dead; but I don't know, and don't think that Lily [Mrs. Gaskell] knows...

29-06-1854 The marriage took place at Haworth.

Henceforward the sacred doors of home are closed upon her married life. We, her loving friends, standing outside, caught occasional glimpses of brightness, and pleasant peaceful murmurs of sound, telling of the gladness within; and we looked at each other, and gently said, "After a hard and long struggle - after many cares and many bitter sorrows - she is tasting happiness now!" We thought of the slight astringencies of her character, and how they would turn to full ripe sweetness in that calm sunshine of domestic peace. We remembered her trials, and were glad in the idea that God had seen fit to wipe away the tears from her eyes. Those who saw her, saw an outward change in her look, telling of inward things. And we thought, and we hoped, and we prophesied, in our great love and reverence. life-of-charlotte-bronte-elizabeth.html
 

He continued to write to Charlotte, and while she initially did not respond to his letters, they gradually developed a clandestine correspondence, and met secretly whenever Nicholls stayed with the family of Reverend Joseph Brett Grant near Haworth.

Charlotte's own accounts of this courtship and eventual engagement, given in her letters to Ellen Nussey as it went along, could not be bettered in the finest novel in the world. Mr. Bronte's jealous fury, expressing itself as snobbish resentment - a curate with £100 a year marry his famous daughter! Mr. Nicholl's stubborn passion, which almost unseated his reason - he would not eat or drink; stayed shut up in his lodgings at the Browns' (though he still took poor old Flossy out for walks); broke down in the Communion Service, while the village women sobbed around; was rude to a visiting Bishop; resigned his Haworth curacy and agreed to remain till Mr. Bronte found another curate; volunteered as a missionary to Australia but finally took a curacy at Kirk Smeaton, in the West Riding itself. Charlotte, exasperated by Nicholl's lack of the qualities she desired in a husband, infuriated by her father's ignoble objections to the match, conscious of the absence of alternatives. The villagers, torn between opposing parties - some say they would like to shoot Mr. Nicholls, but they gave him a gold watch as a parting present. What a tragic drama - or a roaring comedy, depending on its result. Love, coupled with Charlotte's loneliness and Mr. Bronte's dissatisfaction with his new curate, Mr. De Renzi, triumphed." bronte_Charlotte

Reverend Arthur Bell Nicholls, who had been licensed to the curacy of Haworth in June 1845, had first professed his affection for Charlotte Brontë in December 1852, to the great disapproval of her father Reverend Patrick Brontë. Charlotte consequently refused him, and Nicholls left for a curacy at Kirk Smeaton near Pontefract. He continued to write to Charlotte, and while she initially did not respond to his letters, they gradually developed a clandestine correspondence, and met secretly whenever Nicholls stayed with the family of Reverend Joseph Brett Grant near Haworth. Patrick Brontë gradually though grudgingly increased his acquaintance with Nicholls and eventually consented to a marriage between him and Charlotte.brontes-1854

Reverend Joseph Brett Grant
As the population had increased because of the mills, the Rev. Patrick Bronte of Haworth sent his curate, the Rev. Joseph Brett Grant to start the church in Oxenhope. He had to hold services in a house at the top of the catsteps, although nobody now knows which one it was. He was allowed to perform baptisms, but marriages and funerals could only take place in a church. As a school and vicarage were needed as well as a church, it was decided to build the school first. This was completed in 1846, and services were held there. The Rev. Brett Grant raised money by approaching people, telling them he needed money to build a church, holding out his hand and asking them how much they would give him. Charlotte Bronte described him in her novel 'Shirley' under the name of the Rev. Don, adding that he had walked so far he had worn out 14 pairs of shoes! She quite rightly described him as 'the champion beggar'. As a result of his persistence, the foundation stone was laid on 14 February 1849 and the finished building was consecrated by the Bishop of Ripon on 11 October 1849 OxenhopeVillage/history

I found him leaning against the garden door in a paroxysm of anguish, sobbing as women never sob. Of course I went straight to him.

TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

‘May 19th, 1853.

‘Dear Ellen,—I cannot help feeling a certain satisfaction in finding that the people here are getting up a subscription to offer a testimonial of respect to Mr. Nicholls on his leaving the place.  Many are expressing both their commiseration and esteem for him.  The Churchwardens recently put the question to him plainly: Why was he going?  Was it Mr. Brontë’s fault or his own?  “His own,” he answered.  Did he blame Mr. Brontë?  “No! he did not: if anybody was wrong it was himself.”  Was he willing to go?  “No! it gave him great pain.”  Yet he is not always right.  I must be just.  He shows a curious mixture of honour and obstinacy—feeling and sullenness.  Papa addressed him at the school tea-drinking, with constrained civility, but still with civility.  He did not reply civilly; he cut short further words.  This sort of treatment offered in public is what papa never will forget or forgive, it inspires him with a silent bitterness not to be expressed.  I am afraid both are unchristian in their mutual feelings.  Nor do I know which of them is least accessible to reason or least likely to forgive.  It is a dismal state of things.
‘The weather is fine now, dear Nell.  We will take these sunny days as a good omen for your visit to Yarmouth.  With kind regards to all at Brookroyd, and best wishes to yourself,—I am, yours sincerely,

‘C. Brontë.’

TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

‘Haworth, May 27th, 1853.

‘Dear Ellen,—You will want to know about the leave-taking?  The whole matter is but a painful subject, but I must treat it briefly.  The testimonial was presented in a public meeting.  Mr. Taylor and Mr. Grant were there. Papa was not very well and I advised him to stay away, which he did.  As to the last Sunday, it was a cruel struggle.  Mr. Nicholls ought not to have had to take any duty.

‘He left Haworth this morning at six o’clock.  Yesterday evening he called to render into papa’s hands the deeds of the National School, and to say good-bye.  They were busy cleaning—washing the paint, etc., in the dining-room, so he did not find me there.  I would not go into the parlour to speak to him in papa’s presence.  He went out, thinking he was not to see me; and indeed, till the very last moment, I thought it best not.  But perceiving that he stayed long before going out at the gate, and remembering his long grief, I took courage and went out, trembling and miserable.  I found him leaning against the garden door in a paroxysm of anguish, sobbing as women never sob.  Of course I went straight to him.  Very few words were interchanged, those few barely articulate.  Several things I should have liked to ask him were swept entirely from my memory.  Poor fellow!  But he wanted such hope and such encouragement as I could not give him.  Still, I trust he must know now that I am not cruelly blind and indifferent to his constancy and grief.  For a few weeks he goes to the south of England, afterwards he takes a curacy somewhere in Yorkshire, but I don’t know where.

‘Papa has been far from strong lately.  I dare not mention Mr. Nicholls’s name to him.  He speaks of him quietly and without opprobrium to others, but to me he is implacable on the matter.  However, he is gone—gone, and there’s an end of it.  I see no chance of hearing a word about him in future, unless some stray shred of intelligence comes through Mr. Sowden or some other second-hand source.  In all this it is not I who am to be pitied at all, and of course nobody pities me.  They all think in Haworth that I have disdainfully refused him.  If pity would do Mr. Nicholls any good, he ought to have, and I believe has it.  They may abuse me if they will; whether they do or not I can’t tell.

‘Write soon and say how your prospects proceed.  I trust they will daily brighten.—Yours faithfully,

‘C. Brontë.’