Blackwell Reference Online

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chaplain at the British Embassy in Brussels and Chaplain to King Leopold I, a Protestant with strong ties to Britain. Jenkins’s wife was active in finding out about the most suitable schools in Brussels for Charlotte and Emily to attend, and both husband and wife were most hospitable to the pair, until they found out that their invitations to spend Sundays with the family gave their guests “more pain than pleasure” (ECG, Life , ch. 11). The job of escorting the silent sisters from the Rue d’Isabelle to their parents’ home in the Chaussée d’Ixelles was very much disliked by the couple’s two sons John and Edward. The Brontës attended Anglican service at the Chapelle Royal taken by the Rev. Jenkins, though during a period of absence or illness his place seems to have been taken by “that unclerical little Welsh pony” his nephew Joseph Walker Jenkins, son of David and curate of Batley (to EN, 6 Aug 1843). The couple were unstintingly friendly to the Brontës, inviting Charlotte, with other English people, to Christmas dinner in 1843, just before she left the Belgian capital for home. ... log in or subscribe to read full text