Chapter XXXIII: Appendix

MINOR IDENTIFICATIONS OF PERSONS AND PLACES IN THE BRONTË WORKS.

"WUTHERING HEIGHTS."

There is not satisfactory evidence to enable the identification of the originals of Wuthering Heights the abode, and Thrushcross Grange. Similar homesteads are found anywhere near the Yorkshire moors. Architectural peculiarities and appointments are ever accretive properties with the novelist of imagination and latitude. This observation should be kept in mind also in regard to Charlotte Brontë's other works. See my remarks on page 57.

"JANE EYRE."

The interior of Thornfield Hall, as I mention on page 35, has been identified with that of "Norton Conyers," near Ripon; externally it has been associated with "The Rydings," near Birstall. Ferndean Manor has been identified with Wycollar Hall, near Colne. A Brontë biographer says this place was set on fire by a mad woman,[92] but the story finds no mention in _The Annals of Colne_, 1878, or in _Lancashire Legends_, 1873, though "Wyecoller Hall" is dealt with at length in each work.

"SHIRLEY."

Gomersall and Birstall, near Batley, Yorkshire, contribute to the background of this story. "Field Head" has been identified with Oakwell Hall, an Elizabethan mansion. Evidence shows that intimately the Rectory in _Shirley_ was in the main Haworth Parsonage to Charlotte Brontë. In _The Dictionary of National Biography_ Leslie Stephen says:--"Brontë, ... a strong Churchman and a man of imperious and passionate character, ... is partly represented by Mr. Helstone in _Shirley_, though a [Rev.] Mr. Roberson ... supplied ... characteristic traits." And Mr. Francis Leyland, who drew much of his information from Nancy Garrs, a Brontë servant, says that the fourth chapter of _Shirley_, wherein Charlotte speaks of the grossly untrue reports of Mr. Helstone's dry-eyed mourning, etc., for his wife, is a defence really of Mr. Brontë. Helstone was a composite character, as also was Mrs. Pryor, to whom, without doubt, Miss Wooler contributed, though Charlotte Brontë once had a grave difference with her. Miss Nussey, who pathetically and wrongly believed herself Caroline Helstone, proclaimed Miss Wooler, her schoolmistress, as the prototype of Mrs. Pryor. Evidence declares, however, that in many regards this character was also drawn from Tabitha Aykroyd. And we see that Charlotte Brontë, years before, in her _Wuthering Heights_, had given an ecclesiastical name--that of Dean--to her portrayal of the one woman who alone ever took up the part of mother for her--Tabitha Aykroyd. Nevertheless Mrs. Pryor was in the main a composite character, largely at the service of "story" requirements. Sometimes she is Tabitha, sometimes Miss Wooler; elsewhile she is neither. Mr. Macarthey is said to represent the Rev. Arthur Bell Nicholls, who became Charlotte Brontë's husband.

The references in _Shirley_, Chapters XII. and XXVII., to Robin Hood's connection with Nunnwood and to the ruins of a nunnery, identify Nunnely in the circumstances, with Hartshead, near Brighouse and Dewsbury; Nunnely Church with Hartshead Church (Mr. Brontë was once vicar here), and the Priory with Kirklees Hall or Priory--Kirklees Park, as we may see by turning to Dr. Whitaker's _Loidis and Elmete_, pages 306-9 (1816), wherein we find mention of Robin Hood and an old Cistercian nunnery in connection with Kirklees, appropriately now the residence of Sir George J. Armytage, Bart., one of the founders of the Harleian Society. Whinbury has been identified with Dewsbury; but I do not know that it has been remarked the name Dewsbury may have suggested to Charlotte Brontë the dewberry, bramble, or blackberry, thus leading her to adopt "whinberry" and, finally, Whinbury. The attack on Hollow's Mill is said to have been founded on an attempt in 1812, when an assault was made on the factory of Mr. Cartwright near Dewsbury.

"THE PROFESSOR" AND "VILLETTE."

