Dickensians! discussion
All Around Dickens Year
>
Sylvia's Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell 3: chapters 30 - 45 (end) (hosted by Claudia)
From Quaker.org:Clearness Committee
Those appointed by a monthly meeting to . . .help persons be clear about their leadings to . . .take a particular action. (2) An applicant for membership. . .should undergo a search for clearness, though the visiting committee might not have that name. And any Friend facing a personal dilemma may ask the Meeting for a clearness committee to help view the situation more objectively.
I was captured by the description of Sylvia - Sylvia's face was shrunk, and white, and thin; her lovely eyes alone retained the youthful, almost childlike, expression.She has aged physically and does not have the beauty she once had as one would expect after all of the tragedy she has gone through. But her eyes seem unchanged and reveal her inner childlike self. I can see this as a sign of hope for her that she still has a glimmer of her old self inside. But then again, could this be a sign of more bad times because she is helpless as a child? I wish I could feel positive about Sylvia and her baby's future. Her Bella is her security blanket and if she was taken away, I think Sylvia would die.
As for Jeremiah's reaction to her story, he is responding in love, I believe. It seems harsh, but until you look at it through his eyes in biblical terms, he would be going against his beliefs to acquiesce to her distraught behavior. Philip may have badly treated her, as Jeremiah agrees, but he's telling her that her treatment, saying what she did, only hurt the situation more. I think he's saying they are both at fault, and if Philip were present to hear what Jeremiah had to tell him, it would probably be a rebuke to him as well.
Lori wrote: "I was captured by the description of Sylvia - Sylvia's face was shrunk, and white, and thin; her lovely eyes alone retained the youthful, almost childlike, expression.She has aged physically and ..."
I agree with you, Lori. We definitely need to consider the whole context and Jeremiah's biblical frame/mindset/education to fully understand his attitude.
Great point, Petra, about the impact of small things. Children have a particularly strong way of tugging at the heart because they are so innocent and helpless. I also agree, Lori that we must view Jeremiah's response through the lens of Biblical belief. His response is kind, even though it can be viewed as harsh. As in all human dealings, there are short-comings on all sides. Marriage was seen as a hierarchy then, with the man always in control and on top. We tend to view it more as a partnership now.
Chapter 37 – BereavementHester's mother, Alice, was unwell, so Hester had to wait until she was able to consult the Fosters.
She did not reveal her suspicions of a marital misunderstanding between Sylvia and Philip, nor did Jeremiah tell Hester that Sylvia had revealed Kinraid’s confrontation with Philip to him. No one knows about Philip's letter to Hester, and Jeremiah hopes that Philip might return one day.
The brothers therefore decide that Sylvia and her daughter will stay in the house behind the shop, and wait there for Philip to return, while Alice Rose and Hester will move in with Sylvia. Hester is, as already hinted at by Jeremiah Foster in Chapter 21, well provided for. John Foster, who once was Alice's suitor, has made over much of his share in his business to Hester, so that she is presently considered as a partner in the shop.
Alice is in poor health and living here is more convenient as she would never be alone or far from her daughter who works in the shop. Alice does not like Sylvia at first, but like everyone else, she loves little Bella. She also gets to know Sylvia better and even like her as she teaches her to read more fluently, hoping to convert her as they read the Bible together. She incidentally drops some allusions to Hester's feelings for Philip.
At the same time, Hester's feelings for Sylvia are clouded by Hester's silent distress and outrage at Philip's disappearance and letter. Sylvia has failed to be a good wife, and Hester resents her for this, as it awakens her unrequited love for Philip and her deep frustration.
Kester visits regularly when he works nearby and stays with his sister.
Time has passed, and Sylvia often takes Hester and her daughter for long walks, as Hester is advised by her doctor to walk more often. Despite Sylvia's good will and kindness, Hester remains distant and refuses to engage in personal conversation.
One evening in May, after a long walk, Hester seemed particularly exhausted. She stands "still in a kind of tired abstraction". Finally, Sylvia dares to ask her. Hester has had a terrible headache all day,but since she came out, “it had felt just as if there were great guns booming”.
CommentsThis chapter is part of the narrative tunnel mentioned earlier. It stretches over approximately one year, from April-May 1798 to December 1798 and to May 1799. It is more a review of developments. Such chapters offer an in-depth portrait of the protagonists. We see clearly here, how much none of them is perfect, nor totally bad either.
We also see how Sylvia and Hester gradually develop an uneasy relationship. Alice involuntarily - or not? - provides information to Sylvia on her daughter's unrequited love for Philip, which casts an invisible veil between the two young women.
Sylvia's situation with little Bella has been materially settled. The Fosters arranged that Alice and Hester come to live in the house behind the shop with Sylvia, so that the three women and the baby form an atypical household, and help eachother.
It is a sad chapter. Sylvia is trying to cope, for her daughter's sake. She has moments of utter despair, when she thinks of her deceased parents, her gone lovers. In the background, life is moving on around her, with its ups and downs: the Corneys have left Moss Brow, Bessy Corney is now married, William Coulson and his buxom wife Jemima have no children yet, Kester is working intermittently and visits regularly.
In this context, a small detail, one more gown, proves more significant than it first appeared. Before Christmas 1798, some yards of poplin ordered especially for Sylvia by Philip, just before he left so mysteriously, have arrived from Ireland. Coulson is happy for Sylvia, but the latter retreats to her home, suddenly depressed. She offers the poplin to Hester, who refused rather dryly and suggested that she keeps it for Bella who will perhaps value it as a thing "that her father has given especial thought to".
Little Bella helps soften Alice's heart towards Sylvia and partly forget her former grudges and prejudices. Ironically, Sylvia is now learning to read from the Bible, the only book Alice allows herself to read. We remember that Sylvia reluctantly wrote "Abednego" when Philip was hometeaching her and she even mocked him for that. Bella is providing her mother a strong purpose in life and also in wanting to become more literate. (view spoiler). Moreover, little Bella's presence and innate grace help smooth things around Sylvia, as everyone loves the baby.
Nevertheless Hester finds it difficult to overcome her frustration after Philip's disappearance. She mentally blames Sylvia for his absence, but tries to see the good in her ("that of God"). The two young women are barely communicating. Hester is despaired when she thinks of Philip, "a penniless wanderer, wifeless and childless, in some strange country, whose very aspect was friendless, while the cause of all lived on in the comfortable home where he had placed her, wanting for nothing—an object of interest and regard to many friends—with a lovely little child to give her joy for the present, and hope for the future; while he, the poor outcast, might even lie dead by the wayside."
