Wednesday, 21 March 2018 Aspects of the Brussels of the Brontës: The prehistory & post

An intriguing letter of 9 September 1841 has survived, written by Martha Taylor, in Koekelberg, to Ellen Nussey. It is also a somewhat confusing letter, as it seems to show that Mary Dixon was already in Brussels in September 1841: “You must write to me sometimes. George Dixon is coming here the last week in September, and you must send a letter for me to Mary to be forwarded by him.” Earlier in the letter she wrote that she was “going to begin working again very hard, now that John and Mary [Taylor] are going away” (obviously back to England).

Post Sending letters by official post was expensive, and finding alternative ways was a recurring theme in the letters of these years. Read all the article: brusselsbronte

under the influence: the legacy of Branwell’s drinking.

library/letter_from_branwell_bront_to_john_brown

theconversation/brontes-under-the-influence-the-legacy-of-branwells-drinking

A final glimpse of Patrick Bronte, thanks to a letter he sent to his niece in Cornwall.

Nick Holland
A final glimpse of Patrick Bronte, thanks to a letter he sent to his niece in Cornwall:

Charlotte Bronte rare letter envelopes to friend up for auction.

Two rare envelopes sent by author Charlotte Bronte to her life-long friend are expected to fetch up to £1,200 when they go under the hammer. The handwritten envelopes were addressed to Ellen Nussey in Leeds and would have contained letters. Bronte and Ms Nussey met at Roe Head School, near Mirfield, in 1831 aged 14 and 13 and they wrote to each other until the author's death in 1855.

Both envelopes are to be sold at an auction in Wiltshire on Saturday. Written in brown ink, the first envelope has a Penny Red stamp and postmarked "Leeds Jan 30 1849" and "Barnsley Keighley and Haworth" with the remains of a black seal. Measuring 10cm by 6cm (4in by 2.4in) it bears a black mourning band to the border. Similarly, the second 11cm by 6cm (4.3in by 2.4in) envelope is also written in brown ink with a Penny Red stamp. It is postmarked "Leeds MR 31 1846" on the front and "Bradford and Haworth" on the reverse. A small printed scrap "Attend to Time" on the reverse has been affixed by Bronte.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge, of Henry Aldridge and Son, said: "These covers are written to her childhood friend and closest confidante Ellen Nussey, who first met Charlotte Bronte in 1831.
"Anything related to Charlotte is desirable but to have a pair of covers written by her to her closet friend offers an incredible opportunity to a collector or museum." The pair exchanged hundreds of letters during their friendship, 350 of those Bronte penned to Ms Nussey were used by Elizabeth Gaskell as the basis to write her 1857 biography The Life Of Charlotte Bronte. Bronte rejected a marriage proposal by Ms Nussey's brother, Henry. Her friend later went on to witness the author's wedding to her father's curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls. bbc/news/uk-england-leeds

21 July 1832 (letter to Ellen Nussey from the 16-year-old Charlotte Brontë).

The Brontë Society

“In the morning from nine o’clock till half past twelve I instruct my Sisters & draw, then we walk till dinner after dinner I sew till tea-time, and after tea I either read, write, do a little fancy-work or draw, as I please. Thus in one delightful, though somewhat monotonous course my life is passed”

Charlotte Brontë, 26 March 1853 (letter to George Smith).

“When people think too much and sit too closely – the circulation loses its balance, forsakes the extremities and bears too strong a current on the brain; I suppose exercise is the best means of counteracting such a state of things”
facebook/The Brontë Society

Letter from Charlotte Brontë to Lady Kay-Shuttleworth

 

An exhibition currently at the Museum of Literature in Preston, Lancashire contains an interesting piece of Brontëana. A letter from Charlotte Brontë:

75 Years, 74 Treasures
Some of the county’s rarest historic items, brought together to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Lancashire County Council’s archive service.

Museum of Lancashire, Stanley Street, Preston, until Saturday, September 27
Lancaster Maritime Museum, Custom House, St George’s Quay, Lancaster from October 3 until January 10, 2016.

But now items like a letter from Charlotte Brontë, watercolour paintings of Lancashire landmarks, a ship’s logbook, lost property registers from Blackpool trams, maps and sketchbooks, are considered such gems they feature in a new exhibition. (The Blackpool Gazette) In their day, they would have seemed nothing out of the ordinary.

