7th September 2022

“When, however, one reads of a witch being ducked, of a woman possessed by devils, of a wise woman selling herbs, or even of a very remarkable man who had a mother, then I think we are on the track of a lost novelist, a suppressed poet, of some mute and inglorious Jane Austen, some Emily Bronte who dashed her brains out on the moor or mopped and mowed about the highways crazed with the torture that her gift had put her to. Indeed, I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman

Females:  At the moment I am listening to a book about Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) and the women who influenced her life.  Her mother Julia Stephens, was as beautiful as her daughter and from what I could gather, there was an Anglo-Indian thread in the inheritance.  I like Virginia Woolf's writing, she writes as she finds.

Julia Stephens

That a certain, what do you call madness these days I wonder? my daughter would call it 'being on the spectrum' made its way through different generations.  Virginia after all committed suicide and was a depressive and also a step sister Laura showed signs of not being able to communicate properly and was always dancing and singing as a child.  She did end up in a home at the end, mental institution maybe.

“Literature is strewn with the wreckage of those who have minded beyond reason the opinion of others.”

Virginia's mother fell deeply in love with her first husband and had three children by him before he died unexpectedly when fairly young.  She was to go on and marry Leslie Stephen, Virginia's father, their marriage bore four children.  Two brothers and a sister, Vanessa.  Not quite as well known as Virginia but of course the Charleston House and the set Vanessa was part of, had its own fame.

The title of Virginia's book  'A Room of One's own'  is rather touching, reminding us that certain things in life have to be fought for.

“Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.”

Today I read in the current political scene that we now have the third woman prime minister and within her cabinet, more ethnic people, I think four.  I am not sure what to think of course, so will offer no thoughts on the subject.  But go on to another woman in a slightly earlier period, Alice Hagan of Towneley. In the photo below she looks a determined lady.

Alice Hagan

She was pointed out to me by one of the volunteers.  This was Alice Hagan (1846-1946) who sold Towneley hall and 65 acres to Burnley Council because upkeep of the hall could not be covered by the land.  There is an overlap of time between the Stephens and the Hagan's family, who were both moderately wealthy middle-class families.

Yesterday I went through the Accession Register of furniture acquired over the years by the council at the Hall, Alice had not left much behind when she moved, two tables, a very large one in the entrance hall. Most of the furniture and collections we see today were donated by wealthy merchants I suppose.  Pinned butterflies, birds and wild animals taxidermied into a dead replica of themselves and I forgot to mention the Egyptian sarcophagus and its accumulation of various pots was in actual fact donated by Alice Hagan.

Inserts are Virginia Woolf's quotes.