Eating Humble Pie

Saturday Morning

It has just struck six and I write these few lines, dearest, because Jane has promised to call about eight. I met her last night in the High Street about a quarter after eleven after leaving my sisters’. This is the first opportunity I have had, Maria of sending any answer to your affectionate note.
I regret dearest to hear that your aunt was hurt that I passed her without speaking but I did not know what to do as she did not look or speak to me. But I will send a note to her to explain… and I hope, dearest, you will go down on Tuesday as it seems such a long time and I am very anxious to see and consult with my own little Ria about a matter of deep importance to me. – I have thought it advisable to take a house in the …Road, about 3 doors from Limehouse Causeway – formerly held by Mr Batty. The house appears to be suitable for my purposes…for business purposes as a Ship Biscuit Bakery… It is pleasantly situated and a very convenient house. I am to pay 30 pounds a year – it has been letting for 40 pounds. I expect I must lay out about 80 pounds on the place for repairs and making shop…but my rent will not commence till Midsummer as I shall repair the house at my own expense.
I hope dearest you will approve of this and if in any way possible get Jane to bring me an answer from you today what you think and if you approve of it. I shall draw out the agreement myself but shall try and put off signing till I hear from you…

How about the …Bella??? Will Chas repair it now he knows it was mine… I hope dear Maria you and all our… well, for I must acknowledge I have a sincere regard for your mother, but you know Beloved she has behaved so queerly to me but I must not continue to be so proud. My happiness depends on you – dear Maria and I must eat humble pie and endeavor at the first opportunity to get in her good graces. I know for myself I not only forgive all but I really forget what has been said about me – I think your mother is of the same disposition – at all events I will try her.

I have no more to say at present dearest but to repeat that you are my own and only love that life has given me – lie yourself I shall always remain true and faithful – In the meantime, believe me ever your own affectionate and … Henry…

Yes, there are all kinds of tantalizing hints that emerge out of Henry’s somewhat disassociated prose, and mysteries too that we shall never now get to the bottom of. Jane is now starting to emerge as a vivid presence in the Limehouse and Poplar area as she runs between Henry and Maria looking for those moments when unseen she can surreptitiously slip into their hands the latest missive.

Henry’s mother, Elizabeth Hounsell, was also close by. In the 1851 census for Poplar she is living in 59 Canton Street. Later both she and her daughter were to move in with Henry and Maria.

As for Henry, he can do little right. On this occasion, we have an offended Aunt Sophia Wombwell, and as suspected all along, a falling out between Henry and Harriett Wombwell. Not that the tempestuous Henry feels that he is in any way in the wrong, mind you, but he is prepared nonetheless to be magnanimous. It can’t have been helping matters either that he also seems to have had an argument of some kind with brother-in-law to be Charles Robinson junior. Henry comes across as a man of an impulsive nature, prone to renting houses, drawing up agreements personally, and planning full scale conversions all within the space it would seem of a mere twenty-four hours.

Of course, the ship’s biscuits business makes perfect sense given the family tradition and skills and their docklands location. But, one can’t help recalling that when 1851 dawned Henry would be a commercial clerk in a building firm and set fair in a career that would eventually see him become a surveyor. This seems to be quite a career jump from biscuit baking for sailors, does it not? Again then, was it issues of social and occupational status that were causing this icy tension with his future mother-in-law? How did Harriett Wombwell respond to Henry’s overtures of peace and forgiveness? Did Maria approve Henry’s biscuit baking plan? Or was it killed off on the drawing board? Such questions, but no answers.

We can though consider the following facts about Limehouse and the surrounding areas. Limehouse Basin had opened in 1820 and basically connected the Thames and the English canal system. The Limehouse area as already discussed was one of the first multi-ethnic areas of England. Even at this time, African and Chinese communities were coming into being as ship’s crews were hired and laid off at either end of their voyages. As for the Chinese, it wasn’t just tea that they brought, for now around Limehouse spread the sinister network of opium dens that Sherlock Holmes would occasionally frequent.

Issues of hygiene and clean-living must also have been at the back of the minds of Harriett Wombwell and Maria Robinson. Back in 1832, the first case of cholera in London had been reported in Limehouse. The epidemic that followed killed 800 people. The second epidemic, as already mentioned, was in 1848, and carried away a further 14,000 victims, and the colds and fevers that are occasionally mentioned in Henry’s letters therefore acquire a somewhat more poignant and immediate significance. A further outbreak was to follow in 1858. If Henry Bradley was in a hurry therefore to get his hands on Maria, we should perhaps forgive him. And if Harriett Wombwell was somewhat inclined to prevent him, there were good reasons all round.