The letter is from Charlotte Brontë to Lady Kay-Shuttleworth, 22 March 1850 after her visit to Gawthorpe Hall. bronteblog

Does an Award Like the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction Help or Hurt the Cause of Women Writers?

In August 1849, Charlotte Brontë wrote a letter to her publisher, W. S. Williams, in response to a review of her wildly successful novel, “Jane Eyre.” Like her sisters, Emily and Anne — both of whom, along with their alcoholic brother, Branwell, Charlotte had just lost to tuberculosis over the course of one terrible year — the eldest Brontë sister published her work under a gender-­ambiguous pseudonym. The runaway success of “Jane Eyre” — published the same year as Emily’s and Anne’s novels “Wuthering Heights” and “Agnes Grey” — had sparked a broad debate about the identities of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Were they one individual writing under several names — a rumor that was, at one point, deliberately circulated by Emily and Anne’s publisher in an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of their sister’s best seller? Most of all, speculation raged about the Bells’ gender. One smitten woman wrote Brontë’s publisher wishing to know if Currer Bell was a man — if so, she confessed, she must surely be in love with him.

 

“Much of the article is clever,” Brontë writes of an essay on “Jane Eyre” in the North British Review, “and yet there are remarks which — for me — rob it of importance. . . . He says, ‘if “Jane Eyre” be the production of a woman — she must be a woman unsexed.’ ” This conditional objection to the novel’s bewitching narrative power — if a woman wrote this, then either she, the book or both must be somehow unnatural — stands as an invaluable example of Victorian-era mansplaining. But in their presupposition that male writing and female writing occupy two separate and circumscribable domains, Brontë’s indignant critics also betray an essentialist logic that’s arguably still present today (if reversed) in the rationale for gender-specific prizes like the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Read on nytimes/does-an-award-like-the-baileys-womens-prize-for-fiction-help-or-hurt-the-cause-of-women-writers
 

Charlotte's letters

The Letters of Charlotte Brontë: Volume Three 1852-1855 ed Margaret Smith

A sorry tale of deceit, corruption and literary con men

By Mark Bostridge

At the centre of it lies Ellen Nussey's disastrous decision to entrust her valuable cache of Charlotte's letters to the literary forger T J Wise. Ellen was a schoolgirl friend of Charlotte's from their days at Roe Head, and possessed the largest collection of her correspondence: 394 letters received from Charlotte over more than two decades.

Ellen had already prepared a private edition of the letters she owned in the late 1880s, but had got cold feet about the project and then destroyed practically all the sets of 30,000 printed sheets in a huge bonfire over many weeks, assisted by the minister of her local church. This left her as easy prey for Wise and his front man, the biographer and critic-about-town Clement Shorter. Together they extracted the originals from her for £125 and the promise that they would be preserved in the South Kensington Museum "to enhance the honour & reputation of their gloriously gifted writer". In fact, within a couple of years it became evident that Wise was selling the manuscripts piecemeal at auction.

With Charlotte's letters scattered to the four winds, and often untraceable, an authoritative edition of all the surviving correspondence became, as the years passed, increasingly unlikely. Margaret Smith, therefore, deserves the highest praise for the sheer doggedness with which she has pursued bits and pieces of letters through salerooms and private collections (most strikingly, she pieced together one letter, cut up for autograph hunters, from scraps in five separate locations). She is also a model editor. The standard of her annotations is superb, and no worthwhile cross-reference to the Brontës' lives or works is allowed to slip through her net. Read miore: arlindo-correia/bronte

The Hester Forbes-Julian collection of letters and autographs

The Hester Forbes-Julian Letter Collection

The Hester Forbes-Julian collection of letters and autographs, now one of the Museum’s most valued possessions, remained hidden until 1987, when it was rediscovered during storage improvements. The collection comprises 16 albums of autographs, letters, engravings and cuttings relating to some 1500 individuals, many of them major figures of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. The fields of literature, politics, science and music are all represented: John Keats, Jane Austen, the Brontë’s, Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln, Guiseppe Verdi, Dr. Livingstone, the Duke of Wellington to name but a few.

