Elliott’s Letter To Miss Rendall

This letter is in the Special Collection at Leeds University’s Brotherton Library, ref Nun Sc 49782. Dated 16^th January 1849, the letter is addressed to Miss Ellen Rendall, 1 Adam Street, Adelphi, London. (Adelphi was a district popular with well-to-do, well educated people). When Elliott wrote his letter, Miss Rendall was 29 years old and wouldn’t marry William Bridges Adams until she was 32 in 1852. Adams gets a mention in Elliott’s letter. The Corn Law Rhymer was an old man of 68 when he wrote the letter, was in poor health (he died in December) and saw few people in his isolated home near Great Houghton in the Barnsley area.

In his letter, Elliott refers to Miss Rendall as a friend. He also mentions that the two had met since he mentions sitting with her and reading poetry to her. Later in the letter (some of which is undecipherable), Elliott states that he had requested Mr Adams to return “Etheline.” Regarding “Etheline,” the poet continues: “I should leave it a fragment. The day of epics is gone. But I have made up my mind to trouble Mr Adams in autumn with it and a lot of Sundries to be called More Verse By the Corn Law Rhymer. Possibly I may see them in print for though I am very, very unwell, I think I must be mending, arr Mester gets so cross.” The latter being his wife.

William Bridges Adams did visit Elliott in the autumn as we have already seen. Both the works mentioned by Elliott were published posthumously. It is not known what role Adams had in preparing the volume for publication; something which may have been beyond the ailing poet.

It is clear that Elliott and the mysterious Miss Rendall were friends. Some lines in ‘Etheline” suggest she had local knowledge so perhaps she was brought up in the Sheffield area. Did Elliott read poetry to her locally or when in London?

When Elliott was in London, he would very likely stay with other Unitarians. Benjamin Flower (1755-1829) was an Unitarian and was Elliott’s first publisher. Benjamin was father to Eliza Flower and Sarah Flower, the two talented sisters who were admired by Elliott – and many others. From Emerson’s letter, we know that Miss Rendall moved in the same circle as the Flower sisters. It is quite possible that Elliott read poetry to Miss Rendall when he was in the company of Benjamin Flower and his famous daughters. (Eliza was to cause a scandal by setting up home with Rev W. J. Fox, another Unitarian, a political campaigner and a great orator. He was an ally of Elliott, admired his poetry and published some of his poems in the Monthly Repository which we have already met).

For further glimpses of Miss Rendall, we must examine “Etheline.” But before doing so, Elliott’s poem “Epistle” needs looking at.

Elliott’s Poem “Epistle”

No date has been found for this poem but it must have appeared before “Etheline” which was finished in March 1838. “Epistle” is interesting since it reveals information about Miss Rendall and about the epic poem “Etheline” which is linked to her. The title “Epistle” is significant: it was intended to be a letter to Miss Rendall. And the opening lines confirm that Elliott dedicated the poem to her:-

“Since Ellen Rendall deigns to say,

‘Write  me a poem!’ I obey.’

Obviously Miss Rendall made the request in one of the two letters she wrote to the bard.

Soon the Corn Law Rhymer praises Miss Rendall for the quality of her prose. Was this for prose in her letters or had she submitted other writings to the poet? (Would-be writers often submitted their efforts for Elliott’s comments). The poet then denigrates his own work: “Weeds in exchange for flowers I send” and “The best bad poems I can compose.” Elliott clearly feels his ancient years in comparison with the young woman who was only 28 when “Epistle” and “Etheline” were surfacing. It would seem too that the bard was flattered to hear from the young woman:-

“Thou, Ellen, though shalt be my Muse.”

And again:-

“Thy young soul’s beauty, wisdom, truth,

Shall wake in me a dream of youth.”

In the middle of “Epistle,”  we learn about the origins of “Etheline” :-

“Long ere I read a thought of thine

I plann’d a lay, called Etheline.”

Elliott had started the poem some time ago but had abandoned the project:-

“A thousand lines the song will end;

A hundred are already penn’d.”

