Explore
Helena Whitbread
Posted on
December 19, 2016
- Diary excerpts
From Anne’s diary, Friday 10th August 1832 (age 42)
[The first time that Anne Lister put her thoughts in writing about the possibility of courting Ann Walker, the young heiress who lived at Lidgate in the neighbourhood of Shibden.]
‘… Thought I, as I have several times done of late, shall I try & make up to her?’
From Anne’s diary, Sunday 5th January 1834 (age 43)
[After eighteen months of an on-and-off courtship, Anne was unsure about whether or not there could be a permanent relationship between them.]
‘…Miss W[alker] talks as if she would be glad to take me – then if I say anything decisive she hesitates to. I tell her it is all her money which is in the way. The fact is, she is as she was before [i.e. indecisive], but determined to get away from the Sutherlands and feels the want of me. But [I need to] take someone with more mind and less money. Steph [Belcombe – i.e. Mariana’s brother] is right: she would be a great pother [sic]. [I] have nothing serious to say to her – she wants better manning than I can manage.’
[See also Jill Liddington’s Female Fortune. Rivers Oram Press. 1998. p.85.]
A glimpse of Anne Lister’s Christmas of 1810
Christmas night, 1810, found Anne writing a wistful letter to her new love, Isabella Norcliffe, in which she imagines her lover dancing the night away at the Assembly Rooms in York.
Perhaps my dear girl at this moment whilst my thoughts are all yours, you are gaily winding through the mazes of the dance, or led by some stupid senseless coxcomb gasping for breath among the careless crowd.”
Sat at home, far away from the York revelries, Anne’s melancholy mood deepened as she allowed her imagination to conjure up seasonal ghosts and spirits to haunt the ‘midnight dances’ in which she fancied Isabella was indulging.
“’Tis then the hour when sprites and witches go abroad and thin shiv’ring ghosts from yawning charnels throng and dance with silent sweep the shaggy vaults along.”
She cheered up a little when she remembered that, as it was Christmas night, the Assembly Rooms would be closed, but still, her own Christmas festivities of burning the ‘yewl log’, eating rich food and playing cards with the family ‘from conformity rather than inclination’ were no compensation for the absence of Isabella.
Anne Lister creates an eerie picture of Christmas night when she conjures up “thin shiv’ring ghosts from yawning charnels”. Do you have a spooky Christmas experience to share?