The catalogue can be found in the National Archives: Charlotte Brontë, 10 September 1850. More details can be found on Newby's Chicanery: New Brontë Letters by Alexander, Christine, Notes & Queries; Jun95, Vol. 42 Issue 2, p189:

Harry Ransom Center's Brontë Family Collection

Austin Chronicle informs of the launch of the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas (in Austin) digital archive. One of the notable collections which can be found there is their Brontë collection:Harry Ransom Center's Brontë Family Collection

The holograph works of Charlotte and Emily Brontë make up the bulk of the Ransom Center's Brontë family collection, 1833–1858, along with works by Anne and Patrick Branwell Brontë. The collection is organized into two series: Series I. Brontë Family Works and Letters, 1833-1858 (1.5 boxes), and Series II. Works and Letters by Others, 1850 (.5 box). This collection was previously accessible through a card catalog, but has been re-cataloged as part of a retrospective conversion project.
The Brontë Family Works and Letters Series is divided into five subseries, arranged alphabetically by family member name: Subseries A. Brontë, Anne, 1836-1838; Subseries B. Brontë, Charlotte, 1833-1853; Subseries C. Brontë, Emily, 1837-1842; Subseries D. Brontë, Patrick, 1850; and Subseries E. Brontë, Patrick Branwell, 1834-1836.
Anne Brontë's writings are represented by typescripts of three poems and a list of characters she used in her stories and poems of the fictitious land of Gondal. The Charlotte Brontë subseries is more robust with holograph versions of "The Green Dwarf," "Julia," and "Something About Arthur." Also present is a letter to William Smith Williams, her publisher. Contained in the Emily Brontë subseries are two holograph poems and an essay in French.
The men of the Brontë family are represented in the final two subseries. Patrick Brontë's subseries contains a letter to an unknown recipient, and the Patrick Branwell subseries holds a holograph poem, a short story titled "A Narrative of the First War by Harry Hastings," and a commonplace book in which Patrick Branwell contributed four pages of poetry and sketches.
The Works and Letters by Others Series contains a musical score written by Ernest Powell for a poem by Emily Brontë and a biographical essay on Charlotte Brontë by Harriet Spofford. Also present are two letters, including one from Mary Taylor, one of Charlotte's life-long friends.

Title	Letter to Charlotte Brontë
Creator	Taylor, Mary, 1817-1893

Dear Charlotte, About a week since I received your last melancholy letter with the account of Ann's death and yr utter indifference to every thing, even to the success of your last book. Though you do not say this it is pretty plain to be seen from the style of your letter. It seems to me hard indeed that you who would succeed better than any one in making friends & keeping them should be condemned to solitude from your poverty. To no one would money bring more happiness, for no one would use it better than you would. - For me with my headlong selfindulgent habits I am perhaps better without it, but I am convinced it would give you great and noble pleasures. Look out then for success in writing. You ought to care as much for that as you do for going to Heaven. Though the advantages of being employed appear to you now the best part of the business you will soon please God have other enjoyments from your success. Railway shares will rise, your books will sell and you will acquire influence & power - & then most certainly you will find something to use it in which will interest you and make you exert yourself. What you say of Joe agrees with the melancholy account of him both in his own letters & other people's. I cannot give advice or propose a remedy. All seems to depend on himself & he - like all other people with his disease, is so powerless! His passion for marrying seems just to have come because it is the only thing serious enough to excite him - if that were done what would there be left? Your endeavour to persuade him to repose & quiet is certainly the best that could be made - may you succeed as you deserve! You will certainly do yourself good, tho it will be to both sides a melancholy meeting.
---------------------
Harry Ransom founded the Humanities Research Center in 1957 with the ambition of expanding the rare books and manuscript holdings of the University of Texas. He acquired the Edward Alexander Parsons Collection,^[5] the T. Edward Hanley Collection,^[6] and the Norman Bel Geddes Collection.^[7][8] Ransom himself was the official director of the Center for only the years 1958 to 1961, but he directed and presided over a period of great expansion in the collections until his resignation in 1971 as Chancellor of the University of Texas System. wiki/Harry_Ransom_Center

utexas.edu/research/info/

I received this nice letter of someone who visited The Bronte Parsonage Museum.

