MEMORABLE PERSONALITY

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 24 January 1914, Page 12

MEMORABLE PERSONALITY

MISS META GASKELL

Lord Houghton once said that the conversation and society to be met with in the house of the Gaskells at Manchester were the one thing which made life in that city tolerable for people of literary tastes. Miss Meta Gaskell, who died last Sunday, to the sorrow of innumerable iriends, would not have assented to the proposition that the tolerableness of Manchester depended on any amenities in a single house; like all good inhabitants of-Manchester she took a pride in the place, and not even with the air of defiance that falls upon some people when they are conscious that they are making a virtue of necessity. She, who knew and loved sunny climates and brilliant scenes, in every, part of Europe, had measured the outward gloom of her surroundings in Manchester, nor was she blind to any of the disadvantages of life among them; yet she deliberately summed up in favor of Manchester as the right and the best place for her to be in. No one probably will ever be able to trace the whole range of the influence and inspiration that flowed from her and her sister, the late Miss Julia Gaskell. For many years they lived together in the house to which their father, the Rev. William Gaskell, and their mother, the famous author of Cranford, had moved in 1850. Mr Gaskell was the minister of the Unitarian chapel in Cross Street, Manchester. The Gaskells' house in Plymouth Grove, when they first went to live there, was set in fields, and the daughters could1 well remember partridges being shot there among the turnips. But for many years now unending bricks and mortar have pressed in from every direction upon the comfortable old-fashioned house, and the smoke and chemical substances that float in the air have blighted all but the hardiest of flowers and shrubs. Miss Margaret Gaskell (the "Meta" mentioned so often m the letters of Charlotte Bronte) and Miss Julia Gaskell commanded the means to live where they pleased and more or less to do as they pleased. They misfit have come to London in order to gratify their passionate love for s»H the arts where that gratification would have been easiest. But they never even entertained the thought of leaving Manchester, where their opportunities of labor and usefulness were fullest. It was a" splendid choice, and the effects lof it are permanent, though the activity of the ' house in Plymouth Grove I has eMed with the death of Miss Meta i Gaskell. • •

