But he had published his poverty in the public street, in a loud military voice, alleging it as a reason for not taking a particular house. If he had whispered it to an intimate friend, the doors and windows being previously closed, his vulgarity - a tremendous word in Cranford - might have been forgiven. Then Captain Brown had started badly, very badly, by openly referring to his poverty. In the first place, the ladies of Cranford had moaned over the invasion of their territories by a man and a gentleman. Of course, he had been forced to overcome great difficulties. I was surprised to learn that Captain Brown not only was respected, but had even gained an extraordinary place of authority among the Cranford ladies.

So, with all the delicacy which the subject demanded, I made inquiries of my hostess, Miss Jenkyns. I was naturally interested to learn what opinions Captain Brown had managed to win for himself in Cranford. Either he was fairly frightened to death by being the only man at the evening parties, or he was accounted for by being with his regiment, his ship, or closely connected in business all the week in the great neighbouring commercial town of Drumble, distant only twenty miles on the railroad. If a married couple came to settle there, somehow the man always disappeared. In my time Cranford was in possession of the Amazons. On the first visit I paid to Cranford, after I had left it as a residence, I was astonished to find a man had settled there - a Captain Brown. She spent many of her earlier years at Knutsford in Cheshire, which may be the model for the 'Cranford' stories, first published in 1851 as a serial in Charles Dickens' magazine ' Household Words'.įor more works by Mrs. Gaskell' after her marriage to a Manchester Unitarian minister, was born in London on Sept. Gaskell, originally Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson, known as 'Mrs.

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