Sylvia and Hester take walks outside Monkshaven together but do not share anything personal, despite Sylvia's efforts and Hester's fight against herself. They both seem locked up in their respective grief. Philip's shadow is hovering between them, just as Kinraid haunted Sylvia's and Philip's dreams.
The closing lines are portentously enigmatic: it is an evening of May 1799. Although nature is longing for spring, the air is still cool and uncertain, and the leaves have still a fresh colour. Hester has strong headaches, "as if there were great guns booming".
Privacy and confidentialityHester has never (until now) revealed to Sylvia nor anyone else excepted the Fosters that she received that letter from Philip. It looks like she is withholding information from Mrs Hepburn - just as Philip withheld info from Sylvia, observed Petra.
Nor did the Fosters disclose the Hepburns' marital issues to anyone else. No one, except Kester and the Fosters, knows anything about Charley Kinraid's and Sylvia's former engagement and Philip's undelivered message to Sylvia.
Hester does not know either that Sylvia knows about her unrequited love for Philip Hepburn.
I will publish my posts on Chapter 38 on Saturday 31 May and include a day off on Sunday so that we will read Chapter 39 on Monday 2 June!
The love that everyone has for little Bella is helping to smooth the way for Sylvia. Sylvia is depressed from so much loss, but Bella gives her a reason to get up in the morning, and live her life the best she can. The Fosters set up a situation where Sylvia, Hester, and Alice can mutually help each other so they all benefit. The brothers have caring hearts in making sure that the women and Bella have all have a home.
The end of the chapter, when Hester tells Sylvia about her terrible headaches, is ominous. Hester is not a complainer so it could be a real health concern.
I am fascinated by the rearrangement and shuffling of the living arrangements of so many characters. Such new arrangements have the potential to either explode into major conflicts or resolve themselves into deeper understandings among the characters. The pairing of Sylvia and Hester is particularity fascinating. Sylvia is learning to read and Bella seems to be the agent who bonds the various factions together.
The ominous sounds of cannons that Connie and Claudia point out is particularly important. Both Charley and Philip are presently in the armed forces. Both Sylvia and Hester have direct emotional connections, and in Hester’s case an intuitive sense, that the people they love may be in danger and conflict.
Peter wrote: "I am fascinated by the rearrangement and shuffling of the living arrangements of so many characters. Such new arrangements have the potential to either explode into major conflicts or resolve thems..."Great comment on the rearrangement (for better or worse) Peter! This shows how much the protagonists are in a changing world, and developing into different situations!
Daniel Robson was a whaler turned horse dealer turned farmer, always smuggler and finally rioter! Kinraid a whaler turned Navy officer, Philip Hepburn a errand boy turned shopman and business associate, suddenly turning Royal marine!
The places where they all live are now not the same as at the beginning, and indeed the members of Sylvia's household are not the same either.
Sylvia's life goes beyond change to upheaval. She has nothing, beyond Kester, that ties her to her life before her marriage to Phillip. She is surrounded by people, but she is always alone. I could not help thinking how we judge so much about others without all the information. Hester only has half the story, and her love for Phillip blinds her as well. We should always be cautious about judging another's marriage, there is so much in the intimate moments that we cannot see.
The reference to the "great guns booming" seems to foreshadow something martial for the men, as the war with France is on-going and they are both at risk. The fact that it is Hester who feels the "guns" makes me tend to believe it is more in reference to Phillip than to Charley.
Sara wrote: "Sylvia's life goes beyond change to upheaval. She has nothing, beyond Kester, that ties her to her life before her marriage to Phillip. She is surrounded by people, but she is always alone. I cou..."
We definitely know only half of the story, and that is Hester's case. Tie another knot in your handkerchief for the future, Sara!
Chapter 38 – RecognitionGreat guns are booming indeed on 7th May 1799 at the Siege of Acre.
We are given a colourful description of the walled old city on the Mediterranean, once the scene of previous sieges during the Crusades.
The city has been under siege since 23 March. French divisions commanded by General Napoléon Bonaparte have been attacking Ottoman troops under Hamad Pasha, supported by the British Royal Navy and Marines commanded by Commodore Sir Sidney Smith.
We see Kinraid again, sent into action to keep the enemy at bay. He is hit by a French bullet and his leg is broken. He now lies among the wounded French soldiers, but prefers to go unnoticed, lest some of them give him the final blow. He becomes increasingly feverish and emotional at the thought of dying so far from home and his beloved "newly-made" wife. He thinks back of the Arctic seas and the green English fields.
The setting sun shines on his face and a British Royal Marine discovers him and carries him to a more sheltered place, not so much by his strength but by his will. Enemies shoot at them, Kinraid is hit in the arm, but his rescuer is unharmed. Kinraid is half-conscious, but he recognises the soldier who helped him and says, panting: "I never thought you'd be true to her". This was Philip Hepburn.
As Kinraid slowly recovers, he is bedridden and sends his aide-de-camp everywhere to ask for and summon Philip Hepburn, but Philip is nowhere to be found. Even the doctor enquires in vain and thinks the lieutenant was shocked and delirious.
Meanwhile, Philip, under the name of Stephen Freeman, is resting and suffering very much on board of HMS Theseus after an explosion. Philip was “shockingly burnt and disfigured”, and he is now “so forsaken, so hopeless, so desolate” while Kinraid sent someone looking for him, unbeknownst to him.
The Siege of AcreIt lasted from 20 March to 21 May 1799. It was a high point and a major defeat during Napoleon's Egyptian campaign. Acre, today's Acco, is a port city in the Holy Land, then under Ottoman rule.
The Egyptian campaign was carried out under the rule of the Directory and at the request of the French government. Its purpose was to open new ways of French influence in the Orient, eventually reaching Constantinople and weakening British influence in the region.
There were 13,000 French troops involved in the Siege of Acre, but on 7 May 1799 some 12,000 Ottoman reinforcements arrived. The British aid, coalescing with the Ottomans, was very effective, partly because Commodore Sir Sidney Smith himself a skilled naval commander, had entrusted the engineering to Colonel Antoine de Phélippeaux, who was serving under British flag. Walls were built, trenches and tunnels dug, even dogs were trained as sentries.
