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Elizabeth Gaskell letter concerning Haworth sanitation

Archive File: MS 2266/05 Contains digital media

Details

Type of record: Archive

Title: Elizabeth Gaskell letter concerning Haworth sanitation

Level: File

Classmark: MS 2266/05

Date(s): 26 September 1853

Size and medium: 1 letter; 7 ff

Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/729924

Collection group(s): English Literature

Description

Letter written from Plymouth Grove addressed to an unidentified correspondent. Gaskell begins by asking them to “pity the sorrows of two poor authoresses (“...Miss Brontë, the authoress of Jane Eyre & myself...”), discussing her recent visit to Haworth, describing the position of the town (“...Haworth is a long narrow street, clambering up the side of a steep bleak hill at the top of which is the Church with a terribly over-filled Church yard, in the middle of which stands the Parsonage...”), explaining in detail the town’s serious problems with water supply and sanitation, and asking for advice on how to compel an intransigent local landowner to allow water pipes to be laid under his field.


The letter describes how Gaskell “had to keep my handkerchief on my nose always” when passing through the churchyard, and that "Miss Brontë can tell which way the wind is in the morning before she gets up by the smell which fills her bedroom if it blows from the churchyard".

Provenance

Previously sold at Sotheby’s, 27 November 1889, lot 70 (catalogue slip included with letters)

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Material in this part of the collection is in copyright as dictated by the 1998 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act in the UK until 31 December 2039 and has been identified as an Orphan Work. The Library has taken the approach to place the material online in order to support research, learning and teaching.

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