Beadle's Dime Novels No. 47: Tim Bumble's Charge

Tim Bumble's Charge; Mrs. Lattison's One Great Sorrow by Mary A. Denison is a domestic narrative serialized in Beadle's Dime Novels. The story centers on a river-bank community where Tim Bumble, an Irish fisherman, serves as confidant to young Arty Reynolds. Bumble tells the child of a dark family legend: a handsome bridegroom from the Lattison family who murdered his bride the morning after their wedding, seemingly driven to madness, though the perpetrator remains officially unnamed to protect present family members. The Lattisons subsequently return to their grand estate, "the Grove," after ten years abroad, bringing servants and wealth. Their teenage children, Harrison and his younger sister Anne—fragile, melancholic, and devoted to her brother—attract the neighboring Reynolds children's interest. The narrative establishes atmospheric tension through suggestions of hereditary instability and hidden tragedy within the wealthy Lattison family.