Consequences - Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12 – Mary’s Journal

April 5th

We have had our first thunderstorm of the season. Then it came on dull and cold in the evening. We had heavy showers of hail and sleet. This is a very unseasonable mixture of weather. I do hope it will be fine for our wedding next month.

Mother and I have conferred about the wedding guest list. We will send out the invitations soon, as our wedding guidebook reckons that six weeks in advance of the ceremony is the proper notice. It will take most of Sunday for me to write out the addresses and then I can post them on Monday.

I will list them here, and then I can cross them off the list as I have finished addressing them.

First the local relatives:

Grandmother Eagle from Pocklington

My brother Robert from Bradford.

Grandfather John Walker from Eskrick

Mr. George Walker, Charles’ father

Miss Mary Ann Wilson, his cousin who is acting as his father’s housekeeper

Mr. and Mrs. Edward Thackery who share the cab company with Charles’ father and Ned (who will be an usher along with my brothers) and Maria, Joseph and Robert

Mrs. Mayfield and children – Charles aunt by marriage (or not)

Mr. and Mrs. Bacon and William - Family friends and Charles' school friend

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Walker and CG (who will be Charles’ attendant) – Uncle, Aunt and cousin

Ann Parenby from Hartlepool who is engaged to CG

Other relatives from far away who might not come:

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Wilson from Worcester, Richard, Emily, Eliza and George – Charles’ mother’s sister and her family

Mr. and Mrs William Clephan from Stockton and family – Charles' Father’s sister and her family.

Mr. Harry Walker from Worcester – Charles’ cousin

Mr. and Mrs. Henry Walker from Worcester – Charles’ Uncle and Aunt and Harry’s mother

Mr. and Mrs. Edward Cox from Liverpool - Mrs. Cox is Charles' aunt. Charles was apprenticed to Mr. Cox.

Mr and Mrs. Charles Cox from Liverpool – cousin and good friend of my Charles.

Mr. and Mrs. Edward Russell from Bromsgrove – they are Inn Keepers too and have the Golden Lion at Bromsgrove and are distant relatives.

Mr. Benjamin Walker, and his mother, Mrs. Eliza Walker from Hanley Castle in Worcestershire – also distant relatives.

Charles’ special friends:

Mr. and Mrs. Lindsay Hall from Liverpool. Lindsay is a close friend of Charles and was apprenticed with him in Liverpool.

Mr. E.H. Needham and his sister Martha from Worcester (Charles’ employer)

Mr. and Mrs. William Barnsley and family from Manchester – good friends of Charles

Mr. Alfred H. Jones – Charles’ best friend in Worcester

Mrs. Elizabeth Griffin from Worcester, Charles and Pruey (Charles’ current landlady and her children)

Mr. and Mrs. Miles – close family friends (we won’t invite Mary Ann, who Charles wanted to marry at one time, but now she is happily married and doesn’t live nearby.)

And our neighbours, friends and colleagues from York:

Mr. and Mrs. William Bellerby – who will be doing the daguerreotype of the wedding party

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Barrand – who run the green grocers

Mr. and Mrs. John Hanson – the painter

Mrs. Ann Foster – the local shopkeeper

Mr. and Mrs. Robert Spense – the brewer

Mr. and Mrs. George – who have offered places for our extra guests at their Inn, the White Horse Hotel

Mr. and Mrs. John Braithwaite, Mary Ann’s parents, and her sisters Martha and Caroline

Mrs. Elizabeth Holiday, Sophia’s mother, and her sister Mary and brother William

That makes 68 adults, plus my family of 5, plus Charles and me is 75 if everyone comes. And there might be at least 20 other younger children.

We’ve decided to have Mendelssohn’s Wedding March coming out of church. It was what Queen Victoria’s oldest daughter Princess Vicky had at her wedding. She officially is Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise and two years ago when she was 17 (as was I) she married Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia. So having the same march for our wedding should put us in the realm of the quality. For the entrance hymn, Charles likes Handel’s Firework Music which is rousing, but I prefer Pachibel’s Canon in D which is slow and stately. I will defer to his wishes, as I am getting my way about so many things. We will have two hymns during the service as well which will be My God How Great Thou Art, and Breathe on me Breath of God. The church’s organist will play and the congregation will sing. I have decided to ask Sophia’s brother William to sing as a solo, The Lord is my Shepherd.

April 16th

Charles is very excited because he has managed to secure a copy of Charles Dickens’s latest book, The Tale of Two Cities, which was published on the 14th. Charles is well known to the book sellers, so they make sure he gets his choice of new books available. I look forward to reading it when he has finished.

He also writes that Leigh Hunt has died. Charles collected Leigh Hunt’s works and bound them back in 1851, and he does feel he is a worthy writer. However, Charles was led to believe that it is possible that Charles Dickens used Leigh Hunt when he was writing the character of Harold Skinpole in Bleak House. I had to reread it when he told me that, to see what sort of man he was; it wasn’t a flattering caricature.