Two British ships took part, HMS Tigre (The Tigre was a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, launched in 1793. She was captured by the British during the naval battle off the Isle of Groix in 1795 (south Brittany, see my preliminary posts before chapter 1) and, as HMS Tigre, operated as part of the Royal Navy throughout the Napoleonic Wars) and HMS Theseus .
Some French troops were saved by British soldiers who captured them, otherwise they would have been cut into pieces by Hamad Pasha, also known as Djezzar Pasha "the Butcher". Many soldiers were mortally wounded, others died of bubonic plague or exhaustion.
Antoine de Phélippeaux died, probably of exhaustion and exposure to the scorching sun during the siege of Acre. He was only 31, "fallen as a sacrifice for his service", wrote Sir Sidney.
Phélippeaux was a former comrade of Bonaparte's at the Ecole Militaire (today renamed Ecole Supérieure de Guerre, the neighbouring underground station is still named "École Militaire") in Paris but they were lifelong enemies. Phélippeaux, a nobleman, was a Royalist and emigrated to England and fought under British flag. The exiled Emperor wrote that Phélippeaux was instrumental in the defeat at Acre, a turning point in his Egyptian campaign. “Without him I would have taken the Key to the Orient, I would have marched on Constantinople, I would have rebuilt the throne of Orient”, wrote Napoléon while exiled on St Helena. Le Picard de Phélippeaux family has been, sadly, extinct since the first decades of the 19th century.
The crew of HMS Theseus had a terrible accident in the port of Caesarea. On the 14th May, French shells fell into the Theseus but did not explode. Captain Ralph Miller had the crew collect them and fire back. A pile of shells was being refilled with gunpowder when one was accidentally ignited. They all exploded, causing a fire which made the Theseus unserviceable in Acre. More than 20 men of all ranks, including Captain Ralph Willett Miller, were killed and over 45 severely injured. It was not quite a war action, this is why the cruelty of that accident aboard a prestigious vessel, previously the flagship of Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson's fleet for the 1797 Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, shows the cruelty and absurdity of all wars.
(Sources: various sources, Wikipedia, French videos by French historians and students, own previous research, etc)
Elizabeth Gaskell’s description of a war sceneThe opening paragraphs of chapter 38 remind us strongly of chapter 1.
(It also may partly remind us Dickensians! of other opening lines: Thirty years ago, Marseilles lay burning in the sun, one day. (Little Dorrit))
This chapter seems to be, in its opening paragraphs, a new start in the novel. Is this a rebirth, or a path to redemption? After a narrative tunnel following the eventful chapter 34, the story shifts to the Holy Land.
While chapter 1 was written in past tense, the panoramic description of Acre is written in present tense.
Both cities, Monkshaven and Acre are introduced from a panoramic point of view. The configuration and topography of the two towns are to a certain extent, virtually identical. Both are port cities, with a river (the Esk in Whitby/Monkshaven) and a brook (the Kishon in Acre). Monkshaven has the ruins of an old abbey, while Acre has its walled old town and monastery. Both cities have an old history. Both cities are first shown in a gorgeous weather, even if the colours of the North Sea (the German Ocean) are softer than the Mediterranean colours.
Just as girls were singing the ballad “Weel may the keel row” on the quays of Monkshaven, Kinraid, formerly whistling the same tunes before he was impressed, is now singing it, joined by other British sailors, before going into action.
Hester’s headache in the previous chapter “booming guns”, is a very clever way of connecting the Monkshaven background and Sylvia’s and Hester’s lives and feelings with the Siege of Acre and its actors, as if Hester were given a special ability to sense the dangers in the Bay of Acre, to which Philip and Kinraid are exposed, unbeknownst to her.
There is a huge contrast between the beauty of the scenery, a fortified town “glittering in sunlight”, “great white rocks” against the ocean’s “intensity of blue colour”, and the horrors of war (destructions, gun smoke, killed, wounded men, amputated limbs...)
Yet, the sky is “literally purple with heat”, the light is “pitiless”, the fields are not green but “burnt up”, there are cherry-trees with glossy leaves and crimson amaryllises, anemones “scarlet as blood”, running “hither and tither over the ground like dazzling flames of fire”. The sea has a “hot sparkle”, the sun is “fierce”. The heat has been “terrific”, “former carnage” has “tainted the air”.
Just like Chapter 1 offered a panoramic view of Monkshaven and chapter 2 focused on details and the individual stories, Chapter 38 is now focusing almost entirely on Kinraid. At first in an epic and factual way it provides us then with a deeper vision of the character because the narrative technique allows access to his thoughts. The story recalls the fall of the fortress of Acre taken by the Muslims in 1291, but this memory of a distant past is not our hero’s first concern. He clearly lives in the here and now. The only thing that matters to him is “Boney”, who needs to be driven out of the Holy Land.
When Kinraid is wounded, he feels thirsty, “his lips and tongue feel baked and dry” and his throat “parched and wooden”. The setting sun into his face is like “the red glare of a house on fire”, “stamped on [his face] in blood-red light.” He is rescued by a marine, himself wearing a red jacket, Philip Hepburn.
Here, the red colour spread into the whole chapter speaks of fire, or of blood, as a contrast to an idyllic Mediterranean scenery. The scorching heat and the cruelty of suffering illustrates the horror of a war, of all wars.
The chapter ends in a description of what happened to Philip. While Kinraid is convalescent, a dramatic accident takes place on board the Theseus, Philip is more than severely burnt.
We see how the theme of fire is recurrent and omnipresent in this novel: London as a fiery furnace, said Alice, the Rendez-vous burning in the night, but also the central role of the fireplace as a source of light and warmth in the farm, the house-place suddenly illuminated when Kinraid comes in, and now the explosion on the Theseus, partly burnt.
The first word Philip wanted to teach Sylvia suddenly makes sense: Abednego. Abednego is a biblical name, unusual and complex for anyone who can't write, and apparently devoid of any pedagogical relevance. We suddenly understand that Philip, unlike the three young men in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, does not emerge unscathed from the furnace of the Theseus. Chapter 3 of the Book of Daniel describes the adventure of three Jewish boys who, in accordance with the first commandment, refused to worship a golden statue, an idol, exposing themselves to being burnt alive in a furnace. But because of their refusal and their perseverance in praying fervently to the one God, they were miraculously saved from the fire.
