Episode 14 - A Babbie Whose Wits Had Gone "A-Woolgathering" In A Windy Day

Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant
Episode 14 - “A Babbie Whose Wits Had Gone "A-Woolgathering" In A Windy Day”
Published on December 22, 2020

Note: This transcript was generated by Otter.ai with light human correction

Kathryn Gehred 

Hello, and welcome to your most obedient and humble servant. This is a Women's History podcast where we feature eighteenth and early nineteenth century women's letters that don't get as much attention as we think they should. I'm your host, Katherine Gehred.

This is gonna be the first time in a little while that it's just been me without a guest. What happened was, I found a letter that I really liked, and I don't know anybody who would know more about it than me, which isn't to say that I know anything about it. I stumbled across the online collection of the Carlyle letters online. It's the letters of Jane and Jane Welsh Carlyle, and her husband, Thomas Carlyle. It's a little bit pushing the time, constrictions that I've given to this podcast, the letter that I'm reading today's from 1844, which barely counts is early 19th century, but I liked the letter so much, and it was very fitting with the holiday season, that I decided that I was just going to go ahead and do it. So I decided that I was just give you a little bit of background. Keep in mind, I'm not an expert, I'm not gonna be able to go into quite the level of detail that I'm sometimes able to go into if it's somebody like Martha Jefferson Randolph or Martha Washington, but the letter was just so good that I figured it was worth it. Okay, so, this week, I am featuring a letter from Jane Welsh Carlisle, to her cousin, Jamie Welsh. Jane Welsh Carlisle is actually rather well known for her letters specifically. She's a Scottish woman, fairly well to do her father was a doctor. She was very well educated, and she actually ended up marrying her tutor. This was the more well known and famous Scottish historian named Thomas Carlyle. So, he was a historian intellectual they met, they had sort of an interesting courtship where he's older than her, they wrote some really funny, interesting letters back and forth, and they ended up getting married in 1826. So, by sort of her own intelligence and intellect, and this marriage, she winds up in this sort of circle of Victorian intellectuals and writers. She was friends with some Victorian era feminists. Also authors, she knew Tennyson, she knew Elliot, she knew Charles Dickens, I guess Dickens would ask Jane, her opinion on some of his writings. But she wasn't a published author herself. She was just sort of, in the thick of this sort of intellectual circle. After she died in 1866, her husband collected a lot of her letters, and had them published. Looking into Thomas Carlyle, I disagree with him on a lot of his philosophies when it comes to history. He seems to be very much like one of his lecture series is called on "Heroes, Hero worship and the Heroic in History." Which is the exact opposite of the way I like to do history, which is sort of moving away from looking at heroes, but it's a pretty on point to be discussing why people wrote about heroes in the 1840s. But, while me and Thomas have our intellectual differences, I do respect the fact that he just wanted everybody to read his wife's letters. He knew she was smart, he knew other people would get something out of them, and he actually sent a big collection of her letters off to get published. Now, they didn't end up getting published until the 1880s after Carlyle's death, and when they did come out, they were somewhat controversial, which I'm going to quote, the Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. So I didn't say this. The concise Oxford Companion to English literature said this, they said "that the collection of letters were controversial, by breaking the conventions of Victorian biography, to suggest marital discord and sexual inadequacy on Carlyle's part." So again, these came out after he died. Maybe somebody found these letters that were about his sexual inadequacy, and we're like, 'oh, yeah, those are gone in the book.' Maybe Thomas Carlyle didn't want those going in the book, but if he did, I just want to say kudos to you, Thomas Carlyle, a lot of people at this time period are burning those letters with their spouses, probably because they contain information such as this that they don't necessarily want going into the historical record. But Thomas Carlyle for all of his faults, maybe maybe was like, 'You know what, it's part of the historical record. Let's get that out there.'

People who have done a lot of research into Jane Walsh's letters, they tell you a lot about domesticity. She writes a lot about housework. She writes about day to day things exactly the type of stuff that I love, she writes about her relationship with her servants quite a bit, which not everybody does. She writes about her servants as like, characters people she knows, their lives. And she also writes about things like this marital discord, Thomas Carlyle apparently had a long, emotional affair with another woman for a great deal of their marriage. They separated they would sort of ice each other out a lot, and this appears in those letters sometimes. So, really fascinating couple, you can find out a lot about them in their letters, and almost all of those letters are available online at the Carlyle Letters Online. Very nice website. Very fun to look through. So, go ahead and give that a shot if you're interested.

