THE JOURNAL OF THE

Number 117 ~ Autumn 2020

Trollope’s Legacy Lucia Costanzo EDITORIAL ~ 1

Contents Editorial Number 117 ~ Autumn 2020

FEATURES 3 Trollope’s Legacy: A Personal View s we continue to adjust to the “new normal”, the Trollope Lucia Costanzo, a member of the Trollope Society Executive Society has been hosting a series of virtual meetings using Committee, gave an online talk which is reproduced here in full. Zoom which enables members, and others who are interested, 11 First Make the Soap… A to join in a virtual conversation from the safety of their own home Janis Zroback describes what went on behind the scenes when a Prime on Trollope related topics including both discussions of books read Minister invited guests to his private residence. together and seminars on diverse topics. I am not sure if any poll 14 Two Collecting Clergymen and Three Sofas has been conducted of the virtual attendees to ascertain the number Duncan Bell considers the real life example which mirrors Trollope’s participating on their sofas with a cup of coffee at hand but I have no Reverend Vesey Stanhope. doubt that many will be fulfilling these criteria for happiness as they 18 Our New Novel! join in. Fictitious correspondence reproduced without prejudice…or permission. We reproduce here one of these talks, given by Lucia Costanzo, 21 The Lost Chronicle of Omnium on Trollope’s Legacy. Michael G Williamson describes the final steps in the publication of the Also, in keeping with this strange new world, we are venturing first paperback edition of the full-length version of The Duke’s Children. “below stairs” in the company of Janis Zroback who will lead us 24 Barsetshire Pilgrimage (You’ll Need A Map) through the enormous effort on the part of the “invisible” servants to enable the entertaining of political allies carried out on such a vast Michael G Williamson describes the effort to produce a definitive map of Barsetshire. scale (and with such mixed success) by Lady Glencora on behalf of her husband Plantagenet in his uncomfortable role as The Prime Minister. 28 Pick Up A Trollope With Janis as our guide we will explore where Trollope never took his The Trollope Society will be running a new promotion this Autumn readers. encouraging new readers to Pick Up A Trollope. We will also learn in Duncan Bell’s article more about the real- REGULARS life background to those absent clergy who attracted so much ire on Trollope’s part. I think, in this case, it may be said without fear of 33 Omnium Gatherum contradiction, that truth really is far stranger than fiction. Duncan will A collection of all sorts of things of interest to Trollopians. explore a possible model on which Trollope might have, at least in part, based his character Dr Vesey Stanhope and consider the extent to which Trollope might have been aware of the case – it was somewhat of a popular sensation – and might have needed to ensure that his fictional character did not resemble the actual person (or should that be parson?) too closely to avoid the risk of litigation. After these scholarly articles, we will offer readers a little levity in the form of an imagined correspondence between an author and publisher in the Victorian era. I am reliably informed by the source 2 ~ TROLLOPE’S LEGACY TROLLOPE’S LEGACY ~ 3

of this piece, who wishes to remain anonymous for reasons which will become evident, that any resemblance between the characters in Trollope’s Legacy this correspondence and Messrs. Thackeray and Trollope is entirely A Personal View coincidental. Finally, I must congratulate Michael Williamson, our former Society Chairman, whose industry during this period of lockdown has Lucia Costanzo continued unabated. Due in no small part to his efforts, including many virtual meetings with the other parties concerned, we can look Lucia Costanzo, a member of the Trollope Society Executive Committee, forward to the end of 2020 with a new paperback edition of The Duke’s gave an online talk as part of the series of online discussions organised Children in its full-length version with detailed notes and supporting by the Trollope Society. The text of the talk is reproduced below. information from Professor Steven Amarnick and the first definitive map of Barsetshire to enable readers to locate the scenes of all Trollope’s novels set in this fictional county. In two articles, Michael describes a little of the tremendous amount of work that has gone into first suggested this theme because – as an avid reader – I am always bringing each of these projects to fruition. encountering novels and novelists which remind me of Trollope Once again, I find myself hoping that all our readers will remain Iand his work. safe and healthy in these unprecedented times and trust that many of Sometimes this is a clear legacy in that the writer was a you, like me, will continue to turn to Trollope for respite from, but pronounced Trollopian. also possibly insights into the human aspects of, The Way We Live Now. Interestingly the Legacy Libraries of authors on the Librarything site (www.librarything.com) gives us some clues. CS Lewis, Evelyn Waugh, Barbara Pym, George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway all had numerous Trollope novels in their libraries when they died. Sometimes ideas and interconnections just spark off in my head. I have crystallised these into a number of themes and would like to talk briefly about my thoughts.

Mark Green, Editor Series novels [email protected] Trollope’s Barchester and Palliser novels were amongst the first series novels. Nowadays there are academic debates about different definitions: series novels, novel sequences, roman fleuves – which I won’t go into here. Suffice it to say that I am thinking of novels which share common themes, characters, or settings, but where each novel has its own title and free-standing storyline, and can thus be read independently or out of sequence. There are many examples in 20th century and modern literature: Anthony Powell’s Dance to the Music of Time (which I have yet to read); CS Lewis’s Narnia books, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials and related books; and Simon Raven’s Alms for Oblivion series. The ten novels of that series cover the period 1945 to 1973 and centre on a group of upper and upper middle class characters, forming a novel 4 ~ TROLLOPE’S LEGACY TROLLOPE’S LEGACY ~ 5

