A letter sent to the Craven Herald in 1914 shed light on author Charlotte Bronte's links with Craven. It also revealed some other fascinating snippets, writes Lesley Tate.
Novelist Charlotte Bronte spent a short time as a governess for a family at Stone Gappe, on the Skipton side of Lothersdale.
And 112 years ago, a "correspondent" for the Craven Herald wrote of her connections with Craven and her apparent dislike of children.
Charlotte, the eldest of the three Bronte sisters who survived into adulthood, lived at Haworth where she wrote her masterpiece, Jane Eyre, under the name of Currer Bell.
Trained as a teacher, she spent a few years, between 1839 and 1841 as a governess, including to the Sidgwick family at their summer resident, Stone Gappe in Lothersdale.
Charlotte was employed by the Sidgwicks in 1839, but did not take kindly to children, according to the Herald of 1914.
On June 8, 1839 in a letter to her sister, Emily, she wrote: "The country, the house and the grounds are divine. . . The children are constantly with me, and more riotous, perverse, unmanageable cubs never grew."
The Herald's correspondent of June, 26, 1914, a few weeks before Europe was plunged into war, wondered what Charlotte would have thought of the modern "enfante terrible".
"Surely, most children answer to her description at some period of their lives, and is it not only healthy that they should?" they asked.
Charlotte, who stayed for just a month at Stone Gappe before moving on, wrote in the same letter to her sister about Mr Sidgwick.
"Mr Sidgwick walked out with the children, and I had orders to follow a little behind.
"As he strolled on through the fields with his magnificent Newfoundland dog at his side, he looked very like what a frank, wealthy, Conservative gentleman ought to be. He spoke freely and unaffectedly to the people he met, and though he indulged his children, and allowed them to tease himself far too much, he would not suffer them grossly to insult others."
It may be that Mr Sidgwick was the inspiration for Edward Rochester in Jane Eyre, published in 1847. Mr Rochester, who employed the young Jane as his governess, also had a large Newfoundland dog.
It has also been suggested that one of the Sidgwick's children, John, who at one time threw a bible at Charlotte, was the inspiration for John Reed, who in Jane Eyre, throws a book at the young Jane, his step-sister.
The Herald pointed out Charlotte's use of the word Conservative, and explained it was then almost a new word when applied to politics. "The good old word 'Tory' is now only used as a catchphrase by our political opponents, " said the correspondent, who left readers in no mistake as to their political leanings.
Charlotte appeared to have little success as a governess, the correspondent continued, passing from post to post very rapidly.
Another sister, Annie Bronte, wrote in her diary: "Charlotte has left Mrs Wooler's, been a governess at Mrs Sidgwick's, left her, and gone to Mrs White's". The extract was dated 1841, which, bearing in mind Charlotte was born in 1816, showed that she had been a governess with at least three families before she was 25-years-old.
Charlotte wrote under the name of Currer Bell, and there were two popular theories about the origins of her pseudonym.
One was that she had been inspired by Currer Hall, near Beamsley. But the Herald's correspondent favoured a different theory. "It is more probable that it was then in honour of the family of Currer, who then lived at Kildwick Hall. The Currers possessed a magnificent library, the greater part of which is now at Eshton Hall, " said the correspondent.
There was also connection to a former headmaster of Skipton Grammar School, a Dr Cartman, who was described as a "great friend" of Charlotte's father, Patrick Bronte.
A letter from Charlotte written when she was in London in June, 1851, to her father begins: "Dear Papa - I am glad to hear that you continue in pretty good health, and that Mr Cartman came to help you on Sunday."
The Rev Patrick Bronte died in June, 1861 and the Bradford Review in describing the funeral at Haworth, mentions that Dr Cartman, of Skipton, was one of the bearers.
The Craven Herald of June, 1853, which was then a monthly publication, described the consecration of St Mary's Church, Embsay, in which the name of the Rev A B Nicholls was included. Mr Nicholls, then curate to Patrick Bronte at Haworth, was eventually to be married to Charlotte, but according to the Herald at the time, it was not a relationship approved of by Charlotte's father.
"It was in December, 1852, that Mr Nicholls proposed to Charlotte, " said the correspondent.
"Her father, who appears to have been of a violent temper, would not hear of the match. His relations with Nicholls afterwards became so strained that the latter had no alternative but to leave."
Mr Nicholls departed Haworth in May, 1853 - some ten days after the consecration of Embsay Church.
"It is now a matter of history that Charlotte eventually married Mr Nicholls, who survived her by many years, " said the correspondent, who writing a 100 years ago, added he had died just a few years earlier. Mr Nicholls left his portrait of Charlotte to the National Portrait Gallery, London. (Lesley Tate)
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