Sadly, Philip, who had worshipped Sylvia as an idol, or rather as his idea of her and what she should be to him, was not spared by the fire. Philip, who witnessed Kinraid's abduction, remained silent. During the accident aboard the Theseus, Philip passes through the fire of Hell. We are told that the lower part of his face is burnt, which includes his mouth, as a symbol of a punishment for his silence on Kinraid's impressment.
Providence has been extremely cruel to Philip. His fate is even heartbreaking. It has a Homeric feel, as if the gods were angry with Philip. Is that immanent justice – a retribution for his silence about Kinraid -, or the coincidence of being at the wrong place and at the wrong time?
Philip/Stephen is now experiencing the fate of a martyr in the Holy Land.
Out of Hades The theme of return is omnipresent but more specifically the theme of the return from the Land of the Dead.
Chapter 38 provides us with textual evidence of this: Kinraid is lying wounded amidst wounded French soldiers but in a strong survival instinct he is pretending to be dead in case someone of them, as wounded as he, would yet give him the last blow. During his rescue, he fainted. While recovering from his wounds on his berth, while Hepburn is not to be found, Charley is believed to have been hallucinating and seen "a spirit" (here is one more Gothic allusion). This is the third time we see how Kinraid survived after a near death experience. We may suppose he experienced more similar situations during previous naval battles. His imprisonment in the Prison du Temple, a real rathole, may also be compared to a stay in a tomb.
He is the eternal survivor, from perilous whaling campaigns, from the skirmishes with recruiting agents on board the Good Fortune who left him for dead, from his alleged drowning, from previous war action, from the wrecked smack and now in Acre.
Interestingly, Charley Kinraid is constantly determined not to indulge in any mortiferous thought. He is a fighter who is living in the here and now, looking into the future in a positive way (let's remember his words to Sylvia in Chapter 16, The Engagement). He does not want to hear about spirits and hallucinations. He is shaking the dust off his shoes and moving on.
This is perhaps exactly what he did one year before, when he went unnoticed out of Philip's dark parlour, seeing that there was nothing more to be done. He just fetched his luggage, paid the bill, did not breakfast and boarded the mail to Hartlepool. He did not think back and, in the meantime, he married.
Philip, instead, is now trying to recover from his serious injuries, out of the fiery furnace. He is disfigured and unrecognisable, just trying to survive as a living dead, if he recovers. Former allusions spread in the whole novel, of Philip being a character confined to inside scenes, a closed world, his dark looks, his silence, the dark parlour speak of that. He is also described as pale, standing in the shadows, or in the cold. There was something eerie about him, in contrast to the joyous Kinraid who enjoys life as it comes. More recently and unmistakably, Coulson's remark on Philip's look in Chapter 34, "Thou hast the look of a corpse on thy face", and the shepherd's words "Thou hast seen Oud Harry" (ibidem).
All these themes are emerging, even more subtly than a subtext, as a palimpsest, Odysseus' voyage and his incursion into the Hades, the underworld, the realm of the dead, and his return (nostos) from it described in The Odyssey (Book 11).
Let's see what happens next in Chapter 39 on Monday 2 June!
Claudia wrote: "Chapter 33 – An apparitionI apologize for interfering while everyone is on chapter 36 - getting behind was almost unavoidable due to real life. However, I must tell someone that I’m stunned by this chapter!!! My appreciation for Gaskell went up a notch or two with Charley’s dramatic return.
I’ll be quiet now, while trying catch up. :-)
Kathleen wrote: "Claudia wrote: "Chapter 33 – An apparitionI apologize for interfering while everyone is on chapter 36 - getting behind was almost unavoidable due to real life. However, I must tell someone that I..."
Chapter 33 seems to have been written for you, Kathleen! No hurry, you will certainly catch up!
Claudia, your detailed explanation of the chapter, and especially the subsection ‘Out of Hades’ was remarkably insightful. Thank you. The echoes of ‘The Odyssey’ that you present have reminded me it is time to read that text again. With both Charley and Philip physically scarred by war and their hearts scarred through love they seem to me to be more drawn together through mutual forms of pain. No doubt they are still drawn to Sylvia, but could it be they will also become softened in their feelings to each other?
Thank you Peter! It was a fascinating chapter for many reasons mentioned above, but also because it may be read as a parallel chapter to chapter 37. Chapter 37 was mostly about feminine conversation and in-depth exploration of Sylvia's and Hester's alchemy, while chapter 38 is entirely masculine. It involves exclusively male protagonists in war action.
Claudia, I also appreciate your excursus on the happenings in this chapter. More time has elapsed, was it 3 years, if I read it correctly? Our men are very far away from home and wounded. One to seemingly recover and the other to be completely unrecognizable from his new name to his burnt face. How interesting that Gaskell has included history in this tale and placed Philip and Charley in the midst of it. I like that aspect.One thing that was subtly mentioned when Kinraid was delirious was his wife- I read over that thinking he was talking about Sylvia - but now realizing that he has moved on and gotten married. Gaskell has made no way for these two to get together. It is now becoming a tragic story for Sylvia, who will remain alone with a child, and what will happen to her when Philip’s money runs out that she is living on. Her husband has essentially died as he has remade himself into someone new.
I think you are right about his being a chapter about rebirth. What will their lives look like in the future now? Where is Gaskell going?
Lori wrote: "Claudia, I also appreciate your excursus on the happenings in this chapter. More time has elapsed, was it 3 years, if I read it correctly? Our men are very far away from home and wounded. One to se..."Thank you Lori!
Roughly one year and about one month have passed since Kinraid's apparition in Monkshaven and Philip's disappearing, and Bell's death, all on the same day of April 1798. I calculated this from the riots in Monkshaven, fictively at the end of February 1797, the real ones were taking place in February 1793, quite soon after the declaration of war with France, which showed the Yorkshire people's spirit of resistance.
Sylvia married in black around Midsummer day 1797 and about nine months later, Bella was born in early spring 1798. The marital issues became more serious after her birth and one evening in April, then 1798, the rescue of the smack, Kinraid's visit to Monkshaven, etc.
Chapter 37 offers us a few clues, mentioning Christmas 1798, the poplin received for Sylvia, ordered months before by Philip before he disappeared, then Sylvia's walks with Hester the ensuing spring, therefore 1799, until Hester's booming gun's headaches on the 7th May 1799, that very day during the Siege of Acre where both Kinraid and Philip were involved. A clever way of connecting Hester's headaches with the booming guns at Acre.