So now to get into the context, not just of who the characters are, but of this, the exact moment in time that this letter was written. It was written on 2 January 1844. So, this has to do with a new year she's writing about the New Year quite a bit, and at this point, most of her husband's biggest, most popular works had already been published. And he was very well known. This was sort of the peak of their career and social life at this time. She's writing to her cousin, Jeannie Welsh, who's 26 years old. Jane Walsh Carlyle is 43 at this is 43 years old at this point, and her cousin was 26, not yet married, and who Jane had nicknamed Babbie, which I think is cute. Jeannie was living with her father in Liverpool at this point. Another person that is important to discuss before we go into this letter, who's mentioned by name is a friend of the Carlyle's the Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini. He's the founder of the "Young Italy movement," which was a group that fought for a united Republican and Democratic Italy. So, this was before Italy was just one united country. So, he was a nationalist in that way. He wanted there to be one, United Italy, and the cartels supported him in this. Of course, Mazzini was a revolutionary. He had been exiled from Italy and was living in London at this point, and actually in 1844, so probably around the time this letter is taking place, Mazzini was working with the Bandiera brothers, who were trying to start a full fledged revolt in Calabria the Bandiera brothers ended up being put to death for that, so he is a revolutionary figure. And he just turns up sort of casually in his letter, she mentioned his mustache. So, I just wanted to put that, just that that was a little bit of necessary context as well. The reason I picked this letter was not because it goes into any larger historical subjects. It was just because of the way she writes about sort of the everyday. So keeping that in mind, I'm going to go ahead and read the letter.

"Jane Welsh Carlyle to Jeannie Welsh

Tuesday, 2 January 1844.

I am glad to see dearest Babbie that there is a revival in your moral department since you got back into the atmosphere of home—that you write to me oftener and longer—and more like a Babbie whose wits had not all gone “a-woolgathering”—in a windy day! But you must continue in this praiseworthy course for a while to come, before I can recover that implicit belief in your virtue (for virtue is writing to me, is it not?) which made you so long the comfort of my life—my Consuelo!

This is washing-day: and further, the ground is covered with snow and further I have a headach. Better to have waited till tomorrow so far as you are concerned— But Carlyle told me last night “to be sure when I wrote to Liverpool tomorrow (he supposes I write every day it would seem) to send a message for Walter Macgregor—it went much against his conscience to plague Walter, in the midst of the complexities which seemed to be thickening and darkening around him, with speech about tobacco—but really it was essential to the comfort of his (Carlyle’s) existence that Walter should be made aware that his good tobacco was entirely done and none to be got here for money which was fit for a human being to smoke—ergo, if Walter would send him some of the right sort as soon as convenient (anglice: possible) it would be esteemed the highest favour—he was not to wait for opportunities but send it by railway at once”—“dam the expence” of carriage where anything so vital as tobacco is concerned. Now will you give this message to Walter not in the phraseology in which I have given it but as courteously and modestly as your sweet lips will know how We had a most quiet newyears day—I saw nobody but Mazzini who came thro the snow to be my first foot—and my first words of thanks were—“What on earth could tempt you to come out in a day like this.”— He looked most pitiable with big drops of sleet hanging from the ends of his mustache Helen went to a party in the evening! At Chalmers’s— There were twenty to dine with the family—(in a room the same size as ours!) and nine friends of the servants in the kitchen!—ecco la combinazione [what a combination]! I asked Helen what they did—Oh says she “it was just a sort of guddle [muddle] of a thing—all eating and drinking and no fun at all”—a pretty good discription of most dinners—“three of the servants visitors were kept all the time “washing and polishing glasses for upstairs”! I ought in gratitude to say however that even I who am superstitious about the beginnings of newyears—who watch all their outs and ins as the Roman Augurs did the flight of birds had reason to be satisfied with yesterday—it brought me nobody but Mazzini—it brought me a good long letter from my Babbie with another as long from Miss Donaldson bearing a great postmark Haddington—so plain and large that one would have said it had been stamped in that particular way for my express behoof—and in the morning when I spring out of bed half asleep—the room all dark—on hearing Carlyle go down I was received into the arms of—Helen!—saluted with two hearty smacks on my two cheeks!—while an immense gingerbread cake—which she had had baked more gingery than usual to suit my taste was thrust into the breast of my night shift—and my whole room was filled with a most savoury smell of ginger bread—from this delicate attention you will perceive she is very good just now—indeed since the fright she got last spring she has done her uttermost to keep a guard on her temper—and has on the whole behaved very well— Then on my toilet I found a hair-brush and redd (as they call it in Annandale anglice Comb—) placed there the night before by Carlyle—but such a brush and comb as never were in my possession before—they are best described in Helen’s words who declared them to be “most noble” the comb is tortoise shell—the brush—Oh Heavens!—it is the size and shape of an ordinary pancake!—might have been made on purpose for Goliath of Gath!—the bristles are at least an inch and half deep—and you would say at first sight that it was some instrument of torture! I do wish it had been about one fourth of the size but Carlyle has just one rule in buying anything to buy what is the best that is the dearest and his meaning was so kind that I must show my sense of it in learning to wield this tremendous implement—

I am glad of the hope you hold out of our seeing Walter—tell him to be sure and come straight here—and to warn me that I may have his bed well warmed. Love to them all—my head is very bad—and I must stop.

