Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle Part 63

TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

'HAWORTH, _January_ 19_th_, 1855.

'DEAR ELLEN,--Since our return from Gawthorpe we have had a Mr. Bell, one of Arthur's cousins, staying with us. It was a great pleasure.

I wish you could have seen him and made his acquaintance; a true gentleman by nature and cultivation is not after all an everyday thing.

'As to the living of Habergham or Padiham, it appears the chance is doubtful at present for anybody. The present inc.u.mbent wishes to retract his resignation, and declares his intention of appointing a curate for two years. I fear Mr. Sowden hardly produced a favourable impression; a strong wish was expressed that Arthur could come, but that is out of the question.

'I very much wish to come to Brookroyd, and I hope to be able to write with certainty and fix Wednesday, the 31st January, as the day; but the fact is I am not sure whether I shall be well enough to leave home. At present I should be a most tedious visitor. My health has been really very good since my return from Ireland till about ten days ago, when the stomach seemed quite suddenly to lose its tone; indigestion and continual faint sickness have been my portion ever since. Don't conjecture, dear Nell, for it is too soon yet, though I certainly never before felt as I have done lately. But keep the matter wholly to yourself, for I can come to no decided opinion at present. I am rather mortified to lose my good looks and grow thin as I am doing just when I thought of going to Brookroyd. Dear Ellen, I want to see you, and I hope I shall see you well. My love to all.--Yours faithfully,

'C. B. NICHOLLS.'

There were three more letters, but they were written in pencil from her deathbed. Two of them are printed by Mrs. Gaskell--one to Miss Nussey, the other to Miss Wheelwright. Here is the third and last of all.

TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

'MY DEAR ELLEN,--Thank you very much for Mrs. Hewitt's sensible clear letter. Thank her too. In much her case was wonderfully like mine, but I am reduced to greater weakness; the skeleton emaciation is the same. I cannot talk. Even to my dear, patient, constant Arthur I can say but few words at once.

'These last two days I have been somewhat better, and have taken some beef-tea, a spoonful of wine and water, a mouthful of light pudding at different times.

'Dear Ellen, I realise full well what you have gone through and will have to go through with poor Mercy. Oh, may you continue to be supported and not sink. Sickness here has been terribly rife.

Kindest regards to Mr. and Mrs. Clapham, your mother, Mercy. Write when you can.--Yours,

'C. B. NICHOLLS.'

Little remains to be said. This is not a biography but a bundle of correspondence, and I have only to state that Mrs. Nicholls died of an illness incidental to childbirth on March 31st 1855, and was buried in the Bronte tomb in Haworth church. Her will runs as follows:--

Extracted from the District Probate Registry at York attached to Her Majesty's High Court of Justice.

_In the name of G.o.d_. _Amen_. _I_, CHARLOTTE NICHOLLS, _of Haworth in the parish of Bradford and county of York_, _being of sound and disposing mind_, _memory_, _and understanding_, _but mindful of my own mortality_, _do this seventeenth day of February_, _in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five_, _make this my last Will and Testament in manner and form following_, _that is to say_: _In case I die without issue I give and bequeath to my husband all my property to be his absolutely and entirely_, _but_, _In case I leave issue I bequeath to my husband the interest of my property during his lifetime_, _and at his death I desire that the princ.i.p.al should go to my surviving child or children_; _should there be more than one child_, _share and share alike_. _And I do hereby make and appoint my said husband_, _Arthur Bell Nicholls_, _clerk_, _sole executor of this my last Will and Testament_; _In witness whereof I have to this my last Will and Testament subscribed my hand_, _the day and year first above written_--CHARLOTTE NICHOLLS. _Signed and acknowledged by the said testatrix_ CHARLOTTE NICHOLLS, _as and for her last Will and Testament in the presence of us_, _who_, _at her request_, _in her presence and in presence of each other_, _have at the same time hereunto_ _subscribed our names as witnesses thereto_: _Patrick Bronte_, B.A. _Inc.u.mbent of Haworth_, _Yorkshire_; _Martha Brown_.

_The eighteenth day of April_ 1855, _the Will of_ CHARLOTTE NICHOLLS, _late of Haworth in the parish of Bradford in the county of York_ (_wife of the Reverend Arthur Bell Nicholls_, _Clerk in Holy Orders_) (_having bona notabilia within the province of York_). _Deceased was proved in the prerogative court of York by the oath of the said Arthur Bell Nicholls_ (_the husband_), _the sole executor to whom administration was granted_, _he having been first sworn duly to administer_.

