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When does The Daisy Chain begin? One might imagine, from
the various clues given in the early chapters of the book, that it would
be possible to pinpoint the exact day, certainly the year, but - as with
nearly all Charlotte Yonge dating - the apparently specific information
turns out to be unreliable. Still, there are clues, and it seems worth
considering them.
As a basic premise, it is not unreasonable to assume
that, as Part One of the book was serialised in between July 1853 and December 1855, The Daisy
Chain cannot open later than its first appearance. And since, whatever
the exact year and day, there is no doubt that it opens in October (see
p 25 "the cold of a frosty October evening"), it cannot open
later than October 1852, a few months, perhaps weeks, earlier than Charlotte
Yonge was writing.
I had always vaguely supposed, from the fact that in
the first chapter Ethel and Norman are reading Henry V and specifically
the "Crispin's Day" speech, that they were doing so because
it was either St. Crispin's Day (October 25th) or its eve. Can one therefore
pinpoint the year by seeing when October 24th or 25th fell on the Saturday
preceding the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity, the Sunday which (in the
Book of Common Prayer) owns the Gospel reading about "taking the
lowest place" which is also read in that first chapter as being -
one assumes - the Gospel for the following day? But on investigation I
find that October 24th and 25th can never in fact fall on that particular
Sunday, as the latest date on which Trinity XVII can occur is October
17th. (The Sundays after of course vary because they depend on the date
of Easter, which can fall on any day between March 22nd and April 25th.)
The Crispin's Day clue turns out to be a red herring.
There can be no doubt, from its importance to the theme
of the book, that we must take Trinity XVII as a fixed point. As there
is never any indication that The Daisy Chain is other than contemporary,
we must look for years in the decade or so before 1853 when Trinity XVII
falls in October. It can only do so when Easter falls between 9th and
25th April, and we may discount the first date as that would make the
previous day fall in September. The relevant years, with Easter and Trinity
XVII dates are:
1840............. April 19.......... October 11
1841 .............April 11.......... October 3
1843............. April 16.......... October 8
1846............. April 12.......... October 4
1848.............April 23.......... October 15
1851 .............April 20.......... October 12
1852.............April............... October 3
Does Charlotte Yonge give us any more clues to the dating?
Most obviously, we know that the Sunday is Christening Sunday, the only
one in the month. Gertrude, nearly six weeks old, missed the previous
one, which suggests that it was a full month earlier - not quite two weeks
old is apparently too young, just as waiting for the next one, again presumably
a month later, when she would be about ten weeks old, is considered too
late. She has, you will remember, to be baptised on a weekday, with only
the nursery party present.
Now, Gertrude was born two days before Alan Ernescliffe
was brought into the May household by the impetuous doctor. (Dear man!
Quite apart from any impropriety, he had no notions of domestic inconvenience!)
Alan was taken ill when bringing Hector to school "at the end of
the previous summer holidays" (p 8). This must be late August or
early September -even the middle of September would beimpossibly late
- and although we do not know how long Alan lay ill at the Swan Inn it
was at least a week (p 9) and probably rather longer. This gives a birth
date for Gertrude no later, I think, than some time in the first week
in September, nor earlier than the last in August. (Keen Charlotte Yonge
students will recall that in Abbey-church, when the church dedication
takes place on 28th August, young Horace Woodbourne has already gone back
to school.)
A further pointer is the connection of the vital weekend
with Richard's return to Oxford from the tutor with whom he has been reading
for the whole of the long vacation. This suggests that it is the beginning
of the Oxford Michaelmas term, which is always about the middle of the
month. However, it is quite possible that Richard is going up a week early,
perhaps to retake that failed exam, so nothing conclusive is to be gained
this way, except to confirm that we cannot really be as late in the month
as that "frosty October evening" might suggest.
Charlotte Yonge does not tell us which Sunday of the
month was normally Christening Sunday, nor indeed whether it always fell
on the same Sunday of the month -though the implication is that it did,
and any experience of church arrangements will strongly suggest that it
was very likely to be a regular feature. A few chapters later, when it
is a question of the Taylor twins' baptism, there is some discussion about
the date of the next Christening Sunday (p 68). It is clear there that
Christening Sunday is the first in the month, for the conversation takes
place on a Saturday (incidentally, Norman's sixteenth birthday) and Ethel,
in reply to Richard's question, says "... The first of December is
Monday - yes, tomorrow week is the next." That places Norman's birthday
as November 29th and Christening Sunday as the first in the month.