J C"

Kathryn Gehred:

Isn't that cute? I just really liked that letter. So, this is a New Year's Eve letter that she's writing to her cousin Babbie, who has apparently not been writing as much as Jane would like her to write. So, she has that cute little bit "virtue is writing to me, is it not?" I want to point out she says something about first foot. Nobody but Mazzini, who came through the snow to be my first foot. So what that means is there is a Scottish superstition, apparently, that the first person who accosts you on New Year's morning, however much you like that person determines your luck for the rest of the year. So she's saying she's superstitious, but she likes Mazzini so much that this is good, although she does make fun of him for walking there all the way in the snow. The whole bit about her husband asking for tobacco and her being very teasing about it, was cute. I like that she she writes all of these absurd things about tobacco, and then she says but don't say it like I said it to him please. And, the section about Helen going to a party. Okay. So I was, I am sure that somewhere in the volumes, there is a better biography of who Helen is, but from what I was able to gather from the footnotes that I read is that Helen is actually one of Jane's servants. So, actually earlier in the year when she says that did about Helen being good and minding her temper. So there had been a fight earlier and Helen had actually almost been let go by Jane, but apparently she's doing much better now. And they were getting along better. But Helen told her about going to a party. I like this because it's sort of the upstairs literally they say the visitors upstairs and the people downstairs, how they're navigating this holiday party. So there's two parties going on at once. There's the dinner party going on upstairs. And then the servants party with nine friends of the servants going on downstairs in the kitchen at the same time. So, what a combination, she says in Italian, and the servants ended up having, even though they're there as guests at the party themselves, ended up helping out a washing and polishing glasses for the party that's going on upstairs. I just think that's a little, that Helen would go to a party like that, and then tell her boss about it, and sort of complain that it was all sort of a guttural and she ended up having to sort of do work while she's at this party. I think that's really interesting insight. Also, I could totally, I could totally imagine if I was like a servant, and I was going to somebody's house that was having a party like this, I would totally help wash and clean those glasses as much as I wouldn't want to, but you know, you could see your your friends having to work and being all nervous and having to get stuff done, and to just step in and help out as well. I can totally see that happening even though that's totally unfair and they're not getting paid for it, and what a ridiculous system it is. That There's a certain class of people that just gets too dirty glasses and a certain class people that just gets to clean the glasses like just how wild is that. Alright, and then we get to the section about First up Helen saluting with two hearty snacks and two cheeks. I don't know what that means. I don't know if that's like a tradition that the first time you see somebody at New Year's, you just get to slap them in the face. I have no idea, but that made me laugh. And getting the the wonderful, lovely, warm smelling gingerbread cake. Just a lovely description. Makes me envious makes me want a gingerbread cake just brought to me in my room in the middle of the night, and then then she talks about this comb.

Kathryn Gehred: The comb paragraph is where I decided to do this letter, because it's just such a funny spouse gift, and it just fits so well with this description of Thomas Carlyle as trying to find what's the best, and what's the cheapest. Well, the best and, how did she say it? "The best that is the dearest" describe. It reminds me of my college strategy of going into wine shops and asking for the finest, cheapest bottle of white wine that they had. But, so he was trying to find the best quality and the most dear, and he ends up with this gigantic comb that he buys for her and she understands the sentiment. And it's a very kind thought, but the way she writes about wielding this tremendous implements, and the combs the size of an ordinary pancake made on purpose for the Goliath of Gath. It's just a lovely visual image of this lovely woman sitting in front of her mirror and trying to come over here with like a cartoonishly large brush that her husband bought for. So it's not particularly historically significant. But boy is that relatable in boy is that a funny little interlude? And ,just beautifully well written. I love the way that she described that to her cousin. It's definitely the way I would write or talk about something like this if I was talking to my cousin. Although if my husband's listening to this podcast, you buy great gifts, don't worry, you don't buy me the giant combs. Okay, so that is about all the points I wanted to make. Mostly, this is just going to be a quick sort of holiday episode, I wanted to share this letter that I think is very cute and funny. And if you're interested in learning more about Jane Welsh, Carlyle or her husband, Thomas Carlyle, there is a lot written about them. I'll leave some notes, but definitely check out the Carlyle letters online, you can read all of their correspondence, some really fantastic correspondence, some of their courtship correspondence, which is very good. So, if you have time to check that out, and you're interested, feel free. Thank you very much for listening, and I am as ever, your most obedient and humble servant. Thank you very much.

Kathryn Gehred 

Hi, everybody. It's been a while since I've come in at the end of an episode with a little update, but I just wanted to say thank you so much for listening and for your lovely comments that you've been leaving on iTunes, again, to rate and review on iTunes is a massive help to spread word about a podcast. Thank you so much to everybody who has written any review or talked about the podcast on social media. I've been getting sort of a steady increase of listeners since the first episode, which is all that I ever wanted for this podcast. So, just thank you so much. If you know of anybody who you think might be interested in a History podcast, Women's History podcast, please do spread the word makes me so happy. I've had a few people now ask me questions through the contact section, and it's a blast. I love doing my best. I'm not an expert on every subject, but if you're interested or if you have ideas for letters, please tweet me on Twitter, or contact me on the website, or on Facebook. You can find me as your most immediate and humble servant group on Facebook. There's a lot of ways to reach out and I love hearing from you. So please do share, and thank you so much!