I love your blog on the Brontes and wanted to write to let you know how much pleasure it has given me to browse through the immense amount of material you have collected.

I visited the Parsonage at Haworth for the first time last month and their story has haunted me ever since. My girlfriend  and I arrived there just after lunch on a typically overcast, dull and windy Yorkshire day. The house was just being 'invaded' by a large party of American and Japanese tourists but we were able to slip quietly in before them as they stood waiting for their guide outside. The house completely entranced me. To stand in the room where the sisters used to walk around the table and see the sofa where poor Emily breathed her last breath made me feel slightly giddy. 

We were particularly fascinated by Charlotte's tiny dresses, stockings and shoes and by the tiny handwriting. To learn that Branwell, Emily and Anne all died within such a very short space of time was a real shock to us. 

One can only imagine how their poor father, often unjustly labelled an uncaring tyrant, must have grieved for them all and how empty that big house must have felt with just himself and Charlotte living there for a while. 

Afterwards, we walked into the town for coffee and then, with the light beginning to fade, drove along the road and followed the signs to Top Withens. Unfortunately, with the weather closing in and the need to get back home to Buxton in Derbyshire, we had to cut our walk short. 

We could see the tree and the ruined cottage around half a mile distant. Frustrating! But we will be back. It was certainly lonely up there on the moors. Just ourselves, a blustery, dark and cloudy day and the huge expanse of the moors around us.

Picture Top Withens: pilgrimchris

But I am very very sorry that my inadvertent blunder should have made his name and affairs a subject for common gossip......

The dedication here referred to is that to Thackeray.  People had been already suggesting that Jane Eyre might have been written by Thackeray under a pseudonym; others had implied, knowing that there was ‘something about a woman’ in Thackeray’s life, that it was written by a mistress of the great novelist.  Indeed, the Quarterly had half hinted as much.  Currer Bell, knowing nothing of the gossip of London, had dedicated her book in single-minded enthusiasm.  Her distress was keen when it was revealed to her that the wife of Mr. Thackeray, like the wife of Rochester in Jane Eyre, was of unsound mind.  However, a correspondence with him would seem to have ended amicably enough. [408]

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

‘Haworth, January 28th, 1848.

‘Dear Sir,—I need not tell you that when I saw Mr. Thackeray’s letter inclosed under your cover, the sight made me very happy.  It was some time before I dared open it, lest my pleasure in receiving it should be mixed with pain on learning its contents—lest, in short, the dedication should have been, in some way, unacceptable to him.

‘And, to tell you the truth, I fear this must have been the case; he does not say so, his letter is most friendly in its noble simplicity, but he apprises me, at the commencement, of a circumstance which both surprised and dismayed me.

‘I suppose it is no indiscretion to tell you this circumstance, p. 409for you doubtless know it already.  It appears that his private position is in some points similar to that I have ascribed to Mr. Rochester; that thence arose a report that Jane Eyre had been written by a governess in his family, and that the dedication coming now has confirmed everybody in the surmise.

‘Well may it be said that fact is often stranger than fiction!  The coincidence struck me as equally unfortunate and extraordinary.  Of course I knew nothing whatever of Mr. Thackeray’s domestic concerns, he existed for me only as an author.  Of all regarding his personality, station, connections, private history, I was, and am still in a great measure, totally in the dark; but I am very very sorry that my inadvertent blunder should have made his name and affairs a subject for common gossip.

‘The very fact of his not complaining at all and addressing me with such kindness, notwithstanding the pain and annoyance I must have caused him, increases my chagrin.  I could not half express my regret to him in my answer, for I was restrained by the consciousness that that regret was just worth nothing at all—quite valueless for healing the mischief I had done.

‘Can you tell me anything more on this subject? or can you guess in what degree the unlucky coincidence would affect him—whether it would pain him much and deeply; for he says so little himself on the topic, I am at a loss to divine the exact truth—but I fear.

