Rachel Sutcliffe, Walking in Bronte Footsteps.

The blog What Rachel wrote

Walking in Bronte Footsteps: Cowan Bridge to Tunstall Church

Today's blog took longer to assemble than the walk itself. Walking in Bronte Footsteps - Cowan Bridge to Tunstall Church, a walk we did on 19 December to commemorate #EmilyBronte and all the clergy daughters.

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In Memoriam: Maria Brontë and Elizabeth Brontë. Dorothea Beale.

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Maria and Elizabeth are remembered on Haworth’s Bronte memorial

The sixth of May and fifteenth of June are difficult days for lovers of the Brontë family, as it was on these dates 193 years ago that the eldest siblings Maria Brontë and Elizabeth Brontë died of consumption, what we now know as tuberculosis. Their loss was dreadful to their family, and can still be felt by us today.

Read more on this blog about the Clergy Daughter’s School in Cowan Bridge: annebronte/in-memoriam-maria-bronte-and-elizabeth-bronte

Dorothea Beale

Interesting for me is this part. Because I didn't know it. In 1857, Wilson appointed a new head at Casterton, Dorothea Beale. She was a very different person to Wilson, and later became known as a suffragist and social reformer. Beale was horrified at what she found at the school, and resigned a year later. She complained about ‘the low moral tone of the school’, and ‘the want of sympathy and love’, as ‘nothing can flourish if love be not the ruling incentive.’

wiki/Dorothea_Beale:  At the end of 1856, she left Queen's College owing to dissatisfaction with its administration, and in January 1857 became head teacher of the Clergy Daughters' School, Casterton, Westmorland (founded in 1823 by Carus Wilson at Cowan Bridge). At Casterton, Miss Beale's insistence on the need of reforms led to her resignation in December following; many changes in the management of the school were made next year. In 1858, Miss Beale established a scholarship from Casterton School to Cheltenham

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Both Charlotte and Emily returned to school after the midsummer holidays in this fatal year. Is this true?



 

I can tell you I am the proud owner of a copy of Claire Harman's ""Charlotte Bronte"".  Thanks to Anne, who sent it to me. I really am happy with it. And off course I am reading in it since I received it.

 

 

I own the Bronte biographies of Juliet Barker, Rebecca Fraser and Elizabeth Gaskell. I love the biography of Elizabeth Gaskell because I find it interesting that a lady, a woman of the world like Elizabeth Gaskell became so close to Charlotte Bronte. Charlotte who was so shy and insecure, but the same time so brave, so trusted her. I think Elizabeth Gaskell did the best she could with the knowledge she had at that time. And she showed courage to mention all the difficulties like Cowan Bridge and the love affair between Branwell and Mrs. Robinson. Afterwards she came in trouble because of her writing. She called it ""a hornet's nest"".

Later Juliet Barker wrote a fabulous biography in wich she proved when and why Elizabeth was wrong, for instance about Patrick Bronte. There is so much information in her book and she is giving so many details, so many notes to back it up.

In the biography of Rebecca Fraser I like the part she, like a detective, is searching for the truth behind the poststamps on the loveletters Charlotte Bronte sent to Mr. Heger.

The new biography

 

I started to be surprised from the beginning when I was reading the new biography of Claire Harman.  I get the feeling the days of Elisabeth Gaskell returned. Patrick Bronte as a selfish, excentrike man, only focused on himselve. And Haworth, a remote village, far away of civilisation. As if Juliet Barker never proved the opposite.

But I started to be shocked reading Patrick Bronte sent Charlotte and Emily back to Cowan Bridge, after their sisters Maria and Elizabeth died. Reason,  as Claire Harman is writing, because he had paid for it already. Did Patrick Bronte really did such a thing????? I didn't remember reading this before. So I started to search. I could not find this story in Juliet Barker, nor in Rebecca Fraser but then, yes, I found it in  Elizabeth Gaskell's book. So it is true. I am shocked. Elizabeth wrote: Both Charlotte and Emily returned to school after the midsummer holidays in this fatal year. But why didn't the other biographers mention it, I ask myself? Some hours later I thought, maybe there are notes in the book of Elizabeth Gaskell? And yes, I found it. The note: As Miss Gérin has shown (op.cit.p.16) this statement is inaccurate: the surviving Bronte sisters left the school for good on 1 June 1825.

I was trying to find out what Winifred Gérin was writing

Read here:

 

So, really I am confused. How is it possible that in the newest biography something is told

what is refuted in other biographies?

 

And.... Patrick Bronte got his money refunded? This really is a different story.

