Letters to Gezelle Handelsonderwijs Burgerschool

Michiel Debruyne is a doctor in law. For some time he worked as a keeper of the archives in Roeselare. He has written and published a lot about the history of Roeselare. His love for Guido Gezelle was an almost evident result of this. He's also a member of the Gezellesociety.

Michiel Debruyne, what has been your role in the commemoration of Gezelle in Roeselare?

The commemoration of Gezelle is centered in Brugge, Kortrijk and Roeselare.

Many activities have been planned here, such as the edition of a book about the life of Gezelle in Roeselare. I agreed to coöperate and applied myself to the study of the many letters that the people of Roeselare wrote to Gezelle.

Out of the 4929 letters that are kept in the Gezelle archive in Brugge, I selected 211 letters that were written from Roeselare and surroundings. They came from 43 different people, of which half were English. In the 19th century a number of English students found accomodation in Roeselare.

Gezelle had met these students in the Klein Seminarie. After his ordainment he was assigned as a teacher of the English colony in Roeselare. Immediately, a friendly bond was brought about with his students. Even after he had left Roeselare, they kept writing him.

What were all these letters about?

All sorts of themes occur!

1. Lifeproblems: for the boys who were away from home for quite some time, Guido Gezelle was like a father.

2. Linguistic problems: e.g. the meaning of old expressions.

3.Poetry, about which Gezelle's opinion was asked. A lot of his pupils were literary talented, a.o. Hugo Verriest.

These letters often illustrate the Flemish disposition of some of his pupils (think about Albrecht Rodenbach).

Was it difficult to collect the letters addressed to Gezelle?

Not really, they are kept in the Gezelle-archives.

It's more difficult to find the letter addressed to people of Roeselare itself. Nevertheless, he carried on a lively correspondence with English families and people from Roeselare.

Many of these letters are probably still in private property. I am mainly interested in his letters to English students and the answers he received from them.

Whoever has letters of Gezelle in his property, here in Roeselare as well as in England, please contact me:

Michiel Debruyne
Zeger Malfaitstraat 31
8800 Rumbeke

This is a list of the possible English owners of a letter from Gezelle:

Joseph Algar, John Browne, Michael Buckleigh, Christophers, William Clifford, William Coppinger, William Crombleholme, Charles Edmonstone, John en Thomas Edwards, George Fitzgerald, Ignace Fortheringham, Arnie, George William en Thomas Gadd, Thomas Grant, Henry Harford, Edmond en John Hicks, Charles, Arnie en Richard Hill, Charles Hines, Augustin MacDonogh, James Nugent, Henri O'Hara, Joseph Oxburry, Thomas Parnell, Thomas Quinn, Arthur en Cuthbert Robinson, Frederick Rodgers, Richard William Roskell, John Sutton, Henry Yares.

You can also get in touch via e-mail with Filip Santens. Email: filip.santens@burgerschool.be

Thank you for your co-operation!