A Celebration of Women Writers

Jane Welsh Carlyle - Reference

[Chronology]   [Locations]   [Further Reading]   [Selected Topics]


Carlyle Chronology

Abbreviations used:

1795TC born (4 Dec) in Ecclefechan (Dumfries), one of seven children of James Carlyle and Margaret Aitken
1801Jane Baillie Welsh, only child of John Welsh and Grace Welsh, born in Haddington (E. Lothian)
1808Caroline Sheridan (Norton) born
1809TC goes to Edinburgh Univ. (aged 14, he WALKED the 100 miles there, over 5 days)
1812GEJ born (22 Aug) in Measham, Derbyshire
1821TC and Jane Welsh meet
1826TC marries Jane Baillie Welsh (17 Oct)
- they live at "Comely Bank" Edinburgh
1827TC publishes "German Romance"
1828TC & JWC move to Craigenputtock (Dumfriesshire)
1829TC writes "Sartor Resartus"
1831Carlyle visits London; fails to publish "Sartor Resartus"
- Jane joins him in Sep (Ampton St)
1832James Carlyle (TC's father) dies
- TC & JWC return to Craigenputtock
- Winter 1832/3, back in Edinburgh
1834TC & JWC move to London, Cheyne Row, Chelsea "A side street off the Thames"
- TC begins work on "The French Revolution"
- John Stuart Mill accidentally burns first MS copy and TC has to start over
1837TC finishes "The French Revolution"
- Lectures to London Society (1837-40)
1839TC publishes "Chartism"
1841GEJ writes to TC after reading "Heroes". She is invited to Cheyne Row.
1842Mrs Welsh dies while JWC is at Liverpool en route to see her.
1843TC publishes "Past and Present" and starts on "Cromwell"
1852TC starts on "Frederick" (14 years to complete), and visits Germany
1854GEJ moves to Chelsea (Oakley Street)
1865TC finishes "Frederick"
1866TC elected Rector of Edinburgh Univ.; Inaugural Address (2 Apr); JWC dies 21 Apr. TC begins a 3-year task collecting JWC's correspondence and preparing them for possible publication.
1877Caroline Norton dies
1880GEJ dies in London hospital
1881TC dies
1883Froude publishes "Letters and Memorials"

Locations referred to in "Letters and Memorials"

map of locations in the United Kingdom

SScotland
MManchester/Liverpool
WSth Wales
DDevon
HHampshire/Isle of Wight
KKent/Sussex
LLondon
TTroston (Suffolk)
IIreland

Scotland

Dingwall ("Kinloch Luichart", Cromarty Firth, Inverness), Lord Ashburton's residence in Scotland.

East Fife, across the Firth of Forth from Edinburgh

Edinburgh

East Lothian

Dumfriesshire

[map]

Manchester/Liverpool/Nth Wales

[map]

Sth Wales

[map]

Devon

[map]

Hampshire/Dorset

[map]

Kent/Sussex

[map]

London

[map]

Suffolk

Trotson, Bury St. Edmunds ("St Edmundsbury" in the text)

[map]

Ireland

[map]


Further Reading and Links

While many of the books in this list are out of print now, they are readily available in Public Libraries:


A Selection of References in the Letters

In the absence of an index, the following is a selection of links to some topics and incidents covered in the Letters.

L1, p5 "The English women turn up the whites of their eyes, ..."
L5, p18 "In spite of the honestest efforts to annihilate my I-ity .."
L5, p19 ".. I am loth to believe that I have married a Pagan .."
L20, p100 "You are to know, dear, fifty pounds is exactly $224.22 .." - Emerson forwards a bill of exchange for TC's "French Revolution" sales in America.
L26, p123 "At present, I have got a rather heavy burden on my shoulders .." - Helen Mitchell (servant) takes to drink
L31, p140 News from Templand of her mother's death.
L33, p157 Night noises in Suffolk country
L35 "I went to church yesterday afternoon .."
L42 Jane suggests a book for her Uncle to read
L44 "Thank you passionately for giving me Vittoria Accoramboni .."
L45 Writing in her artificial "gypsy-tent" in the garden (Jul 1843)
L50, p220 Fr Matthew (temperance preacher)
L51 Bugs on the Isle of Wight
L52, p232 "After some hours of the deadest sleep I ever slept on earth .."
L54, p240 A "colony of bugs" in Helen's bed
L56, p254 Jane haggles over the price of a second-hand sofa
L60, p264 "upheaval" at Cheyne Row; TC restless and bilious as he starts on "Cromwell"
L61, p273 " .. a precious specimen of the regular Yankee .."
L65, p286 Teenager discontent (her cousins in Liverpool)
L66 TC & Jane have different tastes in reading
L69 More discontent caused by "Cromwell"
Note Book Jane's "Note Book" (Apr 1845)
Note Book Jane rescues a stray child
Note Book Three "hot live Irishmen" visit Cheyne Row
Extract Jane refuses to go to Church
Extract Geraldine Jewsbury at Seaforth smoking "cigaritos"
L72, p326 Jane defends TC's approval of Cromwell's "atrocities" in Ireland
L75 Letter to Charles Gavan Duffy Sep 1845
L80 Jane "driven distracted" by a dog
L81, p356 Jane's household account depleted
L83 Jane and "the impulses of her heart"
L84 Jane's opinion of Lady Harriet Baring
L87 Jane thinks TC has forgotten her birthday
Much Ado .. Templand - visiting her father's grave (Much Ado About Nothing)
Much Ado .. "The surest way to get a thing in this life is to be prepared for doing without it, to the exclusion even of hope."
L122 From "Nero" to TC
L128, p116 "Geraldine left me last night, very unwillingly..."
L143 Jane visits the Macreadies at Sherborne
L150, p204 A robbery at Cheyne Row
L151, p209 Jane sleeps with two loaded pistols
L161, p243 "Oh, my dear! never does one feel oneself so utterly helpless as in trying to speak comfort for great bereavement."
L162, p246 "I am hoping for a considerable acquisition before long .."
Journal, p263 "I have been fretting inwardly all this day at the prospect of having to go and appeal before the Tax Commissioners .."
Journal, p267 "When one has been threatened with a great injustice, one accepts a smaller as a favour."
L179, p322 "Oh, heaven! or rather, oh, the other place! 'I am degenerating from a woman into a dog .."
L186, p341 "I haven't got through the American novel yet .."
L207 "Will you think me mad if I tell you that when I read your words, 'I am going to be married,' I all but screamed? .."
L213, p15 "Blessed be the inventor of photography! It has given more positive pleasure to poor suffering humanity than anything else that has "cast up" in my time -- this art by which even the "poor" can possess themselves of tolerable likenesses of their absent dear ones."
L216 Death of Nero
L232 "Have you seen that Tale of Horror .."
L237, p83 ".. scrape, scraping .." of GEJ's pen in Ramsgate
L241 "Oh, you agonising little girl! .." - Invitation to Miss Barnes wedding; TC's refusal to go
L274, p174 Jane's accident Oct 1863

See: Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle

About This Edition

This book has been put on-line as Part of the BUILD-A-BOOK Initiative at A Celebration of Women Writers through the work of John Phelan.