ciated with the meeting, she appeared on 12 June looking assured and
composed, her long slender fingers clad in black gloves resting on the rail of the
dock before her, an elegant pink straw bonnet on her head.^53 Her fellow
‘conspirators’ were all men and included, besides Harker and Hall, George
Vomers, labourer; Charles Brierley, brass moulder; Samuel Smalley, insurance
agent; William Tweedale, farmer; Charles Moss, furniture broker and John
Hempshall, traveller.^54 Speaking in her own defence, the defiant Emmeline
announced that she would pay no fine and would continue to speak at the
Clough as long as she was permitted to be at large. Two of the men who also
refused to pay their fines, namely Harker and Hall, were sent to prison for one
month but the case against Emmeline was continually adjourned. Remaining
free, Emmeline took over the leadership role of chair for the meetings that
continued to take place Sunday after Sunday. She spoke enthusiastically to the
crowds, which might number 15,000, her pink bonnet visible from a distance;
since it rapidly faded in the summer sun, she made it anew time and time
again.^55 On one such occasion, 21 June 1896, Bruce Glasier noted in this diary
that the scene at the Clough was ‘a magnificent sight ... Mrs. Pankhurst’s ...
words rang clearly thro the dell ... she passed out of Park gates with an enthusi-
astic crowd in her train.’ When she had her name taken by the authorities,
Emmeline expressed her determination to go to prison rather than pay any
fine.^56 But although the fine remained unpaid, she was never sent to prison
probably because the magistrate feared the indignation of the public if he
treated a middle-class woman in such a manner.^57 When interviewed forThe
Labour Leader, the ILP weekly edited by Hardie, the question of whether she was
prepared to go to prison was pursued again. ‘Oh, yes, quite’, replied Emmeline
emphatically. ‘It wouldn’t be so very dreadful, you know, and it would be a valu-
able experience.’ She explained how she was able to go to prison without the
hardships of most of the other women she knew. ‘I have had quite a number of
offers of help in the housekeeping, and so on, from relatives, and though they
are not at all Socialists they are quite indignant at this persecution.’^58
At another Sunday meeting held on a sunny day in early July, Emmeline and
Richard, accompanied by their children, drove up to the gates of the Clough in
an open barouche, Keir Hardie and Mary Goulden occupying seats in the same
conveyance. On arriving at the gates, Emmeline and Hardie walked together to
the meeting place, smiling and acknowledging the cheers of the crowd of about
50,000 that echoed around the ravine. Emmeline flourished on the experience,
enjoying the rapport with the good-natured listeners. ‘Stipendiary Headlam
adjourned the cases for a week to see what would happen to-day’, she told her
sympathetic audience. ‘What happens is that I and the other women who were
before him on Friday are here doing that same thing as we were accused of
doing before.’ More cheering broke out. Emmeline waited for the noise to
subside before she continued. ‘Councillor Needham’s friends say he is being
boycotted. We as Socialists can sympathise with anyone who is boycotted. We
know from painful experience what it means.’ After another great cheer,
SOCIALIST AND PUBLIC REPRESENTATIVE