{"id":4716,"date":"2011-12-17T00:16:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-17T00:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/?p=4716"},"modified":"2011-12-17T00:16:00","modified_gmt":"2011-12-17T00:16:00","slug":"jilted-sydney-bride-made-a-dickens-of-a-yarn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/2011\/12\/jilted-sydney-bride-made-a-dickens-of-a-yarn\/","title":{"rendered":"JILTED SYDNEY BRIDE MADE A DICKENS OF A YARN"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/u>David Ellis<\/span><\/u> <\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

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FANS of 19th<\/sup> century British writer Charles Dickens are flocking to England for celebrations to mark the bicentennial of his birth on February 12 1812, and one story that’s sure to be told over and again is that of the tragic life of a young Sydney woman, Eliza Donnithorne \u2013 whom Dickens is said to have fictionalised as Miss Havisham in his classic Great Expectations<\/span><\/i>.<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

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The first of many exhibitions to be staged in <\/u>England<\/u> to honour Dickens is A Hankering after Ghosts; Charles Dickens and the Supernatural <\/span><\/i>that opened at the British Library in <\/u><\/u>London<\/u><\/u> in early December, and will run until March 4.<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

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From when he was a young boy Dickens had a fascination for ghosts which culminated in arguably his most famous novel, A Christmas Carol<\/span><\/i> in which the skinflint Ebenezer Scrooge changes his ways after a visit by three spirits. <\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

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He also based many of his reformist novels on personal experiences when growing up, including when his father was imprisoned in the notorious Marshalsea prison in Southwark for an unpaid debt to a baker. <\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

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The twelve-year-old Charles jumped school to work in a factory to help pay off his Dad’s debt; pilgrims this year will find only a part of the prison’s wall remaining, and a plaque placed there by the local council.<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

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Also marked by a plaque is the site of Furnival’s <\/u>Inn<\/u> in Holborn where Dickens rented rooms during the mid 1830s and began writing Pickwick Papers<\/span><\/i>, the serialised novel that set him on the path to popularity. Today the impressive Holborn Bars stands on the site and is home to many law firms and convention and meeting halls.<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

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Tavistock House on Devonshire Terrace, near <\/u><\/u>London<\/u><\/u>‘s Paddington Railway Station, is also marked by a commemorative inscription as it’s the location of the home in which Dickens wrote Bleak House<\/span><\/i> and A Tale of Two Cities<\/span><\/i> in the 1850s.<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

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And the town of <\/u>Shrewsbury<\/u> in <\/u>Shropshire<\/u> will also attract its fair share of Dickens disciples during his bicentenary celebrations: it was here in its Music Hall in 1867 that he gave the first-ever public reading of A Christmas Carol.<\/span><\/i> <\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/u>Shrewsbury<\/span><\/u> was also transformed into Victorian London for the 1984 filming of A Christmas Carol<\/span><\/i>, which starred George C Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge \u2013the movie’s grave of Scrooge still lays amongst a host of real ones in the grounds of the local St <\/u><\/u>Chad<\/u><\/u>‘s Church. <\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

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But what is not so well-known about Dickens was his fascination with <\/u><\/u>Australia<\/u><\/u> which he saw as “a place of opportunity,” and which he actively encouraged two of his sons to migrate to.<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

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He also had several close acquaintances settle in <\/u><\/u>Sydney<\/u><\/u>, and they sent him letters detailing “the many curious aspects of life in the colonies.” <\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

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One of these included the tale of Eliza Emily Donnithorne, the daughter of a retired East India Company judge with whom she lived in his gracious Camperdown Lodge in Sydney’s Newtown. The letter detailed how after her father’s death, Eliza was to have married in the Lodge in 1846, but on her wedding day and dressed in her wedding gown, her guests assembled in the Lodge’s large dining room, and with the wedding breakfast set before them, Eliza’s fianc\u00e9 failed to appear \u2013 and in fact was learned to be sailing to India.<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

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Jilted and heartbroken she bade her guests goodbye, locked the dining room with the wedding breakfast untouched, closed the window shutters and lived in the darkened house with two female servants until her death there 40 years later. The dining room was never opened again and the wedding breakfast moldered away until eventually eaten by rodents.<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

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Dickens allegedly turned the tragic and factual Eliza Donnithorne into the equally tragic and fictional Miss Havisham in Great Expectations<\/span><\/i> in 1860 \u2013 but unlike his Miss Havisham, Eliza did not live the rest of her life in her wedding dress: she lived four decades as a recluse, but well-off and comfortably, seen only by her servants, doctor, solicitor and clergyman.<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

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And bizarrely she kept the front door open, but secured by a chain, in the event her fianc\u00e9 may one day return\u2026 <\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

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Eliza Donnithorne died in Camperdown Lodge in 1886 aged 60, and is buried in nearby Camperdown cemetery in the same grave as her father. <\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

PHOTO CAPTIONS:<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/u>\u00a0<\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

[] CAMPERDOWN Lodge, where Eliza Donnithorne was jilted and lived the\u00a0 <\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 next\u00a0 40-years in virtual darkness.<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

[] ELIZA was buried in the same grave as her father in <\/u>Camperdown<\/u> <\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 Cemetery.<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

[] CHARLES Dickens: fascination for ghosts \u2013 and <\/u><\/u>Australia<\/u><\/u> and the tale of the tragic Eliza Donnithorne.<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

[] MOCK “grave” of Ebenezer Scrooge in St <\/u>Chad<\/u>‘s churchyard in <\/u><\/u>Shrewsbury<\/u><\/u>.<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

[] MARSHALSEA Prison where Dickens’ father was jailed over a small debt; <\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 the young Charles left school to work in a factory to have his Dad freed.<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

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(Photos: Friends of Charles Dickens<\/span><\/i>)<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Ellis \u00a0 FANS of 19th century British writer Charles Dickens are flocking to England for celebrations to mark the bicentennial of his birth on February 12 1812, and one story that’s sure to be told over and again is that of the tragic life of a young Sydney woman, Eliza Donnithorne \u2013 whom Dickens […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[376],"class_list":["post-4716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-david-ellis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4716\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}