Letters of Mrs Gaskell's Daughters

Irene Wiltshire

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Sujets

• Literary Criticism
• European

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• Publié par: Humanities eBooks
• Date de parution: 11 janvier 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781847602039
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

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Letters of Mrs Gaskell’s Daughters edited by Irene Wiltshire

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Letters of Mrs Gaskell’s Daughters, 1856–1914

Edited by Irene Wiltshire

HEB ☼Humanities-Ebooks

Copyright

© Irene Wiltshire, 2012

The editor has asserted her right to be identiîed as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published byHumanities-Ebooks, LLP, Tirril Hall, Tirril, Penrith CA10 2JE

ISBN 978-1-84760-203-9 PDF ISBN 978-1-84760-204-6 Paperback ISBN 978-1-84760-205-3 Kindle

For Sarah Prince,

Mrs Gaskell’s great-great-great granddaughter

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FLORENCE ELIZABETH GASKELL

JULIA BRADFORD GASKELL

Appendix II: Biographical Index

General Index

Appendix III: Table of Letters

MARIANNE GASKELL

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Appendix I: Poetry

MARGARET EMILY GASKELL

Acknowledgments

Contents

Abbreviations and Short Titles

Introduction

Editorial Policy and Note on the Text

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So seldom is anything worthwhile achieved by one person alone, that even a modest undertaking such as this incurs many debts, which I would like to acknowledge here. Jenny Uglow’s footnotes to her Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Storiesîrst alerted me to the unpub- lished letters in the Houghton Library, Harvard University; and in the Wedgwood Archives, now at Barlaston. I am grateful to Jenny for this information and to both institutions for making it possible for me to transcribe documents held in their care. Staff at the John Rylands Library Manchester have been helpful in supplying me with unpublished letters for me to transcribe. Staff at Manchester Central Library, where Christine Lingard, even into retirement, helped to locate documents, proved once again just how valuable this insti- tution is. During the time Central Library was closed for refurbish- ment, staff at Greater Manchester County Record Ofîce retrieved documents from the Gaskell Collection, and from their own archives. Still in Manchester, staff at the Portico alerted me to the letter writ- ten by Meta following her father’s death and supplied me with a photocopy. Emma Marigliano, Portico Librarian, has been helpful in locating rare out of print books and in suggesting English trans- lations of Meta’s and Marianne’s Italian. I am also grateful for the opportunity to present a paper at the Portico in 2008 on letters sent by Marianne and Meta to the Norton family in North America. The British Library at St Pancras; Shropshire Archives in Shrewsbury; and the Brotherton, Leeds; all made me welcome and supplied me with manuscripts. The National Library of Scotland speedily sent me photocopies of letters when I was unable to undertake the jour- ney to Edinburgh. Cambridge University Library has been helpful in locating a Darwin letter and sending me a photocopy. In my search for footnote material I have visited the British Library at Colindale where staff were helpful; and Birmingham City Library, where staff willingly brought up a trolley-load of nineteenth-century journals for me to peruse and helped me to photocopy selected articles. Knutsford Library provided me with access to the Stanton Whitîeld Collection and newspapers held on micro-îlm.

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Letters of Mrs Gaskell’s Daughters

Gaskell scholars who have been helpful in innumerable ways include Angus Easson, my former PhD supervisor; and Alan Shelston, co-editor with John Chapple of theFurther Letters. Christine Lingard, retired librarian, has generously shared her specialist knowledge with me. Nancy Weyant, bibliographer and former university librarian, has helped with American idioms and customs. Dr Christine Joy, archi- vist at Manchester High School for Girls, where Meta Gaskell served as a governor for forty years, made me most welcome and allowed me to consult important material. Sarah Prince, Elizabeth Gaskell’s great-great-great granddaughter, kindly consented to the publication of family letters. I very much appreciate Richard Gravil’s willing- ness to publish this volume, especially given the difîculties faced by an unknown author. Friends who have expressed an interest in this work, as it has progressed from its infancy, are too numerous to men- tion individually; I hope their patience will be rewarded. Members of my family have been supportive, especially my husband Gerry. Any errors or other shortcomings in this volume are of course entirely my own.

Illustrations

The cover illustration is a portrait of Marianne, Meta and Flossie in 1845 by Charles Allen Duval. It is from a private collection.