‘Do not think, my dear sir, from my silence respecting the advice you have, at different times, given me for my future literary guidance, that I am heedless of, or indifferent to, your kindness.  I keep your letters and not unfrequently refer to them.  Circumstances may render it impracticable for me to act up to the letter of what you counsel, but I think I comprehend the spirit of your precepts, and trust I shall be able to profit thereby.  Details, situations which I do not understand and cannot personally inspect, I would not for the world meddle with, lest I should make even a more ridiculous mess of the matter than Mrs. Trollope did in her Factory Boy.  Besides, not one feeling on any subject, public or private, will I ever p. 410affect that I do not really experience.  Yet though I must limit my sympathies; though my observation cannot penetrate where the very deepest political and social truths are to be learnt; though many doors of knowledge which are open for you are for ever shut for me; though I must guess and calculate and grope my way in the dark, and come to uncertain conclusions unaided and alone where such writers as Dickens and Thackeray, having access to the shrine and image of Truth, have only to go into the temple, lift the veil a moment, and come out and say what they have seen—yet with every disadvantage, I mean still, in my own contracted way, to do my best.  Imperfect my best will be, and poor, and compared with the works of the true masters—of that greatest modern master Thackeray in especial (for it is him I at heart reverence with all my strength)—it will be trifling, but I trust not affected or counterfeit.—Believe me, my dear sir, yours with regard and respect,

Currer Bell.’

Gutenberg
Rosenbach/I-didnt-realize-he-had-insane-wife

"Significant and exciting"

Bronte blog, ITV News reports briefly yesterday's exciting news about Charlotte Brontë's L'amour filial essay. The Brontë Society website announces the acquisition as well:
The Brontë Society is delighted to announce its acquisition of a significant and exciting autograph manuscript by Charlotte Brontë: a previously unpublished homework essay – known as a devoir – on the subject ‘L’Amour Filial’ (the love of a child for parents), written during her time in Brussels, and marked by Constantin Heger, the married teacher with whom she was deeply in love.
Acquired by private sale for the sum of £50,000, and generously funded by private and public donors, the devoir was unknown until December 2012, when the Society was contacted with news of its discovery in a private library. Expert analysis of the handwriting confirmed its author was indeed Charlotte Brontë.
The single-page document, written on both sides, is composed in French and written on a topic assigned to Charlotte Brontë by Constantin Heger as part of her French lessons at the Pensionnat Heger school he and his wife ran in Brussels. Produced at a turbulent time in Charlotte’s life, it deals with the subject of love for parents in dramatic style, claiming that the child who treats a parent unlovingly is little more than a murderer in the eyes of God.
‘We know Charlotte had a deep love and respect for her father Patrick Brontë, but lost her mother at the age of just five, when she died from what is now believed to have been ovarian cancer,’ commented Brontë Society Executive Director Professor Ann Sumner today. ‘This new and exciting window on her love for her father, written at a time of great turmoil, is of incalculable value to our understanding of Charlotte’s interior life, and will form the focus of much new scholarship.’
Last month the Brontë Society launched a public appeal for donations to help fund the devoir’s purchase, and received over £3,000. ‘The response was magnificent,’ commented Brontë Society Chairman Sally McDonald today. ‘Many individual members of the public sent contributions, big and small, and the Society was also generously supported by the V&A Purchase Fund, which gave us a grant of £20,000, and Friends of National Libraries, which contributed £5,000.
‘To all these donors we offer our heartfelt thanks that we can now preserve this significant manuscript for the nation as part of our unparalleled collection of Brontë manuscripts and artefacts here at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth.’
The devoir went on display to the public at the weekend, as part of the Society’s Annual General Meeting celebration weekend. News of its acquisition was conveyed to members during Saturday afternoon’s Annual General Meeting.

Wedding proposal Charlotte Bronte nr 1. "I am not the serious, grave, cool-hearted individual you suppose; you would think me romantic and eccentric."

 

Charlotte Brontë turned down four separate marriage proposals as she was determined not to live with a man she did not think her intellectual moral equal.

 

On March 5, 1839, Charlotte Bronte writes to the Reverend Henry Nussey, declining marriage.

