Saturday 6 June 2015

Apart from that, how did you enjoy the visit?

Sorry, but I keep finding Blackgang Chine out-takes. This one's from The Quiver and a serialised inspirational novel Borne Back, by Emma E Hornibrook, another late-Victorian writer with more credits than you'd think (cue bibliography).
As we once more placed ice upon her head there was another change: she shuddered violently, and raved of a wondrous chasm we had visited in the Island.
      "The Blackgang Chine,'' she murmured, "the Blackgang Chine! Why must I live for ever there! All darkness—all gloom—and that dreadful water ever dashing down. I cannot climb those heights—I cannot escape. Desolate—most desolate! I will not stay. Why force me downward!"
      With a wild motion she sought to fling herself from the bed, but the nurse's strong detaining hand was upon her with a calming touch. She yielded to its influence and lay still.
This is from Borne Back (By the author of "Allie; or, Into the Light,", True to a Trust, etc, etc", [serial in] The Quiver: An Illustrated Magazine for Sunday and General Reading, Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co., London, Paris & New York, Vol. XVI, 1881).

'See, miss!' he exclaimed, 'there is no danger if they can swim.'
Why all the Blackgang-xiety? Well, Borne Back is broadly a novel about (mild) loss of religious conviction: the narrator goes "frivolous" in some unspecified way, and recovers her faith at the end. It's also a real Mary Sue of a romance. It's not just a poor-but-pious outcome, but she ends up marrying the rich Hugh Capel, who has just inherited estates from his late father, General Capel.
      The problem with the Chine is that the family goes on a pleasant trip to the Isle of Wight (including its "singular chasms") ...
And then we went to Ryde; and in wanderings mid the lovely scenery of the garden isle, in the delightful breezes on the downs, in frequent excursions to its singular chasms, above all, in happy unhindered communion, my mind recovered its calm, and my fears were lulled to rest.
... but it all goes pear-shaped when the narrator’s brother drowns in a yacht race accident (the helmsman has “taken a draught from a secret flask”) and her mother is badly affected. All ends well, however, helped along by that convenient marriage into money.

A Guide to Irish Fiction has this to say about the author:
HORNIBROOK, Mrs Emma E., pseud. 'E.E.H.' ... Children's and religious fiction writer, possibly of Irish origin ... author of 15 works of fiction, at least two of which have clear Irish connections. She also was the author of 'Clouds', and 'Mad Phil', which have not been located.
- A Guide to Irish Fiction, 1650-1900 (Rolf Loeber, Magda Stouthamer-Loeber, Anne Mullin Burnham, Four Courts, 2006).
I think we can beat 15. I haven't got far with biographical details, but credits on many publications put her in America - Worcester, Mass. - in her later career, a supporter of peace and animal causes.

Addendum, 7th June
I have this from the 1915 Who's Who in New England:
HORNIBROOKE, Isabel (Isabel Hornibrook). author; b. in Ireland, of English parents; d. Nicholls Cole-Bowen and Emma Emilia (Bates) Hornibrooke; ed. under pvt. tutors; unmarried. First story accepted for an English magazine at 14; came to America in 1892, and subsequently established home in Worcester, Mass. Address: 23 Hollywood St., Worcester, Mass.

Isabel Hornibrook checks out separately as an author of the early 20th century - more later on that maybe - but this suggests that both mother and daughter were writers. But I don't get the chronology; and in fact I'm wondering if there was some overlap of pseudonyms and writing topics.