The manuscript illustration on page 211 is reproduced by kind per- mission of the Portico Library, those on pages 151–2 by kind permis- sion of the Wedgwood Museum, and the engraving on page 241 by kind permission of Manchester Libraries.

Illustrations elsewhere have been used by the publisher in the belief that they are in the public domain: on receipt of information from copyright holders that this is not the case, appropriate action will be taken at the earliest possible moment.

Letters of Mrs Gaskell’s Daughters

INTRODUCTION

9

‘These are my 4 children; for you must go on knowing them as they 1 are, not their mere outsides, which are all you can see in pops’. These words, in a letter written to her sister-in-law in 1851, indicate just how much Mrs Gaskell respected the inner lives and individ- ual characters of her daughters. Nowhere do we gain a better insight into these aspects of her daughters’ lives than in the content of their surviving letters. Not written to satisfy the demands of an English examining board, or any other critical authority, they provide today’s reader with access to the spontaneous thoughts and feelings of Mrs Gaskell’s daughters as they sat down to communicate with friends, family, or scholars associated with the publication of their mother’s writing. The letters cover a time-span of more than îfty years, starting in the middle years of the nineteenth century and concluding with Meta Gaskell’s death in the second decade of the twentieth century. All periods of history are eventful and these years were no exception. Events overseas that impinged on the lives of these women include the Indian Mutiny (1857); the American Civil War (1861–65); the Franco–Prussian War (1870–1871); the Boer Wars (1880–81 and 1899–1902); and the Irish struggle for independence. At home they witnessed at îrst-hand some of the consequences of the American Civil War; were made aware of Fenian activities on British soil; fol- lowed the demands for electoral reform; and engaged in many of the debates current at that time. The connection by marriage between the Gaskell family and Charles Darwin promoted an interest in the changing attitudes that followed the publication of Darwin’s research. All of these events and topics feature in this correspondence. Mrs Gaskell’s daughters were very privileged, in that they were never compelled from înancial necessity to perform tasks they detested. Unlike Charlotte Brontë and her sisters, they did not work outside their own home as governesses, nor did they undertake any other paid work. Charitable work performed in Manchester was done from a sense of duty, but never from necessity. They enjoyed com-

1Gaskell Letters, p. 61. In this context ‘pops’ refers to brief visits.

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Letters of Mrs Gaskell’s Daughters

plete înancial security but this did not lead to indolence or selîsh- ness. They inherited from both their parents a sense of social respon- sibility and from their mother sociability and sympathy towards all who knew them. As the girls were growing up in Manchester, Marianne and Meta, as the two older daughters, enjoyed privileges denied to Florence and Julia. The holiday in Italy in 1857, when they were joined by Charles Norton, proved to be a pivotal event for the Gaskell family. Marianne and Meta accompanied their mother on this adventure but Florence and Julia were considered to be too young to beneît from the trip. This means that the two older daughters formed relation- ships, notably with the Nortons and Storys, from which Florence and 1 Julia were largely excluded. In one of her letters Meta even refers to Julia as ‘the child of the family’. The structure and hierarchy of the family changed considerably after Marianne and Florence married, especially as both made their marital homes in London, leaving their unmarried sisters behind in Manchester. Although there was an age gap of nine years between Meta and Julia, they became close com- panions, sharing many, though not all, interests and friendships. They were known for their hospitality at Plymouth Grove and honoured for their public duties. As so often happens in families of several children there is one upon whose shoulders speciîc responsibilities fall. In this case it was Meta to whom publishers and editors turned, especially during the run-up to the Gaskell Centenary in 1910, when her mother’s books were being reprinted. Meta appears to have accepted this responsi- bility at least initially with enthusiasm, taking pride in her mother’s achievements and willingly protecting her reputation. Unfortunately, some of the demands made on her at this time proved to be intru- sive and burdensome at a time when her health and strength and – 2 one suspects – her memory were fading. To make matters worse for her, she lost two sources of emotional support in one year: her sister Julia and her friend of îfty years, Charles Norton, both died in 1908.

1 The two letters in this volume from Florence to Charles Norton arise from only a brief meeting in England, after Norton and the older members of the Gaskell family had returned from the holiday in Italy. 2 Born in 1837, Meta was aged seventy-three by the time of the Gaskell Centenary.