Chapter Text
Due to the nature of the following disclosures, names of both people and places have been changed, and some details have been altered to prevent ready identification of those involved.
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You may know of Milton-Northern, one of our most pre-eminent rising industrial towns. In recent years it has emerged from gloomy obscurity, and grown rapidly to prominence in the nation, and indeed the world, though the production of cotton. The combination of a damp and humid climate, ideal for spinning cotton fibre, its proximity to the Pennine uplands, which provide water for steam engines and washing the fabric, and the presence of easily mined coal has blessed it for this purpose.
Today, when thinking of our national prosperity, the Briton may turn his (or her) dreaming eyes from the contemplation of the shires, with their woods, fields, and farms, all of which have grown organically through the days of our forefathers, and which have enriched the gentry of the past, while providing sustenance to those who live in our villages and hamlets, to towns such as Milton. These towns have mushroomed forth with a tremendous force of energy commanding his (or her) attention. They have sprawled across river confluences and overtaken the small settlements which had remained almost static over the centuries. Indeed, like mushrooms, these towns supply themselves with interconnecting mycelia in the form of canals and railroads which are currently crossing our lands in ever denser webs, tying us with one another closer than ever before.
In this great energetic burst of growth, the Northern townspeople have developed an independence of spirit and feel that they have a wide commercial character to maintain, which makes them into the great pioneers of civilisation and consequently they guard their reputations jealously. It has been said of the inhabitants of Milton that their energy, their power, their indomitable courage in struggling and fighting; their lurid vividness of existence, must command one’s admiration.
As part of this thrusting forth of Northern importance, and the consequent increased attention to news from those parts, you may have become apprised of some intelligence regarding persons living in that prosperous and increasing town of Milton; in particular the events which befell a young woman of the South upon her removal to that city.
I speak, of course, of Miss Margaret Hale.
I believe that many will have read of her move to Milton-Northern, along with her father and mother, in the unfortunate circumstance of Mr Hale resigning his living as a priest of the Church of England due to religious scruples regarding his inability to reaffirm his belief in all the thirty-nine articles. Or perhaps I should say this was a fortunate circumstance as he was truly following his conscience – something so few men, even men of religion, do in practice when it may have a deleterious impact upon their own lives and that of their families.
I do not wish to tire my readers with a recital of events they will have learnt of elsewhere, but will state that I intend to take up the story of Miss Hale and the Northern persons she had become acquainted with, at the time after the death of her mother, which followed soon after the Milton riot of national fame, in the late summer of 185-.
If you recall, Miss Hale had summoned her brother to see their dying mother, at the wish of that unfortunate lady. In the course of ensuring her brother, who was wanted by the British Navy on a charge of mutiny, quit the country as quickly as possible after their mother’s death, Miss Hale was recognised accompanying him at a local railway station in Milton both by persons on the platform, whose attention was drawn by an altercation, and by Mr John Thornton, a local mill master, well known to the Hale family, who had seen them walking in a field nearby in an attitude which betrayed an intimacy he found surprising.
Subsequent to the altercation came the death of the man who had fallen after accosting Miss Hale’s companion, which was naturally investigated by the local constabulary, and involved Mr Thornton as a magistrate of the British crown.
Mr Thornton had hitherto considered Miss Hale to be a high-minded and pure young lady, and he had, indeed, confessed his love to her and implored her to marry him, a request she had summarily declined. Upon seeing her at Outwood and hearing the evidence that the man she was with may have pushed the unfortunate who died at the station (although it was far from clear if the fall occasioned his death), Thornton had taxed her to explain the identity and presence of the young man, which she had declined to do, thereby losing her purity of character in his eyes. He, however, continued to struggle with his deep passion for her. This may or may not have coloured his magisterial response, but he was able to ensure the investigation was curtailed and spared her, rightly or wrongly, the public opprobrium of an inquest.
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As Margaret slowly recovered some equilibrium after the grief of her mother’s death, so long heralded, but still felt as a great sorrow, she was gradually able to assess the situation of the family. She and her father, along with her mother’s former maid servant, Dixon, were in a city where they had little connection. Margaret’s name had appeared in several scandals. The most recent was her sighting at Outwood Station alone with a young man, in the evening. As she could not state that he was her brother due to his fugitive status, she had resorted to lying and saying that the identifications were mistaken. This lie had come to haunt her, but the suspicion surrounding the event was indelibly connected with her in the mind of many and caused life to be quite uncomfortable.
Her previous public misstep had been her appearance – during an attack on Mr Thornton’s business at Marlborough Mills – on the doorstep of Marlborough House, which was situated in Marlborough Mill yard, where she had defended Mr Thornton (whom she had actually urged to face the mob) not just with words, but by throwing herself in front of him, indeed, putting her arms around him, as a form of bodily protection from a riotous mob of striking workers.
It is a matter of some amazement that her role in this event had somehow escaped common knowledge, despite the tendency of Miss Thornton, Mr Thornton’s sister, to broadcast any news of which she was aware – she had been apprised of the happenings by the servants who had seen it all – and the fact that dozens, if not hundreds, of desperate rioters had witnessed Miss Hale place her arms around the master, before she had been wounded by a stone thrown at and intended for Mr Thornton.
Finally, she had antagonised the higher echelons of Milton society by her sympathy with and ready defense of local working people, including the well-known Trade Unionist and Socialist, Nicholas Higgins.
You will see, therefore, that Miss Hale’s sojourn in Milton-Northern had not been without controversy.
After the sighting at Outwood, a coolness had developed between Mr Thornton and the Hales – although Mr Hale senior was unaware of the details, he did notice the diminution in visits for tutorials from his hitherto most valued pupil.
It is at this juncture that I pick up my tale, to supply further particulars which are generally unknown, but which I feel sure to be of interest.