"Before answering your letter, I might have spent a long time in consideration of its subject; but as from the first moment of its reception and perusal I determined on which course to pursue, it seemed to me that delay was wholly unnecessary. You are aware that I have many reasons to feel gratified to your family, that I have peculiar reasons for affection towards one at least of your sisters, and also that I highly esteem yourself. Do not therefore accuse me of wrong motives when I say that my answer to your proposal must be a decided negative. In forming this answer -- I trust I have listened to the dictates of conscience more than to those of inclination; I have no personal repugnance to the idea of a union with you -- but I feel convinced that mine is not the sort of disposition calculated to form the happiness of a man like you. It has always been my habit to study the character of those amongst whom I chance to be thrown, and I think I know yours and can imagine what description of woman would suit you for a wife. Her character should not be too marked, ardent and original -- her temper should be mild, her piety undoubted, her spirits even and cheerful, and her 'personal attractions' sufficient to please your eye and gratify your just pride. As for me, you do not know me, I am not this serious, grave, cool-headed individual you suppose -- You would think me romantic and eccentric -- you would say I was satirical and severe. However, I scorn deceit and I will never for the sake of attaining the distinction of matrimony and escaping the stigma of an old maid take a worthy man whom I am conscious I cannot render happy."
"Before I conclude let me thank you warmly for your other proposal regarding the school near Torrington...the fact is I could not at present enter upon such a project because I have not the capital necessary...It is a pleasure to me to hear that you are so comfortably settled...let me say also that I admire the good sense, and absence of flattery and cant which your letter displayed --! I shall always be glad to hear from you as a friend." manuscripts/bronte-charlotte-autograph

Charlotte's polite demurral seemingly aroused no apparent resentment on the part of the Nusseys, nor does it seem to have weighed on Charlotte's mind, for she remained on companiable terms with Henry for many years, as attested by the following two letters. Published in Letters ed. T.J. Wise and Symington, no.72.

To Ellen Nussey:

You ask me, my dear Ellen, whether I have received a letter from Henry.  I have, about a week since.  The contents, I confess, did a little surprise me, but I kept them to myself, and unless you had questioned me on the subject, I would never have adverted to it.  Henry says he is comfortably settled at Donnington, that his health is much improved, and that it is his intention to take pupils after Easter.  He then intimates that in due time he should want a wife to take care of his pupils, and frankly asks me to be that wife.  Altogether the letter is written without cant or flattery, and in a common-sense style, which does credit to his judgment.
‘Now, my dear Ellen, there were in this proposal some things which might have proved a strong temptation.  I thought if I were to marry Henry Nussey, his sister could live with me, and how happy I should be.  But again I asked myself two questions: Do I love him as much as a woman ought to love the man she marries?  Am I the person best qualified to make him happy?  Alas! Ellen, my conscience answered no to both these questions.  I felt that though I esteemed, though I had a kindly leaning towards him, because he is an amiable and well-disposed man, yet I had not, and could not have, that intense attachment which would make me willing to die for p. 297him; and, if ever I marry, it must be in that light of adoration that I will regard my husband.  Ten to one I shall never have the chance again; but n’importe.  Moreover, I was aware that Henry knew so little of me he could hardly be conscious to whom he was writing.  Why, it would startle him to see me in my natural home character; he would think I was a wild, romantic enthusiast indeed.  I could not sit all day long making a grave face before my husband.  I would laugh, and satirise, and say whatever came into my head first.  And if he were a clever man, and loved me, the whole world weighed in the balance against his smallest wish should be light as air.  Could I, knowing my mind to be such as that, conscientiously say that I would take a grave, quiet, young man like Henry?  No, it would have been deceiving him, and deception of that sort is beneath me.  So I wrote a long letter back, in which I expressed my refusal as gently as I could, and also candidly avowed my reasons for that refusal.  I described to him, too, the sort of character that would suit him for a wife.—Good-bye, my dear Ellen. gutenberg.org/files

Letters from Anne to Ellen Nussey and my search for a watch-guard

TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

‘Haworth, October 4th, 1847.