sequence, if a somewhat loosely structured one. The early novels State of the Nation are robust satires of the English upper set of the mid-1950s, but the later tend to a more detached and philosophical tone, becoming Novels about societal and political change, set during a snap shot concerned with the occult and supernatural, and including strange in time and featuring a sprawling cast of characters from all levels of happenings. Further discussion of Raven can be found at: http:// society… this is a definition of the state of the nation novel. Added anglocatontheprowl.blogspot.com/2014/04/some-further-thoughts- to this should be a focus on money: making it; losing it; wishing for about-simon-raven.html it. WH Auden said: “Of all novelists in any country, Trollope best You may know Simon Raven wrote the screenplay for the BBC understands the role of money. Compared with him even Balzac is a TV series The Pallisers and an early version of The Way We Live Now. romantic”. For me the main legacy in my mind is the Strangers and Some of you may remember the AGM lecture from 2013 when Brothers series of novels by C. P. Snow, published between 1940 and novelist Alex Preston talked about his encounter with The Way We Live 1970. They deal with – among other things – questions of political Now and how it influenced his own novel This Bleeding City. Preston and personal integrity, and the mechanics of exercising power. The explained: novelist Anthony Burgess described the series in these terms: I came to Trollope earlier than intended, having imagined him as an author I’d reach once contemporary novels scared me A very considerable achievement … It brings into the novel with their vigour. But three years ago my grandfather suggested themes and locales never seen before (except perhaps in I read The Way We Live Now. I was instantly transfixed. During Trollope). the financial crisis of 2008 I was a banker working near Augustus Snow analyses the professional world, scrutinising microscopic Melmotte’s offices in Abchurch Lane. I thought I’d read shifts of power within the enclosed settings of a Cambridge college, everything worth reading about the financial world until I read a Whitehall ministry, and a law firm. For example, in the novels set The Way We Live Now. It should have been merely historical but instead it spoke with exquisite clarity of our contemporary world in the Cambridge college (a thinly veiled Christ’s College), a small, of dodgy mortgages and stock market crashes, exhibiting a villain disparate group of men is typically required to reach a collective so uncomfortably close to Bernie Madoff. Trollope is an author of decision on an important subject. In The Masters, the dozen or so supreme relevance, whose distinctly moral voice is needed more college members elect a new head (the Master) by majority vote. Who than ever. Authors of State of the Nation novels, such as myself will be the new bishop? I asked myself when reading this. In The Affair, – my novel This Bleeding City was the first attempt to tackle the a small group of dons sets out to correct a possible injustice: they Credit Crunch in fiction - have been influenced by him and his must convince the rest of the college to re-open an investigation into capture of the obscure workings of the world of finance.”1 scientific fraud. There are analogies with Rev Crawley and the stolen Even the title - The Way We Live Now - was radical. We forget that cheque. most of the major Victorian novels were historical. We think of George Snow is credited with having created the term “The Corridors of Eliot as the author of mid-Victorian England, and yet Middlemarch Power”… though actually this could have come from Trollope in The (1871) was set in the early 1830s. Vanity Fair, Great Expectations, Prime Minister. Wuthering Heights, Bleak House were all historical. The ‘Now’ in Some of you may have read Snow’s biography cum criticism of Trollope’s title is the engine driving the novel, making it more daring Trollope. I think this is a really insightful book – daring to put some of and enduring than anything else he wrote. the received wisdom of Trollope and his era into context, especially in The credit crunch of 2008-10 period spawned a number of terms of political context. novels of this ilk: John Lanchester’s Capital; Mark Lawson’s The Deaths; Sebastian Faulk’s A Week in December. All of these are worth reading. I daresay the Covid19 era will spawn further examples of the genre.

1 Interested readers may wish to follow up Preston’s thinking in his lecture which appears in Trollopiana 97 6 ~ TROLLOPE’S LEGACY TROLLOPE’S LEGACY ~ 7

Recurring worlds a great Trollopian very cleverly uses recurring characters across her novels in much the same way as Trollope. She has written a cycle of Many pre-Trollopian English novels were set in familiar – or eight interconnected novels dealing with contemporary British society, not so familiar – domestic worlds. Yes, some of the characters wielded often in an expansive, dramatic and satirical manner. Writing in The power; Some were clergy - but the setting of the action was largely in Independent in 2009 she said: the home, whether privileged or humble. With Trollope we entered into three distinct worlds: the I adore Trollope, and re-read him regularly. I owe to him, more church (which was undergoing a period of major change and so than any author, my moral education, my understanding of how British society still works, and my determination to write novels ripe as a setting for drama and humour); politics (again with major that are, as far as I can make them, also about the way we, too, live changes); and the civil service – which was just starting to become the now. professional organisation needed to run a sizable empire and manage railways, telegraph service and post office etc. I have set out to take the DNA of a Victorian novel – its spirit of By using these settings in his novels Trollope allows us to enter realism, its strong plot, its cast of characters who are not passively shaped by circumstances but who rise to challenges or escape new and unfamiliar worlds… but worlds where the characters have the them. same emotions and motivations as us. CP Snow used similar worlds in his novels – though the church In Craig’s novel series, characters move lightly between novels appeared somewhat tangentially. Another of my favourite authors, in a playfully Trollopian manner. For example, a school nurse in a Barbara Pym, used a similar approach. Like Snow, she was a keen scathing novel about a liberal boarding school A Private Place becomes Trollopian and her novels are peppered with references to Trollope’s the mother of the principal character in her new novel The Golden works and characters – mainly related to the church. She left seven Rule which I am currently listening to on Audible (by the way: it is Trollope novels in her legacy library… ie those books which were sold brilliant). by Blackwells after her death. I also thought of Jilly Cooper… yes also a Trollopian I gather Pym used another interesting world in many of her novels – (one of her characters wonders through fields in Laura Ashley dresses the learned world of anthropology. She was part of the academic reading The Prime Minister). Her Rutshire Chronicles are set in a 20th penumbra herself, as her main job was deputy editor of a learned century Barsetshire with a cast of interconnecting characters who journal called Africa. Through this she got to know many eccentric weave in and out of the novels which are set in such worlds as show anthropologists. As an author she was something of a literary jumping, classical music and TV. anthropologist herself: constantly observing her characters with more or less detachment. Of her ten novels, four feature the world of Psychological insight academic anthropology as a central setting – remarkable for a writer viewed as an expert in social comedy. PG Wodehouse – living in Paris in June 1945 wrote to a friend of his discovery of Is He Popejoy? … the first Trollope novel he had read. Recurring characters I found it almost intolerably slow at first, then it suddenly gripped me and now I am devouring it. It is like listening to somebody Pym – like Trollope – has a cast of characters, sometimes minor, who is a little long-winded telling a story about real people… the that can be used by the author across novels and plot lines to add characters live in a most extraordinary way and you feel that the context and continuity and engage the avid reader. Trollope does whole thing is true. this exceptionally well. Actually, the 25 year-old Plantagenet Palliser Sometimes when I tell people I like Trollope they think I mean appears first in a Barsetshire novel The Small House at Allington. Joanna, our society’s vice president. Actually, I like Joanna’s books too, Amanda Craig, a rather overlooked contemporary novelist and for one of the main reasons I like her distant ancestor Anthony’s work: 8 ~ TROLLOPE’S LEGACY TROLLOPE’S LEGACY ~ 9

