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+Project Gutenberg Etext of Life of Charlotte Bronte by Gaskell V 1
+#3 in our series by Elizabeth Claghorn Gaskell
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+The Life of Charlotte Bronte - Volume 1
+
+by Elizabeth Claghorn Gaskell
+
+July, 1999  [Etext #1827]
+
+
+Project Gutenberg Etext of Life of Charlotte Bronte by Gaskell V 1
+******This file should be named 1locb10.txt or 1locb10.zip******
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+This etext was prepared by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
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+
+
+
+The volume 2 that we've released appears to be from the first edition of
+the book.  My book appears to be the third edition of the book.
+
+Normally this would not matter at all but unfortunately in this case it
+does.  Mrs Gaskell had to remove a great deal of material after the second
+edition was published after legal threats.  She did this but also added a
+great deal of new material.  Hence the first/second editions differ
+significantly from the third.  Anyone interested in this book is likely to
+want complete etexts of the first/second and third versions - so they can
+see what Mrs Gaskell changed (and presumably work out why).
+
+In the short term I'm not proposing to do a volume 2 from my edition as it
+scanned rather poorly.  If anyone really pushes for it I will transcribe
+the rest of it from my copy.
+
+
+This etext was prepared by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
+from the 1906 Smith, Elder and Co. edition.
+
+
+
+
+
+The Life of Charlotte Bronte
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+
+The Leeds and Skipton railway runs along a deep valley of the
+Aire; a slow and sluggish stream, compared to the neighbouring
+river of Wharfe.  Keighley station is on this line of railway,
+about a quarter of a mile from the town of the same name.  The
+number of inhabitants and the importance of Keighley have been
+very greatly increased during the last twenty years, owing to the
+rapidly extended market for worsted manufactures, a branch of
+industry that mainly employs the factory population of this part
+of Yorkshire, which has Bradford for its centre and metropolis.
+
+Keighley is in process of transformation from a populous, old-
+fashioned village, into a still more populous and flourishing
+town.  It is evident to the stranger, that as the gable-ended
+houses, which obtrude themselves corner-wise on the widening
+street, fall vacant, they are pulled down to allow of greater
+space for traffic, and a more modern style of architecture.  The
+quaint and narrow shop-windows of fifty years ago, are giving way
+to large panes and plate-glass.  Nearly every dwelling seems
+devoted to some branch of commerce.  In passing hastily through
+the town, one hardly perceives where the necessary lawyer and
+doctor can live, so little appearance is there of any dwellings of
+the professional middle-class, such as abound in our old cathedral
+towns.  In fact, nothing can be more opposed than the state of
+society, the modes of thinking, the standards of reference on all
+points of morality, manners, and even politics and religion, in
+such a new manufacturing place as Keighley in the north, and any
+stately, sleepy, picturesque cathedral town in the south.  Yet the
+aspect of Keighley promises well for future stateliness, if not
+picturesqueness.  Grey stone abounds; and the rows of houses built
+of it have a kind of solid grandeur connected with their uniform
+and enduring lines.  The frame-work of the doors, and the lintels
+of the windows, even in the smallest dwellings, are made of blocks
+of stone.  There is no painted wood to require continual
+beautifying, or else present a shabby aspect; and the stone is
+kept scrupulously clean by the notable Yorkshire housewives.  Such
+glimpses into the interior as a passer-by obtains, reveal a rough
+abundance of the means of living, and diligent and active habits
+in the women.  But the voices of the people are hard, and their
+tones discordant, promising little of the musical taste that
+distinguishes the district, and which has already furnished a
+Carrodus to the musical world.  The names over the shops (of which
+the one just given is a sample) seem strange even to an inhabitant
+of the neighbouring county, and have a peculiar smack and flavour
+of the place.
+
+The town of Keighley never quite melts into country on the road to
+Haworth, although the houses become more sparse as the traveller
+journeys upwards to the grey round hills that seem to bound his
+journey in a westerly direction.  First come some villas; just
+sufficiently retired from the road to show that they can scarcely
+belong to any one liable to be summoned in a hurry, at the call of
+suffering or danger, from his comfortable fire-side; the lawyer,
+the doctor, and the clergyman, live at hand, and hardly in the
+suburbs, with a screen of shrubs for concealment.
+
+In a town one does not look for vivid colouring; what there may be
+of this is furnished by the wares in the shops, not by foliage or
+atmospheric effects; but in the country some brilliancy and
+vividness seems to be instinctively expected, and there is
+consequently a slight feeling of disappointment at the grey
+neutral tint of every object, near or far off, on the way from
+Keighley to Haworth.  The distance is about four miles; and, as I
+have said, what with villas, great worsted factories, rows of
+workmen's houses, with here and there an old-fashioned farmhouse
+and outbuildings, it can hardly be called "country" any part of
+the way.  For two miles the road passes over tolerably level
+ground, distant hills on the left, a "beck" flowing through
+meadows on the right, and furnishing water power, at certain
+points, to the factories built on its banks.  The air is dim and
+lightless with the smoke from all these habitations and places of
+business.  The soil in the valley (or "bottom," to use the local
+term) is rich; but, as the road begins to ascend, the vegetation
+becomes poorer; it does not flourish, it merely exists; and,
+instead of trees, there are only bushes and shrubs about the
+dwellings.  Stone dykes are everywhere used in place of hedges;
+and what crops there are, on the patches of arable land, consist
+of pale, hungry-looking, grey green oats.  Right before the
+traveller on this road rises Haworth village; he can see it for
+two miles before he arrives, for it is situated on the side of a
+pretty steep hill, with a back-ground of dun and purple moors,
+rising and sweeping away yet higher than the church, which is
+built at the very summit of the long narrow street.  All round the
+horizon there is this same line of sinuous wave-like hills; the
+scoops into which they fall only revealing other hills beyond, of
+similar colour and shape, crowned with wild, bleak moors--grand,
+from the ideas of solitude and loneliness which they suggest, or
+oppressive from the feeling which they give of being pent-up by
+some monotonous and illimitable barrier, according to the mood of
+mind in which the spectator may be.
+
+For a short distance the road appears to turn away from Haworth,
+as it winds round the base of the shoulder of a hill; but then it
+crosses a bridge over the "beck," and the ascent through the
+village begins.  The flag-stones with which it is paved are placed
+end-ways, in order to give a better hold to the horses' feet; and,
+even with this help, they seem to be in constant danger of
+slipping backwards.  The old stone houses are high compared to the
+width of the street, which makes an abrupt turn before reaching
+the more level ground at the head of the village, so that the
+steep aspect of the place, in one part, is almost like that of a
+wall.  But this surmounted, the church lies a little off the main
+road on the left; a hundred yards, or so, and the driver relaxes
+his care, and the horse breathes more easily, as they pass into
+the quite little by-street that leads to Haworth Parsonage.  The
+churchyard is on one side of this lane, the school-house and the
+sexton's dwelling (where the curates formerly lodged) on the
+other.
+
+The parsonage stands at right angles to the road, facing down upon
+the church; so that, in fact, parsonage, church, and belfried
+school-house, form three sides of an irregular oblong, of which
+the fourth is open to the fields and moors that lie beyond.  The
+area of this oblong is filled up by a crowded churchyard, and a
+small garden or court in front of the clergyman's house.  As the
+entrance to this from the road is at the side, the path goes round
+the corner into the little plot of ground.  Underneath the windows
+is a narrow flower-border, carefully tended in days of yore,
+although only the most hardy plants could be made to grow there.
+Within the stone wall, which keeps out the surrounding churchyard,
+are bushes of elder and lilac; the rest of the ground is occupied
+by a square grass-plot and a gravel walk.  The house is of grey
+stone, two stories high, heavily roofed with flags, in order to
+resist the winds that might strip off a lighter covering.  It
+appears to have been built about a hundred years ago, and to
+consist of four rooms on each story; the two windows on the right
+(as the visitor stands with his back to the church, ready to enter
+in at the front door) belonging to Mr. Bronte's study, the two on
+the left to the family sitting-room.  Everything about the place
+tells of the most dainty order, the most exquisite cleanliness.
+The door-steps are spotless; the small old-fashioned window-panes
+glitter like looking-glass.  Inside and outside of that house
+cleanliness goes up into its essence, purity.
+
+The little church lies, as I mentioned, above most of the houses
+in the village; and the graveyard rises above the church, and is
+terribly full of upright tombstones.  The chapel or church claims
+greater antiquity than any other in that part of the kingdom; but
+there is no appearance of this in the external aspect of the
+present edifice, unless it be in the two eastern windows, which
+remain unmodernized, and in the lower part of the steeple.
+Inside, the character of the pillars shows that they were
+constructed before the reign of Henry VII.  It is probable that
+there existed on this ground, a "field-kirk," or oratory, in the
+earliest times; and, from the Archbishop's registry at York, it is
+ascertained that there was a chapel at Haworth in 1317.  The
+inhabitants refer inquirers concerning the date to the following
+inscription on a stone in the church tower:-
+
+
+"Hic fecit Caenobium Monachorum Auteste fundator.  A. D.
+sexcentissimo."
+
+
+That is to say, before the preaching of Christianity in
+Northumbria.  Whitaker says that this mistake originated in the
+illiterate copying out, by some modern stone-cutter, of an
+inscription in the character of Henry the Eighth's time on an
+adjoining stone:-
+
+
+"Orate pro bono statu Eutest Tod."
+
+"Now every antiquary knows that the formula of prayer 'bono statu'
+always refers to the living.  I suspect this singular Christian
+name has been mistaken by the stone-cutter for Austet, a
+contraction of Eustatius, but the word Tod, which has been mis-
+read for the Arabic figures 600, is perfectly fair and legible.
+On the presumption of this foolish claim to antiquity, the people
+would needs set up for independence, and contest the right of the
+Vicar of Bradford to nominate a curate at Haworth."
+
+
+I have given this extract, in order to explain the imaginary
+groundwork of a commotion which took place in Haworth about five
+and thirty years ago, to which I shall have occasion to allude
+again more particularly.
+
+The interior of the church is commonplace; it is neither old
+enough nor modern enough to compel notice.  The pews are of black
+oak, with high divisions; and the names of those to whom they
+belong are painted in white letters on the doors.  There are
+neither brasses, nor altar-tombs, nor monuments, but there is a
+mural tablet on the right-hand side of the communion-table,
+bearing the following inscription:-
+
+
+HERE
+LIE THE REMAINS OF
+MARIA BRONTE, WIFE
+OF THE
+REV. P. BRONTE, A.B., MINISTER OP HAWORTH.
+HER SOUL
+DEPARTED TO THE SAVIOUR, SEPT. 15TH, 1821,
+IN THE 39TH YEAR OF HER AGE.
+
+"Be ye also ready:  for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of
+Man cometh."  MATTHEW xxiv. 44.
+
+ALSO HERE LIE THE REMAINS OF
+MARIA BRONTE, DAUGHTER OF THE AFORESAID;
+SHE DIED ON THE
+6TH OF MAY, 1825, IN THE 12TH YEAR OF HER AGE;
+AND OF
+ELIZABETH BRONTE, HER SISTER,
+WHO DIED JUNE 15TH, 1825, IN THE 11TH YEAR OF HER AGE.
+
+"Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as
+little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."--
+MATTHEW xviii. 3.
+
+HERE ALSO LIE THE REMAINS OF
+PATRICK BRANWELL BRONTE,
+WHO DIED SEPT. 24TH, 1848, AGED 3O YEARS;
+AND OF
+EMILY JANE BRONTE,
+WHO DIED DEC. 19TH, 1848, AGED 29 YEARS,
+SON AND DAUGHTER OF THE
+REV. P. BRONTE, INCUMBENT.
+
+THIS STONE IS ALSO DEDICATED TO THE
+MEMORY OF ANNE BRONTE, {1}
+YOUNGEST DAUGHTER OF THE REV. P. BRONTE, A.B.
+SHE DIED, AGED 27 YEARS, MAY 28TH, 1849,
+AND WAS BURIED AT THE OLD CHURCH, SCARBORO.'
+
+
+At the upper part of this tablet ample space is allowed between
+the lines of the inscription; when the first memorials were
+written down, the survivors, in their fond affection, thought
+little of the margin and verge they were leaving for those who
+were still living.  But as one dead member of the household
+follows another fast to the grave, the lines are pressed together,
+and the letters become small and cramped.  After the record of
+Anne's death, there is room for no other.
+
+But one more of that generation--the last of that nursery of six
+little motherless children--was yet to follow, before the
+survivor, the childless and widowed father, found his rest.  On
+another tablet, below the first, the following record has been
+added to that mournful list:-
+
+
+ADJOINING LIE THE REMAINS OF
+CHARLOTTE, WIFE
+OF THE
+REV. ARTHUR BELL NICHOLLS, A.B.,
+AND DAUGHTER OF THE REV. P.  BRONTE, A.B., INCUMBENT
+SHE DIED MARCH 31ST, 1855, IN THE 39TH
+YEAR OF HER AGE. {2}
+
+
+This tablet, which corrects the error in the former tablet as to
+the age of Anne Bronte, bears the following inscription in Roman
+letters; the initials, however, being in old English.
+
+In Memory of
+Maria, wife of the Rev. P. Bronte, A.B., Minister of Haworth,
+She died Sept. 15th, 1821, in the 39th year of her age.
+Also, of Maria, their daughter, who died May 6th, 1825, in the
+12th year of her age.
+Also, of Elizabeth, their daughter, who died June 15th, 1825, in
+the 11th year of her age.
+Also, of Patrick Branwell, their son, who died Sept. 24th, 1848,
+aged 31 years.
+Also, of Emily Jane, their daughter, who died Dec. 19th, 1848,
+aged 30 years.
+Also, of Anne, their daughter, who died May 28th, 1849, aged 29
+years.  She was buried at the Old Church, Scarborough.
+Also, of Charlotte, their daughter, wife of the Rev. A. B.
+Nicholls, B.A.  She died March 31st, 1855, in the 39th year of her
+age.
+"The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law,
+but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord
+Jesus Christ."--1 Cor. xv. 56, 57.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+
+For a right understanding of the life of my dear friend, Charlotte
+Bronte, it appears to me more necessary in her case than in most
+others, that the reader should be made acquainted with the
+peculiar forms of population and society amidst which her earliest
+years were passed, and from which both her own and her sisters'
+first impressions of human life must have been received.  I shall
+endeavour, therefore, before proceeding further with my work, to
+present some idea of the character of the people of Haworth, and
+the surrounding districts.
+
+Even an inhabitant of the neighbouring county of Lancaster is
+struck by the peculiar force of character which the Yorkshiremen
+display.  This makes them interesting as a race; while, at the
+same time, as individuals, the remarkable degree of self-
+sufficiency they possess gives them an air of independence rather
+apt to repel a stranger.  I use this expression "self-sufficiency"
+in the largest sense.  Conscious of the strong sagacity and the
+dogged power of will which seem almost the birthright of the
+natives of the West Riding, each man relies upon himself, and
+seeks no help at the hands of his neighbour.  From rarely
+requiring the assistance of others, he comes to doubt the power of
+bestowing it:  from the general success of his efforts, he grows
+to depend upon them, and to over-esteem his own energy and power.
+He belongs to that keen, yet short-sighted class, who consider
+suspicion of all whose honesty is not proved as a sign of wisdom.
+The practical qualities of a man are held in great respect; but
+the want of faith in strangers and untried modes of action,
+extends itself even to the manner in which the virtues are
+regarded; and if they produce no immediate and tangible result,
+they are rather put aside as unfit for this busy, striving world;
+especially if they are more of a passive than an active character.
+The affections are strong and their foundations lie deep:  but
+they are not--such affections seldom are--wide-spreading; nor do
+they show themselves on the surface.  Indeed, there is little
+display of any of the amenities of life among this wild, rough
+population.  Their accost is curt; their accent and tone of speech
+blunt and harsh.  Something of this may, probably, be attributed
+to the freedom of mountain air and of isolated hill-side life;
+something be derived from their rough Norse ancestry.  They have a
+quick perception of character, and a keen sense of humour; the
+dwellers among them must be prepared for certain uncomplimentary,
+though most likely true, observations, pithily expressed.  Their
+feelings are not easily roused, but their duration is lasting.
+Hence there is much close friendship and faithful service; and for
+a correct exemplification of the form in which the latter
+frequently appears, I need only refer the reader of "Wuthering
+Heights" to the character of "Joseph."
+
+From the same cause come also enduring grudges, in some cases
+amounting to hatred, which occasionally has been bequeathed from
+generation to generation.  I remember Miss Bronte once telling me
+that it was a saying round about Haworth, "Keep a stone in thy
+pocket seven year; turn it, and keep it seven year longer, that it
+may be ever ready to thine hand when thine enemy draws near."
+
+The West Riding men are sleuth-hounds in pursuit of money.  Miss
+Bronte related to my husband a curious instance illustrative of
+this eager desire for riches.  A man that she knew, who was a
+small manufacturer, had engaged in many local speculations which
+had always turned out well, and thereby rendered him a person of
+some wealth.  He was rather past middle age, when he bethought him
+of insuring his life; and he had only just taken out his policy,
+when he fell ill of an acute disease which was certain to end
+fatally in a very few days.  The doctor, half-hesitatingly,
+revealed to him his hopeless state.  "By jingo!" cried he, rousing
+up at once into the old energy, "I shall DO the insurance company!
+I always was a lucky fellow!"
+
+These men are keen and shrewd; faithful and persevering in
+following out a good purpose, fell in tracking an evil one.  They
+are not emotional; they are not easily made into either friends or
+enemies; but once lovers or haters, it is difficult to change
+their feeling.  They are a powerful race both in mind and body,
+both for good and for evil.
+
+The woollen manufacture was introduced into this district in the
+days of Edward III.  It is traditionally said that a colony of
+Flemings came over and settled in the West Riding to teach the
+inhabitants what to do with their wool.  The mixture of
+agricultural with manufacturing labour that ensued and prevailed
+in the West Riding up to a very recent period, sounds pleasant
+enough at this distance of time, when the classical impression is
+left, and the details forgotten, or only brought to light by those
+who explore the few remote parts of England where the custom still
+lingers.  The idea of the mistress and her maidens spinning at the
+great wheels while the master was abroad ploughing his fields, or
+seeing after his flocks on the purple moors, is very poetical to
+look back upon; but when such life actually touches on our own
+days, and we can hear particulars from the lips of those now
+living, there come out details of coarseness--of the uncouthness
+of the rustic mingled with the sharpness of the tradesman--of
+irregularity and fierce lawlessness--that rather mar the vision of
+pastoral innocence and simplicity.  Still, as it is the
+exceptional and exaggerated characteristics of any period that
+leave the most vivid memory behind them, it would be wrong, and in
+my opinion faithless, to conclude that such and such forms of
+society and modes of living were not best for the period when they
+prevailed, although the abuses they may have led into, and the
+gradual progress of the world, have made it well that such ways
+and manners should pass away for ever, and as preposterous to
+attempt to return to them, as it would be for a man to return to
+the clothes of his childhood.
+
+The patent granted to Alderman Cockayne, and the further
+restrictions imposed by James I. on the export of undyed woollen
+cloths (met by a prohibition on the part of the States of Holland
+of the import of English-dyed cloths), injured the trade of the
+West Riding manufacturers considerably.  Their independence of
+character, their dislike of authority, and their strong powers of
+thought, predisposed them to rebellion against the religious
+dictation of such men as Laud, and the arbitrary rule of the
+Stuarts; and the injury done by James and Charles to the trade by
+which they gained their bread, made the great majority of them
+Commonwealth men.  I shall have occasion afterwards to give one or
+two instances of the warm feelings and extensive knowledge on
+subjects of both home and foreign politics existing at the present
+day in the villages lying west and east of the mountainous ridge
+that separates Yorkshire and Lancashire; the inhabitants of which
+are of the same race and possess the same quality of character.
+
+The descendants of many who served under Cromwell at Dunbar, live
+on the same lands as their ancestors occupied then; and perhaps
+there is no part of England where the traditional and fond
+recollections of the Commonwealth have lingered so long as in that
+inhabited by the woollen manufacturing population of the West
+Riding, who had the restrictions taken off their trade by the
+Protector's admirable commercial policy.  I have it on good
+authority that, not thirty years ago, the phrase, "in Oliver's
+days," was in common use to denote a time of unusual prosperity.
+The class of Christian names prevalent in a district is one
+indication of the direction in which its tide of hero-worship
+sets.  Grave enthusiasts in politics or religion perceive not the
+ludicrous side of those which they give to their children; and
+some are to be found, still in their infancy, not a dozen miles
+from Haworth, that will have to go through life as Lamartine,
+Kossuth, and Dembinsky.  And so there is a testimony to what I
+have said, of the traditional feeling of the district, in the fact
+that the Old Testament names in general use among the Puritans are
+yet the prevalent appellations in most Yorkshire families of
+middle or humble rank, whatever their religious persuasion may be.
+There are numerous records, too, that show the kindly way in which
+the ejected ministers were received by the gentry, as well as by
+the poorer part of the inhabitants, during the persecuting days of
+Charles II.  These little facts all testify to the old hereditary
+spirit of independence, ready ever to resist authority which was
+conceived to be unjustly exercised, that distinguishes the people
+of the West Riding to the present day.
+
+The parish of Halifax touches that of Bradford, in which the
+chapelry of Haworth is included; and the nature of the ground in
+the two parishes is much the of the same wild and hilly
+description.  The abundance of coal, and the number of mountain
+streams in the district, make it highly favourable to
+manufactures; and accordingly, as I stated, the inhabitants have
+for centuries been engaged in making cloth, as well as in
+agricultural pursuits.  But the intercourse of trade failed, for a
+long time, to bring amenity and civilization into these outlying
+hamlets, or widely scattered dwellings.  Mr. Hunter, in his "Life
+of Oliver Heywood," quotes a sentence out of a memorial of one
+James Rither, living in the reign of Elizabeth, which is partially
+true to this day:-
+
+"They have no superior to court, no civilities to practise:  a
+sour and sturdy humour is the consequence, so that a stranger is
+shocked by a tone of defiance in every voice, and an air of
+fierceness in every countenance."
+
+Even now, a stranger can hardly ask a question without receiving
+some crusty reply, if, indeed, he receive any at all.  Sometimes
+the sour rudeness amounts to positive insult.  Yet, if the
+"foreigner" takes all this churlishness good-humouredly, or as a
+matter of course, and makes good any claim upon their latent
+kindliness and hospitality, they are faithful and generous, and
+thoroughly to be relied upon.  As a slight illustration of the
+roughness that pervades all classes in these out-of-the-way
+villages, I may relate a little adventure which happened to my
+husband and myself, three years ago, at Addingham -
+
+
+From Penigent to Pendle Hill,
+From Linton to Long-ADDINGHAM
+And all that Craven coasts did tell, &c. -
+
+
+one of the places that sent forth its fighting men to the famous
+old battle of Flodden Field, and a village not many miles from
+Haworth.
+
+We were driving along the street, when one of those ne'er-do-weel
+lads who seem to have a kind of magnetic power for misfortunes,
+having jumped into the stream that runs through the place, just
+where all the broken glass and bottles are thrown, staggered naked
+and nearly covered with blood into a cottage before us.  Besides
+receiving another bad cut in the arm, he had completely laid open
+the artery, and was in a fair way of bleeding to death--which, one
+of his relations comforted him by saying, would be likely to "save
+a deal o' trouble."
+
+When my husband had checked the effusion of blood with a strap
+that one of the bystanders unbuckled from his leg, he asked if a
+surgeon had been sent for.
+
+"Yoi," was the answer; "but we dunna think he'll come."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"He's owd, yo seen, and asthmatic, and it's up-hill."
+
+My husband taking a boy for his guide, drove as fast as he could
+to the surgeon's house, which was about three-quarters of a mile
+off, and met the aunt of the wounded lad leaving it.
+
+"Is he coming?" inquired my husband.
+
+"Well, he didna' say he wouldna' come."
+
+"But, tell him the lad may bleed to death."
+
+"I did."
+
+"And what did he say?"
+
+"Why, only, 'D-n him; what do I care?'"
+
+It ended, however, in his sending one of his sons, who, though not
+brought up to "the surgering trade," was able to do what was
+necessary in the way of bandages and plasters.  The excuse made
+for the surgeon was, that "he was near eighty, and getting a bit
+doited, and had had a matter o' twenty childer."
+
+Among the most unmoved of the lookers-on was the brother of the
+boy so badly hurt; and while he was lying in a pool of blood on
+the flag floor, and crying out how much his arm was "warching,"
+his stoical relation stood coolly smoking his bit of black pipe,
+and uttered not a single word of either sympathy or sorrow.
+
+Forest customs, existing in the fringes of dark wood, which
+clothed the declivity of the hills on either side, tended to
+brutalize the population until the middle of the seventeenth
+century.  Execution by beheading was performed in a summary way
+upon either men or women who were guilty of but very slight
+crimes; and a dogged, yet in some cases fine, indifference to
+human life was thus generated.  The roads were so notoriously bad,
+even up to the last thirty years, that there was little
+communication between one village and another; if the produce of
+industry could be conveyed at stated times to the cloth market of
+the district, it was all that could be done; and, in lonely houses
+on the distant hill-side, or by the small magnates of secluded
+hamlets, crimes might be committed almost unknown, certainly
+without any great uprising of popular indignation calculated to
+bring down the strong arm of the law.  It must be remembered that
+in those days there was no rural constabulary; and the few
+magistrates left to themselves, and generally related to one
+another, were most of them inclined to tolerate eccentricity, and
+to wink at faults too much like their own.
+
+Men hardly past middle life talk of the days of their youth, spent
+in this part of the country, when, during the winter months, they
+rode up to the saddle-girths in mud; when absolute business was
+the only reason for stirring beyond the precincts of home, and
+when that business was conducted under a pressure of difficulties
+which they themselves, borne along to Bradford market in a swift
+first-class carriage, can hardly believe to have been possible.
+For instance, one woollen manufacturer says that, not five and
+twenty years ago, he had to rise betimes to set off on a winter's-
+morning in order to be at Bradford with the great waggon-load of
+goods manufactured by his father; this load was packed over-night,
+but in the morning there was a great gathering around it, and
+flashing of lanterns, and examination of horses' feet, before the
+ponderous waggon got under way; and then some one had to go
+groping here and there, on hands and knees, and always sounding
+with a staff down the long, steep, slippery brow, to find where
+the horses might tread safely, until they reached the comparative
+easy-going of the deep-rutted main road.  People went on horseback
+over the upland moors, following the tracks of the pack-horses
+that carried the parcels, baggage, or goods from one town to
+another, between which there did not happen to be a highway.
+
+But in winter, all such communication was impossible, by reason of
+the snow which lay long and late on the bleak high ground.  I have
+known people who, travelling by the mail-coach over Blackstone
+Edge, had been snowed up for a week or ten days at the little inn
+near the summit, and obliged to spend both Christmas and New
+Year's Day there, till the store of provisions laid in for the use
+of the landlord and his family falling short before the inroads of
+the unexpected visitors, they had recourse to the turkeys, geese,
+and Yorkshire pies with which the coach was laden; and even these
+were beginning to fail, when a fortunate thaw released them from
+their prison.
+
+Isolated as the hill villages may be, they are in the world,
+compared with the loneliness of the grey ancestral houses to be
+seen here and there in the dense hollows of the moors.  These
+dwellings are not large, yet they are solid and roomy enough for
+the accommodation of those who live in them, and to whom the
+surrounding estates belong.  The land has often been held by one
+family since the days of the Tudors; the owners are, in fact, the
+remains of the old yeomanry--small squires--who are rapidly
+becoming extinct as a class, from one of two causes.  Either the
+possessor falls into idle, drinking habits, and so is obliged
+eventually to sell his property:  or he finds, if more shrewd and
+adventurous, that the "beck" running down the mountain-side, or
+the minerals beneath his feet, can be turned into a new source of
+wealth; and leaving the old plodding life of a landowner with
+small capital, he turns manufacturer, or digs for coal, or
+quarries for stone.
+
+Still there are those remaining of this class--dwellers in the
+lonely houses far away in the upland districts--even at the
+present day, who sufficiently indicate what strange eccentricity--
+what wild strength of will--nay, even what unnatural power of
+crime was fostered by a mode of living in which a man seldom met
+his fellows, and where public opinion was only a distant and
+inarticulate echo of some clearer voice sounding behind the
+sweeping horizon.
+
+A solitary life cherishes mere fancies until they become manias.
+And the powerful Yorkshire character, which was scarcely tamed
+into subjection by all the contact it met with in "busy town or
+crowded mart," has before now broken out into strange wilfulness
+in the remoter districts.  A singular account was recently given
+me of a landowner (living, it is true, on the Lancashire side of
+the hills, but of the same blood and nature as the dwellers on the
+other,) who was supposed to be in the receipt of seven or eight
+hundred a year, and whose house bore marks of handsome antiquity,
+as if his forefathers had been for a long time people of
+consideration.  My informant was struck with the appearance of the
+place, and proposed to the countryman who was accompanying him, to
+go up to it and take a nearer inspection.  The reply was, "Yo'd
+better not; he'd threap yo' down th' loan.  He's let fly at some
+folk's legs, and let shot lodge in 'em afore now, for going too
+near to his house."  And finding, on closer inquiry, that such was
+really the inhospitable custom of this moorland squire, the
+gentleman gave up his purpose.  I believe that the savage yeoman
+is still living.
+
+Another squire, of more distinguished family and larger property--
+one is thence led to imagine of better education, but that does
+not always follow--died at his house, not many miles from Haworth,
+only a few years ago.  His great amusement and occupation had been
+cock-fighting.  When he was confined to his chamber with what he
+knew would be his last illness, he had his cocks brought up there,
+and watched the bloody battle from his bed.  As his mortal disease
+increased, and it became impossible for him to turn so as to
+follow the combat, he had looking-glasses arranged in such a
+manner, around and above him, as he lay, that he could still see
+the cocks fighting.  And in this manner he died.
+
+These are merely instances of eccentricity compared to the tales
+of positive violence and crime that have occurred in these
+isolated dwellings, which still linger in the memories of the old
+people of the district, and some of which were doubtless familiar
+to the authors of "Wuthering Heights" and "The Tenant of Wildfell
+Hall."
+
+The amusements of the lower classes could hardly be expected to be
+more humane than those of the wealthy and better educated.  The
+gentleman, who has kindly furnished me with some of the
+particulars I have given, remembers the bull-baitings at Rochdale,
+not thirty years ago.  The bull was fastened by a chain or rope to
+a post in the river.  To increase the amount of water, as well as
+to give their workpeople the opportunity of savage delight, the
+masters were accustomed to stop their mills on the day when the
+sport took place.  The bull would sometimes wheel suddenly round,
+so that the rope by which he was fastened swept those who had been
+careless enough to come within its range down into the water, and
+the good people of Rochdale had the excitement of seeing one or
+two of their neighbours drowned, as well as of witnessing the bull
+baited, and the dogs torn and tossed.
+
+The people of Haworth were not less strong and full of character
+than their neighbours on either side of the hills.  The village
+lies embedded in the moors, between the two counties, on the old
+road between Keighley and Colne.  About the middle of the last
+century, it became famous in the religious world as the scene of
+the ministrations of the Rev. William Grimshaw, curate of Haworth
+for twenty years.  Before this time, it is probable that the
+curates were of the same order as one Mr. Nicholls, a Yorkshire
+clergyman, in the days immediately succeeding the Reformation, who
+was "much addicted to drinking and company-keeping," and used to
+say to his companions, "You must not heed me but when I am got
+three feet above the earth," that was, into the pulpit.
+
+Mr. Grimshaw's life was written by Newton, Cowper's friend; and
+from it may be gathered some curious particulars of the manner in
+which a rough population were swayed and governed by a man of deep
+convictions, and strong earnestness of purpose.  It seems that he
+had not been in any way remarkable for religious zeal, though he
+had led a moral life, and been conscientious in fulfilling his
+parochial duties, until a certain Sunday in September, 1744, when
+the servant, rising at five, found her master already engaged in
+prayer; she stated that, after remaining in his chamber for some
+time, he went to engage in religious exercises in the house of a
+parishioner, then home again to pray; thence, still fasting, to
+the church, where, as he was reading the second lesson, he fell
+down, and, on his partial recovery, had to be led from the church.
+As he went out, he spoke to the congregation, and told them not to
+disperse, as he had something to say to them, and would return
+presently.  He was taken to the clerk's house, and again became
+insensible.  His servant rubbed him, to restore the circulation;
+and when he was brought to himself "he seemed in a great rapture,"
+and the first words he uttered were, "I have had a glorious vision
+from the third heaven."  He did not say what he had seen, but
+returned into the church, and began the service again, at two in
+the afternoon, and went on until seven.
+
+From this time he devoted himself, with the fervour of a Wesley,
+and something of the fanaticism of a Whitfield, to calling out a
+religious life among his parishioners.  They had been in the habit
+of playing at foot-ball on Sunday, using stones for this purpose;
+and giving and receiving challenges from other parishes.  There
+were horse-races held on the moors just above the village, which
+were periodical sources of drunkenness and profligacy.  Scarcely a
+wedding took place without the rough amusement of foot-races,
+where the half-naked runners were a scandal to all decent
+strangers.  The old custom of "arvills," or funeral feasts, led to
+frequent pitched battles between the drunken mourners.  Such
+customs were the outward signs of the kind of people with whom Mr.
+Grimshaw had to deal.  But, by various means, some of the most
+practical kind, he wrought a great change in his parish.  In his
+preaching he was occasionally assisted by Wesley and Whitfield,
+and at such times the little church proved much too small to hold
+the throng that poured in from distant villages, or lonely
+moorland hamlets; and frequently they were obliged to meet in the
+open air; indeed, there was not room enough in the church even for
+the communicants.  Mr. Whitfield was once preaching in Haworth,
+and made use of some such expression, as that he hoped there was
+no need to say much to this congregation, as they had sat under so
+pious and godly a minister for so many years; "whereupon Mr.
+Grimshaw stood up in his place, and said with a loud voice, 'Oh,
+sir! for God's sake do not speak so.  I pray you do not flatter
+them.  I fear the greater part of them are going to hell with
+their eyes open.'"  But if they were so bound, it was not for want
+of exertion on Mr. Grimshaw's part to prevent them.  He used to
+preach twenty or thirty times a week in private houses.  If he
+perceived any one inattentive to his prayers, he would stop and
+rebuke the offender, and not go on till he saw every one on their
+knees.  He was very earnest in enforcing the strict observance of
+Sunday; and would not even allow his parishioners to walk in the
+fields between services.  He sometimes gave out a very long Psalm
+(tradition says the 119th), and while it was being sung, he left
+the reading-desk, and taking a horsewhip went into the public-
+houses, and flogged the loiterers into church.  They were swift
+who could escape the lash of the parson by sneaking out the back
+way.  He had strong health and an active body, and rode far and
+wide over the hills, "awakening" those who had previously had no
+sense of religion.  To save time, and be no charge to the families
+at whose houses he held his prayer-meetings, he carried his
+provisions with him; all the food he took in the day on such
+occasions consisting simply of a piece of bread and butter, or dry
+bread and a raw onion.
+
+The horse-races were justly objectionable to Mr. Grimshaw; they
+attracted numbers of profligate people to Haworth, and brought a
+match to the combustible materials of the place, only too ready to
+blaze out into wickedness.  The story is, that he tried all means
+of persuasion, and even intimidation, to have the races
+discontinued, but in vain.  At length, in despair, he prayed with
+such fervour of earnestness that the rain came down in torrents,
+and deluged the ground, so that there was no footing for man or
+beast, even if the multitude had been willing to stand such a
+flood let down from above.  And so Haworth races were stopped, and
+have never been resumed to this day.  Even now the memory of this
+good man is held in reverence, and his faithful ministrations and
+real virtues are one of the boasts of the parish.
+
+But after his time, I fear there was a falling back into the wild
+rough heathen ways, from which he had pulled them up, as it were,
+by the passionate force of his individual character.  He had built
+a chapel for the Wesleyan Methodists, and not very long after the
+Baptists established themselves in a place of worship.  Indeed, as
+Dr. Whitaker says, the people of this district are "strong
+religionists;" only, fifty years ago, their religion did not work
+down into their lives.  Half that length of time back, the code of
+morals seemed to be formed upon that of their Norse ancestors.
+Revenge was handed down from father to son as an hereditary duty;
+and a great capability for drinking without the head being
+affected was considered as one of the manly virtues.  The games of
+foot-ball on Sundays, with the challenges to the neighbouring
+parishes, were resumed, bringing in an influx of riotous strangers
+to fill the public-houses, and make the more sober-minded
+inhabitants long for good Mr. Grimshaw's stout arm, and ready
+horsewhip.  The old custom of "arvills" was as prevalent as ever.
+The sexton, standing at the foot of the open grave, announced that
+the "arvill" would be held at the Black Bull, or whatever public-
+house might be fixed upon by the friends of the dead; and thither
+the mourners and their acquaintances repaired.  The origin of the
+custom had been the necessity of furnishing some refreshment for
+those who came from a distance, to pay the last mark of respect to
+a friend.  In the life of Oliver Heywood there are two quotations,
+which show what sort of food was provided for "arvills" in quiet
+Nonconformist connections in the seventeenth century; the first
+(from Thoresby) tells of "cold possets, stewed prunes, cake, and
+cheese," as being the arvill after Oliver Heywood's funeral.  The
+second gives, as rather shabby, according to the notion of the
+times (1673), "nothing but a bit of cake, draught of wine, piece
+of rosemary, and pair of gloves."
+
+But the arvills at Haworth were often far more jovial doings.
+Among the poor, the mourners were only expected to provide a kind
+of spiced roll for each person; and the expense of the liquors--
+rum, or ale, or a mixture of both called "dog's nose"--was
+generally defrayed by each guest placing some money on a plate,
+set in the middle of the table.  Richer people would order a
+dinner for their friends.  At the funeral of Mr. Charnock (the
+next successor but one to Mr. Grimshaw in the incumbency), above
+eighty people were bid to the arvill, and the price of the feast
+was 4s. 6d. per head, all of which was defrayed by the friends of
+the deceased.  As few "shirked their liquor," there were very
+frequently "up-and-down fights" before the close of the day;
+sometimes with the horrid additions of "pawsing" and "gouging,"
+and biting.
+
+Although I have dwelt on the exceptional traits in the
+characteristics of these stalwart West-Ridingers, such as they
+were in the first quarter of this century, if not a few years
+later, I have little doubt that in the every-day life of the
+people so independent, wilful, and full of grim humour, there
+would be much found even at present that would shock those
+accustomed only to the local manners of the south; and, in return,
+I suspect the shrewd, sagacious, energetic Yorkshireman would hold
+such "foreigners" in no small contempt.
+
+I have said, it is most probable that where Haworth Church now
+stands, there was once an ancient "field-kirk," or oratory.  It
+occupied the third or lowest class of ecclesiastical structures,
+according to the Saxon law, and had no right of sepulture, or
+administration of sacraments.  It was so called because it was
+built without enclosure, and open to the adjoining fields or
+moors.  The founder, according to the laws of Edgar, was bound,
+without subtracting from his tithes, to maintain the ministering
+priest out of the remaining nine parts of his income.  After the
+Reformation, the right of choosing their clergyman, at any of
+those chapels of ease which had formerly been field-kirks, was
+vested in the freeholders and trustees, subject to the approval of
+the vicar of the parish.  But owing to some negligence, this right
+has been lost to the freeholders and trustees at Haworth, ever
+since the days of Archbishop Sharp; and the power of choosing a
+minister has lapsed into the hands of the Vicar of Bradford.  So
+runs the account, according to one authority.
+
+Mr. Bronte says,--"This living has for its patrons the Vicar of
+Bradford and certain trustees.  My predecessor took the living
+with the consent of the Vicar of Bradford, but in opposition to
+the trustees; in consequence of which he was so opposed that,
+after only three weeks' possession, he was compelled to resign."
+A Yorkshire gentleman, who has kindly sent me some additional
+information on this subject since the second edition of my work
+was published, write, thus:-
+
+
+"The sole right of presentation to the incumbency of Haworth is
+vested in the Vicar of Bradford.  He only can present.  The funds,
+however, from which the clergyman's stipend mainly proceeds, are
+vested in the hands of trustees, who have the power to withhold
+them, if a nominee is sent of whom they disapprove.  On the
+decease of Mr. Charnock, the Vicar first tendered the preferment
+to Mr. Bronte, and he went over to his expected cure.  He was told
+that towards himself they had no personal objection; but as a
+nominee of the Vicar he would not be received.  He therefore
+retired, with the declaration that if he could not come with the
+approval of the parish, his ministry could not be useful.  Upon
+this the attempt was made to introduce Mr. Redhead.
