Maddalena
de Leo writes:On 5 August I went to England on a new Brontë pilgrimage, this time not in Haworth but in London and Wales. First of all, I was determined to see with my own eyes the four letters written by Charlotte to M. Heger in the years 1844-5, the same ones to which sadly no answer followed. 2013 marks the centenary of their donation to the British nation by Heger’s children Paul and Louise so it was really important for me to have the chance this year. I went to the British Library in King’s Cross, London, and having obtained first online and then in person a Reader’s Pass, not without difficulty I might add, I could see at last the so wished-for letters, one by one in a glass frame. I eagerly read the four of them, especially the third, so moving (and stitched), and also the neatly written fourth sad one. Poor Charlotte’s pain was palpable in them and I was highly impressed while deciphering her words in her usually neat calligraphy. Regrettably no photo was permitted in the Manuscript Room while holding these precious ‘selected’ documents.
Afterwards I went to Conway in Wales since I knew
my Charlotte had spent her first night there after her marriage in June 1854. I
looked for and stopped outside The Castle Hotel
for photos and videos, knowing it was the inn where Charlotte and Arthur Bell
Nicholls had taken a rest before leaving for Bangor and Ireland some days later
for their honeymoon. A few moments and I suddenly had the idea to enter the now
elegant and luxurious hotel just
to ask someone to show me Charlotte’s wedding room. I thought it as a
joke but who knew, I might be lucky! And so it was with my utmost surprise that
after some minutes a very kind Welsh person from the reception came to my assistance
and really took me in the room that had seen Charlotte Brontë’s presence more
than a century and a half ago.
But
my emotion reached the maximum level when nice, bald Brian showed me the double
bed, a dark, carved, seventeenth century tester bed, telling me it really was
the bed where Charlotte and her husband had slept that night. I then took a lot
of photos and Brian smiled at my being so taken by the bed. When I could
breathe I asked him if there are many Brontë fans coming there asking to visit
that room but he told me that no, there aren’t any and also the room is the
least booked in their hotel since the ancient fearful bed bears the following
mysterious inscription on it: ‘God protect me through this night’. When I added
that Charlotte’s husband was a curate, Brian burst into a loud laugh that meant,
as he explained afterwards, she was well protected!
To
feel Charlotte’s anguish so vividly and to see her wedding bed were for me two
great incredible moments and this August I felt near her more than ever!