Kinraid was wounded and mentally reviewed some moments in his life: the Arctic, the green grass in England and his newly made wife. This means he has married someone else since he left Monkshaven in a hurry...
Oh yes, where are we going after all these catastrophic events?
Claudia thank you so much for the excellent parsing of this chapter and its symbolism and underlying meanings. I have already employed the handkerchief that you suggested I have available. This chapter was stunning and not at all what I had anticipated happening. I was a little shocked that Charley had already married, but as you say, he is a man who moves on. He does not dwell in the past, and he makes the most of what life hands him--as he did with being impressed.
Strange how quickly emotions and sentiments can turn. I feel terribly sorry for Phillip. He is now reaping what he has sown, and the punishment seems so severe. Total destruction of his life and chastisement of his soul.
I was reading the list of instances in which fire has played a major part, and thought one more should be added...it was the firing of the building during the release of the men taken by the press gang that got Daniel hanged. If the men had been released and then all had departed, I do not think he would have been punished as he was. He might not even have been singled out.
Sara wrote: "Claudia thank you so much for the excellent parsing of this chapter and its symbolism and underlying meanings. I have already employed the handkerchief that you suggested I have available. This cha..."Thank you Sara!
The chapter was excellent indeed. So atmospheric and dramatic.
Good remark about the consequences of the burning of the Rendez-vous, aka The Mariner's Arms. Thinking back on this, I even wonder if Sylvia would have married Philip if her father would not have been executed. Still, his transport to Botany Bay would have been difficult for Bell and Sylvia, they should have make it do without him and then Philip would have anyway been helpful. It shows how that fire changed the course of events!
When I read this novel for the first time, I wrote OMG with a pencil in the margin when I read about Philip rescuing Charley. I almost needed a box of tissues when I first read about his accident on the Theseus. Even now I find it particularly heartbreaking. You are right on how quickly emotions and sentiments can turn.
Let me also echo the praise for Claudia's work and a shout out to Lori for defining it so perfectly. I cannot remember the last time I saw the word excursus. I plan on stealing it but I fear it won't stay in memory. Triggered by the chapter and also gone from my memory, is an earlier example of a rival saving or sacrificing himself, other then the famous Dickens example. Does anyone have an earlier book they think of for that situation? I am sure one exists.
Ah poor Philip, what's to become of him? Will he be redeemed? reborn like the Phoenix? Or reduced to a zombie out of The Walking Dead?
Sam wrote: "Let me also echo the praise for Claudia's work and a shout out to Lori for defining it so perfectly. I cannot remember the last time I saw the word excursus. I plan on stealing it but I fear it won..."Thank you Sam! Excursus was not so strange to me as you say Exkurs in German as well.
I don't know, for the time being, of an earlier example of someone saving a rival or sacrificing himself except the one you meant. No doubt someone will find!
Ha! Sam, I chuckled at your response! My very good friend and Bible teacher uses that word a lot when she goes on a tangent to explain something specific she wants to highlight. It's a great word and I do hope you will remember to use it!! HA!
I want to thank you too, Claudia, for the great summaries you have provided for this and every chapter and special event throughout our reading. I realize the book hasn’t finished yet but it’s so deserved. I wonder now whether Sylvia might allow Philip to live in the house given the grievous injuries he has suffered. And also given her learning reading using the bible. I’m sure Alice will be including religious studies along with the reading. All of this would assume he survives his injuries, of course.
Sue wrote: "I want to thank you too, Claudia, for the great summaries you have provided for this and every chapter and special event throughout our reading. I realize the book hasn’t finished yet but it’s so d..."Thank you Sue!
We, and Philip first of all, are not out of the woods. Alice is indeed teaching Sylvia some Bible basics while teaching her to read. I had noted in my big copy-book that Sylvia, in chapter 37, perhaps beginning to experience a conversion of the heart.
We remember her words after Daniel's execution, concerning Dick Simpson who was dying: "It is not in me to forgive, it is not in me to forget". (Chapter 29), remembered afterwards by Philip. Forgiveness is definitely one of the hardest challenges in a human life.
Yes indeed, Claudia. And I’m reminded that we don’t know yet what is happening with Hester that may also affect Sylvia’s heart.
Words can be so powerful and our words, especially spoken in anger, can do so much damage to others and to ourselves. Forgiveness is indeed hard at times, but there is never any peace without it. It is the only way to put a hurt aside; if you don't forgive, you nurse your hard feelings.
Sara wrote: "I was a little shocked that Charley had already married, but as you say, he is a man who moves on. He does not dwell in the past, and he makes the most of what life hands him--as he did with being impressed."Well, this chapter gives me some of my plot prediction filled: Philip has saved Charley's life. But I guess Philip hasn't died (yet) and Charley isn't coming back to marry Sylvia, since he's married someone else.
I did give a little "What?!?" when I read of Charley's marriage, and I am disappointed, but I am disappointed as the reader of a book who expects unlikely things will happen to tie up a plot, and was hoping Sylvia somehow shedding her awful, dishonest husband was one of those things. But Philip being tidily disposed of is not something Charley could have seen coming, and I have to say I think more highly of someone who, as Claudia says, "is constantly determined not to indulge in any mortiferous thought," than of all these mortiferous people walking by rivers and thinking about throwing themselves in.
Seconding all the thanks to Claudia for steering us through this in such an elucidating manner!
Sara wrote: "Words can be so powerful and our words, especially spoken in anger, can do so much damage to others and to ourselves. Forgiveness is indeed hard at times, but there is never any peace without it. It is the only way to put a hurt aside; if you don't forgive, you nurse your hard feelings."I agree with this in principle, and I think it's extremely important to keep it in mind as a Christian tenet that the people in this book are obligated to observe.
But it's also important to keep in mind that forgiveness doesn't in practice mean letting the offending party do whatever (and I know no one is saying it does mean that, but I do want to place some emphasis on the contrary). For instance, I don't think Sylvia has *any* obligation whatsoever to go on living as Philip's wife. I've mentioned before I think they qualify for an annulment: she married him under the false premise that he was her family's best friend, when in fact he was lying to her to serve his own purposes. (Yes, he tells himself he was lying to her to protect her, but that is just another lie. His so-called "protection" gets him exactly what he himself wants, or thinks he wants.)
It seems to me that Sylvia can forgive Philip for his offense while also insisting he use his wealth to set her up with her daughter in a nice little cottage overlooking the sea, since by marrying her he has destroyed all her prospects of establishing a healthy marriage to someone else (and the economic security that would provide)--and leave her alone.
