by Deborah Lutz
steam, 13
Lake District, 71, 76, 77, 78, 80, 89, 91, 118
Landseer, Edwin, 102, 113, 118
Last Days of a Philosopher, (Davy), 30–31
Latin language, 12, 219
Law and the Lady (Collins), 232
Law Hill School, 118–19
Lawrence, D. H., 252
“Leaf from and Unopened Volume” (C. Brontë), 15
Leakey, Sophia, 189
Lebel, Mr., 241
Leeds, 8, 36, 69, 133, 175
Leeds Castle Dog Collar Museum, 113, 273–74
lesbianism, 150–51, 278
letters, 123–38
burial of, 195–96
candling of, 140–41
of Charlotte, 53–54, 124–38, 142–46, 148–50, 152–56, 158, 166, 169, 183, 191–93, 212, 221, 223, 228, 233–34, 243, 249
cross-written, 130
enclosures in, 128–29, 135
envelopes for, 125, 133, 134–36, 141, 155, 161, 181–82, 212, 276
franked, 132–33
illustrated, 126
intimacy of, 124, 149–50
of Jane Austen, 130–31
paper wafer seals on, 136–41, 155–56, 169, 182
postage costs of, 128–30, 132–33, 156, 175
secret parts of, 131
stamps on, 134, 156
wax seals on, 22, 24, 124, 127, 135–36, 182
Lewis, C. S., xx
Leyland, J. B., 229
libraries, xxii, 21, 25, 201
circulating, 14, 26, 177
personal, 16, 31, 245
robbing of, 26
Life of Byron (Moore), 38
Life of Charlotte Brontë, The (Gaskell), 4–5, 91, 106, 145, 240, 245, 254–55, 262
Life of John Wesley, The, 23
Life of the Duke of Wellington, 20
“Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” (Wordsworth), 75–76, 83, 215, 268
Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, The (Lewis), xx
Lister, Anne, 77, 78, 119, 150, 268, 278
Liverpool, 69–70, 107, 231
“Locksley Hall” (Tennyson), 197
London, 46, 47, 64, 66, 68, 71, 102, 112, 113, 141, 145, 177–78, 212, 222, 239
department stores in, 163–64
Hyde Park, 45, 213
Regent Street, 199
Soho Square, 164
Tavistock Square, 72
Whitechapel, 217
London Times, 134
Lowell, Amy, 259
Lund, Thomas, 163
Marcus, Sharon, 150, 278
Marmion (Scott), 30
Martineau, Harriet, 41, 46, 129, 175–76, 178
Mary Barton (Gaskell), 204
mastiffs, 97, 113, 271
material culture, xxii–xxiii, 257–58
Mayhew, Henry, 243
Mazzini, Giuseppe, 141
“Mementos” (C. Brontë), 238
Merchant of Venice, The (Shakespeare), 99
metaphysics, xxiii, xxiv
Middle Ages, xxiii, 98, 113, 202
Middle Stone Age, 98
Millais, John Everett, 189
Miller, Lucasta, xxiv, 90, 253, 269, 283
Millevoye, Charles Hubert, 229
Mill on the Floss (Eliot), 162–63
Milton, John, 231
“Mischmasch” (Dodgson), 13
Moore, Thomas, 38
Morgan, Jane Branwell, 17, 19
Morgan, William, 17, 19
Morgan Library, 155
Mulready, William, 133
Murat, Prince Achille, 241
Myers, Jane, 226
Napoleon I, Emperor of France, 137, 241, 242, 247, 292
Napoleonic Wars, 21
National Portrait Gallery, 208, 274, 287
nature, 74, 85, 88, 190
destruction in, 111
divinity of, 71, 81, 216
influences of, 92
intimacy with, 76, 252
needle-cases, 51–52
needlework, 41–47, 52–61, 77, 161, 163, 164, 199, 213, 214
of Brontë women, 41–44, 52, 54, 56–57, 60, 124, 131, 174, 245, 265
samplers of, 42–45, 59–60, 245
Nelson, Horatio, Lord, 73, 115, 242, 292
Nero (hawk), 116, 119
Newby, Thomas Cautley, 179, 180, 181
Newfoundlands, 97, 100, 113–14, 122
newspapers, 28, 30, 131, 235
New Testament, 17
New York Public Library, 25, 72, 167, 280
Nicholls, Arthur Bell, 153–54, 162, 210, 228, 242, 243, 245–49, 289
as a curate, 221–24
death of, 248, 282
marriage of Charlotte and, 131, 153–54, 162, 216, 220, 224–27, 233–34, 243
relationship of Charlotte and, 220–25, 233–34, 248
remarriage of, 248
Nicolls, Mary Bell, 248
Nightingale, Florence, 163, 279