And the poet would honour Miss Rendall by dedicating his epic to her:-

“Lady! I will inscribe to thee

A tale of Love and Jealousy.”

Background Information on Etheline

As Elliott says in his letter to Miss Rendall, “The day of epics is gone.” So this article’s focus is on Miss Rendall, rather than on the plot of the poem – though a few points are made here as little has been written about the poem. Probably there was a lack of interest in the  poem as it was published after the death of the poet.

In his preface to the poem, Elliott remarked “The subject of this poem is the doom of a female child.” He continued  “Etheline is an orphan child. The two main characters are Adwick and Lord Konig.”  He explained: “It is the first part of ‘Eth Kon- Tel’ – a story in three parts, each containing four books; each part, as a story, complete in itself.” The bard did not manage to complete “Eth Kon-Tel” leaving “Etheline’ standing by itself owing to the poet’s poor health and his death in December 1849.

Thomas Lister, a Quaker friend of Elliott, praised “Etheline” highly and revealed that the poem was prompted by a round walk of twenty miles which the two friends made to Conisbrough Castle soon after Elliott left Sheffield in 1841.

January Searle, who wrote books about his friend, Elliott, allowed that the poem was slated by the press, though he himself was impressed “for it is a poem of great power and beauty, and contains passages superior to anything which Elliott had previously written.” Searle also commented: “Etheline, which for musical flow and sustained beauty is not exceeded by any of his closest productions.” He pointed out though that there were blots in the poem caused by Elliott’s love of the horrible: for instance, the drowned woman who was a victim of Konig’s lust. Elliott accepted this criticism and promised to alter it, but death came along too soon.

“Etheline” is set in the River Don Valley. January Searle had once remarked that the River Don Valley looked like the bed of an ancient lake. Elliott seized on this remark and transformed the river into a lake “girt with its vast primeval woods.” We notice the poem is studded with local place names. Cadeby is a village several miles from the poet’s home; Denaby is not far from Doncaster; Roche Abbey is not far from Rotherham; Wharncliffe is several miles north of Sheffield; Conisbro is Conisbrough ten miles from Elliott’s home; Shirecliffe & Rivelyn are local place names. The Dun is the River Don which runs through Sheffield and Rotherham to the Humber. Kinder is the Kinder Scout plateau in the Peak District where Elliott sometimes walked. Adwick, a character of the poem, is actually a village fifteen miles from where the poet lived. (Another character, Konig, is the German word for king!).

Epic poems are always going to be long, and “Etheline” follows this trend. This epic has 73 verses though it should have 74 verses since Verse 7 of Book 3 is missing.

The elderly bard did well to produce so much in his declining years – and it says much about the ailing poet’s fascination with young Miss Rendall.

The length of the verses fluctuate: some are 4, 5 or 6 lines while some verses reach 40 lines long!

The Mysterious Miss Rendall Appears in "Etheline"

Although Miss Rendall had requested Elliott to write a poem for her, it is still surprising to see her name sprinkled throughout “Etheline,” which the poet dedicated to her. Each of the four books of the poem actually begin with a mention of Miss Rendall. The first line of Book 1 establishes the trend, with the poem beginning “Dear Ellen Rendall.”  Which reflects the letter notion seen in “Epistle.”

Twelve lines further on, the poet flatters his young friend though she makes him rueful about his age; something also seen in “Epistle.” Elliott writes in  Book 1:-

“Thou Ellen, thy young grace and truth,

May wake in me a dream of youth.”

These lines are similar to ones which occurred in “Epistle,” namely:-

“Thy young soul’s beauty, wisdom, truth

Shall wake in me a dream of youth.”

Wonder what Elliott was doing here? Or had the poet simply forgotten what he had written earlier? A senior moment perhaps!

Book 2 begins “Go, Ellen visit Conisbro’”  Note that Elliott doesn't need to explain to  Miss Rendall anything about Conisbrough and its famous castle. This indicates that Miss Rendall was familiar with the area. This suspicion is reinforced in Book 3 which begins:-

“O’er ‘Wharncliffe of the Demons, thou

Dear Ellen, hast a wanderer been.”

