Their reunion did not go according to Anne’s wishes, however. Isabella did look remarkably well, but she was fatter than when I saw her last. On the very first night, Anne attempted to relight the fire. Tried for a kiss a considerable time last night but Isabella was as dry as a stick & I could not succeed. At least she had not one & I felt very little indeed. She was very feverish, quite dry heat & seemed quite annoyed & fidgeted herself exceedingly at our want of success, saying she had grown fit for nothing & asking what could be the matter with her. It was certainly odd as she by no means seemed to want passion. I carried the thing off as well as I could, that is to say very well, tho’ I confess I felt surprised and disappointed. Went to sleep in about an hour. Tried again just before getting up & succeeded a little better, tho’ far from well.19
Things did not get any better, as Anne established on the third night. Isabella dotes on me & her constancy is admirable & her wish to oblige & please me overcomes every other, yet her passions seem impotent without the strong excitement of grossness & her sentiments are very far from being those I most admire. [...] She has seen a great deal of vice abroad & heard a great deal of loose conversation. Her mind is not pure enough for me.20 However, Isabella had never been the kind of sweet little creature that delighted Anne. The fact that she could not simply pick things up where they had left off may have had a cause Anne had not reckoned with: Isabella was in love with another woman.
Mary Vallance, the daughter of a Kent brewery owner, had met the Norcliffes on their Grand Tour of Europe and become a close friend of Isabella’s sister Emily. She was staying with the Norcliffes, as after Emily’s tragic death during their travels, Mary had become a kind of replacement for their youngest daughter. Although Isabella admitted to Anne that she found twenty-three-year-old Mary Vallance irresistible,21 Anne could not imagine that Tib’s relationship to Mary might be closer than their own. She asked herself whether Miss Vallance would find us out.22 In fact, though, it took Anne a while to work out the truth about Isabella and Mary. Not until the end of her six-week stay did she find out that Isabella had asked Mary to play the man. Mary Vallance was less surprised by the suggestion than by the allocation of roles, because she actually thought of Tib as a man, as she confided to Anne, of all people. Mary asked if I should not have married Tib if she had been a man. Astonished to hear me say, ‘No.’ [...] It seemed she had thought Tib always played the man with me – an impression Anne could not let go unchallenged – in which I think she was undeceived.23
A disenchanted Anne left Langton Hall on 2 November 1818. After a brief visit to her father and sister in Market Weighton, she spent the four weeks before Christmas in York. Mariana’s sister Lou Belcombe, with whom she had last time learned Hebrew, this time practically forced herself on Anne and would rather have my love than esteem. I told her she did not understand my love & that she was too cold for me. She owned she appeared so but said she could convince me to the contrary.24 But either no opportunity arose under the watchful eyes of Mrs Belcombe, or Anne did not take it, having no interest in low-hanging fruit.
It was resistance that stoked her desire. As soon as she was back in Halifax, shortly before Christmas of 1818, Anne Lister ‘happened’ to meet Miss Browne, who was herself on the watch, so it seemed to Anne. At the Christmas service in Halifax Parish Church, they faced one another for the sacrament. I fear I never received it with less feeling of reverence. Was thinking more of Miss Browne than anything else – whether she would ever mould her to my purpose.25 While Anne was strolling along Callista Lane on 8 January 1819, her crush came dashing out of the house and the two went walking arm in arm. Anne was more inclined to be a little on the jocose than usual. I asked if she was still afraid of me. She said she could not help feeling a little so sometimes, because, she added, she thought I had a very penetrating countenance. [...] ‘Oh, oh,’ thought I to myself, then, ‘I have sometimes looked rather unutterable things.’ With a deep stare into Elizabeth’s eyes, Anne told her: I was, at some times, more anxious to be penetrating than at others.26
On one of their next walks, Elizabeth confessed to Anne that she had thought of me last night but so much that it had prevented her sleeping & she must not think so much of me after going to bed in future. [...] She had strange thoughts but could not help thinking she wished I had been a gent; that perhaps she should not have known me. ‘Oh, oh,’ Anne thought again. I replied perhaps she had not more strange thoughts than other people. [...] She had wondered what I saw in her & thought perhaps it was her vanity that made her believe I liked her. ‘No, no,’ said I. ‘I have given you reason enough.’ [...] ‘I only wish you happy &, tho’ I would rather, if possible, be in some degree instrumental to your happiness myself, for we all value the work of our own hands, I shall be satisfied to know you are happy, by whatever means.’ Miss Browne; ‘Perhaps you will be disappointed in me. I may turn out very wicked.’ I; ‘That is more likely for me to do, but we have all of us our weak side.’ Miss Browne; ‘I have many.’ I; ‘I fear you have not such an one as I should choose you to have if I could choose.’