“Night-Wind, The” (E. Brontë), 84–85
Nileus (dog), 115
Nussey, Ellen, 65, 69, 104, 210, 229, 248–49
Charlotte and, 40, 52–56, 78, 83, 120–21, 200, 225, 277–78
Charlotte’s letters to, 53–54, 124–28, 148–50, 152–56, 169, 181, 183, 191–93, 221, 223, 228, 233–34, 243, 249
death of, 200
Nussey, George, 132
Nussey, Henry, 152, 223
Nussey, Sarah, 193
“Ode to a Nightingale” (Keats), 85
Old Curiosity Shop, The (Dickens), 189
Old Shepherd’s Chief Mourner (Landseer), 118
Oliver Twist (Dickens), 189, 204
Orient, L’, 242
Origin of Species (Darwin), 111
Ossian, 14, 260
“O Thou Who Drivest the Mourner’s Tear” (Moore), 54
“Our Fellows” series (B. Brontë), 23
Our Mutual Friend (Dickens), 204
Ouse River, 72
Oxford Museum of Natural History, 216
Oxford University, xxii, 25
paganism, 202–3
paper, 246
expense of, 21–22, 28, 130
quilling of, 55, 199
recycling of, 22–23, 24, 55, 158
wall-, 22–23, 134–35, 161, 214, 247, 276
wrapping, 176, 177–78
Paris, 142, 241
Parker, Elizabeth, 45
Parkes, Bessie Raynor, 59, 80, 91, 92, 270
“Parry’s Land” (E. Brontë), 39
Paxton, Joseph, 213
Pearson, Mary, 229
Peel, Robert, 36–37, 38, 102
pencils, 175–76
Pennine Mountains, 65, 254
pens, 174–75, 176, 281
Pensionnat Heger, 119
Penzance, 3, 251
Percy Bysshe Shelley: His Last Days Told by his Wife, With Locks of Hair and Some of the Poet’s Ashes, 25
photography, xxi, 208–9
pincushions, 52–53, 264
Pinka (dog), 103
Pitman, Isaac, 175
Pitt-Rivers, Henry Lane Fox, xxii
Pitt Rivers Museum, xxii
Plath, Sylvia, 92, 240
Plato (dog), 122, 275
Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (Brontë sisters), 171
pointers, 117
Pollard, Matilda, 235
Pomeranians, 103
poodles, 103
Pope, Alexander, 114
Postlethwaite, Robert, 76
Price, Leah, 23–24
Pride and Prejudice (Austen), 79–80
“Prisoner, The” (E. Brontë), 169, 280
Professor, The (C. Brontë), 146–47, 153, 162, 172, 173, 262
publication of, 178
rejections of, 24, 177–78
revision of, 179–80
Protestantism, 72, 188, 202
Proverbs, Book of, 43
pteridomania, 214, 218, 288
Punch, 141, 226
railroads, 118, 128, 133, 137, 156,
158
rats, 98–99, 140
Reál, Anthony, 68
“Relic, The” (Donne), 197
relics, 93, 238–42, 291–94
of Brontës, 238–40, 246–54
literary and historical, 239–42, 247
of saints, xxiii, 70, 73, 89, 202, 266
Rembrandt van Rijn, 199
“Remembrance” (E. Brontë), 86
Richmond, George, 235, 247, 248
Ritvo, Harriet, 103
Robinson, Lydia, 128, 168, 187
Robinson, Marilynne, xix
Robinson family, 60, 101, 118, 128, 142, 168, 187
Roe Head School, 39–40, 64, 66, 69, 118, 125, 149, 172, 225, 230
Romanticism, 74–76, 85, 87, 91, 181, 215
Rome, 25, 239
Ross, O’Donoghue, 226–27
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 195
Rossetti, Elizabeth Siddal, 195
Roundheads, 10
Rowe, J. Hambley, 235
Royal Academy, 64
Royal George, 113
Royalists, 202
Royal Oak, 10
Royal Society of Literature, 252, 253
Ruskin, John, 13, 216
Russell’s General Atlas of Modern Geography, 14–15, 19
Sackville-West, Vita, 149
Saint Helena, 241
St. Martin’s Parsonage, 231
saints, xxii, xxiii, 73
relics of, xxiii, 70, 73, 89, 202, 266
secular, 89–92, 253
shrines of, 72, 73, 89
Scarborough, 50, 91, 118, 120, 193
Scotland, xxiv, 90, 206, 226
Scott, Walter, 30, 90, 106, 137
Scruton, William, 235
séances, 207–8
“Secret, The” (C. Brontë), 204–5
Sehnsucht, 87, 269
Selection of British Ferns and Their Allies (Gardiner), 227
Self-Instructor in the Art of Hair Work (Campbell), 200
Sense and Sensibility (Austen), 128, 204
