Irene Wiltshire: William Gaskell's Poetry and Poetry Lectures (2005)

This booklet is a reprint of an article that originally appeared in the 2005 issue of the Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, and the front cover shows G. W. Swynnerton's bust of William Gaskell (1805–84) from the Portico Library in Mosley Street, Manchester.

The writings of William Gaskell – who was minister of the Cross Street Chapel from 1828 to 1884 – have been greatly overshadowed by those of his wife Elizabeth Gaskell. Wiltshire's sources are mainly Barbara Brill's 1984 biography and the two volumes of Elizabeth's letters (1966 and 2000).

Wiltshire writes about William's poetry lectures and his poetry, first mentioning his more canonical favourites such as Wordsworth – considered an understandable choice for his optimism and his representation of humble characters; and also Crabbe – considered a more unusual influence because of his lack of optimism, but perhaps appreciated by William for his realism.

William knew some noted poets: Wordsworth (who read William Gaskell's Temperance Rhymes with 'much pleasure'), Walter Savage Landor, Samuel Rogers, etc. He had a great love of language in general and also loved dialect and the dialect poetry of such working-class writers as Samuel Bamford and Ebenezer Elliott, both of whom appear in Elizabeth Gaskell's writings.

William's own poetry expresses his personal concern for the social injustices and abuses around him. In the long, later Cottonopolis (1882) – not mentioned by Brill – Wiltshire sees the influence of Crabbe in its emphasis on the brutality and squalor in which many of the working class lived. But unlike the impartial observation of Crabbe, Gaskell points an accusatory finger at the 'city fathers' and the clergy.

Interestingly, Wiltshire sees William's descriptions of poverty as markedly different – much stronger, more violent – than Elizabeth's.

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And on another interesting note, Wiltshire states that it is hard to find a secondhand copy of William Spalding's A History of English Literature and Samuel Rogers's Pleasures of Memory, although it couldn't be simpler to find copies of the books today: many booksellers have PODs available of both, and they are also available via archive.org for anyone to download freely.

Below is the grave of William and Elizabeth Gaskell in Knutsford, Cheshire, which was taken by me in  in 2009:

The Portico Library, Manchester

I only discovered the existence of this subscription library last week, and then only noticed it quite by chance when walking up Mosley Street (this being on the corner of Charlotte Street) on Saturday.

'PORTICO LIBRARY – 1806

THOMAS HARRISON ARCHITECT

(1744–1829)

RICHARD COBDEN   JOHN DALTON

ELIZABETH GASKELL

SIR ROBERT PEEL

THOMAS DE QUINCEY

PETER MARK ROGET WERE

READERS HERE'

Elizabeth Gaskell House, Manchester

'ELIZABETH CLEGHORN

GASKELL

(1810–1865)

Novelist and authoress of 'Mary Barton',

'Cranford' and many other works

lived here

(1850-1865)'

I'm sure there must be many people like me who wince at the use of the term 'authoress': it smacks of 18th or 19th century male disparagement, and spoils the effect of the plaque. How come no one spotted it? At least she's no longer referred to as 'Mrs Gaskell'.

Elizabeth Gaskell House, 84 Plymouth Grove, Manchester, where the novelist lived with her Unitarian minister husband William and their four daughters. It is also where Gaskell wrote most of her published work, and where guests included Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, John Ruskin, and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Restoration has been under way for some time, and the awful pink paint has now gone. Unfortunately, so too has most of the roof, from which lead was stolen in May this year, adding another £250,000 to the projected cost of the restoration.

The rear of the house. An earlier post I made about Gaskell's Knutsford, Cheshire (where she spent her earlier years) is here.

Ian Curtis (failed), Elizabeth Gaskell's Knutsford, plus John Ruskin, and, er, Edward Higgins

Too bad that we've not had time to see Ian Curtis's kerbside gravestone, or the house in which he lived in Macclesfield, Cheshire: to compensate, I leave a scan from the cover of Joy Division's album Closer. But if you're on your way to leave your car near Manchester airport before leaving for Atlanta, Georgia, and have a few hours to spare, what better way to spend them than in peaceful Knutsford?

Knutsford is eager to display its strong associations with Elizabeth (Cleghorn) Gaskell (née Stevenson), and many people associate the town with her novel Cranford (1853), of course. The 'Hollingford' of Wives and Daughters (1866) also takes Knutsford as its model, although she is perhaps better known for her 'Condition of England' novels, Mary Barton (1848) and North and South (1855).

Although born in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, as a 12-month-old motherless child, Elizabeth Stevenson was taken into the care of her maternal aunt, Hannah Lumb, who lived in the house Heathwaite, in Knutsford. She spent her childhood and early youth there.

Heath House, also on what is now called Gaskell Avenue, is where the highwayman Edward Higgins, who is represented in Gaskell's short story 'The Squire's Tale', and Thomas de Quincey's 'Highwayman'.

The parish church, Knutsford, where Elizabeth Stevenson married the Rev. William Gaskell in 1832. They were both Unitarians, however, and William was a minister at the Cross Street Chapel in Manchester, where they went to live.

The Royal George Hotel in Kings Street in the centre of Knutsford, and was visited by Elizabeth Gaskell.

While I was photographing this tower, a woman on a bicycle dismounted, parked her vehicle and proceeded to tell me all about the Gaskell Memorial Tower and its 'mastermind', Richard Harding Watt. Leaving her bicycle freely leaning against some railings – Knutsford appears to be the kind of place you can do that without worry – she led me across the road to an interpretation panel and spoke more about Watt. I consider myself very lucky to have had this encounter, as she was Joan Leach, a noted local historian and the Secretary of The Gaskell Society. Many thanks for this, Joan!

The side of the tower shows a plaque of Gaskell, with her novels listed above, although – as was pointed out to me by Joan Leach – most of the titles are now obscured by ivy.

Elizabeth Gaskell is buried in the small cemetery in the grounds of Brook Street Unitarian Chapel, Knutsford. Her husband William Gaskell (1805–84) joined her almost twenty years later.

Richard Harding Watt, a great admirer of John Ruskin, named these rooms after him. An interpretation panel records that the architectural assistant resigned following arguments over the chimneys.

'Let every dawn of morning be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close', from Ruskin's Lectures on Art (1870).

'Ruskin Rooms. This building was erected by Richard Harding Watt in his usual Mediterranean style in 1902 as a recreation and reading room for the townspeople. The architect was Walter Aston. Among the various uses to which the building has been put is a fire station and as the headquarters of the British Legion. It was substantially renovated in 1977.'

For much more information on Elizabeth Gaskell, see The Gaskell Society website and Virtual Knutsford.