THOMAS CARLVLE'S HOME LIFE

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 245, 26 January 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

THOMAS CARLVLE'S HOME LIFE

By JAMES FISHER, >n tlio "Scotsman."

THE CARLYLES AT HADDINGTON

It is difficult to associate the sleepy and old-world town of Haddington with anything exceptionally emotional. No doubt, even in the quietest_])arts of inhabited places, love scenes are played out to their inevitable end, just as in the busiest centres, but Ave like to think of them as proceeding quietly and orderly and in accordance with the retirement of their stage. Yet in the seclusion of this ancient burgh there was acted a lovo story as passionate and n* eventful as any recorded in tlio annals of literature. And this story is of exceptional interest, not merely on account of the undoubted genius of its actors, but also because it resulted in a married life of long years and great happiness, ending As dramatically as 't be{»an. In the High Street of Haddington ; s situated a comfortable dwelling, now called tlio Carlylo House. This house, with its large llower garden, possesses an air of substantial gentility, it at ouo time belonged to Dr. Welsh, a respected physician of the town, «nd in it, on 14tli July, 1801, was born his daughter Jeannie. Quick of parts and of insatiable curiosity, .she passed a happy girlhood, clouded only by tlio premature death of her dearly-loved father. To this house, on & sweet May evening in 1821, when Jeannie Welsh was In her twentieth year, came two visitors just arrived from Edinburgh. These vere Edward Irving, who had been tnto>- to Jane Iter ore his removal to Kirkcaldy, and his friend Thomas Carlyle. Irving had been in Edinburgh at tho Assembly, and that Tjeing over, he must needs take his companion to East Lothian to see tne world. Carlylo was then a, young man of twenty-five, and already his friends were impressed with his abilities. A MOMENTOUS JOURNEY. This journey to Haddington wa« tlio most momentous ever undertaken by Carlyle, for late in life he tells us: "Th? end of the journey and what I saw tliero will be memortble to me while life or thought endures." For he met Jane Welsh, and thus describes it in "Sartor Resartus," that book of wonderful humour and tender insight into human life: "He was ushered into tho garden-house, scarcely inferior in respectability to tho noble mansion itself. Next moment he finds himself presented to the party: and especially by namo to —Blumine!* 7 the light of whoso eyes smiled on him. Tho young couple must have seen much to like *n each other. On Juno 4 ; Carlyle iback in Edinburgh, and writes: "No man, woman or child can hinder me to cherish, as long and tenderly as I please, those sentiments of deep and affectionate interest which I have thought meet to conceive towards you!" Tliis was written on!y four days after his return ! What must Jane have thought in that little back-world o£ Haddington, where the suitors and swains who had hitherto clustered around her could not have written thus during all the days of their sleepy .existence! Sho herself does not respond well. Whcth- • deterre Iby maiden modesty or by Sumo de.?p?r feminine scheme, her reply ii a chilling " With Miss Welsh's compliments." Two mo'i.iis later, Carlyle, who had undertaken to supervise her reading, proposes to visit her "to inspect your !>:• gross in tho Gernmn tongue." Oh ! Thomas, Thomas, and thou a philosopher! They did meet, but it was in Edinburgh, where .lane frequently stayed with friends in George Square, in "Sartor Resartus" w-> are told: "In town they met again; day after day, li'co his heart's suli, the blooming Islumino shone on him."

