Free Daphne by Justine Picardie Page B

Brontë relics and manuscripts lent to the Society by Mr Shorter and Mr Wise.
    Now, you might well ask, how did these gentlemen come across such precious treasures? Mr Wise was an astonishingly fervent and dedicated bibliophile - the owner of one of the most valuable collections of literary manuscripts and book in the country, which he left, after his death in 1937, to the British Museum, where it still resides, in the Library. He had the most uncommon flair for hunting down the rarest of original manuscripts by Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth, Browning and many more - and in 1895, it was at his behest, and his expense, that Mr Shorter (a journalist and the editor of the Illustrated London News, but an avid book collector at heart, like Mr Wise) travelled to Ireland to the home of Arthur Bell Nicholls, one-time curate of Haworth, and formerly Charlotte Brontë's husband, for a few happy months, until her untimely death in 1855.
    Mr Shorter discovered Charlotte's widower at a moment when Mr Nicholls was prepared to talk, not only about his former wife and their life together, but also about the possibility of selling a large number of Brontë manuscripts and letters, which he had preserved for so many years, including their extraordinary childhood tales of Angria and Gondal, those little books written in a microscopic hand, as if for Lilliput. Mr Shorter bought the entire haul for four hundred pounds on behalf of Mr Wise; Mr Shorter retained the copyright of the material for future publication, though the ownership of the manuscripts themselves stayed with Mr Wise. As you can imagine, this treasure trove was already priceless, though we must be thankful that Mr Shorter rescued it, before Mr Nicholls consigned it to the flames of his fireplace, which I believe had been his original intention. That, at any rate, was the story Mr Shorter told me.
    Mr Wise retained some of these precious manuscripts, but not all of them, particularly not those belonging to Branwell, in whom he had no great interest, unfortunately. Some were sold soon afterwards - many were scattered to collectors across America, where Charlotte was already widely admired, unlike her unhappy brother. In the years to come, I purchased a number of Brontë manuscripts on my own behalf from Mr Wise to add to my treasured collection, and others for the late Lord Brotherton, the esteemed Lord Mayor of Leeds and MP for Wakefield, who had employed me in 1923 as librarian to his private collection (which came to be known, under my stewardship, as the Bodleian of the North).
    Sadly, these friends of mine died many years ago: Mr Shorter in 1926, soon after we had worked together on the two volumes of Branwell material, the story and letters that I enclosed with my last letter. Then my great patron, Lord Brotherton, died in 1930, bequeathing his collection to Leeds University, on the understanding that I was to care for it as librarian, and Mr Wise, as I have already mentioned, passed away in 1937. So I have struggled on alone, and my task has been a particularly arduous one, especially when it comes to restoring Branwell's reputation to the wider world. Sometimes, it feels as if I, too, have been adrift in Angria . . .
    As you may know, I am now approaching retirement, and although my researches and writing activities will continue, of course - for I could never fully retire from a lifetime of passionate commitment to uncovering the real truth about Branwell Brontë - the time has come to begin disposing of certain parts of my library, into the best possible hands.
    Should you wish to acquire further items, perhaps you might let me know where your interest lies?
    Symington decided this was a good place to end his letter, for the time being. He was struck, as before, by the power of his phrasing; but even so, he felt suddenly very tired. He thought, briefly, of his five sons - all of them grown men now - and how he had admonished them to keep quiet when they were boys while he was