Brontë Society Transactions

ISSN: 0309-7765 (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ybst19

Hathersage and “Jane Eyre”.

J. J. Stead

To cite this article: J. J. Stead (1896) Hathersage and “”., Brontë Society Transactions, 1:4, 26-28, DOI: 10.1179/bronsoc.1896.1.4.26

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/bronsoc.1896.1.4.26

Published online: 18 Jul 2013.

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Download by: [Monash University Library] Date: 01 July 2016, At: 23:06 HATHERSAGE AND "JANE EYRE." By J. J. STEAD. The excellent paper read by the. Rev~Thos.· Keyworth . at the annual meeting of the Bronte Society, held at Keighley in January last, on "Morton Village in Jane Eyre" has aroused a considerable amount of interest. The fact that the village of Hathersage, in , was .the orig-inal of some· of the· literary landscapes in Charlotte Bronte's novel· had only been very slightly known previously; but since the reading of the paper several members of the Bronte Society have been to Hathersage~ The writer has visited it twice during the summer. and on each occasion was. accompanied by Bronte students, and we can fully confirm the conclusion arrived at by Mr. Keyworth, that the village of Morton in Jane Eyre .and Hathersage in Derbyshire are identical. Charlotte Bronte went to Hathersage in July, 184-5, on a visit to her friend Miss Ellpn Nussey, who was then keeping house for her brother, the Rev~ Henry Nussey, at that time vicar there. It is known that Mr. Nussey was the original 9f St. John Rivers;. and the fact of his being vicar of Hathersage for three years and that Charlotte Bronte spent sQme time there with his sister, are strongly in favour of the assumption that this village· is the Morton of the story. Six years previously, when curate of Don- nington, near Chichester, he had made Charlotte her first proposal of marriage, which she had declined ~ but some- time aftenvards we find her. congratulating him on his engagement to another lady. The name. Hathersage. is said to be but a shortened form of "Heather's Edge," and certainly almost on the edge of the village are those far extending moors of which the novelist speaks as covered with deep heather, and on which JaneEyre spent the first night after the coach had put her down at Whitcross, when she had fled away from l\lr. Rochester's house, "Thornfield HalL" Then we have Downloaded by [Monash University Library] at 23:06 01 July 2016 the one village street, at the bottom of which was the shop with the cakes of bread in the window, which she so much coveted, and for one of which she offered a silk handkerchief or her gloves in exchange. The needle factory which she names is still there, though not now exclusively devoted to that business. In the Church is the Eyre altar tomb, with some fine brasses of old date in splendid preservation, and near to Downloaded by [Monash University Library] at 23:06 01 July 2016 the Church, though this is in no way connected with the novel,· is a remarkably good specimen of an ancient British Camp, called Camp Green. The vicarage at Hathersage is now a larger house than in 1845, but is situated exactly as described in:the book, "near the churchyard and in the middle of a garden stood a well built though small house which I had no doubt was the parsonage." Some three-quarters of a mile away, and near the edge of the moor, is a house called Moorseats, which I have' no hesitation in fixing as the original of the "Moor House," .to which Jane Eyre wandered when almost exhausted from hunger and fatigue, and from which she was at first so cruelly shut out, and aftenvards admitted and kindly treated. The present occupier explained to me that since that time the house had been enlarged, a portion added along the front, bay windows put in and other alterations effected; but as the house originally was, it would correspond ,,,ith the one described in ~he novel.. We also know that the Vicarage people were"on visit- ing terms with the then residents at Moorseats, and that Charlotte Bronte went there with her friend, l\Iiss Nussey. I am aware that North Lees,--a:-house about a mile further away, ,has been pointed out in some local .publications as the "Moor House,". but it does not at all agree With the description in the book, which reads: "It was low, and rather long," and "a small antique structure with low roof," and again," it is only a humble sort of place," whereas North Lees is a very large three-storied castellated structure, formerly one of the seats of the Eyre family. This latter is now unoccupied except by a farmer who lives in the· kitchen portion; the rest of the building appears to 'be going into a state of ruin. A member of the Eyre family lived for a while at Moorseats. "1\1:r. Oliver's grand hall i' Morton Vale" is no doubt" Brookfield Manor," a large mansion now occupied by G. H. Cammell,

Downloaded by [Monash University Library] at 23:06 01 July 2016 Esq., of the' noted firm of steel rail and plate makers at Sheffield. A small local guide book on sale at Hathersage, would make out that North Lees is the "Thornfield Hall" of , .fane Eyre, and says." sundry would-be critics have pointed out that Thornfield is placed in another-- part-of the county." Critic or not, we don't believe "Thornfield Hall" to be in Derbyshire at all. It is a comp:Jsitepicture, the exterior is drawn from Rydings Hall at Birstall, York- shire, once the residence of. Miss Ellen Nussey, and the interior from Norton Conyers, near Ripon,. the seat of Sir Reginald Graham, Bart.; both these places having been visited by Charlotte Bronte, the former on many occasions. I have had the pleasure of going over both houses, and my views are confirmed by the novelist's life-long friend. In conclusion I have pleasure in contributing three photographs, out of a series I took at Hathersage on my visit, ann can only add that apart from its Bronte associa- tions, it is a most admirable place at which to spend a week-end, and since the opening of the Dore and Chinley line, is much more easily and cheaply reached than formerly.

"C.HARLOTTE BRONTE AND HER CIRCLE." Crown 8vo. 1896. By CLEMENTK. SHORTER. (l\iessrs. Hodder and Stoughton, 7/6.) A word or two on this work may not be out of place in these pages, inasmuch as it is without doubt the most important contribution to the Bronte story issued since the publication of 1.\1rs.Gaskell's biography of Charlotte Bronte. lVIanyfactors have contributed to this result. In the first place, those writers who followed Mrs. Gaskell were unable to command the assistance of the person of all others who could most effectively render it in a work on this subject; namely the husband of Charlotte Bronte. For more than forty years he has kept an unbroken silence and would probably have continued to do so, had he not known that at least a dozen people were in possession of a work in which many unpublished letters by his wife appeared, and which without some authoritative editing might have led to the misunderstanding of many things mentioned therein. ~Ir. Nicholls therefore decided to give Mr. Shorter all the Downloaded by [Monash University Library] at 23:06 01 July 2016 a~.;sistancehe could render, and consequently many points in Charlotte Bronte',s life are now made clear for the first time. The correspondence with Mr. Williams, the gifted " reader" to Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co., which is now first printed in this volume, was unavailable when Sir T. \Ven1YssReid wrote his appreciative monograph. These letters are most delightful reading, not only because their literary criticisms are fresh and original, but because they