the psychological insight into characters, especially women. She herself chief clerk at Weights & Measures – Sir Gregory Hardlines – who is so has said: enthusiastic about the system of civil service examinations was based Oddly my name has been no professional help at all! It seems on Sir Charles Trevelyan and the excellent Sir Warwick Westend, “full to have made no difference... I admire him hugely, both for his of the best intentions”, was , as Trollope said, a “feebly facetious” name benevolence and his enormous psychological perception. for Trevelyan’s associate and fellow reformer Sir Stafford Northcote. These two men wrote a seminal report that actually shapes the civil I have dipped into Joanna novels… essentially snapping them up service to this day. when I see them at church book sales. They are to be savoured. Joanna As a keen reader of contemporary literature, I am disappointed is clearly doing something right: writing at a rate of one novel every by how working life is portrayed in the novels I read. Actually Barbara two years, she has sold more than a million books in the past decade. Pym accurately describes the pettiness of office life – probably because They cover a number of contemporary issues including like Trollope she combined writing with a proper job. lesbianism, broken families, adoption, loneliness and looking after When I read The Fixed Period with the Cambridge seminar group elderly parents. They can be bleak in tone. But throughout the novels I was struck by an article by David Lodge, the academic and writer. I you feel as though you understand the characters and what makes thought back to his campus novels, especially Nice Work which features them who they are… in much the same way as you do with Anthony’s. a feminist academic and a factory manager who shadow each other as I really like The Rector’s Wife, the Amazon blurb for which states: part of an industry year shadow scheme. Looking at work through the For twenty years, Anna Bouverie, as a priest’s wife, has served comparative eyes of the two main characters, their motivations and God and the parish in a variety of ways. She has baked for the characters struck me at quite Trollopian.2 Brownies, delivered parish magazines, washed and ironed her For me this is part of Trollope’s legacy that is still undeveloped. husband’s surplices and clothed herself and her children in jumble-sale items. Craft of working When her husband fails to gain promotion to archdeacon and retreats into isolated bitterness, and the bullying of her daughter Finally, Trollope is well known for his working practices which at the local comprehensive reaches an intolerable level, Anna allowed him to combine writing with working at the Post Office, rebels. She takes a job in the local supermarket where she earns hunting and general socialising. her own money, her sense of self-worth, the shocked disapproval He describes this in his Autobiography. of the parish and the icy fury of her husband. I attribute the power of doing this altogether to the virtue of early She also attracts the passionate interest of three very different hours. It was my practice to be at my table every morning at 5.30 men, each of whom was to play a significant part in the A.M.; and it was also my practice to allow myself no mercy. ... blossoming of her life ... It had at this time become my custom,—and it still is my custom, It sounds somehow familiar, doesn’t it? though of late I have become a little lenient to myself,—to write with my watch before me, and to require from myself 250 words Novels about work every quarter of an hour. I have found that the 250 words have been forthcoming as regularly as my watch went. But my three For me another Trollope legacy theme is the world of work. hours were not devoted entirely to writing. I always began my task Trollope was one of the first novelists to describe working life. As a by reading the work of the day before, an operation which would civil servant, I can identify with some of the storylines in the novels. take me half an hour, and which consisted chiefly in weighing The Three Clerks was clearly influenced by real experiences, with my ear the sound of the words and phrases. I would strongly recommend this practice to all those in writing. … by reading and indeed it is considered to be a “primary source” as so few other what he has last written, just before he recommences his task, the accounts of the civil service of this time exist. The character of the 2 www.theguardian.com/books/2012/dec/14/david-lodge-rereading-anthony-trollope. See also www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/fictionalbusiness 10 ~ TROLLOPE’S LEGACY FIRST MAKE THE SOAP ... ~ 11