Child's First Tales

Child's First Tales is a collection of short stories intended for 'infant schools and little children in general'. As suited to its audience, each story is composed using mainly one syllable words and is accompanied by a simple woodblock print. This book provided rigid moral instruction for its young readers. Many of the stories feature children who behave badly and receive divine retribution (for example, those who tell lies or prefer to play than go to church); others tell of children who behave piously and are rewarded. The stories thereby reflect the belief, common to the early 19th century, that children were born sinners, predestined to hell, and must repent to save their souls. Such beliefs were underpinned by the evangelical Christianity of the author, Reverend William Carus Wilson, who was the founder and head of the Cowan Bridge Clergy Daughter's School, attended by the Brontë sisters. Produced and sold cheaply, Child’s First Tales would have been affordable to a wide range of people. 

Influence in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre 

Jane Eyre critics speculate that this chapbook was used as inspiration for the ‘thin pamphlet’ titled ‘Child’s Guide’ given to Jane by Mr Brocklehurst in Chapter IV. The stories found within Child’s First Tales echo the tone and teaching of Brocklehurst’s recommended reading, ‘An account of the awfully sudden death of Martha G---, a naughty child addicted to falsehood and deceit’. ‘No. 80. – Child in a pet’, for example, is particularly resonant, beginning ‘She was in such a rage, that all at once God struck her down dead’. Instances of lying frequently appear within Child’s First Tales, too, with Wilson and Brocklehurst making the same point – that ‘“all liars will have their portion in the lake burning with fire and brimstone”’ (Jane Eyre). bl.uk/collection/childs-first-tales-written-by-the-bront-sisters-headmaster
 

A School Progress Report for the Brontë Sisters

The Journal of Education: A Monthly Record and Review, January 1900.

 

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Casterton School, the former Cowan Bridge

Not unexpected but sad news anyway from Casterton School, the former Cowan Bridge. In The Westmoreland Gazettte

Nearly 200 years of education for girls has come to an end with parents, pupils and staff bidding an emotional farewell to Casterton School.
The independent boarding school, near Kirkby Lonsdale, merged with Sedbergh School in March with the amalgamation kicking in from September.
On Saturday, British yachtswoman Dee Caffari was guest speaker at a special assembly, which formed part of the annual speech day and prize-giving ceremony.
There were tears as the occasion marked not only the end of term, but the end of an era – the last full day of the 190-year-old school whose first pupils included the Brontë sisters.

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Casterton School is an independent boarding and day school for ages 3 to 18 years in the village of Casterton in rural Cumbria. Boys are admitted up until age 11 years. Boarding is for girls only from age 8 and above.

History

Casterton School was founded in 1823 by Rev Carus Wilson as the Clergy Daughters' School in Cowan Bridge to educate daughters of financially disadvantaged clergymen. It moved to its current site at Casterton in 1833. Four of the Brontë sisters (Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte and Emily) attended the former Cowan Bridge School. A stone inscription to commemorate this is present at the original site and the current Casterton School still acknowledges the literary connection by naming buildings accordingly.
In 2000 boys were admitted to the junior school.^[1]
Following a decline in pupil numbers, in March 2013 a merger was announced with Sedbergh School, effective from September 2013. Casterton's prep department will remain on its site as Sedbergh's junior school will be moved there. Senior pupils will transfer to the main campus in Sedbergh.^[2]

Wilson, Rev William Carus (1791–1859):

Wealthy clergyman, ordained in 1816 (after having earlier been refused ordination because of “Calvinist” tendencies), the founder of the Clergy Daughters’ School, situated first at Cowan Bridge, later at Casterton (and still there as Casterton School). He was, in many of his aspects, the original of Mr Brocklehurst in Jane Eyre . The school undoubtedly answered to a great need, both educating and where possible finding posts as teachers or governesses for the daughters of clergymen. Wilson was clearly sharp-eyed and intelligent in identifying spheres for action, as in his later concern for British and foreign soldiers, and for the education of servants. His wealth, and the tenacity of his character, meant that he was generally to be found when evangelical causes were being promoted in the North of England. The outlines of a case for him can be found in Wroot’s Persons and Places (1935), where an obituary of him by the then Bishop of Rochester speaks of him as “the father of the cheap religious literature of the day” and its “blessed results,” and sums up his character as “remarkable for energy and a moral courage that was sometimes sublime, a most singular forgetfulness of self, and the deepest humility.” The reason we are surprised by this is attributable to Charlotte’s Brontë’s great novel. blackwellreference 

Nice knowlidge:
Bronte House was formed in 1933 and named in honour of Charlotte Bronte. Bronte was originally called 'Charlotte Bronte House' hence the CB on the badge. Charlotte Bronte based her novel Jane Eyre on Cowan Bridge School, the predecessor of Casterton School
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Cowan Bridge

 

From Google Earth

 

I was searching on Google Earth to see Cowan Bridge, Streetview is amazing. Going back in the time, searching for the school the Bronte Sisters visited, and see.......it is still all there ( not all, part of it is demolished).

