Now! Then! Dr Hook, Dean of Chichester, writes to his wife from his old vicarage in Leeds

27 October 1866: Dr Hook, Dean of Chichester, writes to his wife from his old vicarage in Leeds

I guess that on 5 November 1856 Dr. Hook was writing about this image: “Called at Mr. Stone’s, the artist, who wanted to see me to colour the photograph. Terrible ugly fellow I am. Can’t help it. Would be other than I am in many things if I could.” Is there a coloured copy? (Anon 1885).

William Richard Wood Stephens. 1885. The Life and Letters of Walter Farquhar Hook, 7th Ed. London: Richard Bentley and Son. Get it:

Excerpt

Here I am at last in our old home. The darkness, the smoke, and the dirt have certainly increased, but there are still as warm hearts as ever. All along the line from Derby it was a shaking of hands at almost every station. My old friend, Richworth, who was in the first [Sunday school?] class that I formed at Leeds, and whose appointment to the station at Derby was a loss to me 28 years ago, has risen to be station-master. People were evidently amused at our greeting. I exclaimed, “Why, Richworth, how old and fat you have grown!” He returned the compliment, and then we talked of old times and how we had both risen to comfortable berths in our old age. At Sheffield junction the ticket-collector exclaimed, “Why it’s t’ old doctor,” and gave me his fist, and called two subs to do the same. When we stopped at the triangle at Leeds there sat on the wall an engine-man. He looked at me for a time, and then poked his oily fist into the carriage, “Eh! Mister Hook, come to see t’ old place again?” His comrade joined him and added, “Come for reform meeting on Friday, eh! doctor?” and then we all laughed. At the station I was surrounded by friends.

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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.
Abbreviations:

ER: East Riding
GM: Greater Manchester
NR: North Riding
NY: North Yorkshire
SY: South Yorkshire
WR: West Riding
WY: West Yorkshire

Comment

Whence the date assigned? On Thursday 25 October it is said that on (Monday) 29 October Hook and the Archbishop of Canterbury will visit Leeds, perhaps suggesting that he wasn’t already there. Travel from Derby via Sheffield probably didn’t take much less than the four hours achieved in 1840 (Bradshaw’s Railway Companion 1840), so, given that his engagement began in the morning, Hook wouldn’t have had time to get there from Derby on the Monday. Neither would he have travelled on Sunday – he was staying with his replacement, the Rev. Atlay, and probably preached or spoke in some sense – the previous letter speaks, possibly exaggeratedly, of three sermons and and two lectures in Leeds. He cannot have travelled on Friday, or the comment about “the Reform Meeting on Friday” wouldn’t have been made. That leaves Thursday or Saturday, and I’m guessing Saturday.

Which Sheffield station? Which train company?

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Original

To Mrs. Hook – Meeting old Friends.

Headingley, Leeds: October 1866.

Here I am at last in our old home. The darkness, the smoke, and the dirt have certainly increased, but there are still as warm hearts as ever. All along the line from Derby it was a shaking of hands at almost every station. My old friend, Richworth, who was in the first class that I formed at Leeds, and whose appointment to the station at Derby was a loss to me twenty-eight years ago, has risen to be station-master. People were evidently amused at our greeting. I exclaimed, “Why, Richworth, how old and fat you have grown!” He returned the compliment, and then we talked of old times and how we had both risen to comfortable berths in our old age. At Sheffield junction the ticket-collector exclaimed, “Why it’s t’ old Doctor,” and gave me his fist, and called two subs to do the same… When we stopped at the triangle at Leeds there sat on the wall an engine-man. He looked at me for a time, and then poked his oily fist into the carriage, “Eh! Mister Hook, come to see t’ old place again?” His comrade joined him and added, “Come for Reform Meeting on Friday, eh! Doctor?” and then we all laughed. At the station I was surrounded by friends.

230 words.