writer will catch the tone and spirit of what he is then saying, and will avoid the fault of seeming to be unlike himself. This division First Make the Soap ... of time allowed me to produce over ten pages of an ordinary novel volume a day, and if kept up through ten months, would have given as its results three novels of three volumes each in the Janis Zroback year.” Janis Zroback is an artist and decorative painter with a passion for I have long been fascinated by the process of writing – though literature and an avid interest in domestic history. I don’t really write myself. Since Trollope authors have shared their secrets of successful writing. I have enjoyed some of these books: Faulkes on Fiction by Sebastian Faulkes is a good read as is Stephen King’s On Writing (yes I admit to enjoying his earlier works). n The Prime Minister, when Glencora discussed the preparations for Some of the tips could have been penned by Trollope himself. I the grand event she was holding for the Duke, the announcement will leave you with this thought. Idid not appear to daunt the housekeeper, who would have been well used to large numbers of visitors. 14 Tips from Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’ “You may take it as certain, Mrs. Pritchard,” said the Duchess, “that there will never be less than forty for the next two months.” 1. If you want to be a writer you 7. With a passive verb, something must do two things above all is being done to the subject of In enumerating the number of sheets, pillow cases and other others: read a lot and write a lot. the sentence. The subject is just linens that would be required, she did not of course describe the 2. Stories consist of three parts: letting it happen. You should gruelling task of laundering clothes and bed linen in Trollope’s Narration: which moves the story avoid the passive tense. lifetime. It was not for her to do so, since her housekeeper under the from point to point 8. Talk, whether ugly or beautiful is aegis of the butler would naturally take care of it all. Description: which creates a sensory an index of character. reality for the reader 9. Description begins in the writer’s Dialogue: which brings characters imagination, but should finish in “A very expensive commercial soap was to life through their speech. the reader’s. 3. The situation comes first. The 10. Loudly, nastily, slowly, kindly. available by that time, and although characters - always flat and softly. The road to hell is paved unfeatured to begin with - come with adverbs. there is no doubt Glencora could afford next. 11. Never use ‘emolument’ when you 4. Whether it’s a vignette of a single mean ‘tip’. page or an epic trilogy like The 12. Set a daily writing goal. As with it, most households made their own.” Lord of the Rings, the work is always physical exercise, it woud be accomplished one word at a time. best to set this goal low at first. I Glencora was no ordinary housewife with the reddened hands 5. The most interesting situations suggest a thousand words a day. and cheeks that came from lye based soaps and boiling water, but can usually be expressed as a 13. Call the one person you write for she knew what was needed for special occasions and trusted that her what-if question. ‘Ideal Reader’. He or she is going 6. The best stories always end up to be in your writing room all the housekeeper would follow her orders. being about the people rather time. Mrs Pritchard assured her that they were prepared and that they than the event. 14. If you can do it for joy, you can had gone as far as setting up the “steam washery”... Glencora could do it for ever. leave it all to her. Since the washing machine did not appear till 1888, large wash tubs with hand wringers were used, several different ones going at the same time. 12 ~ FIRST MAKE THE SOAP ... FIRST MAKE THE SOAP ... ~ 13

A wealthy family like the Pallisers would have at least one just need to push a button. laundress on staff along with helpers, but for this grand occasion the Lastly everything was rinsed and wrung out and hung to dry. housekeeper might send some of the linens out to a professional The next day would be ironing day, when the previously starched laundress of which there were many during Victorian times. items would be pressed. Several irons would be heated in the fire to Laundry day in Trollope’s time was no joke... just the right temperature (burning clothing or bed linen was not a In the first place, only body linen and household linen were good idea) and the process would start - a long tedious job that took laundered. Everything else had to be spot cleaned. hours to complete. I won’t even go into the mixtures used for stains, but human The clean and ironed linen would be brought upstairs by a urine was mentioned in the records. housemaid, then placed in big linen presses and any clothing would But first the soap had to be made - a very time-consuming be handed over to the ladies’ maids - generally ladies who came to stay process - animal fat was melted then lye and water were added very would bring their own personal maids. carefully due to the ever-present risk of burnt hands and arms. After Everything would be ready for the first group of guests, till they curing for three months the soap was ready to use. would need to do it all over again! A very expensive commercial soap was available by that time, and although there is no doubt Glencora could afford it, most households made their own. Next, rain water collected in barrels was brought to the wash house. The linen would have been set to soak the day before to loosen the dirt, and then they would be washed, each individual piece scrubbed by hand, with the white items which always needed extra cleaning, boiled separately. When I think of all those trailing gowns with cascades of white lace everywhere, I am glad I live in a time where to launder clothes I 14 ~ TWO COLLECTING CLERGYMEN AND THREE SOFAS TWO COLLECTING CLERGYMEN AND THREE SOFAS ~ 15