 

 

 

 

VISIT to Cowan Bridge, where part of the Lowood School of Jane Eyre is still in existence, reveals a beautiful little hamlet near Kirkby Lonsdale. A drive from the hotel in Kirkby Lonsdale, where, in the old coaching days the conveyance in which the Bronte sisters travelled made its last halt, takes one over the Devil's Bridge, a narrow stone structure, which spans the river Lune, and after a quarter of an hour's drive Cowan Bridge is reached.

Through Cowan Bridge the Leeds and Kendal coach used to pass, and in the days when the Brontes were there it was busier than now, for not only did the stage coaches pass to and fro, but the pack-horses were constantly on the road, taking the wool from the outlying districts to Leeds and Bradford.

Leck
 

I always thought the period of the Cowan Bridge School was full of sad memories for Charlotte Bronte. So, I was surprised to read about these happy memories.

The little stream, with the huge stones in its bed, flowing past the old school, Charlotte Bronte described as her favourite spot when at Cowan Bridge. Along its banks she used to wander, frequently taking off her shoes and stockings and wading in its waters. Here she was free from intrusion, and could enjoy her broken day dreams. In later years she told Mary Taylor how she enjoyed this beautiful spot, sitting on a stone in the middle of the stream. Mary told her she should have gone fishing, but she replied that she had no inclination

Just where the Leck-fells swoop into the plain; and by the course of the beck alder-trees and willows and hazel bushes grow. The current of the stream is interrupted by broken pieces of grey rock; and the waters flow over a bed of large round white pebbles, which a flood heaves up and moves on either side out of its impetuous way till in some parts they almost form a wall."

Elizabeth Gaskell; "The Life of Charlotte Bronte" (1857)

A large sycamore tree overhangs the end cottage, and on the opposite side of the road is a small house, now known as Lowood Cottage. It was formerly the Rev. W. Cams- Wilson's stable and coach-house ; he was the founder of the Clergy Daughters' School, and known in Jane Eyre as the black marble clergyman Mr. Brocklehurst. In addition to being the manager of the school, he was vicar of two parishes, Tunstall and Whittington, which were a few miles apart.

Formerly the old part of the school consisted of one house, at one time the residence of an old Yorkshire family of the name of Picard. This building was purchased in 1824 by Mr. Carus- Wilson, who adapted it as a residence for the teachers of the school. At right angles to this he added a long building for a school-room and dormitories for the pupils.

It is a pity that Mrs. Gaskell and other writers have com mented only on Charlotte Bronte's description of Lowood in winter, for during her stay from August, 1824, to June, 1825, she had the benefit both of the autumn and the spring. The garden was always a source of attraction to her

" The garden was a wide enclosure, surrounded with walls so high as to exclude every glimpse of prospect ; a covered verandah ran down one side, and a broad walk bordered a middle space divided into scores of little beds : these beds were assigned as gardens for the pupils to cultivate, and each bed had an owner."

 In these days, when it is considered quite a modern move ment to interest children in rural and suburban schools in gardening, it is well to remember that nearly ninety years ago the pupils at this school for clergymen's daughters were encouraged to keep a small plot of garden in good order, so that they might be interested in such work, and have their powers of observation improved.
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01-0- 1825 The Bronte sisters left the Clergy Daughters School at Cowan Bridge

 

This punishment is described by Charlotte in Jane Eyre where reports by Mrs Gaskell, confirm this ill treatment. Furthermore, to Mr Williams, reader at Smith, Elder & Co, who congratulated her for the narrative vigour of her description, Charlotte, unusually vehemently, insisted that it was true, and that furthermore she had deliberately avoided telling everything so as not to be accused of exaggeration.

Indeed, it is difficult to think that Charlotte, having persistently repeated for twenty years the stories about the bad treatment inflicted on her sisters could have exaggerated or invented them. For example, the description given by an unidentified witness to Mrs Gaskell, of the little Maria who, very ill and having just received a suction cup placed on her right side by the doctor, rose suddenly on seeing Miss Andrews enter the room, and began to get dressed. Before she could slip into some clothing however, the mistress pulled her violently into the centre of the room, scolding her for negligence, and disorder, and punished her for being late, upon which Maria descended from the dormitory although she could hardly stand up. According to Mrs Gaskell, the witness spoke as if she saw it yet, and her whole face flashed out undying indignation.

http://www.readbookonline.net/read/9802/23864/

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