When Anne noted this conversation in her diary, she believed it would take only a few more walks & perhaps she will understand her feelings better.27 But then an earlier hint dropped by Miss Browne became clear in March of 1819: Kallista wanted to marry a certain Mr William Kelly of Glasgow. She is in love, it seems, & this gives me little hope of making much impression on her in the amatory way. Besides, I have not enough opportunity & dare not make any serious tempting offer. This would never do for me.28 Anne had to concede defeat. She seems innocent & unknowing as to the ways of the world.29
Anne’s constant walks around Halifax arm in arm with Elizabeth Browne were the talk & admiration (wonder) of the town,30 as Aunt Mary Lister of Northgate House reported to Anne. Caroline Greenwood asked Anne prying questions about what she got up to on her walks with Miss Browne. I am settling the affairs of the nation with my prime minister. Whereupon Caroline pestered Anne to give my sentiment a name. I answered it was perfect esteem, but desired her to give it a name. She replied, ‘Enthusiasm. A passion that would only last a short while.’ 31 Caroline’s comments were laced with jealousy. Whenever Anne had visited the Greenwoods in the past, Caroline had dragged her to her room and played only for her on her glass harmonica. She was glad to have an excuse to write to me, for the sake of having an answer back.32 Although Caroline Greenwood, like Lou Belcombe, offered herself up on a silver platter, Anne did not take the bait. She suspected Caroline wanted to lure her into a trap. In fact, she makes a dead set, to all which I return no encouragement, but am very civil.33 Anne found it all the easier to resist Caroline’s attempts, as she had a head like a porcupine.34
The only person to whom Anne spoke openly was her Aunt Anne. She really is very good & is surely fond & proud of me. Talked of my fancy for Miss Browne. Told her I had gone to the lectures for no other purpose than to see her. She said she knew very well & that I should like Miss Browne better than Tib or M–, if I durst.35 An unruffled Aunt Anne accepted her niece’s feelings for women. Uncle James made no comment, and so Anne had great freedom at Shibden Hall. Even her father let her have her way, on an undated occasion. I had once had a person with me with whom I had gone to bed at ten & lain till one, two, three & later, the next day & my father would not have us disturbed.36
On the evening when Anne spoke to her aunt about Elizabeth Browne, she also told her about her wish to travel. Inspired by Isabella’s tour of Europe, Anne wanted to go abroad at last. She counted up her funds, which came to £50 – enough for a trip to Paris. Aunt Anne had never been to France either, so she joined forces with her niece and on the spur of the moment, they left for the Continent on 10 May 1819. Anne was twenty-eight years old, her aunt fifty-four.
They travelled via Dover and Calais, the journey taking six days. The women saved on three nights’ accommodation by juddering through the nights in mail coaches. Whenever possible, Anne sat on the coach box to have a better
view, enjoy the fresh air – and to get some exercise whenever the road led uphill and she could keep up with the horses. In Paris, they took rooms at the Hôtel des Ambassadeurs on rue Sainte Anne, near the Louvre. The guide recommended by Isabella picked them up every morning and took them to museums, Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Jardin du Luxembourg. One morning they left the hotel at six and travelled two hours to Versailles, only to find to their great regret that it had been plundered during the revolution. They walked through the park to the Grand and Petit Trianon and viewed the porcelain manufacture at Sèvres on their way back to Paris. They also visited a tapestry factory and admired the kitchen at the Hôtel des Invalides, where meals were prepared for four thousand private officers. Anne observed everything and made notes even on the public baths along the Seine, the laundresses in their boats and the inexplicable lack of traffic jams: nothing to Northgate in Halifax on a busy market-day.