Does it also completely solve our problem? Can we find
a year in which December 1st is indeed a Monday and Trinity XVII the first
Sunday in October? Unfortunately, no. The only year of our selection on
which December 1st was a Monday is 1851, when Trinity XVII fell on October
12th, the second Sunday in the month. In 1852, when it was the first Sunday,
December 1st was a Wednesday. There is, in fact, no year between 1800
and 1873 when Trinity XVII falls on the first Sunday in October and December
1st on a Monday: Charlotte Yonge has just plain got this wrong.
Or has she? Perhaps we are driven to infer from Richard's
questioning that Christening Sunday does vary - after all, Mr. Ramsden
is known to be an unsatisfactory incumbent, and this may be an instance
of his incompetence. If Christening Sunday was regularly the first in
the month, would Richard have needed to ask? There is a slight pointer
in this direction. Much later in the book, on p 286, we gather that December
21st, year unknown, was Norman's Christening Day. Whatever the year, that
can never have been a first Sunday, and in the appropriate period was
a Sunday only in 1834 and 1828, bringing the events of the opening of
The Daisy Chain notionally to 1850 or 1844 - neither of which is possible
according to the Trinity XVII-in-October criterion. Perhaps Norman was
a delicate baby and had to be done on a weekday - perhaps Charlotte Yonge
got this one wrong.
But to say that Charlotte Yonge simply got things wrong
destroys all possibility of deduction, and for the purposes of argument
I shall maintain that, at least in the early chapters of the book, she
was consistent: Trinity XVII falls in October and Christening Sunday is
the first in the month. Norman's Christening Day is mentioned much later
in the book and she may just have chosen a date at random. (Or been the
victim of a misprint: perhaps he was baptised on December 12th?). This
leaves us with the following possibilities:
1841 April 11 October3
December 1 - Wednesday
1846 April 12 October 4 December 1 - Tuesday
1852 April 11 Octobers
December 1 - Wednesday
1841, twelve years before the date of writing, does seem
rather too eajrly. 1852 would fit well with the publication date, but
it would put the later events of the book later than the time they were
written and I think we may assume that Charlotte Yonge from the beginning
envisaged her story spanning several years. 1846 - which is only one day
out for the "December 1st is Monday" criterion - really does
seem to be the best option.
Interestingly, it is also the year of all the possibilities
which best matches the chronology of The Trial, which is securely dated
by external events and is held to open in 1859. It begins soon after Easter,
just after the wedding of Hector and Blanche, Gertrude being then described
as twelve and Blanche "not seventeen". Hector is "barely
of age" - he was ten at the beginning of The Daisy Chain, as Blanche
is five. That apparently puts The Daisy Chain in 1847. But Gertrude's
birthday is in August or early September. If she is going to be thirteen
at the beginning of The Trial, and if we can believe that Charlotte Yonge
is wrong about her and Blanche's relative ages (and she often does muddle
things like that - look at the younger Underwoods and Brownlows) then
The Daisy Chain can be pushed back into 1846.
I therefore conclude, in spite of some discrepancies,
that The Daisy Chain opens on Saturday, 3rd October, 1846, that Gertrude
was born in the week between 25th and 31st August, and that Norman was
born on 29th November, 1830. Allowing for the possibility of a printer's
error, he could perhaps have been christened on Sunday, 12th December.
That brings us finally to another interesting possibility.
Ethel, we know, is "just fifteen" at the beginning of The Daisy
Chain: can this be taken to mean "just on fifteen"? That would
make it possible to assign her birthday to October 17th, the feast of
the Translation of St. Etheldreda and more nearly the stated eleven months
younger than Norman than if she has a late September birthday. Were she
an Underwood, with their saints' days birthdays, I would feel no doubt.
As she is a May - well, I wonder.
Hilary Clare
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