Testatrix died 31st March 1855.

It is easy as fruitless to mourn over 'unfulfilled renown,' but it is not easy to believe that the future had any great things in store. Miss Bronte's four novels will remain for all time imperishable monuments of her power. She had touched with effect in two of them all that she knew of her home surroundings, and in two others all that was revealed to her of a wider life. More she could not have done with equal effect had she lived to be eighty. Hers was, it is true, a sad life, but such gifts as these rarely bring happiness with them. It was surely something to have tasted the sweets of fame, and a fame so indisputably lasting.

Mr. Nicholls stayed on at Haworth for the six years that followed his wife's death. When Mr. Bronte died he returned to Ireland. Some years later he married again--a cousin, Miss Bell by name. That second marriage has been one of unmixed blessedness. I found him in a home of supreme simplicity and charm, esteemed by all who knew him and idolised in his own household. It was not difficult to understand that Charlotte Bronte had loved him and had fought down parental opposition in his behalf. The qualities of gentleness, sincerity, unaffected piety, and delicacy of mind are his; and he is beautifully jealous, not only for the fair fame of Currer Bell, but--what she would equally have loved--for her father, who also has had much undue detraction in the years that are past. That Mr. Nicholls may long continue to enjoy the kindly calm of his Irish home will be the wish of all who have read of his own continuous devotion to a wife who must ever rank among the greatest of her s.e.x.

FOOTNOTES

{8} Although so stated by Professor A. W. Ward in the _Dictionary of National Biography_, vol. xxi.

{14} 'Mama's last days,' it runs, 'had been full of loving thought and tender help for others. She was so sweet and dear and n.o.ble beyond words.'

{17} 'Some of the West Ridingers are very angry, and declare they are half-a-century in civilisation before some of the Lancashire folk, and that this neighbourhood is a paradise compared with some districts not far from Manchester.'--Ellen Nussey to Mrs. Gaskell, April 16th, 1859.

{19} 'To this bold statement (i.e. that love-letters were found in Branwell's pockets) Martha Brown gave to me a flat contradiction, declaring that she was employed in the sick room at the time, and had personal knowledge that not one letter, nor a vestige of one, from the lady in question, was so found.'--Leyland. _The Bronte Family_, vol. ii.

p. 284.

{22} Mrs. Gaskell had described Charlotte Bronte's features as 'plain, large, and ill-set,' and had written of her 'crooked mouth and large nose'--while acknowledging the beauty of hair and eyes.

{25} Mrs. Lawry of Muswell Hill, to whose courtesy in placing these and other papers at my disposal I am greatly indebted.

{28} 'Patrick Branty' is written in another handwriting in the list of admissions at St. John's College, Cambridge. Dr. J. A. Erskine Stuart, who has a valuable note on the subject in an article on 'The Bronte Nomenclature' (Bronte Society's Publications, Pt. III.), has found the name as Brunty, Bruntee, Bronty, and Branty--but never in Patrick Bronte's handwriting. There is, however, no signature of Mr. Bronte's extant prior to 1799.

{29} 'I translated this' (_i.e._ an Irish romance) 'from a ma.n.u.script in my possession made by one Patrick O'Prunty, an ancestor probably of Charlotte Bronte, in 1763.' _The Story of Early Gaelic Literature_, p.

49. By Douglas Hyde, LL.D. T. Fisher Uwin, 1895.

{33} Mrs. Gaskell says 'Dec. 29th'; but Miss Charlotte Branwell of Penzance writes to me as follows:--'My Aunt Maria Branwell, after the death of her parents, went to Yorkshire on a visit to her relatives, where she met the Rev. Patrick Bronte. They soon became engaged to be married. Jane Fennell was previously engaged to the Rev. William Morgan.

And when the time arrived for their marriage, Mr. Fennell said he should have to give his daughter and niece away, and if so, he could not marry them; so it was arranged that Mr. Morgan should marry Mr. Bronte and Maria Branwell, and afterwards Mr. Bronte should perform the same kindly office towards Mr. Morgan and Jane Fennell. So the bridegrooms married each other and the brides acted as bridesmaids to each other. My father and mother, Joseph and Charlotte Branwell, were married at Madron, which was then the parish church of Penzance, on the same day and hour.