Between their excursions, they would relax at a round marble table in a café, a pleasure not found in Halifax or in York. They treated themselves to rhubarb lemonade, café au lait – very good – and patisseries, watching the passers-by. They ate at the same restaurant every evening, another of Isabella’s recommendations, working their way through the menu with great appetite and trying all the wines and champagnes. Anne and her aunt laughed exceedingly at a Chinese shadow theatre and on a Sunday evening – we are shocked to confess – amused themselves at the Tivoli gardens. There, Anne was drawn magically to the Montagne Russe, a precursor to the roller coaster, in which pleasure-seekers sped down an artificial hill in a small car. I was seized, rather to the alarm of my aunt, with an unconquerable desire of descending: once she lured me away; a look behind brought back my malady and down I went. The shock was instantaneous.
10 Anne Lister senior, oil painting by Thomas Binns; Calderdale Leisure Services, Shibden Hall, Halifax.
Aunt Anne, too, enjoyed the trip hugely. At Shibden Hall she lived according to her brother’s standards, leading a life more withdrawn than suited her nature. She and her niece made an excellent travelling team. Anne junior organised, negotiated and spoke to people – in clumsy French, as she was sad to note – while Anne senior ensured they appeared respectable. Neither of us ever felt better in our lives, than during the seventeen days and a half of our stay in Paris.37 Anne dreamed of returning to Paris to study there. She had received a positive reaction at the Jardin des Plantes and the university to her idea of attending lectures on an informal basis.
On their return journey, they sailed to Brighton from Dieppe. Shortly before disembarking, the two helped each other to wrap around their bodies the yards of fine silk bought in Paris and put their clothes over the top. At customs, they declared only the aunt’s minor purchases, two pairs of shoes, a wig and earrings. They went from Brighton to London, where they worked their way through a similarly packed sightseeing schedule. They stayed at Mr and Mrs Webb’s very central Black Bear Inn at 220 Piccadilly and engaged a guide, as in Paris. As their first day was a Sunday, they took a long tour of the London churches and had walked sixteen miles by the evening. Over the next few days they visited the Tower, the British Museum – delighted with the Elgin marbles – Westminster Abbey – nothing to the fine cathedral of York38 – and took a boat trip along the Thames. Anne climbed up ladders to the dome at St Paul’s and savoured the view of the city from the Golden Gallery – but not the sky or the air, which, unlike in Paris, was contaminated by acrid chimney smoke. The workers’ poverty, the women’s misery and the horror of gambling halls and brandy dives meet you barefaced.39 Anne had found Paris more civilised.
The Misses Lister went to the theatre every evening, extending their stay by a day to see the final performance by Sarah Siddons, the finest performer that ever ornamented her profession. I had no conception of such acting, she was inimitably great – her voice, her declamation, her countenance, her action, more perfect than I could have conceived.40 After two months away, the two Annes arrived home on 12 June 1819.
