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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. v. JUNE 9, 1900.
in 1843. He was surgeon to the Manchester
Royal Infirmary, and had been senior sur-
geon to the Ophthalmic Hospital. The father
and daughter remained in Manchester until
the end of September.
Each of the Bronte sisters, it will be remembered, had written a prose story, with the idea that the three might be published together. 'Wuthering Heights,'
- Agnes Grey/ and * The Professor ' had
many wanderings from publisher to pub- lisher. The MS. of 'The Professor ' m came back to Charlotte in Manchester with a short note of rejection on the very day of the operation on her father's eyes. The book was sent forth again on its quest, and, undismayed by sorrow and failure, Charlotte Bronte began a new story the one that has made her name immortal. Mrs. Gaskell says :
"Not only did ' The Professor ' return again to try his chance among the London publishers, but she began, in this time of care and depressing in- quietude in those grey, weary, uniform streets where all faces save that of her kind doctor were strange and untouched with sunlight to her there and then did the brave genius begin ' Jane Eyre.' "
She has confessed that something like the chill of despair began to invade her heart at the continuous rejection of 'The Professor,' and the absence of any recognition of its merit by the professional " readers " in whose hands lies the fate of genius. When she sent it to Smith, Elder & Co. she mentioned the longer story then in progress ; and though they did not care to publish ' The Professor,' they encouraged her, and asked that the longer story might be sent to them. ' Jane Eyre,' which was commenced in the gloom and monotony of the Manchester lodging in Boundary Street and finished in Haworth Parsonage, has taken its place as one of the masterpieces of English literature.
The next link with the Cotton City was literary and philanthropic. When in 1850 the Manchester Athenaeum was in need of money, resort was had to the device of a bazaar. For this was printed 'The Man- chester Athenaeum Album,' a now somewhat rare book, and well worth the attention of book-collectors. It contains contributions from Tennyson, Gavan Duffy, P. J. Bailey, John Tyndall, and others, including " Currer Bell, author of 'Jane Eyre, 3 'Shirley,'" &c. Her contribution is a translation in verse from an unnamed French author, and is entitled ' The Orphans.' It is now included in the "Haworth Edition " of her poems.
The book written in gloom and sorrow had made her famous before her next visit to Manchester. At the end of June, 1851, on her way home from London, she stayed with
Mrs. Gaskell at her house in Plymouth Grove.
She wrote to Mr. George Smith, in a letter
which Mr. Shorter has printed :
"The visit to Mrs. Gaskell on my way home let me down easily ; though I only spent two days with her, they were very pleasant. She lives in a large, cheerful, airy house, quite out of Manchester smoke; a garden surrounds it, and, as in this hot weather the windows were kept open, a whisper- ing of leaves and a perfume of flowers always pervaded the rooms."
Between the hostess and her guest there was a strong bond of sympathy. The friend- ship of these two women of genius, so like and unlike in their gifts, is one of the pleasant pages of the literary history of the nineteenth century.
Miss Bronte visited Mrs. Gaskell again at the close of April, 1853. " We had a friend," Mrs. Gaskell observes,
" a young lady, staying with us. Miss Bronte had expected to find us alone ; and although our friend was gentle and sensible after Miss Bronte's own heart, yet her presence was enough to create a nervous tremor. I was aware that both our guests were unusually silent ; and I saw a little shiver run from time to time over Miss Bronte's frame. I could account for the modest reserve of the young lady ; and the next day Miss Bronte told me how the unexpected sight of a strange face had affected her."
This shyness was a marked characteristic of Charlotte Bronte, and Mrs. Gaskell gives remarkable instances of it from this Manchester visit. She had been greatly moved by the singing of two sisters who rendered some Scottish ballads ex- quisitely. She asked eagerly for song after song. They were equally pleased, and begged that she would come and see them the next morning, " when they would sing as long as ever she liked." Mrs. Gaskell went with ner, but when they reached the street her courage failed, because there was a third sister whom she had not seen. For fear of the struggle bringing on one of her companion's distressing headaches, Mrs. Gaskell went in alone and apologized for the unfulfilled visit. Miss Bronte was somewhat superstitious too, and begged Mrs. Gaskell to refrain from a ghost story just before bedtime. Two gentlemen were asked to meet her at dinner, but she was so shy and reserved that in despair they gave up the effort to engage her in conversation, and began to talk to the Rev. William Gaskell about the local events of the day. One of these was Thackeray's lecture on ' Fielding.' One of the gentlemen thought Thackeray was not using his great influence with sufficient care.
" This roused Miss Bronte, who threw herself warmly into the discussion ; the ice of her reserve