‘My dear Miss Nussey,—Many thanks to you for your unexpected and welcome epistle. Charlotte is well, and meditates writing to you. Happily for all parties the east wind no longer prevails. During its continuance she complained of its influence as usual. I too suffered from it in some degree, as I always do, more or less; but this time, it brought me no reinforcement of colds and coughs, which is what I dread the most. Emily considers it a very uninteresting wind, but it does not affect her nervous system. Charlotte p. 183agrees with me in thinking the --- [183a] a very provoking affair. You are quite mistaken about her parasol; she affirms she brought it back, and I can bear witness to the fact, having seen it yesterday in her possession. As for my book, I have no wish to see it again till I see you along with it, and then it will be welcome enough for the sake of the bearer. We are all here much as you left us. I have no news to tell you, except that Mr. Nicholls begged a holiday and went to Ireland three or four weeks ago, and is not expected back till Saturday; but that, I dare say, is no news at all. We were all and severally pleased and gratified for your kind and judiciously selected presents, from papa down to Tabby, or down to myself, perhaps I ought rather to say. The crab-cheese is excellent, and likely to be very useful, but I don’t intend to need it. It is not choice but necessity has induced me to choose such a tiny sheet of paper for my letter, having none more suitable at hand; but perhaps it will contain as much as you need wish to read, and I to write, for I find I have nothing more to say, except that your little Tabby must be a charming little creature. That is all, for as Charlotte is writing, or about to write to you herself, I need not send any messages from her. Therefore accept my best love. I must not omit the Major’s [183b] compliments. And—Believe me to be your affectionate friend,

‘Anne Brontë.’

TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

‘Haworth, January 4th, 1848.

‘My dear Miss Nussey,—I am not going to give you a “nice long letter”—on the contrary, I mean to content myself with a shabby little note, to be ingulfed in a letter of Charlotte’s, which will, of course, be infinitely more acceptable to you than any production of mine, though I do not question your friendly regard for me, or the indulgent welcome you would accord to a missive of mine, even without a more agreeable companion to p. 184 back it; but you must know there is a lamentable deficiency in my organ of language, which makes me almost as bad a hand at writing as talking, unless I have something particular to say. I have now, however, to thank you and your friend for your kind letter and her pretty watch-guards, which I am sure we shall all of us value the more for being the work of her own hands. You do not tell us how you bear the present unfavourable weather. We are all cut up by this cruel east wind. Most of us, i.e. Charlotte, Emily, and I have had the influenza, or a bad cold instead, twice over within the space of a few weeks. Papa has had it once. Tabby has escaped it altogether. I have no news to tell you, for we have been nowhere, seen no one, and done nothing (to speak of) since you were here—and yet we contrive to be busy from morning till night. Flossy is fatter than ever, but still active enough to relish a sheep-hunt. I hope you and your circle have been more fortunate in the matter of colds than we have.
‘With kind regards to all,—I remain, dear Miss Nussey, yours ever affectionately, Anne Brontë.

I didn't have any idea what is a watch-guard. So I was looking on the internet. This photograph gives an idea. the chain is NOT the one from the Brontes, just to give an idea. I wonder which material the friend of Ellen Nussey used for her watch-guard.

  southwestdesertlover

I thought, maybe I can find it on the new website of the museum.  bronte.org.uk

What I found, you can see it here. Is this the one the friend of Ellen Nussey sent?

http://bronte.adlibsoft.com/detail.aspx#

D117
Title	black cord watch guard
Description	Black knotted cord with beads. Tassles at one end, metal secure hook clasp at the other end.
Material	silk
Dimensions	whole 240 mm whole 13 mm

'I have stings of Conscience, visitings of remorse, glimpses of holy

There's an article in the 'Antiques Trade Gazette' dated Feb 3 which describes the six letters recently discovered tipped into a first edition of Elizabeth Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte Bronte' as 'the best Bronte lot of the year'. The same ...lot we were hugely privileged to be able to win at auction, with help from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.
Written to her friend Ellen Nussey during a time of terrible stress in Charlotte's life while utterly miserable and working at Roe Head School, they describe how she tried so hard to find a little comfort in her life by turning to God, of inexpressible things which formerly I used to be a stranger to - it may all die away and I may be in utter midnight but I implore a merciful Redeemer that if this be the real dawn of the Gospel it may still brighten to perfect day.'
We are delighted to report the letters are now on display in the the corner case of Charlotte's room. If you can, come and see them! facebook/Bronte-Parsonage-Museum