Not only are these lines affectionate but they reveal that Miss Rendall knew Wharncliffe which is only five miles from Elliott‘s Great Houghton home. “Wharncliffe of the Demons” was an early poem of Elliott which has not survived. Could the two lines actually mean that Miss Rendall was familiar with the poem? Or that the bard had read it to her? According to January Searle, the poem was written at a time when the young poet was fascinated by the macabre.

The first two lines of Book 3 about Wharncliffe are immediately followed by a couple of revealing lines:-

“Thy second letter places now

Before my soul the beauteous scene.”

This is where we learn that Miss Rendall had written twice to the bard. Unfortunately the letters have not survived. As both Elliott and Emerson replied to Miss Rendall in 1849, we can assume that her letters were dated 1849 or possibly the previous year. “The beauteous scene” would be Wharncliffe. Elliott then deplores that Miss Rendall has mentioned Wharncliffe which more or less confirms that she had local knowledge.

The Pseudonym  “The Nun”

At the start of this article, AI identified Miss Rendall as a novelist using the name “The Nun.” I pointed out that there was no trace of this. Nor could I find that there was a novelist called Miss Rendall. However, Elliott does compliment Miss Rendall on her prose. Possibly Elliott had seen unpublished manuscripts by Miss Rendall?

A further complication is that “Etheline” has a character called “The Nun.” In Book 3 Elliott mentions the “Nun of Snow.” This name also occurs in Book 4 Verse 7 and again in Verse 15 . Given that Elliott dedicated “Etheline” to Miss Rendall, is the use of The Nun a coincidence or is the bard being mischievous? There are more Nun references too. “Snowy Nun” appears in Book 4 Verse 20 and a “nun” gets mentioned twice in Verse 21. Would a nun fit with the other characters in the bizarre plot? Probably not.

Another oddity occurs in Book 3 Verse 3 where the Nun of Snow says: “Fear not, thou wanderer sad” which surely echoes the first line of Book 3:-

“O’er ‘Wharncliffe of the Demons’ thou,

Dear Ellen, hast a wanderer been.”

Again, this could be a coincidence, but who knows?  Linking Miss Rendall as The Nun is, of course, pure speculation. The Miss Rendall mystery continues!

Eliza Flower also appears in "Etheline"

As we have seen earlier, Eliza Flower and her sister, Sarah, were acquainted with Miss Rendall. We know this from Emerson’s letter. We also know that Elliott knew the sisters through their father Benjamin Flower (1755-1829), editor of the Cambridge Intelligencer and the earliest publisher of work by the Corn Law Rhymer. In fact, Benjamin’s wife, also called Eliza, was the subject of a poem by Elliott. Eliza (the daughter) actually set a poem written by Elliott to music – the poem was about Elliott’s Unitarian friend, Charles Pemberton. Further, we know that Elliott wrote to Eliza who has been described as a musical genius. It is clear that Elliott was in close contact with the Flower family. It is still perhaps surprising to see Eliza being mentioned in “Etheline.” This occurs in Book 2 Verse 1. After exhorting Miss Rendall to visit Conisbrough, Elliott writes:-

“Beneath shall wail the flooded Dun:

And Music’s Muse shall meet thee there.

Start not Eliza’s form to see

That castled mound’s brown shades among:

But bless the dead maid’s melody,

Nor marvel if her speech is song.”

Eliza had died in 1846 during the time Elliott was composing his epic poem. Elliott imagines Miss Rendall seeing the ghost of her friend at Conisbrough where the River Don (“the flooded Dun”) flows near Conisbrough Castle (“that castled mound”). Eliza was an outstanding musician.  “Music’s Muse” would accurately describe Eliza, as would talk of “the dead maid’s melody.”  The line “her speech is song” would indicate how people revered Eliza’s musical ability.

Sarah was to die in 1848 when Elliott was near to finishing his poem. The deaths of the two talented sisters would have been a great shock to the Corn Law Rhymer. Perhaps not too surprising then that Eliza was worked into "Etheline."

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