Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle Part 22

HERE LIE THE REMAINS OF ANNE BRONTE DAUGHTER OF THE REV. P. BRONTE INc.u.mBENT OF HAWORTH, YORKSHIRE _She Died_, _Aged_ 28, _May_ 28_th_, 1849

CHAPTER VIII: ELLEN NUSSEY

If to be known by one's friends is the index to character that it is frequently a.s.sumed to be, Charlotte Bronte comes well out of that ordeal.

She was discriminating in friendship and leal to the heart's core. With what grat.i.tude she thought of the publisher who gave her the 'first chance' we know by recognising that the manly Dr. John of _Villette_ was Mr. George Smith of Smith & Elder. Mr. W. S. Williams, again, would seem to have been a singularly gifted and amiable man. To her three girl friends, Ellen Nussey, Mary Taylor, and Laet.i.tia Wheelwright, she was loyal to her dying day, and pencilled letters to the two of them who were in England were written in her last illness. Of all her friends, Ellen Nussey must always have the foremost place in our esteem. Like Mary Taylor, she made Charlotte's acquaintance when, at fifteen years of age, she first went to Roe Head School. Mrs. Gaskell has sufficiently described the beginnings of that friendship which death was not to break.

Ellen Nussey and Charlotte Bronte corresponded with a regularity which one imagines would be impossible had they both been born half a century later. The two girls loved one another profoundly. They wrote at times almost daily. They quarrelled occasionally over trifles, as friends will, but Charlotte was always full of contrition when a few hours had pa.s.sed. Towards the end of her life she wrote to Mr. Williams a letter concerning Miss Nussey which may well be printed here.

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

'_January_ 3_rd_, 1850.

'MY DEAR SIR,--I have to acknowledge the receipt of the _Morning Chronicle_ with a good review, and of the _Church of England Quarterly_ and the _Westminster_ with bad ones. I have also to thank you for your letter, which would have been answered sooner had I been alone; but just now I am enjoying the treat of my friend Ellen's society, and she makes me indolent and negligent--I am too busy talking to her all day to do anything else. You allude to the subject of female friendships, and express wonder at the infrequency of sincere attachments amongst women. As to married women, I can well understand that they should be absorbed in their husbands and children--but single women often like each other much, and derive great solace from their mutual regard. Friendship, however, is a plant which cannot be forced. True friendship is no gourd, springing in a night and withering in a day. When I first saw Ellen I did not care for her; we were school-fellows. In course of time we learnt each other's faults and good points. We were contrasts--still, we suited. Affection was first a germ, then a sapling, then a strong tree--now, no new friend, however lofty or profound in intellect--not even Miss Martineau herself--could be to me what Ellen is; yet she is no more than a conscientious, observant, calm, well-bred Yorkshire girl. She is without romance. If she attempts to read poetry, or poetic prose, aloud, I am irritated and deprive her of the book--if she talks of it, I stop my ears; but she is good; she is true; she is faithful, and I love her.

'Since I came home, Miss Martineau has written me a long and truly kindly letter. She invites me to visit her at Ambleside. I like the idea. Whether I can realise it or not, it is pleasant to have in prospect.

'You ask me to write to Mrs. Williams. I would rather she wrote to me first; and let her send any kind of letter she likes, without studying mood or manner.--Yours sincerely,

'C. BRONTE.'

Good, True, Faithful--friendship has no sweeter words than these; and it was this loyalty in Miss Nussey which has marked her out in our day as a fine type of sweet womanliness, and will secure to her a lasting name as the friend of Charlotte Bronte.

Miss Ellen Nussey was one of a large family of children, all of whom she survives. Her home during the years of her first friendship with Charlotte Bronte was at the Rydings, at that time the property of an uncle, Reuben Walker, a distinguished court physician. The family in that generation and in this has given many of its members to high public service in various professions. Two Nusseys, indeed, and two Walkers, were court physicians in their day. When Earl Fitzwilliam was canva.s.sing for the county in 1809, he was a guest at the Rydings for two weeks, and on his election was chaired by the tenantry. Reuben Walker, this uncle of Miss Nussey's, was the only Justice of the Peace for the district which included Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, and Halifax, during the Luddite riots--a significant reminder of the growth of population since that day. Ellen Nussey's home was at the Rydings, then tenanted by her brother John, until 1837, and she then removed to Brookroyd, where she lived until long after Charlotte Bronte died.

The first letter to Ellen Nussey is dated May 31, 1831, Charlotte having become her school-fellow in the previous January. It would seem to have been a mere play exercise across the school-room, as the girls were then together at Roe Head.