Six-of-Charlottes-letters-to-Ellen-Nussey-come-home

A rare and important collection of six Charlotte Brontë letters is coming home to the Parsonage after the Brontë Society acquired them for £185,000 at Sotheby’s auction.
Previously in a private collection, the letters were written by Charlotte Brontë to her closest friend Ellen Nussey following their time as pupils at Miss Wooler’s school at Roe Head, near Mirfield from 1831.
The two corresponded regularly until Charlotte’s death in 1855 by which time Nussey had amassed a collection of upwards of 500 Brontë letters, many of which survived to support subsequent Brontë scholarship.
The first letter in the collection dates from October 18, 1832, shortly after their schooldays ended, and the final letter is written to Ellen’s sister on December 28 1854, just weeks before Charlotte’s death the following March.
Ellen Nussey lent around 350 of her letters (including the six acquired today) to Elizabeth Gaskell during her research for The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857). Mrs Gaskell quoted from them abundantly in the biography of her former friend, and they were also incorporated in a first-edition copy of her two-volume Brontë biography, close to the printed texts.
Ann Dinsdale, Collections Manager at the Parsonage, described them as “among the most significant Brontë letters to come to light in decades. They belong in Haworth,” she added, “and we are delighted that both scholars and members of the public will now have the opportunity to study and enjoy them, either here at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, or through our on-line resources.”
The society was able to acquire the letters thanks to support of £198,450 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the UK’s fund of last resort for saving the nation’s most important heritage at risk.
They will join a collection of correspondence and ephemera relating to Nussey already held at the Museum. For Brontë scholars, who will have access to the originals for the first time since Gaskell handled them, it will offer an invaluable opportunity to scan them closely and compare them to what are thought to be imperfect versions previously published.
The letters are now on display in Charlotte's Room, upstairs at the Parsonage. six-of-charlottes-letters-to-ellen-nussey-come-home

Charlotte Brontë letters to her bff return to Haworth

A set of six rare and significant letters written at various stages in her life by Charlotte Brontë to her best friend Ellen Nussey are headed back to the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth on the Yorkshire moors, which was for many years the family’s home. The museum had to bid for them at Sotheby’s English Literature, History, Children’s Books & Illustrations sale on December 12th, and since the letters are highly desirable, the bidding was fierce. Thankfully they had a grant to get them over the hump.

The reason these six letters (and a first edition of the two-volume 1857 biography of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth Gaskell which was also part of the lot, but that was a negligible part of the value) are so dear is that Charlotte’s letters to Ellen are the basis for much of the Brontë scholarship that exists today.

Ellen kept all of the letters Charlotte wrote her, more than 500 in the final tally. Charlotte’s husband, her father’s curate Rev. Arthur Bell Nichols, wanted the letters destroyed after Charlotte’s death, fearing that they would somehow tarnish her reputation. Nussey refused, bless her forever for that. For the rest of her life — she died at the age of 80 in 1897 — Ellen considered herself a custodian of Charlotte’s personal and literary legacy, and biographers from Elizabeth Gaskell onward sought Ellen out for her recollections and correspondence.

After her death, the letters were sold, many of them ending up in the Haworth museum collection. These particular six were lent to Elizabeth Gaskell who apparently put them between the covers of the first edition of her biography of Charlotte and forgot about them. They were only recently rediscovered when the volumes, then in a private collection, were opened and the letters found out. They’ve only been known from poorly made transcripts until now, all of them inaccurate, so having the originals is an important addition to Brontë scholarship.
The letters cover the entire span of their friendship.
Read all: thehistoryblog

Brontë letter detailing interest in ‘Governess-life’ to go under the hammer

A LETTER from Charlotte Brontë hinting at her motivation to write is to go under the hammer.

The three-page letter, which is expected to fetch between £10,000 and £15,000 when it is auctioned at Bonhams book, maps, manuscripts and historical photographs sale in London on June 12.

The recipient of the letter, a Miss Holmes, lived for a while with the family of William Makepeace Thackeray and greatly irritated the author of Vanity Fair with her constant attempts to convert him to Catholicism.

Writing to Miss Holmes, who had sent her an – unidentified – book to read, Charlotte said: “I own I prefer the study of the human being – to that of the human being’s requirements.”

She also comments on the life of a governess – her own former occupation and that of the heroine of her best known novel Jane Eyre – saying: “I must feel a degree of interest in the details of a Governess-life.

“That life has on me the hold of actual experience; to all who live it – I cannot but incline with a certain sympathy; and any kind feeling they express for me – comes pleasantly and meets with grateful acceptance.”

 Yorkshire post