Mr. & Mrs. Linton
'A splendid place carpeted with crimson...'
We are introduced to Mr. and Mrs. Linton in Volume I: Chapter VI.
Mr. Linton owned Thrushcross Grange until 1780.
Ellen “Nelly” Dean—in service at Wuthering Heights since she was a child—shares an episode relayed to her by the adolescent Heathcliff from November 1777.
“The rascals knew that yesterday was my rent-day; they thought to have me cleverly…to beard a magistrate in his stronghold, and on the Sabbath, too!”
Janet Gerzi tells us in The Annotated Wuthering Heights, “rent-day is the day when Mr. Linton collects rent from his tenants. This rent is payment for the use of land to grow crops as well as for a dwelling rather than a payment for lodging in our modern sense.” She adds, “as a magistrate or justice of the peace, Mr. Linton is empowered to judge and sentence [burglars]…sentences were harsh at this time.” 1
He pulled me under the chandelier, and Mrs. Linton placed her spectacles on her nose and raised her hands in horror. The cowardly children crept nearer also.
It is in this scene, we meet the entire Linton family, at home, at Thrushcross Grange.
Data collected for 1758 show that the majority of the ninety-seven offenses for which the penalty imposed was hanging were offenses against property, including burglary and housebreaking (Radzinowicz, Leon. A History of English Criminal Law (I), 1948).