Mrs. Welsh, Jano'.s mother, now enttv.s; a lady of frequent changes of mind. At first, regarding Thomas as a h. Ipful friend, she was kind enough to approved. Now she discerns his attentions to her daughter, and plainly disapproves. Jane, however, is stubborn and will not sacrifice her friendfeh.p to her mother's whim. This fug-f-i-war lasts to the very end of the courtship, when the mother finally relents and ever after lives in harmony v ith her son-in-law. But now her" mother disapproves, and in January. 1822, Jane warns Thomas if lie cannot v.nte to her "as if you were, married, you need never waste ink or paper on n e more," and erds; "'1 will I>* to you a true, a constant, a devoted friend but not a wife." This curious declaration n.iglit have ihis'<ed .ardour of one of less understanding than Carlyle, but he knew her and held i'a-st hi-, faith ii! tho power of love. TROUBLOUS TIMES. Troublous times follow. In Fabruaiy, Carlyle was rash enough to visit Haddington. He. found Mrs. 'Welsh 10-mal and rigid, and M-:ss Welsh not le-s hostile. In a letter"to a friend Juie ackne,wledges his talents, vast and cultivated mind, his vivid imagination, and lias indep "lidenco of soul; I.in she cannot abide his want of elegance. This is evidence rather of the btni'ations of her own upbringing than of bar lover's shortcomings. In any ruse, the meeting was unhappy. and Carlyle did not again go to lladdingt 'i: for more than a year, and then only on the pre-singt invitation of botTi ruothe; - anrl daughter. Notwithstanding his "he |; of e'.'g.'iUce." .lull " (,'litlol do without him: only, woman-like, she wants hiiii oil her nun t( r 111 -. Throughriiit tho sunimer the correspond.-ni?• bei'i m s intimate. In September she tells him t:f meeting a hand'ome coloiial of Iho Guards; •' f could have wept at part in < \\ iili him but I could not get niy hatlill ei'chief." .M .iliv.hlle Carlv!e i- bll -\ lutoriiig, in translating I rgi mire's " fleonietrv,'' and 111 writing -a.\- IVr lirow-ter's Km yclopa.rtlia. Tim e latter being the lorerillilier" o;' 1 hat. i'ie le -cries of i --a \ - of later vea 1-:. To;, ids tlie end or W22. Carlyle ;hii- "a s11;; 1i 11 farrago," I iug noil iiig el he;- than bis beautiful little -t >- rv of "('rather- md Jons'iii." She re-

HIS MEETING WITH JANK WELSH AT HADDINGTON.

| THE RIPENING FRIENDSHIP

p!;es: "I shall soon bo able to say : fc by heart...how I envy you. I would give Shandy (her dog) and my pearl necklace to be able to write such another—but that I shall never. Ik>." In March of 1823 Carlyle thinks their destiny may yet. be intermingled, "as <f wj were yet to walk side bv side, and assist each other in many a noble purpose."

In April, mother and daughter are in Edinburgh, and Jane writes Ridding Thomas visit them : " Wlien my mother goes to Dumfriesshire, 1 will see you as olten as you please." But her mother suddenly decided to take Jane with her, and Thomas found them gone. In these months, too, wo pet glimpses of Carlylo's ill-health and of his life-long enemy, dyspepsia. In tho autumn of 1523 he writes: "O, how often have I prayed that I might be broken on the wheel every morning, and then have nothing more to do with pain! 0! thrice and four times accursvd physical disease. Tophet has not in its recesses such a tremendous scourge as this!" Nor did Jane enjoy good health. She had a delicate organisation, and was provided by nature with a poor"constitution. Neither of her parents was robsut, and she herself suffered much from vexatious headaches.

j ONLY A FRIEND AND SISTER. | In proportion as Carlyle's let tors i beeomo increasingly lover-liko in tone, j Jane insists that she will be his sistor, his friend, but not hid wife, she 1 repeats this so often that perhaps she | niay have ccmo to believe that her afi lection was merely sisterly. Perlmps ; not! Dutjn September, 1823, she has : aii extraordinarily inconsistent outI burst over a proposal made by Irving : and his wife, then .settled in London, j that Carlylo and she should visit them. : Sho writes: I am almost out of my : wits with joy. We are to live a, whole summer beside each other, always toj gether. You will go, if for 110 other . roasoßL becauso your own Jjino desires I it. /Uio proposal came to naught, but ' " y/r own .Jane" must surely liavo understood tlint lier delight was something more than that of a friend. Dur- . ing K'bruary, 1824. the friends met frequently in Edinburgh. A slight ; quarol seems temporarily to have disturbed their happiness, for Jane writes: I"Say that you forgive me, that you lovo 1110 not a whit less, and I will ! you a wholo dozen of voluntary kisses

at tho earliest opportunity." It soems that "your own Jano's "friendship was ! worth, having, even on her own terms. : Another funny touch is given in the following month. For the sako of "do- ; niostic accordance," Jano had agreed that her mother should l>o allowed to '■ raid Carlyle's letters, so in March sho 'writes: "Remember! no darlings or ! anything of that nature —in English.''