a crippled daughter whose coroneted card announces her as ‘La Two Collecting Clergymen Signora Madeline Vesey Neroni -- Nata Stanhope’ and who, from her ubiquitous sofa, cuts a swathe through the manhood of Barsetshire. and Three Sofas Sanford’s was a wife who, though enjoying full use of her limbs, was in other respects as much damaged goods as the ‘mother of the last of the Neros’6. Duncan Bull Elizabeth Georgiana Morgan, daughter of an East Indian Duncan Bull is Senior Curator of Paintings at the Rijksmuseum, general, was barely sixteen when she met at Nice in 1803 the thirty- Amsterdam, having previously worked at the National Gallery of year-old Valentine Lawless, 2nd Baron Cloncurry, whose early Scotland and the Burlington Magazine. involvement in Irish separatist politics had earned him two years in the Tower of London. After an extended sojourn in Rome, where they married, Cloncurry brought her and their two infants to Ireland in 1805 accompanied by the painter Gaspare Gabrielli whom he rollope introduces ‘the Honourable and Reverend Dr. Vesey had engaged to decorate his seat, Lyons in County Kildare, which Stanhope’ en passant in The Warden as an example of he was refashioning at prodigious expense. Their domestic bliss was absenteeism. While the living of Crabtree Parva –- ‘worth some disrupted by Cloncurry’s discovery next year of his wife’s infidelity T with his old school-friend and frequent guest Sir John Piers. Eliza was eighty pounds a year, and a small house and glebe’ –- would be Mr Harding’s sole support without the Wardenship of Hiram’s Hospital, returned to her parents; and Cloncurry’s subsequent suit for ‘criminal Dr Stanhope enjoys Crabtree Canonicorum with its four hundred conversation’ became one of the sensations of the Regency. acres and four hundred pounds plus other benefices beyond. ‘This’, Among the more piquant continues Trollope, ‘is the same Dr. Vesey Stanhope, whose hospitable details was the evidence of Gabrielli villa on the Lake of Como is so well known to the élite of English who, while painting the ceiling, travellers, and whose collection of Lombard butterflies is supposed had observed from his scaffold the to be unique’3. These essentials are repeated in Barchester Towers in adulterous couple in flagrante on which Dr Stanhope, his family and its associated sofa play so important the morning-room sofa. The press a role4. and the caricaturists had a field day; There existed, undoubtedly, many such clergymen. One claims and the twenty-thousand-pounds attention. The Rev. John Sanford, rector of Nynehead in Somerset damages set the record for a crim. 7 and of at least one other parish besides, spent most of the 1830s at con. case . The scandal was briefly Florence in the sumptuous Casino Torrigiani with its extensive English revived in 1811 when Cloncurry obtained a parliamentary divorce. gardens. There he boasted of up to three-hundred guests at his balls; Fortunately for ‘Miss Morgan’, to which name Lady Cloncurry 8 and there he assembled a choice collection of early Tuscan paintings5. reverted, the bequest of ‘a considerable property’ renewed her The surname, the villa, the hospitality and the collecting are suggestive nubility. Sanford was her successful suitor; and it was indubitably the enough. Like Stanhope, Sanford was cited to residence by his bishop: new Mrs Sanford’s indelicate social position that induced the couple to after pleading a technicality he eventually resigned his livings. settle abroad. Sanford has at least one other similarity with the fictional 6 Barchester Towers Stanhope: the possession of a domestic femme fatale. Stanhope’s is 7 It was equalled the following year but never exceeded: see A. P. W. Malcomson: The Pursuit of the Heiress: Aristocratic Marriage in Ireland 1740-1840, Belfast 2006, p.151; 3 The Warden and S. Wolfram: ‘Divorce in England 1700-1857’, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies V, 1985, 4 Barchester Towers p.169. The affair much later inspired John Betjeman’s poem, Sir John Piers. 5 B.Nicolson: ‘The Sanford Collection’, The Burlington Magazine, XCVII, 1955, pp. 8 W.J. Fitzpatrick: The Life, Times and Cotemporaries [sic] of Lord Cloncurry, Dublin, 207-14 1855, p.302 16 ~ TWO COLLECTING CLERGYMEN AND THREE SOFAS TWO COLLECTING CLERGYMEN AND THREE SOFAS ~ 17

A series of letters from Sandford to a friend in Scotland9 indicate Rector of Nynehead in Somerset’13. It laments furthermore that, that, once the hurdle of Eliza Sanford’s presentation at the Grand- following Cloncurry’s death, a persistent variation of the scandal –- in ducal court had been cleared, the couple enjoyed Florence to the which Cloncurry is alleged to have encouraged Piers’s advances in full -- Sanford’s ease disturbed only by a troublesome bishop and his order to be rid of his wife –- had again been circulating14. This must horror of the anti-slavery movement. Whether Mrs Sanford shared, refer to the Irish press of 1854-55; and it is unlikely to have escaped besides sofa and daughter, any of the other attributes Trollope bestows Trollope’s attention whether or not he read the biography. Sanford’s on the Signora Vesey Neroni is difficult to establish. Trollope is likely own death at Brighton was recorded among the ‘Clergy Deceased’ -- a to have moulded his Madeline from many models. But it is surely column irresistible to any chronicler of clerical life -- in the Gentleman’s the conjunction of a fastidious, aristocratic10, collecting clergyman Magazine for 1855.15 with a woman of proven sexual allure and scandalous past that would Trollope is believed to have based Dr. Stanhope on childhood appeal to a novelist’s imagination. The question is: how much could memories of his mother’s friend Dr. George Nott, prebendary of Trollope have known of the Sanfords while writing not just The Warden Winchester and a scholar of Italian poetry, now best remembered for (published in December 1854) but, more particularly, Barchester Towers a contretemps with Mary Shelley at Pisa16. Nott’s domestic life appears, (May 1857)? despite eccentricities, to have been blameless; and his contribution to Trollope’s mother Fanny and brother Tom had settled in the character of Dr Stanhope most likely constitutes little more than Florence in 1842 when memories of Sanford’s extravagancies must his dress and his manners17. What seems not to be known is whether have been as fresh among the gossipy expatriate community as among Trollope met at Florence in 1852 – as he certainly did in 1857 - the the local patriciate from whose dilapidating palaces he had purchased Brownings, then well established in the Casa Guidi and on more than his pictures. The Trollopes communicated regularly and Anthony familiar terms with his mother18. Elizabeth Barrett famously exerted visited his family in Florence in the spring of 1853, just before starting her not inconsiderable charms while extended on a sofa though, as far The Warden11. He is perhaps likely to have visited the Casino Torrigiani as is known, without consequences comparable to those occasioned by where Frederick Tennyson –- elder brother of the laureate and friend the legless Signora Neroni. of Fanny Trollope whose interest in séances and table-turning he shared -– had then been living ‘for many years’12. Also in 1853, in October, Lord Cloncurry died. Trollope, whose abiding interest in Hibernian politics is well known, was by then back in Ireland and cannot have failed to notice the death of this maverick peer who had maintained, though in softened form, his stance on Irish independence. It was not until 1855 -- after completion of The Warden but during the gestation of Barchester Towers -- that a biography of Cloncurry appeared. It includes a remarkably frank account of the 13 Fitzpatrick, op.cit., pp.268-70 and 289-303. This account, however, fails to mention baron’s first marriage and its unfortunate end; and it also records the birth of a child, evidently Piers’s; see C. Kingston: Society Sensations, London 1922, Lady Cloncurry’s subsequent remarriage to ‘the Rev. John Sanford, p.170; and the notice in The Observer, 15th March 1807, p.4: ‘Died. .... The infant son of Lady Cloncurry’ 9 Edinburgh, Scottish Record Office, GD 152/53/1/18/1-6: unpublished letters from 14 Fitzpatrick, op.cit., p.293: ‘within the last few months we have heard the vile Sanford to Onesiphorous Tyndall Bruce of the House of Falkland, Fife, 1831-87. That calumny of 1807 sent adrift once more upon the world...’ of 6th December 1831 details his being cited to residence by ‘that most contemptible 15 Loc. cit. at note 10 above of Bishops, Philpott’; and that of 23rd October 1834 his resignation of his livings. 16 V. Glendinning: Trollope, London 1992, pp.37-38; Oxford Dictionary of National 10 Both Dr. Stanhope and his wife are the children of peers (Barchester Towers); Biography, s.v. Nott Sanford was the grandson of one (Gent. Mag., 1855, p.644) 17 T.A. Trollope: What I Remember, London, 1887, I, p.15-16 and 331-32 11 R.C. Terry: A Trollope Chronology, London, 1989, p.21 18 Terry, op. cit., p.27 12 H. Tennyson: Alfred Lord Tennyson. A memoir by his son, London 1897, I, pp.341 18 ~ OUR NEW NOVEL! OUR NEW NOVEL! ~ 19