« Miss :<Meta; Cr^Kar tiisedr^iekWain that she was ail"oldr.:tlnitai;ikn;'f; not (as; it is put in the|;;MaM(diester Guar-. ian. in a - very in^drestnjg; biographical notice from which we taker inahy"of: our facts), a philosophic deistjbfj ;& modern ' tjypje.V She /wasjone of J^ifmaAersiand a Governor of; the SdhbolfqV Girls, and it b^hefaetb? > the^Manchester Social Chib, thevSicfcpoor and Private jtfursiftg? Insrbitirtioii, and several other -".itisiitiitjojtis'i i She was also an pp©ii-handed: sujijjOrter of ; the' Manchester University^ and gave'ijMe-?: tures';■■ and; ; objects <>ffrkrt; ;to( the Whit-^ arid? public collections.: She; presented;;a reereatkrav ground -ta\th*j^ii^-;ia^PlyiM>utti''; j Groye^ and 'founded a Horn© " ; ; a?::^i;^^rialv^-'^iwC^l^/;G|idc^J> , (Hhei:; people have bieesn^ asV gerierousf; hwever^ withbutV e^rcisi^jvij.j tenth^ ;pftrt of -the ennobling :an^ gracious iii^ fTttende that et|?riiiat?ed icialvvradib-^ctiyity^/from .'.. thei;home^ bf^ the Misses Gaskell; Everyone^whb^had^ the good fortune t<? ;Iye drawja^ihtb that 7 systenvcoTintfed it ah;hbnbr^and aiii unforgettable experjenpe^ rbbm injvthe hbtise Jin;^iyih^trtli-Grbyb was a kind of salon^ yetutterly without the preciosity or^the ihifell^uad pbsturmg,\that have brought word into ridicule; SteyeiukMi fremarked that women who ; are tcsiiiefl '"old Raids''; are often the mo^ th^ ynipst Understanding^ icif ■ thpu* sei. ? HiMJdrbds^ of ybun^ hien^ vwhose" oecnpatibnit ;took them i»mporarily ioVMari^ chfester have had reaigbij to appreciate tihe.full sense of that bbservatidnv When pW vi-esid^ntin; M^chestcir was>ini formed by :ayoungffm^ few days bf his arrival in Mancfiester: ■he had made the acquaihtance! of the Misses Gaskeli; the bid residerit remark^ ed,'-.;' you are; ehipying at; once thb greatest privifege Manche^© r has tp bffer,^ Judge Parry has written bh the B^me subject:-- r "■' ■'.-■•■ '■'■""• \■. -^':,-\ -vC-W': 7■ ; "If.. there are. to: be many mansioha in the realms above, Itru^b it may; hot be impious to hppe that vbne will be situated in some Elysian;:/Plymouth Grove; e?cact in jeVery detail ;to the de^ originalV. It, must have the same semicircular drive. • apprpaxjhihg; its bld^ash^lonedportico and the steps a trifle steep by. which you •"reach-'.the shattered dpbr^ Everything must be in its place ih the beloved drawing-room, for each book and picture and piece of furniture" had its own welcome for you, and though of course, I should like to meet the shade of Charlotte Bronte as well as soithe of those noted men and women who were jisitbrs in my day, yet all I shall, really wish for is the welcome the good ladies- gave me 'twenty-five.' years ago."; ■:. ■-, .• ; " ; -:-' .. ;. .••- ■.;;• /: ,;' _. 'Hie afFection of the twb\sisters for each other and their unfailing cb-opera-fcion + were thin^ delightful to behold, r«Ot that they always agreed;- but their d liferences were, the ■ occasion of a charming, and coriverisational fence managed with : ; ; much ardour and sincerity according to their convictions temperaments. In the presence of outsiders the. one would, give place to the other, lest she should seem to exclude -opinions held as genuinely as her own, by dialectical moves that were constantly recognisable by, those- inti.:mate .with them, and were a, model of s;sterly eourtesv and regard. And what memories they had ! As the Manchester Cxuardian says of Miss Meta Gaskell :— "l?i he*, a« iv the house M'here she spent almost her whole life, there lived on into the twentieth century a trace of what was most gifted and radiant m the middle of* the nineteenth. She had grown up in the morning of her mother's fame; she had learnt drawing rrom Buskin—and to good purpose, for she was an amateur artist of considerable accomplishment; Thackeray's daughters were friends of her girlhood ; she had first read the Stones of Venice m a copy sent her by Charlotte .Bronte; she had climbed in the Alds j with Leslie Stephen and the Winkworths iin the early years of mountaineering, and, with her sister Julia, had made the first crossing: by a woman of the Morning Pass: in Paris she had met the wittiest of French people at the house of Mme. Mohl; at Rome .she had neen. with her mother, the guest of W W. Story when the English rolonv at Rome was what is shown in 'The Newcomes.' "

Everyone who was distinguished in letters, music, painting, or scholarship pravitated to the house in Plymouth Grove. Probably no such gatherinp-s of accomplished people have ever been organised in an industrial town.

Those who enjoyed the friendship of these gifted women may have wondered

at first whether such close personal interest as they expressed in the work and affairs of each of their numerous friends, such warmth of regard, and such intense pleasure as they professed in, say, the reception of a letter of no great moment, could possibly be much more than an external or ceremonial habit of minds that sprang to demonstrative expression more easily than most. Must not this comprehensive friendliness .of necessity be dilute? Experience proved with certainty that it was not. The miracle was true. Absolute sincerity made tHe heart and the mind accord. To receive a letter in the beautiful handwriting of either of the sisters was in itself such a pleasure to the eye as one could associate with few other letters. Her interest in everything and everybody was maintained by Miss Meta Gaskell through years of bodily suffering and failing health If anyone who had been admitted to her friendship had ever questioned whether it was with a mere negligent ease he would soon have had his doubt resolved by a sudden discovery of her capacity to withdraw friendship or, seriously to rebuke anyone who offended against her standards of conduct. She could not compromise with her conscience. Wrong was wrong, and misconduct was misconduct. Her conscience allowed her to listen to no mere latitudmarian appeals for extenuation. But if she was convinced that it were honestly possible to read the facts differently, then she would beam with the delight of being released from the duty of disapproval. Her humanity, ncr magnificent common sense, her wit, her definiteness her brave tenacity, and her gaiety of Bpint were the qualities which were the most easily recognisable and figure most prominently in the memory. Her organisation of the talents :of her guests at one of her many,, dinner parties was nothing short 6T aft organisation of social victory. She labored for v Manchester to the day or her death. She was •» great citizen, a great friend, and a great optimist. Manchester will not soon be able to measure its loss; But let us hope that the example may mean much, not only there, but in other great towns where the secret is known that the hfe of England ha* not it« chief mich less its only, source in London.— The Spectator.