It’s a short Sunday blog from me today, as I’ve just returned from a weekend visiting family at Bridlington – or should I say Burlington as it was called when Charlotte Brontë visited it? There are many picturesque and historic villages and towns en route from the east coast to South Yorkshire, including Burton Agnes – visited by Charlotte Brontë.
Burton Agnes is famous for its hall and its historic church, and we know that Charlotte visited here with her best friend Ellen Nussey in Autumn 1839. We know this from a letter that Charlotte sent to Ellen’s brother Henry Nussey on 28th October 1839, in which she said:
“We saw Agnes Burton, during our stay, and called on two of your former parishioners Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Dalton. I was pleased to hear your name mentioned by them in terms of encomium and sincere regard. Ellen will have detailed to you all the minutia of our excursion; a recapitulation from me would therefore be tedious. I am happy to say that her health appeared to be greatly improved by the change of air and regular exercise. I am still at home, as I have not yet heard of any situation which meets with the approbation of my friends. I begin, however, to grow exceedingly impatient of a prolonged period of inaction. I feel I ought to be doing something for myself, for my health is now so perfectly re-established by this long rest that it affords me no further pretext for indolence.”
Why was Henry’s name mentioned by people Charlotte Brontë met in Burton Agnes in the East Riding of Yorkshire? It was because Reverend Henry Nussey had been an assistant curate in the parish a year earlier – assisting the Reverend Charles Henry Lutwidge – who in turn was uncle to the later writer Lewis Carroll. Unfortunately, all did not go well for Henry in this parish. It was here that he was thrown from a horse and suffered a head injury that affected the rest of his life.
“My head was very much affected by this misfortune,” wrote Henry, “and my ministerial work consequently much impeded.” Lutwidge dismissed Henry from his post, on the grounds “of the inadequacy of his powers to fulfill its duties.”
Seven years after this, Henry became vicar of Hathersage, and it was on a visit to that Peak District parish with Ellen that Charlotte met the Eyre family of nearby North Lees Hall. Alas, this curacy too proved too much for Henry and he eventually died in a Midlands asylum.
Back to happier times – in Burlington I walked my wonderful rescue dog Matisse on the beach – just as Anne Brontë must have done with Flossy in Scarborough, a little further up the coast, and as Agnes Grey does with Snap.
I hope you can join me next Sunday for an ocean themed new Brontë blog post.