I disagree with Jeremiah. Whatever the legalities are, Sylvia has no moral obligation to live as Philip's wife. But Jeremiah (and I guess everyone else in this book) is operating within a system where the wife is basically her husband's property. I will be seriously disappointed in Gaskell if she can't recognize this is dodgy. Other writers in her time did recognize there was some shaky ground to the idea of radical obedience to the family patriarch in all things, even in a Christian understanding--Caroline Norton, as people have pointed out, and I would also say Anne Bronte.
Julie: "I did give a little "What?!?" when I read of Charley's marriage, and I am disappointed, but I am disappointed as the reader of a book who expects unlikely things will happen to tie up a plot..."I was exactly as disappointed when I first read the novel too. It seemed that Charley's marriage broke all romantic possibilities for Sylvia. Now, knowing the story, I admit that I am more dispassionate, or trying to be.
"Other writers in her time did recognize there was some shaky ground to the idea of radical obedience to the family patriarch in all things, even in a Christian understanding--Caroline Norton, as people have pointed out, and I would also say Anne Bronte".
Yes, Caroline Norton was a key figure as both a writer and an activist. Well done for mentioning Anne Brontë, too. Her novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall also played a key role in raising awareness and in the passing of the Women's Property Act (1870) although it needed some time.
Thank you for your interesting contributions and point of view, Julie! Of course we may not agree with Jeremiah even if it is interesting to try to understand his attitude and their context.
Chapter 39 – ConfidencesIn that summer of 1799, Molly Brunton visits her sister Bessy, now married to a “well-to-do farmer”. She also visits former friends, including Sylvia Hepburn. Both women have not met for over four years and equally secretly wonder “how they had ever come to be friends”.
Molly is “loud and talkative”, while Sylvia has become more thoughtful and discreet, under influence of her environment and experience. Molly is making a string of blunders, particularly when she addresses the touchy topic of Philip’s disappearance, and, by association of ideas, as an avid gossiper, she is now talking about Sylvia’s father. Her curiosity upsets Sylvia very much. Then she talks about Kinraid’s reappearance and recent marriage to a Miss Clarinda Jackson, on 3rd January 1799. She cut the ad announcing his wedding from a monthly magazine that prints such life events of “remarkable persons”.
Reading the few lines by herself, Sylvia is surprised that Kinraid, who said he loved her so much and was true to her, married so soon. Philip would not have acted so, she thinks, and “for the first time in her life, she seemed to recognize the real nature of Philip’s love.”
Molly provides more information about her cousin, his bride, a “picture of a woman”, educated and accomplished, who is expected to visit Charley’s uncle at Cullercoats soon. She mentions that Kinraid has embarked on the Tigre to the Mediterranean.
Molly insists on Philip’s odd disappearance, “steady Philip” as he was nicknamed back then, leaving her to be “a widow bewitched”. Molly becomes more and more intrusive. Hester appears into the room, but Molly does not leave her favourite topic alone and does not give any sign of leaving either. She seems to expect to be asked for tea.
Little Bella comes into the room with Alice in tow, and tells Molly to go away, while Alice openly disapproves of Molly’s behaviour and vehement speech. In a hard conversation, Alice utters very moralizing words on Sylvia’s fate, alluding to Philip’s poor choice of a wife, while “one [as] was fitter for him”. Sylvia reacts with an unexpected determination but also with dignity and closes the discussion, forbidding anyone “to go on with talk like this afore [her].” “I cannot hold them as my friends as go on talking on either my husband or me before my very face. What he was, I know, and what I am, I reckon he knows.”
After Molly has left, Sylvia gives an additional explanation to Mrs Rose and Hester: “It is me as have been wronged, and as has to bear it.”
In the evening, she tells Hester confidentially “Poor, poor Hester! If you and he had but been married together, what a deal of sorrow would have been spared to us all!” Hester is surprised as she thought that no one knew about her secret love for Philip. She is sorry and ashamed, but Sylvia tries to soothe her, telling her that Alice told her inadvertently this. Sylvia wonders “how love seemed to go all at cross purposes”.
Hester asks Sylvia to “put the hard thoughts of Philip away from [her] heart (…) and, if he comes back from wherever in the wide world he has gone to”, “to put away the memory of past injury and forgive it all (…) and be just the good wife he ought to have.”
Sylvia’s attitude has not changed. She insists that she said she would never forgive him, and “shall keep to [her] word.”
A changing world Molly Brunton appears in a completely different light from the cheerful young girl she once was. She had been previously vulgarly good-natured, now she appears hard and flippant. She has become haughty, intrusive, tactless and noisy, not without a touch of humour. She collects blunders and gossips just as she used to tie knots in her handkerchief for her shopping list.
Just as Sara said earlier, we are often quick to judge even if we do not know half of the story. It is definitely what Molly is doing here, no matter if she is hurting Sylvia and, later, Alice Rose. She knows Sylvia's tragic story from hearsay and was commenting bits and pieces of it with her husband and came over just to show her and her sister's prosperity (weight, bonnet and cloak, Farmer Dawson's cart and three good horses and twelve cows). She has come to verify some information she has heard through others. She seems to bring the voice of gossipers inside Sylvia's dark parlour. In her way, she may remind those who have read Mary Barton of Sally Leadbitter. Unlike Sally however, she has a happy family background and a close-knit relationship with her husband.
However she is also bringing news. She informs Sylvia, as if "by the way", that Kinraid has married a lovely woman. She provides evidence in the form of a magazine clipping, a few succinct but meaningful lines. This explains what we already learned when Charley lay dying on the battlefield at Acre, but now we are given figures and additional details.
Charles Kinraid, Esq., lieutenant Royal Navy, married Miss Clarinda Jackson —10,000 pounds, which remains her own fortune, says Molly —on 3 January of that same year, 1799, about eight months after his visit to Sylvia. Let's remember that he wanted to marry Sylvia or not marry at all (Chapter 16 - The Engagement).
This newspaper clipping, crumpled up in Molly's purse, is also a proof of Charley's undeniable social rise. He did not marry a farmer's daughter, but an heiress. Molly's numerous remarks and her clothing plans (Mr Brunton will buy her some yards of crimson satin) for Mrs Kinraid's future visit to Yorkshire also suggest a social evolution out of untidy and crowded Moss Brow Farm.