of fiction, absolutely unsurpassed, you are celebrated, and to which all Our New Novel! your most ardent admirers and most sincere well-wishers do hope you will speedily return. Such a novel, in your genuine, easy-going, good Fictitious correspondence between an Editor and a Celebrated Novelist old style of The Chronicles of Barsellshire and The Last Chronicle of Barsell, agreeing to the imminent publication of a new serial publication for with lots of Parsons, Bishops, Deans and their wives and families; that is Punch, published in May 1880. (Parts of the correspondence are the sort of thing we want, and what the public demands from your pen curiously reminiscent of another correspondence with a similar object – I beg your pardon, I mean from your hand, head and heart. (By the between Mr W M Thackeray, the first Editor of The Cornhill Magazine way, don’t you write with a pen?) This, my dear friend Tony, is what we and one of his leading contributors, Mr Anthony Trollope. See The require, preferring such a work of genius to such other works of genius Letters of Anthony Trollope edited by N John Hall) of yours as are represented, for example, by The Prying Minister, How We Dye Now, Who Used His Diamonds and others too numerous, but not too humourous, to mention. Your terms are ours and easy does it. The sooner you can let us have it the better as our doors will be besieged, My dear Antonio, from the moment the novel is announced, by anxious inquirers, and We, the Modern Novel Co. (Limited), want a work from your our letter-box choke full of communications from anxious pen-and- pen. When can you let us have it? ink-quirers, who will waste reams of paper in bothering us to know Yours, Editor (Novel Co. Limited) when you are going to begin. So, my dear Tony, let us have your Without prejudice answer, and believe us (and me) yours sincerely, The Editor. With less prejudice than ever. Dear Editor, My name is not Antonio. It is Anthony with the ‘h.’ There is no use in retaining the ‘h.’ But I like it. You want, you say, ‘a work from Dear Ed, Nov. Co. Lim. my pen.’ Do you? Good. Perhaps I had better send you one of my pens Don’t call me ‘Tony,’ I don’t like it. Tony is only associated if you think that can do the work, without the hand and head, and let in the public mind with ‘Lumpkin’, all is off between us. Retract me add, my good Sir, the heart to guide it. Now to business. What do ‘Tony’ and I’m yours to command. As to your opinion of my former you want? Hey? In your next let me know what you do want from Yours or present style, I won’t take it even for what it is worth. Keep it to truly, yourself; I have no use for it. You want a novel, on what you call an Ecclesiastical subject. That the English of it? Hey? You quote my Anthony Dollop. titles incorrectly and you omit The Churchwarden. Everyone liked The With lots of prejudice. Churchwarden; and I think that I’ve got just the thing for your readers, The Warren, Babey Buntingford. or rather, for mine. How about The Beadle? Hey? Hasn’t that the true smack about it? Hey? That’s the man for your money. The Beadle of My dear Tony, Small-Beerjester Bowers. Hey? You say terms are alright. That’s business. The ‘h’ will be alright when we print your name. You don’t care Consider it settled. I’ll do The Beadle, and throw in a couple of Bishops about being Italianized, do you, as Antonio, no, that’s your brother and a few new dignitaries for the money. Hey? Don’t call me Tony Doddlefuss. Now, as you say, to business. We want a novel, not, if you again. I believe you my boy, and am yours bluffly, will allow me the expression, in your novel style, but in your good old Anthony Dollop. first-rate style; I mean, that style as applied to that class of subjects, With any amount of prejudice. chiefly ecclesiastical, by which you are known. For which, as a master ey? that’s the man for your money. 20 ~ OUR NEW NOVEL! THE LOST CHRONICLE OF OMNIUM ~ 21