+
+"When Mr. Redhead was repelled, a fresh difficulty arose.  Some
+one must first move towards a settlement, but a spirit being
+evoked which could not be allayed, action became perplexing.  The
+matter had to be referred to some independent arbitrator, and my
+father was the gentleman to whom each party turned its eye.  A
+meeting was convened, and the business settled by the Vicar's
+conceding the choice to the trustees, and the acceptance of the
+Vicar's presentation.  That choice forthwith fell on Mr. Bronte,
+whose promptness and prudence had won their hearts."
+
+
+In conversing on the character of the inhabitants of the West
+Riding with Dr. Scoresby, who had been for some time Vicar of
+Bradford, he alluded to certain riotous transactions which had
+taken place at Haworth on the presentation of the living to Mr.
+Redhead, and said that there had been so much in the particulars
+indicative of the character of the people, that he advised me to
+inquire into them.  I have accordingly done so, and, from the lips
+of some of the survivors among the actors and spectators, I have
+learnt the means taken to eject the nominee of the Vicar.
+
+The previous incumbent had been the Mr. Charnock whom I have
+mentioned as next but one in succession to Mr. Grimshaw.  He had a
+long illness which rendered him unable to discharge his duties
+without assistance, and Mr. Redhead gave him occasional help, to
+the great satisfaction of the parishioners, and was highly
+respected by them during Mr. Charnock's lifetime.  But the case
+was entirely altered when, at Mr. Charnock's death in 1819, they
+conceived that the trustees had been unjustly deprived of their
+rights by the Vicar of Bradford, who appointed Mr. Redhead as
+perpetual curate.
+
+The first Sunday he officiated, Haworth Church was filled even to
+the aisles; most of the people wearing the wooden clogs of the
+district.  But while Mr. Redhead was reading the second lesson,
+the whole congregation, as by one impulse, began to leave the
+church, making all the noise they could with clattering and
+clumping of clogs, till, at length, Mr. Redhead and the clerk were
+the only two left to continue the service.  This was bad enough,
+but the next Sunday the proceedings were far worse.  Then, as
+before, the church was well filled, but the aisles were left
+clear; not a creature, not an obstacle was in the way.  The reason
+for this was made evident about the same time in the reading of
+the service as the disturbances had begun the previous week.  A
+man rode into the church upon an ass, with his face turned towards
+the tail, and as many old hats piled on his head as he could
+possibly carry.  He began urging his beast round the aisles, and
+the screams, and cries, and laughter of the congregation entirely
+drowned all sound of Mr. Redhead's voice, and, I believe, he was
+obliged to desist.
+
+Hitherto they had not proceeded to anything like personal
+violence; but on the third Sunday they must have been greatly
+irritated at seeing Mr. Redhead, determined to brave their will,
+ride up the village street, accompanied by several gentlemen from
+Bradford.  They put up their horses at the Black Bull--the little
+inn close upon the churchyard, for the convenience of arvills as
+well as for other purposes--and went into church.  On this the
+people followed, with a chimney-sweeper, whom they had employed to
+clean the chimneys of some out-buildings belonging to the church
+that very morning, and afterward plied with drink till he was in a
+state of solemn intoxication.  They placed him right before the
+reading-desk, where his blackened face nodded a drunken, stupid
+assent to all that Mr. Redhead said.  At last, either prompted by
+some mischief-maker, or from some tipsy impulse, he clambered up
+the pulpit stairs, and attempted to embrace Mr. Redhead.  Then the
+profane fun grew fast and furious.  Some of the more riotous,
+pushed the soot-covered chimney-sweeper against Mr. Redhead, as he
+tried to escape.  They threw both him and his tormentor down on
+the ground in the churchyard where the soot-bag had been emptied,
+and, though, at last, Mr. Redhead escaped into the Black Bull, the
+doors of which were immediately barred, the people raged without,
+threatening to stone him and his friends.  One of my informants is
+an old man, who was the landlord of the inn at the time, and he
+stands to it that such was the temper of the irritated mob, that
+Mr. Redhead was in real danger of his life.  This man, however,
+planned an escape for his unpopular inmates.  The Black Bull is
+near the top of the long, steep Haworth street, and at the bottom,
+close by the bridge, on the road to Keighley, is a turnpike.
+Giving directions to his hunted guests to steal out at the back
+door (through which, probably, many a ne'er-do-weel has escaped
+from good Mr. Grimshaw's horsewhip), the landlord and some of the
+stable-boys rode the horses belonging to the party from Bradford
+backwards and forwards before his front door, among the fiercely-
+expectant crowd.  Through some opening between the houses, those
+on the horses saw Mr. Redhead and his friends creeping along
+behind the street; and then, striking spurs, they dashed quickly
+down to the turnpike; the obnoxious clergyman and his friends
+mounted in haste, and had sped some distance before the people
+found out that their prey had escaped, and came running to the
+closed turnpike gate.
+
+This was Mr. Redhead's last appearance at Haworth for many years.
+Long afterwards, he came to preach, and in his sermon to a large
+and attentive congregation he good-humouredly reminded them of the
+circumstances which I have described.  They gave him a hearty
+welcome, for they owed him no grudge; although before they had
+been ready enough to stone him, in order to maintain what they
+considered to be their rights.
+
+The foregoing account, which I heard from two of the survivors, in
+the presence of a friend who can vouch for the accuracy of my
+repetition, has to a certain degree been confirmed by a letter
+from the Yorkshire gentleman, whose words I have already quoted.
+
+"I am not surprised at your difficulty in authenticating matter-
+of-fact.  I find this in recalling what I have heard, and the
+authority on which I have heard anything.  As to the donkey tale,
+I believe you are right.  Mr. Redhead and Dr. Ramsbotham, his son-
+in-law, are no strangers to me.  Each of them has a niche in my
+affections.
+
+"I have asked, this day, two persons who lived in Haworth at the
+time to which you allude, the son and daughter of an acting
+trustee, and each of them between sixty and seventy years of age,
+and they assure me that the donkey was introduced.  One of them
+says it was mounted by a half-witted man, seated with his face
+towards the tail of the beast, and having several hats piled on
+his head.  Neither of my informants was, however, present at these
+edifying services.  I believe that no movement was made in the
+church on either Sunday, until the whole of the authorised
+reading-service was gone through, and I am sure that nothing was
+more remote from the more respectable party than any personal
+antagonism toward Mr. Redhead.  He was one of the most amiable and
+worthy of men, a man to myself endeared by many ties and
+obligations.  I never heard before your book that the sweep
+ascended the pulpit steps.  He was present, however, in the
+clerical habiliments of his order . . . I may also add that among
+the many who were present at those sad Sunday orgies the majority
+were non-residents, and came from those moorland fastnesses on the
+outskirts of the parish locally designated as 'ovver th' steyres,'
+one stage more remote than Haworth from modern civilization.
+
+"To an instance or two more of the rusticity of the inhabitants of
+the chapelry of Haworth, I may introduce you.
+
+"A Haworth carrier called at the office of a friend of mine to
+deliver a parcel on a cold winter's day, and stood with the door
+open.  'Robin! shut the door!' said the recipient.  'Have you no
+doors in your country?'  'Yoi,' responded Robin, 'we hev, but we
+nivver steik 'em.'  I have frequently remarked the number of doors
+open even in winter.
+
+"When well directed, the indomitable and independent energies of
+the natives of this part of the country are invaluable; dangerous
+when perverted.  I shall never forget the fierce actions and
+utterances of one suffering from delirium tremens.  Whether in its
+wrath, disdain, or its dismay, the countenance was infernal.  I
+called once upon a time on a most respectable yeoman, and I was,
+in language earnest and homely, pressed to accept the hospitality
+of the house.  I consented.  The word to me was, 'Nah, Maister,
+yah mun stop an hev sum te-ah, yah mun, eah, yah mun.'  A
+bountiful table was soon spread; at all events, time soon went
+while I scaled the hills to see 't' maire at wor thretty year owd,
+an't' feil at wor fewer.'  On sitting down to the table, a
+venerable woman officiated, and after filling the cups, she thus
+addressed me:  'Nah, Maister, yah mun loawze th'taible' (loose the
+table).  The master said, 'Shah meeans yah mun sey t' greyce.'  I
+took the hint, and uttered the blessing.
+
+"I spoke with an aged and tried woman at one time, who, after
+recording her mercies, stated, among others, her powers of speech,
+by asserting 'Thank the Lord, ah nivver wor a meilly-meouthed
+wumman.'  I feel particularly at fault in attempting the
+orthography of the dialect, but must excuse myself by telling you
+that I once saw a letter in which the word I have just now used
+(excuse) was written 'ecksqueaize!'
+
+"There are some things, however, which rather tend to soften the
+idea of the rudeness of Haworth.  No rural district has been more
+markedly the abode of musical taste and acquirement, and this at a
+period when it was difficult to find them to the same extent apart
+from towns in advance of their times.  I have gone to Haworth and
+found an orchestra to meet me, filled with local performers, vocal
+and instrumental, to whom the best works of Handel, Haydn, Mozart,
+Marcello, &c. &c., were familiar as household words.  By
+knowledge, taste, and voice, they were markedly separate from
+ordinary village choirs, and have been put in extensive
+requisition for the solo and chorus of many an imposing festival.
+One man still survives, who, for fifty years, has had one of the
+finest tenor voices I ever heard, and with it a refined and
+cultivated taste.  To him and to others many inducements have been
+offered to migrate; but the loom, the association, the mountain
+air have had charms enow to secure their continuance at home.  I
+love the recollection of their performance; that recollection
+extends over more than sixty years.  The attachments, the
+antipathies and the hospitalities of the district are ardent,
+hearty, and homely.  Cordiality in each is the prominent
+characteristic.  As a people, these mountaineers have ever been
+accessible to gentleness and truth, so far as I have known them;
+but excite suspicion or resentment, and they give emphatic and not
+impotent resistance.  Compulsion they defy.
+
+"I accompanied Mr. Heap on his first visit to Haworth after his
+accession to the vicarage of Bradford.  It was on Easter day,
+either 1816 or 1817.  His predecessor, the venerable John Crosse,
+known as the 'blind vicar,' had been inattentive to the vicarial
+claims.  A searching investigation had to be made and enforced,
+and as it proceeded stout and sturdy utterances were not lacking
+on the part of the parishioners.  To a spectator, though rude,
+they were amusing, and significant, foretelling what might be
+expected, and what was afterwards realised, on the advent of a new
+incumbent, if they deemed him an intruder.
+
+"From their peculiar parochial position and circumstances, the
+inhabitants of the chapelry have been prompt, earnest, and
+persevering in their opposition to church-rates.  Although ten
+miles from the mother-church, they were called upon to defray a
+large proportion of this obnoxious tax,--I believe one fifth.
+
+"Besides this, they had to maintain their own edifice, &c., &c.
+They resisted, therefore, with energy, that which they deemed to
+be oppression and injustice.  By scores would they wend their way
+from the hills to attend a vestry meeting at Bradford, and in such
+service failed not to show less of the SUAVITER IN MODO than the
+FORTITER IN RE.  Happily such occasion for their action has not
+occurred for many years.
+
+"The use of patronymics has been common in this locality.  Inquire
+for a man by his Christian name and surname, and you may have some
+difficulty in finding him:  ask, however, for 'George o' Ned's,'
+or 'Dick o' Bob's,' or 'Tom o' Jack's,' as the case may be, and
+your difficulty is at an end.  In many instances the person is
+designated by his residence.  In my early years I had occasion to
+inquire for Jonathan Whitaker, who owned a considerable farm in
+the township.  I was sent hither and thither, until it occurred to
+me to ask for 'Jonathan o' th' Gate.'  My difficulties were then
+at an end.  Such circumstances arise out of the settled character
+and isolation of the natives.
+
+"Those who have witnessed a Haworth wedding when the parties were
+above the rank of labourers, will not easily forget the scene.  A
+levy was made on the horses of the neighbourhood, and a merry
+cavalcade of mounted men and women, single or double, traversed
+the way to Bradford church.  The inn and church appeared to be in
+natural connection, and as the labours of the Temperance Society
+had then to begin, the interests of sobriety were not always
+consulted.  On remounting their steeds they commenced with a race,
+and not unfrequently an inebriate or unskilful horseman or woman
+was put HORS DE COMBAT.  A race also was frequent at the end. of
+these wedding expeditions, from the bridge to the toll-bar at
+Haworth.  The race-course you will know to be anything but level."
+
+Into the midst of this lawless, yet not unkindly population, Mr.
+Bronte brought his wife and six little children, in February,
+1820.  There are those yet alive who remember seven heavily-laden
+carts lumbering slowly up the long stone street, bearing the "new
+parson's" household goods to his future abode.
+
+One wonders how the bleak aspect of her new home--the low, oblong,
+stone parsonage, high up, yet with a still higher back-ground of
+sweeping moors--struck on the gentle, delicate wife, whose health
+even then was failing.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+
+The Rev. Patrick Bronte is a native of the County Down in Ireland.
+His father Hugh Bronte, was left an orphan at an early age.  He
+came from the south to the north of the island, and settled in the
+parish of Ahaderg, near Loughbrickland.  There was some family
+tradition that, humble as Hugh Bronte's circumstances were, he was
+the descendant of an ancient family.  But about this neither he
+nor his descendants have cared to inquire.  He made an early
+marriage, and reared and educated ten children on the proceeds of
+the few acres of land which he farmed.  This large family were
+remarkable for great physical strength, and much personal beauty.
+Even in his old age, Mr. Bronte is a striking-looking man, above
+the common height, with a nobly-shaped head, and erect carriage.
+In his youth he must have been unusually handsome.
+
+He was born on Patrickmas day (March 17), 1777, and early gave
+tokens of extraordinary quickness and intelligence.  He had also
+his full share of ambition; and of his strong sense and
+forethought there is a proof in the fact, that, knowing that his
+father could afford him no pecuniary aid, and that he must depend
+upon his own exertions, he opened a public school at the early age
+of sixteen; and this mode of living he continued to follow for
+five or six years.  He then became a tutor in the family of the
+Rev. Mr. Tighe, rector of Drumgooland parish.  Thence he proceeded
+to St. John's College, Cambridge, where he was entered in July,
+1802, being at the time five-and-twenty years of age.  After
+nearly four years' residence, he obtained his B.A. degree, and was
+ordained to a curacy in Essex, whence he removed into Yorkshire.
+The course of life of which this is the outline, shows a powerful
+and remarkable character, originating and pursuing a purpose in a
+resolute and independent manner.  Here is a youth--a boy of
+sixteen--separating himself from his family, and determining to
+maintain himself; and that, not in the hereditary manner by
+agricultural pursuits, but by the labour of his brain.
+
+I suppose, from what I have heard, that Mr. Tighe became strongly
+interested in his children's tutor, and may have aided him, not
+only in the direction of his studies, but in the suggestion of an
+English university education, and in advice as to the mode in
+which he should obtain entrance there.  Mr. Bronte has now no
+trace of his Irish origin remaining in his speech; he never could
+have shown his Celtic descent in the straight Greek lines and long
+oval of his face; but at five-and-twenty, fresh from the only life
+he had ever known, to present himself at the gates of St. John's
+proved no little determination of will, and scorn of ridicule.
+
+While at Cambridge, he became one of a corps of volunteers, who
+were then being called out all over the country to resist the
+apprehended invasion by the French.  I have heard him allude, in
+late years, to Lord Palmerston as one who had often been
+associated with him then in the mimic military duties which they
+had to perform.
+
+We take him up now settled as a curate at Hartshead, in Yorkshire-
+-far removed from his birth-place and all his Irish connections;
+with whom, indeed, he cared little to keep up any intercourse, and
+whom he never, I believe, re-visited after becoming a student at
+Cambridge.
+
+Hartshead is a very small village, lying to the east of
+Huddersfield and Halifax; and, from its high situation--on a
+mound, as it were, surrounded by a circular basin--commanding a
+magnificent view.  Mr. Bronte resided here for five years; and,
+while the incumbent of Hartshead, he wooed and married Maria
+Branwell.
+
+She was the third daughter of Mr. Thomas Branwell, merchant, of
+Penzance.  Her mother's maiden name was Carne:  and, both on
+father's and mother's side, the Branwell family were sufficiently
+well descended to enable them to mix in the best society that
+Penzance then afforded.  Mr. and Mrs. Branwell would be living--
+their family of four daughters and one son, still children--during
+the existence of that primitive state of society which is well
+described by Dr. Davy in the life of his brother.
+
+"In the same town, when the population was about 2,000 persons,
+there was only one carpet, the floors of rooms were sprinkled with
+sea-sand, and there was not a single silver fork.
+
+"At that time, when our colonial possessions were very limited,
+our army and navy on a small scale, and there was comparatively
+little demand for intellect, the younger sons of gentlemen were
+often of necessity brought up to some trade or mechanical art, to
+which no discredit, or loss of caste, as it were, was attached.
+The eldest son, if not allowed to remain an idle country squire,
+was sent to Oxford or Cambridge, preparatory to his engaging in
+one of the three liberal professions of divinity, law, or physic;
+the second son was perhaps apprenticed to a surgeon or apothecary,
+or a solicitor; the third to a pewterer or watchmaker; the fourth
+to a packer or mercer, and so on, were there more to be provided
+for.
+
+"After their apprenticeships were finished, the young men almost
+invariably went to London to perfect themselves in their
+respective trade or art:  and on their return into the country,
+when settled in business, they were not excluded from what would
+now be considered genteel society.  Visiting then was conducted
+differently from what it is at present.  Dinner-parties were
+almost unknown, excepting at the annual feast-time.  Christmas,
+too, was then a season of peculiar indulgence and conviviality,
+and a round of entertainments was given, consisting of tea and
+supper.  Excepting at these two periods, visiting was almost
+entirely confined to tea-parties, which assembled at three
+o'clock, broke up at nine, and the amusement of the evening was
+commonly some round game at cards, as Pope Joan, or Commerce.  The
+lower class was then extremely ignorant, and all classes were very
+superstitious; even the belief in witches maintained its ground,
+and there was an almost unbounded credulity respecting the
+supernatural and monstrous.  There was scarcely a parish in the
+Mount's Bay that was without a haunted house, or a spot to which
+some story of supernatural horror was not attached.  Even when I
+was a boy, I remember a house in the best street of Penzance which
+was uninhabited because it was believed to be haunted, and which
+young people walked by at night at a quickened pace, and with a
+beating heart.  Amongst the middle and higher classes there was
+little taste for literature, and still less for science, and their
+pursuits were rarely of a dignified or intellectual kind.
+Hunting, shooting, wrestling, cock-fighting, generally ending in
+drunkenness, were what they most delighted in.  Smuggling was
+carried on to a great extent; and drunkenness, and a low state of
+morals, were naturally associated with it.  Whilst smuggling was
+the means of acquiring wealth to bold and reckless adventurers,
+drunkenness and dissipation occasioned the ruin of many
+respectable families."
+
+I have given this extract because I conceive it bears some
+reference to the life of Miss Bronte, whose strong mind and vivid
+imagination must have received their first impressions either from
+the servants (in that simple household, almost friendly companions
+during the greater part of the day,) retailing the traditions or
+the news of Haworth village; or from Mr. Bronte, whose intercourse
+with his children appears to have been considerably restrained,
+and whose life, both in Ireland and at Cambridge, had been spent
+under peculiar circumstances; or from her aunt, Miss Branwell, who
+came to the parsonage, when Charlotte was only six or seven years
+old, to take charge of her dead sister's family.  This aunt was
+older than Mrs. Bronte, and had lived longer among the Penzance
+society, which Dr. Davy describes.  But in the Branwell family
+itself, the violence and irregularity of nature did not exist.
+They were Methodists, and, as far as I can gather, a gentle and
+sincere piety gave refinement and purity of character.  Mr.
+Branwell, the father, according to his descendants' account, was a
+man of musical talent.  He and his wife lived to see all their
+children grown up, and died within a year of each other--he in
+1808, she in 1809, when their daughter Maria was twenty-five or
+twenty-six years of age.  I have been permitted to look over a
+series of nine letters, which were addressed by her to Mr. Bronte,
+during the brief term of their engagement in 1812.  They are full
+of tender grace of expression and feminine modesty; pervaded by
+the deep piety to which I have alluded as a family characteristic.
+I shall make one or two extracts from them, to show what sort of a
+person was the mother of Charlotte Bronte:  but first, I must
+state the circumstances under which this Cornish lady met the
+scholar from Ahaderg, near Loughbrickland.  In the early summer of
+1812, when she would be twenty-nine, she came to visit her uncle,
+the Reverend John Fennel, who was at that time a clergyman of the
+Church of England, living near Leeds, but who had previously been
+a Methodist minister.  Mr. Bronte was the incumbent of Hartshead;
+and had the reputation in the neighbourhood of being a very
+handsome fellow, full of Irish enthusiasm, and with something of
+an Irishman's capability of falling easily in love.  Miss Branwell
+was extremely small in person; not pretty, but very elegant, and
+always dressed with a quiet simplicity of taste, which accorded
+well with her general character, and of which some of the details
+call to mind the style of dress preferred by her daughter for her
+favourite heroines.  Mr. Bronte was soon captivated by the little,
+gentle creature, and this time declared that it was for life.  In
+her first letter to him, dated August 26th, she seems almost
+surprised to find herself engaged, and alludes to the short time
+which she has known him.  In the rest there are touches reminding
+one of Juliet's -
+
+
+"But trust me, gentleman, I'll prove more true,
+Than those that have more cunning to be strange."
+
+
+There are plans for happy pic-nic parties to Kirkstall Abbey, in
+the glowing September days, when "Uncle, Aunt, and Cousin Jane,"--
+the last engaged to a Mr. Morgan, another clergyman--were of the
+party; all since dead, except Mr. Bronte.  There was no opposition
+on the part of any of her friends to her engagement.  Mr. and Mrs.
+Fennel sanctioned it, and her brother and sisters in far-away
+Penzance appear fully to have approved of it.  In a letter dated
+September 18th, she says:-
+
+"For some years I have been perfectly my own mistress, subject to
+no control whatever; so far from it, that my sisters, who are many
+years older than myself, and even my dear mother, used to consult
+me on every occasion of importance, and scarcely ever doubted the
+propriety of my opinions and actions:  perhaps you will be ready
+to accuse me of vanity in mentioning this, but you must consider
+that I do not boast of it.  I have many times felt it a
+disadvantage, and although, I thank God, it has never led me into
+error, yet, in circumstances of uncertainty and doubt, I have
+deeply felt the want of a guide and instructor."  In the same
+letter she tells Mr. Bronte, that she has informed her sisters of
+her engagement, and that she should not see them again so soon as
+she had intended.  Mr. Fennel, her uncle, also writes to them by
+the same post in praise of Mr. Bronte.
+
+The journey from Penzance to Leeds in those days was both very
+long and very expensive; the lovers had not much money to spend in
+unnecessary travelling, and, as Miss Branwell had neither father
+nor mother living, it appeared both a discreet and seemly
+arrangement that the marriage should take place from her uncle's
+house.  There was no reason either why the engagement should be
+prolonged.  They were past their first youth; they had means
+sufficient for their unambitious wants; the living of Hartshead is
+rated in the Clergy List at 202L. per annum, and she was in the
+receipt of a small annuity (50L. I have been told) by the will of
+her father.  So, at the end of September, the lovers began to talk
+about taking a house, for I suppose that Mr. Bronte up to that
+time had been in lodgings; and all went smoothly and successfully
+with a view to their marriage in the ensuing winter, until
+November, when a misfortune happened, which she thus patiently and
+prettily describes:-
+
+"I suppose you never expected to be much the richer for me, but I
+am sorry to inform you that I am still poorer than I thought
+myself.  I mentioned having sent for my books, clothes, &c.  On
+Saturday evening, about the time when you were writing the
+description of your imaginary shipwreck, I was reading and feeling
+the effects of a real one, having then received a letter from my
+sister giving me an account of the vessel in which she had sent my
+box being stranded on the coast of Devonshire, in consequence of
+which the box was dashed to pieces with the violence of the sea,
+and all my little property, with the exception of a very few
+articles, being swallowed up in the mighty deep.  If this should
+not prove the prelude to something worse I shall think little of
+it, as it is the first disastrous circumstance which has occurred
+since I left my home."
+
+The last of these letters is dated December the 5th.  Miss
+Branwell and her cousin intended to set about making the wedding-
+cake in the following week, so the marriage could not be far off.
+She had been learning by heart a "pretty little hymn" of Mr.
+Bronte's composing; and reading Lord Lyttelton's "Advice to a
+Lady," on which she makes some pertinent and just remarks, showing
+that she thought as well as read.  And so Maria Branwell fades out
+of sight; we have no more direct intercourse with her; we hear of
+her as Mrs. Bronte, but it is as an invalid, not far from death;
+still patient, cheerful, and pious.  The writing of these letters
+is elegant and neat; while there are allusions to household
+occupations--such as making the wedding-cake; there are also
+allusions to the books she has read, or is reading, showing a
+well-cultivated mind.  Without having anything of her daughter's
+rare talents, Mrs. Bronte must have been, I imagine, that unusual
+character, a well-balanced and consistent woman.  The style of the
+letters is easy and good; as is also that of a paper from the same
+hand, entitled "The Advantages of Poverty in Religious Concerns,"
+which was written rather later, with a view to publication in some
+periodical.
+
+She was married from her uncle's house in Yorkshire, on the 29th
+of December, 1812; the same day was also the wedding-day of her
+younger sister, Charlotte Branwell, in distant Penzance.  I do not
+think that Mrs. Bronte ever revisited Cornwall, but she has left a
+very pleasant impression on the minds of those relations who yet
+survive; they speak of her as "their favourite aunt, and one to
+whom they, as well as all the family, looked up, as a person of
+talent and great amiability of disposition;" and, again, as "meek
+and retiring, while possessing more than ordinary talents, which
+she inherited from her father, and her piety was genuine and
+unobtrusive."
+
+Mr. Bronte remained for five years at Hartshead, in the parish of
+Dewsbury.  There he was married, and his two children, Maria and
+Elizabeth, were born.  At the expiration of that period, he had
+the living of Thornton, in Bradford Parish.  Some of those great
+West Riding parishes are almost like bishoprics for their amount
+of population and number of churches.  Thornton church is a little
+episcopal chapel of ease, rich in Nonconformist monuments, as of
+Accepted Lister and his friend Dr. Hall.  The neighbourhood is
+desolate and wild; great tracts of bleak land, enclosed by stone
+dykes, sweeping up Clayton heights.  The church itself looks
+ancient and solitary, and as if left behind by the great stone
+mills of a flourishing Independent firm, and the solid square
+chapel built by the members of that denomination.  Altogether not
+so pleasant a place as Hartshead, with its ample outlook over
+cloud-shadowed, sun-flecked plain, and hill rising beyond hill to
+form the distant horizon.
+
+Here, at Thornton, Charlotte Bronte was born, on the 21st of
+April, 1816.  Fast on her heels followed Patrick Branwell, Emily
+Jane, and Anne.  After the birth of this last daughter, Mrs.
+Bronte's health began to decline.  It is hard work to provide for
+the little tender wants of many young children where the means are
+but limited.  The necessaries of food and clothing are much more
+easily supplied than the almost equal necessaries of attendance,
+care, soothing, amusement, and sympathy.  Maria Bronte, the eldest
+of six, could only have been a few months more than six years old,
+when Mr. Bronte removed to Haworth, on February the 25th, 1820.
+Those who knew her then, describe her as grave, thoughtful, and
+quiet, to a degree far beyond her years.  Her childhood was no
+childhood; the cases are rare in which the possessors of great
+gifts have known the blessings of that careless happy time; THEIR
+unusual powers stir within them, and, instead of the natural life
+of perception--the objective, as the Germans call it--they begin
+the deeper life of reflection--the subjective.
+
+Little Maria Bronte was delicate and small in appearance, which
+seemed to give greater effect to her wonderful precocity of
+intellect.  She must have been her mother's companion and helpmate
+in many a household and nursery experience, for Mr. Bronte was, of
+course, much engaged in his study; and besides, he was not
+naturally fond of children, and felt their frequent appearance on
+the scene as a drag both on his wife's strength, and as an
+interruption to the comfort of the household.
+
+Haworth Parsonage is--as I mentioned in the first chapter--an
+oblong stone house, facing down the hill on which the village
+stands, and with the front door right opposite to the western door
+of the church, distant about a hundred yards.  Of this space
+twenty yards or so in depth are occupied by the grassy garden,
+which is scarcely wider than the house.  The graveyard lies on two
+sides of the house and garden.  The house consists of four rooms
+on each floor, and is two stories high.  When the Brontes took
+possession, they made the larger parlour, to the left of the
+entrance, the family sitting-room, while that on the right was
+appropriated to Mr. Bronte as a study.  Behind this was the
+kitchen; behind the former, a sort of flagged store-room.  Up-
+stairs were four bed-chambers of similar size, with the addition
+of a small apartment over the passage, or "lobby" as we call it in
+the north.  This was to the front, the staircase going up right
+opposite to the entrance.  There is the pleasant old fashion of
+window seats all through the house; and one can see that the
+parsonage was built in the days when wood was plentiful, as the
+massive stair-banisters, and the wainscots, and the heavy window-
+frames testify.
+
+This little extra up-stairs room was appropriated to the children.
+Small as it was, it was not called a nursery; indeed, it had not
+the comfort of a fire-place in it; the servants--two affectionate,
+warm-hearted sisters, who cannot now speak of the family without
+tears--called the room the "children's study."  The age of the
+eldest student was perhaps by this time seven.
+
+The people in Haworth were none of them very poor.  Many of them
+were employed in the neighbouring worsted mills; a few were mill-
+owners and manufacturers in a small way; there were also some
+shopkeepers for the humbler and every-day wants; but for medical
+advice, for stationery, books, law, dress, or dainties, the
+inhabitants had to go to Keighley.  There were several Sunday-
+schools; the Baptists had taken the lead in instituting them, the
+Wesleyans had followed, the Church of England had brought up the
+rear.  Good Mr. Grimshaw, Wesley's friend, had built a humble
+Methodist chapel, but it stood close to the road leading on to the
+moor; the Baptists then raised a place of worship, with the
+distinction of being a few yards back from the highway; and the
+Methodists have since thought it well to erect another and a
+larger chapel, still more retired from the road.  Mr. Bronte was
+ever on kind and friendly terms with each denomination as a body;
+but from individuals in the village the family stood aloof, unless
+some direct service was required, from the first.  "They kept
+themselves very close," is the account given by those who remember
+Mr. and Mrs. Bronte's coming amongst them.  I believe many of the
+Yorkshiremen would object to the system of parochial visiting;
+their surly independence would revolt from the idea of any one
+having a right, from his office, to inquire into their condition,
+to counsel, or to admonish them.  The old hill-spirit lingers in
+them, which coined the rhyme, inscribed on the under part of one
+of the seats in the Sedilia of Whalley Abbey, not many miles from
+Haworth,
+
+
+"Who mells wi' what another does
+Had best go home and shoe his goose."
+
+
+I asked an inhabitant of a district close to Haworth what sort of
+a clergyman they had at the church which he attended.
+
+"A rare good one," said he:  "he minds his own business, and ne'er
+troubles himself with ours."
+
+Mr. Bronte was faithful in visiting the sick and all those who
+sent for him, and diligent in attendance at the schools; and so
+was his daughter Charlotte too; but, cherishing and valuing
+privacy themselves, they were perhaps over-delicate in not
+intruding upon the privacy of others.
+
+From their first going to Haworth, their walks were directed
+rather out towards the heathery moors, sloping upwards behind the
+parsonage, than towards the long descending village street.  A
+good old woman, who came to nurse Mrs. Bronte in the illness--an
+internal cancer--which grew and gathered upon her, not many months
+after her arrival at Haworth, tells me that at that time the six
+little creatures used to walk out, hand in hand, towards the
+glorious wild moors, which in after days they loved so
+passionately; the elder ones taking thoughtful care for the
+toddling wee things.
+
+They were grave and silent beyond their years; subdued, probably,
+by the presence of serious illness in the house; for, at the time
+which my informant speaks of, Mrs. Bronte was confined to the
+bedroom from which she never came forth alive.  "You would not
+have known there was a child in the house, they were such still,
+noiseless, good little creatures.  Maria would shut herself up"
+(Maria, but seven!) "in the children's study with a newspaper, and
+be able to tell one everything when she came out; debates in
+Parliament, and I don't know what all.  She was as good as a
+mother to her sisters and brother.  But there never were such good
+children.  I used to think them spiritless, they were so different
+to any children I had ever seen.  They were good little creatures.
+Emily was the prettiest."
+
+Mrs. Bronte was the same patient, cheerful person as we have seen
+her formerly; very ill, suffering great pain, but seldom if ever
+complaining; at her better times begging her nurse to raise her in
+bed to let her see her clean the grate, "because she did it as it
+was done in Cornwall;" devotedly fond of her husband, who warmly
+repaid her affection, and suffered no one else to take the night-
+nursing; but, according to my informant, the mother was not very
+anxious to see much of her children, probably because the sight of
+them, knowing how soon they were to be left motherless, would have
+agitated her too much.  So the little things clung quietly
+together, for their father was busy in his study and in his
+parish, or with their mother, and they took their meals alone; sat
+reading, or whispering low, in the "children's study," or wandered
+out on the hill-side, hand in hand.
+
+The ideas of Rousseau and Mr. Day on education had filtered down
+through many classes, and spread themselves widely out.  I
+imagine, Mr. Bronte must have formed some of his opinions on the
+management of children from these two theorists.  His practice was
+not half so wild or extraordinary as that to which an aunt of mine
+was subjected by a disciple of Mr. Day's.  She had been taken by
+this gentleman and his wife, to live with them as their adopted
+child, perhaps about five-and-twenty years before the time of
+which I am writing.  They were wealthy people and kind hearted,
+but her food and clothing were of the very simplest and rudest
+description, on Spartan principles.  A healthy, merry child, she
+did not much care for dress or eating; but the treatment which she
+felt as a real cruelty was this.  They had a carriage, in which
+she and the favourite dog were taken an airing on alternate days;
+the creature whose turn it was to be left at home being tossed in
+a blanket--an operation which my aunt especially dreaded.  Her
+affright at the tossing was probably the reason why it was
+persevered in.  Dressed-up ghosts had become common, and she did
+not care for them, so the blanket exercise was to be the next mode
+of hardening her nerves.  It is well known that Mr. Day broke off
+his intention of marrying Sabrina, the girl whom he had educated
+for this purpose, because, within a few weeks of the time fixed
+for the wedding, she was guilty of the frivolity, while on a visit
+from home, of wearing thin sleeves.  Yet Mr. Day and my aunt's
+relations were benevolent people, only strongly imbued with the
+crotchet that by a system of training might be educed the
+hardihood and simplicity of the ideal savage, forgetting the
+terrible isolation of feelings and habits which their pupils would
+experience in the future life which they must pass among the
+corruptions and refinements of civilization.
+
+Mr. Bronte wished to make his children hardy, and indifferent to
+the pleasures of eating and dress.  In the latter he succeeded, as
+far as regarded his daughters.
+
+His strong, passionate, Irish nature was, in general, compressed
+down with resolute stoicism; but it was there notwithstanding all
+his philosophic calm and dignity of demeanour; though he did not
+speak when he was annoyed or displeased.  Mrs. Bronte, whose sweet
+nature thought invariably of the bright side, would say, "Ought I
+not to be thankful that he never gave me an angry word?"
+
+Mr. Bronte was an active walker, stretching away over the moors
+for many miles, noting in his mind all natural signs of wind and
+weather, and keenly observing all the wild creatures that came and
+went in the loneliest sweeps of the hills.  He has seen eagles
+stooping low in search of food for their young; no eagle is ever
+seen on those mountain slopes now.
+
+He fearlessly took whatever side in local or national politics
+appeared to him right.  In the days of the Luddites, he had been
+for the peremptory interference of the law, at a time when no
+magistrate could be found to act, and all the property of the West
+Riding was in terrible danger.  He became unpopular then among the
+millworkers, and he esteemed his life unsafe if he took his long
+and lonely walks unarmed; so he began the habit, which has
+continued to this day, of invariably carrying a loaded pistol
+about with him.  It lay on his dressing-table with his watch; with
+his watch it was put on in the morning; with his watch it was
+taken off at night.
+
+Many years later, during his residence at Haworth, there was a
+strike; the hands in the neighbourhood felt themselves aggrieved
+by the masters, and refused to work:  Mr. Bronte thought that they
+had been unjustly and unfairly treated, and he assisted them by
+all the means in his power to "keep the wolf from their doors,"
+and avoid the incubus of debt.  Several of the more influential
+inhabitants of Haworth and the neighbourhood were mill-owners;
+they remonstrated pretty sharply with him, but he believed that
+his conduct was right and persevered in it.
+
+His opinions might be often both wild and erroneous, his
+principles of action eccentric and strange, his views of life
+partial, and almost misanthropical; but not one opinion that he
+held could be stirred or modified by any worldly motive:  he acted
+up to his principles of action; and, if any touch of misanthropy
+mingled with his view of mankind in general, his conduct to the
+individuals who came in personal contact with him did not agree
+with such view.  It is true that he had strong and vehement
+prejudices, and was obstinate in maintaining them, and that he was
+not dramatic enough in his perceptions to see how miserable others
+might be in a life that to him was all-sufficient.  But I do not
+pretend to be able to harmonize points of character, and account
+for them, and bring them all into one consistent and intelligible
+whole.  The family with whom I have now to do shot their roots
+down deeper than I can penetrate.  I cannot measure them, much
+less is it for me to judge them.  I have named these instances of
+eccentricity in the father because I hold the knowledge of them to
+be necessary for a right understanding of the life of his
+daughter.
+
+Mrs. Bronte died in September, 1821, and the lives of those quiet
+children must have become quieter and lonelier still.  Charlotte
+tried hard, in after years, to recall the remembrance of her
+mother, and could bring back two or three pictures of her.  One
+was when, sometime in the evening light, she had been playing with
+her little boy, Patrick Branwell, in the parlour of Haworth
+Parsonage.  But the recollections of four or five years old are of
+a very fragmentary character.
+
+Owing to some illness of the digestive organs, Mr. Bronte was
+obliged to be very careful about his diet; and, in order to avoid
+temptation, and possibly to have the quiet necessary for
+digestion, he had begun, before his wife's death, to take his
+dinner alone--a habit which he always retained.  He did not
+require companionship, therefore he did not seek it, either in his
+walks, or in his daily life.  The quiet regularity of his domestic
+hours was only broken in upon by church-wardens, and visitors on
+parochial business; and sometimes by a neighbouring clergyman, who
+came down the hills, across the moors, to mount up again to
+Haworth Parsonage, and spend an evening there.  But, owing to Mrs.
+Bronte's death so soon after her husband had removed into the
+district, and also to the distances, and the bleak country to be
+traversed, the wives of these clerical friends did not accompany
+their husbands; and the daughters grew up out of childhood into
+girlhood bereft, in a singular manner, of all such society as
+would have been natural to their age, sex, and station.
+
+But the children did not want society.  To small infantine
+gaieties they were unaccustomed.  They were all in all to each
+other.  I do not suppose that there ever was a family more
+tenderly bound to each other.  Maria read the newspapers, and
+reported intelligence to her younger sisters which it is wonderful
+they could take an interest in.  But I suspect that they had no
+"children's books," and that their eager minds "browzed
+undisturbed among the wholesome pasturage of English literature,"
+as Charles Lamb expresses it.  The servants of the household
+appear to have been much impressed with the little Brontes'
+extraordinary cleverness.  In a letter which I had from him on
+this subject, their father writes:- "The servants often said that
+they had never seen such a clever little child" (as Charlotte),
+"and that they were obliged to be on their guard as to what they
+said and did before her.  Yet she and the servants always lived on
+good terms with each other."
+
+These servants are yet alive; elderly women residing in Bradford.
+They retain a faithful and fond recollection of Charlotte, and
+speak of her unvarying kindness from the "time when she was ever
+such a little child!" when she would not rest till she had got the
+old disused cradle sent from the parsonage to the house where the
+parents of one of them lived, to serve for a little infant sister.
+They tell of one long series of kind and thoughtful actions from
+this early period to the last weeks of Charlotte Bronte's life;
+and, though she had left her place many years ago, one of these
+former servants went over from Bradford to Haworth on purpose to
+see Mr. Bronte, and offer him her true sympathy, when his last
+child died.  I may add a little anecdote as a testimony to the
+admirable character of the likeness of Miss Bronte prefixed to
+this volume.  A gentleman who had kindly interested himself in the
+preparation of this memoir took the first volume, shortly after
+the publication, to the house of this old servant, in order to
+show her the portrait.  The moment she caught a glimpse of the
+frontispiece, "There she is," in a minute she exclaimed.  "Come,
+John, look!" (to her husband); and her daughter was equally struck
+by the resemblance.  There might not be many to regard the Brontes
+with affection, but those who once loved them, loved them long and
+well.
