A Short Biography (2)

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Introduction and Site Guide

What Jane Thought

What They Thought

Personality

HEALTH:

1 The Lady Harriet Years

Marriage and Marital Relationships

The story of the rest of Jane’s life now becomes the biography of a couple. She and her husband were never separated for long in forty years of married life.

There were sexual problems at the start of the marriage. In the early months at Edinburgh, Carlyle was at his most difficult and hypochondriacal, immediately casting himself in the role of patient. He wrote in his journal of being ‘strangely preoccupied by thoughts of life as a continual nightmare, of an awakening in hell, of a wife who bore devils.’

Jane seems to have been very tolerant, and indeed, at the very start of their long marriage, metamorphosed from a young, flirtatious girl to a determined, hard-working wife, organising a social life for Carlyle, encouraging visitors to their home, despite their modest means, and making and encouraging useful contacts and friends for him. He did not take kindly to sharing his home and life with another person, and he was inclined to be solitary, although when forced into society he could be excellent company. Without Jane his social circle would have been smaller, and in the years to come, visitors would come as much for her company as his.

Now and for many years ahead Carlyle would have little success with his writing, and did not even know if that was to be his career. During this time she never lost faith in him, and constantly encouraged him, never more so than when the manuscript of his French Revolution was burned. During these years their letters show much mutual affection. They developed their private language of nicknames for each other and for their friends; they shared private jokes; they taught each other languages. And Jane was an indefatigable housewife.

No-one can know about their physical relations during the marriage. In the Craigenputtoch years their letters suggest that they were affectionate physically, and they certainly shared a bed at this time. The psychodynamics of their marriage are considered in my Carlyle pages.

Her husband once called marriage a mixture of ‘honey and wormwood’.

Craigenputtoch

Within two years they moved to the remote farm of Craigenputtoch, owned by the Welsh family, in an isolated area of hills and moorland, some twenty miles from Dumfries. Much has been made of Jane’s problems there – of how she had to learn to bake bread, and do menial tasks about the farm. In truth the farm was in the hands of Carlyle’s young brother, and there were servants. But it was not Haddington or Edinburgh, and the solitude was palpable – in the winter, months could go by without a visitor. In later years Carlyle looked back on it as a lost paradise, and often talked of returning there; Jane never wanted to go there, and never wished to return.

New evidence of that has been discovered recently (Fielding, 1999): a memoir by Ellen Twisleton. She was American and she and her husband became friendly with the Carlyles during their years in London

The memoir probably dates from 1856 or 1857 and has twenty-eight manuscript pages. It reads as the record of a conversation, and almost as if dictated to Mrs Twisleton, who wrote it and brought it back to Jane for checking. At the least Jane wanted it recorded, or had no objections to this. Although written at a time when Jane was unhappy. It confirms much that was previously suspected.

She was very lonely at Craigenputtoch. Carlyle spent much of the day writing, as he was to do for most of their married life. His brother was poor company and drank too much. There were many problems with servants. At the time she made the best of her lot, but the six years there left their mark on her, physically and mentally. Froude, Carlyle’s friend and first biographer, made this assertion, only to be contradicted for years. This latest discovery vindicates him.

Life in London

Her own friends

Her pleasure in moving to London is evident in the social life she soon developed there.
In the early years in London the Carlyles soon built up a network of friends and admirers, despite lacking resources to entertain in any lavish way. Their wit and conversation were sufficient to draw people to Cheyne Row. At first they were literary contacts but the aristocracy and others followed. When Carlyle was writing and did not wish to be disturbed by visitors, Jane would do the honours, and the callers often found that they were even more delighted by her company. In this way she gradually acquired her own circle of friends who returned to visit her rather than her husband. Among them were political refugees such as Joseph Mazzini (1805-1872), the Italian revolutionary, with whom she had a close relationship, and Godefroi Cavaignac, a French Republican. The Sterling family were close to both the Carlyles. She had a close, if turbulent friendship with the novelist Geraldine Jewsbury, and visited and corresponded regularly with her Liverpool cousins.

Domestic Activities

Much of her time in the London years was taken up with domestic activities. In the early years there, as at Craigenputtoch, their shortage of money made her a shrewd practitioner of domestic economy. Even in later years, when money was no problem, she and Carlyle were so set in their frugal ways that they were unable to modify them. She did not delegate duties entirely to her servants, and often engaged untrained girls, many Scottish, and taught them herself. Her difficulties with incompetent, drunken and feckless staff proved both a trial and a rich vein of comedy for her over the years. Of a tidy disposition, like her husband, she periodically had violent sessions of spring-cleaning , redecoration, and even re-modelling of their Cheyne Row house. When such activities were in view Carlyle usually departed from the scene, or was dispatched by her, until his peace would no longer be disturbed.