[Picture: Ellen Nussey as schoolgirl and adult]

'DEAR MISS NUSSEY,--I take advantage of the earliest opportunity to thank you for the letter you favoured me with last week, and to apologise for having so long neglected to write to you; indeed, I believe this will be the first letter or note I have ever addressed to you. I am extremely obliged to Mary for her kind invitation, and I a.s.sure you that I should very much have liked to hear the Lectures on Galvanism, as they would doubtless have been amusing and instructive. But we are often compelled to bend our inclination to our duty (as Miss Wooler observed the other day), and since there are so many holidays this half-year, it would have appeared almost unreasonable to ask for an extra holiday; besides, we should perhaps have got behindhand with our lessons, so that, everything considered, it is perhaps as well that circ.u.mstances have deprived us of this pleasure.--Believe me to remain, your affectionate friend,

'C. BRONTE.'

But by the Christmas holidays, 'Dear Miss Nussey' has become 'Dear Ellen,' and the friendship has already well commenced.

TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

'HAWORTH, _January_ 13_th_, 1832.

'DEAR ELLEN,--The receipt of your letter gave me an agreeable surprise, for notwithstanding your faithful promises, you must excuse me if I say that I had little confidence in their fulfilment, knowing that when school girls once get home they willingly abandon every recollection which tends to remind them of school, and indeed they find such an infinite variety of circ.u.mstances to engage their attention and employ their leisure hours, that they are easily persuaded that they have no time to fulfil promises made at school.

It gave me great pleasure, however, to find that you and Miss Taylor are exceptions to the general rule. The cholera still seems slowly advancing, but let us yet hope, knowing that all things are under the guidance of a merciful Providence. England has. .h.i.therto been highly favoured, for the disease has neither raged with the astounding violence, nor extended itself with the frightful rapidity which marked its progress in many of the continental countries.--From your affectionate friend,

'CHARLOTTE BRONTE.'

TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

'HAWORTH, _January_ 1_st_, 1833.

'DEAR ELLEN,--I believe we agreed to correspond once a month. That s.p.a.ce of time has now elapsed since I received your last interesting letter, and I now therefore hasten to reply. Accept my congratulations on the arrival of the New Year, every succeeding day of which will, I trust, find you _wiser_ and _better_ in the true sense of those much-used words. The first day of January always presents to my mind a train of very solemn and important reflections, and a question more easily asked than answered frequently occurs, viz.--How have I improved the past year, and with what good intentions do I view the dawn of its successor? These, my dearest Ellen, are weighty considerations which (young as we are) neither you nor I can too deeply or too seriously ponder. I am sorry your too great diffidence, arising, I think, from the want of sufficient confidence in your own capabilities, prevented you from writing to me in French, as I think the attempt would have materially contributed to your improvement in that language. You very kindly caution me against being tempted by the fondness of my sisters to consider myself of too much importance, and then in a parenthesis you beg me not to be offended. O Ellen, do you think I could be offended by any good advice you may give me? No, I thank you heartily, and love you, if possible, better for it. I am glad you like _Kenilworth_. It is certainly a splendid production, more resembling a romance than a novel, and, in my opinion, one of the most interesting works that ever emanated from the great Sir Walter's pen. I was exceedingly amused at the characteristic and naive manner in which you expressed your detestation of Varney's character--so much so, indeed, that I could not forbear laughing aloud when I perused that part of your letter. He is certainly the personification of consummate villainy; and in the delineation of his dark and profoundly artful mind, Scott exhibits a wonderful knowledge of human nature as well as surprising skill in embodying his perceptions so as to enable others to become partic.i.p.ators in that knowledge. Excuse the want of news in this very barren epistle, for I really have none to communicate. Emily and Anne beg to be kindly remembered to you. Give my best love to your mother and sisters, and as it is very late permit me to conclude with the a.s.surance of my unchanged, unchanging, and unchangeable affection for you.--Adieu, my sweetest Ellen, I am ever yours,

'CHARLOTTE.'

Here is a pleasant testimony to Miss Nussey's attractions from Emily and Anne.

TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

'HAWORTH, _September_ 11_th_, 1833.

'DEAR ELLEN,--I have hitherto delayed answering your last letter because from what you said I imagined you might be from home. Since you were here Emily has been very ill. Her ailment was erysipelas in the arm, accompanied by severe bilious attacks, and great general debility. Her arm was obliged to be cut in order to relieve it. It is now, I am happy to say, nearly healed--her health is, in fact, almost perfectly re-established. The sickness still continues to recur at intervals. Were I to tell you of the impression you have made on every one here you would accuse me of flattery. Papa and aunt are continually adducing you as an example for me to shape my actions and behaviour by. Emily and Anne say "they never saw any one they liked so well as Miss Nussey," and Tabby talks a great deal more nonsense about you than I choose to report. You must read this letter, dear Ellen, without thinking of the writing, for I have indited it almost all in the twilight. It is now so dark that, notwithstanding the singular property of "seeing in the night-time"

which the young ladies at Roe Head used to attribute to me, I can scribble no longer. All the family unite with me in wishes for your welfare. Remember me respectfully to your mother and sisters, and supply all those expressions of warm and genuine regard which the increasing darkness will not permit me to insert.

