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George Meredith, Governesses, Neckties, and Friends: New Meredith Letters1

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George Meredith, Governesses, Neckties, and Friends: New Meredith Letters1 George Meredith, Governesses, Neckties, and Friends: New Meredith Letters1 Margaret Harris and Wes Rogers George Meredith (1828-1909), novelist and poet, held firm opinions on many matters and did not hold back from expressing them. From his home on the slopes of Box Hill in the Surrey countryside he wrote on the healing power of the natural world and what he called the philosophy of earth, mainly in his poetry. His views on the entitlement of women to equality with men pervade his fiction, perhaps most famously in Diana of the Crossways (1885). Education was another topic frequently taken up in his novels, from Sir Austin Feverel’s misguided attempt to educate his son Richard according to a System in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859), to the school in Switzerland set up by Matey and Aminta in Lord Ormont and His Aminta (1894). Particularly in his later years, Meredith was liable to hold forth to his circle of friends and admirers, many of them resident in his neighbourhood, on allied subjects, notably the suffrage and the preparedness of England for war. He did not always practise what he preached, however, certainly in relation to his own daughter’s education. The three previously unpublished letters brought to light here reflect well on his paternal concern while illuminating also his inconsistencies and eccentricities, down to his preference for red neckties. The first substantial collection of Meredith’s letters was assembled by his son William Maxse Meredith (1865-1937). Two volumes of Letters of George Meredith uniform with Constable’s Memorial edition were published in 1912, Will Meredith having been on the staff of that publisher since 1895 and vigilant about his father’s interests. His prompt appeal to holders of his father’s letters has proved invaluable, with these volumes serving as the foundation for subsequent collections, notably C. L. Cline’s three volume edition in 1970, in turn complemented by Mohammad Shaheen’s 1997 Selected Letters. Since then, the main discoveries of relevant manuscript material have been made by Nicholas Joukovsky in the course of his work on Thomas Love Peacock. In particular, he has published seven important letters of 1854-5 and 1861 from Meredith to the half-sister of his first wife, Mary Ellen (née Peacock, later Nicolls, 1821-61).2 Coincidentally, the letters published here are to sisters, one of whom, Madame Ponsard (née Susan Fetherstonhaugh,1834-1917) was governess to Meredith’s daughter Marie Eveleen 1 Thanks are due to Mr. J. P. Macpherson, a descendant of Louisa Elizabeth MacPherson (née Fetherstonaugh, 1833-1924), for his permission to publish the three letters in his possession. Friends and colleagues, notably Professors Geraldine Barnes and Penny Gay, provided valuable assistance in shaping the discussion. 2 Nicholas A. Joukovsky, ‘“Dearest Susie Pye”: New Meredith Letters to Peacock’s Natural Daughter’, Studies in Philology 111 (2014): 591-629. Joukovsky edited The Letters of Thomas Love Peacock. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon P. 2001, and has several publications of material relating to Mary Ellen which amplify the pioneering work of Diane Johnson in The True History of the First Mrs. Meredith and Other Lesser Lives. New York: Knopf, 1972, reprinted in 2020 as a New York Review Books Classic – testimony to its formal innovation and pioneering feminist orientation (Hermione Lee’s review in the New York Review of Books, 4 Dec. 2020, amplifies this comment). 2 Australasian Journal of Victorian Studies 24.1 (2020) (Mariette or Riette, 1871-1933) from late 1886 to the summer of 1887. She was the third daughter of a family of five sisters and three brothers. The other recipient, Mrs MacPherson (née Louisa Elizabeth Fetherstonhaugh, 1833-1924), was the second daughter. The fortunes of the family intertwined with Meredith’s in different ways. The Fetherstonhaughs migrated to Australia in the 1850s: initially Cuthbert Fetherstonhaugh, accompanied by two sons, Theobald and Alfred, and a cousin, went to the goldfields in 1852. Cuthbert became a Goldfields Commissioner on the Buckland River in 1853, and in mid- 1854 became Police Magistrate and Crown Lands Commissioner at Hamilton.3 The youngest son, also Cuthbert, travelled with other cousins in 1853. The mother (née Susan Curtis), her personal maid, Mary Brennan, with the five sisters and Theobald, who had returned to Ireland ill and disenchanted, followed in 1856. They lived at Portland on the Victorian coast until “Correagh”, the home Cuthbert was building for them at Hamilton, was finished. On the lengthy sea journey to Australia, Susan met Eugene Marius Ponsard, a French civil engineer making his second visit to the colony in pursuit of business interests in machinery for