+
+I return to the father's letter.  He says:-
+
+"When mere children, as soon as they could read and write,
+Charlotte and her brothers and sisters used to invent and act
+little plays of their own, in which the Duke of Wellington, my
+daughter Charlotte's hero, was sure to come off conqueror; when a
+dispute would not unfrequently arise amongst them regarding the
+comparative merits of him, Buonaparte, Hannibal, and Caesar.  When
+the argument got warm, and rose to its height, as their mother was
+then dead, I had sometimes to come in as arbitrator, and settle
+the dispute according to the best of my judgment.  Generally, in
+the management of these concerns, I frequently thought that I
+discovered signs of rising talent, which I had seldom or never
+before seen in any of their age . . . A circumstance now occurs to
+my mind which I may as well mention.  When my children were very
+young, when, as far as I can remember, the oldest was about ten
+years of age, and the youngest about four, thinking that they knew
+more than I had yet discovered, in order to make them speak with
+less timidity, I deemed that if they were put under a sort of
+cover I might gain my end; and happening to have a mask in the
+house, I told them all to stand and speak boldly from under cover
+of the mask.
+
+"I began with the youngest (Anne, afterwards Acton Bell), and
+asked what a child like her most wanted; she answered, 'Age and
+experience.'  I asked the next (Emily, afterwards Ellis Bell),
+what I had best do with her brother Branwell, who was sometimes a
+naughty boy; she answered, 'Reason with him, and when he won't
+listen to reason, whip him.'  I asked Branwell what was the best
+way of knowing the difference between the intellects of man and
+woman; he answered, 'By considering the difference between them as
+to their bodies.'  I then asked Charlotte what was the best book
+in the world; she answered, 'The Bible.'  And what was the next
+best; she answered, 'The Book of Nature.'  I then asked the next
+what was the best mode of education for a woman; she answered,
+'That which would make her rule her house well.'  Lastly, I asked
+the oldest what was the best mode of spending time; she answered,
+'By laying it out in preparation for a happy eternity.'  I may not
+have given precisely their words, but I have nearly done so, as
+they made a deep and lasting impression on my memory.  The
+substance, however, was exactly what I have stated."
+
+The strange and quaint simplicity of the mode taken by the father
+to ascertain the hidden characters of his children, and the tone
+and character of these questions and answers, show the curious
+education which was made by the circumstances surrounding the
+Brontes.  They knew no other children.  They knew no other modes
+of thought than what were suggested to them by the fragments of
+clerical conversation which they overheard in the parlour, or the
+subjects of village and local interest which they heard discussed
+in the kitchen.  Each had their own strong characteristic flavour.
+
+They took a vivid interest in the public characters, and the local
+and the foreign as well as home politics discussed in the
+newspapers.  Long before Maria Bronte died, at the age of eleven,
+her father used to say he could converse with her on any of the
+leading topics of the day with as much freedom and pleasure as
+with any grown-up person.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+
+About a year after Mrs. Bronte's death, an elder sister, as I have
+before mentioned, came from Penzance to superintend her brother-
+in-law's household, and look after his children.  Miss Branwell
+was, I believe, a kindly and conscientious woman, with a good deal
+of character, but with the somewhat narrow ideas natural to one
+who had spent nearly all her life in the same place.  She had
+strong prejudices, and soon took a distaste to Yorkshire.  From
+Penzance, where plants which we in the north call greenhouse
+flowers grow in great profusion, and without any shelter even in
+the winter, and where the soft warm climate allows the
+inhabitants, if so disposed, to live pretty constantly in the open
+air, it was a great change for a lady considerably past forty to
+come and take up her abode in a place where neither flowers nor
+vegetables would flourish, and where a tree of even moderate
+dimensions might be hunted for far and wide; where the snow lay
+long and late on the moors, stretching bleakly and barely far up
+from the dwelling which was henceforward to be her home; and where
+often, on autumnal or winter nights, the four winds of heaven
+seemed to meet and rage together, tearing round the house as if
+they were wild beasts striving to find an entrance.  She missed
+the small round of cheerful, social visiting perpetually going on
+in a country town; she missed the friends she had known from her
+childhood, some of whom had been her parents' friends before they
+were hers; she disliked many of the customs of the place, and
+particularly dreaded the cold damp arising from the flag floors in
+the passages and parlours of Haworth Parsonage.  The stairs, too,
+I believe, are made of stone; and no wonder, when stone quarries
+are near, and trees are far to seek.  I have heard that Miss
+Branwell always went about the house in pattens, clicking up and
+down the stairs, from her dread of catching cold.  For the same
+reason, in the latter years of her life, she passed nearly all her
+time, and took most of her meals, in her bedroom.  The children
+respected her, and had that sort of affection for her which is
+generated by esteem; but I do not think they ever freely loved
+her.  It was a severe trial for any one at her time of life to
+change neighbourhood and habitation so entirely as she did; and
+the greater her merit.
+
+I do not know whether Miss Branwell taught her nieces anything
+besides sewing, and the household arts in which Charlotte
+afterwards was such an adept.  Their regular lessons were said to
+their father; and they were always in the habit of picking up an
+immense amount of miscellaneous information for themselves.  But a
+year or so before this time, a school had been begun in the North
+of England for the daughters of clergymen.  The place was Cowan
+Bridge, a small hamlet on the coach-road between Leeds and Kendal,
+and thus easy of access from Haworth, as the coach ran daily, and
+one of its stages was at Keighley.  The yearly expense for each
+pupil (according to the entrance-rules given in the Report for
+1842, and I believe they had not been increased since the
+establishment of the schools in 1823) was as follows:
+
+"Rule 11.  The terms for clothing, lodging, boarding, and
+educating, are 14L. a year; half to be paid in advance, when the
+pupils are sent; and also 1L. entrance-money, for the use of
+books, &c.  The system of education comprehends history,
+geography, the use of the globes, grammar, writing and arithmetic,
+all kinds of needlework, and the nicer kinds of household work--
+such as getting up fine linen, ironing, &c.  If accomplishments
+are required, an additional charge of 3L. a year is made for music
+or drawing, each."
+
+Rule 3rd requests that the friends will state the line of
+education desired in the case of every pupil, having a regard to
+her future prospects.
+
+Rule 4th states the clothing and toilette articles which a girl is
+expected to bring with her; and thus concludes:  "The pupils all
+appear in the same dress.  They wear plain straw cottage bonnets;
+in summer white frocks on Sundays, and nankeen on other days; in
+winter, purple stuff frocks, and purple cloth cloaks.  For the
+sake of uniformity, therefore, they are required to bring 3L. in
+lieu of frocks, pelisse, bonnet, tippet, and frills; making the
+whole sum which each pupil brings with her to the school -
+
+7L. half-year in advance.
+1L. entrance for books.
+1L. entrance for clothes.
+
+
+The 8th rule is,--"All letters and parcels are inspected by the
+superintendent;" but this is a very prevalent regulation in all
+young ladies' schools, where I think it is generally understood
+that the schoolmistress may exercise this privilege, although it
+is certainly unwise in her to insist too frequently upon it.
+
+There is nothing at all remarkable in any of the other
+regulations, a copy of which was doubtless in Mr. Bronte's hands
+when he formed the determination to send his daughters to Cowan
+Bridge School; and he accordingly took Maria and Elizabeth thither
+in July, 1824.
+
+I now come to a part of my subject which I find great difficulty
+in treating, because the evidence relating to it on each side is
+so conflicting that it seems almost impossible to arrive at the
+truth.  Miss Bronte more than once said to me, that she should not
+have written what she did of Lowood in "Jane Eyre," if she had
+thought the place would have been so immediately identified with
+Cowan Bridge, although there was not a word in her account of the
+institution but what was true at the time when she knew it; she
+also said that she had not considered it necessary, in a work of
+fiction, to state every particular with the impartiality that
+might be required in a court of justice, nor to seek out motives,
+and make allowances for human failings, as she might have done, if
+dispassionately analysing the conduct of those who had the
+superintendence of the institution.  I believe she herself would
+have been glad of an opportunity to correct the over-strong
+impression which was made upon the public mind by her vivid
+picture, though even she, suffering her whole life long, both in
+heart and body, from the consequences of what happened there,
+might have been apt, to the last, to take her deep belief in facts
+for the facts themselves--her conception of truth for the absolute
+truth.
+
+In some of the notices of the previous editions of this work, it
+is assumed that I derived the greater part of my information with
+regard to her sojourn at Cowan Bridge from Charlotte Bronte
+herself.  I never heard her speak of the place but once, and that
+was on the second day of my acquaintance with her.  A little child
+on that occasion expressed some reluctance to finish eating his
+piece of bread at dinner; and she, stooping down, and addressing
+him in a low voice, told him how thankful she should have been at
+his age for a piece of bread; and when we--though I am not sure if
+I myself spoke--asked her some question as to the occasion she
+alluded to, she replied with reserve and hesitation, evidently
+shying away from what she imagined might lead to too much
+conversation on one of her books.  She spoke of the oat-cake at
+Cowan Bridge (the clap-bread of Westmorland) as being different to
+the leaven-raised oat-cake of Yorkshire, and of her childish
+distaste for it.  Some one present made an allusion to a similar
+childish dislike in the true tale of "The terrible knitters o'
+Dent" given in Southey's "Common-place Book:" and she smiled
+faintly, but said that the mere difference in food was not all:
+that the food itself was spoilt by the dirty carelessness of the
+cook, so that she and her sisters disliked their meals
+exceedingly; and she named her relief and gladness when the doctor
+condemned the meat, and spoke of having seen him spit it out.
+These are all the details I ever heard from her.  She so avoided
+particularizing, that I think Mr. Carus Wilson's name never passed
+between us.
+
+I do not doubt the general accuracy of my informants,--of those
+who have given, and solemnly repeated, the details that follow,--
+but it is only just to Miss Bronte to say that I have stated above
+pretty nearly all that I ever heard on the subject from her.
+
+A clergyman, living near Kirby Lonsdale, the Reverend William
+Carus Wilson, was the prime mover in the establishment of this
+school.  He was an energetic man, sparing no labour for the
+accomplishment of his ends.  He saw that it was an extremely
+difficult task for clergymen with limited incomes to provide for
+the education of their children; and he devised a scheme, by which
+a certain sum was raised annually by subscription, to complete the
+amount required to furnish a solid and sufficient English
+education, for which the parent's payment of 14L. a year would not
+have been sufficient.  Indeed, that made by the parents was
+considered to be exclusively appropriated to the expenses of
+lodging and boarding, and the education provided for by the
+subscriptions.  Twelve trustees were appointed; Mr. Wilson being
+not only a trustee, but the treasurer and secretary; in fact,
+taking most of the business arrangements upon himself; a
+responsibility which appropriately fell to him, as he lived nearer
+the school than any one else who was interested in it.  So his
+character for prudence and judgment was to a certain degree
+implicated in the success or failure of Cowan Bridge School; and
+the working of it was for many years the great object and interest
+of his life.  But he was apparently unacquainted with the prime
+element in good administration--seeking out thoroughly competent
+persons to fill each department, and then making them responsible
+for, and judging them by, the result, without perpetual
+interference with the details.
+
+So great was the amount of good which Mr. Wilson did, by his
+constant, unwearied superintendence, that I cannot help feeling
+sorry that, in his old age and declining health, the errors which
+he was believed to have committed, should have been brought up
+against him in a form which received such wonderful force from the
+touch of Miss Bronte's great genius.  No doubt whatever can be
+entertained of the deep interest which he felt in the success of
+the school.  As I write, I have before me his last words on giving
+up the secretaryship in 1850:  he speaks of the "withdrawal, from
+declining health, of an eye, which, at all events, has loved to
+watch over the schools with an honest and anxious interest;"--and
+again he adds, "that he resigns, therefore, with a desire to be
+thankful for all that God has been pleased to accomplish through
+his instrumentality (the infirmities and unworthinesses of which
+he deeply feels and deplores)."
+
+Cowan Bridge is a cluster of some six or seven cottages, gathered
+together at both ends of a bridge, over which the high road from
+Leeds to Kendal crosses a little stream, called the Leck.  This
+high road is nearly disused now; but formerly, when the buyers
+from the West Riding manufacturing districts had frequent occasion
+to go up into the North to purchase the wool of the Westmorland
+and Cumberland farmers, it was doubtless much travelled; and
+perhaps the hamlet of Cowan Bridge had a more prosperous look than
+it bears at present.  It is prettily situated; just where the
+Leck-fells swoop into the plain; and by the course of the beck
+alder-trees and willows and hazel bushes grow.  The current of the
+stream is interrupted by broken pieces of grey rock; and the
+waters flow over a bed of large round white pebbles, which a flood
+heaves up and moves on either side out of its impetuous way till
+in some parts they almost form a wall.  By the side of the little,
+shallow, sparkling, vigorous Leck, run long pasture fields, of the
+fine short grass common in high land; for though Cowan Bridge is
+situated on a plain, it is a plain from which there is many a fall
+and long descent before you and the Leck reach the valley of the
+Lune.  I can hardly understand how the school there came to be so
+unhealthy, the air all round about was so sweet and thyme-scented,
+when I visited it last summer.  But at this day, every one knows
+that the site of a building intended for numbers should be chosen
+with far greater care than that of a private dwelling, from the
+tendency to illness, both infectious and otherwise, produced by
+the congregation of people in close proximity.
+
+The house is still remaining that formed part of that occupied by
+the school.  It is a long, bow-windowed cottage, now divided into
+two dwellings.  It stands facing the Leck, between which and it
+intervenes a space, about seventy yards deep, that was once the
+school garden.  This original house was an old dwelling of the
+Picard family, which they had inhabited for two generations.  They
+sold it for school purposes, and an additional building was
+erected, running at right angles from the older part.  This new
+part was devoted expressly to school-rooms, dormitories, &c.; and
+after the school was removed to Casterton, it was used for a
+bobbin-mill connected with the stream, where wooden reels were
+made out of the alders, which grow profusely in such ground as
+that surrounding Cowan Bridge.  This mill is now destroyed.  The
+present cottage was, at the time of which I write, occupied by the
+teachers' rooms, the dinner-room and kitchens, and some smaller
+bedrooms.  On going into this building, I found one part, that
+nearest to the high road, converted into a poor kind of public-
+house, then to let, and having all the squalid appearance of a
+deserted place, which rendered it difficult to judge what it would
+look like when neatly kept up, the broken panes replaced in the
+windows, and the rough-cast (now cracked and discoloured) made
+white and whole.  The other end forms a cottage, with the low
+ceilings and stone floors of a hundred years ago; the windows do
+not open freely and widely; and the passage up-stairs, leading to
+the bedrooms, is narrow and tortuous:  altogether, smells would
+linger about the house, and damp cling to it.  But sanitary
+matters were little understood thirty years ago; and it was a
+great thing to get a roomy building close to the high road, and
+not too far from the habitation of Mr. Wilson, the originator of
+the educational scheme.  There was much need of such an
+institution; numbers of ill-paid clergymen hailed the prospect
+with joy, and eagerly put down the names of their children as
+pupils when the establishment should be ready to receive them.
+Mr. Wilson was, no doubt, pleased by the impatience with which the
+realisation of his idea was anticipated, and opened the school
+with less than a hundred pounds in hand, and with pupils, the
+number of whom varies according to different accounts; Mr. W. W.
+Carus Wilson, the son of the founder, giving it as seventy; while
+Mr. Shepheard, the son-in-law, states it to have been only
+sixteen.
+
+Mr. Wilson felt, most probably, that the responsibility of the
+whole plan rested upon him.  The payment made by the parents was
+barely enough for food and lodging; the subscriptions did not flow
+very freely into an untried scheme; and great economy was
+necessary in all the domestic arrangements.  He determined to
+enforce this by frequent personal inspection; carried perhaps to
+an unnecessary extent, and leading occasionally to a meddling with
+little matters, which had sometimes the effect of producing
+irritation of feeling.  Yet, although there was economy in
+providing for the household, there does not appear to have been
+any parsimony.  The meat, flour, milk, &c., were contracted for,
+but were of very fair quality; and the dietary, which has been
+shown to me in manuscript, was neither bad nor unwholesome; nor,
+on the whole, was it wanting in variety.  Oatmeal porridge for
+breakfast; a piece of oat-cake for those who required luncheon;
+baked and boiled beef, and mutton, potato-pie, and plain homely
+puddings of different kinds for dinner.  At five o'clock, bread
+and milk for the younger ones; and one piece of bread (this was
+the only time at which the food was limited) for the elder pupils,
+who sat up till a later meal of the same description.
+
+Mr. Wilson himself ordered in the food, and was anxious that it
+should be of good quality.  But the cook, who had much of his
+confidence, and against whom for a long time no one durst utter a
+complaint, was careless, dirty, and wasteful.  To some children
+oatmeal porridge is distasteful, and consequently unwholesome,
+even when properly made; at Cowan Bridge School it was too often
+sent up, not merely burnt, but with offensive fragments of other
+substances discoverable in it.  The beef, that should have been
+carefully salted before it was dressed, had often become tainted
+from neglect; and girls, who were schoolfellows with the Brontes,
+during the reign of the cook of whom I am speaking, tell me that
+the house seemed to be pervaded, morning, noon, and night, by the
+odour of rancid fat that steamed out of the oven in which much of
+their food was prepared.  There was the same carelessness in
+making the puddings; one of those ordered was rice boiled in
+water, and eaten with a sauce of treacle and sugar; but it was
+often uneatable, because the water had been taken out of the rain
+tub, and was strongly impregnated with the dust lodging on the
+roof, whence it had trickled down into the old wooden cask, which
+also added its own flavour to that of the original rain water.
+The milk, too, was often "bingy," to use a country expression for
+a kind of taint that is far worse than sourness, and suggests the
+idea that it is caused by want of cleanliness about the milk pans,
+rather than by the heat of the weather.  On Saturdays, a kind of
+pie, or mixture of potatoes and meat, was served up, which was
+made of all the fragments accumulated during the week.  Scraps of
+meat from a dirty and disorderly larder, could never be very
+appetizing; and, I believe, that this dinner was more loathed than
+any in the early days of Cowan Bridge School.  One may fancy how
+repulsive such fare would be to children whose appetites were
+small, and who had been accustomed to food, far simpler perhaps,
+but prepared with a delicate cleanliness that made it both
+tempting and wholesome.  At many a meal the little Brontes went
+without food, although craving with hunger.  They were not strong
+when they came, having only just recovered from a complication of
+measles and hooping-cough:  indeed, I suspect they had scarcely
+recovered; for there was some consultation on the part of the
+school authorities whether Maria and Elizabeth should be received
+or not, in July 1824.  Mr. Bronte came again, in the September of
+that year, bringing with him Charlotte and Emily to be admitted as
+pupils.
+
+It appears strange that Mr. Wilson should not have been informed
+by the teachers of the way in which the food was served up; but we
+must remember that the cook had been known for some time to the
+Wilson family, while the teachers were brought together for an
+entirely different work--that of education.  They were expressly
+given to understand that such was their department; the buying in
+and management of the provisions rested with Mr. Wilson and the
+cook.  The teachers would, of course, be unwilling to lay any
+complaints on the subject before him.
+
+There was another trial of health common to all the girls.  The
+path from Cowan Bridge to Tunstall Church, where Mr. Wilson
+preached, and where they all attended on the Sunday, is more than
+two miles in length, and goes sweeping along the rise and fall of
+the unsheltered country, in a way to make it a fresh and
+exhilarating walk in summer, but a bitter cold one in winter,
+especially to children like the delicate little Brontes, whose
+thin blood flowed languidly in consequence of their feeble
+appetites rejecting the food prepared for them, and thus inducing
+a half-starved condition.  The church was not warmed, there being
+no means for this purpose.  It stands in the midst of fields, and
+the damp mist must have gathered round the walls, and crept in at
+the windows.  The girls took their cold dinner with them, and ate
+it between the services, in a chamber over the entrance, opening
+out of the former galleries.  The arrangements for this day were
+peculiarly trying to delicate children, particularly to those who
+were spiritless and longing for home, as poor Maria Bronte must
+have been; for her ill health was increasing, and the old cough,
+the remains of the hooping-cough, lingered about her.
+
+She was far superior in mind to any of her play-fellows and
+companions, and was lonely amongst them from that very cause; and
+yet she had faults so annoying that she was in constant disgrace
+with her teachers, and an object of merciless dislike to one of
+them, who is depicted as "Miss Scatcherd" in "Jane Eyre," and
+whose real name I will be merciful enough not to disclose.  I need
+hardly say, that Helen Burns is as exact a transcript of Maria
+Bronte as Charlotte's wonderful power of reproducing character
+could give.  Her heart, to the latest day on which we met, still
+beat with unavailing indignation at the worrying and the cruelty
+to which her gentle, patient, dying sister had been subjected by
+this woman.  Not a word of that part of "Jane Eyre" but is a
+literal repetition of scenes between the pupil and the teacher.
+Those who had been pupils at the same time knew who must have
+written the book from the force with which Helen Burns' sufferings
+are described.  They had, before that, recognised the description
+of the sweet dignity and benevolence of Miss Temple as only a just
+tribute to the merits of one whom all that knew her appear to hold
+in honour; but when Miss Scatcherd was held up to opprobrium they
+also recognised in the writer of "Jane Eyre" an unconsciously
+avenging sister of the sufferer.
+
+One of their fellow-pupils, among other statements even worse,
+gives me the following:- The dormitory in which Maria slept was a
+long room, holding a row of narrow little beds on each side,
+occupied by the pupils; and at the end of this dormitory there was
+a small bed-chamber opening out of it, appropriated to the use of
+Miss Scatcherd.  Maria's bed stood nearest to the door of this
+room.  One morning, after she had become so seriously unwell as to
+have had a blister applied to her side (the sore from which was
+not perfectly healed), when the getting-up bell was heard, poor
+Maria moaned out that she was so ill, so very ill, she wished she
+might stop in bed; and some of the girls urged her to do so, and
+said they would explain it all to Miss Temple, the superintendent.
+But Miss Scatcherd was close at hand, and her anger would have to
+be faced before Miss Temple's kind thoughtfulness could interfere;
+so the sick child began to dress, shivering with cold, as, without
+leaving her bed, she slowly put on her black worsted stockings
+over her thin white legs (my informant spoke as if she saw it yet,
+and her whole face flushed out undying indignation).  Just then
+Miss Scatcherd issued from her room, and, without asking for a
+word of explanation from the sick and frightened girl, she took
+her by the arm, on the side to which the blister had been applied,
+and by one vigorous movement whirled her out into the middle of
+the floor, abusing her all the time for dirty and untidy habits.
+There she left her.  My informant says, Maria hardly spoke, except
+to beg some of the more indignant girls to be calm; but, in slow,
+trembling movements, with many a pause, she went down-stairs at
+last,--and was punished for being late.
+
+Any one may fancy how such an event as this would rankle in
+Charlotte's mind.  I only wonder that she did not remonstrate
+against her father's decision to send her and Emily back to Cowan
+Bridge, after Maria's and Elizabeth's deaths.  But frequently
+children are unconscious of the effect which some of their simple
+revelations would have in altering the opinions entertained by
+their friends of the persons placed around them.  Besides,
+Charlotte's earnest vigorous mind saw, at an unusually early age,
+the immense importance of education, as furnishing her with tools
+which she had the strength and the will to wield, and she would be
+aware that the Cowan Bridge education was, in many points, the
+best that her father could provide for her.
+
+Before Maria Bronte's death, that low fever broke out, in the
+spring of 1825, which is spoken of in "Jane Eyre."  Mr. Wilson was
+extremely alarmed at the first symptoms of this.  He went to a
+kind motherly woman, who had had some connection with the school--
+as laundress, I believe--and asked her to come and tell him what
+was the matter with them.  She made herself ready, and drove with
+him in his gig.  When she entered the school-room, she saw from
+twelve to fifteen girls lying about; some resting their aching
+heads on the table, others on the ground; all heavy-eyed, flushed,
+indifferent, and weary, with pains in every limb.  Some peculiar
+odour, she says, made her recognise that they were sickening for
+"the fever;" and she told Mr. Wilson so, and that she could not
+stay there for fear of conveying the infection to her own
+children; but he half commanded, and half entreated her to remain
+and nurse them; and finally mounted his gig and drove away, while
+she was still urging that she must return to her own house, and to
+her domestic duties, for which she had provided no substitute.
+However, when she was left in this unceremonious manner, she
+determined to make the best of it; and a most efficient nurse she
+proved:  although, as she says, it was a dreary time.
+
+Mr. Wilson supplied everything ordered by the doctors, of the best
+quality and in the most liberal manner; the invalids were attended
+by Dr. Batty, a very clever surgeon in Kirby, who had had the
+medical superintendence of the establishment from the beginning,
+and who afterwards became Mr. Wilson's brother-in-law.  I have
+heard from two witnesses besides Charlotte Bronte, that Dr. Batty
+condemned the preparation of the food by the expressive action of
+spitting out a portion of it.  He himself, it is but fair to say,
+does not remember this circumstance, nor does he speak of the
+fever itself as either alarming or dangerous.  About forty of the
+girls suffered from this, but none of them died at Cowan Bridge;
+though one died at her own home, sinking under the state of health
+which followed it.  None of the Brontes had the fever.  But the
+same causes, which affected the health of the other pupils through
+typhus, told more slowly, but not less surely, upon their
+constitutions.  The principal of these causes was the food.
+
+The bad management of the cook was chiefly to be blamed for this;
+she was dismissed, and the woman who had been forced against her
+will to serve as head nurse, took the place of housekeeper; and
+henceforward the food was so well prepared that no one could ever
+reasonably complain of it.  Of course it cannot be expected that a
+new institution, comprising domestic and educational arrangements
+for nearly a hundred persons, should work quite smoothly at the
+beginning.
+
+All this occurred during the first two years of the establishment,
+and in estimating its effect upon the character of Charlotte
+Bronte, we must remember that she was a sensitive thoughtful
+child, capable of reflecting deeply, if not of analyzing truly;
+and peculiarly susceptible, as are all delicate and sickly
+children, to painful impressions.  What the healthy suffer from
+but momentarily and then forget, those who are ailing brood over
+involuntarily and remember long,--perhaps with no resentment, but
+simply as a piece of suffering that has been stamped into their
+very life.  The pictures, ideas, and conceptions of character
+received into the mind of the child of eight years old, were
+destined to be reproduced in fiery words a quarter of a century
+afterwards.  She saw but one side of Mr. Wilson's character; and
+many of those who knew him at that time assure me of the fidelity
+with which this is represented, while at the same time they regret
+that the delineation should have obliterated, as it were, nearly
+all that was noble or conscientious.  And that there were grand
+and fine qualities in Mr. Wilson, I have received abundant
+evidence.  Indeed for several weeks past I have received letters
+almost daily, bearing on the subject of this chapter; some vague,
+some definite; many full of love and admiration for Mr. Wilson,
+some as full of dislike and indignation; few containing positive
+facts.  After giving careful consideration to this mass of
+conflicting evidence, I have made such alterations and omissions
+in this chapter as seem to me to be required.  It is but just to
+state that the major part of the testimony with which I have been
+favoured from old pupils is in high praise of Mr. Wilson.  Among
+the letters that I have read, there is one whose evidence ought to
+be highly respected.  It is from the husband of "Miss Temple."
+She died in 1856, but he, a clergyman, thus wrote in reply to a
+letter addressed to him on the subject by one of Mr. Wilson's
+friends:- "Often have I heard my late dear wife speak of her
+sojourn at Cowan Bridge; always in terms of admiration of Mr.
+Carus Wilson, his parental love to his pupils, and their love for
+him; of the food and general treatment, in terms of approval.  I
+have heard her allude to an unfortunate cook, who used at times to
+spoil the porridge, but who, she said, was soon dismissed."
+
+The recollections left of the four Bronte sisters at this period
+of their lives, on the minds of those who associated with them,
+are not very distinct.  Wild, strong hearts, and powerful minds,
+were hidden under an enforced propriety and regularity of
+demeanour and expression, just as their faces had been concealed
+by their father, under his stiff, unchanging mask.  Maria was
+delicate, unusually clever and thoughtful for her age, gentle, and
+untidy.  Of her frequent disgrace from this last fault--of her
+sufferings, so patiently borne--I have already spoken.  The only
+glimpse we get of Elizabeth, through the few years of her short
+life, is contained in a letter which I have received from "Miss
+Temple."  "The second, Elizabeth, is the only one of the family of
+whom I have a vivid recollection, from her meeting with a somewhat
+alarming accident, in consequence of which I had her for some days
+and nights in my bedroom, not only for the sake of greater quiet,
+but that I might watch over her myself.  Her head was severely
+cut, but she bore all the consequent suffering with exemplary
+patience, and by it won much upon my esteem.  Of the two younger
+ones (if two there were) I have very slight recollections, save
+that one, a darling child, under five years of age, was quite the
+pet nursling of the school."  This last would be Emily.  Charlotte
+was considered the most talkative of the sisters--a "bright,
+clever, little child."  Her great friend was a certain "Mellany
+Hane" (so Mr. Bronte spells the name), whose brother paid for her
+schooling, and who had no remarkable talent except for music,
+which her brother's circumstances forbade her to cultivate.  She
+was "a hungry, good-natured, ordinary girl;" older than Charlotte,
+and ever ready to protect her from any petty tyranny or
+encroachments on the part of the elder girls.  Charlotte always
+remembered her with affection and gratitude.
+
+I have quoted the word "bright" in the account of Charlotte.  I
+suspect that this year of 1825 was the last time it could ever be
+applied to her.  In the spring of it, Maria became so rapidly
+worse that Mr. Bronte was sent for.  He had not previously been
+aware of her illness, and the condition in which he found her was
+a terrible shock to him.  He took her home by the Leeds coach, the
+girls crowding out into the road to follow her with their eyes
+over the bridge, past the cottages, and then out of sight for
+ever.  She died a very few days after her arrival at home.
+Perhaps the news of her death falling suddenly into the life of
+which her patient existence had formed a part, only a little week
+or so before, made those who remained at Cowan Bridge look with
+more anxiety on Elizabeth's symptoms, which also turned out to be
+consumptive.  She was sent home in charge of a confidential
+servant of the establishment; and she, too, died in the early
+summer of that year.  Charlotte was thus suddenly called into the
+responsibilities of eldest sister in a motherless family.  She
+remembered how anxiously her dear sister Maria had striven, in her
+grave earnest way, to be a tender helper and a counsellor to them
+all; and the duties that now fell upon her seemed almost like a
+legacy from the gentle little sufferer so lately dead.
+
+Both Charlotte and Emily returned to school after the Midsummer
+holidays in this fatal year.  But before the next winter it was
+thought desirable to advise their removal, as it was evident that
+the damp situation of the house at Cowan Bridge did not suit their
+health. {3}
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+
+For the reason just stated, the little girls were sent home in the
+autumn of 1825, when Charlotte was little more than nine years
+old.
+
+About this time, an elderly woman of the village came to live as
+servant at the parsonage.  She remained there, as a member of the
+household, for thirty years; and from the length of her faithful
+service, and the attachment and respect which she inspired, is
+deserving of mention.  Tabby was a thorough specimen of a
+Yorkshire woman of her class, in dialect, in appearance, and in
+character.  She abounded in strong practical sense and shrewdness.
+Her words were far from flattery; but she would spare no deeds in
+the cause of those whom she kindly regarded.  She ruled the
+children pretty sharply; and yet never grudged a little extra
+trouble to provide them with such small treats as came within her
+power.  In return, she claimed to be looked upon as a humble
+friend; and, many years later, Miss Bronte told me that she found
+it somewhat difficult to manage, as Tabby expected to be informed
+of all the family concerns, and yet had grown so deaf that what
+was repeated to her became known to whoever might be in or about
+the house.  To obviate this publication of what it might be
+desirable to keep secret, Miss Bronte used to take her out for a
+walk on the solitary moors; where, when both were seated on a tuft
+of heather, in some high lonely place, she could acquaint the old
+woman, at leisure, with all that she wanted to hear.
+
+Tabby had lived in Haworth in the days when the pack-horses went
+through once a week, with their tinkling bells and gay worsted
+adornment, carrying the produce of the country from Keighley over
+the hills to Colne and Burnley.  What is more, she had known the
+"bottom," or valley, in those primitive days when the fairies
+frequented the margin of the "beck" on moonlight nights, and had
+known folk who had seen them.  But that was when there were no
+mills in the valleys; and when all the wool-spinning was done by
+hand in the farm-houses round.  "It wur the factories as had
+driven 'em away," she said.  No doubt she had many a tale to tell
+of by-gone days of the country-side; old ways of living, former
+inhabitants, decayed gentry, who had melted away, and whose places
+knew them no more; family tragedies, and dark superstitious dooms;
+and in telling these things, without the least consciousness that
+there might ever be anything requiring to be softened down, would
+give at full length the bare and simple details.
+
+Miss Branwell instructed the children at regular hours in all she
+could teach, making her bed-chamber into their school-room.  Their
+father was in the habit of relating to them any public news in
+which he felt an interest; and from the opinions of his strong and
+independent mind they would gather much food for thought; but I do
+not know whether he gave them any direct instruction.  Charlotte's
+deep thoughtful spirit appears to have felt almost painfully the
+tender responsibility which rested upon her with reference to her
+remaining sisters.  She was only eighteen months older than Emily;
+but Emily and Anne were simply companions and playmates, while
+Charlotte was motherly friend and guardian to both; and this
+loving assumption of duties beyond her years, made her feel
+considerably older than she really was.
+
+Patrick Branwell, their only brother, was a boy of remarkable
+promise, and, in some ways, of extraordinary precocity of talent.
+Mr. Bronte's friends advised him to send his son to school; but,
+remembering both the strength of will of his own youth and his
+mode of employing it, he believed that Patrick was better at home,
+and that he himself could teach him well, as he had taught others
+before.  So Patrick, or as his family called him--Branwell,
+remained at Haworth, working hard for some hours a day with his
+father; but, when the time of the latter was taken up with his
+parochial duties, the boy was thrown into chance companionship
+with the lads of the village--for youth will to youth, and boys
+will to boys.
+
+Still, he was associated in many of his sisters' plays and
+amusements.  These were mostly of a sedentary and intellectual
+nature.  I have had a curious packet confided to me, containing an
+immense amount of manuscript, in an inconceivably small space;
+tales, dramas, poems, romances, written principally by Charlotte,
+in a hand which it is almost impossible to decipher without the
+aid of a magnifying glass.  No description will give so good an
+idea of the extreme minuteness of the writing as the annexed
+facsimile of a page.
+
+Among these papers there is a list of her works, which I copy, as
+a curious proof how early the rage for literary composition had
+seized upon her:-
+
+
+CATALOGUE OF MY BOOKS, WITH THE PERIOD OF THEIR COMPLETION, UP TO
+AUGUST 3RD, 1830.
+
+Two romantic tales in one volume; viz., The Twelve Adventurers and
+the Adventures in Ireland, April 2nd, 1829.
+
+The Search after Happiness, a Tale, Aug. 1st, 1829.
+
+Leisure Hours, a Tale, and two Fragments, July 6th 1829.
+
+The Adventures of Edward de Crack, a Tale, Feb. 2nd, 1830.
+
+The Adventures of Ernest Alembert, a Tale, May 26th, 1830.
+
+An interesting Incident in the Lives of some of the most eminent
+Persons of the Age, a Tale, June 10th, 1830.
+
+Tales of the Islanders, in four volumes.  Contents of the lst
+Vol.: --l.  An Account of their Origin; 2.  A Description of
+Vision Island; 3.  Ratten's Attempt; 4.  Lord Charles Wellesley
+and the Marquis of Douro's Adventure; completed June 31st, 1829.
+2nd Vol.:- 1.  The School-rebellion; 2.  The strange Incident in
+the Duke of Wellington's Life; 3.  Tale to his Sons; 4.  The
+Marquis of Douro and Lord Charles Wellesley's Tale to his little
+King and Queen; completed Dec. 2nd, 1829.  3rd Vol.:- 1.  The Duke
+of Wellington's Adventure in the Cavern; 2.  The Duke of
+Wellington and the little King's and Queen's visit to the Horse-
+Guards; completed May 8th, 1830.  4th Vol.:- 1.  The three old
+Washer-women of Strathfieldsaye; 2.  Lord C. Wellesley's Tale to
+his Brother; completed July 30th, 1830.
+
+Characters of Great Men of the Present Age, Dec. 17th 1829.
+
+The Young Men's Magazines, in Six Numbers, from August to
+December, the latter months double number, completed December the
+12th, 1829.  General index to their contents:- 1.  A True Story;
+2.  Causes of the War; 3.  A Song; 4.  Conversations; 5.  A True
+Story continued; 6.  The Spirit of Cawdor; 7.  Interior of a
+Pothouse, a Poem; 8.  The Glass Town, a Song; 9.  The Silver Cup,
+a Tale; 10.  The Table and Vase in the Desert, a Song; 11.
+Conversations; 12.  Scene on the Great Bridge; 13.  Song of the
+Ancient Britons; 14.  Scene in my Tun, a Tale; 15.  An American
+Tale; 16.  Lines written on seeing the Garden of a Genius; 17.
+The Lay of the Glass Town; 18.  The Swiss Artist, a Tale; 19.
+Lines on the Transfer of this Magazine; 20.  On the Same, by a
+different hand; 21.  Chief Genii in Council; 22.  Harvest in
+Spain; 23.  The Swiss Artists continued; 24.  Conversations.
+
+The Poetaster, a Drama, in 2 volumes, July 12th, 1830.
+
+A Book of Rhymes, finished December 17th, 1829.  Contents:- 1.
+The Beauty of Nature; 2.  A Short Poem; 3.  Meditations while
+Journeying in a Canadian Forest; 4.  Song of an Exile; 5.  On
+Seeing the Ruins of the Tower of Babel; 6.  A Thing of 14 lines;
+7.  Lines written on the Bank of a River one fine Summer Evening;
+8.  Spring, a Song; 9.  Autumn, a Song.
+
+Miscellaneous Poems, finished May 30th, 1830.  Contents:- 1.  The
+Churchyard; 2.  Description of the Duke of Wellington's Palace on
+the Pleasant Banks of the Lusiva; this article is a small prose
+tale or incident; 3.  Pleasure;  4.  Lines written on the Summit
+of a high Mountain of the North of England; 5.  Winter; 6.  Two
+Fragments, namely, 1st, The Vision; 2nd, A Short untitled Poem;
+the Evening Walk, a Poem, June 23rd, 1830.
+
+Making in the whole twenty-two volumes.
+
+C. BRONTE, August 3, 1830
+
+
+As each volume contains from sixty to a hundred pages, and the
+size of the page lithographed is rather less than the average, the
+amount of the whole seems very great, if we remember that it was
+all written in about fifteen months.  So much for the quantity;
+the quality strikes me as of singular merit for a girl of thirteen
+or fourteen.  Both as a specimen of her prose style at this time,
+and also as revealing something of the quiet domestic life led by
+these children, I take an extract from the introduction to "Tales
+of the Islanders," the title of one of their "Little Magazines:" -
+
+
+"June the 31st, 1829.
+
+"The play of the 'Islanders' was formed in December, 1827, in the
+following manner.  One night, about the time when the cold sleet
+and stormy fogs of November are succeeded by the snow-storms, and
+high piercing night winds of confirmed winter, we were all sitting
+round the warm blazing kitchen fire, having just concluded a
+quarrel with Tabby concerning the propriety of lighting a candle,
+from which she came off victorious, no candle having been
+produced.  A long pause succeeded, which was at last broken by
+Branwell saying, in a lazy manner, 'I don't know what to do.'
+This was echoed by Emily and Anne.
+
+"TABBY.  'Wha ya may go t' bed.'
+
+"BRANWELL.  'I'd rather do anything than that.'
+
+"CHARLOTTE.  'Why are you so glum to-night, Tabby?  Oh! suppose we
+had each an island of our own.'
+
+"BRANWELL.  'If we had I would choose the Island of Man.'
+
+"CHARLOTTE.  'And I would choose the Isle of Wight.'
+
+"EMILY.  'The Isle of Arran for me.'
+
+"ANNE.  'And mine shall be Guernsey.'
+
+"We then chose who should be chief men in our islands.  Branwell
+chose John Bull, Astley Cooper, and Leigh Hunt; Emily, Walter
+Scott, Mr. Lockhart, Johnny Lockhart; Anne, Michael Sadler, Lord
+Bentinck, Sir Henry Halford.  I chose the Duke of Wellington and
+two sons, Christopher North and Co., and Mr. Abernethy.  Here our
+conversation was interrupted by the, to us, dismal sound of the
+clock striking seven, and we were summoned off to bed.  The next
+day we added many others to our list of men, till we got almost
+all the chief men of the kingdom.  After this, for a long time,
+nothing worth noticing occurred.  In June, 1828, we erected a
+school on a fictitious island, which was to contain 1,000
+children.  The manner of the building was as follows.  The Island
+was fifty miles in circumference, and certainly appeared more like
+the work of enchantment than anything real," &c.
