Yorkshire Almanac Charlotte Brontë tells her old schoolmistress, Margaret Wooler, that Emily’s railway investment strategy may be unsustainable

30 January 1846: Charlotte Brontë tells her old schoolmistress, Margaret Wooler, that Emily’s railway investment strategy may be unsustainable

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. 1857. The Life of Charlotte Brontë, 2nd Ed., Vol. 1. London: Smith, Elder and Company. Get it:

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

[Letter to Margaret Wooler] I have not yet paid my visit to —; it is, indeed, more than a year since I was there, but I frequently hear from E., and she did not fail to tell me that you were gone into Worcestershire; she was unable, however, to give me your exact address. Had I known it, I should have written to you long since. I thought you would wonder how we were getting on, when you heard of the railway panic; and you may be sure that I am very glad to be able to answer your kind inquiries by an assurance that our small capital is as yet undiminished. The York and Midland is, as you say, a very good line; yet, I confess to you, I should wish, for my own part, to be wise in time. I cannot think that even the very best lines will continue for many years at their present premiums; and I have been most anxious for us to sell our shares ere it be too late, and to secure the proceeds in some safer, if, for the present, less profitable investment. I cannot, however, persuade my sisters to regard the affair precisely from my point of view; and I feel as if I would rather run the risk of loss than hurt Emily’s feelings by acting in direct opposition to her opinion. She managed in a most handsome and able manner for me, when I was in Brussels, and prevented by distance from looking after my own interests; therefore, I will let her manage still, and take the consequences. Disinterested and energetic she certainly is; and if she be not quite so tractable or open to conviction as I could wish, I must remember perfection is not the lot of humanity; and as long as we can regard those we love, and to whom we are closely allied, with profound and never-shaken esteem, it is a small thing that they should vex us occasionally by what appear to us unreasonable and headstrong notions.

Order the book:

Subscribe to the free daily email:

To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

At the end of 1848 the dividend paid by the Y&NMR dropped from ten per cent to six per cent, and a rout followed. A letter from CB to George Smith, her publisher, dated 27 September 1849:

My shares are in the York & North Midland Railway. It was one of Mr. Hudson’s pet lines and had the full benefit of his peculiar management – or mismanagement. The original price of shares in this railway was £50. At one time they rose to 120; and for some years gave a dividend of 10 per cent; they are now down at 20, and it is doubtful whether any dividend will be declared this half-year.

One naturally feels somewhat reluctant to sell at present prices, still I am quite conscious it would be better to do so if there is no rational prospect of improvement; I have often wished to have advice on this point and “will” gladly avail myself of your offer to procure an opinion (Brontë 1995).

Something to say? Get in touch

Comment

At the end of 1848 the dividend paid by the Y&NMR dropped from ten per cent to six per cent, and a rout followed. A letter from CB to George Smith, her publisher, dated 27 September 1849:

My shares are in the York & North Midland Railway. It was one of Mr. Hudson’s pet lines and had the full benefit of his peculiar management – or mismanagement. The original price of shares in this railway was £50. At one time they rose to 120; and for some years gave a dividend of 10 per cent; they are now down at 20, and it is doubtful whether any dividend will be declared this half-year.

One naturally feels somewhat reluctant to sell at present prices, still I am quite conscious it would be better to do so if there is no rational prospect of improvement; I have often wished to have advice on this point and “will” gladly avail myself of your offer to procure an opinion (Brontë 1995).

Something to say? Get in touch

27 April 1924: In a letter to Edmund Gosse, Clifford Allbutt recalls the Brontës

19 January 1831: Mary Taylor sees her later friend Charlotte Brontë (14) join her at Roe Head School, Mirfield (Kirklees)

5 January 1846: Writing to fellow-botanist William Borrer, Richard Spruce of Ryedale despairs of his Pyrenean mosses arousing interest amid George Hudson’s railway mania

12 March 1837: Robert Southey (poet laureate, 62) sends Charlotte Brontë (governess, 20) some career advice

28 April 1812: Luddites fatally wound the Marsden textile manufacturer William Horsfall on his way home from Huddersfield market

24 December 1777: Christmas Eve at Wuthering Heights, as told by housekeeper Nelly Dean

19 May 1812: An Anglican Whit walk encounters a Nonconformist one at “Briarfield” (Birstall), amid Luddites and wars with France and the US, in the imagination of Charlotte Brontë

24 August 1832: The Rev Henry Nussey – St John Rivers in Jane Eyre – attends his church’s Sunday School festival at Birstall

2 September 1824: Following a summer drought, Patrick Brontë witnesses a peat bog collapse and flood four miles away at Crow Hill

Order the book:

Subscribe to the free daily email:

Comment

See also Brontë’s The Phenomenon, a presentation for children printed before this sermon in the anthology.

The children seem to have taken shelter in Ponden Hall, 100 yards away from the bog surge in Ponden Clough.

Elsewhere: The most remarkable, though not the most destructive flood which has ever been known in the river Aire, was in 1824. On the night of Sept. 2nd in that year, the inhabitants on the banks of the river were astonished to perceive in a few moments a very considerable height, by a frightful accumulation of black water, which prevented the dyehouses and similar establishments from working, destroyed the fish in the river, and effected immense damage in it irresistible course. This strange inundation was produced by the sudden discharge of a vast quantity of peaty water from a bog on the summit of Crow hill, about nine miles from Keighley, and six from Colne. An area of bog three quarters of a mile in circumference, sunk to the depth of from four to six yards, and the flood which was thus discharged rolled down the valley to Keighley with a terrible noise and violence. Stones of a vast size and weight were carried down by the stream more than a mile, corn fields were covered, and bridges were damaged, but happily no life was lost. A dreadful thunder storm raged at the time when the water descended from the moor, and the inundation was no doubt caused by the electric influence, or the agency of a waterspout, by which the accumulation of ages was liberated in a moment, and precipitated into the valley below.

See also John Nicholson’s Lines on the bog bursting in Yorkshire. It is said that Emily Brontë’s High Waving Heather was inspired by this event (though wasn’t she at Cowan Bridge School?):

High waving heather, ‘neath stormy blasts bending,
Midnight and moonlight and bright shining stars;
Darkness and glory rejoicingly blending,
Earth rising to heaven and heaven descending,
Man’s spirit away from its drear dongeon sending,
Bursting the fetters and breaking the bars.
All down the mountain sides, wild forest lending
One mighty voice to the life-giving wind;
Rivers their banks in the jubilee rending,
Fast through the valleys a reckless course wending,
Wider and deeper their waters extending,
Leaving a desolate desert behind.
Shining and lowering and swelling and dying,
Changing for ever from midnight to noon;
Roaring like thunder, like soft music sighing,
Shadows on shadows advancing and flying,
Lightning-bright flashes the deep gloom defying,
Coming as swiftly and fading as soon.