Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle Part 65

{275} Miss Bronte was paid 1500 pounds in all for her three novels, and Mr. Nicholls received an additional 250 pounds for the copyright of _The Professor_.

{280} A Mr. Hodgson is spoken of earlier, but he would seem to have been only a temporary help.

{282} Referring to a present of birds which the curate had sent to Miss Nussey.

{287} A Funeral Sermon for the late Rev. William Weightman, M.A., preached in the Church at Haworth on Sunday the 2nd of October 1842 by the Rev. Patrick Bronte, A.B., Inc.u.mbent. The profits, if any, to go in aid of the Sunday School. Halifax--Printed by J. U. Walker, George Street, 1842. Price sixpence.

{288} A little dog, called in the next letter 'Flossie, junr.,' which indicates its parentage. Flossy was the little dog given by the Robinsons to Anne.

{325} The originals are in the possession of Mr. Alfred Morrison of Carlton House Terrace, London.

{330} _De Quincey Memorials_, by Alexander H. j.a.pp. 2 vols. 1891.

William Heinemann.

{332a} _Agnes Grey_, a novel, by Acton Bell. Vol. III. London, Thomas Cautley Newby, publisher, 72 Mortimer Street, Cavendish Square.

{332b} And yet the error not infrequently occurs, and was recently made by Professor Saintsbury (_Nineteenth Century Literature_), of a.s.suming that it was _Jane Eyre_ which met with many refusals.

{332c} Mr. Nicholls a.s.sures me that the ma.n.u.script was not rewritten after his marriage, although I had thought it possible, not only on account of its intrinsic merits, which have not been sufficiently acknowledged, but on account of the singular fact that Mlle. Henri, the charming heroine, is married in a white muslin dress, and that her going-away dress was of lilac silk. These were the actual wedding dresses of Mrs. Nicholls.

{333} Anne Marsh (1791-1874), a daughter of James Caldwell, J.P., of Linley Wood, Staffords.h.i.+re, married a son of the senior partner in the London banking firm of Marsh, Stacey, & Graham. Her first volume appeared in 1834, and contained, under the t.i.tle of _Two Old Men's Tales_, two stories, _The Admiral's Daughter_ and _The Deformed_, which won considerable popularity. _Emilia Wyndham_, _Time_, _the Avenger_, _Mount Sorel_, and _Castle Avon_, are perhaps the best of her many subsequent novels.

{335} _The Professor_ was published, with a brief note by Mr. Nicholls, two years after the death of its author. _The Professor_, a Tale, by Currer Bell, in two volumes. Smith, Elder & Co., 65 Cornhill, 1857.

{348} Lady Eastlake died in 1893.

{349} _Letters and Journals_ of Lady Eastlake, edited by her nephew, Charles Eastlake Smith, vol. i. pp. 221, 222 (John Murray).

{350} _Life of J. G. Lockhart_, by Andrew Lang. Published by John Nimmo. Mr. Lang has courteously permitted me to copy this letter from his proof-sheets.

{361} Name of place is erased in original.

{373} Thus in original letter.

{398} That Thackeray had written a certain unfavourable critique of _s.h.i.+rley_.

{402} This article was by John Skelton (_s.h.i.+rley_).

{403} Now in the possession of Mr. A. B. Nicholls.

{408} Thackeray writes to Mr. Brookfield, in October 1848, as follows:--'Old Dilke of the _Athenaeum_ vows that Procter and his wife, between them, wrote _Jane Eyre_; and when I protest ignorance, says, "Pooh! you know who wrote it--you are the deepest rogue in England, etc."

I wonder whether it can be true? It is just possible. And then what a singular circ.u.mstance is the + fire of the two dedications' [_Jane Eyre_ to Thackeray, _Vanity Fair_ to Barry Cornwall].--_A Collection of Letters to W. M. Thackeray_, 1847-1855. Smith and Elder.

{423} _Chapters from Some Memories_, by Anne Thackeray Ritchie.

Macmillan and Co. Mrs. Ritchie and her publishers kindly permit me to incorporate her interesting reminiscence in this chapter.

{432} George Henry Lewes (1817-1878). Published _Biographical History of Philosophy_, 1845-46; _Ranthorpe_, 1847; _Rose_, _Blanche_, _and Violet_, 1848; _Life of Goethe_, 1855. Editor of the _Fortnightly Review_, 1865-66. _Problems of Life and Mind_, 1873-79; and many other works.

{434} Richard Hengist Horne (1803-1884). Published _Cosmo de Medici_, 1837; _Orion_, an epic poem in ten books, pa.s.sed through six editions in 1843, the first three editions being issued at a farthing; _A New Spirit of the Age_, 1844; _Letters of E. B. Browning to R. H. Horne_, 1877.

{444} Printed by the kind permission of the Rev. C. W. Heald, of Chale, I.W.

{446} Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth (1804-1877). A doctor of medicine, who was made a baronet in 1849, on resigning the secretarys.h.i.+p of the Committee of Council on Education; a.s.sumed the name of Shuttleworth on his marriage, in 1842, to Janet, the only child and heiress of Robert Shuttleworth of Gawthorpe Hall, Burnley (died 1872). His son, the present baronet, is the Right Hon. Sir Ughtred James Kay-Shuttleworth.

{457a} Some experiments on a farm of two acres.

{457b} Letters of Matthew Arnold, collected and arranged by George W. E.

Russell.

{468} Mr. Nicholls is the Mr. Macarthey of _s.h.i.+rley_. Here is the reference which not unnaturally gratified him:--'Perhaps I ought to remark that, on the premature and sudden vanis.h.i.+ng of Mr. Malone from the stage of Briarfield parish . . . there came as his successor, another Irish curate, Mr. Macarthey. I am happy to be able to inform you, _with truth_, that this gentleman did as much credit to his country as Malone had done it discredit; he proved himself as decent, decorous, and conscientious, as Peter was rampant, boisterous, and--(this last epithet I choose to suppress, because it would let the cat out of the bag). He laboured faithfully in the parish; the schools, both Sunday and day-schools, flourished under his sway like green bay-trees. Being human, of course he had his faults; these, however, were proper, steady-going, clerical faults: the circ.u.mstance of finding himself invited to tea with a dissenter would unhinge him for a week; the spectacle of a Quaker wearing his hat in the church, the thought of an unbaptized fellow-creature being interred with Christian rites--these things could make strange havoc in Mr. Macarthey's physical and mental economy; otherwise he was sane and rational, diligent and charitable.'--_s.h.i.+rley_, chap. x.x.xvii.

{469} John Stuart Mill, who, however, attributed the authors.h.i.+p of this article to his wife.

{491} The Nusseys.

{495} The Rev. George Sowden, vicar of Hebden Bridge, Halifax, and honorary canon of Wakefield, is still alive.