Today, May 28, we commemorate Anne Brontë's death in Scarborough in 1849. She travelled there accompanied by Charlotte and Ellen Nussey in the hopes of getting better thanks to the sea air when she was already too ill with consumption.
They left Haworth on May 24, one day after they had intended to do so, but Anne hadn't been able to make it the day before. After a stop in York where Anne was once again impressed by York Minster, they resumed their journey towards Scarborough, where on May 26 she rode a donkey cart and - characteristically - told the boy leading the animal to take care of the donkey and not treat it harshly.
By May 27 she was enquiring whether she could reach home again and spare her family and friends the ordeal of dying away from home. They decided against it and the evening closed, according to Ellen Nussey, 'with the most glorious sunset ever witnessed'.
The next day, Anne very calmly asked the doctor whether she could reach home alive and urged him to speak the truth 'for she was not afraid to die'. At 2 pm, May 28, Anne Brontë passed away. Charlotte decided to bury her in the place she had loved so much and derived so much pleasure from, not far from the place where Agnes Grey meets Mr Weston at the end of Anne's first novel.
(As usual for all things Anne Brontë we suggest paying a visit to Mick Armitage's The Scarbrough Connection).
Picture Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Categories: Anne Brontë, Reminder
Happy 158th Anne! I'll reread 'Tenant...' this week in tribute!
ReplyDeleteShould we wish her a 'happy' death anniversary? Anyway, reading Tenant sounds like one of the best tributes you can pay to her.
ReplyDeleteOops, sounds like I'm celebrating her death, doesn't it? Meant it more as a celebration of the fact that she's being remembered.
ReplyDeleteWhew, got myself out of that one!
Hehe, I knew what you meant :)
ReplyDelete