+
+
+Two or three things strike me much in this fragment; one is the
+graphic vividness with which the time of the year, the hour of the
+evening, the feeling of cold and darkness outside, the sound of
+the night-winds sweeping over the desolate snow-covered moors,
+coming nearer and nearer, and at last shaking the very door of the
+room where they were sitting--for it opened out directly on that
+bleak, wide expanse--is contrasted with the glow, and busy
+brightness of the cheerful kitchen where these remarkable children
+are grouped.  Tabby moves about in her quaint country-dress,
+frugal, peremptory, prone to find fault pretty sharply, yet
+allowing no one else to blame her children, we may feel sure.
+Another noticeable fact is the intelligent partisanship with which
+they choose their great men, who are almost all stanch Tories of
+the time.  Moreover, they do not confine themselves to local
+heroes; their range of choice has been widened by hearing much of
+what is not usually considered to interest children.  Little Anne,
+aged scarcely eight, picks out the politicians of the day for her
+chief men.
+
+There is another scrap of paper, in this all but illegible
+handwriting, written about this time, and which gives some idea of
+the sources of their opinions.
+
+
+THE HISTORY OF THE YEAR 1829.
+
+"Once Papa lent my sister Maria a book.  It was an old geography-
+book; she wrote on its blank leaf, 'Papa lent me this book.'  This
+book is a hundred and twenty years old; it is at this moment lying
+before me.  While I write this I am in the kitchen of the
+Parsonage, Haworth; Tabby, the servant, is washing up the
+breakfast-things, and Anne, my youngest sister (Maria was my
+eldest), is kneeling on a chair, looking at some cakes which Tabby
+has been baking for us.  Emily is in the parlour, brushing the
+carpet.  Papa and Branwell are gone to Keighley.  Aunt is up-
+stairs in her room, and I am sitting by the table writing this in
+the kitchen.  Keighley is a small town four miles from here.  Papa
+and Branwell are gone for the newspaper, the 'Leeds
+Intelligencer,' a most excellent Tory newspaper, edited by Mr.
+Wood, and the proprietor, Mr. Henneman.  We take two and see three
+newspapers a week.  We take the 'Leeds Intelligencer,' Tory, and
+the 'Leeds Mercury,' Whig, edited by Mr. Baines, and his brother,
+son-in-law, and his two sons, Edward and Talbot.  We see the 'John
+Bull;' it is a high Tory, very violent.  Mr. Driver lends us it,
+as likewise 'Blackwood's Magazine,' the most able periodical there
+is.  The Editor is Mr. Christopher North, an old man seventy-four
+years of age; the 1st of April is his birth-day; his company are
+Timothy Tickler, Morgan O'Doherty, Macrabin Mordecai, Mullion,
+Warnell, and James Hogg, a man of most extraordinary genius, a
+Scottish shepherd.  Our plays were established; 'Young Men,' June,
+1826; 'Our Fellows,' July, 1827; 'Islanders,' December, 1827.
+These are our three great plays, that are not kept secret.
+Emily's and my best plays were established the 1st of December,
+1827; the others March, 1828.  Best plays mean secret plays; they
+are very nice ones.  All our plays are very strange ones.  Their
+nature I need not write on paper, for I think I shall always
+remember them.  The 'Young Men's' play took its rise from some
+wooden soldiers Branwell had:  'Our Fellows' from 'AEsop's
+Fables;' and the 'Islanders' from several events which happened.
+I will sketch out the origin of our plays more explicitly if I
+can.  First, 'Young Men.'  Papa bought Branwell some wooden
+soldiers at Leeds; when Papa came home it was night, and we were
+in bed, so next morning Branwell came to our door with a box of
+soldiers.  Emily and I jumped out of bed, and I snatched up one
+and exclaimed, 'This is the Duke of Wellington!  This shall be the
+Duke!'  When I had said this, Emily likewise took up one and said
+it should be hers; when Anne came down, she said one should be
+hers.  Mine was the prettiest of the whole, and the tallest, and
+the most perfect in every part.  Emily's was a grave-looking
+fellow, and we called him 'Gravey.'  Anne's was a queer little
+thing, much like herself, and we called him 'Waiting-Boy.'
+Branwell chose his, and called him 'Buonaparte.'"
+
+The foregoing extract shows something of the kind of reading in
+which the little Brontes were interested; but their desire for
+knowledge must have been excited in many directions, for I find a
+"list of painters whose works I wish to see," drawn up by
+Charlotte when she was scarcely thirteen:-
+
+"Guido Reni, Julio Romano, Titian, Raphael, Michael Angelo,
+Correggio, Annibal Caracci, Leonardo da Vinci, Fra Bartolomeo,
+Carlo Cignani, Vandyke, Rubens, Bartolomeo Ramerghi."
+
+Here is this little girl, in a remote Yorkshire parsonage, who has
+probably never seen anything worthy the name of a painting in her
+life, studying the names and characteristics of the great old
+Italian and Flemish masters, whose works she longs to see some
+time, in the dim future that lies before her!  There is a paper
+remaining which contains minute studies of, and criticisms upon,
+the engravings in "Friendship's Offering for 1829;" showing how
+she had early formed those habits of close observation, and
+patient analysis of cause and effect, which served so well in
+after-life as handmaids to her genius.
+
+The way in which Mr. Bronte made his children sympathise with him
+in his great interest in politics, must have done much to lift
+them above the chances of their minds being limited or tainted by
+petty local gossip.  I take the only other remaining personal
+fragment out of "Tales of the Islanders;" it is a sort of apology,
+contained in the introduction to the second volume, for their not
+having been continued before; the writers had been for a long time
+too busy, and latterly too much absorbed in politics.
+
+
+"Parliament was opened, and the great Catholic question was
+brought forward, and the Duke's measures were disclosed, and all
+was slander, violence, party-spirit, and confusion.  Oh, those six
+months, from the time of the King's speech to the end!  Nobody
+could write, think, or speak on any subject but the Catholic
+question, and the Duke of Wellington, and Mr. Peel.  I remember
+the day when the Intelligence Extraordinary came with Mr. Peel's
+speech in it, containing the terms on which the Catholics were to
+be let in!  With what eagerness Papa tore off the cover, and how
+we all gathered round him, and with what breathless anxiety we
+listened, as one by one they were disclosed, and explained, and
+argued upon so ably, and so well! and then when it was all out,
+how aunt said that she thought it was excellent, and that the
+Catholics could do no harm with such good security!  I remember
+also the doubts as to whether it would pass the House of Lords,
+and the prophecies that it would not; and when the paper came
+which was to decide the question, the anxiety was almost dreadful
+with which we listened to the whole affair:  the opening of the
+doors; the hush; the royal dukes in their robes, and the great
+duke in green sash and waistcoat; the rising of all the peeresses
+when he rose; the reading of his speech--Papa saying that his
+words were like precious gold; and lastly, the majority of one to
+four (sic) in favour of the Bill.  But this is a digression," &c.,
+&c.
+
+
+This must have been written when she was between thirteen and
+fourteen.
+
+It will be interesting to some of my readers to know what was the
+character of her purely imaginative writing at this period.  While
+her description of any real occurrence is, as we have seen,
+homely, graphic, and forcible, when she gives way to her powers of
+creation, her fancy and her language alike run riot, sometimes to
+the very borders of apparent delirium.  Of this wild weird
+writing, a single example will suffice.  It is a letter to the
+editor of one of the "Little Magazines."
+
+
+"Sir,--It is well known that the Genii have declared that unless
+they perform certain arduous duties every year, of a mysterious
+nature, all the worlds in the firmament will be burnt up, and
+gathered together in one mighty globe, which will roll in solitary
+grandeur through the vast wilderness of space, inhabited only by
+the four high princes of the Genii, till time shall be succeeded
+by Eternity; and the impudence of this is only to be paralleled by
+another of their assertions, namely, that by their magic might
+they can reduce the world to a desert, the purest waters to
+streams of livid poison, and the clearest lakes to stagnant
+waters, the pestilential vapours of which shall slay all living
+creatures, except the blood-thirsty beast of the forest, and the
+ravenous bird of the rock.  But that in the midst of this
+desolation the palace of the Chief Genii shall rise sparkling in
+the wilderness, and the horrible howl of their war-cry shall
+spread over the land at morning, at noontide and night; but that
+they shall have their annual feast over the bones of the dead, and
+shall yearly rejoice with the joy of victors.  I think, sir, that
+the horrible wickedness of this needs no remark, and therefore I
+haste to subscribe myself, &c.
+
+"July 14, 1829."
+
+
+It is not unlikely that the foregoing letter may have had some
+allegorical or political reference, invisible to our eyes, but
+very clear to the bright little minds for whom it was intended.
+Politics were evidently their grand interest; the Duke of
+Wellington their demi-god.  All that related to him belonged to
+the heroic age.  Did Charlotte want a knight-errant, or a devoted
+lover, the Marquis of Douro, or Lord Charles Wellesley, came ready
+to her hand.  There is hardly one of her prose-writings at this
+time in which they are not the principal personages, and in which
+their "august father" does not appear as a sort of Jupiter Tonans,
+or Deus ex Machina.
+
+As one evidence how Wellesley haunted her imagination, I copy out
+a few of the titles to her papers in the various magazines.
+
+"Liffey Castle," a Tale by Lord C. Wellesley.
+
+"Lines to the River Aragua," by the Marquis of Douro.
+
+"An Extraordinary Dream," by Lord C. Wellesley.
+
+"The Green Dwarf, a Tale of the Perfect Tense," by the Lord
+Charles Albert Florian Wellesley.
+
+"Strange Events," by Lord C. A. F. Wellesley.
+
+Life in an isolated village, or a lonely country-house, presents
+many little occurrences which sink into the mind of childhood,
+there to be brooded over.  No other event may have happened, or be
+likely to happen, for days, to push one of these aside, before it
+has assumed a vague and mysterious importance.  Thus, children
+leading a secluded life are often thoughtful and dreamy:  the
+impressions made upon them by the world without--the unusual
+sights of earth and sky--the accidental meetings with strange
+faces and figures (rare occurrences in those out-of-the-way
+places)--are sometimes magnified by them into things so deeply
+significant as to be almost supernatural.  This peculiarity I
+perceive very strongly in Charlotte's writings at this time.
+Indeed, under the circumstances, it is no peculiarity.  It has
+been common to all, from the Chaldean shepherds--"the lonely
+herdsman stretched on the soft grass through half a summer's day"-
+-the solitary monk--to all whose impressions from without have had
+time to grow and vivify in the imagination, till they have been
+received as actual personifications, or supernatural visions, to
+doubt which would be blasphemy.
+
+To counterbalance this tendency in Charlotte, was the strong
+common sense natural to her, and daily called into exercise by the
+requirements of her practical life.  Her duties were not merely to
+learn her lessons, to read a certain quantity, to gain certain
+ideas; she had, besides, to brush rooms, to run errands up and
+down stairs, to help in the simpler forms of cooking, to be by
+turns play-fellow and monitress to her younger sisters and
+brother, to make and to mend, and to study economy under her
+careful aunt.  Thus we see that, while her imagination received
+vivid impressions, her excellent understanding had full power to
+rectify them before her fancies became realities.  On a scrap of
+paper, she has written down the following relation:-
+
+
+"June 22, 1830, 6 o'clock p.m.
+"Haworth, near Bradford.
+
+"The following strange occurrence happened on the 22nd of June,
+1830:- At the time Papa was very ill, confined to his bed, and so
+weak that he could not rise without assistance.  Tabby and I were
+alone in the kitchen, about half-past nine ante-meridian.
+Suddenly we heard a knock at the door; Tabby rose and opened it.
+An old man appeared, standing without, who accosted her thus:-
+
+"OLD MAN.--'Does the parson live here?'
+
+"TABBY.--'Yes.'
+
+"OLD MAN.--'I wish to see him.'
+
+"TABBY.--'He is poorly in bed.'
+
+"OLD MAN.--'I have a message for him.'
+
+"TABBY.--'Who from?'
+
+"OLD MAN.--'From the Lord.'
+
+"TABBY.--'Who?'
+
+"OLD MAN.--'The Lord.  He desires me to say that the Bridegroom is
+coming, and that we must prepare to meet him; that the cords are
+about to be loosed, and the golden bowl broken; the pitcher broken
+at the fountain.'
+
+"Here he concluded his discourse, and abruptly went his way.  As
+Tabby closed the door, I asked her if she knew him.  Her reply
+was, that she had never seen him before, nor any one like him.
+Though I am fully persuaded that he was some fanatical enthusiast,
+well meaning perhaps, but utterly ignorant of true piety; yet I
+could not forbear weeping at his words, spoken so unexpectedly at
+that particular period."
+
+
+Though the date of the following poem is a little uncertain, it
+may be most convenient to introduce it here.  It must have been
+written before 1833, but how much earlier there are no means of
+determining.  I give it as a specimen of the remarkable poetical
+talent shown in the various diminutive writings of this time; at
+least, in all of them which I have been able to read.
+
+
+THE WOUNDED STAG.
+
+Passing amid the deepest shade
+Of the wood's sombre heart,
+Last night I saw a wounded deer
+Laid lonely and apart.
+
+Such light as pierced the crowded boughs
+(Light scattered, scant and dim,)
+Passed through the fern that formed his couch
+And centred full on him.
+
+Pain trembled in his weary limbs,
+Pain filled his patient eye,
+Pain-crushed amid the shadowy fern
+His branchy crown did lie.
+
+Where were his comrades? where his mate?
+All from his death-bed gone!
+And he, thus struck and desolate,
+Suffered and bled alone.
+
+Did he feel what a man might feel,
+Friend-left, and sore distrest?
+Did Pain's keen dart, and Grief's sharp sting
+Strive in his mangled breast?
+
+Did longing for affection lost
+Barb every deadly dart;
+Love unrepaid, and Faith betrayed,
+Did these torment his heart?
+
+No! leave to man his proper doom!
+These are the pangs that rise
+Around the bed of state and gloom,
+Where Adam's offspring dies!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+
+This is perhaps a fitting time to give some personal description
+of Miss Bronte.  In 1831, she was a quiet, thoughtful girl, of
+nearly fifteen years of age, very small in figure--"stunted" was
+the word she applied to herself,--but as her limbs and head were
+in just proportion to the slight, fragile body, no word in ever so
+slight a degree suggestive of deformity could properly be applied
+to her; with soft, thick, brown hair, and peculiar eyes, of which
+I find it difficult to give a description, as they appeared to me
+in her later life.  They were large and well shaped; their colour
+a reddish brown; but if the iris was closely examined, it appeared
+to be composed of a great variety of tints.  The usual expression
+was of quiet, listening intelligence; but now and then, on some
+just occasion for vivid interest or wholesome indignation, a light
+would shine out, as if some spiritual lamp had been kindled, which
+glowed behind those expressive orbs.  I never saw the like in any
+other human creature.  As for the rest of her features, they were
+plain, large, and ill set; but, unless you began to catalogue
+them, you were hardly aware of the fact, for the eyes and power of
+the countenance over-balanced every physical defect; the crooked
+mouth and the large nose were forgotten, and the whole face
+arrested the attention, and presently attracted all those whom she
+herself would have cared to attract.  Her hands and feet were the
+smallest I ever saw; when one of the former was placed in mine, it
+was like the soft touch of a bird in the middle of my palm.  The
+delicate long fingers had a peculiar fineness of sensation, which
+was one reason why all her handiwork, of whatever kind--writing,
+sewing, knitting--was so clear in its minuteness.  She was
+remarkably neat in her whole personal attire; but she was dainty
+as to the fit of her shoes and gloves.
+
+I can well imagine that the grave serious composure, which, when I
+knew her, gave her face the dignity of an old Venetian portrait,
+was no acquisition of later years, but dated from that early age
+when she found herself in the position of an elder sister to
+motherless children.  But in a girl only just entered on her
+teens, such an expression would be called (to use a country
+phrase) "old-fashioned;" and in 1831, the period of which I now
+write, we must think of her as a little, set, antiquated girl,
+very quiet in manners, and very quaint in dress; for besides the
+influence exerted by her father's ideas concerning the simplicity
+of attire befitting the wife and daughters of a country clergyman,
+her aunt, on whom the duty of dressing her nieces principally
+devolved, had never been in society since she left Penzance, eight
+or nine years before, and the Penzance fashions of that day were
+still dear to her heart.
+
+In January, 1831, Charlotte was sent to school again.  This time
+she went as a pupil to Miss W-, who lived at Roe Head, a cheerful
+roomy country house, standing a little apart in a field, on the
+right of the road from Leeds to Huddersfield.  Three tiers of old-
+fashioned semicircular bow windows run from basement to roof; and
+look down upon a long green slope of pasture-land, ending in the
+pleasant woods of Kirklees, Sir George Armitage's park.  Although
+Roe Head and Haworth are not twenty miles apart, the aspect of the
+country is as totally dissimilar as if they enjoyed a different
+climate.  The soft curving and heaving landscape round the former
+gives a stranger the idea of cheerful airiness on the heights, and
+of sunny warmth in the broad green valleys below.  It is just such
+a neighbourhood as the monks loved, and traces of the old
+Plantagenet times are to be met with everywhere, side by side with
+the manufacturing interests of the West Riding of to-day.  There
+is the park of Kirklees, full of sunny glades, speckled with black
+shadows of immemorial yew-trees; the grey pile of building,
+formerly a "House of professed Ladies;" the mouldering stone in
+the depth of the wood, under which Robin Hood is said to lie;
+close outside the park, an old stone-gabled house, now a roadside
+inn, but which bears the name of the "Three Nuns," and has a
+pictured sign to correspond.  And this quaint old inn is
+frequented by fustian-dressed mill-hands from the neighbouring
+worsted factories, which strew the high road from Leeds to
+Huddersfield, and form the centres round which future villages
+gather.  Such are the contrasts of modes of living, and of times
+and seasons, brought before the traveller on the great roads that
+traverse the West Riding.  In no other part of England, I fancy,
+are the centuries brought into such close, strange contact as in
+the district in which Roe Head is situated.  Within six miles of
+Miss W-'s house--on the left of the road, coming from Leeds--lie
+the remains of Howley Hall, now the property of Lord Cardigan, but
+formerly belonging to a branch of the Saviles.  Near to it is Lady
+Anne's well; "Lady Anne," according to tradition, having been
+worried and eaten by wolves as she sat at the well, to which the
+indigo-dyed factory people from Birstall and Batley woollen mills
+would formerly repair on Palm Sunday, when the waters possess
+remarkable medicinal efficacy; and it is still believed by some
+that they assume a strange variety of colours at six o'clock on
+the morning of that day.
+
+All round the lands held by the farmer who lives in the remains of
+Howley Hall are stone houses of to-day, occupied by the people who
+are making their living and their fortunes by the woollen mills
+that encroach upon and shoulder out the proprietors of the ancient
+halls.  These are to be seen in every direction, picturesque,
+many-gabled, with heavy stone carvings of coats of arms for
+heraldic ornament; belonging to decayed families, from whose
+ancestral lands field after field has been shorn away, by the
+urgency of rich manufacturers pressing hard upon necessity.
+
+A smoky atmosphere surrounds these old dwellings of former
+Yorkshire squires, and blights and blackens the ancient trees that
+overshadow them; cinder-paths lead up to them; the ground round
+about is sold for building upon; but still the neighbours, though
+they subsist by a different state of things, remember that their
+forefathers lived in agricultural dependence upon the owners of
+these halls; and treasure up the traditions connected with the
+stately households that existed centuries ago.  Take Oakwell Hall,
+for instance.  It stands in a pasture-field, about a quarter of a
+mile from the high road.  It is but that distance from the busy
+whirr of the steam-engines employed in the woollen mills at
+Birstall; and if you walk to it from Birstall Station about meal-
+time, you encounter strings of mill-hands, blue with woollen dye,
+and cranching in hungry haste over the cinder-paths bordering the
+high road.  Turning off from this to the right, you ascend through
+an old pasture-field, and enter a short by-road, called the
+"Bloody Lane"--a walk haunted by the ghost of a certain Captain
+Batt, the reprobate proprietor of an old hall close by, in the
+days of the Stuarts.  From the "Bloody Lane," overshadowed by
+trees, you come into the field in which Oakwell Hall is situated.
+It is known in the neighbourhood to be the place described as
+"Field Head," Shirley's residence.  The enclosure in front, half
+court, half garden; the panelled hall, with the gallery opening
+into the bed-chambers running round; the barbarous peach-coloured
+drawing-room; the bright look-out through the garden-door upon the
+grassy lawns and terraces behind, where the soft-hued pigeons
+still love to coo and strut in the sun,--are described in
+"Shirley."  The scenery of that fiction lies close around; the
+real events which suggested it took place in the immediate
+neighbourhood.
+
+They show a bloody footprint in a bedchamber of Oakwell Hall, and
+tell a story connected with it, and with the lane by which the
+house is approached.  Captain Batt was believed to be far away;
+his family was at Oakwell; when in the dusk, one winter evening,
+he came stalking along the lane, and through the hall, and up the
+stairs, into his own room, where he vanished.  He had been killed
+in a duel in London that very same afternoon of December 9th,
+1684.
+
+The stones of the Hall formed part of the more ancient vicarage,
+which an ancestor of Captain Batt's had seized in the troublous
+times for property which succeeded the Reformation.  This Henry
+Batt possessed himself of houses and money without scruple; and,
+at last, stole the great bell of Birstall Church, for which
+sacrilegious theft a fine was imposed on the land, and has to be
+paid by the owner of the Hall to this day.
+
+But the Oakwell property passed out of the hands of the Batts at
+the beginning of the last century; collateral descendants
+succeeded, and left this picturesque trace of their having been.
+In the great hall hangs a mighty pair of stag's horns, and
+dependent from them a printed card, recording the fact that, on
+the 1st of September, 1763, there was a great hunting-match, when
+this stag was slain; and that fourteen gentlemen shared in the
+chase, and dined on the spoil in that hall, along with Fairfax
+Fearneley, Esq., the owner.  The fourteen names are given,
+doubtless "mighty men of yore;" but, among them all, Sir Fletcher
+Norton, Attorney-General, and Major-General Birch were the only
+ones with which I had any association in 1855.  Passing on from
+Oakwell there lie houses right and left, which were well known to
+Miss Bronte when she lived at Roe Head, as the hospitable homes of
+some of her schoolfellows.  Lanes branch off for three or four
+miles to heaths and commons on the higher ground, which formed
+pleasant walks on holidays, and then comes the white gate into the
+field-path leading to Roe Head itself.
+
+One of the bow-windowed rooms on the ground floor with the
+pleasant look-out I have described was the drawing-room; the other
+was the schoolroom.  The dining-room was on one side of the door,
+and faced the road.
+
+The number of pupils, during the year and a half Miss Bronte was
+there, ranged from seven to ten; and as they did not require the
+whole of the house for their accommodation, the third story was
+unoccupied, except by the ghostly idea of a lady, whose rustling
+silk gown was sometimes heard by the listeners at the foot of the
+second flight of stairs.
+
+The kind motherly nature of Miss W-, and the small number of the
+girls, made the establishment more like a private family than a
+school.  Moreover, she was a native of the district immediately
+surrounding Roe Head, as were the majority of her pupils.  Most
+likely Charlotte Bronte, in coming from Haworth, came the greatest
+distance of all.  "E.'s" home was five miles away; two other dear
+friends (the Rose and Jessie Yorke of "Shirley") lived still
+nearer; two or three came from Huddersfield; one or two from
+Leeds.
+
+I shall now quote from a valuable letter which I have received
+from "Mary," one of these early friends; distinct and graphic in
+expression, as becomes a cherished associate of Charlotte
+Bronte's.  The time referred to is her first appearance at Roe
+Head, on January 19th, 1831.
+
+
+"I first saw her coming out of a covered cart, in very old-
+fashioned clothes, and looking very cold and miserable.  She was
+coming to school at Miss W-'s.  When she appeared in the
+schoolroom, her dress was changed, but just as old.  She looked a
+little old woman, so short-sighted that she always appeared to be
+seeking something, and moving her head from side to side to catch
+a sight of it.  She was very shy and nervous, and spoke with a
+strong Irish accent.  When a book was given her, she dropped her
+head over it till her nose nearly touched it, and when she was
+told to hold her head up, up went the book after it, still close
+to her nose, so that it was not possible to help laughing."
+
+
+This was the first impression she made upon one of those whose
+dear and valued friend she was to become in after-life.  Another
+of the girls recalls her first sight of Charlotte, on the day she
+came, standing by the schoolroom window, looking out on the snowy
+landscape, and crying, while all the rest were at play.  "E." was
+younger than she, and her tender heart was touched by the
+apparently desolate condition in which she found the oddly-
+dressed, odd-looking little girl that winter morning, as "sick for
+home she stood in tears," in a new strange place, among new
+strange people.  Any over-demonstrative kindness would have scared
+the wild little maiden from Haworth; but "E." (who is shadowed
+forth in the Caroline Helstone of "Shirley") managed to win
+confidence, and was allowed to give sympathy.
+
+To quote again from "Mary's" letter:-
+
+
+"We thought her very ignorant, for she had never learnt grammar at
+all, and very little geography."
+
+
+This account of her partial ignorance is confirmed by her other
+school-fellows.  But Miss W- was a lady of remarkable intelligence
+and of delicate tender sympathy.  She gave a proof of this in her
+first treatment of Charlotte.  The little girl was well-read, but
+not well-grounded.  Miss W- took her aside and told her she was
+afraid that she must place her in the second class for some time
+till she could overtake the girls of her own age in the knowledge
+of grammar, &c.; but poor Charlotte received this announcement
+with so sad a fit of crying, that Miss W-'s kind heart was
+softened, and she wisely perceived that, with such a girl, it
+would be better to place her in the first class, and allow her to
+make up by private study in those branches where she was
+deficient.
+
+"She would confound us by knowing things that were out of our
+range altogether.  She was acquainted with most of the short
+pieces of poetry that we had to learn by heart; would tell us the
+authors, the poems they were taken from, and sometimes repeat a
+page or two, and tell us the plot.  She had a habit of writing in
+italics (printing characters), and said she had learnt it by
+writing in their magazine.  They brought out a 'magazine' once a
+month, and wished it to look as like print as possible.  She told
+us a tale out of it.  No one wrote in it, and no one read it, but
+herself, her brother, and two sisters.  She promised to show me
+some of these magazines, but retracted it afterwards, and would
+never be persuaded to do so.  In our play hours she sate, or stood
+still, with a book, if possible.  Some of us once urged her to be
+on our side in a game at ball.  She said she had never played, and
+could not play.  We made her try, but soon found that she could
+not see the ball, so we put her out.  She took all our proceedings
+with pliable indifference, and always seemed to need a previous
+resolution to say 'No' to anything.  She used to go and stand
+under the trees in the play-ground, and say it was pleasanter.
+She endeavoured to explain this, pointing out the shadows, the
+peeps of sky, &c.  We understood but little of it.  She said that
+at Cowan Bridge she used to stand in the burn, on a stone, to
+watch the water flow by.  I told her she should have gone fishing;
+she said she never wanted.  She always showed physical feebleness
+in everything.  She ate no animal food at school.  It was about
+this time I told her she was very ugly.  Some years afterwards, I
+told her I thought I had been very impertinent.  She replied, 'You
+did me a great deal of good, Polly, so don't repent of it.'  She
+used to draw much better, and more quickly, than anything we had
+seen before, and knew much about celebrated pictures and painters.
+Whenever an opportunity offered of examining a picture or cut of
+any kind, she went over it piecemeal, with her eyes close to the
+paper, looking so long that we used to ask her 'what she saw in
+it.'  She could always see plenty, and explained it very well.
+She made poetry and drawing at least exceedingly interesting to
+me; and then I got the habit, which I have yet, of referring
+mentally to her opinion on all matters of that kind, along with
+many more, resolving to describe such and such things to her,
+until I start at the recollection that I never shall."
+
+To feel the full force of this last sentence--to show how steady
+and vivid was the impression which Miss Bronte made on those
+fitted to appreciate her--I must mention that the writer of this
+letter, dated January 18th, 1856, in which she thus speaks of
+constantly referring to Charlotte's opinion has never seen her for
+eleven years, nearly all of which have been passed among strange
+scenes, in a new continent, at the antipodes.
+
+"We used to be furious politicians, as one could hardly help being
+in 1832.  She knew the names of the two ministries; the one that
+resigned, and the one that succeeded and passed the Reform Bill.
+She worshipped the Duke of Wellington, but said that Sir Robert
+Peel was not to be trusted; he did not act from principle like the
+rest, but from expediency.  I, being of the furious radical party,
+told her 'how could any of them trust one another; they were all
+of them rascals!'  Then she would launch out into praises of the
+Duke of Wellington, referring to his actions; which I could not
+contradict, as I knew nothing about him.  She said she had taken
+interest in politics ever since she was five years old.  She did
+not get her opinions from her father--that is, not directly--but
+from the papers, &c., he preferred."
+
+In illustration of the truth of this, I may give an extract from a
+letter to her brother, written from Roe Head, May 17th, 1832:-
+"Lately I had begun to think that I had lost all the interest
+which I used formerly to take in politics; but the extreme
+pleasure I felt at the news of the Reform Bill's being thrown out
+by the House of Lords, and of the expulsion, or resignation of
+Earl Grey, &c., convinced me that I have not as yet lost all my
+penchant for politics.  I am extremely glad that aunt has
+consented to take in 'Fraser's Magazine;' for, though I know from
+your description of its general contents it will be rather
+uninteresting when compared with 'Blackwood,' still it will be
+better than remaining the whole year without being able to obtain
+a sight of any periodical whatever; and such would assuredly be
+our case, as, in the little wild moorland village where we reside,
+there would be no possibility of borrowing a work of that
+description from a circulating library.  I hope with you that the
+present delightful weather may contribute to the perfect
+restoration of our dear papa's health; and that it may give aunt
+pleasant reminiscences of the salubrious climate of her native
+place," &c.
+
+To return to "Mary's" letter.
+
+"She used to speak of her two elder sisters, Maria and Elizabeth,
+who died at Cowan Bridge.  I used to believe them to have been
+wonders of talent and kindness.  She told me, early one morning,
+that she had just been dreaming; she had been told that she was
+wanted in the drawing-room, and it was Maria and Elizabeth.  I was
+eager for her to go on, and when she said there was no more, I
+said, 'but go on!  MAKE IT OUT!  I know you can.'  She said she
+would not; she wished she had not dreamed, for it did not go on
+nicely, they were changed; they had forgotten what they used to
+care for.  They were very fashionably dressed, and began
+criticising the room, &c.
+
+"This habit of 'making out' interests for themselves that most
+children get who have none in actual life, was very strong in her.
+The whole family used to 'make out' histories, and invent
+characters and events.  I told her sometimes they were like
+growing potatoes in a cellar.  She said, sadly, 'Yes!  I know we
+are!'
+
+"Some one at school said she 'was always talking about clever
+people; Johnson, Sheridan, &c.'  She said, 'Now you don't know the
+meaning of CLEVER, Sheridan might be clever; yes, Sheridan was
+clever,--scamps often are; but Johnson hadn't a spark of
+cleverality in him.'  No one appreciated the opinion; they made
+some trivial remark about 'CLEVERALITY,' and she said no more.
+
+"This is the epitome of her life.  At our house she had just as
+little chance of a patient hearing, for though not school-girlish,
+we were more intolerant.  We had a rage for practicality, and
+laughed all poetry to scorn.  Neither she nor we had any idea but
+that our opinions were the opinions of all the SENSIBLE people in
+the world, and we used to astonish each other at every sentence .
+. . Charlotte, at school, had no plan of life beyond what
+circumstances made for her.  She knew that she must provide for
+herself, and chose her trade; at least chose to begin it once.
+Her idea of self-improvement ruled her even at school.  It was to
+cultivate her tastes.  She always said there was enough of hard
+practicality and USEFUL knowledge forced on us by necessity, and
+that the thing most needed was to soften and refine our minds.
+She picked up every scrap of information concerning painting,
+sculpture, poetry, music, &c., as if it were gold."
+
+What I have heard of her school days from other sources, confirms
+the accuracy of the details in this remarkable letter.  She was an
+indefatigable student:  constantly reading and learning; with a
+strong conviction of the necessity and value of education, very
+unusual in a girl of fifteen.  She never lost a moment of time,
+and seemed almost to grudge the necessary leisure for relaxation
+and play-hours, which might be partly accounted for by the
+awkwardness in all games occasioned by her shortness of sight.
+Yet, in spite of these unsociable habits, she was a great
+favourite with her schoolfellows.  She was always ready to try and
+do what they wished, though not sorry when they called her
+awkward, and left her out of their sports.  Then, at night, she
+was an invaluable story-teller, frightening them almost out of
+their wits as they lay in bed.  On one occasion the effect was
+such that she was led to scream out aloud, and Miss W-, coming up
+stairs, found that one of the listeners had been seized with
+violent palpitations, in consequence of the excitement produced by
+Charlotte's story.
+
+Her indefatigable craving for knowledge tempted Miss W- on into
+setting her longer and longer tasks of reading for examination;
+and towards the end of the year and a half that she remained as a
+pupil at Roe Head, she received her first bad mark for an
+imperfect lesson.  She had had a great quantity of Blair's
+"Lectures on Belles Lettres" to read; and she could not answer
+some of the questions upon it; Charlotte Bronte had a bad mark.
+Miss W- was sorry, and regretted that she had set Charlotte so
+long a task.  Charlotte cried bitterly.  But her school-fellows
+were more than sorry--they were indignant.  They declared that the
+infliction of ever so slight a punishment on Charlotte Bronte was
+unjust--for who had tried to do her duty like her?--and testified
+their feeling in a variety of ways, until Miss W-, who was in
+reality only too willing to pass over her good pupil's first
+fault, withdrew the bad mark; and the girls all returned to their
+allegiance except "Mary," who took her own way during the week or
+two that remained of the half-year, choosing to consider that Miss
+W-, in giving Charlotte Bronte so long a task, had forfeited her
+claim to obedience of the school regulations.
+
+The number of pupils was so small that the attendance to certain
+subjects at particular hours, common in larger schools, was not
+rigidly enforced.  When the girls were ready with their lessons,
+they came to Miss W- to say them.  She had a remarkable knack of
+making them feel interested in whatever they had to learn.  They
+set to their studies, not as to tasks or duties to be got through,
+but with a healthy desire and thirst for knowledge, of which she
+had managed to make them perceive the relishing savour.  They did
+not leave off reading and learning as soon as the compulsory
+pressure of school was taken away.  They had been taught to think,
+to analyse, to reject, to appreciate.  Charlotte Bronte was happy
+in the choice made for her of the second school to which she was
+sent.  There was a robust freedom in the out-of-doors life of her
+companions.  They played at merry games in the fields round the
+house:  on Saturday half-holidays they went long scrambling walks
+down mysterious shady lanes, then climbing the uplands, and thus
+gaining extensive views over the country, about which so much had
+to be told, both of its past and present history.
+
+Miss W- must have had in great perfection the French art,
+"conter," to judge from her pupil's recollections of the tales she
+related during these long walks, of this old house, or that new
+mill, and of the states of society consequent on the changes
+involved by the suggestive dates of either building.  She
+remembered the times when watchers or wakeners in the night heard
+the distant word of command, and the measured tramp of thousands
+of sad desperate men receiving a surreptitious military training,
+in preparation for some great day which they saw in their visions,
+when right should struggle with might and come off victorious:
+when the people of England, represented by the workers of
+Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Nottinghamshire, should make their
+voice heard in a terrible slogan, since their true and pitiful
+complaints could find no hearing in parliament.  We forget, now-a-
+days, so rapid have been the changes for the better, how cruel was
+the condition of numbers of labourers at the close of the great
+Peninsular war.  The half-ludicrous nature of some of their
+grievances has lingered on in tradition; the real intensity of
+their sufferings has become forgotten.  They were maddened and
+desperate; and the country, in the opinion of many, seemed to be
+on the verge of a precipice, from which it was only saved by the
+prompt and resolute decision of a few in authority.  Miss W- spoke
+of those times; of the mysterious nightly drillings; of thousands
+on lonely moors; of the muttered threats of individuals too
+closely pressed upon by necessity to be prudent; of the overt
+acts, in which the burning of Cartwright's mill took a prominent
+place; and these things sank deep into the mind of one, at least,
+among her hearers.
+
+Mr. Cartwright was the owner of a factory called Rawfolds, in
+Liversedge, not beyond the distance of a walk from Roe Head.  He
+had dared to employ machinery for the dressing of woollen cloth,
+which was an unpopular measure in 1812, when many other
+circumstances conspired to make the condition of the mill-hands
+unbearable from the pressure of starvation and misery.  Mr.
+Cartwright was a very remarkable man, having, as I have been told,
+some foreign blood in him, the traces of which were very apparent
+in his tall figure, dark eyes and complexion, and singular, though
+gentlemanly bearing.  At any rate he had been much abroad, and
+spoke French well, of itself a suspicious circumstance to the
+bigoted nationality of those days.  Altogether he was an unpopular
+man, even before he took the last step of employing shears,
+instead of hands, to dress his wool.  He was quite aware of his
+unpopularity, and of the probable consequences.  He had his mill
+prepared for an assault.  He took up his lodgings in it; and the
+doors were strongly barricaded at night.  On every step of the
+stairs there was placed a roller, spiked with barbed points all
+round, so as to impede the ascent of the rioters, if they
+succeeded in forcing the doors.
+
+On the night of Saturday the 11th of April, 1812, the assault was
+made.  Some hundreds of starving cloth-dressers assembled in the
+very field near Kirklees that sloped down from the house which
+Miss W- afterwards inhabited, and were armed by their leaders with
+pistols, hatchets, and bludgeons, many of which had been extorted
+by the nightly bands that prowled about the country, from such
+inhabitants of lonely houses as had provided themselves with these
+means of self-defence.  The silent sullen multitude marched in the
+dead of that spring-night to Rawfolds, and giving tongue with a
+great shout, roused Mr. Cartwright up to the knowledge that the
+long-expected attack was come.  He was within walls, it is true;
+but against the fury of hundreds he had only four of his own
+workmen and five soldiers to assist him.  These ten men, however,
+managed to keep up such a vigorous and well-directed fire of
+musketry that they defeated all the desperate attempts of the
+multitude outside to break down the doors, and force a way into
+the mill; and, after a conflict of twenty minutes, during which
+two of the assailants were killed and several wounded, they
+withdrew in confusion, leaving Mr. Cartwright master of the field,
+but so dizzy and exhausted, now the peril was past, that he forgot
+the nature of his defences, and injured his leg rather seriously
+by one of the spiked rollers, in attempting to go up his own
+staircase.  His dwelling was near the factory.  Some of the
+rioters vowed that, if he did not give in, they would leave this,
+and go to his house, and murder his wife and children.  This was a
+terrible threat, for he had been obliged to leave his family with
+only one or two soldiers to defend them.  Mrs. Cartwright knew
+what they had threatened; and on that dreadful night, hearing, as
+she thought, steps approaching, she snatched up her two infant
+children, and put them in a basket up the great chimney, common in
+old-fashioned Yorkshire houses.  One of the two children who had
+been thus stowed away used to point out with pride, after she had
+grown up to woman's estate, the marks of musket shot, and the
+traces of gunpowder on the walls of her father's mill.  He was the
+first that had offered any resistance to the progress of the
+"Luddites," who had become by this time so numerous as almost to
+assume the character of an insurrectionary army.  Mr. Cartwright's
+conduct was so much admired by the neighbouring mill-owners that
+they entered into a subscription for his benefit which amounted in
+the end to 3,000L.
+
+Not much more than a fortnight after this attack on Rawfolds,
+another manufacturer who employed the obnoxious machinery was shot
+down in broad daylight, as he was passing over Crossland Moor,
+which was skirted by a small plantation in which the murderers lay
+hidden.  The readers of "Shirley" will recognise these
+circumstances, which were related to Miss Bronte years after they
+occurred, but on the very spots where they took place, and by
+persons who remembered full well those terrible times of
+insecurity to life and property on the one hand, and of bitter
+starvation and blind ignorant despair on the other.
+
+Mr. Bronte himself had been living amongst these very people in
+1812, as he was then clergyman at Hartshead, not three miles from
+Rawfolds; and, as I have mentioned, it was in these perilous times
+that he began his custom of carrying a loaded pistol continually
+about with him.  For not only his Tory politics, but his love and
+regard for the authority of the law, made him despise the
+cowardice of the surrounding magistrates, who, in their dread of
+the Luddites, refused to interfere so as to prevent the
+destruction of property.  The clergy of the district were the
+bravest men by far.