'CHARLOTTE BRONTE.'

TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

'HAWORTH, _February_ 11_th_, 1834.

'DEAR ELLEN,--My letters are scarcely worth the postage, and therefore I have, till now, delayed answering your last communication; but upwards of two months having elapsed since I received it, I have at length determined to take up my pen in reply lest your anger should be roused by my apparent negligence. It grieved me extremely to hear of your precarious state of health. I trust sincerely that your medical adviser is mistaken in supposing you have any tendency to a pulmonary affection. Dear Ellen, that would indeed be a calamity. I have seen enough of consumption to dread it as one of the most insidious and fatal diseases incident to humanity. But I repeat it, I _hope_, nay _pray_, that your alarm is groundless. If you remember, I used frequently to tell you at school that you were const.i.tutionally nervous--guard against the gloomy impressions which such a state of mind naturally produces. Take constant and regular exercise, and all, I doubt not, will yet be well. What a remarkable winter we have had! Rain and wind continually, but an almost total absence of frost and snow. Has _general_ ill health been the consequence of wet weather at Birstall or not? With us an unusual number of deaths have lately taken place.

According to custom I have no news to communicate, indeed I do not write either to retail gossip or to impart solid information; my motives for maintaining our mutual correspondence are, in the first place, to get intelligence from you, and in the second that we may remind each other of our separate existences; without some such medium of reciprocal converse, according to the nature of things, _you_, who are surrounded by society and friends, would soon forget that such an insignificant being as myself ever lived. _I_, however, in the solitude of our wild little hill village, think of my only unrelated friend, my dear ci-devant school companion daily--nay, almost hourly. Now Ellen, don't you think I have very cleverly contrived to make up a letter out of nothing? Goodbye, dearest.

That G.o.d may bless you is the earnest prayer of your ever faithful friend,

'CHARLOTTE BRONTE.'

TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

'HAWORTH, _November_ 10_th_, 1834.

'DEAR ELLEN,--I have been a long while, a very long while without writing to you. A letter I received from Mary Taylor this morning reminded me of my neglect, and made me instantly sit down to atone for it, if possible. She tells me your aunt, of Brookroyd, is dead, and that Sarah is very ill; for this I am truly sorry, but I hope her case is not yet without hope. You should however remember that death, should it happen, will undoubtedly be great gain to her. In your last, dear Ellen, you ask my opinion respecting the amus.e.m.e.nt of dancing, and whether I thought it objectionable when indulged in for an hour or two in parties of boys and girls. I should hesitate to express a difference of opinion from Mr. Atkinson, but really the matter seems to me to stand thus: It is allowed on all hands that the sin of dancing consists not in the mere action of shaking the shanks (as the Scotch say), but in the consequences that usually attend it--namely, frivolity and waste of time; when it is used only, as in the case you state, for the exercise and amus.e.m.e.nt of an hour among young people (who surely may without any breach of G.o.d's commandments be allowed a little light-heartedness), these consequences cannot follow. Ergo (according to my manner of arguing), the amus.e.m.e.nt is at such times perfectly innocent. Having nothing more to say, I will conclude with the expression of my sincere and earnest attachment for, Ellen, your own dear self.

'CHARLOTTE BRONTE.'

TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

'HAWORTH, _January_ 12_th_, 1835.

'DEAREST ELLEN,--I thought it better not to answer your kind letter too soon, lest I should (in the present fully occupied state of your time) appear intrusive. I am happy to inform you papa has given me permission to accept the invitation it conveyed, and ere long I hope once more to have the pleasure of seeing _almost_ the _only_ and certainly the _dearest_ friend I possess (out of our own family). I leave it to you to fix the time, only requesting you not to appoint too early a day; let it be a fortnight or three weeks at least from the date of the present letter. I am greatly obliged to you for your kind offer of meeting me at Bradford, but papa thinks that such a plan would involve uncertainty, and be productive of trouble to you.

He recommends that I should go direct in a gig from Haworth at the time you shall determine, or, if that day should prove unfavourable, the first subsequent fine one. Such an arrangement would leave us both free, and if it meets with your approbation would perhaps be the best we could finally resolve upon. Excuse the brevity of this epistle, dear Ellen, for I am in a great hurry, and we shall, I trust, soon see each other face to face, which will be better than a hundred letters. Give my respectful love to your mother and sisters, accept the kind remembrances of all our family, and--Believe me in particular to be, your firm and faithful friend,

'CHARLOTTE BRONTE.

'_P.S._--You ask me to stay a month when I come, but as I do not wish to tire you with my company, and as, besides, papa and aunt both think a fortnight amply sufficient, I shall not exceed that period.

Farewell, _dearest_, _dearest_.'

TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

'ROE HEAD, _September_ 10_th_, 1835.