In a few weeks time a special event to celebrate Charlotte Mary Yonge – a bestselling writer in her day – will give participants a rare taste of the world she inhabited and the places she knew in the picturesque villages of Otterbourne and Hursley, writes Roger Ottewill…

 

BEING a ‘celebrity’ today means having thousands – even millions – of followers on social media. In 1893 for Charlotte Mary Yonge (pronounced ‘Young’), a prolific Hampshire author and darling of the press, it meant being given a leather-bound book containing 5,000 signatures of the great and good on her 70th birthday – including three-times prime minister, Lord Salisbury. Other peers also added their signatures, as well as the Archbishop of York and the Queen of Italy.

The gift was given with ‘hearty congratulations’, as an expression of ‘the great enjoyment…received from your writings’ and a ‘belief that they have done much good in this generation’. However, as it was put in the Eastern Daily Press and other newspapers, ‘there was no public presentation … [with] the album simply being left at the house for her’. Thus, no fuss, but one can assume that she was duly touched by the gesture.

This was huge endorsement of someone who at the time was truly a household name. Today she would be endlessly interviewed, have a biopic and maybe take part in radio and TV programmes. The contrast between the life of celebrities today and that of Charlotte Mary Yonge is considerable – and in view of her retiring personality she would probably have been the first to say so.

It is intriguing to ask why she was so enthusiastically feted and treated as a national treasure. A day-long celebration of the 200th anniversary of her birth being staged on June 24 – a collaborative venture between the Hampshire Field Club and the Charlotte Mary Yonge Fellowship - will elucidate this and many other facets of her life.

Held on her home turf around Otterbourne and Hursley, where she had many links with the Heathcote family – owners of the grand house now occupied by IBM – it will illustrate the Hampshire background that gave meaning to her life and inspired her works. There will be self-guided walks - designated Charlotte Mary Yonge trails - and a short concert given by ‘The Madding Crowd’ on the theme of the life of the old church and village of Otterbourne through her eyes and ears. Talks on various aspects of Charlotte’s life and a specially commissioned booklet produced with financial support from the Hampshire Archives Trust will illuminate little-known corners of the area.

So, who was Charlotte Mary Yonge and what was she like? A pen portrait published widely in the press in 1895, towards the end of her life, provides some answers. ‘In personal appearance, Miss Charlotte Yonge, the well-known novelist, is very tall, inclining to be stout. She has very large dark brown eyes, and very white hair, and has an immense amount of character and expression in her face.

‘She does not make a large number of intimate friends, but is very devoted to a few. She has a charming way of talking on any subject that interests her, speaking as though it were by accident that she knows more about it than those who may be conversing with her.’

‘Her handwriting is very neat and clean, a blessing to her publishers. She has many letters from Royalty and Royal children thanking her for her writings.’

Other press reports from this period included a sketch of the ageing Charlotte.

A few days after her death on March 24, 1901, the Chronicle devoted no less than four columns to an obituary and ran a full report of her funeral. Much was made of the close links that ‘this noble daughter of Hampshire’ had with Otterbourne. A village correspondent wrote that ‘here she has been known as a friend and neighbour, as a beloved mistress, as a teacher in the schools, as the mainspring and stay of every good work, [and] as the most familiar figure … for the last half century.’

Despite the ‘bleak, wintry weather’ hundreds attended her funeral. Amongst the mourners were many not only from Otterbourne, but also from Hursley, Eastleigh and Winchester, with representatives from the Mothers’ Union, Girls’ Friendly Society and other associations with which she had close links.

In addition, reflecting her religious sensibilities – which owed much to the influence of her father William Crawley Yonge, the Rev John Keble, champion of the Oxford Movement, and Sir William Heathcote, the owner of Hursley Park – there were many clergymen.

Her death was reported widely in the national press. The Times referred to ‘the strength and winning charm of her character’ as well as the influence of her publications. The Daily Chronicle spoke of a ‘life of quiet activity’ and the Daily News of her as being ‘one of the most fertile authors of the nineteenth century.’

In her early years, in the 1850s and 1860s, like many female authors she was not referred to by name, but simply as the author of the The Heir of Redcliffe, her first great success, published in 1853. Other bestsellers that the press trumpeted, included the family saga, Daisy Chain, published in 1856, which the West Middlesex Herald hailed as ‘a specimen of the author’s admirable style’. While her books for children were seen as models of their kind.

The London Sun homed in on her Instructive Picture Book or Lessons in the Vegetable World, which appeared in 1857: ‘We cordially confess that we have never met with so appropriate and excellent a work for the purpose of arousing and stimulating the young learner to a real love of this portion of Natural History’.

In later reviews from the 1870s and 1880s Charlotte is described in John Bull as that ‘most indefatigable of writers’ and in the Scottish Leader as ‘the domestic chronicler par excellence’. In 1890 the Yorkshire Post spoke of her ‘wonderful gift of narrative’.

However, not all comment was positive. The Morning Herald’s reviewer of her novel The Six Cushions published in 1867 wrote that although it was ‘thoroughly healthy in its tone’ it was not ‘a very animated or striking story’. Consequently, those looking for excitement and sensation would find it very dull.

Alongside her publications, the press made much of Charlotte’s generosity in supporting causes close to her heart. These included local schools, particularly provision for girls’ education, and missionary work in the South Seas. Indeed, the ‘romance of missionary enterprise’ strongly appealed to the Victorian mind and proceeds from the sales of her bestselling books were used to fund a missionary college in Auckland, New Zealand, and to fit out a ‘missionary schooner’.

By the end of her life she was as well known and adored by the press as a modern celebrity. At her death The Times, mourned the ‘sense of personal loss’.

The cost of attending the bicentenary celebration is £17, which includes a copy of the previously mentioned booklet, the musical contribution by ‘The Madding Crowd’, and tea or coffee.

To book, visit https://www.hantsfieldclub.org. uk/sections/localhist-yonge-day.html or contact Roger on rogerottewill@btinternet.com.