+
+There was a Mr. Roberson of Heald's Hall, a friend of Mr. Bronte's
+who has left a deep impression of himself on the public mind.  He
+lived near Heckmondwike, a large, straggling, dirty village, not
+two miles from Roe Head.  It was principally inhabited by blanket
+weavers, who worked in their own cottages; and Heald's Hall is the
+largest house in the village, of which Mr. Roberson was the vicar.
+At his own cost, he built a handsome church at Liversedge, on a
+hill opposite the one on which his house stood, which was the
+first attempt in the West Riding to meet the wants of the
+overgrown population, and made many personal sacrifices for his
+opinions, both religious and political, which were of the true
+old-fashioned Tory stamp.  He hated everything which he fancied
+had a tendency towards anarchy.  He was loyal in every fibre to
+Church and King; and would have proudly laid down his life, any
+day, for what he believed to be right and true.  But he was a man
+of an imperial will, and by it he bore down opposition, till
+tradition represents him as having something grimly demoniac about
+him.  He was intimate with Cartwright, and aware of the attack
+likely to be made on his mill; accordingly, it is said, he armed
+himself and his household, and was prepared to come to the rescue,
+in the event of a signal being given that aid was needed.  Thus
+far is likely enough.  Mr. Roberson had plenty of war-like spirit
+in him, man of peace though he was.
+
+But, in consequence of his having taken the unpopular side,
+exaggerations of his character linger as truth in the minds of the
+people; and a fabulous story is told of his forbidding any one to
+give water to the wounded Luddites, left in the mill-yard, when he
+rode in the next morning to congratulate his friend Cartwright on
+his successful defence.  Moreover, this stern, fearless clergyman
+had the soldiers that were sent to defend the neighbourhood
+billeted at his house; and this deeply displeased the work-people,
+who were to be intimidated by the red-coats.  Although not a
+magistrate, he spared no pains to track out the Luddites concerned
+in the assassination I have mentioned; and was so successful in
+his acute unflinching energy, that it was believed he had been
+supernaturally aided; and the country people, stealing into the
+fields surrounding Heald's Hall on dusky winter evenings, years
+after this time, declared that through the windows they saw Parson
+Roberson dancing, in a strange red light, with black demons all
+whirling and eddying round him.  He kept a large boys' school; and
+made himself both respected and dreaded by his pupils.  He added a
+grim kind of humour to his strength of will; and the former
+quality suggested to his fancy strange out-of-the-way kinds of
+punishment for any refractory pupils:  for instance, he made them
+stand on one leg in a corner of the schoolroom, holding a heavy
+book in each hand; and once, when a boy had run away home, he
+followed him on horseback, reclaimed him from his parents, and,
+tying him by a rope to the stirrup of his saddle, made him run
+alongside of his horse for the many miles they had to traverse
+before reaching Heald's Hall.
+
+One other illustration of his character may be given.  He
+discovered that his servant Betty had "a follower;" and, watching
+his time till Richard was found in the kitchen, he ordered him
+into the dining-room, where the pupils were all assembled.  He
+then questioned Richard whether he had come after Betty; and on
+his confessing the truth, Mr. Roberson gave the word, "Off with
+him, lads, to the pump!"  The poor lover was dragged to the court-
+yard, and the pump set to play upon him; and, between every
+drenching, the question was put to him, "Will you promise not to
+come after Betty again?"  For a long time Richard bravely refused
+to give in; when "Pump again, lads!" was the order.  But, at last,
+the poor soaked "follower" was forced to yield, and renounce his
+Betty.
+
+The Yorkshire character of Mr. Roberson would be incomplete if I
+did not mention his fondness for horses.  He lived to be a very
+old man, dying some time nearer to 1840 than 1830; and even after
+he was eighty years of age, he took great delight in breaking
+refractory steeds; if necessary, he would sit motionless on their
+backs for half-an-hour or more to bring them to.  There is a story
+current that once, in a passion, he shot his wife's favourite
+horse, and buried it near a quarry, where the ground, some years
+after, miraculously opened and displayed the skeleton; but the
+real fact is, that it was an act of humanity to put a poor old
+horse out of misery; and that, to spare it pain, he shot it with
+his own hands, and buried it where, the ground sinking afterwards
+by the working of a coal-pit, the bones came to light.  The
+traditional colouring shows the animus with which his memory is
+regarded by one set of people.  By another, the neighbouring
+clergy, who remember him riding, in his old age, down the hill on
+which his house stood, upon his strong white horse--his bearing
+proud and dignified, his shovel hat bent over and shadowing his
+keen eagle eyes--going to his Sunday duty like a faithful soldier
+that dies in harness--who can appreciate his loyalty to
+conscience, his sacrifices to duty, and his stand by his religion-
+-his memory is venerated.  In his extreme old age, a rubric
+meeting was held, at which his clerical brethren gladly subscribed
+to present him with a testimonial of their deep respect and
+regard.
+
+This is a specimen of the strong character not seldom manifested
+by the Yorkshire clergy of the Established Church.  Mr. Roberson
+was a friend of Charlotte Bronte's father; lived within a couple
+of miles of Roe Head while she was at school there; and was deeply
+engaged in transactions, the memory of which was yet recent when
+she heard of them, and of the part which he had had in them.
+
+I may now say a little on the character of the Dissenting
+population immediately surrounding Roe Head; for the "Tory and
+clergyman's daughter," "taking interest in politics ever since she
+was five years old," and holding frequent discussions with such of
+the girls as were Dissenters and Radicals, was sure to have made
+herself as much acquainted as she could with the condition of
+those to whom she was opposed in opinion.
+
+The bulk of the population were Dissenters, principally
+Independents.  In the village of Heckmondwike, at one end of which
+Roe Head is situated, there were two large chapels belonging to
+that denomination, and one to the Methodists, all of which were
+well filled two or three times on a Sunday, besides having various
+prayer-meetings, fully attended, on week-days.  The inhabitants
+were a chapel-going people, very critical about the doctrine of
+their sermons, tyrannical to their ministers, and violent Radicals
+in politics.  A friend, well acquainted with the place when
+Charlotte Bronte was at school, has described some events which
+occurred then among them:-
+
+"A scene, which took place at the Lower Chapel at Heckmondwike,
+will give you some idea of the people at that time.  When a newly-
+married couple made their appearance at chapel, it was the custom
+to sing the Wedding Anthem, just after the last prayer, and as the
+congregation was quitting the chapel.  The band of singers who
+performed this ceremony expected to have money given them, and
+often passed the following night in drinking; at least, so said
+the minister of the place; and he determined to put an end to this
+custom.  In this he was supported by many members of the chapel
+and congregation; but so strong was the democratic element, that
+he met with the most violent opposition, and was often insulted
+when he went into the street.  A bride was expected to make her
+first appearance, and the minister told the singers not to perform
+the anthem.  On their declaring they would, he had the large pew
+which they usually occupied locked; they broke it open:  from the
+pulpit he told the congregation that, instead of their singing a
+hymn, he would read a chapter; hardly had he uttered the first
+word, before up rose the singers, headed by a tall, fierce-looking
+weaver, who gave out a hymn, and all sang it at the very top of
+their voices, aided by those of their friends who were in the
+chapel.  Those who disapproved of the conduct of the singers, and
+sided with the minister, remained seated till the hymn was
+finished.  Then he gave out the chapter again, read it, and
+preached.  He was just about to conclude with prayer, when up
+started the singers and screamed forth another hymn.  These
+disgraceful scenes were continued for many weeks, and so violent
+was the feeling, that the different parties could hardly keep from
+blows as they came through the chapel-yard.  The minister, at
+last, left the place, and along with him went many of the most
+temperate and respectable part of the congregation, and the
+singers remained triumphant.
+
+"I believe that there was such a violent contest respecting the
+choice of a pastor, about this time, in the Upper Chapel at
+Heckmondwike, that the Riot Act had to be read at a church-
+meeting."
+
+Certainly, the SOI-DISANT Christians who forcibly ejected Mr.
+Redhead at Haworth, ten or twelve years before, held a very
+heathen brotherhood with the SOI-DISANT Christians of
+Heckmondwike; though the one set might be called members of the
+Church of England and the other Dissenters.
+
+The letter from which I have taken the above extract relates
+throughout to the immediate neighbourhood of the place where
+Charlotte Bronte spent her school-days, and describes things as
+they existed at that very time.  The writer says,--"Having been
+accustomed to the respectful manners of the lower orders in the
+agricultural districts, I was at first, much disgusted and
+somewhat alarmed at the great freedom displayed by the working
+classes of Heckmondwike and Gomersall to those in a station above
+them.  The term 'lass,' was as freely applied to any young lady,
+as the word 'wench' is in Lancashire.  The extremely untidy
+appearance of the villagers shocked me not a little, though I must
+do the housewives the justice to say that the cottages themselves
+were not dirty, and had an air of rough plenty about them (except
+when trade was bad), that I had not been accustomed to see in the
+farming districts.  The heap of coals on one side of the house-
+door, and the brewing tubs on the other, and the frequent perfume
+of malt and hops as you walked along, proved that fire and 'home-
+brewed' were to be found at almost every man's hearth.  Nor was
+hospitality, one of the main virtues of Yorkshire, wanting.  Oat-
+cake, cheese, and beer were freely pressed upon the visitor.
+
+"There used to be a yearly festival, half-religious, half social,
+held at Heckmondwike, called 'The Lecture.'  I fancy it had come
+down from the times of the Nonconformists.  A sermon was preached
+by some stranger at the Lower Chapel, on a week-day evening, and
+the next day, two sermons in succession were delivered at the
+Upper Chapel.  Of course, the service was a very long one, and as
+the time was June, and the weather often hot, it used to be
+regarded by myself and my companions as no pleasurable way of
+passing the morning.  The rest of the day was spent in social
+enjoyment; great numbers of strangers flocked to the place; booths
+were erected for the sale of toys and gingerbread (a sort of 'Holy
+Fair'); and the cottages, having had a little extra paint and
+white-washing, assumed quite a holiday look.
+
+"The village of Gomersall" (where Charlotte Bronte's friend "Mary"
+lived with her family), "which was a much prettier place than
+Heckmondwike, contained a strange-looking cottage, built of rough
+unhewn stones, many of them projecting considerably, with uncouth
+heads and grinning faces carved upon them; and upon a stone above
+the door was cut, in large letters, 'SPITE HALL.'  It was erected
+by a man in the village, opposite to the house of his enemy, who
+had just finished for himself a good house, commanding a beautiful
+view down the valley, which this hideous building quite shut out."
+
+Fearless--because this people were quite familiar to all of them--
+amidst such a population, lived and walked the gentle Miss W-'s
+eight or nine pupils.  She herself was born and bred among this
+rough, strong, fierce set, and knew the depth of goodness and
+loyalty that lay beneath their wild manners and insubordinate
+ways.  And the girls talked of the little world around them, as if
+it were the only world that was; and had their opinions and their
+parties, and their fierce discussions like their elders--possibly,
+their betters.  And among them, beloved and respected by all,
+laughed at occasionally by a few, but always to her face--lived,
+for a year and a half, the plain, short-sighted, oddly-dressed,
+studious little girl they called Charlotte Bronte.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+
+Miss Bronte left Roe Head in 1832, having won the affectionate
+regard both of her teacher and her school-fellows, and having
+formed there the two fast friendships which lasted her whole life
+long; the one with "Mary," who has not kept her letters; the other
+with "E.," who has kindly entrusted me with a large portion of
+Miss Bronte's correspondence with her.  This she has been induced
+to do by her knowledge of the urgent desire on the part of Mr.
+Bronte that the life of his daughter should be written, and in
+compliance with a request from her husband that I should be
+permitted to have the use of these letters, without which such a
+task could be but very imperfectly executed.  In order to shield
+this friend, however, from any blame or misconstruction, it is
+only right to state that, before granting me this privilege, she
+throughout most carefully and completely effaced the names of the
+persons and places which occurred in them; and also that such
+information as I have obtained from her bears reference solely to
+Miss Bronte and her sisters, and not to any other individuals whom
+I may find it necessary to allude to in connection with them.
+
+In looking over the earlier portion of this correspondence, I am
+struck afresh by the absence of hope, which formed such a strong
+characteristic in Charlotte.  At an age when girls, in general,
+look forward to an eternal duration of such feelings as they or
+their friends entertain, and can therefore see no hindrance to the
+fulfilment of any engagements dependent on the future state of the
+affections, she is surprised that "E." keeps her promise to write.
+In after-life, I was painfully impressed with the fact, that Miss
+Bronte never dared to allow herself to look forward with hope;
+that she had no confidence in the future; and I thought, when I
+heard of the sorrowful years she had passed through, that it had
+been this pressure of grief which had crushed all buoyancy of
+expectation out of her.  But it appears from the letters, that it
+must have been, so to speak, constitutional; or, perhaps, the deep
+pang of losing her two elder sisters combined with a permanent
+state of bodily weakness in producing her hopelessness.  If her
+trust in God had been less strong, she would have given way to
+unbounded anxiety, at many a period of her life.  As it was, we
+shall see, she made a great and successful effort to leave "her
+times in His hands."
+
+After her return home, she employed herself in teaching her
+sisters, over whom she had had superior advantages.  She writes
+thus, July 21st, 1832, of her course of life at the parsonage:-
+
+"An account of one day is an account of all.  In the morning, from
+nine o'clock till half-past twelve, I instruct my sisters, and
+draw; then we walk till dinner-time.  After dinner I sew till tea-
+time, and after tea I either write, read, or do a little fancy-
+work, or draw, as I please.  Thus, in one delightful, though
+somewhat monotonous course, my life is passed.  I have been only
+out twice to tea since I came home.  We are expecting company this
+afternoon, and on Tuesday next we shall have all the female
+teachers of the Sunday-school to tea."
+
+I may here introduce a quotation from a letter which I have
+received from "Mary" since the publication of the previous
+editions of this memoir.
+
+"Soon after leaving school she admitted reading something of
+Cobbett's.  'She did not like him,' she said; 'but all was fish
+that came to her net.'  At this time she wrote to me that reading
+and drawing were the only amusements she had, and that her supply
+of books was very small in proportion to her wants.  She never
+spoke of her aunt.  When I saw Miss Branwell she was a very
+precise person, and looked very odd, because her dress, &c., was
+so utterly out of fashion.  She corrected one of us once for using
+the word 'spit' or 'spitting.'  She made a great favourite of
+Branwell.  She made her nieces sew, with purpose or without, and
+as far as possible discouraged any other culture.  She used to
+keep the girls sewing charity clothing, and maintained to me that
+it was not for the good of the recipients, but of the sewers.  'It
+was proper for them to do it,' she said.  Charlotte never was 'in
+wild excitement' that I know of.  When in health she used to talk
+better, and indeed when in low spirits never spoke at all.  She
+needed her best spirits to say what was in her heart, for at other
+times she had not courage.  She never gave decided opinions at
+such times . . .
+
+"Charlotte said she could get on with any one who had a bump at
+the top of their heads (meaning conscientiousness).  I found that
+I seldom differed from her, except that she was far too tolerant
+of stupid people, if they had a grain of kindness in them."
+
+It was about this time that Mr. Bronte provided his children with
+a teacher in drawing, who turned out to be a man of considerable
+talent, but very little principle.  Although they never attained
+to anything like proficiency, they took great interest in
+acquiring this art; evidently, from an instinctive desire to
+express their powerful imaginations in visible forms.  Charlotte
+told me, that at this period of her life, drawing, and walking out
+with her sisters, formed the two great pleasures and relaxations
+of her day.
+
+The three girls used to walk upwards toward the "purple-black"
+moors, the sweeping surface of which was broken by here and there
+a stone-quarry; and if they had strength and time to go far
+enough, they reached a waterfall, where the beck fell over some
+rocks into the "bottom."  They seldom went downwards through the
+village.  They were shy of meeting even familiar faces, and were
+scrupulous about entering the house of the very poorest uninvited.
+They were steady teachers at the Sunday-School, a habit which
+Charlotte kept up very faithfully, even after she was left alone;
+but they never faced their kind voluntary, and always preferred
+the solitude and freedom of the moors.
+
+
+In the September of this year, Charlotte went to pay her first
+visit to her friend "E."  It took her into the neighbourhood of
+Roe Head, and brought her into pleasant contact with many of her
+old school-fellows.  After this visit she and her friend seem to
+have agreed to correspond in French, for the sake of improvement
+in the language.  But this improvement could not be great, when it
+could only amount to a greater familiarity with dictionary words,
+and when there was no one to explain to them that a verbal
+translation of English idioms hardly constituted French
+composition; but the effort was laudable, and of itself shows how
+willing they both were to carry on the education which they had
+begun under Miss W-.   I will give an extract which, whatever may
+be thought of the language, is graphic enough, and presents us
+with a happy little family picture; the eldest sister returning
+home to the two younger, after a fortnight's absence.
+
+"J'arrivait e Haworth en parfaite sauvete sans le moindre accident
+ou malheur.  Mes petites soeurs couraient hors de la maison pour
+me rencontrer aussitot que la voiture se fit voir, et elles
+m'embrassaient avec autant d'empressement et de plaisir comme si
+j'avais ete absente pour plus d'an.  Mon Papa, ma Tante, et le
+monsieur dent men frere avoit parle, furent tous assembles dans le
+Salon, et en peu de temps je m'y rendis aussi.  C'est souvent
+l'ordre du Ciel que quand on a perdu un plaisir il y en a un autre
+pret e prendre sa place.  Ainsi je venois de partir de tres-chers
+amis, mais tout e l'heure je revins e des parens aussi chers et
+bon dans le moment.  Meme que vous me perdiez (ose-je croire que
+mon depart vous etait un chagrin?) vous attendites l'arrivee de
+votre frere, et de votre soeur.  J'ai donne e mes soeurs les
+pommes que vous leur envoyiez avec tant de bonte; elles disent
+qu'elles sont sur que Mademoiselle E. est tres-aimable et bonne;
+l'une et l'autre sont extremement impatientes de vous voir;
+j'espere qu'en peu de mois elles auront ce plaisir."
+
+But it was some time yet before the friends could meet, and
+meanwhile they agreed to correspond once a month.  There were no
+events to chronicle in the Haworth letters.  Quiet days, occupied
+in reaching, and feminine occupations in the house, did not
+present much to write about; and Charlotte was naturally driven to
+criticise books.
+
+Of these there were many in different plights, and according to
+their plight, kept in different places.  The well-bound were
+ranged in the sanctuary of Mr. Bronte's study; but the purchase of
+books was a necessary luxury to him, but as it was often a choice
+between binding an old one, or buying a new one, the familiar
+volume, which had been hungrily read by all the members of the
+family, was sometimes in such a condition that the bedroom shelf
+was considered its fitting place.  Up and down the house were to
+be found many standard works of a solid kind.  Sir Walter Scott's
+writings, Wordsworth's and Southey's poems were among the lighter
+literature; while, as having a character of their own--earnest,
+wild, and occasionally fanatical--may be named some of the books
+which came from the Branwell side of the family--from the Cornish
+followers of the saintly John Wesley--and which are touched on in
+the account of the works to which Caroline Helstone had access in
+"Shirley:"--"Some venerable Lady's Magazines, that had once
+performed a voyage with their owner, and undergone a storm"--
+(possibly part of the relics of Mrs. Bronte's possessions,
+contained in the ship wrecked on the coast of Cornwall)--"and
+whose pages were stained with salt water; some mad Methodist
+Magazines full of miracles and apparitions, and preternatural
+warnings, ominous dreams, and frenzied fanaticisms; and the
+equally mad letters of Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe from the Dead to the
+Living."
+
+Mr. Bronte encouraged a taste for reading in his girls; and though
+Miss Branwell kept it in due bounds, by the variety of household
+occupations, in which she expected them not merely to take a part,
+but to become proficients, thereby occupying regularly a good
+portion of every day, they were allowed to get books from the
+circulating library at Keighley; and many a happy walk, up those
+long four miles, must they have had, burdened with some new book,
+into which they peeped as they hurried home.  Not that the books
+were what would generally be called new; in the beginning of 1833,
+the two friends seem almost simultaneously to have fallen upon
+"Kenilworth," and Charlotte writes as follows about it:-
+
+"I am glad you like 'Kenilworth;' it is certainly more resembling
+a romance than a novel:  in my opinion, one of the most
+interesting works that ever emanated from the great Sir Walter's
+pen.  Varney is certainly the personification of consummate
+villainy; and in the delineation of his dark and profoundly artful
+mind, Scott exhibits a wonderful knowledge of human nature, as
+well as a surprising skill in embodying his perceptions, so as to
+enable others to become participators in that knowledge."
+
+Commonplace as this extract may seem, it is noteworthy on two or
+three accounts:  in the first place, instead of discussing the
+plot or story, she analyses the character of Varney; and next,
+she, knowing nothing of the world, both from her youth and her
+isolated position, has yet been so accustomed to hear "human
+nature" distrusted, as to receive the notion of intense and artful
+villainy without surprise.
+
+What was formal and set in her way of writing to "E." diminished
+as their personal acquaintance increased, and as each came to know
+the home of the other; so that small details concerning people and
+places had their interest and their significance.  In the summer
+of 1833, she wrote to invite her friend to come and pay her a
+visit.  "Aunt thought it would be better" (she says) "to defer it
+until about the middle of summer, as the winter, and even the
+spring seasons, are remarkably cold and bleak among our
+mountains."
+
+The first impression made on the visitor by the sisters of her
+school-friend was, that Emily was a tall, long-armed girl, more
+fully grown than her elder sister; extremely reserved in manner.
+I distinguish reserve from shyness, because I imagine shyness
+would please, if it knew how; whereas, reserve is indifferent
+whether it pleases or not.  Anne, like her eldest sister, was shy;
+Emily was reserved.
+
+Branwell was rather a handsome boy, with "tawny" hair, to use Miss
+Bronte's phrase for a more obnoxious colour.  All were very
+clever, original, and utterly different to any people or family
+"E." had ever seen before.  But, on the whole, it was a happy
+visit to all parties.  Charlotte says, in writing to "E.," just
+after her return home--"Were I to tell you of the impression you
+have made on every one here, you would accuse me of flattery.
+Papa and aunt are continually adducing you as an example for me to
+shape my actions and behaviour by.  Emily and Anne say 'they never
+saw any one they liked so well as you.'  And Tabby, whom you have
+absolutely fascinated, talks a great deal more nonsense about your
+ladyship than I care to repeat.  It is now so dark that,
+notwithstanding the singular property of seeing in the night-time,
+which the young ladies at Roe Head used to attribute to me, I can
+scribble no longer."
+
+To a visitor at the parsonage, it was a great thing to have
+Tabby's good word.  She had a Yorkshire keenness of perception
+into character, and it was not everybody she liked.
+
+Haworth is built with an utter disregard of all sanitary
+conditions:  the great old churchyard lies above all the houses,
+and it is terrible to think how the very water-springs of the
+pumps below must be poisoned.  But this winter of 1833-4 was
+particularly wet and rainy, and there were an unusual number of
+deaths in the village.  A dreary season it was to the family in
+the parsonage:  their usual walks obstructed by the spongy state
+of the moors--the passing and funeral bells so frequently tolling,
+and filling the heavy air with their mournful sound--and, when
+they were still, the "chip, chip," of the mason, as he cut the
+grave-stones in a shed close by.  In many, living, as it were, in
+a churchyard, and with all the sights and sounds connected with
+the last offices to the dead things of every-day occurrence, the
+very familiarity would have bred indifference.  But it was
+otherwise with Charlotte Bronte.  One of her friends says:- "I
+have seen her turn pale and feel faint when, in Hartshead church,
+some one accidentally remarked that we were walking over graves.
+Charlotte was certainly afraid of death.  Not only of dead bodies,
+or dying people.  She dreaded it as something horrible.  She
+thought we did not know how long the 'moment of dissolution' might
+really be, or how terrible.  This was just such a terror as only
+hypochondriacs can provide for themselves.  She told me long ago
+that a misfortune was often preceded by the dream frequently
+repeated which she gives to 'Jane Eyre,' of carrying a little
+wailing child, and being unable to still it.  She described
+herself as having the most painful sense of pity for the little
+thing, lying INERT, as sick children do, while she walked about in
+some gloomy place with it, such as the aisle of Haworth Church.
+The misfortunes she mentioned were not always to herself.  She
+thought such sensitiveness to omens was like the cholera, present
+to susceptible people,--some feeling more, some less."
+
+About the beginning of 1834, "E." went to London for the first
+time.  The idea of her friend's visit seems to have stirred
+Charlotte strangely.  She appears to have formed her notions of
+its probable consequences from some of the papers in the "British
+Essayists," "The Rambler," "The Mirror," or "The Lounger," which
+may have been among the English classics on the parsonage
+bookshelves; for she evidently imagines that an entire change of
+character for the worse is the usual effect of a visit to "the
+great metropolis," and is delighted to find that "E." is "E."
+still.  And, as her faith in her friend's stability is restored,
+her own imagination is deeply moved by the idea of what great
+wonders are to be seen in that vast and famous city.
+
+
+"Haworth, February 20th, 1834.
+
+"Your letter gave me real and heartfelt pleasure, mingled with no
+small share of astonishment.  Mary had previously informed me of
+your departure for London, and I had not ventured to calculate on
+any communication from you while surrounded by the splendours and
+novelties of that great city, which has been called the mercantile
+metropolis of Europe.  Judging from human nature, I thought that a
+little country girl, for the first time in a situation so well
+calculated to excite curiosity, and to distract attention, would
+lose all remembrance, for a time at least, of distant and familiar
+objects, and give herself up entirely to the fascination of those
+scenes which were then presented to her view.  Your kind,
+interesting, and most welcome epistle showed me, however, that I
+had been both mistaken and uncharitable in these suppositions.  I
+was greatly amused at the tone of nonchalance which you assumed,
+while treating of London and its wonders.  Did you not feel awed
+while gazing at St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey?  Had you no
+feeling of intense and ardent interest, when in St. James's you
+saw the palace where so many of England's kings have held their
+courts, and beheld the representations of their persons on the
+walls?  You should not be too much afraid of appearing COUNTRY-
+BRED; the magnificence of London has drawn exclamations of
+astonishment from travelled men, experienced in the world, its
+wonders and beauties.  Have you yet seen anything of the great
+personages whom the sitting of Parliament now detains in London--
+the Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, Earl Grey, Mr. Stanley,
+Mr. O'Connell?  If I were you, I would not be too anxious to spend
+my time in reading whilst in town.  Make use of your own eyes for
+the purposes of observation now, and, for a time at least, lay
+aside the spectacles with which authors would furnish us."
+
+In a postscript she adds:-
+
+"Will you be kind enough to inform me of the number of performers
+in the King's military band?"
+
+And in something of the same strain she writes on
+
+"June 19th.
+"My own Dear E.,
+
+"I may rightfully and truly call you so now.  You HAVE returned or
+ARE returning from London--from the great city which is to me as
+apocryphal as Babylon, or Nineveh, or ancient Rome.  You are
+withdrawing from the world (as it is called), and bringing with
+you--if your letters enable me to form a correct judgment--a heart
+as unsophisticated, as natural, as true, as that you carried
+there.  I am slow, VERY slow, to believe the protestations of
+another; I know my own sentiments, I can read my own mind, but the
+minds of the rest of man and woman kind are to me sealed volumes,
+hieroglyphical scrolls, which I cannot easily either unseal or
+decipher.  Yet time, careful study, long acquaintance, overcome
+most difficulties; and, in your case, I think they have succeeded
+well in bringing to light and construing that hidden language,
+whose turnings, windings, inconsistencies, and obscurities, so
+frequently baffle the researches of the honest observer of human
+nature . . . I am truly grateful for your mindfulness of so
+obscure a person as myself, and I hope the pleasure is not
+altogether selfish; I trust it is partly derived from the
+consciousness that my friend's character is of a higher, a more
+steadfast order than I was once perfectly aware of.  Few girls
+would have done as you have done--would have beheld the glare, and
+glitter, and dazzling display of London with dispositions so
+unchanged, heart so uncontaminated.  I see no affectation in your
+letters, no trifling, no frivolous contempt of plain, and weak
+admiration of showy persons and things."
+
+
+In these days of cheap railway trips, we may smile at the idea of
+a short visit to London having any great effect upon the
+character, whatever it may have upon the intellect.  But her
+London--her great apocryphal city--was the "town" of a century
+before, to which giddy daughters dragged unwilling papas, or went
+with injudicious friends, to the detriment of all their better
+qualities, and sometimes to the ruin of their fortunes; it was the
+Vanity Fair of the "Pilgrim's Progress" to her.
+
+But see the just and admirable sense with which she can treat a
+subject of which she is able to overlook all the bearings.
+
+
+"Haworth, July 4th, 1834.
+
+"In your last, you request me to tell you of your faults.  Now,
+really, how can you be so foolish!  I WON'T tell you of your
+faults, because I don't know them.  What a creature would that be,
+who, after receiving an affectionate and kind letter from a
+beloved friend, should sit down and write a catalogue of defects
+by way of answer!  Imagine me doing so, and then consider what
+epithets you would bestow on me.  Conceited, dogmatical,
+hypocritical, little humbug, I should think, would be the mildest.
+Why, child!  I've neither time nor inclination to reflect on your
+FAULTS when you are so far from me, and when, besides, kind
+letters and presents, and so forth, are continually bringing forth
+your goodness in the most prominent light.  Then, too, there are
+judicious relations always round you, who can much better
+discharge that unpleasant office.  I have no doubt their advice is
+completely at your service; why then should I intrude mine?  If
+you will not hear them, it will be vain though one should rise
+from the dead to instruct you.  Let us have no more nonsense, if
+you love me.  Mr.--is going to be married, is he?  Well, his wife
+elect appeared to me to be a clever and amiable lady, as far as I
+could judge from the little I saw of her, and from your account.
+Now to that flattering sentence must I tack on a list of her
+faults?  You say it is in contemplation for you to leave -.  I am
+sorry for it. --is a pleasant spot, one of the old family halls of
+England, surrounded by lawn and woodland, speaking of past times,
+and suggesting (to me at least) happy feelings.  M. thought you
+grown less, did she?  I am not grown a bit, but as short and dumpy
+as ever.  You ask me to recommend you some books for your perusal.
+I will do so in as few words as I can.  If you like poetry, let it
+be first-rate; Milton, Shakspeare, Thomson, Goldsmith, Pope (if
+you will, though I don't admire him), Scott, Byron, Campbell,
+Wordsworth, and Southey.  Now don't be startled at the names of
+Shakspeare and Byron.  Both these were great men, and their works
+are like themselves.  You will know how to choose the good, and to
+avoid the evil; the finest passages are always the purest, the bad
+are invariably revolting; you will never wish to read them over
+twice.  Omit the comedies of Shakspeare, and the Don Juan, perhaps
+the Cain, of Byron, though the latter is a magnificent poem, and
+read the rest fearlessly; that must indeed be a depraved mind
+which can gather evil from Henry VIII., from Richard III., from
+Macbeth, and Hamlet, and Julius Caesar.  Scott's sweet, wild,
+romantic poetry can do you no harm.  Nor can Wordsworth's, nor
+Campbell's, nor Southey's--the greatest part at least of his; some
+is certainly objectionable.  For history, read Hume, Rollin, and
+the Universal History, if you can; I never did.  For fiction, read
+Scott alone; all novels after his are worthless.  For biography,
+read Johnson's Lives of the Poets, Boswell's Life of Johnson,
+Southey's Life of Nelson, Lockhart's Life of Burns, Moore's Life
+of Sheridan, Moore's Life of Byron, Wolfe's Remains.  For natural
+history, read Bewick and Audubon, and Goldsmith and White's
+history of Selborne.  For divinity, your brother will advise you
+there.  I can only say, adhere to standard authors, and avoid
+novelty."
+
+From this list, we see that she must have had a good range of
+books from which to choose her own reading.  It is evident, that
+the womanly consciences of these two correspondents were anxiously
+alive to many questions discussed among the stricter religionists.
+The morality of Shakspeare needed the confirmation of Charlotte's
+opinion to the sensitive "E.;" and a little later, she inquired
+whether dancing was objectionable, when indulged in for an hour or
+two in parties of boys and girls.  Charlotte replies, "I should
+hesitate to express a difference of opinion from Mr. -, or from
+your excellent sister, but really the matter seems to me to stand
+thus.  It is allowed on all hands, that the sin of dancing
+consists not in the mere action of 'shaking the shanks' (as the
+Scotch say), but in the consequences that usually attend it;
+namely, frivolity and waste of time; when it is used only, as in
+the case you state, for the exercise and amusement of an hour
+among young people (who surely may without any breach of God's
+commandments be allowed a little light-heartedness), these
+consequences cannot follow.  Ergo (according to my manner of
+arguing), the amusement is at such times perfectly innocent."
+
+Although the distance between Haworth and B- was but seventeen
+miles, it was difficult to go straight from the one to the other
+without hiring a gig or vehicle of some kind for the journey.
+Hence a visit from Charlotte required a good deal of pre-
+arrangement.  THE Haworth gig was not always to be had; and Mr.
+Bronte was often unwilling to fall into any arrangement for
+meeting at Bradford or other places, which would occasion trouble
+to others.  The whole family had an ample share of that sensitive
+pride which led them to dread incurring obligations, and to fear
+"outstaying their welcome" when on any visit.  I am not sure
+whether Mr. Bronte did not consider distrust of others as a part
+of that knowledge of human nature on which he piqued himself.  His
+precepts to this effect, combined with Charlotte's lack of hope,
+made her always fearful of loving too much; of wearying the
+objects of her affection; and thus she was often trying to
+restrain her warm feelings, and was ever chary of that presence so
+invariably welcome to her true friends.  According to this mode of
+acting, when she was invited for a month, she stayed but a
+fortnight amidst "E.'s" family, to whom every visit only endeared
+her the more, and by whom she was received with that kind of quiet
+gladness with which they would have greeted a sister.
+
+She still kept up her childish interest in politics.  In March,
+1835, she writes:  "What do you think of the course politics are
+taking?  I make this enquiry, because I now think you take a
+wholesome interest in the matter; formerly you did not care
+greatly about it.  B., you see, is triumphant.  Wretch!  I am a
+hearty hater, and if there is any one I thoroughly abhor, it is
+that man.  But the Opposition is divided, Red-hots, and Luke-
+warms; and the Duke (par excellence THE Duke) and Sir Robert Peel
+show no signs of insecurity, though they have been twice beat; so
+'Courage, mon amie,' as the old chevaliers used to say, before
+they joined battle."
+
+In the middle of the summer of 1835, a great family plan was
+mooted at the parsonage.  The question was, to what trade or
+profession should Branwell be brought up?  He was now nearly
+eighteen; it was time to decide.  He was very clever, no doubt;
+perhaps to begin with, the greatest genius in this rare family.
+The sisters hardly recognised their own, or each others' powers,
+but they knew HIS.  The father, ignorant of many failings in moral
+conduct, did proud homage to the great gifts of his son; for
+Branwell's talents were readily and willingly brought out for the
+entertainment of others.  Popular admiration was sweet to him.
+And this led to his presence being sought at "arvills" and all the
+great village gatherings, for the Yorkshiremen have a keen relish
+for intellect; and it likewise procured him the undesirable
+distinction of having his company recommended by the landlord of
+the Black Bull to any chance traveller who might happen to feel
+solitary or dull over his liquor.  "Do you want some one to help
+you with your bottle, sir?  If you do, I'll send up for Patrick"
+(so the villagers called him till the day of his death, though in
+his own family he was always "Branwell").  And while the messenger
+went, the landlord entertained his guest with accounts of the
+wonderful talents of the boy, whose precocious cleverness, and
+great conversational powers, were the pride of the village.  The
+attacks of ill health to which Mr. Bronte had been subject of late
+years, rendered it not only necessary that he should take his
+dinner alone (for the sake of avoiding temptations to unwholesome
+diet), but made it also desirable that he should pass the time
+directly succeeding his meals in perfect quiet.  And this
+necessity, combined with due attention to his parochial duties,
+made him partially ignorant how his son employed himself out of
+lesson-time.  His own youth had been spent among people of the
+same conventional rank as those into whose companionship Branwell
+was now thrown; but he had had a strong will, and an earnest and
+persevering ambition, and a resoluteness of purpose which his
+weaker son wanted.
+
+It is singular how strong a yearning the whole family had towards
+the art of drawing.  Mr. Bronte had been very solicitous to get
+them good instruction; the girls themselves loved everything
+connected with it--all descriptions or engravings of great
+pictures; and, in default of good ones, they would take and
+analyse any print or drawing which came in their way, and find out
+how much thought had gone to its composition, what ideas it was
+intended to suggest, and what it DID suggest.  In the same spirit,
+they laboured to design imaginations of their own; they lacked the
+power of execution, not of conception.  At one time, Charlotte had
+the notion of making her living as an artist, and wearied her eyes
+in drawing with pre-Raphaelite minuteness, but not with pre-
+Raphaelite accuracy, for she drew from fancy rather than from
+nature.
+
+But they all thought there could be no doubt about Branwell's
+talent for drawing.  I have seen an oil painting of his, done I
+know not when, but probably about this time.  It was a group of
+his sisters, life-size, three-quarters' length; not much better
+than sign-painting, as to manipulation; but the likenesses were, I
+should think, admirable.  I could only judge of the fidelity with
+which the other two were depicted, from the striking resemblance
+which Charlotte, upholding the great frame of canvas, and
+consequently standing right behind it, bore to her own
+representation, though it must have been ten years and more since
+the portraits were taken.  The picture was divided, almost in the
+middle, by a great pillar.  On the side of the column which was
+lighted by the sun, stood Charlotte, in the womanly dress of that
+day of gigot sleeves and large collars.  On the deeply shadowed
+side, was Emily, with Anne's gentle face resting on her shoulder.
+Emily's countenance struck me as full of power; Charlotte's of
+solicitude; Anne's of tenderness.  The two younger seemed hardly
+to have attained their full growth, though Emily was taller than
+Charlotte; they had cropped hair, and a more girlish dress.  I
+remember looking on those two sad, earnest, shadowed faces, and
+wondering whether I could trace the mysterious expression which is
+said to foretell an early death.  I had some fond superstitious
+hope that the column divided their fates from hers, who stood
+apart in the canvas, as in life she survived.  I liked to see that
+the bright side of the pillar was towards HER--that the light in
+the picture fell on HER:  I might more truly have sought in her
+presentment--nay, in her living face--for the sign of death--in
+her prime.  They were good likenesses, however badly executed.
+From thence I should guess his family augured truly that, if
+Branwell had but the opportunity, and, alas! had but the moral
+qualities, he might turn out a great painter.
+
+The best way of preparing him to become so appeared to be to send
+him as a pupil to the Royal Academy.  I dare say he longed and
+yearned to follow this path, principally because it would lead him
+to that mysterious London--that Babylon the great--which seems to
+have filled the imaginations and haunted the minds of all the
+younger members of this recluse family.  To Branwell it was more
+than a vivid imagination, it was an impressed reality.  By dint of
+studying maps, he was as well acquainted with it, even down to its
+by-ways, as if he had lived there.  Poor misguided fellow! this
+craving to see and know London, and that stronger craving after
+fame, were never to be satisfied.  He was to die at the end of a
+short and blighted life.  But in this year of 1835, all his home
+kindred were thinking how they could best forward his views, and
+how help him up to the pinnacle where he desired to be.  What
+their plans were, let Charlotte explain.  These are not the first
+sisters who have laid their lives as a sacrifice before their
+brother's idolized wish.  Would to God they might be the last who
+met with such a miserable return!
+
+
+"Haworth, July 6th, 1835.
+
+"I had hoped to have had the extreme pleasure of seeing you at
+Haworth this summer, but human affairs are mutable, and human
+resolutions must bend to the course of events.  We are all about
+to divide, break up, separate.  Emily is going to school, Branwell
+is going to London, and I am going to be a governess.  This last
+determination I formed myself, knowing that I should have to take
+the step sometime, 'and better sune as syne,' to use the Scotch
+proverb; and knowing well that papa would have enough to do with
+his limited income, should Branwell be placed at the Royal
+Academy, and Emily at Roe Head.  Where am I going to reside? you
+will ask.  Within four miles of you, at a place neither of us is
+unacquainted with, being no other than the identical Roe Head
+mentioned above.  Yes!  I am going to teach in the very school
+where I was myself taught.  Miss W- made me the offer, and I
+preferred it to one or two proposals of private governess-ship,
+which I had before received.  I am sad--very sad--at the thoughts
+of leaving home; but duty--necessity--these are stern mistresses,
+who will not be disobeyed.  Did I not once say you ought to be
+thankful for your independence?  I felt what I said at the time,
+and I repeat it now with double earnestness; if anything would
+cheer me, it is the idea of being so near you.  Surely, you and
+Polly will come and see me; it would be wrong in me to doubt it;
+you were never unkind yet.  Emily and I leave home on the 27th of
+this month; the idea of being together consoles us both somewhat,
+and, truth, since I must enter a situation, 'My lines have fallen
+in pleasant places.'  I both love and respect Miss W-."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+
+On the 29th of July, 1835, Charlotte, now a little more than
+nineteen years old, went as teacher to Miss W-'s. Emily
+accompanied her as a pupil; but she became literally ill from
+home-sickness, and could not settle to anything, and after passing
+only three months at Roe Head, returned to the parsonage and the
+beloved moors.