Perhaps a similar case never happened before or since: two sisters and four first cousins being united in holy matrimony at one and the same time. And they were all happy marriages. Mr. Bronte was perhaps peculiar, but I have always heard my own dear mother say that he was devotedly fond of his wife, and she of him. These marriages were solemnised on the 18th of December 1812.'

{39} The pa.s.sage in brackets is quoted by Mrs. Gaskell.

{49} The pa.s.sage in brackets is quoted, not quite accurately, by Mrs.

Gaskell.

{53} The following letter indicates Mr. Bronte's independence of spirit.

It was written after Charlotte's death:

'HAWORTH, NR. KEIGHLEY, _January_ 16_th_, 1858.

'SIR,--Your letter which I have received this morning gives both to Mr. Nicholls and me great uneasiness. It would seem that application has been made to the Duke of Devonshire for money to aid the subscription in reference to the expense of apparatus for heating our church and schools. This has been done without our knowledge, and most a.s.suredly, had we known it, would have met with our strongest opposition. We have no claim on the Duke. His Grace honour'd us with a visit, in token of his respect for the memory of the dead, and his liberality and munificence are well and widely known; and the mercenary, taking an unfair advantage of these circ.u.mstances, have taken a step which both Mr. Nicholls and I utterly regret and condemn. In answer to your query, I may state that the whole expense for both the schools and church is about one hundred pounds; and that after what has been and may be subscribed, there may fifty pounds remain as a debt. But this may, and ought, to be raised by the inhabitants, in the next year after the depression of trade shall, it is hoped, have pa.s.sed away. I have written to His Grace on the subject--I remain, sir, your obedient servant,

'P. BRONTE.

'SIR JOSEPH PAXTON, BART., 'Hardwick Hall, 'Chesterfield.'

{56a} The vicar, the Rev. J. Jolly, a.s.sures me, as these pages are pa.s.sing through the press, that he is now moving it into the new church.

{56b} _Baptisms solomnised in the Parish of Bradford and Chapelry of Thornton in the County of York_.

_When _Child's _Parent's _Parent's _Abode_. _Quality_, _By whom the Baptized_. Christian Name_ Name_ _Trade or Ceremony was Name_. (_Christian_). (_Surname_). Profession_. Performed_.

1816 _Charlotte _The Rev. _Bronte_ _Thornton_ _Minister of _Wm. Morgan 29_th_ _June_ daughter of_ Patrick and Thornton_ Minster of Christ Maria_. Church Bradford_.

1817 _Patrick _Patrick and _Bronte_ _Thornton_ _Minister_ _Jno. Fennell _July_ 23 Branwell son Maria_. officiating of_ Minister_.

1818 _Emily Jane _The Rev. _Bronte_ A.B. _Thornton _Minister of _Wm. Morgan 20_th_ daughter of_ Patrick and Parsonage_ Thornton_ Minster of Christ _August_ Maria_. Church Bradford_.

1820 _Anne daughter _The Rev. _Bronte_ _Minister of _Wm. Morgan _March_ 25_th_ of_ Patrick and Haworth_ Minster of Christ Maria_. Church Bradford_.

{74} At the same time it is worth while quoting from a letter by 'A. H.'

in August 1855. A. H. was a teacher who was at Cowan Bridge during the time of the residence of the little Brontes there.

'In July 1824 the Rev. Mr. Bronte arrived at Cowan Bridge with two of his daughters, Maria and Elizabeth, 12 and 10 years of age. The children were delicate; both had but recently recovered from the measles and whooping-cough--so recently, indeed, that doubts were entertained whether they could be admitted with safety to the other pupils. They were received, however, and went on so well that in September their father returned, bringing with him two more of his children--Charlotte, 9 [she was really but 8] and Emily, 6 years of age. During both these visits Mr. Bronte lodged at the school, sat at the same table with the children, saw the whole routine of the establishment, and, so far as I have ever known, was satisfied with everything that came under his observation.

'"The two younger children enjoyed uniformly good health." Charlotte was a general favourite. To the best of my recollection she was never under disgrace, however slight; punishment she certainly did _not _experience while she was at Cowan Bridge.