_The Professor_, Charlotte Brontë offered to Messrs. Aylott & Jones in April 1846, was not published till after her death. It is related to _Villette_ in something of the way, though not so verbally and intimately, that _Wuthering Heights_ is to _Jane Eyre_. The early chapters deal vaguely with a West Riding of Yorkshire town, but the scene quickly changes to Brussels. The Héger _pension_ is recognized as the original of the schools in both novels, but in _Villette_ the place Villette occasionally becomes London as Charlotte Brontë knew it on her visits. Mr. George Smith, the Brontë publisher, and his mother, are portrayed as the Brettons. Mr. Smith showed Charlotte Brontë the sights of London: the theatres, picture galleries, churches, etc.; and we have reflected in _Villette_ incidents associated with her seeing these places.[93] The reader will find a phase of Currer Bell in Paulina--Miss de Bassompierre, and a sympathetic phase of Mr. Brontë in her father, for after the deaths of Emily, Anne, and Branwell, Charlotte and her father were brought closer to each other. And like Mr. "Home" de Bassompierre, he had "no more daughters and no son."[94] Towards the close of _Villette_ we may find a phase of the Rev. Mr. Nicholls, Charlotte Brontë's husband, in Dr. John Bretton, my previous remarks upon whom observe. It was shortly after the completion of _Villette_ Mr. Nicholls proposed successfully, but it would seem by the concluding chapters Miss Brontë expected this. The picture of the disappointment of the old father that his popular daughter would marry a plain character in life suggests to us the disappointment of the Rev. Patrick Brontë in regard to his daughter's marrying a curate. See Chapter XXXVII. Paulina, of course, is the feminine of Paul; and the original of M. Paul of this work we now well know. See footnote on page 120.

The chronological sequences in Charlotte Brontë's novels are seldom carefully ordered: this should be remembered in reference to her record of events in her own life.

"AGNES GREY" AND "THE TENANT OF WILDFELL HALL."

_Agnes Grey_ contains simple and natural portrayals of governess life in the eighteen-forties; and the following _Wildfell Hall_, we may conjecture, is built from evolved incidents founded on hearsay and experience. Whether Miss Brontë had assisted Anne or not, it is certain _Wildfell Hall_ has something in common with Currer Bell's novels. The books connected with the name of Acton Bell, however, are not important as literature in the higher sense of the word; and though a member of Messrs. Smith & Elder remarked to Miss Brontë upon a similarity in the leading male characters of _Wildfell Hall_ to Rochester, interest in it is merely dependent upon its association with the greater Brontë works, and the book does not call for sedulous inquiry.

THE HÉGER PORTRAIT OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY.

The Trustees of the National Portrait Gallery, London, purchased in July 1906, a hitherto unheard of portrait of Charlotte Brontë, painted in water-colours in 1850, and stated to be by M. Héger. A reproduction of the portrait was given in _The Cornhill Magazine_ for October 1906, Mr. Reginald J. Smith, K.C., of Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co., the Brontë publishers, having to do with its discovery.

In the early autumn of 1906, Mr. Lionel Cust, M.V.O., Surveyor of the King's Pictures and Works of Art, then Director of the National Portrait Gallery, was busily corresponding with me in regard to this portrait of Charlotte Brontë, the authenticity of which became sensationally attacked. At once I pointed out the importance and significance of the portrait's being signed "Paul Héger," instead of "Constantin Héger"; and other matters. In March 1907, I appended a footnote[95] to my article, "The Lifting of the Brontë Veil," in _The Fortnightly Review_, and on May 16th, 1907, the literary editor of _The Tribune_, Mr. E. G. Hawke, having placed space at my disposal, I wrote as follows:--

CHARLOTTE BRONTË.
THE HÉGER PORTRAIT.

To the Editor of _The Tribune_.

SIR,--As the water-colour drawing by M. Héger is now a valuable
property of the nation, and gives a more intimately faithful and
characteristic likeness of Charlotte Brontë than the Richmond
portrait of "Currer Bell," now also hung in the National Portrait
Gallery, kindly permit me publicly to present some of the many
interesting facts connected with it. The portrait is signed "Paul
Héger, 1850" (the accent is correct), and it represents Miss Brontë
with curls, and reading _Shirley_, on one leaf of which is a heart
transfixed with an arrow. The dress that she wears is light green,
and on the back of the drawing is inscribed:

The Wearin' of the Green; First since Emily's death; that being
the first occasion on which Miss Brontë wore colours after
the death of her sister.

And below:

This drawing is by P. Hegér (accent thus), done from life in 1850.
The pose was suggested first by a sketch done by her brother
Branwell many years previous.