Sylvia also learns from Molly's torrent of words, that Charley has embarked on the Tigre, earlier this year, bound for the Mediterranean. (We the readers knew that from chapter 38.) The Tigre is not just any ship, and the whole family is proud of Kinraid's new status and heroism, recognised by his peers and hierarchy. They were just as proud of his heroic actions as a Specksioneer fighting against impressment officers and defending his comrades on the Good Fortune.
Sylvia, who was quiet and calm, is becoming more self-assertive. This encounter, which is ultimately rather painful, is also an opportunity for her to set the record straight with both Molly Brunton and Alice. She thus puts an end to all idle and hurtful remarks about Philip and herself. It was wise and brave of her.
Kinraid's obviously hasty marriage has taught Sylvia a lesson, and she now seems to reconsider her assessment of Philip, who, in the same situation, would not have married so quickly. Of that she is sure.
ConfidencesThe confidential conversation between Sylvia and Hester clears up the ambiguities of Chapter 37, where there was unease between the two women. Hester cautiously raises the question of forgiveness towards Philip, which Sylvia still refuses to consider.
Sylvia's words to Hester summarise the whole tragedy of the consequences of Philip's blindness to Hester's genuine and deep feelings for him. “Poor, poor Hester! If you and he had but been married together, what a deal of sorrow would have been spared to us all!”
Nevertheless, we can see how close Sylvia had come to telling Hester how Philip had wronged her. She ultimately remained silent about it. Does she realise that revealing that information about Philip could cause Hester to change her opinion of him, as some of you have already suggested?
As we approach the denouement, I realise that what remains unsaid and what is withheld is as crucial, if not more so, than what is visible.
We are back to Monkshaven and the dark parlour, in a women's world. Two elements from chapter 38 resurface, explained by the inimitable Molly Brunton: Kinraid's thought of his newly made sweet wife, and the prestigious HMS Tigre! I noticed how cleverly Mrs Gaskell has been pulling those two threads from the preceding chapter and weaving them into this one.
We will read Chapter 40 on Tuesday 3 June!
I guess the Corney sisters are gossips and only interested in talking up their own circumstances. I love seeing Sylvia’s change now that she is under Alice’s influence. She was so close to confiding in Hester! Ah! We just want to scream it for her. Hester will likely change her opinion of Philip knowing his deception. I would rather the complete truth be known by all parties and I’m also hoping for a moment for Sylvia to forgive Philip when he returns. I’m betting on him in unknowing state of disfigurement to return to beg forgiveness. I’d love to see a redemption ending.
Julie wrote: "Sara wrote: "Words can be so powerful and our words, especially spoken in anger, can do so much damage to others and to ourselves. Forgiveness is indeed hard at times, but there is never any peace ..."Just a small note regarding forgivenss: I believe forgiveness helps the person who forgives far more than the one who is forgiven. If you do not/cannot forgive, you carry the weight of the wrong you have been done around with you all the time. It makes you bitter. To truly forgive is to let go of that completely, it does not mean you approve of the person of the action, approval is an entirely other thing. Sylvia would like to forgive, her heart tells her to, but she is determined to stick to what she sees as an oath that cannot be broken. I think this does her harm, not Phillip.
Jeremiah is both a man of his time and a Quaker. Either or both of these explains his approach to Sylvia's confidence. On the other hand, he has provided a way for her to continue to live in the same station in which Phillip deserted her--which is not a small thing.
Regarding this chapter, it made me sad to watch Sylvia being bullied by Molly. Quite a change in these two since we met them as girls, arm in arm, going to buy a cloak. I was proud of her for finally putting Molly in her place.Charley has moved forward, which is difficult for Sylvia but the right thing for him to have done. He has married, probably, more for money and position than for love, but he is a charmer, so I suspect he has a wife who loves him and is happy to place her fortunes at his feet. Will he survive this war and come back to her? Maybe. He does seem to be a cat with nine lives.
I am glad Sylvia refuses to say anything bad about Phillip to Hester. She is right that what has happened between them is personal and private. Whatever else Phillip is, he is her husband, and that is an institution that had a great weight in those days (and should have even now). I admire her for not attempting to destroy his reputation in order to justify herself to others.
Sara wrote: "Regarding this chapter, it made me sad to watch Sylvia being bullied by Molly. Quite a change in these two since we met them as girls, arm in arm, going to buy a cloak. I was proud of her for final..."Agreed!
I like the idea of Charley as a cat with nine lives! It corresponds to what we have seen of him!
Sara, I see a different perspective from what you said about Sylvia keeping quiet about Philip. Thinking more deeply about this, it lends itself to her finding forgiveness if she keeps that to herself and it shows her altering mindset as she has been influenced by Alice’s teaching. I think you’re right in this case. It wouldn’t be best for Hester to know this private occurrence.
Great observations Sara and Lori!I think Sylvia is influenced by Alice and her Bible study and also by Hester's example. Hester has shown her ability to help others without questioning. We have not heard her gossiping. In chapter 7 Hester did not say anything bad about Charley, she was just factual.
Hester too had her share of suffering and Sylvia who is spending time with her is certainly led to react differently than before, perhaps with more maturity. Their conversation in this chapter brings them closer to eachother.
Chapter 40 – An unexpected messengerSylvia, Hester and Alice have avoided mentioning Philip’s name for many weeks.
One day, “a very smartly dressed, very pretty young lady” stops in front of the shop and wants to see Mrs Hepburn. She introduces herself as Mrs Kinraid.
While Sylvia tries “to conceal any emotion she might feel” upon hearing Charley’s name, Mrs Kinraid tells her how much she wishes to see Philip Hepburn, and “thank him for saving the captain’s life.”
She tells Sylvia how proud she is of her husband, now a Captain in the Royal Navy, and how he took part in the siege of Acre. She explains to an astonished Sylvia what happened in all these biblical places, and at Acre, when the French unsuccessfully besieged the city, which was defended by the British reinforcing the Turks, and how the captain was near death after being badly wounded, but was saved by a marine he recognised as Philip Hepburn. She tells how the captain was never able to find him.
Sylvia strongly doubts it was Philip. They were not great friends, but the captain, says Mrs Kinraid, was sure it was him. He had searched the ship's records and mentioned the possibility that Philip Hepburn was registered under an assumed name. He was desperate to thank the man who had saved his life. Mrs Kinraid wanted to see Mr Hepburn and shake his hand.