+
+Miss Bronte gives the following reasons as those which prevented
+Emily's remaining at school, and caused the substitution of her
+younger sister in her place at Miss W-'s:-
+
+"My sister Emily loved the moors.  Flowers brighter than the rose
+bloomed in the blackest of the heath for her;--out of a sullen
+hollow in a livid hill-side, her mind could make an Eden.  She
+found in the bleak solitude many and dear delights; and not the
+least and best-loved was--liberty.  Liberty was the breath of
+Emily's nostrils; without it she perished.  The change from her
+own home to a school, and from her own very noiseless, very
+secluded, but unrestricted and unartificial mode of life, to one
+of disciplined routine (though under the kindest auspices), was
+what she failed in enduring.  Her nature proved here too strong
+for her fortitude.  Every morning, when she woke, the vision of
+home and the moors rushed on her, and darkened and saddened the
+day that lay before her.  Nobody knew what ailed her but me.  I
+knew only too well.  In this struggle her health was quickly
+broken:  her white face, attenuated form, and failing strength,
+threatened rapid decline.  I felt in my heart she would die, if
+she did not go home, and with this conviction obtained her recall.
+She had only been three months at school; and it was some years
+before the experiment of sending her from home was again ventured
+on."
+
+This physical suffering on Emily's part when absent from Haworth,
+after recurring several times under similar circumstances, became
+at length so much an acknowledged fact, that whichever was obliged
+to leave home, the sisters decided that Emily must remain there,
+where alone she could enjoy anything like good health.  She left
+it twice again in her life; once going as teacher to a school in
+Halifax for six months, and afterwards accompanying Charlotte to
+Brussels for ten.  When at home, she took the principal part of
+the cooking upon herself, and did all the household ironing; and
+after Tabby grew old and infirm, it was Emily who made all the
+bread for the family; and any one passing by the kitchen-door,
+might have seen her studying German out of an open book, propped
+up before her, as she kneaded the dough; but no study, however
+interesting, interfered with the goodness of the bread, which was
+always light and excellent.  Books were, indeed, a very common
+sight in that kitchen; the girls were taught by their father
+theoretically, and by their aunt, practically, that to take an
+active part in all household work was, in their position, woman's
+simple duty; but in their careful employment of time, they found
+many an odd five minutes for reading while watching the cakes, and
+managed the union of two kinds of employment better than King
+Alfred.
+
+Charlotte's life at Miss W-'s was a very happy one, until her
+health failed.  She sincerely loved and respected the former
+schoolmistress, to whom she was now become both companion and
+friend.  The girls were hardly strangers to her, some of them
+being younger sisters of those who had been her own playmates.
+Though the duties of the day might be tedious and monotonous,
+there were always two or three happy hours to look forward to in
+the evening, when she and Miss W- sat together--sometimes late
+into the night--and had quiet pleasant conversations, or pauses of
+silence as agreeable, because each felt that as soon as a thought
+or remark occurred which they wished to express, there was an
+intelligent companion ready to sympathise, and yet they were not
+compelled to "make talk."
+
+Miss W- was always anxious to afford Miss Bronte every opportunity
+of recreation in her power; but the difficulty often was to
+persuade her to avail herself of the invitations which came,
+urging her to spend Saturday and Sunday with "E." and "Mary," in
+their respective homes, that lay within the distance of a walk.
+She was too apt to consider, that allowing herself a holiday was a
+dereliction of duty, and to refuse herself the necessary change,
+from something of an over-ascetic spirit, betokening a loss of
+healthy balance in either body or mind.  Indeed, it is clear that
+such was the case, from a passage, referring to this time, in the
+letter of "Mary" from which I have before given extracts.
+
+"Three years after--" (the period when they were at school
+together)--"I heard that she had gone as teacher to Miss W-'s.  I
+went to see her, and asked how she could give so much for so
+little money, when she could live without it.  She owned that,
+after clothing herself and Anne, there was nothing left, though
+she had hoped to be able to save something.  She confessed it was
+not brilliant, but what could she do?  I had nothing to answer.
+She seemed to have no interest or pleasure beyond the feeling of
+duty, and, when she could get, used to sit alone, and 'make out.'
+She told me afterwards, that one evening she had sat in the
+dressing-room until it was quite dark, and then observing it all
+at once, had taken sudden fright."  No doubt she remembered this
+well when she described a similar terror getting hold upon Jane
+Eyre.  She says in the story, "I sat looking at the white bed and
+overshadowed walls--occasionally turning a fascinated eye towards
+the gleaming mirror--I began to recall what I had heard of dead
+men troubled in their graves . . . I endeavoured to be firm;
+shaking my hair from my eyes, I lifted my head and tried to look
+boldly through the dark room; at this moment, a ray from the moon
+penetrated some aperture in the blind.  No! moon light was still,
+and this stirred . . . prepared as my mind was for horror, shaken
+as my nerves were by agitation, I thought the swift-darting beam
+was a herald of some coming vision from another world.  My heart
+beat thick, my head grew hot; a sound filled my ears which I
+deemed the rustling of wings; something seemed near me." {4}
+
+"From that time," Mary adds, "her imaginations became gloomy or
+frightful; she could not help it, nor help thinking.  She could
+not forget the gloom, could not sleep at night, nor attend in the
+day.
+
+"She told me that one night, sitting alone, about this time, she
+heard a voice repeat these lines:
+
+
+"'Come thou high and holy feeling,
+Shine o'er mountain, flit o'er wave,
+Gleam like light o'er dome and shielding.'
+
+
+"There were eight or ten more lines which I forget.  She insisted
+that she had not made them, that she had heard a voice repeat
+them.  It is possible that she had read them, and unconsciously
+recalled them.  They are not in the volume of poems which the
+sisters published.  She repeated a verse of Isaiah, which she said
+had inspired them, and which I have forgotten.  Whether the lines
+were recollected or invented, the tale proves such habits of
+sedentary, monotonous solitude of thought as would have shaken a
+feebler mind."
+
+Of course, the state of health thus described came on gradually,
+and is not to be taken as a picture of her condition in 1836.  Yet
+even then there is a despondency in some of her expressions, that
+too sadly reminds one of some of Cowper's letters.  And it is
+remarkable how deeply his poems impressed her.  His words, his
+verses, came more frequently to her memory, I imagine, than those
+of any other poet.
+
+"Mary" says:  "Cowper's poem, 'The Castaway,' was known to them
+all, and they all at times appreciated, or almost appropriated it.
+Charlotte told me once that Branwell had done so; and though his
+depression was the result of his faults, it was in no other
+respect different from hers.  Both were not mental but physical
+illnesses.  She was well aware of this, and would ask how that
+mended matters, as the feeling was there all the same, and was not
+removed by knowing the cause.  She had a larger religious
+toleration than a person would have who had never questioned, and
+the manner of recommending religion was always that of offering
+comfort, not fiercely enforcing a duty.  One time I mentioned that
+some one had asked me what religion I was of (with the view of
+getting me for a partizan), and that I had said that that was
+between God and me;--Emily (who was lying on the hearth-rug)
+exclaimed, 'That's right.'  This was all I ever heard Emily say on
+religious subjects.  Charlotte was free from religious depression
+when in tolerable health; when that failed, her depression
+returned.  You have probably seen such instances.  They don't get
+over their difficulties; they forget them, when their stomach (or
+whatever organ it is that inflicts such misery on sedentary
+people) will let them.  I have heard her condemn Socinianism,
+Calvinism, and many other 'isms' inconsistent with Church of
+Englandism.  I used to wonder at her acquaintance with such
+subjects."
+
+
+"May 10th, 1836.
+
+"I was struck with the note you sent me with the umbrella; it
+showed a degree of interest in my concerns which I have no right
+to expect from any earthly creature.  I won't play the hypocrite;
+I won't answer your kind, gentle, friendly questions in the way
+you wish me to.  Don't deceive yourself by imagining I have a bit
+of real goodness about me.  My darling, if I were like you, I
+should have my face Zion-ward, though prejudice and error might
+occasionally fling a mist over the glorious vision before me--but
+I AM NOT LIKE YOU.  If you knew my thoughts, the dreams that
+absorb me, and the fiery imagination that at times eats me up, and
+makes me feel society, as it is, wretchedly insipid, you would
+pity and I dare say despise me.  But I know the treasures of the
+BIBLE; I love and adore them.  I can SEE the Well of Life in all
+its clearness and brightness; but when I stoop down to drink of
+the pure waters they fly from my lips as if I were Tantalus.
+
+"You are far too kind and frequent in your invitations.  You
+puzzle me.  I hardly know how to refuse, and it is still more
+embarrassing to accept.  At any rate, I cannot come this week, for
+we are in the very thickest melee of the Repetitions.  I was
+hearing the terrible fifth section when your note arrived.  But
+Miss Wooler says I must go to Mary next Friday, as she promised
+for me on Whit-Sunday; and on Sunday morning I will join you at
+church, if it be convenient, and stay till Monday.  There's a free
+and easy proposal!  Miss W- has driven me to it.  She says her
+character is implicated."
+
+Good, kind Miss W-! however monotonous and trying were the duties
+Charlotte had to perform under her roof, there was always a genial
+and thoughtful friend watching over her, and urging her to partake
+of any little piece of innocent recreation that might come in her
+way.  And in those Midsummer holidays of 1836, her friend E. came
+to stay with her at Haworth, so there was one happy time secured.
+
+Here follows a series of letters, not dated, but belonging to the
+latter portion of this year; and again we think of the gentle and
+melancholy Cowper.
+
+"My dear dear E.,
+
+"I am at this moment trembling all over with excitement, after
+reading your note; it is what I never received before--it is the
+unrestrained pouring out of a warm, gentle, generous heart . . . I
+thank you with energy for this kindness.  I will no longer shrink
+from answering your questions.  I DO wish to be better than I am.
+I pray fervently sometimes to be made so.  I have stings of
+conscience, visitings of remorse, glimpses of holy, of
+inexpressible things, which formerly I used to be a stranger to;
+it may all die away, and I may be in utter midnight, but I implore
+a merciful Redeemer, that, if this be the dawn of the gospel, it
+may still brighten to perfect day.  Do not mistake me--do not
+think I am good; I only wish to be so.  I only hate my former
+flippancy and forwardness.  Oh! I am no better than ever I was.  I
+am in that state of horrid, gloomy uncertainty that, at this
+moment, I would submit to be old, grey-haired, to have passed all
+my youthful days of enjoyment, and to be settling on the verge of
+the grave, if I could only thereby ensure the prospect of
+reconciliation to God, and redemption through his Son's merits.  I
+never was exactly careless of these matters, but I have always
+taken a clouded and repulsive view of them; and now, if possible,
+the clouds are gathering darker, and a more oppressive despondency
+weighs on my spirits.  You have cheered me, my darling; for one
+moment, for an atom of time, I thought I might call you my own
+sister in the spirit; but the excitement is past, and I am now as
+wretched and hopeless as ever.  This very night I will pray as you
+wish me.  May the Almighty hear me compassionately! and I humbly
+hope he will, for you will strengthen my polluted petitions with
+your own pure requests.  All is bustle and confusion round me, the
+ladies pressing with their sums and their lessons . . . If you
+love me, DO, DO, DO come on Friday:  I shall watch and wait for
+you, and if you disappoint me I shall weep.  I wish you could know
+the thrill of delight which I experienced, when, as I stood at the
+dining-room window, I saw -, as he whirled past, toss your little
+packet over the wall."
+
+Huddersfield market-day was still the great period for events at
+Roe Head.  Then girls, running round the corner of the house and
+peeping between tree-stems, and up a shadowy lane, could catch a
+glimpse of a father or brother driving to market in his gig;
+might, perhaps, exchange a wave of the hand; or see, as Charlotte
+Bronte did from the window, a white packet tossed over the avail
+by come swift strong motion of an arm, the rest of the traveller's
+body unseen.
+
+"Weary with a day's hard work . . . I am sitting down to write a
+few lines to my dear E.  Excuse me if I say nothing but nonsense,
+for my mind is exhausted and dispirited.  It is a stormy evening,
+and the wind is uttering a continual moaning sound, that makes me
+feel very melancholy.  At such times--in such moods as these--it
+is my nature to seek repose in some calm tranquil idea, and I have
+now summoned up your image to give me rest.  There you sit,
+upright and still in your black dress, and white scarf, and pale
+marble-like face--just like reality.  I wish you would speak to
+me.  If we should be separated--if it should be our lot to live at
+a great distance, and never to see each other again--in old age,
+how I should conjure up the memory of my youthful days, and what a
+melancholy pleasure I should feel in dwelling on the recollection
+of my early friend! . . . I have some qualities that make me very
+miserable, some feelings that you can have no participation in--
+that few, very few, people in the world can at all understand.  I
+don't pride myself on these peculiarities.  I strive to conceal
+and suppress them as much as I can; but they burst out sometimes,
+and then those who see the explosion despise me, and I hate myself
+for days afterwards . . . I have just received your epistle and
+what accompanied it.  I can't tell what should induce you and your
+sisters to waste your kindness on such a one as me.  I'm obliged
+to them, and I hope you'll tell them so.  I'm obliged to you also,
+more for your note than for your present.  The first gave me
+pleasure, the last something like pain."
+
+
+The nervous disturbance, which is stated to have troubled her
+while she was at Miss W-'s, seems to have begun to distress her
+about this time; at least, she herself speaks of her irritable
+condition, which was certainly only a temporary ailment.
+
+"You have been very kind to me of late, and have spared me all
+those little sallies of ridicule, which, owing to my miserable and
+wretched touchiness of character, used formerly to make me wince,
+as if I had been touched with a hot iron; things that nobody else
+cares for, enter into my mind and rankle there like venom.  I know
+these feelings are absurd, and therefore I try to hide them, but
+they only sting the deeper for concealment."
+
+Compare this state of mind with the gentle resignation with which
+she had submitted to be put aside as useless, or told of her
+ugliness by her schoolfellows, only three years before.
+
+"My life since I saw you has passed as monotonously and unbroken
+as ever; nothing but teach, teach, teach, from morning till night.
+The greatest variety I ever have is afforded by a letter from you,
+or by meeting with a pleasant new book.  The 'Life of Oberlin,'
+and 'Leigh Richmond's Domestic Portraiture,' are the last of this
+description.  The latter work strongly attracted and strangely
+fascinated my attention.  Beg, borrow, or steal it without delay;
+and read the 'Memoir of Wilberforce,'--that short record of a
+brief uneventful life; I shall never forget it; it is beautiful,
+not on account of the language in which it is written, not on
+account of the incidents it details, but because of the simple
+narrative it gives of a young talented sincere Christian."
+
+
+About this time Miss W- removed her school from the fine, open,
+breezy situation of Roe Head, to Dewsbury Moor, only two or three
+miles distant.  Her new residence was on a lower site, and the air
+was less exhilarating to one bred in the wild hill-village of
+Haworth.  Emily had gone as teacher to a school at Halifax, where
+there were nearly forty pupils.
+
+"I have had one letter from her since her departure," writes
+Charlotte, on October 2nd, 1836:  "it gives an appalling account
+of her duties; hard labour from six in the morning to eleven at
+night, with only one half-hour of exercise between.  This is
+slavery.  I fear she can never stand it."
+
+
+When the sisters met at home in the Christmas holidays, they
+talked over their lives, and the prospect which they afforded of
+employment and remuneration.  They felt that it was a duty to
+relieve their father of the burden of their support, if not
+entirely, or that of all three, at least that of one or two; and,
+naturally, the lot devolved upon the elder ones to find some
+occupation which would enable them to do this.  They knew that
+they were never likely to inherit much money.  Mr. Bronte had but
+a small stipend, and was both charitable and liberal.  Their aunt
+had an annuity of 50L., but it reverted to others at her death,
+and her nieces had no right, and were the last persons in the
+world to reckon upon her savings.  What could they do?  Charlotte
+and Emily were trying teaching, and, as it seemed, without much
+success.  The former, it is true, had the happiness of having a
+friend for her employer, and of being surrounded by those who knew
+her and loved her; but her salary was too small for her to save
+out of it; and her education did not entitle her to a larger.  The
+sedentary and monotonous nature of the life, too, was preying upon
+her health and spirits, although, with necessity "as her
+mistress," she might hardly like to acknowledge this even to
+herself.  But Emily--that free, wild, untameable spirit, never
+happy nor well but on the sweeping moors that gathered round her
+home--that hater of strangers, doomed to live amongst them, and
+not merely to live but to slave in their service--what Charlotte
+could have borne patiently for herself, she could not bear for her
+sister.  And yet what to do?  She had once hoped that she herself
+might become an artist, and so earn her livelihood; but her eyes
+had failed her in the minute and useless labour which she had
+imposed upon herself with a view to this end.
+
+It was the household custom among these girls to sew till nine
+o'clock at night.  At that hour, Miss Branwell generally went to
+bed, and her nieces' duties for the day were accounted done.  They
+put away their work, and began to pace the room backwards and
+forwards, up and down,--as often with the candles extinguished,
+for economy's sake, as not,--their figures glancing into the fire-
+light, and out into the shadow, perpetually.  At this time, they
+talked over past cares and troubles; they planned for the future,
+and consulted each other as to their plans.  In after years this
+was the time for discussing together the plots of their novels.
+And again, still later, this was the time for the last surviving
+sister to walk alone, from old accustomed habit, round and round
+the desolate room, thinking sadly upon the "days that were no
+more."  But this Christmas of 1836 was not without its hopes and
+daring aspirations.  They had tried their hands at story-writing,
+in their miniature magazine, long ago; they all of them "made out"
+perpetually.  They had likewise attempted to write poetry; and had
+a modest confidence that they had achieved a tolerable success.
+But they knew that they might deceive themselves, and that
+sisters' judgments of each other's productions were likely to be
+too partial to be depended upon.  So Charlotte, as the eldest,
+resolved to write to Southey.  I believe (from an expression in a
+letter to be noticed hereafter), that she also consulted
+Coleridge; but I have not met with any part of that
+correspondence.
+
+On December 29th, her letter to Southey was despatched; and from
+an excitement not unnatural in a girl who has worked herself up to
+the pitch of writing to a Poet Laureate and asking his opinion of
+her poems, she used some high-flown expressions which, probably,
+gave him the idea that she was a romantic young lady, unacquainted
+with the realities of life.
+
+This, most likely, was the first of those adventurous letters that
+passed through the little post-office of Haworth.  Morning after
+morning of the holidays slipped away, and there was no answer; the
+sisters had to leave home, and Emily to return to her distasteful
+duties, without knowing even whether Charlotte's letter had ever
+reached its destination.
+
+Not dispirited, however, by the delay, Branwell determined to try
+a similar venture, and addressed the following letter to
+Wordsworth.  It was given by the poet to Mr. Quillinan in 1850,
+after the name of Bronte had become known and famous.  I have no
+means of ascertaining what answer was returned by Mr. Wordsworth;
+but that he considered the letter remarkable may, I think, be
+inferred both from its preservation, and its recurrence to his
+memory when the real name of Currer Bell was made known to the
+public.
+
+
+"Haworth, near Bradford,
+"Yorkshire, January 19, 1837.
+
+"Sir,--I most earnestly entreat you to read and pass your judgment
+upon what I have sent you, because from the day of my birth to
+this the nineteenth year of my life, I have lived among secluded
+hills, where I could neither know what I was, or what I could do.
+I read for the same reason that I ate or drank; because it was a
+real craving of nature.  I wrote on the same principle as I spoke-
+-out of the impulse and feelings of the mind; nor could I help it,
+for what came, came out, and there was the end of it.  For as to
+self-conceit, that could not receive food from flattery, since to
+this hour, not half a dozen people in the world know that I have
+ever penned a line.
+
+"But a change has taken place now, sir:  and I am arrived at an
+age wherein I must do something for myself:  the powers I possess
+must be exercised to a definite end, and as I don't know them
+myself I must ask of others what they are worth.  Yet there is not
+one here to tell me; and still, if they are worthless, time will
+henceforth be too precious to be wasted on them.
+
+"Do pardon me, sir, that I have ventured to come before one whose
+works I have most loved in our literature, and who most has been
+with me a divinity of the mind, laying before him one of my
+writings, and asking of him a judgment of its contents.  I must
+come before some one from whose sentence there is no appeal; and
+such a one is he who has developed the theory of poetry as well as
+its practice, and both in such a way as to claim a place in the
+memory of a thousand years to come.
+
+"My aim, sir, is to push out into the open world, and for this I
+trust not poetry alone--that might launch the vessel, but could
+not bear her on; sensible and scientific prose, bold and vigorous
+efforts in my walk in life, would give a farther title to the
+notice of the world; and then again poetry ought to brighten and
+crown that name with glory; but nothing of all this can be ever
+begun without means, and as I don't possess these, I must in every
+shape strive to gain them.  Surely, in this day, when there is not
+a WRITING poet worth a sixpence, the field must be open, if a
+better man can step forward.
+
+"What I send you is the Prefatory Scene of a much longer subject,
+in which I have striven to develop strong passions and weak
+principles struggling with a high imagination and acute feelings,
+till, as youth hardens towards age, evil deeds and short
+enjoyments end in mental misery and bodily ruin.  Now, to send you
+the whole of this would be a mock upon your patience; what you
+see, does not even pretend to be more than the description of an
+imaginative child.  But read it, sir; and, as you would hold a
+light to one in utter darkness--as you value your own
+kindheartedness--RETURN me an ANSWER, if but one word, telling me
+whether I should write on, or write no more.  Forgive undue
+warmth, because my feelings in this matter cannot be cool; and
+believe me, sir, with deep respect,
+
+"Your really humble servant,
+"P. B. Bronte"
+
+
+The poetry enclosed seems to me by no means equal to parts of the
+letter; but, as every one likes to judge for himself, I copy the
+six opening stanzas--about a third of the whole, and certainly not
+the worst.
+
+
+So where he reigns in glory bright,
+Above those starry skies of night,
+Amid his Paradise of light
+Oh, why may I not be?
+
+Oft when awake on Christmas morn,
+In sleepless twilight laid forlorn,
+Strange thoughts have o'er my mind been borne,
+How he has died for me.
+
+And oft within my chamber lying,
+Have I awaked myself with crying
+From dreams, where I beheld Him dying
+Upon the accursed Tree.
+
+And often has my mother said,
+While on her lap I laid my head,
+She feared for time I was not made,
+But for Eternity.
+
+So "I can read my title clear,
+To mansions in the skies,
+And let me bid farewell to fear,
+And wipe my weeping eyes."
+
+I'll lay me down on this marble stone,
+And set the world aside,
+To see upon her ebon throne
+The Moon in glory ride.
+
+
+Soon after Charlotte returned to Dewsbury Moor, she was distressed
+by hearing that her friend "E." was likely to leave the
+neighbourhood for a considerable length of time.
+
+
+"Feb. 20th.
+
+"What shall I do without you?  How long are we likely to be
+separated?  Why are we to be denied each other's society?  It is
+an inscrutable fatality.  I long to be with you, because it seems
+as if two or three days, or weeks, spent in your company would
+beyond measure strengthen me in the enjoyment of those feelings
+which I have so lately begun to cherish.  You first pointed out to
+me that way in which I am so feebly endeavouring to travel, and
+now I cannot keep you by my side, I must proceed sorrowfully
+alone.  Why are we to be divided?  Surely, it must be because we
+are in danger of loving each other too well--of losing sight of
+the CREATOR in idolatry of the CREATURE.  At first, I could not
+say 'Thy will be done!'  I felt rebellious, but I knew it was
+wrong to feel so.  Being left a moment alone this morning, I
+prayed fervently to be enabled to resign myself to EVERY decree of
+God's will, though it should be dealt forth by a far severer hand
+than the present disappointment; since then I have felt calmer and
+humbler, and consequently happier.  Last Sunday I took up my Bible
+in a gloomy state of mind:  I began to read--a feeling stole over
+me such as I have not known for many long years--a sweet, placid
+sensation, like those, I remember, which used to visit me when I
+was a little child, and, on Sunday evenings in summer, stood by
+the open window reading the life of a certain French nobleman, who
+attained a purer and higher degree of sanctity than has been known
+since the days of the early martyrs."
+
+
+"E.'s" residence was equally within a walk from Dewsbury Moor as
+it had been from Roe Head; and on Saturday afternoons both "Mary"
+and she used to call upon Charlotte, and often endeavoured to
+persuade her to return with them, and be the guest of one of them
+till Monday morning; but this was comparatively seldom.  Mary
+says:- "She visited us twice or thrice when she was at Miss W-'s.
+We used to dispute about politics and religion.  She, a Tory and
+clergyman's daughter, was always in a minority of one in our house
+of violent Dissent and Radicalism.  She used to hear over again,
+delivered WITH AUTHORITY, all the lectures I had been used to give
+her at school on despotic aristocracy, mercenary priesthood, &c.
+She had not energy to defend herself; sometimes she owned to a
+LITTLE truth in it, but generally said nothing.  Her feeble health
+gave her her yielding manner, for she could never oppose any one
+without gathering up all her strength for the struggle.  Thus she
+would let me advise and patronise most imperiously, sometimes
+picking out any grain of sense there might be in what I said, but
+never allowing any one materially to interfere with her
+independence of thought and action.  Though her silence sometimes
+left one under the impression that she agreed when she did not,
+she never gave a flattering opinion, and thus her words were
+golden, whether for praise or blame."
+
+"Mary's" father was a man of remarkable intelligence, but of
+strong, not to say violent prejudices, all running in favour of
+Republicanism and Dissent.  No other county but Yorkshire could
+have produced such a man.  His brother had been a DETENU in
+France, and had afterwards voluntarily taken up his residence
+there.  Mr. T. himself had been much abroad, both on business and
+to see the great continental galleries of paintings.  He spoke
+French perfectly, I have been told, when need was; but delighted
+usually in talking the broadest Yorkshire.  He bought splendid
+engravings of the pictures which he particularly admired, and his
+house was full of works of art and of books; but he rather liked
+to present his rough side to any stranger or new-comer; he would
+speak his broadest, bring out his opinions on Church and State in
+their most startling forms, and, by and by, if he found his hearer
+could stand the shock, he would involuntarily show his warm kind
+heart, and his true taste, and real refinement.  His family of
+four sons and two daughters were brought up on Republican
+principles; independence of thought and action was encouraged; no
+"shams" tolerated.  They are scattered far and wide:  Martha, the
+younger daughter, sleeps in the Protestant cemetery at Brussels;
+Mary is in New Zealand; Mr. T. is dead.  And so life and death
+have dispersed the circle of "violent Radicals and Dissenters"
+into which, twenty years ago, the little, quiet, resolute
+clergyman's daughter was received, and by whom she was truly loved
+and honoured.
+
+January and February of 1837 had passed away, and still there was
+no reply from Southey.  Probably she had lost expectation and
+almost hope when at length, in the beginning of March, she
+received the letter inserted in Mr. C. C. Southey's life of his
+Father, vol. iv. p. 327.
+
+After accounting for his delay in replying to hers by the fact of
+a long absence from home, during which his letters had
+accumulated, whence "it has lain unanswered till the last of a
+numerous file, not from disrespect or indifference to its
+contents, but because in truth it is not an easy task to answer
+it, nor a pleasant one to cast a damp over the high spirits and
+the generous desires of youth," he goes on to say:  "What you are
+I can only infer from your letter, which appears to be written in
+sincerity, though I may suspect that you have used a fictitious
+signature.  Be that as it may, the letter and the verses bear the
+same stamp, and I can well understand the state of mind they
+indicate.
+
+* * *
+
+"It is not my advice that you have asked as to the direction of
+your talents, but my opinion of them, and yet the opinion may be
+worth little, and the advice much.  You evidently possess, and in
+no inconsiderable degree, what Wordsworth calls the 'faculty of
+verse.'  I am not depreciating it when I say that in these times
+it is not rare.  Many volumes of poems are now published every
+year without attracting public attention, any one of which if it
+had appeared half a century ago, would have obtained a high
+reputation for its author.  Whoever, therefore, is ambitious of
+distinction in this way ought to be prepared for disappointment.
+
+"But it is not with a view to distinction that you should
+cultivate this talent, if you consult your own happiness.  I, who
+have made literature my profession, and devoted my life to it, and
+have never for a moment repented of the deliberate choice, think
+myself, nevertheless, bound in duty to caution every young man who
+applies as an aspirant to me for encouragement and advice, against
+taking so perilous a course.  You will say that a woman has no
+need of such a caution; there can be no peril in it for her.  In a
+certain sense this is true; but there is a danger of which I
+would, with all kindness and all earnestness, warn you.  The day
+dreams in which you habitually indulge are likely to induce a
+distempered state of mind; and in proportion as all the ordinary
+uses of the world seem to you flat and unprofitable, you will be
+unfitted for them without becoming fitted for anything else.
+Literature cannot be the business of a woman's life, and it ought
+not to be.  The more she is engaged in her proper duties, the less
+leisure will she have for it, even as an accomplishment and a
+recreation.  To those duties you have not yet been called, and
+when you are you will be less eager for celebrity.  You will not
+seek in imagination for excitement, of which the vicissitudes of
+this life, and the anxieties from which you must not hope to be
+exempted, be your state what it may, will bring with them but too
+much.
+
+"But do not suppose that I disparage the gift which you possess;
+nor that I would discourage you from exercising it.  I only exhort
+you so to think of it, and so to use it, as to render it conducive
+to your own permanent good.  Write poetry for its own sake; not in
+a spirit of emulation, and not with a view to celebrity; the less
+you aim at that the more likely you will be to deserve and finally
+to obtain it.  So written, it is wholesome both for the heart and
+soul; it may be made the surest means, next to religion, of
+soothing the mind and elevating it.  You may embody in it your
+best thoughts and your wisest feelings, and in so doing discipline
+and strengthen them.
+
+"Farewell, madam.  It is not because I have forgotten that I was
+once young myself, that I write to you in this strain; but because
+I remember it.  You will neither doubt my sincerity nor my good
+will; and however ill what has here been said may accord with your
+present views and temper, the longer you live the more reasonable
+it will appear to you.  Though I may be but an ungracious adviser,
+you will allow me, therefore, to subscribe myself, with the best
+wishes for your happiness here and hereafter, your true friend,
+"ROBERT SOUTHEY."
+
+
+I was with Miss Bronte when she received Mr. Cuthbert Southey's
+note, requesting her permission to insert the fore-going letter in
+his father's life.  She said to me, "Mr. Southey's letter was kind
+and admirable; a little stringent, but it did me good."
+
+It is partly because I think it so admirable, and partly because
+it tends to bring out her character, as shown in the following
+reply, that I have taken the liberty of inserting the foregoing
+extracts from it.
+
+
+"Sir, March 16th.
+
+"I cannot rest till I have answered your letter, even though by
+addressing you a second time I should appear a little intrusive;
+but I must thank you for the kind and wise advice you have
+condescended to give me.  I had not ventured to hope for such a
+reply; so considerate in its tone, so noble in its spirit.  I must
+suppress what I feel, or you will think me foolishly enthusiastic.
+
+"At the first perusal of your letter, I felt only shame and regret
+that I had ever ventured to trouble you with my crude rhapsody; I
+felt a painful heat rise to my face when I thought of the quires
+of paper I had covered with what once gave me so much delight, but
+which now was only a source of confusion; but after I had thought
+a little and read it again and again, the prospect seemed to
+clear.  You do not forbid me to write; you do not say that what I
+write is utterly destitute of merit.  You only warn me against the
+folly of neglecting real duties for the sake of imaginative
+pleasures; of writing for the love of fame; for the selfish
+excitement of emulation.  You kindly allow me to write poetry for
+its own sake, provided I leave undone nothing which I ought to do,
+in order to pursue that single, absorbing, exquisite
+gratification.  I am afraid, sir, you think me very foolish.  I
+know the first letter I wrote to you was all senseless trash from
+beginning to end; but I am not altogether the idle dreaming being
+it would seem to denote.  My father is a clergyman of limited,
+though competent income, and I am the eldest of his children.  He
+expended quite as much in my education as he could afford in
+justice to the rest.  I thought it therefore my duty, when I left
+school, to become a governess.  In that capacity I find enough to
+occupy my thoughts all day long, and my head and hands too,
+without having a moment's time for one dream of the imagination.
+In the evenings, I confess, I do think, but I never trouble any
+one else with my thoughts.  I carefully avoid any appearance of
+preoccupation and eccentricity, which might lead those I live
+amongst to suspect the nature of my pursuits.  Following my
+father's advice--who from my childhood has counselled me, just in
+the wise and friendly tone of your letter--I have endeavoured not
+only attentively to observe all the duties a woman ought to
+fulfil, but to feel deeply interested in them.  I don't always
+succeed, for sometimes when I'm teaching or sewing I would rather
+be reading or writing; but I try to deny myself; and my father's
+approbation amply rewarded me for the privation.  Once more allow
+me to thank you with sincere gratitude.  I trust I shall never
+more feel ambitious to see my name in print:  if the wish should
+rise, I'll look at Southey's letter, and suppress it.  It is
+honour enough for me that I have written to him, and received an
+answer.  That letter is consecrated; no one shall ever see it, but
+papa and my brother and sisters.  Again I thank you.  This
+incident, I suppose, will be renewed no more; if I live to be an
+old woman, I shall remember it thirty years hence as a bright
+dream.  The signature which you suspected of being fictitious is
+my real name.  Again, therefore, I must sign myself,
+
+"C. Bronte.
+
+"P.S.--Pray, sir, excuse me for writing to you a second time; I
+could not help writing, partly to tell you how thankful I am for
+your kindness, and partly to let you know that your advice shall
+not be wasted; however sorrowfully and reluctantly it may be at
+first followed.
+
+"C. B."
+
+
+I cannot deny myself the gratification of inserting Southey's
+reply:-
+
+
+"Keswick, March 22, 1837.
+
+"Dear Madam,
+
+"Your letter has given me great pleasure, and I should not forgive
+myself if I did not tell you so.  You have received admonition as
+considerately and as kindly as it was given.  Let me now request
+that, if you ever should come to these Lakes while I am living
+here, you will let me see you.  You would then think of me
+afterwards with the more good-will, because you would perceive
+that there is neither severity nor moroseness in the state of mind
+to which years and observation have brought me.
+
+"It is, by God's mercy, in our power to attain a degree of self-
+government, which is essential to our own happiness, and
+contributes greatly to that of those around us.  Take care of
+over-excitement, and endeavour to keep a quiet mind (even for your
+health it is the best advice that can be given you):  your moral
+and spiritual improvement will then keep pace with the culture of
+your intellectual powers.
+
+"And now, madam, God bless you!
+
+"Farewell, and believe me to be your sincere friend,
+
+"ROBERT SOUTHEY.
+
+
+Of this second letter, also, she spoke, and told me that it
+contained an invitation for her to go and see the poet if ever she
+visited the Lakes.  "But there was no money to spare," said she,
+"nor any prospect of my ever earning money enough to have the
+chance of so great a pleasure, so I gave up thinking of it."  At
+the time we conversed together on the subject we were at the
+Lakes.  But Southey was dead.
+
+This "stringent" letter made her put aside, for a time, all idea
+of literary enterprise.  She bent her whole energy towards the
+fulfilment of the duties in hand; but her occupation was not
+sufficient food for her great forces of intellect, and they cried
+out perpetually, "Give, give," while the comparatively less breezy
+air of Dewsbury Moor told upon her health and spirits more and
+more.  On August 27, 1837, she writes:-
+
+
+"I am again at Dewsbury, engaged in the old business,--teach,
+teach, teach . . . WHEN WILL YOU COME HOME?  Make haste!  You have
+been at Bath long enough for all purposes; by this time you have
+acquired polish enough, I am sure; if the varnish is laid on much
+thicker, I am afraid the good wood underneath will be quite
+concealed, and your Yorkshire friends won't stand that.  Come,
+come.  I am getting really tired of your absence.  Saturday after
+Saturday comes round, and I can have no hope of hearing your knock
+at the door, and then being told that 'Miss E. is come.'  Oh,
+dear! in this monotonous life of mine, that was a pleasant event.
+I wish it would recur again; but it will take two or three
+interviews before the stiffness--the estrangement of this long
+separation--will wear away."
+
+
+About this time she forgot to return a work-bag she had borrowed,
+by a messenger, and in repairing her error she says:- "These
+aberrations of memory warn me pretty intelligibly that I am
+getting past my prime."  AEtat 21!  And the same tone of
+despondency runs through the following letter:-
+
+
+"I wish exceedingly that I could come to you before Christmas, but
+it is impossible; another three weeks must elapse before I shall
+again have my comforter beside me, under the roof of my own dear
+quiet home.  If I could always live with you, and daily read the
+Bible with you--if your lips and mine could at the same time drink
+the same draught, from the same pure fountain of mercy--I hope, I
+trust, I might one day become better, far better than my evil,
+wandering thoughts, my corrupt heart, cold to the spirit and warm
+to the flesh, will now permit me to be.  I often plan the pleasant
+life which we might lead together, strengthening each other in
+that power of self-denial, that hallowed and glowing devotion,
+which the first saints of God often attained to.  My eyes fill
+with tears when I contrast the bliss of such a state, brightened
+by hopes of the future, with the melancholy state I now live in,
+uncertain that I ever felt true contrition, wandering in thought
+and deed, longing for holiness, which I shall NEVER, NEVER obtain,
+smitten at times to the heart with the conviction that ghastly
+Calvinistic doctrines are true--darkened, in short, by the very
+shadows of spiritual death.  If Christian perfection be necessary
+to salvation, I shall never be saved; my heart is a very hotbed
+for sinful thoughts, and when I decide on an action I scarcely
+remember to look to my Redeemer for direction.  I know not how to
+pray; I cannot bend my life to the grand end of doing good; I go
+on constantly seeking my own pleasure, pursuing the gratification
+of my own desires.  I forget God, and will not God forget me?
+And, meantime, I know the greatness of Jehovah; I acknowledge the
+perfection of His word; I adore the purity of the Christian faith;
+my theory is right, my practice horribly wrong."
+
+The Christmas holidays came, and she and Anne returned to the
+parsonage, and to that happy home circle in which alone their
+natures expanded; amongst all other people they shrivelled up more
+or less.  Indeed, there were only one or two strangers who could
+be admitted among the sisters without producing the same result.
+Emily and Anne were bound up in their lives and interests like
+twins.  The former from reserve, the latter from timidity, avoided
+all friendships and intimacies beyond their family.  Emily was
+impervious to influence; she never came in contact with public
+opinion, and her own decision of what was right and fitting was a
+law for her conduct and appearance, with which she allowed no one
+to interfere.  Her love was poured out on Anne, as Charlotte's was
+on her.  But the affection among all the three was stronger than
+either death or life.
+
+"E." was eagerly welcomed by Charlotte, freely admitted by Emily,
+and kindly received by Anne, whenever she could visit them; and
+this Christmas she had promised to do so, but her coming had to be
+delayed on account of a little domestic accident detailed in the
+following letter:-
+
+
+"Dec. 29, 1837.
+
+"I am sure you will have thought me very remiss in not sending my
+promised letter long before now; but I have a sufficient and very
+melancholy excuse in an accident that befell our old faithful
+Tabby, a few days after my return home.  She was gone out into the
+village on some errand, when, as she was descending the steep
+street, her foot slipped on the ice, and she fell; it was dark,
+and no one saw her mischance, till after a time her groans
+attracted the attention of a passer-by.  She was lifted up and
+carried into the druggist's near; and, after the examination, it
+was discovered that she had completely shattered and dislocated
+one leg.  Unfortunately, the fracture could not be set till six
+o'clock the next morning, as no surgeon was to be had before that
+time, and she now lies at our house in a very doubtful and
+dangerous state.  Of course we are all exceedingly distressed at
+the circumstance, for she was like one of our own family.  Since
+the event we have been almost without assistance--a person has
+dropped in now and then to do the drudgery, but we have as yet
+been able to procure no regular servant; and consequently, the
+whole work of the house, as well as the additional duty of nursing
+Tabby, falls on ourselves.  Under these circumstances I dare not
+press your visit here, at least until she is pronounced out of
+danger; it would be too selfish of me.  Aunt wished me to give you
+this information before, but papa and all the rest were anxious I
+should delay until we saw whether matters took a more settled
+aspect, and I myself kept putting it off from day to day, most
+bitterly reluctant to give up all the pleasure I had anticipated
+so long.  However, remembering what you told me, namely, that you
+had commended the matter to a higher decision than ours, and that
+you were resolved to submit with resignation to that decision,
+whatever it might be, I hold it my duty to yield also, and to be
+silent; it may be all for the best.  I fear, if you had been here
+during this severe weather, your visit would have been of no
+advantage to you, for the moors are blockaded with snow, and you
+would never have been able to get out.  After this disappointment,
+I never dare reckon with certainty on the enjoyment of a pleasure
+again; it seems as if some fatality stood between you and me.  I
+am not good enough for you, and you must be kept from the
+contamination of too intimate society.  I would urge your visit
+yet--I would entreat and press it--but the thought comes across
+me, should Tabby die while you are in the house, I should never
+forgive myself.  No! it must not be, and in a thousand ways the
+consciousness of that mortifies and disappoints me most keenly,
+and I am not the only one who is disappointed.  All in the house
+were looking to your visit with eagerness.  Papa says he highly
+approves of my friendship with you, and he wishes me to continue
+it through life."