Sermons or homilies appointed to be read in churches in the time of Queen Elizabeth, 17
setters, 117, 120
Shakespeare, William, 28, 55, 89, 99, 106, 109, 125, 137, 239
sheep, 68, 98, 99, 106
sheepdogs, 97
Shelley, Mary, 25, 148, 165
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 80, 247
death and cremation of, 25, 242
diary of, 24–25, 261
heart of, 25, 165, 242
Shelley, Percy Florence, 25
Shirley (C. Brontë), 28, 29–30, 36, 46, 48, 50, 57–58, 67, 120, 128, 151–54, 165, 231–32
composition of, 183–84
publication of, 156, 212
revision of, 184
Shorter, Clement, 248–49, 259
Sidgwick, John Benson, 57
Sidgwick, Mrs., 57
“Silver Cup, The: A Tale” (C. Brontë), 6–7
slavery, xxiii, 112
Smith, Barbara Leigh, 80
Smith, Elder and Co., 137, 156, 178–80, 216
Smith, George, 135
Smith, Margaret, 155
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 97
Somme, First Battle of, 209
Songs in the Night, 19
Southey, Bertha, 16
Southey, Kate, 16
Southey, Robert, 16
“Cottonian Library” of, 16
sexism of, 75, 76–77
“Souvenir D’Amitié” (Wagner), 231
Sowerby Bridge, 118
spaniels, 117
Cavalier King Charles, 101, 115–16
cocker, 102–3, 120
springer, 101, 116
water, 122
spiritualism, 207–8
stamp collecting, 134
Stanhope, Lord Charles, 51, 102
Stead, John James, 210
Stephen, Adrian, 13
Stephen, Leslie, 77, 90
Stephen, Thoby, 13
Stephen, Vanessa, 13
Stevenson, Robert Louis, xix
Stones of Venice (Ruskin), 216
Story of a Needle, The (Tucker), 51
Stovin, Margaret, 232
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 208
suffragists, 136–37
Summerscale, Mr., 121–22
Sunday Tramps, 77
Sutherland, Duchess of, 102
Swift, HMS, 114
Swinburne, Algernon Charles, 92, 197
Symington, Alexander, 249
Tabby (servant), see Ackroyd, Tabby
“Tales of the Islanders” (C. Brontë), 9, 12
“Tam O’Shanter” (Burns), 240
taxidermy, 55, 199, 213
Taylor, James, 223–24
Taylor, Joe, 146
Taylor, Mary, 40, 146, 174, 194, 206, 225–26, 231, 286
Tempest, The (Shakespeare), 125
Temple Dictionary of the Bible, The, 235
“Temple of Fancy,” 47
Tenant of Wildfell Hall, The (A. Brontë), 16, 29–32, 57, 60–61, 119–20, 164, 168, 180–81, 204
composition of, 180, 184
Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, 197, 249
terriers, 101, 102
bull, 97, 271
English, 113
wire-haired, 119
Texas, University of, Harry Ransom Center at, 155
Thackeray, William Makepeace, 164–65, 213, 241
“thing theory,” see material culture
Thomas, Edward, 70
Thomas à Kempis, 23
Thorp Green, 60, 101
Tiger (cat), 116, 119
Tintern Abbey, 83, 137, 215
Top Withins, 68, 92
To the Lighthouse (Woolf), 72
Trafalgar, Battle of, 73, 242, 292
Trelawny, Edward, 25
Trinity College, 155, 221
Trollope, Anthony, 167–68
tuberculosis, 4, 120, 187, 189, 191
Tucker, Charlotte Maria, 51
Turner, Horsfall, 235
Tyburn, 99
Uffenbach, Zacharias Conrad von, xxii
umbrellas, 68, 78, 132
Unitarianism, 244
United States, 112, 201, 244, 245
Vanity Fair (Thackeray), 164–65
vegetarianism, 136
Viareggio, 25
Victoria, Queen of England, 74, 101–3, 133, 136, 199, 206–7, 225, 242
Victoria and Albert Museum, 201, 248
Victorian era, xxv, 45, 46, 47, 50, 61, 74, 89, 97
codes of behavior in, 143, 181
collecting and organizing in, 225–35
cult of the pet in, 101–4
death and afterlife as seen in, xxi, 25–28, 188–90, 192–93, 197, 207–10
intimacy of women in, 148–53
recycling in, 22–24, 26, 55, 93
social classes in, 56, 101
special boxes favored in, 47–52, 161–63
working life in, 172
Victory, HMS, 73, 242