Sylvia insists that Philip was neither a sailor nor a soldier, but the captain called him a marine, Mrs Kinraid points out.
Alice enters and is also surprised that Philip, as a Quaker, could be involved in a war.
Alice feels somehow bitter, with a hint of envy, when she hears that Philip was in the Holy Land, whereas she, “as is one of the elect” is “obliged to go on dwelling in Monkshaven”.
After Mrs Kinraid has left, Sylvia is still amazed by what she has just heard. “Charley and Philip once more meeting together, not as rivals or as foes, but as saviour and saved.” Hester, in the contrary, “laid the story of Philip’s bravery to her heart – she fully believed in it”.
Sylvia's thoughts are also stirred by memories of “Kinraid’s old, passionate love”, “which had now faded away and vanished utterly; its very existence apparently blotted out of his memory”.
The chapter closes on a harrowing question “Where was Philip all this time?”
A skillful narrativeThis was a very clever idea! Elizabeth Gaskell took the thread of Kinraid's marriage from chapter 39 and introduced Mrs Kinraid. This was the perfect opportunity to introduce Charley's wife and show her gratitude to Philip, who saved her husband's life. It also informed Sylvia of her husband's whereabouts on 7 May, although there was no certainty as to his current location or whether he was still alive.
The same story as in chapter 38 – the Siege of Acre and how Philip Hepburn saved Kinraid’s life – is told in a different form and from a different angle by Mrs Kinraid, Charley’s young wife. She indeed tells Sylvia what her husband has written to her, but unlike Molly Brunton previously with her slightly crumbled magazine cut, she does not show her the letter, which she does not carry with her, as there is amorous content in it, which makes her blush at the mere thought of it and which she legitimately refrains from showing off. She had left the letter in her desk at Dawson’s, not taking it in her purse, as it is precious writings to her.
Mrs Kinraid then gives a second-hand account from memory, as she knows the letter by heart because she has read it over and over, of Charley’s and Philip’s incidental meeting on the battlefield. Yet, her account sounds almost refreshing and enthusiastic first of all because she was reassured that her dear captain was saved. She is a nice person, quite delicate and polite - what a contrast to Molly Brunton ! - and indeed her story sounds incredible to Sylvia, not quite to Hester who believes Philip capable of heroism.
Moreover, Mrs Kinraid’s visit is perhaps also a skillful and thought-provoking way of conveying tidings of Philip, who has been missing for more than one year. And also an equally thought-provoking way of considering Charley from new perspectives. We had seen him before only from Sylvia’s amorous perspective, or from hearsay reports (William Coulson, the sailors at the Newcastle inn, Molly and Bessy's admiration).
Charley Kinraid, a cardboard hero or a cat with nine lives?Charley Kinraid has been sometimes described by modern readers and even critics as a cardboard hero. He has been very present in the first volume as a local hero and Sylvia’s crush. He soon disappeared in the second volume, as Sylvia’s fiancé and Philip’s foe, whose “ghost” haunted his days and nights, and he reappeared in the third volume as a handsome Navy lieutenant, then he becomes a hero on Napoleonic battlefields. Admittedly, he is described with less depth than Philip Hepburn, but he is always there as a name, a thought, an obsession.
We get a glimpse into Charley’s drastic change in environment and social status. The wedding announcement alone in its wording mentioned Charles Kinraid, Esq. lieutenant Royal Navy, which sounds prestigious. It was published in a magazine generally bought by middle classes.
Mrs Kinraid insists on calling Charley the captain, which Sylvia thinks a bit overrated but also illustrates the extent to which Kinraid now seems to have been elevated to a prestigious position and an even more handsome, almost unapproachable appearance. The magazine cut was already evidence for this, but the facts are now conveyed by a “very smartly dressed, very pretty young lady”, which talks of her pride for her husband. His action on the battlefield at Acre has elevated him much higher than previously. He belongs now to another world.
Charley has also changed ideologically. He is no longer the harpooner who fought the recruiting agents with the most ferocious recklessness. He is now on the side of military force. Privately, he has set his sights on an heiress, not a farmer’s daughter.
Why has Sylvia’s passionate and faithful lover Kinraid married so soon?
This can be seen from two angles: that of the fickleness of a young man living in the here and now or that of pragmatism and urgency in wartime, which is very real even in modern wars. We see this in the context of a masculine world of action (whaling, wars) vs. a feminine universe of women running their home (farm, shop), taking care of children and elderlies, waiting and worrying, trying to keep their chin up amidst gossips. Kinraids refuses to wait, unlike the women who were invited to wait at home for their husbands and fiancés, as Sylvia was urged to do, had she received Kinraid’s verbal message.
Mrs Gaskell does not offer us a precise description of Mrs Kinraid’s features. She is shown as “a pretty, joyous, prosperous little bird of a woman” with measured, cautious movements when she is descending from Mr Dawson’s market-cart, a vehicle too “primitive” for her. She has a soft Southern English accent, in contrast to Molly Brunton, who described her as "edicated". Never do we know how she really is, except for her thankfulness, her enthusiasm and joyous attitude, and her love for her husband whom she politely and deferentially names “the captain”. She seems to be out of place in the dark parlour behind the shop, a foreign element in the closed universe of the three quiet and withdrawn women, but, in spite of this, behaves in a considerate way, has a kind word for everyone and is as socially adaptable as her husband.
If Mrs Kinraid may be viewed as a reflection of what Charley has become, is she not a cardboard heroin too?
Dickensians!
Books mentioned in this topic
Gli innamorati di Sylvia (other topics)Los amores de Sylvia (other topics)
Les Amoureux de Sylvia (other topics)
Waiting for Godot (other topics)
En attendant Godot (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Samuel Beckett (other topics)Victor Hugo (other topics)
Charles Dickens (other topics)
Anthony Trollope (other topics)
Thomas Hardy (other topics)
More...
Great points about little trivial things often making a big difference, Petra, and about Hester withholding information! Philip asked her to pass his love, regards, apologies to whom it may concern. For the time being, this letter looks like one more secret in Mrs Gaskell's store!
Yes, I remember in my Quaker course about some special meetings where serious questions, economic issues or whatever, were prayerfully thought over until solutions were found. It was inherited from George Fox' times, and it is still the case today, but I must check. I have even got a pdf on that.
This also explains a part of Jeremiah's attitude, not hurrying and taking time to ponder things with his brother. Indeed, little Bella makes a difference there!