+
+A good neighbour of the Brontes--a clever, intelligent Yorkshire
+woman, who keeps a druggist's shop in Haworth, and from her
+occupation, her experience, and excellent sense, holds the
+position of village doctress and nurse, and, as such, has been a
+friend, in many a time of trial, and sickness, and death, in the
+households round--told me a characteristic little incident
+connected with Tabby's fractured leg.  Mr. Bronte is truly
+generous and regardful of all deserving claims.  Tabby had lived
+with them for ten or twelve years, and was, as Charlotte expressed
+it, "one of the family."  But on the other hand, she was past the
+age for any very active service, being nearer seventy than sixty
+at the time of the accident; she had a sister living in the
+village; and the savings she had accumulated, during many years'
+service, formed a competency for one in her rank of life.  Or if,
+in this time of sickness, she fell short of any comforts which her
+state rendered necessary, the parsonage could supply them.  So
+reasoned Miss Branwell, the prudent, not to say anxious aunt;
+looking to the limited contents of Mr. Bronte's purse, and the
+unprovided-for-future of her nieces; who were, moreover, losing
+the relaxation of the holidays, in close attendance upon Tabby.
+
+Miss Branwell urged her views upon Mr. Bronte as soon as the
+immediate danger to the old servant's life was over.  He refused
+at first to listen to the careful advice; it was repugnant to his
+liberal nature.  But Miss Branwell persevered; urged economical
+motives; pressed on his love for his daughters.  He gave way.
+Tabby was to be removed to her sister's, and there nursed and
+cared for, Mr. Bronte coming in with his aid when her own
+resources fell short.  This decision was communicated to the
+girls.  There were symptoms of a quiet, but sturdy rebellion, that
+winter afternoon, in the small precincts of Haworth parsonage.
+They made one unanimous and stiff remonstrance.  Tabby had tended
+them in their childhood; they, and none other, should tend her in
+her infirmity and age.  At tea-time, they were sad and silent, and
+the meal went away untouched by any of the three.  So it was at
+breakfast; they did not waste many words on the subject, but each
+word they did utter was weighty.  They "struck" eating till the
+resolution was rescinded, and Tabby was allowed to remain a
+helpless invalid entirely dependent upon them.  Herein was the
+strong feeling of Duty being paramount to pleasure, which lay at
+the foundation of Charlotte's character, made most apparent; for
+we have seen how she yearned for her friend's company; but it was
+to be obtained only by shrinking from what she esteemed right, and
+that she never did, whatever might be the sacrifice.
+
+She had another weight on her mind this Christmas.  I have said
+that the air of Dewsbury Moor did not agree with her, though she
+herself was hardly aware how much her life there was affecting her
+health.  But Anne had begun to suffer just before the holidays,
+and Charlotte watched over her younger sisters with the jealous
+vigilance of some wild creature, that changes her very nature if
+danger threatens her young.  Anne had a slight cough, a pain at
+her side, a difficulty of breathing.  Miss W- considered it as
+little more than a common cold; but Charlotte felt every
+indication of incipient consumption as a stab at her heart,
+remembering Maria and Elizabeth, whose places once knew them, and
+should know them no more.
+
+Stung by anxiety for this little sister, she upbraided Miss W- for
+her fancied indifference to Anne's state of health.  Miss W- felt
+these reproaches keenly, and wrote to Mr. Bronte about them.  He
+immediately replied most kindly, expressing his fear that
+Charlotte's apprehensions and anxieties respecting her sister had
+led her to give utterance to over-excited expressions of alarm.
+Through Miss W-'s kind consideration, Anne was a year longer at
+school than her friends intended.  At the close of the half-year
+Miss W- sought for the opportunity of an explanation of each
+other's words, and the issue proved that "the falling out of
+faithful friends, renewing is of love."  And so ended the first,
+last, and only difference Charlotte ever had with good, kind Miss
+W -.
+
+Still her heart had received a shock in the perception of Anne's
+delicacy; and all these holidays she watched over her with the
+longing, fond anxiety, which is so full of sudden pangs of fear.
+
+Emily had given up her situation in the Halifax school, at the
+expiration of six months of arduous trial, on account of her
+health, which could only be re-established by the bracing moorland
+air and free life of home.  Tabby's illness had preyed on the
+family resources.  I doubt whether Branwell was maintaining
+himself at this time.  For some unexplained reason, he had given
+up the idea of becoming a student of painting at the Royal
+Academy, and his prospects in life were uncertain, and had yet to
+be settled.  So Charlotte had quietly to take up her burden of
+teaching again, and return to her previous monotonous life.
+
+Brave heart, ready to die in harness!  She went back to her work,
+and made no complaint, hoping to subdue the weakness that was
+gaining ground upon her.  About this time, she would turn sick and
+trembling at any sudden noise, and could hardly repress her
+screams when startled.  This showed a fearful degree of physical
+weakness in one who was generally so self-controlled; and the
+medical man, whom at length, through Miss W-'s entreaty, she was
+led to consult, insisted on her return to the parsonage.  She had
+led too sedentary a life, he said; and the soft summer air,
+blowing round her home, the sweet company of those she loved, the
+release, the freedom of life in her own family, were needed, to
+save either reason or life.  So, as One higher than she had over-
+ruled that for a time she might relax her strain, she returned to
+Haworth; and after a season of utter quiet, her father sought for
+her the enlivening society of her two friends, Mary and Martha T.
+At the conclusion of the following letter, written to the then
+absent E., there is, I think, as pretty a glimpse of a merry group
+of young people as need be; and like all descriptions of doing, as
+distinct from thinking or feeling, in letters, it saddens one in
+proportion to the vivacity of the picture of what was once, and is
+now utterly swept away.
+
+
+"Haworth, June 9, 1838.
+
+"I received your packet of despatches on Wednesday; it was brought
+me by Mary and Martha, who have been staying at Haworth for a few
+days; they leave us to-day.  You will be surprised at the date of
+this letter.  I ought to be at Dewsbury Moor, you know; but I
+stayed as long as I was able, and at length I neither could nor
+dared stay any longer.  My health and spirits had utterly failed
+me, and the medical man whom I consulted enjoined me, as I valued
+my life, to go home.  So home I went, and the change has at once
+roused and soothed me; and I am now, I trust, fairly in the way to
+be myself again.
+
+"A calm and even mind like yours cannot conceive the feelings of
+the shattered wretch who is now writing to you, when, after weeks
+of mental and bodily anguish not to be described, something like
+peace began to dawn again.  Mary is far from well.  She breathes
+short, has a pain in her chest, and frequent flushings of fever.
+I cannot tell you what agony these symptoms give me; they remind
+me too strongly of my two sisters, whom no power of medicine could
+save.  Martha is now very well; she has kept in a continual flow
+of good humour during her stay here, and has consequently been
+very fascinating . . . "
+
+"They are making such a noise about me I cannot write any more.
+Mary is playing on the piano; Martha is chattering as fast as her
+little tongue can run; and Branwell is standing before her,
+laughing at her vivacity."
+
+Charlotte grew much stronger in this quiet, happy period at home.
+She paid occasional visits to her two great friends, and they in
+return came to Haworth.  At one of their houses, I suspect, she
+met with the person to whom the following letter refers--some one
+having a slight resemblance to the character of "St. John," in the
+last volume of "Jane Eyre," and, like him, in holy orders.
+
+
+"March 12, 1839.
+
+. . . "I had a kindly leaning towards him, because he is an
+amiable and well-disposed man.  Yet I had not, and could not have,
+that intense attachment which would make me willing to die for
+him; and if ever I marry, it must be in that light of adoration
+that I will regard my husband.  Ten to one I shall never have the
+chance again; but N'IMPORTE.  Moreover, I was aware that he knew
+so little of me he could hardly be conscious to whom he was
+writing.  Why! it would startle him to see me in my natural home
+character; he would think I was a wild, romantic enthusiast
+indeed.  I could not sit all day long making a grave face before
+my husband.  I would laugh, and satirize, and say whatever came
+into my head first.  And if he were a clever man, and loved me,
+the whole world, weighed in the balance against his smallest wish,
+should be light as air."
+
+
+So that--her first proposal of marriage--was quietly declined and
+put on one side.  Matrimony did not enter into the scheme of her
+life, but good, sound, earnest labour did; the question, however,
+was as yet undecided in what direction she should employ her
+forces.  She had been discouraged in literature; her eyes failed
+her in the minute kind of drawing which she practised when she
+wanted to express an idea; teaching seemed to her at this time, as
+it does to most women at all times, the only way of earning an
+independent livelihood.  But neither she nor her sisters were
+naturally fond of children.  The hieroglyphics of childhood were
+an unknown language to them, for they had never been much with
+those younger than themselves.  I am inclined to think, too, that
+they had not the happy knack of imparting information, which seems
+to be a separate gift from the faculty of acquiring it; a kind of
+sympathetic tact, which instinctively perceives the difficulties
+that impede comprehension in a child's mind, and that yet are too
+vague and unformed for it, with its half-developed powers of
+expression, to explain by words.  Consequently, teaching very
+young children was anything but a "delightful task" to the three
+Bronte sisters.  With older girls, verging on womanhood, they
+might have done better, especially if these had any desire for
+improvement.  But the education which the village clergyman's
+daughters had received, did not as yet qualify them to undertake
+the charge of advanced pupils.  They knew but little French, and
+were not proficients in music; I doubt whether Charlotte could
+play at all.  But they were all strong again, and, at any rate,
+Charlotte and Anne must put their shoulders to the wheel.  One
+daughter was needed at home, to stay with Mr. Bronte and Miss
+Branwell; to be the young and active member in a household of
+four, whereof three--the father, the aunt, and faithful Tabby--
+were past middle age.  And Emily, who suffered and drooped more
+than her sisters when away from Haworth, was the one appointed to
+remain.  Anne was the first to meet with a situation.
+
+
+"April 15th, 1839.
+
+"I could not write to you in the week you requested, as about that
+time we were very busy in preparing for Anne's departure.  Poor
+child! she left us last Monday; no one went with her; it was her
+own wish that she might be allowed to go alone, as she thought she
+could manage better and summon more courage if thrown entirely
+upon her own resources.  We have had one letter from her since she
+went.  She expresses herself very well satisfied, and says that
+Mrs.--is extremely kind; the two eldest children alone are under
+her care, the rest are confined to the nursery, with which and its
+occupants she has nothing to do . . . I hope she'll do.  You would
+be astonished what a sensible, clever letter she writes; it is
+only the talking part that I fear.  But I do seriously apprehend
+that Mrs.--will sometimes conclude that she has a natural
+impediment in her speech.  For my own part, I am as yet 'wanting a
+situation,' like a housemaid out of place.  By the way, I have
+lately discovered I have quite a talent for cleaning, sweeping up
+hearths, dusting rooms, making beds, &c.; so, if everything else
+fails, I can turn my hand to that, if anybody will give me good
+wages for little labour.  I won't be a cook; I hate soothing.  I
+won't be a nurserymaid, nor a lady's-maid, far less a lady's
+companion, or a mantua-maker, or a straw-bonnet maker, or a taker-
+in of plain work.  I won't be anything but a housemaid . . . With
+regard to my visit to G., I have as yet received no invitation;
+but if I should be asked, though I should feel it a great act of
+self-denial to refuse, yet I have almost made up my mind to do so,
+though the society of the T.'s is one of the most rousing
+pleasures I have ever known.  Good-bye, my darling E., &c.
+
+"P. S.--Strike out that word 'darling;' it is humbug.  Where's the
+use of protestations?  We've known each other, and liked each
+other, a good while; that's enough."
+
+
+Not many weeks after this was written, Charlotte also became
+engaged as a governess.  I intend carefully to abstain from
+introducing the names of any living people, respecting whom I may
+have to tell unpleasant truths, or to quote severe remarks from
+Miss Bronte's letters; but it is necessary that the difficulties
+she had to encounter in her various phases of life, should be
+fairly and frankly made known, before the force "of what was
+resisted" can be at all understood.  I was once speaking to her
+about "Agnes Grey"--the novel in which her sister Anne pretty
+literally describes her own experience as a governess--and
+alluding more particularly to the account of the stoning of the
+little nestlings in the presence of the parent birds.  She said
+that none but those who had been in the position of a governess
+could ever realise the dark side of "respectable" human nature;
+under no great temptation to crime, but daily giving way to
+selfishness and ill-temper, till its conduct towards those
+dependent on it sometimes amounts to a tyranny of which one would
+rather be the victim than the inflicter.  We can only trust in
+such cases that the employers err rather from a density of
+perception and an absence of sympathy, than from any natural
+cruelty of disposition.  Among several things of the same kind,
+which I well remember, she told me what had once occurred to
+herself.  She had been entrusted with the care of a little boy,
+three or four years old, during the absence of his parents on a
+day's excursion, and particularly enjoined to keep him out of the
+stable-yard.  His elder brother, a lad of eight or nine, and not a
+pupil of Miss Bronte's, tempted the little fellow into the
+forbidden place.  She followed, and tried to induce him to come
+away; but, instigated by his brother, he began throwing stones at
+her, and one of them hit her so severe a blow on the temple that
+the lads were alarmed into obedience.  The next day, in full
+family conclave, the mother asked Miss Bronte what occasioned the
+mark on her forehead.  She simply replied, "An accident, ma'am,"
+and no further inquiry was made; but the children (both brothers
+and sisters) had been present, and honoured her for not "telling
+tales."  From that time, she began to obtain influence over all,
+more or less, according to their different characters; and as she
+insensibly gained their affection, her own interest in them was
+increasing.  But one day, at the children's dinner, the small
+truant of the stable-yard, in a little demonstrative gush, said,
+putting his hand in hers, "I love 'ou, Miss Bronte."  Whereupon,
+the mother exclaimed, before all the children, "Love the
+GOVERNESS, my dear!"
+
+"The family into which she first entered was, I believe, that of a
+wealthy Yorkshire manufacturer.  The following extracts from her
+correspondence at this time will show how painfully the restraint
+of her new mode of life pressed upon her.  The first is from a
+letter to Emily, beginning with one of the tender expressions in
+which, in spite of "humbug," she indulged herself.  "Mine dear
+love," "Mine-bonnie love," are her terms of address to this
+beloved sister.
+
+"June 8th, 1839.
+
+"I have striven hard to be pleased with my new situation.  The
+country, the house and the grounds are, as I have said, divine;
+but, alack-a-day! there is such a thing as seeing all beautiful
+around you--pleasant woods, white paths, green lawns, and blue
+sunshiny sky--and not having a free moment or a free thought left
+to enjoy them.  The children are constantly with me.  As for
+correcting them, I quickly found that was out of the question;
+they are to do as they like.  A complaint to the mother only
+brings black looks on myself, and unjust, partial excuses to
+screen the children.  I have tried that plan once, and succeeded
+so notably, I shall try no more.  I said in my last letter that
+Mrs.--did not know me.  I now begin to find she does not intend to
+know me; that she cares nothing about me, except to contrive how
+the greatest possible quantity of labour may be got out of me; and
+to that end she overwhelms me with oceans of needle-work; yards of
+cambric to hem, muslin nightcaps to make, and, above all things,
+dolls to dress.  I do not think she likes me at all, because I
+can't help being shy in such an entirely novel scene, surrounded
+as I have hitherto been by strange and constantly changing faces .
+. . I used to think I should like to be in the stir of grand
+folks' society; but I have had enough of it--it is dreary work to
+look on and listen.  I see more clearly than I have ever done
+before, that a private governess has no existence, is not
+considered as a living rational being, except as connected with
+the wearisome duties she has to fulfil . . . One of the
+pleasantest afternoons I have spent here--indeed, the only one at
+all pleasant--was when Mr.--walked out with his children, and I
+had orders to follow a little behind.  As he strolled on through
+his fields, with his magnificent Newfoundland dog at his side, he
+looked very like what a frank, wealthy, Conservative gentleman
+ought to be.  He spoke freely and unaffectedly to the people he
+met, and, though he indulged his children and allowed them to
+tease himself far too much, he would not suffer them grossly to
+insult others."
+
+(WRITTEN IN PENCIL TO A FRIEND.)
+
+"July, 1839.
+
+"I cannot procure ink, without going into the drawing-room, where
+I do not wish to go . . . I should have written to you long since,
+and told you every detail of the utterly new scene into which I
+have lately been cast, had I not been daily expecting a letter
+from yourself, and wondering and lamenting that you did not write;
+for you will remember it was your turn.  I must not bother you too
+much with my sorrows, of which, I fear, you have heard an
+exaggerated account.  If you were near me, perhaps I might be
+tempted to tell you all, to grow egotistical, and pour out the
+long history of a private governess's trials and crosses in her
+first situation.  As it is, I will only ask you to imagine the
+miseries of a reserved wretch like me, thrown at once into the
+midst of a large family, at a time when they were particularly
+gay--when the house was filled with company--all strangers--people
+whose faces I had never seen before.  In this state I had charge
+given me of a set of pampered, spoilt, turbulent children, whom I
+was expected constantly to amuse, as well as to instruct.  I soon
+found that the constant demand on my stock of animal spirits
+reduced them to the lowest state of exhaustion; at times I felt--
+and, I suppose, seemed--depressed.  To my astonishment, I was
+taken to task on the subject by Mrs.--with a sternness of manner
+and a harshness of language scarcely credible; like a fool, I
+cried most bitterly.  I could not help it; my spirits quite failed
+me at first.  I thought I had done my best--strained every nerve
+to please her; and to be treated in that way, merely because I was
+shy and sometimes melancholy, was too bad.  At first I was for
+giving all up and going home.  But, after a little reflection, I
+determined to summon what energy I had, and to weather the storm.
+I said to myself, 'I have never yet quitted a place without
+gaining a friend; adversity is a good school; the poor are born to
+labour, and the dependent to endure.'  I resolved to be patient,
+to command my feelings, and to take what came; the ordeal, I
+reflected, would not last many weeks, and I trusted it would do me
+good.  I recollected the fable of the willow and the oak; I bent
+quietly, and now, I trust, the storm is blowing over me.  Mrs.--is
+generally considered an agreeable woman; so she is, I doubt not,
+in general society.  She behaves somewhat more civilly to me now
+than she did at first, and the children are a little more
+manageable; but she does not know my character, and she does not
+wish to know it.  I have never had five minutes' conversation with
+her since I came, except while she was scolding me.  I have no
+wish to be pitied, except by yourself; if I were talking to you I
+could tell you much more."
+
+(TO EMILY, ABOUT THIS TIME.)
+
+"Mine bonnie love, I was as glad of your letter as tongue can
+express:  it is a real, genuine pleasure to hear from home; a
+thing to be saved till bedtime, when one has a moment's quiet and
+rest to enjoy it thoroughly.  Write whenever you can.  I could
+like to be at home.  I could like to work in a mill.  I could like
+to feel some mental liberty.  I could like this weight of
+restraint to be taken off.  But the holidays will come.
+Coraggio."
+
+Her temporary engagement in this uncongenial family ended in the
+July of this year; not before the constant strain upon her spirits
+and strength had again affected her health; but when this delicacy
+became apparent in palpitations and shortness of breathing, it was
+treated as affectation--as a phase of imaginary indisposition,
+which could be dissipated by a good scolding.  She had been
+brought up rather in a school of Spartan endurance than in one of
+maudlin self-indulgence, and could bear many a pain and relinquish
+many a hope in silence.
+
+After she had been at home about a week, her friend proposed that
+she should accompany her in some little excursion, having pleasure
+alone for its object.  She caught at the idea most eagerly at
+first; but her hope stood still, waned, and had almost disappeared
+before, after many delays, it was realised.  In its fulfilment at
+last, it was a favourable specimen of many a similar air-bubble
+dancing before her eyes in her brief career, in which stern
+realities, rather than pleasures, formed the leading incidents.
+
+
+"July 26th, 1839.
+
+"Your proposal has almost driven me 'clean daft'--if you don't
+understand that ladylike expression, you must ask me what it means
+when I see you.  The fact is, an excursion with you anywhere,--
+whether to Cleathorpe or Canada,--just by ourselves, would be to
+me most delightful.  I should, indeed, like to go; but I can't get
+leave of absence for longer than a week, and I'm afraid that would
+not suit you--must I then give it up entirely?  I feel as if I
+COULD NOT; I never had such a chance of enjoyment before; I do
+want to see you and talk to you, and be with you.  When do you
+wish to go?  Could I meet you at Leeds?  To take a gig from
+Haworth to B., would be to me a very serious increase of expense,
+and I happen to be very low in cash.  Oh! rich people seem to have
+many pleasures at their command which we are debarred from!
+However, no repining.
+
+"Say when you go, and I shall be able in my answer to say
+decidedly whether I can accompany you or not.  I must--I will--I'm
+set upon it--I'll be obstinate and bear down all opposition.
+
+"P.S.--Since writing the above, I find that aunt and papa have
+determined to go to Liverpool for a fortnight, and take us all
+with them.  It is stipulated, however, that I should give up the
+Cleathorpe scheme.  I yield reluctantly."
+
+
+I fancy that, about this time, Mr. Bronte found it necessary,
+either from failing health or the increased populousness of the
+parish, to engage the assistance of a curate.  At least, it is in
+a letter written this summer that I find mention of the first of a
+succession of curates, who henceforward revolved round Haworth
+Parsonage, and made an impression on the mind of one of its
+inmates which she has conveyed pretty distinctly to the world.
+The Haworth curate brought his clerical friends and neighbours
+about the place, and for a time the incursions of these, near the
+parsonage tea-time, formed occurrences by which the quietness of
+the life there was varied, sometimes pleasantly, sometimes
+disagreeably.  The little adventure recorded at the end of the
+following letter is uncommon in the lot of most women, and is a
+testimony in this case to the unusual power of attraction--though
+so plain in feature--which Charlotte possessed, when she let
+herself go in the happiness and freedom of home.
+
+
+"August 4th, 1839.
+
+"The Liverpool journey is yet a matter of talk, a sort of castle
+in the air; but, between you and me, I fancy it is very doubtful
+whether it will ever assume a more solid shape.  Aunt--like many
+other elderly people--likes to talk of such things; but when it
+comes to putting them into actual execution, she rather falls off.
+Such being the case, I think you and I had better adhere to our
+first plan of going somewhere together independently of other
+people.  I have got leave to accompany you for a week--at the
+utmost a fortnight--but no more.  Where do you wish to go?
+Burlington, I should think, from what M. says, would be as
+eligible a place as any.  When do you set off?  Arrange all these
+things according to your convenience; I shall start no objections.
+The idea of seeing the sea--of being near it--watching its changes
+by sunrise, sunset, moonlight, and noon-day--in calm, perhaps in
+storm--fills and satisfies my mind.  I shall be discontented at
+nothing.  And then I am not to be with a set of people with whom I
+have nothing in common--who would be nuisances and bores:  but
+with you, whom I like and know, and who knows me.
+
+"I have an odd circumstance to relate to you:  prepare for a
+hearty laugh!  The other day, Mr. -, a vicar, came to spend the
+day with us, bringing with him his own curate.  The latter
+gentleman, by name Mr. B., is a young Irish clergyman, fresh from
+Dublin University.  It was the first time we had any of us seen
+him, but, however, after the manner of his countrymen, he soon
+made himself at home.  His character quickly appeared in his
+conversation; witty, lively, ardent, clever too; but deficient in
+the dignity and discretion of an Englishman.  At home, you know, I
+talk with ease, and am never shy--never weighed down and oppressed
+by that miserable MAUVAISE HONTE which torments and constrains me
+elsewhere.  So I conversed with this Irishman, and laughed at his
+jests; and, though I saw faults in his character, excused them
+because of the amusement his originality afforded.  I cooled a
+little, indeed, and drew in towards the latter part of the
+evening, because he began to season his conversation with
+something of Hibernian flattery, which I did not quite relish.
+However, they went away, and no more was thought about them.  A
+few days after, I got a letter, the direction of which puzzled me,
+it being in a hand I was not accustomed to see.  Evidently, it was
+neither from you nor Mary, my only correspondents.  Having opened
+and read it, it proved to be a declaration of attachment and
+proposal of matrimony, expressed in the ardent language of the
+sapient young Irishman!  I hope you are laughing heartily.  This
+is not like one of my adventures, is it?  It more nearly resembles
+Martha's.  I am certainly doomed to be an old maid.  Never mind.
+I made up my mind to that fate ever since I was twelve years old.
+
+"Well! thought I, I have heard of love at first sight, but this
+beats all!  I leave you to guess what my answer would be,
+convinced that you will not do me the injustice of guessing
+wrong."
+
+
+"On the 14th of August she still writes from Haworth:-
+
+"I have in vain packed my box, and prepared everything for our
+anticipated journey.  It so happens that I can get no conveyance
+this week or the next.  The only gig let out to hire in Haworth,
+is at Harrowgate, and likely to remain there, for aught I can
+hear.  Papa decidedly objects to my going by the coach, and
+walking to B., though I am sure I could manage it.  Aunt exclaims
+against the weather, and the roads, and the four winds of heaven,
+so I am in a fix, and, what is worse, so are you.  On reading
+over, for the second or third time, your last letter (which, by
+the by, was written in such hieroglyphics that, at the first hasty
+perusal, I could hardly make out two consecutive words), I find
+you intimate that if I leave this journey till Thursday I shall be
+too late.  I grieve that I should have so inconvenienced you; but
+I need not talk of either Friday or Saturday now, for I rather
+imagine there is small chance of my ever going at all.  The elders
+of the house have never cordially acquiesced in the measure; and
+now that impediments seem to start up at every step, opposition
+grows more open.  Papa, indeed, would willingly indulge me, but
+this very kindness of his makes me doubt whether I ought to draw
+upon it; so, though I could battle out aunt's discontent, I yield
+to papa's indulgence.  He does not say so, but I know he would
+rather I stayed at home; and aunt meant well too, I dare say, but
+I am provoked that she reserved the expression of her decided
+disapproval till all was settled between you and myself.  Reckon
+on me no more; leave me out in your calculations:  perhaps I
+ought, in the beginning, to have had prudence sufficient to shut
+my eyes against such a prospect of pleasure, so as to deny myself
+the hope of it.  Be as angry as you please with me for
+disappointing you.  I did not intend it, and have only one thing
+more to say--if you do not go immediately to the sea, will you
+come to see us at Haworth?  This invitation is not mine only, but
+papa's and aunt's."
+
+
+However, a little more patience, a little more delay, and she
+enjoyed the pleasure she had wished for so much.  She and her
+friend went to Easton for a fortnight in the latter part of
+September.  It was here she received her first impressions of the
+sea.
+
+
+"Oct. 24th.
+
+"Have you forgotten the sea by this time, E.?  Is it grown dim in
+your mind?  Or can you still see it, dark, blue, and green, and
+foam-white, and hear it roaring roughly when the wind is high, or
+rushing softly when it is calm? . . . I am as well as need be, and
+very fat.  I think of Easton very often, and of worthy Mr. H., and
+his kind-hearted helpmate, and of our pleasant walks to H- Wood,
+and to Boynton, our merry evenings, our romps with little
+Hancheon, &c., &c.  If we both live, this period of our lives will
+long be a theme for pleasant recollection.  Did you chance, in
+your letter to Mr. H., to mention my spectacles?  I am sadly
+inconvenienced by the want of them.  I can neither read, write,
+nor draw with comfort in their absence.  I hope Madame won't
+refuse to give them up . . . Excuse the brevity of this letter,
+for I have been drawing all day, and my eyes are so tired it is
+quite a labour to write."
+
+
+But, as the vivid remembrance of this pleasure died away, an
+accident occurred to make the actual duties of life press somewhat
+heavily for a time.
+
+
+"December 21st, 1839
+
+"We are at present, and have been during the last month, rather
+busy, as, for that space of time, we have been without a servant,
+except a little girl to run errands.  Poor Tabby became so lame
+that she was at length obliged to leave us.  She is residing with
+her sister, in a little house of her own, which she bought with
+her savings a year or two since.  She is very comfortable, and
+wants nothing; as she is near, we see her very often.  In the
+meantime, Emily and I are sufficiently busy, as you may suppose:
+I manage the ironing, and keep the rooms clean; Emily does the
+baking, and attends to the kitchen.  We are such odd animals, that
+we prefer this mode of contrivance to having a new face amongst
+us.  Besides, we do not despair of Tabby's return, and she shall
+not be supplanted by a stranger in her absence.  I excited aunt's
+wrath very much by burning the clothes, the first time I attempted
+to iron; but I do better now.  Human feelings are queer things; I
+am much happier black-leading the stoves, making the beds, and
+sweeping the floors at home, than I should be living like a fine
+lady anywhere else.  I must indeed drop my subscription to the
+Jews, because I have no money to keep it up.  I ought to have
+announced this intention to you before, but I quite forgot I was a
+subscriber.  I intend to force myself to take another situation
+when I can get one, though I HATE and ABHOR the very thoughts of
+governess-ship.  But I must do it; and, therefore, I heartily wish
+I could hear of a family where they need such a commodity as a
+governess."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+
+The year 1840 found all the Brontes living at home, except Anne.
+As I have already intimated, for some reason with which I am
+unacquainted, the plan of sending Branwell to study at the Royal
+Academy had been relinquished; probably it was found, on inquiry,
+that the expenses of such a life, were greater than his father's
+slender finances could afford, even with the help which
+Charlotte's labours at Miss W-'s gave, by providing for Anne's
+board and education.  I gather from what I have heard, that
+Branwell must have been severely disappointed when the plan fell
+through.  His talents were certainly very brilliant, and of this
+he was fully conscious, and fervently desired, by their use,
+either in writing or drawing, to make himself a name.  At the same
+time, he would probably have found his strong love of pleasure and
+irregular habits a great impediment in his path to fame; but these
+blemishes in his character were only additional reasons why he
+yearned after a London life, in which he imagined he could obtain
+every stimulant to his already vigorous intellect, while at the
+same time he would have a license of action to be found only in
+crowded cities.  Thus his whole nature was attracted towards the
+metropolis; and many an hour must he have spent poring over the
+map of London, to judge from an anecdote which has been told me.
+Some traveller for a London house of business came to Haworth for
+a night; and according to the unfortunate habit of the place, the
+brilliant "Patrick" was sent for to the inn, to beguile the
+evening by his intellectual conversation and his flashes of wit.
+They began to talk of London; of the habits and ways of life
+there; of the places of amusement; and Branwell informed the
+Londoner of one or two short cuts from point to point, up narrow
+lanes or back streets; and it was only towards the end of the
+evening that the traveller discovered, from his companion's
+voluntary confession, that he had never set foot in London at all.
+
+At this time the young man seemed to have his fate in his own
+hands.  He was full of noble impulses, as well as of extraordinary
+gifts; not accustomed to resist temptation, it is true, from any
+higher motive than strong family affection, but showing so much
+power of attachment to all about him that they took pleasure in
+believing that, after a time, he would "right himself," and that
+they should have pride and delight in the use he would then make
+of his splendid talents.  His aunt especially made him her great
+favourite.  There are always peculiar trials in the life of an
+only boy in a family of girls.  He is expected to act a part in
+life; to DO, while they are only to BE; and the necessity of their
+giving way to him in some things, is too often exaggerated into
+their giving way to him in all, and thus rendering him utterly
+selfish.  In the family about whom I am writing, while the rest
+were almost ascetic in their habits, Branwell was allowed to grow
+up self-indulgent; but, in early youth, his power of attracting
+and attaching people was so great, that few came in contact with
+him who were not so much dazzled by him as to be desirous of
+gratifying whatever wishes he expressed.  Of course, he was
+careful enough not to reveal anything before his father and
+sisters of the pleasures he indulged in; but his tone of thought
+and conversation became gradually coarser, and, for a time, his
+sisters tried to persuade themselves that such coarseness was a
+part of manliness, and to blind themselves by love to the fact
+that Branwell was worse than other young men.  At present, though
+he had, they were aware, fallen into some errors, the exact nature
+of which they avoided knowing, still he was their hope and their
+darling; their pride, who should some time bring great glory to
+the name of Bronte.
+
+He and his sister Charlotte were both slight and small of stature,
+while the other two were of taller and larger make.  I have seen
+Branwell's profile; it is what would be generally esteemed very
+handsome; the forehead is massive, the eye well set, and the
+expression of it fine and intellectual; the nose too is good; but
+there are coarse lines about the mouth, and the lips, though of
+handsome shape, are loose and thick, indicating self-indulgence,
+while the slightly retreating chin conveys an idea of weakness of
+will.  His hair and complexion were sandy.  He had enough of Irish
+blood in him to make his manners frank and genial, with a kind of
+natural gallantry about them.  In a fragment of one of his
+manuscripts which I have read, there is a justness and felicity of
+expression which is very striking.  It is the beginning of a tale,
+and the actors in it are drawn with much of the grace of
+characteristic portrait-painting, in perfectly pure and simple
+language which distinguishes so many of Addison's papers in the
+"Spectator."  The fragment is too short to afford the means of
+judging whether he had much dramatic talent, as the persons of the
+story are not thrown into conversation.  But altogether the
+elegance and composure of style are such as one would not have
+expected from this vehement and ill-fated young man.  He had a
+stronger desire for literary fame burning in his heart, than even
+that which occasionally flashed up in his sisters'.  He tried
+various outlets for his talents.  He wrote and sent poems to
+Wordsworth and Coleridge, who both expressed kind and laudatory
+opinions, and he frequently contributed verses to the LEEDS
+MERCURY.  In 1840, he was living at home, employing himself in
+occasional composition of various kinds, and waiting till some
+occupation, for which he might be fitted without any expensive
+course of preliminary training, should turn up; waiting, not
+impatiently; for he saw society of one kind (probably what he
+called "life") at the Black Bull; and at home he was as yet the
+cherished favourite.
+
+Miss Branwell was unaware of the fermentation of unoccupied talent
+going on around her.  She was not her nieces' confidante--perhaps
+no one so much older could have been; but their father, from whom
+they derived not a little of their adventurous spirit, was
+silently cognisant of much of which she took no note.  Next to her
+nephew, the docile, pensive Anne was her favourite.  Of her she
+had taken charge from her infancy; she was always patient and
+tractable, and would submit quietly to occasional oppression, even
+when she felt it keenly.  Not so her two elder sisters; they made
+their opinions known, when roused by any injustice.  At such
+times, Emily would express herself as strongly as Charlotte,
+although perhaps less frequently.  But, in general,
+notwithstanding that Miss Branwell might be occasionally
+unreasonable, she and her nieces went on smoothly enough; and
+though they might now and then be annoyed by petty tyranny, she
+still inspired them with sincere respect, and not a little
+affection.  They were, moreover, grateful to her for many habits
+she had enforced upon them, and which in time had become second
+nature:  order, method, neatness in everything; a perfect
+knowledge of all kinds of household work; an exact punctuality,
+and obedience to the laws of time and place, of which no one but
+themselves, I have heard Charlotte say, could tell the value in
+after-life; with their impulsive natures, it was positive repose
+to have learnt implicit obedience to external laws.  People in
+Haworth have assured me that, according to the hour of day--nay,
+the very minute--could they have told what the inhabitants of the
+parsonage were about.  At certain times the girls would be sewing
+in their aunt's bedroom--the chamber which, in former days, before
+they had outstripped her in their learning, had served them as a
+schoolroom; at certain (early) hours they had their meals; from
+six to eight, Miss Branwell read aloud to Mr. Bronte; at punctual
+eight, the household assembled to evening prayers in his study;
+and by nine he, the aunt, and Tabby, were all in bed,--the girls
+free to pace up and down (like restless wild animals) in the
+parlour, talking over plans and projects, and thoughts of what was
+to be their future life.
+
+At the time of which I write, the favourite idea was that of
+keeping a school.  They thought that, by a little contrivance, and
+a very little additional building, a small number of pupils, four
+or six, might be accommodated in the parsonage.  As teaching
+seemed the only profession open to them, and as it appeared that
+Emily at least could not live away from home, while the others
+also suffered much from the same cause, this plan of school-
+keeping presented itself as most desirable.  But it involved some
+outlay; and to this their aunt was averse.  Yet there was no one
+to whom they could apply for a loan of the requisite means, except
+Miss Branwell, who had made a small store out of her savings,
+which she intended for her nephew and nieces eventually, but which
+she did not like to risk.  Still, this plan of school-keeping
+remained uppermost; and in the evenings of this winter of 1839-40,
+the alterations that would be necessary in the house, and the best
+way of convincing their aunt of the wisdom of their project,
+formed the principal subject of their conversation.
+
+This anxiety weighed upon their minds rather heavily, during the
+months of dark and dreary weather.  Nor were external events,
+among the circle of their friends, of a cheerful character.  In
+January, 1840, Charlotte heard of the death of a young girl who
+had been a pupil of hers, and a schoolfellow of Anne's, at the
+time when the sisters were together at Roe Head; and had attached
+herself very strongly to the latter, who, in return, bestowed upon
+her much quiet affection.  It was a sad day when the intelligence
+of this young creature's death arrived.  Charlotte wrote thus on
+January 12th, 1840:-
+
+
+"Your letter, which I received this morning, was one of painful
+interest.  Anne C., it seems, is DEAD; when I saw her last, she
+was a young, beautiful, and happy girl; and now 'life's fitful
+fever' is over with her, and she 'sleeps well.'  I shall never see
+her again.  It is a sorrowful thought; for she was a warm-hearted,
+affectionate being, and I cared for her.  Wherever I seek for her
+now in this world, she cannot be found, no more than a flower or a
+leaf which withered twenty years ago.  A bereavement of this kind
+gives one a glimpse of the feeling those must have who have seen
+all drop round them, friend after friend, and are left to end
+their pilgrimage alone.  But tears are fruitless, and I try not to
+repine."
+
+
+During this winter, Charlotte employed her leisure hours in
+writing a story.  Some fragments of the manuscript yet remain, but
+it is in too small a hand to be read without great fatigue to the
+eyes; and one cares the less to read it, as she herself condemned
+it, in the preface to the "Professor," by saying that in this
+story she had got over such taste as she might once have had for
+the "ornamental and redundant in composition."  The beginning,
+too, as she acknowledges, was on a scale commensurate with one of
+Richardson's novels, of seven or eight volumes.  I gather some of
+these particulars from a copy of a letter, apparently in reply to
+one from Wordsworth, to whom she had sent the commencement of the
+story, sometime in the summer of 1840.
+
+
+"Authors are generally very tenacious of their productions, but I
+am not so much attached to this but that I can give it up without
+much distress.  No doubt, if I had gone on, I should have made
+quite a Richardsonian concern of it . . . I had materials in my
+head for half-a-dozen volumes . . . Of course, it is with
+considerable regret I relinquish any scheme so charming as the one
+I have sketched.  It is very edifying and profitable to create a
+world out of your own brains, and people it with inhabitants, who
+are so many Melchisedecs, and have no father nor mother but your
+own imagination . . . I am sorry I did not exist fifty or sixty
+years ago, when the 'Ladies' Magazine' was flourishing like a
+green bay-tree.  In that case, I make no doubt, my aspirations
+after literary fame would have met with due encouragement, and I
+should have had the pleasure of introducing Messrs. Percy and West
+into the very best society, and recording all their sayings and
+doings in double-columned close-printed pages . . . I recollect,
+when I was a child, getting hold of some antiquated volumes, and
+reading them by stealth with the most exquisite pleasure.  You
+give a correct description of the patient Grisels of those days.
+My aunt was one of them; and to this day she thinks the tales of
+the 'Ladies' Magazine' infinitely superior to any trash of modern
+literature.  So do I; for I read them in childhood, and childhood
+has a very strong faculty of admiration, but a very weak one of
+criticism . . . I am pleased that you cannot quite decide whether
+I am an attorney's clerk or a novel-reading dress-maker.  I will
+not help you at all in the discovery; and as to my handwriting, or
+the lady-like touches in my style and imagery, you must not draw
+any conclusion from that--I may employ an amanuensis.  Seriously,
+sir, I am very much obliged to you for your kind and candid
+letter.  I almost wonder you took the trouble to read and notice
+the novelette of an anonymous scribe, who had not even the manners
+to tell you whether he was a man or a woman, or whether his 'C.