Isabella, Mariana and Miss Vallance
1819–1822
Only twelve days later, Isabella Norcliffe came to visit. Although their reunion the past autumn had not gone well, Isabella was still very attached to Anne and thought the two of them were together. Poor soul! She little thinks how things are. She feels secure. I scarce can bear it. I wish she knew all & all was settled. As Isabella also had a vague prospect of one day inheriting her family’s estate, she suggested to Anne that they move in together – if necessary along with her younger sister Charlotte, should the latter remain unmarried. Anne rejected the idea of living with both Isabella and Charlotte out of hand, whether Tib ever has Langton or not. Then I could have no authority in Tib’s house nor therefore, she in mine. Isabella insisted on her suggestion. ‘We might always be together. You visit me six months & I visit you the same.’ When I hesitated she said, ‘Well, but I can visit you six months & the other six, you can get somebody else.’1 Isabella knew she would always have to share Anne. During her stay at Shibden Hall, Elizabeth Browne returned to Halifax. We were talking of her just after we came up to bed & Tib wanted me to take the first opportunity of giving her a kiss to see how she liked it & how she behaved on the occasion. I laughed & said, ‘If anything particular happens, Tib, you will be more to blame than I.’ 2 That opportunity did not arise until weeks later, when Aunt Anne held a small social event and Anne invited Elizabeth Browne to Shibden Hall for the first time. Just before we came in from the garden, contrived to be a few minutes alone with only Tib & Miss Browne. The former gave me a kiss & I made it an excuse to kiss Miss Browne on her lips, a very little, moistly. She looked shamefacedly and pulled her bonnet lower over her face. Miss Browne said kissing was an odd thing & people made quere [sic] remarks about it. ‘These,’ said I, ‘none of us understand.’3
Three days later, they met again at church. In passing Miss Browne, smiled very graciously. I fancied she looked rather sheepish. What has she thought of my kissing her when she was here on Thursday? Anne was never to find out. Miss Browne married Mr Kelly and remained one of the few women ever to resist Anne Lister’s seductions. To Isabella’s satisfaction, Anne from then on found her company dullish.4
Yet there was no advantage in it for Isabella. Anne noticed that her habits are very little suited to mine. I could not live happily with her. At all events the experiment shall not be tried.5 Isabella preferred riding while Anne loved to walk, she had no interest at all in books, and in the library Tib’s manner there fidgetty & a little impatient. Would try to kiss me. She shall not go with me often again.6 When Anne wanted to read in peace, she interrupted me desperately & I shall not be sorry to have my room once more to myself. I am never good at study when she is with me & I am weary of this long stoppage I have had to all improvement.7 In company, too, she felt uncomfortable with her oldest friend. Isabel, much to my annoyance, mentioned my keeping a journal, & setting down everyone’s conversation in my peculiar hand-writing (what I call crypt hand). Anne put on a brave face but swore to herself: Never say before her what she may not tell for, as to what she ought to keep or what she ought to publish, she has the worst judgement in the world.8 Aside from that, Isabella drank too much and things weren’t going all that well in bed either. [Tib] was for going to sleep, but I would have a kiss. She says it gives her a pain in her back.9 I feel towards her differently, more coolly than I did. [...] I cannot feel that she is, or ever can be, all to me I want & wish.10
Politics was one of the few subjects on which the two agreed. During Isabella’s stay at Shibden Hall, on 16 August 1819, some 50,000 people demonstrated at St Peter’s Field in Manchester for the repeal of the Corn Laws and a reform of electoral law. Imported grain from the Continent was cheaper than British corn, so the government had been raising high customs on imported corn since 1815. The resulting price rises benefitted landowners like James Lister while the poor starved. Legislation such as the Corn Laws highlighted the shortcomings of Britain’s parliamentary sys
tem, with elections being neither secret nor general and favouring constituencies in the south of England and the landowning aristocracy. The large area around Manchester, Blackpool and Stockport, with just under a million inhabitants, had only two representatives in parliament; tiny Old Sarum in Wiltshire, one of the rotten boroughs, had just as many MPs. Although the unarmed protesters in their Sunday best at St Peter’s Field were not a threat, six hundred hussars, a hundred and twenty cavalry from the yeomanry and several hundred infantrymen surrounded the crowd with two cannons. As the main speaker Henry Hunt was about to speak, the yeomanry received orders to arrest him. To reach the stage, they rode into the tightly packed crowd, cutting their way through with swords. Between eleven and fifteen people died, including four women and a two-year-old child, with four to seven hundred people injured. The state-sanctioned slaughter was soon dubbed the Peterloo Massacre, after the Battle of Waterloo. It left a deep impression on British collective memory, radicalised the reform movement – and hardened the government’s stance.
The news of the Peterloo Massacre reached Halifax the same evening and two days later, five hundred people assembled on Skircoat Moor, not far from Shibden Hall. While her aunt and uncle feared looters, Anne discussed the events with Isabella until late at night. The reform infection seems to have reached us.11
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