Dear Anthony with an ‘H’, I RETRACT ‘Tony’, and so all is on again between us. Not only The Lost Chronicle of believe me, but believe The Company Limited, which I represent, and which deals with you for this work of art (by my advice mind) Omnium that is to astonish England, Europe, and the World. Let us have the first instalment of The Beadle – It is to be The Beadle is it not? – The Story Continues as soon as possible, so that I may fairly announce it together with the correspondence which, of course, you have no objection to my Michael G Williamson, JP DL publishing. Don’t forget the Bishops, and the ‘few new dignitaries’, and, if possible, make one of ‘em an Archbishop. Don’t omit the Michael G Williamson, former Chairman of the Trollope Society, who female element of the ecclesiastical life. Thoroughly English. You know has been closely involved in this project, describes the final steps in the how to do the trick. I am, or we are, Yours most sincerely, publication of the first paperback edition of the full-length version of The Editor. The Duke’s Children. Without prejudice – except in your favour. Dear Editor, With compliments. I don’t approve of ‘doing the trick’. I’m ost Members will always prejudiced – in favour of honesty, truth, and justice. Every now be aware of the Englishman ought to be. Oughtn’t he, eh? I refer you to my novel, The Mwork of Professor Churchwarden: or Put That in your Pipe and Smoke It? Not read it? Get it. Steven Amarnick and his In haste. Yours, colleagues in restoring the AD 1880 original full text of ‘The Duke’s Children’ from the handwritten Au Public – manuscript held at Yale A Letter from Mr Anthony Dollop protesting against the University Library. This was publication of the correspondence arrived, we deeply regret to say, a painstaking and valuable too late to be of any use. In compliance, however, with the eminent piece of work that restored Novelist’s request, we at once retract, as far as it is possible to do so. one quarter of the novel. The the whole of the correspondence in question, which we have only Trollope Family generously published in view of any difficulties that might subsequently arise transferred the copyright of between the high contracting parties. the previously unpublished In conclusion we, on behalf of the Novel Company Limited, words to The Trollope Society beg to announce the appearance in our next of an entirely new and and we worked together original novel entitled with Steven and The Folio THE BEADLE! Society to ensure that two OR fine and limited editions of The Latest Chronicle of Small-Beerjester the extended work could By ANTHONY DOLLOP be produced in time for the Trollope Bicentenary celebrations in 2015. Since then the exclusive hardback copyright has been granted th The Beadle was subsequently serialized weekly in Punch from 5 to Everyman’s Library who produced their own edition in 2017. This June until 19th October 1880.

22 ~ THE LOST CHRONICLE OF OMNIUM

HALF was shortly followed by the first audio version undertaken by Naxos PRICE Audiobooks in 2019. We are now delighted to report that copyright has been granted to Oxford University Press who are about to produce the first paperback version in their own unique style. The publication dates will be 22nd October 2020 (UK) and 2nd January, 2020 (US). Prices are expected to be £12.99 (UK) and $16.95 (US). The new extended version, reluctantly cut by Trollope himself, provides a more comprehensive and satisfactory ending to the Palliser series as a whole. Characterisations are strengthened, background information is restored and it is excellent to be able to enjoy previously unseen Trollope sentences written at the height of his powers. This new publication will be extensively supported by revised and expanded explanatory notes and a fresh Introduction by Dr Amarnick. It will also include a comprehensive Name Index together with a new, revised and updated, Chronology of Trollope’s Life and Works. Available Hopefully, this new publication will now become established as the from October definitive version of one of Trollope’s finest novels. to December 2020 at the specical price £6.50 from WHSmith.co.uk

Join Professor Steven Amarnick on Thursday 22nd October 2020 for an online Zoom talk on the production of the new extended edition of The Duke’s Children and to celebrate the publication of the Oxford World’s Classics new edition. Register for your free place at www.trollopesociety.org The Duke’s Children Complete Extended Edition This new edition features a substantial amount of previously cut material, which was removed in order for the original book to be published. This restored version of The Duke’s Children can be read as Trollope originally intended.

Available at 50% off the recommended retail price of £12.99 from 1 October to 31 December 2020 from WHSmith.co.uk. Offer not available in stores. Publication date 22 October 2020. Pre-orders welcome. 24 ~ BARSETSHIRE PILGRIMAGE (YOU’LL NEED A MAP!)

Barsetshire Pilgrimage (You’ll Need a Map!) Michael G Williamson, JP DL Michael G Williamson, former Chairman of the Trollope Society, describes the effort to produce a definitive map of Barsetshire.

n the autumn issue of Trollopiana for 2018, we introduced the creation of a new Map of Barset, explaining the challenges that Ithis had presented and trying to establish the need for such a piece of work, considering that several maps had already been created since Trollope’s death. Trollope’s own rough sketch, referred to in his autobiography and completed during the writing of ‘Framley Parsonage’, remained lost until it was discovered among family papers in the early part of the twentieth century. The various subsequent attempts to recreate this well-loved fictional County were often compromised by a) not having access to this basic source document, b) relying solely on the references to be found within the Chronicles of Barset and ignoring references to the County contained within other works by the author, c) coping with the apparently contradictory references made by Trollope himself where he may seem to have created a geographical anomaly and, finally, d) the temptation of nearly every aspiring cartographer to include imaginative elements of their own that cannot often be justified. I admit that I have often been tempted to do this myself but sincerely hope that I have been held sufficiently in check. I have already described the decision-making process in my previous article. To produce the basic map, it was necessary to create a large database of references to Barsetshire taken from any of the author’s works where these occur. Anomalies thus created then had to be made to conform. Certain specific mileages could not be ignored. Finally, a reasonably accurate sketch was created and forwarded to Simon

Detail of the new map of Barsetshhire Conceived by Michael G Williamson. Design and illustration by Simon Grenan. 26 ~ BARSETSHIRE PILGRIMAGE (YOU’LL NEED A MAP!) BARSETSHIRE PILGRIMAGE (YOU’LL NEED A MAP!) ~ 27

