October 6th, 1833.
A PEEP INTO A PICTURE BOOK
Charlotte Brontë was eighteen years of age when she wrote these descriptions of the principal characters in her stories. ‘The land of the Genii’ had become ‘The Kingdom of Angria’; the Duke of Wellington was almost forgotten; and her early hero, the Marquis of Douro, had received various other titles, including that of Duke of Zamorna, and had been elected King of Angria. He had developed a character totally different from that of the studious and ingenuous youth of Charlotte Brontë’s earlier stories.
At this time his first wife, Marian Hume, is supposed to have been dead several years, and he is married to Mary Henrietta, the daughter of his Prime Minister—Alexander Percy, Viscount Ellrington and Earl of Northangerland.
Alexander Percy (sometimes called Alexander Rogue) was originally a pirate, and was one of the creations of Charlotte’s brother, Patrick Branwell Brontë, when very young. On pp. 175-179 of A Bibliography of the Writings in Prose and Verse of the Members of the Brontë Family, 1917, by Thomas J. Wise, is printed a poem of one hundred and twenty-eight lines entitled ‘The Rover.’ This is a poem by Patrick Branwell Brontë descriptive of one of Alexander Percy’s adventures when he was a pirate. It was from this character that Branwell Brontë took the pseudonyms of ‘Northangerland’ and ‘Alexander Percy,’ which he continued to use until the end of his life.
The first wife of Northangerland also is dead at this time, and he is married to Lady Zenobia Ellrington, who in earlier stories (‘Albion and Marina,’ ‘The Rivals,’ and ‘Love and Jealousy’) was the rival of Marian Hume for the affections of the Marquis of Douro.
General Thornton is the guardian of the young Lord Wellesley, the supposed author of the manuscript in which ‘A Peep into a Picture Book’ was found.
C. W. H.
A PEEP INTO A PICTURE BOOK
FROM THE MANUSCRIPT ENTITLED