gold mining (ultimately unsuccessful). They married on 4 April 1857 in Portland, returning to Europe soon after. Little is known of their life together, beyond their living through the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War. They experienced privation, and “had to live on dogs, cats, rats, etc., before the siege was over”, communicating with family in Australia by letters sent by balloon post (“the envelopes were marked ‘par ballon monté’” – Hamilton Spectator). Ponsard died from yellow fever in 1881 while working on the Panama Canal, and presumably Madame took up governessing to support herself thereafter. In her later years she lived in Surrey or London with one or other of her sisters, and died on 8 May 1917. Louisa Fetherstonhaugh married in 1858 John Alexander MacPherson (1833-94). Trained as a lawyer, he was a pastoralist who went into politics in 1864, serving as Premier of the State of Victoria in 1869-70, and holding ministries in later governments before he retired in 1875. After travels in Europe, in 1878 the MacPhersons settled at Thorpe, Chertsey, Surrey (on the proceeds of a legacy from his father) (Cline 2:898n.). They had a son and seven daughters of whom Louisa Elizabeth (Louison, 1866-1940), the fourth, was a friend of Meredith’s daughter Mariette. Already the ways various Fetherstonhaughs figure in Meredith’s circle of friends are apparent, though in certain respects it was Frances, younger sister of Louisa and Susan, who had most to do with Meredith. More of that relationship presently. First, the letters, now in the keeping of a descendant of Louisa and John MacPherson. They are exemplary of Meredith’s prose style, whether in his letters or his fiction, replete with the obscurities so often remarked – memorably by Oscar Wilde among others: “His style is chaos illuminated by flashes of lightning.” (Wilde 315) The style is a moderate version of the exaggerated courtly mode Meredith adopted especially as a widower in his sixties writing to young women, whether they were single or married, after the death of his wife Marie (née Vulliamy, 1840-85). His letters to Mlle Hilda de Longueuil in 1886-87, and to Lady Ulrica Duncombe 3 For reasons of economy the Irish family had lived in Germany for some years in the 1840s: see Fetherstonhaugh which draws for family history on a memorandum in the hand of the fourth daughter Frances (1839-1924, Lady Colvin, formerly Sitwell). This Cuthbert was a son of the Cuthbert who migrated to Australia in 1852: repetition of names through the generations was common in the Fetherstonhaugh family. Margaret Harris and Wes Rogers 3 from the late 1890s to his death, are conspicuous examples. Cline sees a romantic attachment to Mlle de Longueuil in 1886-87, on paper at least, that was sufficiently intense to lead her to break off the correspondence (Cline 2:840n for de Longueuil, and 3:1729 for Duncombe). The jocularity of the letters published here, to two sisters, carries an erotic metaphorical undercurrent, treating with the traditional association of love and death. We present the letters according to recognised scholarly conventions, at the cost of some repetition of information. The Letters Letter 1, to Madame Ponsard Box Hill Decr 22nd 1887. My dear Madame I shall wear the neckties & lay them in their silken bed at night, thinking always of the good warm heart from which they & a multitude of blessings come as from a springing fountain upon all who have the honour & happiness of your esteem. Ever de coeur Your devoted George Meredith NOTE: The gallantry of Letter 1 is suggestive: Madame Ponsard’s gift is fruitful, yielding blessings that flow as if from “a springing fountain” when the neckties are laid “in their silken bed at night”. Madame Ponsard (née Susan Fetherstonhaugh,1834-1917) was governess to Meredith’s daughter Marie Eveleen (Mariette or Riette, 1871-1933) from late 1886 to the summer of 1887 (her successor was in post by the end of September). Meredith’s relations with Madame appear to have remained cordial after she left his employ, with neckties becoming an ongoing concern, as subsequent letters, including the following one, confirm. See e.g. Cline 2: 926: to Louison, 10 Jul. 1888 (Louison MacPherson, 1866-1940, was a niece of Madame Ponsard, and a friend of Riette). 4 Australasian Journal of Victorian Studies 24.1 (2020) Letter 2, to Madame Ponsard Box Hill February 13th 1889 My dear Madame You have been good indeed – even unto the practice of patience. The ties exactly hit the colour & texture, giving the throat just that look of l’homme guillotiné which must be my secret desire in the choice I make of them. MacMillan forwarded the notice of Poems, & why the ineptitude was written would be hard to say, if one did not know what an itch has imbecility to force the expression of itself. I sent out no copies to Reviewers. By the way, I have a clipping from some paper to-day, stating that Prince Rudolf of Austria was a great reader of my books.
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