Vanishing for the vote by Jill Liddington

Author:Jill Liddington [Liddington, Jill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Social History, Social Science, Feminism & Feminist Theory
ISBN: 9781847798886
Google: 8GW5DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 2014-01-01T02:39:53+00:00

34 (a & b) The staircase of ‘Census Lodge’, Denison House in Manchester, presumably depicting the evaders listening to Rose Hyland’s speech. The photo is probably illuminated by limelight, as their expressions look startled.

The newspaper men did Jessie proud: their reports corroborated her later testimony. The Manchester Courier described ‘Census Lodge’ as ivy-covered, richly wainscoted, its staircase wide enough for six abreast; signs on the walls announced ‘No vote no census’, ‘Buffet’, ‘Concert’ and ‘To the Whist Drive’, while a women’s suffrage banner hung conspicuously in the hall. With its garrets and cellars, an underground passage leading into the garden and access out on to the roof, it was indeed perfect evaders’ premises.21

The outstanding Guardian, despite its editor’s grave reservations, had of course also dispatched a correspondent to Denison House (irritatingly for C. P. Scott, near his own home). The reporter noted that entry was gained only furtively as the house stood in its own grounds with a carriage drive up to the front door:

admission, however, was not to be had that way. A notice stated that all visitors must apply to a small side door, which proved to be round a dark corner and up a small flight of steps, which a single candle faintly illuminated. A knock caused a hurrying of feet inside. The ‘sentry’ on duty apparently gave a warning and someone came … to open the door on a chain. A man was a highly suspicious object, and [even] though he had the credentials of his newspaper an incautious question about the number of inmates revived but half-allayed fears, and the prompt rejoinder was ‘then you are an enumerator’.22

Jessie had organized for suffragette scouts to guard the mansion’s seven exits, with its seventeen rooms laid out with mattresses, evaders tucked away in all its rambling garrets and cellars. Just after midnight, the Guardian continued:

Mrs Rose Hyland led a party from the house, which is her property, to her home [Holly Bank] a short distance away. This party was to spend the night in the rooms she had prepared for their reception. Shortly afterwards sounds of revelry (!) broke out.23

The reporters, Jessie recalled, ‘thought the whole show extremely good fun and begged in vain to be allowed to remain all night for the revels’. However, a steely Jessie, gathering the men into her sanctum, told them she had allowed them access ‘to the whole show, including our splendid kitchen’, and so they should allow her to make a serious statement, for ‘a nice fat paragraph’. They instantly agreed. Years later Jessie remembered the scene: ‘I can see now those men all around me with their note books, the candles flickering, and Mrs Drummond gazing at me from her lowly Indian hay-bed’. Jessie then escorted them all offthe premises – except one reporter (probably the Guardian), plus a photographer, undoubtedly Robert Banks, who were allowed to stay.

Jessie had a deal table in her den ready for the long-awaited supper. Her secretary rushed in to say it was nearly midnight and forced her to have something to eat.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.