The Trustees of the National Portrait Gallery acquired the portrait
from a lady whose family obtained it nigh on forty years ago from
Mr. Thomas Baylis, a personal friend of Lord Lytton. Mr. Baylis
stated that he himself had acquired the portrait from the Héger
family at Brussels. The children of the Mme. Héger who refused to
see Mrs. Gaskell because of her dislike to Miss Brontë, aver that
M. Héger never drew or painted. The statement, however, is directly
opposed by indisputable evidence:

(1.) The portrait is authentic, and was drawn from life in 1850, and
the inscriptions that it bears it is proved could have been
inspired by none other than Charlotte Brontë herself or
M. Héger.

(2.) The statement of Mr. Thomas Baylis, a well-connected gentleman.

(3.) Eugène Sue, in his 1851 volume of _Miss Mary ou
l'Institutrice_, gives, with a clouding of mystery,
a lover--Gérard de Morville--drawing a portrait of Miss
Mary "d'après nature;" and M. Sue's _feuilleton_, as
I showed in _The Fortnightly Review_ for March, identifies
Miss Mary and the de Morvilles as phases of Charlotte
Brontë and the Hégers.[96]

(4.) Miss Brontë, in _Shirley_, herself presents M. Héger--Louis
Gérard Moore--as an artist, and refers to past drawing
episodes.[97]

The authenticity of the inscriptions is not involved in the
question as to whether Charlotte Brontë would use careless
spelling, for, if she had written them, couching them in the third
person, it is clear that she had not desired to be known as the
writer. Upon the other hand, it is discovered to be utterly
impossible for any one but Charlotte Brontë or M. Héger to have
inspired the inscriptions, whosoever wrote them.

SIGNIFICANT PIECES OF EVIDENCE.

I find that M. Héger was Paul to none but Charlotte Brontë in 1850,
and that before the publication, two years ago, of _Charlotte
Brontë and Her Sisters_, by Mr. Clement Shorter, who, for reasons
which he should explain, calls M. Constantin Gilles Romain Héger
"M. Paul Héger," [Throughout that writer's correspondence in _The
Times_, etc., and in _Charlotte Brontë and Her Sisters_: beneath
the portrait of M. Héger, facing page 198, and bearing the
inscription:--M. Paul Héger: The Hero of _Villette_ and _The
Professor_; and on page 161 of that work] no reference in print had
been made to M. Héger but as Constantin. The Hégers state that M.
Héger was not called Paul, and that Dr. Paul Héger, his son, was
the first member of the family named Paul.

A native of Haworth[98] who lived from 1830 till after the death
of Charlotte Brontë in 1855, "within twenty yards of the Haworth
Parsonage," her home, has pronounced the Héger portrait of Miss
Brontë to be a correct likeness and "just like her." He says that
it reminds him of her as he knew her and as she was in her younger
days, and he pointed out to me particularly that he had seen her
with her hair as in the Héger likeness, "scores of times before she
went away"--this giving the clue to the reference in the
inscription to a pose in a portrait by Branwell "many years
previous" to 1850; and I have seen a reproduction of a sketch by
Branwell wherein the Brontë sisters have curls. Moreover, I find
that Miss Brontë really liked curls and disliked the other styles,
though she conformed to the fashion.

I also find that the paper on which the Héger portrait of Miss
Brontë was drawn was that used in 1850 by the house where she was a
guest in London in the early June of 1850, at the very time to
within a day when, as there is indisputable evidence--despite
assertions that she "never under any circumstances during the later
period of her life wore a green dress"--Charlotte Brontë was
wearing a light green dress. That was "the first occasion on which
Miss Brontë wore colours," as the inscription tells us, and fact
substantiates, after she had concluded the remarkably long mourning
period for her sisters, which began with "the death of Emily" and
did not end till twelve months after the death of Anne, who died on
May 28th, 1849.

(Signed) J. MALHAM-DEMBLEBY.
Scarr Hill, Eccleshill, Bradford, May 16th, 1907.