Both were hypersensitive to noise, and had separate bedrooms, but the problem worsened with the years, . She went to endless trouble on his behalf, using all her charm and tact to silence the neighbours pianos, poultry and other livestock.

Her patience in the face of his peremptory and often unreasonable demands was exemplary. He was extraordinarily fussy about his diet, and she had to procure fresh milk and eggs at all times. His family in Scotland constantly provided oatmeal, butter and other commodities to please his palate. He had at all times to be protected from the servants, and from unwelcome visitors. Much of her day, throughout her married life, was devoted to pleasing her husband. It was only after many years, and the provocation of his attachment to Lady Harriet Ashburton, that she showed some signs of rebellion. Even in these years, when money was plentiful, he was stingy with her housekeeping allowance, and she had to resort to amusing mock petitions to extract additional funds from him.

Mother’s Death

Her mother died in February, 1842. She had been unwell for sometime, but deteriorated suddenly. On hearing the news of her illness, Jane set off for Scotland, but on reaching her relations in Liverpool learned that she was already dead. Jane collapsed, Carlyle came, and she said that she would never return to Templand, her mother’s home, and that he must dispose of it and all her mother’s effects. In fact she was both remorseful and grief stricken, as often happens when the relationship in life has been less than perfect, and took many months to recover. Her cousin Jeannie returned to Chelsea with her, and gradually her friends cajoled her into society again. She avoided the Thornhill neighbourhood for the rest of her days, and refused to look out of the train if she thought that she would pass near it.

In the July following her mother’s death, Carlyle gave her a present for the first time, on her 41^st birthday. She had always had one from her mother, and he gave her a regular birthday gift for the rest of her life.

She had her troubles with her mother-in-law too. Carlyle was excessively attached to her. For example, in 1842 Carlyle commissioned a portrait of his mother, and when it arrived Carlyle planned to place it over the mantelpiece in their living room. Jane objected: ‘I could never feel alone with that picture over me. I almost screamed at the notion.’

Travels

As the years past, both of them had more holidays, most of them independently. They often stayed with the Ashburtons, together or separately. Carlyle visited his mother at Scotbrig annually, and made two trips to Germany while writing Frederick. Jane visited relatives and friends, and made a nostalgic return to Haddington. Unhappy together in these later years, they missed each other as soon as they parted, even for the shortest time, as their copious letters attest.

Health – the later years

The years between 1843, when she first met Lady Baring, and 1857, when Lady Ashburton, as she had become, died, were a trying time for Mrs Carlyle. Her husband became enamoured of this great aristocratic hostess, and was oblivious to the effect this was having on his wife The history of her ill-health is one of gradual deterioration over many years; of frequent headaches and winter colds, increasingly limiting her activities especially in the winter months. During the ‘Ashburton years’ she was profoundly unhappy, and her physical health declined. There have been various speculations as to the cause: the menopause, thyroid disease, the beginnings of cardiovascular disease, iron deficiency anaemia, and depressive illness, provoked by her husband’s behaviour. Her menopause must have occurred during these years, and her diet would predispose her to anaemia, but there is no good evidence for the others. She was very unhappy at times, but with cause, and showed no real evidence of clinical depression, as she was to do later in her life. The decline in her physical health is obvious in photographs and the comments of friends.

More tangible illness occurred in her last years from 1863 until her death in 1866. She had neuritis in the left arm in early 1863, followed by a severe fall in October of the same year. She appeared to be recovering within a month, but then became depressed until October of the following year, when her mood improved dramatically.

In 1865 neuritis returned, this time in the right arm, and lasted some five months, but this time unaccompanied by depression.

For the last eighteen months of her life she was weak but cheerful. Latterly she complained of severe back pains provoked by emotional upset, and probably caused by angina, as her death was sudden. She was found dead in her carriage in Hyde Park after such an upset – her dog had injured his paw. She was buried beside her father in Haddington.

‘In her bright existence she had more sorrows than are common; but also a soft invincibility, a clearness of discernment, and a noble loyalty of heart, which are rare.. For forty years she was the true and ever-loving helpmate of her husband, and by act and word unweariedly forwarded him, as none else could, in all that he did and attempted. She died at London, 21^st April, 1866, suddenly snatched away from him, and the light of his life, as if gone out.’ Thomas Carlyle, inscription on her tombstone at St Mary’s, Haddington.