Grennan for translation into an artistic whole which the Society then ancient Roman Centurion might, with the passage of time, and local produced as a limited-edition souvenir tea-towel which was produced dialect, have evolved into a River Plume which might, just possibly, for sale in time for Christmas 2018. I am pleased to report that this have influenced the choice of place names such as Plumplington and item was totally sold out very quickly. Plumstead Episcopi. Sadly we can never be sure of this. However, in order to make the tea towel as picturesque as Trying to keep all the relationships and mileages between several possible, vignettes were included that covered wide acreage and places accurate in limited space, and according to an established scale, place names were increased in size for clarity which meant that was always difficult and while I was attending to something else I had some elements of the core map had to be compromised and some not noticed that Plumstead Episcopi had been slipping away to the geographical features and place names had to be omitted (although south so that it had become fully 5 miles further from Barchester than their location could be guessed). For this reason, we decided that, for it should have been. Moving it back to its correct position, of course, the true Trollope afficionado, a more practical and useable version affected its relationship with Ullathorne, St Ewolds and Plumstead of the map should now be produced. This proved to be not quite the Coppices all of which had to be taken into account. Eight redrafts later straightforward task that it might appear! the Map was ready to be produced in its new form! The Society is delighted to have finally created what we hope will be the most accurate and definitive version of ‘The Beloved County’ to “The routes of the railway lines were date and, of course, continue to be grateful to those few cartographers of the past who have worked so hard on the same problems. We hope sacrosanct because of Trollope’s own that it will be enjoyed by all Trollope enthusiasts. sketch but we decided to include some The finished product has now been lodged at all the Copyright Libraries (including Trinity College, Dublin) and the original concept waterways in the areas where we knew had been that it would be relaunched at this year’s AGM and then sold at Society Events and local Discussion Groups. Unfortunately, the they existed but without naming them.” effect of the recent pandemic has made this challenging for the time being. We have, therefore, decided that, from 1st September 2020, the map will be available for postal delivery to Members. As the edition is a To begin with, the attractive vignettes were moved to the border limited one, early application is advised. of the map, new symbols were devised, and the text was reduced in Copies in A3 size may be ordered via www.trollopesociety.org, size in order to enable us to replace landmarks and locations that or by completing and returning the form contained within this issue. had had to be taken out. Working with Simon Grennan is always a The cost of each map is £15 and we will be offering free postage within pleasure from the artistic point of view but, as we worked to achieve the United Kingdom. For overseas orders the usual additional postal accuracy in one area, inevitably impossible consequences were created charges will be applied. in others and everything had to be reconsidered, often going back to the database and the original mileage statements that could not be changed. As an example, there are natural clusters of locations, in particular around Framley Court and Barchester itself, where it proved challenging to show every location exactly and to mark it sufficiently. The routes of the railway lines were sacrosanct because of Trollope’s own sketch but we decided to include some waterways in the areas where we knew they existed but without naming them. It is, of course, very tempting to suppose that a stream identified as a flumen by some 28 ~ PICK UP A TROLLOPE Omnium Gatherum Pick Up A Trollope A collection of all sorts of things of interest to Trollopians

rom October to December 2020 We were saddened to learn that Philip Latham, who played the Trollope Society has teamed Plantagenet Palliser in the BBC’s epic 1974 26-part adapation Fup with WHSmith and Oxford of The Pallisers, has died aged 91. University Press to encourage everyone to ‘Pick up A Trollope’. Notable Trollopians including A complete set of Anthony Trollope’s novels recently sold at the Trollope Society’s President Julian Oxfam for £1,500. Membership of the Society is between £26 - Fellowes and Vice Presidents Sir John £36 and we sell the complete set for £950 to members. Major, Joanna Trollope and Susan Hampshire have selected excerpts from Desmond Guinness, founder of the Georgian Society, has Trollope’s works. They are joined by passed away. In 2006 the Trollope Society were invited to Jeffrey Archer, Ken Follett, Prue Leith, Leixlip Castle and found him to be an eccentric, charming Gyles Brandreth and Francesca Simon. man, who entertained a party of thirty Trollopians with wine We’re asking everyone to vote for their favourite novel from the and biscuits. selection and join us for a grand online read of the winning book from November. To celebrate the publication of the new Oxford World’s Classics paperback edition The Duke’s Children Professor Buy one, get one half price at WHSmith.co.uk Armarnick, who restored the deleted 60,000 words from the Purchase any Trollope novel, published by Oxford World’s Classics, original manuscript, will be giving an online Zoom talk on from WHSmith.co.uk and get another one half price. (Terms and Thursday 22nd October. conditions apply, see WHSmith.co.uk for details) Register your free place at www.trollopesociety.org Vote for your favourite novel This years AGM and Annual Lecture will be held online on Visit TrollopeSociety.org in October to vote for your favourite novel Thursday 29th October. The lecture will be given by Francesca from the selection of excerpts. You can also enter a prize draw Simon, one of the UK’s best selling children’s writers. She has to win one of ten copies of the winning novel, kindly donated by published over fifity different books, including the immensely Oxford University Press. (UK only, terms and conditions available on popular Horrid Henry series, which has sold over eighteen TrollopeSociety.org) million copies, and is published in 24 countries. Francesca will be talking on the subject of ‘Anthony and Me’. Join our online Zoom reading group Register your place free at www.trollopesociety.org Join our online Zoom reading group to read the winning novel in November. We are always pleased to hear of any news, events, exhibitions, publications or other items of interest to Trollope Society members. For inclusion in Trollopiana, please email the editor, Mark Green at [email protected]

Funding from the Coronavirus Community Support Fund, distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund, has helped us run the Pick Up A Trollope campaign. Thanks to the Government for making this possible. The Trollope Society, PO Box 505, Tunbridge Wells, TN2 9RW, United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1747 839 799 Email: [email protected] Web: www.trollopesociety.org Twitter: Follow @trollopesociety Facebook: Like Trollope Society

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