The publication of this letter ended the controversy.[99] Since it was published Mrs. Gaskell's daughters, who well knew Miss Brontë, have declared themselves fully satisfied as to the authenticity of the Héger portrait of Charlotte Brontë and the faithfulness of the likeness. The testimony of Lady Ritchie, Thackeray's daughter, also supports this portrait. See my further references to my correspondence with her ladyship herewith. As regards the green dress, apart from the indisputable external evidence I referred to in the printed letter, I believe Charlotte Brontë speaks of it in _Villette_, though therein it is for obfuscation's sake (necessary indeed, since _Villette_ was published only a short time after her London visit) made "pink" and "flounceless." In Chapter XXVIII. we find M. Paul saying--and it is interesting thus to have connected with the green dress a character whose prototype was M. Héger--that:

"Pink or scarlet, yellow or crimson, _pea-green_ or sky-blue, [the
dress] was all one."[100]

As I stated to Lady Ritchie in 1907, I believe that in Chapter XX. of _Villette_ we undoubtedly have a real glimpse of incidents connected with the wearing of the green dress; and it should be remembered that Mrs. Bretton and Dr. John Graham Bretton in this chapter represent Mrs. Smith, and her son Mr. George Smith, the publisher, whose guest Charlotte Brontë was in 1850, when she first wore the green dress:--

One morning, Mrs. Bretton ... desired me to ... show her my
dresses; which I did, without a word.

"That will do," said she.... "You must have a new one."

... She returned presently with a dressmaker. She had me measured.
"I mean," said she, "to follow my own taste, and to have my own
way in this little matter."

Two days after came home--a pink [green] dress! "That is not for
me," I said hurriedly, feeling that I would ... as soon clothe
myself in the costume of a Chinese lady of rank.

... "You will wear it this ... evening."

I thought I should not; I thought no human force should avail to
put me into it.... I knew it not. It knew not me. I had not proved
it.

But wear it she did; and when Graham [Mr. George Smith] stood in the doorway looking at her, she tells us her uneasy aspiration was:--

"I _do_ hope he will not think I have been decking myself out to
draw attention."

Clearly Charlotte Brontë wished posterity to learn how it came about she was garbed in "light fabric and bright tint," because the green dress was a page in her life's history. In a green dress she sat down to dine, as Mr. Thackeray's daughter, Lady Ritchie has written me she well remembers, when Charlotte Brontë dined at Thackeray's house on June 12, 1850--not the event of the distinguished party, when Carlyle, Miss Perry, Mrs. Procter, and others were present, though Lady Ritchie had once confounded the two in writing upon the subject[101]. Mr. Thackeray's daughter was a young girl at the time to which she referred, but she has made clear to me she saw Miss Brontë three times; that the chief occasion was when Charlotte Brontë wore the light green dress. This, to quote her ladyship's words to me, was "not Mrs. Brookfield's party, when neither my sister and I nor our governess dined--though we came down in the evening. The second occasion was just casually at my father's lecture-room, when she did not speak to me, and the third, finally, at the Brookfield evening party, which seems to have been such a solemn affair[102]."

These facts fix the wearing of the light green dress by Miss Brontë as June 12, 1850. Lady Ritchie tells me that "It was at an early family dinner by daylight with Charlotte Brontë, my father, Mr. George Smith, my sister and our governess, that I remember sitting next Miss Brontë at dinner and gazing at her _sleeve_ and mittens. Her dress was of some texture like one I had had myself, which I suppose impressed it upon me, and it had a little moss or coral pattern in green on a white ground. I only remember the sleeve, the straight look, and the smooth Victorian bandeaux of hair. I am sure she was _differently_ dressed at the Brookfield evening party."

On June 12, 1850, Charlotte Brontë wrote to her friend, Miss Nussey, from the Smiths' in London, saying:--

Thackeray made a call.... If all be well, I am to dine at his
house this evening.[103]

And this was when Miss Brontë sat in a light green dress at the Thackeray dinner-table.

The Richmond portrait of Charlotte Brontë being now also in the National Portrait Gallery, I may remark that Mrs. Gaskell herself says of this portrait:--"Those best acquainted with the original were least satisfied with the resemblance.... Mr. Brontë thought ... it looked good and lifelike." Charlotte Brontë herself said her father thought the portrait looked older than she. In view of the new interest now attaching to Tabitha Aykroyd and Charlotte, it is instructive to find the latter telling us Tabitha "maintains that it is not like," and also, that Tabitha thought it "too old looking." Then she apologized for the old servant in a sentence that pathetically recalls Mrs. Dean and Bessie of "Catherine's" and "Jane's" childhood--"Doubtless she confuses her recollections of me as I was in childhood, with present impressions."[104] We discover, therefore, that in the main there was really dissatisfaction at the "old looking" presentation, and we see Charlotte Brontë from the beginning must have wished she had had her hair arrangement in that portrait as was common to her at home and in her younger days. Hence do we get a further insight into the origin of the different pose in the more characteristic and intimately faithful Héger portrait of Charlotte Brontë.

INDEX.