In Search of Chesney Wold
Can Chesney Wold Be Located ?
Haunted House by John Atkinson Grimshaw ( Public Domain courtesy of Wiki Gallery )
Dickens ninth novel 'Bleak House' appeared in installments from March 1852 until 1853. A major theme concerns the legendary Jarndyce v Jarndyce case featured in the Chancery court : A dreary legal dispute regarding a will which drags on year after year, effectively destroying the lives of potential benefactors, Predictably, once the case is settled, it is discovered that all the money held in the estate has been devoured by legal fees. The chapters set in the area surrounding the Chancery are claustrophobic and dark. 'Bleak House' also contains some of Dickens's most harrowing depiction of slum dwelling via the 'Tom All Alone's' .
Yet the early 1850's could also be portrayed as quite a confident and dynamic era .The dramatic rise of the railways, the use of telegrams, large circulations newspapers and the published installments of novels at affordable prices, all seem missing from the Novel. Moreover,each printed installment contained its own advertising supplement DOUGLAS-FAIRHURST. Britain had also avoided the wave of revolutionary activity to be found in many European countries in 1848. There was at least some optimism . As Prince Albert declared in his legendary Mansion House speech of 21st March 1850 - we are living at a period of most wonderful transition, which tends rapidly to accomplish the great end, to which all history points- the realisation of the unity of mankind PRINCE ALBERT SPEECH This was in the run up to the 1851 Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace.
As Robert Douglas-Fairhurst has noted If Bleak House was to be a 'dark Exhibition ', that is partly because from the start it presented itself as the other Exhibition's shadowy twin DOUGLAS-FAIRHURST.
As well as the stagnation of the legal system being a major theme of 'Bleak House', it is hard to think of a major novel where so many children die. There is a prevailing sense of a lost future.
Dickens opens 'Bleak House' with an incredible view of fog taking over London and the surrounding area.
fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city. Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the Kentish heights. Fog creeping into the cabooses of collier-brigs; fog lying out on the yards, and hovering in the rigging of great ships; fog drooping on the gunwales of barges and small boats BLEAK HOUSE 1
In chapter 7 the reader is introduced to Chesney Wold, the home of Sir Leicester Dedlock and Lady Dedlock, in Lincolnshire where The rain is ever falling, drip, drip, drip, by day and night, upon the broad flagged terrace-pavement, The Ghost's Walk. The weather is so very bad, down in Lincolnshire, that the liveliest imagination can scarcely apprehend its ever being fine again. Not that there is any superabundant life of imagination on the spot BLEAK HOUSE 7
The Ghost Walk is haunted. When the English Civil War broke out, the Lady Dedlock of the time stood by her family who were for Parliament, Lord Dedlock was a staunch Royalist. Lady Dedlock used to maim his horses to stop them being used for soldiers loyal to the Crown. One night Lord Dedlock disturbed her in the stable about to start on his favourite horse, and in the commotion that followed Lady Dedlock's hip was broken by said creature getting startled.
Though crippled, Lady Dedlock managed to walk up and down the terrace every day, clinging to the stone balustrade until she collapsed, and as she was dying , maintained that her steps will be heard until the pride of the Dedlock family is brought down BLEAK HOUSE 7. In the novel,the current inhabitants of Chesney Wold are literally 'dead-locked' in to a pre-determined fate. They seem to have as much say in their own destiny as those who dwell in the stinking hell-hole of the 'Tom All Alones', the harrowing slum that Dickens conjures up later in the book.
Paul Kendall in his superb work 'Charles Dickens -Places & Objects of Interests' advises that Rockingham Castle, Northamptonshire, was the inspiration for Chesney Wold KENDALL. Dickens was a house guest there for the first time in 1849. His hosts were the Watson family, who Henry VIII bequeathed the original Norman castle to. The latest Rockingham Castle website makes the most of the connection, maintaining that Dickens stayed with Richard and Lavinia Watson five times, though does not emphasise a direct connection with the fictional Chesney Wold ROCKINGHAM-HISTORY . Furthermore, it seems that Rockingham Castle had fallen into disuse in the 18th century, but as from 1836 was being occupied and even developed, so quite unlike the staid and backwards looking atmosphere of Chesney Wold.
Robert Douglas-Fairhurst has suggested that Knebworth House, Hertfordshire, partly inspired Dickens in creating Chesney Wold DOUGLAS-FAIRHURST .The current owner was Edward Bulwer-Lytton, novelist, magazine editor, poet who served as a Radical Whig MP, then later a Conservative MP VICTORIAN WEB ENTRY . Dickens was a visitor to Knebworth. Bulwer-Lytton was fascinated by occultism and the famous medium, Daniel Dunglas Home, conducted seances at the house BURTON. Bulwer- Lytton wrote one of the greatest Victorian ghost stories' The Haunters and The Haunted'. There is no evidence that Charles Dickens ever met Home, whom he regarded as an 'imposter' LAMONT.
Ultimately Chesney Wold has to be re-created in the mind of the reader. It becomes a venue for several crucial scenes throughout the long novel. And a haunted place that seems to be set apart from the ( arguably misplaced) sense of progress and optimism that the Victoria era hoped to embody.
UPDATE
Following a discussion amongst members of the 'Charles Dickens' Facebook group, I was reminded that 'Bleak House' chapter 55 does in fact mention railways. I humbly stand corrected.
Railroads shall soon traverse all this country, and with a rattle and a glare the engine and train shall shoot like a meteor over the wide night-landscape, turning the moon paler; but as yet, such things are non-existent in these parts, though not wholly unexpected. BLEAK HOUSE 55
This is quite late in the novel,where Mrs Rouncewell is trying to get to London as quickly as possible from Lincolnshire. With Lincoln being connected to the Great Northern Railway in 1848, so still suggests that 'Bleak House' was rather looking back in time rather than connecting with the optimism of the Great Exhibition era.
Sources-
Books
'Heyday of a Wizard-Daniel Home The Medium' ,Jean Burton, George Hessop & Co, 1948.
'The Turning Point-A Year That Changed Dickens and the World' , Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Jonathan Cape, 2021
'Charles Dickens-Place & Objects of Interest ' Paul Kendall, Frontline Books, 2021
'The First Psychic', Peter Lamont, Little and Brown, 2005.
Websites
Prince Albert's Speech at the Mansion House, 1850, webpage from the Royal Collection website.
Original Illustrations from Bleak House, British Library website.
Rockingham Castle official website ...
Rockingham Castle history webpage of the above.
Victorian Web entry Sir Edward G.D. Bulwer -Lyon
The Haunted and the Haunters by Sir Edward Bulwer -Lyon ,audio version of ghost story on Youtube
Other related posts about Bleak House
The Ghost's Walk The short story within chapter 7 of 'Bleak House'.
A Sketch of Mr Guppy Scoundrel or a 'Good Sort?'
Lady Dedlock v Tess Comparing Dickens's and Hardy's treatment of women who had children before marriage.
Other Blog
A Burnt Ship 17th century war & literature
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