I Accordingly in future we hare "nny- | thing of that nature" duly sot forth in t!io learned languages, with which her mother was not conversant. In the ; autumn sho writes to Cnrly!'»\ then ;.t j Birmingham trying to get rid of his i dyspepsia: "The Devil put it into my i head to go to Musselburgh Races. It was I tlio Devil, too, that tempted me to go : c:i horsehac-k, by which means I drew a ! multitude of eyes on me. Oil! the fol1, of men 1"

i Hit mere friendship takes another | curious turn in October. She tolls lift- ; friend that she has 110 pleasure in life 'hut what his h iters afford her; and ! wonders whether she will ever have th'i I wish of her heart gratified. This deI hiro one might reasonably expect to bo I tlio retention of Carlylc's friendship, or that he might eomo to regard her j only as a sister; but nothing of the I kind; slio desires "a sweet home with ! <iiu< to bo the polar star of my being, whose graceful and splendid qualities ; would inspire a lovo that should be the i heart and sou! of my life." Jf Carlyle wvro not justified Mi thinking that she ; loved him sufficiently veil to marry him. surely 110 mere man was ever jus> tified in putting his trust in woman. | Things began to move quickly. In ; Dot-ember sli.e tells him her farm of Craigenputtoek, inherited from her ( father, is to let, and ask.s whether be | would caro to become its tenant, lie jd :e; think of it, and m January, IS2o, he deliberately proposes that sho shall become his wife. "Say and I 1 s"iul my brother .Mick over to rent I that Nitbsdalo farm for me without del lay, and take you home to my hearth l and to my bosom, never more to part . from r.:o whatever fate befido us. : ' To this sincere and manly offer, she replies that she was but joking about his leading Craigenputtoek, and makes t!io subtle distinction of lov'ng Carlyle but not being "in love" with him. She givts a. practical touch to the letter by enquiring wlieth 'r he b. ; s any certain liv(!ihi.;;d to maintain her in the manner -ho has been born and bred in. As for staying at Cargenputtork, she would not spend a month there with an •>ng< I : "I would just as soon think of building iny-elf a ne-t in the. Bass Kick" "and sln> finally re ■onimends him t;» try m.iu 'thing dsn. and apply his talent's to gild over the ine 111.1 iiiy of ib. ir birih. Jn his reply (arlyle assure,; her that in hi- proposal tiicie was nothing of the love-aud-a-coitago theorv: ho v.a-> prepared to exert himself tn the uttermost to make proper pro- \* - ii; 11 for l.er coiuloi't. Jn thanking I:in: for this answer, she agar! assures him that -he "merely wishes t.> set him liam ng a certain livelihood and exerei- iig tli.i p'ole-Mon ol a gt nt.emau. ;: 11 • I thinks that "in a year or two p r- . 1:■ ,|.s I -hall consider that to bo y.uii . v- To is 1 he i nly <l -tiny for ni n ." To ;•/'; • be V" il'.t t iolls Thomas *s ever genre. ennsiflerate and tender. 1 Mai 11 i 11'; iiim-elf fur hi- ins:-i-'ner> und dei laruig that he cannot holp lo', ing I; T» Til II nT'!{Xi:i> R<IAT-t lie Fobruarv has i-ot atlolhet ■ 1 rj. forv.iird : " If're ."in I l.ln-hing like :: 11 111 MI ullilleVe;- your linnie !, II!C!!1 1,1 ;1• I, so thai anybody "uho look* at ini may read tho whole iiri:ter in my fa• and then to bo half-fug.igr'd. :it

yet I would not, if I might, l>© fu*.' fn reality, sho now knows that sho lias liurni'd her boats, and it is delightful to road her tender and sweet expressions of trust in Thomas. It was about this time, too, that she made her will, leaving Craigennuttock to Thomas (Jarlyje.

TJu clouds are now departing. In tho beginning of 1826 she says: • I feel as if it would do mo a world of good just to fall upon your neck and weep and Ueli you once more, what I have told you so often already, that you are dearer to me than aught on earth." Tho house at 21, Comely Bank. Edinburgh, is taJcon at a yearly rent of £32, and tho lovo affair hastens forward. She writes in May: "Edinburgh or any other great city to me has no attractions. On the contrary, I prefer the country much before it, because there I should have you entirely to myself." A' few days before the wedding in October, Carlylo writes: "My Inst blessing a.s a lover is with you; this is my last letter to Jane Welsh; my first blessing as a husband, my first kiss to Jane Carlylo is at hand! 0, my darling. I will always lovo thoo."

Excellent Jane! Excellent Thomas!