Charlotte was born in
1816. She married John Woodroffe Workman,
one of the medical incumbents, in April, 1836. Two years later, they
baptise their first child. Charlotte Workman writes three of the
surviving letters to Henry Junior.
Charlotte seems to have suffered from bad health or
nerves, because a number of her references touch on this. Early on we
learn that she plans to have no more children for a while, if not at all.
She worries about the state of her house - apparently a Slade
characteristic - and she exhibits concerns in particular about her
husband’s expensive tastes. For a while they considered emigrating to
Australia. Charlotte perhaps unconsciously criticises this lifestyle by
remarking that if he could without [the three] horses, we should not
want to come to Australia, but we must be content. Eventually, Dr
Workman decides to leave and sells the practice to John Breach. The
Workman’s befriend the temporary curate, perhaps needless to say one of
Trollope’s ‘hunting parsons’, Mr Crowdy. Charlotte makes it quite clear
to her brother that Mr Crowdy’s mother has the status of a wealthy widow
and helps find a post at Cricklade. In 1841 Charlotte takes a trip to
Reading, apparently to get away from things and recharge batteries. She
most likely stays with her brother-in-law Dr Skeete Workman, the eventual
partner of her husband when they leave Cricklade.
Because Charlotte has married and left home,
inevitably her mother sees less of her than Fred and, when they leave
school, Anne and Benjamin, even though Charlotte brings the grandchild
Willy up everyday. Accordingly, we tend only to see Charlotte on the
periphery of what happens in the village. She attends the gypsy parties
and evening festivities at people’s houses, but, all in all, we do not get
as tight a picture of her as for the others. Nevertheless, she does give
us an elder sister’s view of Kezia and the seemingly endless number of
suitors she carries in her wake. She treads carefully, even in the
letters, aware that her standpoint causes offence.
Dramatis Personae;
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