Bibliography for Emma E Hornibrook
  • Borne Back (serial, By the Author of "Allie; or, Into the Light," "True to a Trust," etc., etc. The Quiver, An Illustrated Magazine for Sunday and General Reading, Vol. XVI, 1881, page 239).
  • Through Shadow to Sunshine ((by Emma E. Hornibrook, Author of "Into the Light," "Rynge Castle," "True to a Trust," "Borne Back," etc., etc.London: Nisbet & Co., 1883 [1882]). Accessible online via the Bodleian: 014509463.
  • Life's Music; or, My Children and Me. [A story.] (by Emma E Hornibrook, author of "Maggie's Friend," "True to a Trust," "Borne Back," "Marvellous in our Eyes," "Through Shadow to Sunshine," "Faithful to the King," "Not a Stranger," etc., etc. London: Nisbet & Co., 1883). Accessible online via the Bodleian: 014512492.
  • Not a Stranger (serial - The Churchman's Penny Magazine, starting January 1883) - ad in Christian Progress magazine, 1883. 
  • Marvellous in our Eyes: a Story of Providence (by Emma E Hornibrook, New York: Cassell & Co., 1886 - one of Cassell's "Rainbow Series"). (Also serial in The Quiver, Vol. 18, starting c. April 1883, page 33): "a commonplace little story, that will hardly interest any but those who read everything" - The Critic, June 19, 1886.
  • Masterful Manerman (serial? - The Churchman's Penny Magazine, 1884?) - ad in Christian Progress magazine, 1884.
  • The Black Lady of Rynge Castle, and Other Sketches (author uncredited, London: The Religous Tract Society, 1884) - including The Black Lady of Rynge Castle, The Missing Key, The Outcast, Happy Mary, "That's Just Where I be Done!". This is probably the "Rynge Castle" credited via title in Through Shadow to Sunshine.
    The Black Lady of Rynge Castle, The Missing Key, The Outcast, Happy Mary, "That's Just Where I be Done!". 
  • Life's Music (by EE Hornibrook, The Primitive Methodist Magazine, Volume 65, 1884, page 58).
  • One Link in a Chain. [A tale.] (London: Gall & Inglis, 1885). Accessible online via the Bodleian: 014509549.
  • Worth the Winning (London: J. F. Shaw and Co., 1885). Accessible online via the Bodleian: 014511090.
  • Low in a Low Place: A Story - (S. W. Partridge & Co, 1886).
  • The Queen of the Family. [A tale.] (London: J Nisbet & Co., 1886).
  • Transito: A Story of Brazil (serial, Partridge & Co, 1887) - “a certain freshness in its abundant incidents of South American life in the forest and on the prairie, which may be attributed to the circumstance that its materials are not imaginary, but are derived from real records of missionary experiences” - Current literature, Daily News, London, November 16, 1887). Accessible online via the Bodleian: 014509528. 
  • Cost What it May: a Story of Cavaliers and Roundheads (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1897, Girls' Select Library series) “relates the experiences of Mark Hayward, an officer in the Puritan Army during the exciting times of the Civil War.” - Literature, Leeds Mercury, December 21, 1887.
  • The Shadow of Nobility (London: T. Woolmer, 1888).
  • More than Kin (London: CH Kelly, 1889).
  • Send and See. Miss De Broen's Belleville Mission in Paris. Edited by Mrs. E. E. Hornibrook. vol. 1. no. 1-16. Miss De Broen's Belleville Mission (PARIS), London, [1890-92].
  • Queen of the Ranche; or, Life in the Far West (Illustrated by John Proctor. Emma E. HORNIBROOK, and HORNIBROOK (John Lawrence), London; Sydney: Griffith Farran Okeden & Welsh, 1890).
  • The Lost Bar (by Mrs Emma E. Hornibrook, serial in The Manaro Mercury, and Cooma and Bombala Advertiser, New South Wales, 1890). Online: see National Library of Australia's Trove for installments.
  • Look on this Picture and That (A True Story), (poem, as Mrs EE Hornibrook, Advocate of Peace, Boston: American Peace Society, Vol. XV, No. 3, March 1893, page 1). Online at Internet Archive via JSTOR: jstor-27899855.
  • All is Fair in War as in Love, (poem, as Mrs EE Hornibrook, Advocate of Peace, Boston: American Peace Society, July 1, 1893, page 151). Online at Internet Archive via JSTOR: jstor-27899928.
  • Some Mother's Son, (poem, as Mrs EE Hornibrook, Advocate of Peace, Boston: American Peace Society, August 1, 1894, page 175). Online at Internet Archive via JSTOR: jstor-20665171.
  • The Spanish Maiden: A Story of Brazil (illustrated by EC Walker, SW Partridge, 1895).
  • The Lady of Greyham: or, “Low in a Low Place,” etc. [A new edition of “Low in a Low Place.”] (SW Partridge & Co., 1900).
  • Allie; or The Little Irish Girl (London: Gall and Inglis Edinburgh, 1900?). Credited also as “Allie; or, Into the Light" by E.E.H. The British Library provisional date of 1900 seems far too late; this title is credited in the 1881 The Quiver.
  • Changing Places (article in Household section, Emma E Hornibrook, The New York Observer, October 26, 1905, page 539). Online via Hathitrust.
  • The Merit of Mirth (article, Emma E Hornibrook, Western Christian Advocate, May 16, 1906, page 11). Online via Hathitrust.
  • A Reason of the Hope (article/letter from "Emma E Hornibrook, Worcester, Mass." The Epworth Herald. Vol. 18, July 1907, page 189). Online via Hathitrust.
  • Pet of the Family (poem, Our Dumb Animals, [Boston] Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Vol. 41, No. 1, June 1908, page 107). Online via Hathitrust.
  • Animal instinct (article, Our Dumb Animals, [Boston] Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Vol. 41, No. 1, June 1908, page 182).
  • Love's Moulding (poem, Emma E. Hornibrook, National Magazine, Vol. XXX, No. 5, August 1909, page 546). Online via Hathitrust.
  • The Fidelity Club (fiction - a comedy of misunderstanding - as Mrs EE Hornibrook, National Magazine, Boston: Chapple Publishing Co., Volume 31, No. 3, December 1909, page 289).

The Fidelity Club - Google Books scan
"A Christmas Party" - image adjacent to Pet of the Family - Hathitrust source.
- Ray

2 comments:

  1. Hey Ray, Hope things turned around for you. A new batch of crabs at
    http://crabcontest.blogspot.com
    I Google Mapped 23 Hollywood St. Worcester, MA. Amazing
    BJC

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Hope things turned around for you" .... they've got me home now, which is a deal more comfortable. R.

    ReplyDelete