Villette (C. Brontë), xx, 15, 18, 24, 32, 46–50, 53, 57, 120, 124, 127, 132, 142, 147–48, 153, 158, 162, 166, 169, 183, 203, 206, 252, 275
composition of, 212, 213
publication of, 178, 222
Wade, John, 238
Wagner, Anne, 231
walking, 64–84
on the moors, 64–66, 69, 77, 82, 88, 90, 91, 118–19, 155, 234
on pilgrimages, 72–74, 89–92
poetry, and the rhythm of, 75
of women, as rebellious and radical, 76–84, 91
walking sticks, 67–68, 70–74, 90, 93, 235, 266–67, 273
blackthorn, 67, 71
flexible switches as, 68
Malacca, 68, 113
pilgrims’ staffs as, 72, 74
walking tours, 75, 89, 92, 270
Wallace, William, 90
Walsingham, 72
Ward, Nathaniel Bagshaw, 213–14, 215, 217, 225
Wardian cases, 213–17, 225, 227
/> Warren’s Shoeblacking factory, 13
Waterloo, Battle of, 90
Weeton, Ellen, 59, 77–78, 265
Wellesley, Charles, 39, 153
Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of, 8, 20, 135, 241
Westminster Abbey, 137
Whittingham, Sarah, 215
Williams, William Smith, 193
Wilmot, Thomas, 208
Wilson, Frances, 79, 83
window seats, 30, 31, 47
Windsor Castle in Modern Times (Landseer), 102
Wise, Thomas J., 249–50, 259, 278, 294
Woler, Ann, 45
wolves, 98, 99, 109, 215
Wood, William, 67, 191–92, 239, 283
Wooler, Margaret, 172, 225
Woolf, Virginia, 13, 72, 90, 92, 103, 240, 254, 294
Woolner, Thomas, 189
Wordsworth, Dorothy, 75, 76, 79, 82, 215, 269
Wordsworth, William, 53, 74–76, 79–81, 83, 89, 215
workboxes, 47–52, 56, 58, 166, 212, 264
of Brontë women, 49–50, 179
World War I, 209
World War II, 252
Wuthering Heights (E. Brontë), xix–xx, 10–11, 18–19, 30, 32, 40–42, 80–87, 91, 101, 107–11, 143, 162, 172–73, 177, 182, 188, 190, 194–200, 205–6, 240, 252–53, 275
cabinet and box bed in, xix–xxi, xxiv, 86, 182, 197–98, 205
dogs in, 96, 98, 100, 101, 106–7, 110
publication of, 179, 180, 190
reviews of, 181
Thrushcross Grange in, 20, 42, 81, 107, 110
“Wuthering Heights” (Plath), 92
Yates, Eliza, 45
York, 60, 158, 175
Yorkshire, 2–3, 67, 77, 92, 98, 99, 106, 150, 155, 225, 251, 289
Yorkshire dialect, 9, 10, 37
Yorkshire Penny Bank, 250
ALSO BY DEBORAH LUTZ
The Dangerous Lover: Gothic Villains, Byronism, and
the Nineteenth-Century Seduction Narrative
Pleasure Bound:
Victorian Sex Rebels and the New Eroticism
Praise for
THE BRONTË CABINET
“[Lutz] is both fabulously erudite and refreshingly willing to tackle the trashier end of the literary spectrum. . . . Her incisive, beguiling prose . . . [and] frankness about her own fascination . . . makes this wonderfully fresh and insightful biography simultaneously an act of resurrection and of mourning.”
—Samantha Ellis, Times Literary Supplement (UK)
“Fresh and enlightening. . . . This book is an exceptionally intimate study of the three sisters, through it we look into the most private corners of the parsonage. . . . Faultlessly researched and evocatively written.”
—Rachel Trethewey, Independent (UK)
“The Brontë Cabinet does not fail to deliver, offering vivid interpretations of the lives and the works of these strange and fascinating sisters. . . . As strange and mesmerizing as the sisters themselves.”
—Paula Byrne, London Times
“Brontë aficionados will enjoy the deft interweaving of artifact, biography and literature, but the greatest pleasure is the expanding chain of associations Lutz creates in each chapter. . . . An engaging read for fans of the Brontë sisters, of course, but also anyone interested in material culture, the Victorian era and the history of everyday lives—especially women’s lives.”