Collinson relates virtually the same story as Maskell, and Collinsonâs words are then quoted in John E. Farbrother,
Shepton Mallet: Notes on Its History, Ancient, Descriptive, and Natural
(Shepton Mallet: Albert Byrt, 1859), p. 145. See also Sharps,
Mrs. Gaskellâs Observation and Invention
, pp. 119â20, for a discussion of the discrepancies between Maskellâs and Gaskellâs versions.
13 See Samuel Butler,
The Life and Letters of Samuel Butler
, 2 vols. (London: John Murray, 1896), vol. 1, p. 91.
14 See Henry Green,
Knutsford: Its Traditions and History
(Manchester: E. J. Norton, 1969), pp. 93â4. See also Sharps,
Mrs. Gaskellâs Observation and Invention
, pp. 120â21, for the difference between Greenâs and Gaskellâs accounts.
15 âA Disappearanceâ,
Household Words
, 3 (21 June 1851), pp. 305â6; âA Disappearance Cleared upâ,
Household Words
, 4 (21 February 1852), pp. 513â14. Interestingly, the edition of âDisappearancesâ which was published in Gaskellâs collection of stories,
Lizzie Leigh and Other Tales
(London: Chapman and Hall, 1855), concludes with a reprint of the first âChipsâ article which confirms the departure of the young man on a vessel, but does not mention his death (p. 55). The article reappears in
The Grey Woman and Other Tales
(London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1865), p. 280, which is reprinted in the Appendix below.
16 âCharacter-Murderâ,
Household Words
, 19 (8 January 1859), pp. 139â40. See also Sharps,
Mrs. Gaskellâs Observation and Invention
, pp. 121â2, for a discussion of the âChipsâ articles.
17 See Gaskellâs letter to Charles Eliot Norton, dated 9 March 1859,
Letters
, no. 418, pp. 534â6.
18 See Green,
Knutsford
, pp. 119â21, for further discussion of the real-life Edward Higgins, where he also locates the legend in Thomas De Quinceyâs
Autobiographical Sketches
(1834â53), and refers the reader to Higginsâs signed confession in
Universal Museum and Complete Magazine
, 3 (7 November 1767), pp. 580, 605.
19 Sharps,
Mrs. Gaskellâs Observation and Invention
, p. 187.
20 Charles W. Upham,
Lectures on Witchcraft, Comprising a History of the Delusions in Salem, in
1692 (Boston: Carter, Hendee and Babcock, 1831), pp. 83â4.
21 Ibid., pp. 126â9.
22 See Uglow,
Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories
, p. 122.
23 See Sharps,
Mrs. Gaskellâs Observation and Invention
, p. 268, who challenges the idea that the story is based upon any historical origins, as there is no evidence to support the attempted assassination theory.
24 For an in-depth reading of the power of ancestral curses in Gothic fiction, see Robert Mighall,
A Geography of Victorian Gothic Fiction: Mapping Historyâs Nightmares
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 78â129.
25 Gaskell made several trips to Heidelberg, the first one in 1841; see, for example,
Letters
, no. 15, pp. 40â45 and no. 485, pp. 647â50.
26 âThe law against witchcraft passed by Parliament in the year of Queen Elizabethâs accession (1559 [actually 1558]) remained on our statute-book till 1736â (A. W. Ward,
The Works of Mrs. Gaskell
, 8 vols. (London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1906), vol. 7, p. xx).
27 Actually, there are many ways in which âThe Old Nurseâs Storyâ can be seen as a âborrowingâ of
Wuthering Heights
, most notably in the scenes where the ghost of the little girl stands beseechingly at the window, trying to incite the real, live Rosamund out into the cold and snowy fells. Moreover, in an uncanny moment of her own literary doubling, Gaskell recounts a story in
The Life of Charlotte Brontë
that âmade a deep impression on Charlotteâs mindâ, but which eerily repeats the plot of her own short story, written five years before the biography. It tells of a Haworth woman who had been seduced by her brother-in-law,