+T.' meant Charles Timms or Charlotte Tomkins."
+
+
+There are two or three things noticeable in the letter from which
+these extracts are taken.  The first is the initials with which
+she had evidently signed the former one to which she alludes.
+About this time, to her more familiar correspondents, she
+occasionally calls herself "Charles Thunder," making a kind of
+pseudonym for herself out of her Christian name, and the meaning
+of her Greek surname.  In the next place, there is a touch of
+assumed smartness, very different from the simple, womanly,
+dignified letter which she had written to Southey, under nearly
+similar circumstances, three years before.  I imagine the cause of
+this difference to be twofold.  Southey, in his reply to her first
+letter, had appealed to the higher parts of her nature, in calling
+her to consider whether literature was, or was not, the best
+course for a woman to pursue.  But the person to whom she
+addressed this one had evidently confined himself to purely
+literary criticisms, besides which, her sense of humour was
+tickled by the perplexity which her correspondent felt as to
+whether he was addressing a man or a woman.  She rather wished to
+encourage the former idea; and, in consequence, possibly, assumed
+something of the flippancy which very probably existed in her
+brother's style of conversation, from whom she would derive her
+notions of young manhood, not likely, as far as refinement was
+concerned, to be improved by the other specimens she had seen,
+such as the curates whom she afterwards represented in "Shirley."
+
+These curates were full of strong, High-Church feeling.
+Belligerent by nature, it was well for their professional
+character that they had, as clergymen, sufficient scope for the
+exercise of their warlike propensities.  Mr. Bronte, with all his
+warm regard for Church and State, had a great respect for mental
+freedom; and, though he was the last man in the world to conceal
+his opinions, he lived in perfect amity with all the respectable
+part of those who differed from him.  Not so the curates.  Dissent
+was schism, and schism was condemned in the Bible.  In default of
+turbaned Saracens, they entered on a crusade against Methodists in
+broadcloth; and the consequence was that the Methodists and
+Baptists refused to pay the church-rates.  Miss Bronte thus
+describes the state of things at this time:-
+
+
+"Little Haworth has been all in a bustle about church-rates, since
+you were here.  We had a stirring meeting in the schoolroom.  Papa
+took the chair, and Mr. C. and Mr. W. acted as his supporters, one
+on each side.  There was violent opposition, which set Mr. C.'s
+Irish blood in a ferment, and if papa had not kept him quiet,
+partly by persuasion and partly by compulsion, he would have given
+the Dissenters their kale through the reek--a Scotch proverb,
+which I will explain to you another time.  He and Mr. W. both
+bottled up their wrath for that time, but it was only to explode
+with redoubled force at a future period.  We had two sermons on
+dissent, and its consequences, preached last Sunday--one in the
+afternoon by Mr. W., and one in the evening by Mr. C.  All the
+Dissenters were invited to come and hear, and they actually shut
+up their chapels, and came in a body; of course the church was
+crowded.  Mr. W. delivered a noble, eloquent, High-Church,
+Apostolical-Succession discourse, in which he banged the
+Dissenters most fearlessly and unflinchingly.  I thought they had
+got enough for one while, but it was nothing to the dose that was
+thrust down their throats in the evening.  A keener, cleverer,
+bolder, and more heart-stirring harangue than that which Mr. C.
+delivered from Haworth pulpit, last Sunday evening, I never heard.
+He did not rant; he did not cant; he did not whine; he did not
+sniggle; he just got up and spoke with the boldness of a man who
+was impressed with the truth of what he was saying, who has no
+fear of his enemies, and no dread of consequences.  His sermon
+lasted an hour, yet I was sorry when it was done.  I do not say
+that I agree either with him, or with Mr. W., either in all or in
+half their opinions.  I consider them bigoted, intolerant, and
+wholly unjustifiable on the ground of common sense.  My conscience
+will not let me be either a Puseyite or a Hookist; MAIS, if I were
+a Dissenter, I would have taken the first opportunity of kicking,
+or of horse-whipping both the gentlemen for their stern, bitter
+attack on my religion and its teachers.  But in spite of all this,
+I admired the noble integrity which could dictate so fearless an
+opposition against so strong an antagonist.
+
+"P.S.--Mr. W. has given another lecture at the Keighley Mechanics'
+Institution, and papa has also given a lecture; both are spoken of
+very highly in the newspapers, and it is mentioned as a matter of
+wonder that such displays of intellect should emanate from the
+village of Haworth, 'situated among the bogs and mountains, and,
+until very lately, supposed to be in a state of semi-barbarism.'
+Such are the words of the newspaper."
+
+
+To fill up the account of this outwardly eventless year, I may add
+a few more extracts from the letters entrusted to me.
+
+
+"May 15th, 1840.
+
+"Do not be over-persuaded to marry a man you can never respect--I
+do not say LOVE; because, I think, if you can respect a person
+before marriage, moderate love at least will come after; and as to
+intense PASSION, I am convinced that that is no desirable feeling.
+In the first place, it seldom or never meets with a requital; and,
+in the second place, if it did, the feeling would be only
+temporary:  it would last the honeymoon, and then, perhaps, give
+place to disgust, or indifference, worse, perhaps, than disgust.
+Certainly this would be the case on the man's part; and on the
+woman's--God help her, if she is left to love passionately and
+alone.
+
+"I am tolerably well convinced that I shall never marry at all.
+Reason tells me so, and I am not so utterly the slave of feeling
+but that I can OCCASIONALLY HEAR her voice."
+
+"June 2nd, 1840.
+
+"M. is not yet come to Haworth; but she is to come on the
+condition that I first go and stay a few days there.  If all be
+well, I shall go next Wednesday.  I may stay at G- until Friday or
+Saturday, and the early part of the following week I shall pass
+with you, if you will have me--which last sentence indeed is
+nonsense, for as I shall be glad to see you, so I know you will be
+glad to see me.  This arrangement will not allow much time, but it
+is the only practicable one which, considering all the
+circumstances, I can effect.  Do not urge me to stay more than two
+or three days, because I shall be obliged to refuse you.  I intend
+to walk to Keighley, there to take the coach as far as B-, then to
+get some one to carry my box, and to walk the rest of the way to
+G-.  If I manage this, I think I shall contrive very well.  I
+shall reach B. by about five o'clock, and then I shall have the
+cool of the evening for the walk.  I have communicated the whole
+arrangement to M.  I desire exceedingly to see both her and you.
+Good-bye.
+
+C. B.
+C. B.
+C. B.
+C. B.
+
+"If you have any better plan to suggest I am open to conviction,
+provided your plan is practicable."
+
+"August 20th, 1840.
+
+"Have you seen anything of Miss H. lately?  I wish they, or
+somebody else, would get me a situation.  I have answered
+advertisements without number, but my applications have met with
+no success.
+
+"I have got another bale of French books from G. containing
+upwards of forty volumes.  I have read about half.  They are like
+the rest, clever, wicked, sophistical, and immoral.  The best of
+it is, they give one a thorough idea of France and Paris, and are
+the best substitute for French conversation that I have met with.
+
+"I positively have nothing more to say to you, for I am in a
+stupid humour.  You must excuse this letter not being quite as
+long as your own.  I have written to you soon, that you might not
+look after the postman in vain.  Preserve this writing as a
+curiosity in caligraphy--I think it is exquisite--all brilliant
+black blots, and utterly illegible letters.  "CALIBAN."
+
+
+"'The wind bloweth where it listeth.  Thou hearest the sound
+thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it
+goeth.'  That, I believe, is Scripture, though in what chapter or
+book, or whether it be correctly quoted, I can't possibly say.
+However, it behoves me to write a letter to a young woman of the
+name of E., with whom I was once acquainted, 'in life's morning
+march, when my spirit was young.'  This young woman wished me to
+write to her some time since, though I have nothing to say--I e'en
+put it off, day by day, till at last, fearing that she will 'curse
+me by her gods,' I feel constrained to sit down and tack a few
+lines together, which she may call a letter or not as she pleases.
+Now if the young woman expects sense in this production, she will
+find herself miserably disappointed.  I shall dress her a dish of
+salmagundi--I shall cook a hash--compound a stew--toss up an
+OMELETTE SOUFFLEE E LA FRANCAISE, and send it her with my
+respects.  The wind, which is very high up in our hills of Judea,
+though, I suppose, down in the Philistine flats of B. parish it is
+nothing to speak of, has produced the same effects on the contents
+of my knowledge-box that a quaigh of usquebaugh does upon those of
+most other bipeds.  I see everything COULEUR DE ROSE, and am
+strongly inclined to dance a jig, if I knew how.  I think I must
+partake of the nature of a pig or an ass--both which animals are
+strongly affected by a high wind.  From what quarter the wind
+blows I cannot tell, for I never could in my life; but I should
+very much like to know how the great brewing-tub of Bridlington
+Bay works, and what sort of yeasty froth rises just now on the
+waves.
+
+"A woman of the name of Mrs. B., it seems, wants a teacher.  I
+wish she would have me; and I have written to Miss W. to tell her
+so.  Verily, it is a delightful thing to live here at home, at
+full liberty to do just what one pleases.  But I recollect some
+scrubby old fable about grasshoppers and ants, by a scrubby old
+knave yclept AEsop; the grasshoppers sang all the summer, and
+starved all the winter.
+
+"A distant relation of mine, one Patrick Branwell, has set off to
+seek his fortune in the wild, wandering, adventurous, romantic,
+knight-errant-like capacity of clerk on the Leeds and Manchester
+Railroad.  Leeds and Manchester--where are they?  Cities in the
+wilderness, like Tadmor, alias Palmyra--are they not?
+
+"There is one little trait respecting Mr. W. which lately came to
+my knowledge, which gives a glimpse of the better side of his
+character.  Last Saturday night he had been sitting an hour in the
+parlour with Papa; and, as he went away, I heard Papa say to him
+'What is the matter with you?  You seem in very low spirits to-
+night.'  'Oh, I don't know.  I've been to see a poor young girl,
+who, I'm afraid, is dying.'  'Indeed; what is her name?'  'Susan
+Bland, the daughter of John Bland, the superintendent.'  Now Susan
+Bland is my oldest and best scholar in the Sunday-school; and,
+when I heard that, I thought I would go as soon as I could to see
+her.  I did go on Monday afternoon, and found her on her way to
+that 'bourn whence no traveller returns.'  After sitting with her
+some time, I happened to ask her mother, if she thought a little
+port wine would do her good.  She replied that the doctor had
+recommended it, and that when Mr. W. was last there, he had
+brought them a bottle of wine and jar of preserves.  She added,
+that he was always good-natured to poor folks, and seemed to have
+a deal of feeling and kind-heartedness about him.  No doubt, there
+are defects in his character, but there are also good qualities .
+. . God bless him!  I wonder who, with his advantages, would be
+without his faults.  I know many of his faulty actions, many of
+his weak points; yet, where I am, he shall always find rather a
+defender than an accuser.  To be sure, my opinion will go but a
+very little way to decide his character; what of that?  People
+should do right as far as their ability extends.  You are not to
+suppose, from all this, that Mr. W. and I are on very amiable
+terms; we are not at all.  We are distant, cold, and reserved.  We
+seldom speak; and when we do, it is only to exchange the most
+trivial and common-place remarks."
+
+
+The Mrs. B. alluded to in this letter, as in want of a governess,
+entered into a correspondence with Miss Bronte, and expressed
+herself much pleased with the letters she received from her, with
+the "style and candour of the application," in which Charlotte had
+taken care to tell her, that if she wanted a showy, elegant, or
+fashionable person, her correspondent was not fitted for such a
+situation.  But Mrs. B. required her governess to give
+instructions in music and singing, for which Charlotte was not
+qualified:  and, accordingly, the negotiation fell through.  But
+Miss Bronte was not one to sit down in despair after
+disappointment.  Much as she disliked the life of a private
+governess, it was her duty to relieve her father of the burden of
+her support, and this was the only way open to her.  So she set to
+advertising and inquiring with fresh vigour.
+
+In the meantime, a little occurrence took place, described in one
+of her letters, which I shall give, as it shows her instinctive
+aversion to a particular class of men, whose vices some have
+supposed she looked upon with indulgence.  The extract tells all
+that need be known, for the purpose I have in view, of the
+miserable pair to whom it relates.
+
+
+"You remember Mr. and Mrs. -?  Mrs.--came here the other day, with
+a most melancholy tale of her wretched husband's drunken,
+extravagant, profligate habits.  She asked Papa's advice; there
+was nothing she said but ruin before them.  They owed debts which
+they could never pay.  She expected Mr. -'s instant dismissal from
+his curacy; she knew, from bitter experience, that his vices were
+utterly hopeless.  He treated her and her child savagely; with
+much more to the same effect.  Papa advised her to leave him for
+ever, and go home, if she had a home to go to.  She said, this was
+what she had long resolved to do; and she would leave him
+directly, as soon as Mr. B. dismissed him.  She expressed great
+disgust and contempt towards him, and did not affect to have the
+shadow of regard in any way.  I do not wonder at this, but I do
+wonder she should ever marry a man towards whom her feelings must
+always have been pretty much the same as they are now.  I am
+morally certain no decent woman could experience anything but
+aversion towards such a man as Mr. -.  Before I knew, or suspected
+his character, and when I rather wondered at his versatile
+talents, I felt it in an uncontrollable degree.  I hated to talk
+with him--hated to look at him; though as I was not certain that
+there was substantial reason for such a dislike, and thought it
+absurd to trust to mere instinct, I both concealed and repressed
+the feeling as much as I could; and, on all occasions, treated him
+with as much civility as I was mistress of.  I was struck with
+Mary's expression of a similar feeling at first sight; she said,
+when we left him, 'That is a hideous man, Charlotte!'  I thought
+'He is indeed.'"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+
+Early in March, 1841, Miss Bronte obtained her second and last
+situation as a governess.  This time she esteemed herself
+fortunate in becoming a member of a kind-hearted and friendly
+household.  The master of it, she especially regarded as a
+valuable friend, whose advice helped to guide her in one very
+important step of her life.  But as her definite acquirements were
+few, she had to eke them out by employing her leisure time in
+needlework; and altogether her position was that of "bonne" or
+nursery governess, liable to repeated and never-ending calls upon
+her time.  This description of uncertain, yet perpetual
+employment, subject to the exercise of another person's will at
+all hours of the day, was peculiarly trying to one whose life at
+home had been full of abundant leisure.  IDLE she never was in any
+place, but of the multitude of small talks, plans, duties,
+pleasures, &c., that make up most people's days, her home life was
+nearly destitute.  This made it possible for her to go through
+long and deep histories of feeling and imagination, for which
+others, odd as it sounds, have rarely time.  This made it
+inevitable that--later on, in her too short career--the intensity
+of her feeling should wear out her physical health.  The habit of
+"making out," which had grown with her growth, and strengthened
+with her strength, had become a part of her nature.  Yet all
+exercise of her strongest and most characteristic faculties was
+now out of the question.  She could not (as while she was at Miss
+W-'s) feel, amidst the occupations of the day, that when evening
+came, she might employ herself in more congenial ways.  No doubt,
+all who enter upon the career of a governess have to relinquish
+much; no doubt, it must ever be a life of sacrifice; but to
+Charlotte Bronte it was a perpetual attempt to force all her
+faculties into a direction for which the whole of her previous
+life had unfitted them.  Moreover, the little Brontes had been
+brought up motherless; and from knowing nothing of the gaiety and
+the sportiveness of childhood--from never having experienced
+caresses or fond attentions themselves--they were ignorant of the
+very nature of infancy, or how to call out its engaging qualities.
+Children were to them the troublesome necessities of humanity;
+they had never been drawn into contact with them in any other way.
+Years afterwards, when Miss Bronte came to stay with us, she
+watched our little girls perpetually; and I could not persuade her
+that they were only average specimens of well brought up children.
+She was surprised and touched by any sign of thoughtfulness for
+others, of kindness to animals, or of unselfishness on their part:
+and constantly maintained that she was in the right, and I in the
+wrong, when we differed on the point of their unusual excellence.
+All this must be borne in mind while reading the following
+letters.  And it must likewise be borne in mind--by those who,
+surviving her, look back upon her life from their mount of
+observation--how no distaste, no suffering ever made her shrink
+from any course which she believed it to be her duty to engage in.
+
+
+"March 3rd, 1841.
+
+"I told some time since, that I meant to get a situation, and when
+I said so my resolution was quite fixed.  I felt that however
+often I was disappointed, I had no intention of relinquishing my
+efforts.  After being severely baffled two or three times,--after
+a world of trouble, in the way of correspondence and interviews,--
+I have at length succeeded, and am fairly established in my new
+place.
+
+* * *
+
+"The house is not very large, but exceedingly comfortable and well
+regulated; the grounds are fine and extensive.  In taking the
+place, I have made a large sacrifice in the way of salary, in the
+hope of securing comfort,--by which word I do not mean to express
+good eating and drinking, or warm fire, or a soft bed, but the
+society of cheerful faces, and minds and hearts not dug out of a
+lead-mine, or cut from a marble quarry.  My salary is not really
+more than 16L. per annum, though it is nominally 20L., but the
+expense of washing will be deducted therefrom.  My pupils are two
+in number, a girl of eight, and a boy of six.  As to my employers,
+you will not expect me to say much about their characters when I
+tell you that I only arrived here yesterday.  I have not the
+faculty of telling an individual's disposition at first sight.
+Before I can venture to pronounce on a character, I must see it
+first under various lights and from various points of view.  All I
+can say therefore is, both Mr. and Mrs.--seem to me good sort of
+people.  I have as yet had no cause to complain of want of
+considerateness or civility.  My pupils are wild and unbroken, but
+apparently well-disposed.  I wish I may be able to say as much
+next time I write to you.  My earnest wish and endeavour will be
+to please them.  If I can but feel that I am giving satisfaction,
+and if at the same time I can keep my health, I shall, I hope, be
+moderately happy.  But no one but myself can tell how hard a
+governess's work is to me--for no one but myself is aware how
+utterly averse my whole mind and nature are for the employment.
+Do not think that I fail to blame myself for this, or that I leave
+any means unemployed to conquer this feeling.  Some of my greatest
+difficulties lie in things that would appear to you comparatively
+trivial.  I find it so hard to repel the rude familiarity of
+children.  I find it so difficult to ask either servants or
+mistress for anything I want, however much I want it.  It is less
+pain for me to endure the greatest inconvenience than to go into
+the kitchen to request its removal.  I am a fool.  Heaven knows I
+cannot help it!
+
+"Now can you tell me whether it is considered improper for
+governesses to ask their friends to come and see them.  I do not
+mean, of course, to stay, but just for a call of an hour or two?
+If it is not absolute treason, I do fervently request that you
+will contrive, in some way or other, to let me have a sight of
+your face.  Yet I feel, at the same time, that I am making a very
+foolish and almost impracticable demand; yet this is only four
+miles from B- !"
+
+"March 21st.
+
+"You must excuse a very short answer to your most welcome letter;
+for my time is entirely occupied.  Mrs.--expected a good deal of
+sewing from me.  I cannot sew much during the day, on account of
+the children, who require the utmost attention.  I am obliged,
+therefore, to devote the evenings to this business.  Write to me
+often; very long letters.  It will do both of us good.  This place
+is far better than -, but God knows, I have enough to do to keep a
+good heart in the matter.  What you said has cheered me a little.
+I wish I could always act according to your advice.  Home-sickness
+affects me sorely.  I like Mr.--extremely.  The children are over-
+indulged, and consequently hard at times to manage.  DO, DO, do
+come and see me; if it be a breach of etiquette, never mind.  If
+you can only stop an hour, come.  Talk no more about my forsaking
+you; my darling, I could not afford to do it.  I find it is not in
+my nature to get on in this weary world without sympathy and
+attachment in some quarter; and seldom indeed do we find it.  It
+is too great a treasure to be ever wantonly thrown away when once
+secured."
+
+
+Miss Bronte had not been many weeks in her new situation before
+she had a proof of the kind-hearted hospitality of her employers.
+Mr.--wrote to her father, and urgently invited him to come and
+make acquaintance with his daughter's new home, by spending a week
+with her in it; and Mrs.--expressed great regret when one of Miss
+Bronte's friends drove up to the house to leave a letter or
+parcel, without entering.  So she found that all her friends might
+freely visit her, and that her father would be received with
+especial gladness.  She thankfully acknowledged this kindness in
+writing to urge her friend afresh to come and see her; which she
+accordingly did.
+
+
+"June, 1841.
+
+"You can hardly fancy it possible, I dare say, that I cannot find
+a quarter of an hour to scribble a note in; but so it is; and when
+a note is written, it has to be carried a mile to the post, and
+that consumes nearly an hour, which is a large portion of the day.
+Mr. and Mrs.--have been gone a week.  I heard from them this
+morning.  No time is fixed for their return, but I hope it will
+not be delayed long, or I shall miss the chance of seeing Anne
+this vacation.  She came home, I understand, last Wednesday, and
+is only to be allowed three weeks' vacation, because the family
+she is with are going to Scarborough.  I SHOULD LIKE TO SEE HER,
+to judge for myself of the state of her health.  I dare not trust
+any other person's report, no one seems minute enough in their
+observations.  I should very much have liked you to have seen her.
+I have got on very well with the servants and children so far; yet
+it is dreary, solitary work.  You can tell as well as me the
+lonely feeling of being without a companion."
+
+
+Soon after this was written, Mr. and Mrs.--returned, in time to
+allow Charlotte to go and look after Anne's health, which, as she
+found to her intense anxiety, was far from strong.  What could she
+do to nurse and cherish up this little sister, the youngest of
+them all?  Apprehension about her brought up once more the idea of
+keeping a school.  If, by this means, they three could live
+together, and maintain themselves, all might go well.  They would
+have some time of their own, in which to try again and yet again
+at that literary career, which, in spite of all baffling
+difficulties, was never quite set aside as an ultimate object; but
+far the strongest motive with Charlotte was the conviction that
+Anne's health was so delicate that it required a degree of tending
+which none but her sister could give.  Thus she wrote during those
+midsummer holidays.
+
+
+"Haworth, July 18th, 1841.
+
+"We waited long and anxiously for you, on the Thursday that you
+promised to come.  I quite wearied my eyes with watching from the
+window, eye-glass in hand, and sometimes spectacles on nose.
+However, you are not to blame . . . and as to disappointment, why,
+all must suffer disappointment at some period or other of their
+lives.  But a hundred things I had to say to you will now be
+forgotten, and never said.  There is a project hatching in this
+house, which both Emily and I anxiously wished to discuss with
+you.  The project is yet in its infancy, hardly peeping from its
+shell; and whether it will ever come out a fine full-fledged
+chicken, or will turn addle and die before it cheeps, is one of
+those considerations that are but dimly revealed by the oracles of
+futurity.  Now, don't be nonplussed by all this metaphorical
+mystery.  I talk of a plain and everyday occurrence, though, in
+Delphic style, I wrap up the information in figures of speech
+concerning eggs, chickens etceatera, etcaeterorum.  To come to the
+point:  Papa and aunt talk, by fits and starts, of our--id est,
+Emily, Anne, and myself--commencing a school!  I have often, you
+know, said how much I wished such a thing; but I never could
+conceive where the capital was to come from for making such a
+speculation.  I was well aware, indeed, that aunt had money, but I
+always considered that she was the last person who would offer a
+loan for the purpose in question.  A loan, however, she HAS
+offered, or rather intimates that she perhaps WILL offer in case
+pupils can be secured, an eligible situation obtained, &c.  This
+sounds very fair, but still there are matters to be considered
+which throw something of a damp upon the scheme.  I do not expect
+that aunt will sink more than 150L. in such a venture; and would
+it be possible to establish a respectable (not by any means a
+SHOWY) school, and to commence housekeeping with a capital of only
+that amount?  Propound the question to your sister, if you think
+she can answer it; if not, don't say a word on the subject.  As to
+getting into debt, that is a thing we could none of us reconcile
+our mind to for a moment.  We do not care how modest, how humble
+our commencement be, so it be made on sure grounds, and have a
+safe foundation.  In thinking of all possible and impossible
+places where we could establish a school, I have thought of
+Burlington, or rather of the neighbourhood of Burlington.  Do you
+remember whether there was any other school there besides that of
+Miss -?  This is, of course, a perfectly crude and random idea.
+There are a hundred reasons why it should be an impracticable one.
+We have no connections, no acquaintances there; it is far from
+home, &c.  Still, I fancy the ground in the East Riding is less
+fully occupied than in the West.  Much inquiry and consideration
+will be necessary, of course, before any place is decided on; and
+I fear much time will elapse before any plan is executed . . .
+Write as soon as you can.  I shall not leave my present situation
+till my future prospects assume a more fixed and definite aspect."
+
+A fortnight afterwards, we see that the seed has been sown which
+was to grow up into a plan materially influencing her future life.
+
+
+"August 7th, 1841.
+
+"This is Saturday evening; I have put the children to bed; now I
+am going to sit down and answer your letter.  I am again by
+myself--housekeeper and governess--for Mr. and Mrs.--are staying
+at -.  To speak truth, though I am solitary while they are away,
+it is still by far the happiest part of my time.  The children are
+under decent control, the servants are very observant and
+attentive to me, and the occasional absence of the master and
+mistress relieves me from the duty of always endeavouring to seem
+cheerful and conversable.  Martha -, it appears, is in the way of
+enjoying great advantages; so is Mary, for you will be surprised
+to hear that she is returning immediately to the Continent with
+her brother; not, however, to stay there, but to take a month's
+tour and recreation.  I have had a long letter from Mary, and a
+packet containing a present of a very handsome black silk scarf,
+and a pair of beautiful kid gloves, bought at Brussels.  Of
+course, I was in one sense pleased with the gift--pleased that
+they should think of me so far off, amidst the excitements of one
+of the most splendid capitals of Europe; and yet it felt irksome
+to accept it.  I should think Mary and Martha have not more than
+sufficient pocket-money to supply themselves.  I wish they had
+testified their regard by a less expensive token.  Mary's letters
+spoke of some of the pictures and cathedrals she had seen--
+pictures the most exquisite, cathedrals the most venerable.  I
+hardly know what swelled to my throat as I read her letter:  such
+a vehement impatience of restraint and steady work; such a strong
+wish for wings--wings such as wealth can furnish; such an urgent
+thirst to see, to know, to learn; something internal seemed to
+expand bodily for a minute.  I was tantalised by the consciousness
+of faculties unexercised,--then all collapsed, and I despaired.
+My dear, I would hardly make that confession to any one but
+yourself; and to you, rather in a letter than VIVA VOCE.  These
+rebellious and absurd emotions were only momentary; I quelled them
+in five minutes.  I hope they will not revive, for they were
+acutely painful.  No further steps have been taken about the
+project I mentioned to you, nor probably will be for the present;
+but Emily, and Anne, and I, keep it in view.  It is our polar
+star, and we look to it in all circumstances of despondency.  I
+begin to suspect I am writing in a strain which will make you
+think I am unhappy.  This is far from being the case; on the
+contrary, I know my place is a favourable one, for a governess.
+What dismays and haunts me sometimes, is a conviction that I have
+no natural knack for my vocation.  If teaching only were
+requisite, it would be smooth and easy; but it is the living in
+other people's houses--the estrangement from one's real character-
+-the adoption of a cold, rigid, apathetic exterior, that is
+painful . . . You will not mention our school project at present.
+A project not actually commenced is always uncertain.  Write to me
+often, my dear Nell; you KNOW your letters are valued.  Your
+'loving child' (as you choose to call me so),
+
+C. B.
+
+"P.S.  I am well in health; don't fancy I am not, but I have one
+aching feeling at my heart (I must allude to it, though I had
+resolved not to).  It is about Anne; she has so much to endure:
+far, far more than I ever had.  When my thoughts turn to her, they
+always see her as a patient, persecuted stranger.  I know what
+concealed susceptibility is in her nature, when her feelings are
+wounded.  I wish I could be with her, to administer a little balm.
+She is more lonely--less gifted with the power of making friends,
+even than I am.  'Drop the subject.'"
+
+She could bear much for herself; but she could not patiently bear
+the sorrows of others, especially of her sisters; and again, of
+the two sisters, the idea of the little, gentle, youngest
+suffering in lonely patience, was insupportable to her.  Something
+must be done.  No matter if the desired end were far away; all
+time was lost in which she was not making progress, however slow,
+towards it.  To have a school, was to have some portion of daily
+leisure, uncontrolled but by her own sense of duty; it was for the
+three sisters, loving each other with so passionate an affection,
+to be together under one roof, and yet earning their own
+subsistence; above all, it was to have the power of watching over
+these two whose life and happiness were ever to Charlotte far more
+than her own.  But no trembling impatience should lead her to take
+an unwise step in haste.  She inquired in every direction she
+could, as to the chances which a new school might have of success.
+In all there seemed more establishments like the one which the
+sisters wished to set up than could be supported.  What was to be
+done?  Superior advantages must be offered.  But how?  They
+themselves abounded in thought, power, and information; but these
+are qualifications scarcely fit to be inserted in a prospectus.
+Of French they knew something; enough to read it fluently, but
+hardly enough to teach it in competition with natives or
+professional masters.  Emily and Anne had some knowledge of music;
+but here again it was doubtful whether, without more instruction,
+they could engage to give lessons in it.
+
+Just about this time, Miss W- was thinking of relinquishing her
+school at Dewsbury Moor; and offered to give it up in favour of
+her old pupils, the Brontes.  A sister of hers had taken the
+active management since the time when Charlotte was a teacher; but
+the number of pupils had diminished; and, if the Brontes undertook
+it, they would have to try and work it up to its former state of
+prosperity.  This, again, would require advantages on their part
+which they did not at present possess, but which Charlotte caught
+a glimpse of.  She resolved to follow the clue, and never to rest
+till she had reached a successful issue.  With the forced calm of
+a suppressed eagerness, that sends a glow of desire through every
+word of the following letter, she wrote to her aunt thus.
+
+
+"Dear Aunt,
+
+"Sept. 29th, 1841.
+
+"I have heard nothing of Miss W- yet since I wrote to her,
+intimating that I would accept her offer.  I cannot conjecture the
+reason of this long silence, unless some unforeseen impediment has
+occurred in concluding the bargain.  Meantime, a plan has been
+suggested and approved by Mr. and Mrs.--" (the father and mother
+of her pupils) "and others, which I wish now to impart to you.  My
+friends recommend me, if I desire to secure permanent success, to
+delay commencing the school for six months longer, and by all
+means to contrive, by hook or by crook, to spend the intervening
+time in some school on the continent.  They say schools in England
+are so numerous, competition so great, that without some such step
+towards attaining superiority, we shall probably have a very hard
+struggle, and may fail in the end.  They say, moreover, that the
+loan of 100L., which you have been so kind as to offer us, will,
+perhaps, not be all required now, as Miss W- will lend us the
+furniture; and that, if the speculation is intended to be a good
+and successful one, half the sum, at least, ought to be laid out
+in the manner I have mentioned, thereby insuring a more speedy
+repayment both of interest and principal.
+
+"I would not go to France or to Paris.  I would go to Brussels, in
+Belgium.  The cost of the journey there, at the dearest rate of
+travelling, would be 5L.; living is there little more than half as
+dear as it is in England, and the facilities for education are
+equal or superior to any other place in Europe.  In half a year, I
+could acquire a thorough familiarity with French.  I could improve
+greatly in Italian, and even get a dash of German, i.e., providing
+my health continued as good as it is now.  Mary is now staying at
+Brussels, at a first-rate establishment there.  I should not think
+of going to the Chateau de Kokleberg, where she is resident, as
+the terms are much too high; but if I wrote to her, she, with the
+assistance of Mrs. Jenkins, the wife of the British Chaplain,
+would be able to secure me a cheap, decent residence and
+respectable protection.  I should have the opportunity of seeing
+her frequently; she would make me acquainted with the city; and,
+with the assistance of her cousins, I should probably be
+introduced to connections far more improving, polished, and
+cultivated, than any I have yet known.
+
+"These are advantages which would turn to real account, when we
+actually commenced a school; and, if Emily could share them with
+me, we could take a footing in the world afterwards which we can
+never do now.  I say Emily instead of Anne; for Anne might take
+her turn at some future period, if our school answered.  I feel
+certain, while I am writing, that you will see the propriety of
+what I say.  You always like to use your money to the best
+advantage.  You are not fond of making shabby purchases; when you
+do confer a favour, it is often done in style; and depend upon it,
+50L., or 100L., thus laid out, would be well employed.  Of course,
+I know no other friend in the world to whom I could apply on this
+subject except yourself.  I feel an absolute conviction that, if
+this advantage were allowed us, it would be the making of us for
+life.  Papa will, perhaps, think it a wild and ambitious scheme;
+but who ever rose in the world without ambition?  When he left
+Ireland to go to Cambridge University, he was as ambitious as I am
+now.  I want us ALL to get on.  I know we have talents, and I want
+them to be turned to account.  I look to you, aunt, to help us.  I
+think you will not refuse.  I know, if you consent, it shall not
+be my fault if you ever repent your kindness."
+
+
+This letter was written from the house in which she was residing
+as governess.  It was some little time before an answer came.
+Much had to be talked over between the father and aunt in Haworth
+Parsonage.  At last consent was given.  Then, and not till then,
+she confided her plan to an intimate friend.  She was not one to
+talk over-much about any project, while it remained uncertain--to
+speak about her labour, in any direction, while its result was
+doubtful.
+
+
+"Nov. 2nd, 1841.
+
+"Now let us begin to quarrel.  In the first place, I must consider
+whether I will commence operations on the defensive, or the
+offensive.  The defensive, I think.  You say, and I see plainly,
+that your feelings have been hurt by an apparent want of
+confidence on my part.  You heard from others of Miss W-'s
+overtures before I communicated them to you myself.  This is true.
+I was deliberating on plans important to my future prospects.  I
+never exchanged a letter with you on the subject.  True again.
+This appears strange conduct to a friend, near and dear, long-
+known, and never found wanting.  Most true.  I cannot give you my
+EXCUSES for this behaviour; this word EXCUSE implies confession of
+a fault, and I do not feel that I have been in fault.  The plain
+fact is, I WAS not, I am not now, certain of my destiny.  On the
+contrary, I have been most uncertain, perplexed with contradictory
+schemes and proposals.  My time, as I have often told you, is
+fully occupied; yet I had many letters to write, which it was
+absolutely necessary should be written.  I knew it would avail
+nothing to write to you then to say I was in doubt and
+uncertainty--hoping this, fearing that, anxious, eagerly desirous
+to do what seemed impossible to be done.  When I thought of you in
+that busy interval, it was to resolve, that you should know all
+when my way was clear, and my grand end attained.  If I could, I
+would always work in silence and obscurity, and let my efforts be
+known by their results.  Miss W- did most kindly propose that I
+should come to Dewsbury Moor and attempt to revive the school her
+sister had relinquished.  She offered me the use of her furniture.
+At first, I received the proposal cordially, and prepared to do my
+utmost to bring about success; but a fire was kindled in my very
+heart, which I could not quench.  I so longed to increase my
+attainments--to become something better than I am; a glimpse of
+what I felt, I showed to you in one of my former letters--only a
+glimpse; Mary cast oil upon the flames--encouraged me, and in her
+own strong, energetic language, heartened me on.  I longed to go
+to Brussels; but how could I get there?  I wished for one, at
+least, of my sisters to share the advantage with me.  I fixed on
+Emily.  She deserved the reward, I knew.  How could the point be
+managed?  In extreme excitement, I wrote a letter home, which
+carried the day.  I made an appeal to aunt for assistance, which
+was answered by consent.  Things are not settled; yet it is
+sufficient to say we have a CHANCE of going for half a year.
+Dewsbury Moor is relinquished.  Perhaps, fortunately so.  In my
+secret soul, I believe there is no cause to regret it.  My plans
+for the future are bounded to this intention:  if I once get to
+Brussels, and if my health is spared, I will do my best to make
+the utmost of every advantage that shall come within my reach.
+When the half-year is expired, I will do what I can.
+
+* * *
+
+"Believe me, though I was born in April, the month of cloud and
+sunshine, I am not changeful.  My spirits are unequal, and
+sometimes I speak vehemently, and sometimes I say nothing at all;
+but I have a steady regard for you, and if you will let the cloud
+and shower pass by, be sure the sun is always behind, obscured,
+but still existing."
+
+
+At Christmas she left her situation, after a parting with her
+employers which seems to have affected and touched her greatly.
+"They only made too much of me," was her remark, after leaving
+this family; "I did not deserve it."
+
+
+All four children hoped to meet together at their father's house
+this December.  Branwell expected to have a short leave of absence
+from his employment as a clerk on the Leeds and Manchester
+Railway, in which he had been engaged for five months.  Anne
+arrived before Christmas-day.  She had rendered herself so
+valuable in her difficult situation, that her employers vehemently
+urged her to return, although she had announced her resolution to
+leave them; partly on account of the harsh treatment she had
+received, and partly because her stay at home, during her sisters'
+absence in Belgium, seemed desirable, when the age of the three
+remaining inhabitants of the parsonage was taken into
+consideration.
+
+After some correspondence and much talking over plans at home, it
+seemed better, in consequence of letters which they received from
+Brussels giving a discouraging account of the schools there, that
+Charlotte and Emily should go to an institution at Lille, in the
+north of France, which was highly recommended by Baptist Noel, and
+other clergymen.  Indeed, at the end of January, it was arranged
+that they were to set off for this place in three weeks, under the
+escort of a French lady, then visiting in London.  The terms were
+50L. each pupil, for board and French alone, but a separate room
+was to be allowed for this sum; without this indulgence, it was
+lower.  Charlotte writes:-
+
+
+"January 20th, 1842.
+
+"I consider it kind in aunt to consent to an extra sum for a
+separate room.  We shall find it a great privilege in many ways.
+I regret the change from Brussels to Lille on many accounts,
+chiefly that I shall not see Martha.  Mary has been indefatigably
+kind in providing me with information.  She has grudged no labour,
+and scarcely any expense, to that end.  Mary's price is above
+rubies.  I have, in fact, two friends--you and her--staunch and
+true, in whose faith and sincerity I have as strong a belief as I
+have in the Bible.  I have bothered you both--you especially; but
+you always get the tongs and heap coals of fire upon my head.  I
+have had letters to write lately to Brussels, to Lille, and to
+London.  I have lots of chemises, nightgowns, pocket-
+handkerchiefs, and pockets to make; besides clothes to repair.  I
+have been, every week since I came home, expecting to see
+Branwell, and he has never been able to get over yet.  We fully
+expect him, however, next Saturday.  Under these circumstances how
+can I go visiting?  You tantalize me to death with talking of
+conversations by the fireside.  Depend upon it, we are not to have
+any such for many a long month to come.  I get an interesting
+impression of old age upon my face; and when you see me next I
+shall certainly wear caps and spectacles."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+
+I am not aware of all the circumstances which led to the
+relinquishment of the Lille plan.  Brussels had had from the first
+a strong attraction for Charlotte; and the idea of going there, in
+preference to any other place, had only been given up in
+consequence of the information received of the second-rate
+character of its schools.  In one of her letters reference has
+been made to Mrs. Jenkins, the wife of the chaplain of the British
+Embassy.  At the request of his brother--a clergyman, living not
+many miles from Haworth, and an acquaintance of Mr. Bronte's--she
+made much inquiry, and at length, after some discouragement in her
+search, heard of a school which seemed in every respect desirable.
+There was an English lady who had long lived in the Orleans
+family, amidst the various fluctuations of their fortunes, and
+who, when the Princess Louise was married to King Leopold,
+accompanied her to Brussels, in the capacity of reader.  This
+lady's granddaughter was receiving her education at the pensionnat
+of Madame Heger; and so satisfied was the grandmother with the
+kind of instruction given, that she named the establishment, with
+high encomiums, to Mrs. Jerkins; and, in consequence, it was
+decided that, if the terms suited, Miss Bronte and Emily should
+proceed thither.  M. Heger informs me that, on receipt of a letter
+from Charlotte, making very particular inquiries as to the
+possible amount of what are usually termed "extras," he and his
+wife were so much struck by the simple earnest tone of the letter,
+that they said to each other:- "These are the daughters of an
+English pastor, of moderate means, anxious to learn with an
+ulterior view of instructing others, and to whom the risk of
+additional expense is of great consequence.  Let us name a
+specific sum, within which all expenses shall be included."
+
+This was accordingly done; the agreement was concluded, and the
+Brontes prepared to leave their native county for the first time,
+if we except the melancholy and memorable residence at Cowan
+Bridge.  Mr. Bronte determined to accompany his daughters.  Mary
+and her brother, who were experienced in foreign travelling, were
+also of the party.  Charlotte first saw London in the day or two
+they now stopped there; and, from an expression in one of her
+subsequent letters, they all, I believe, stayed at the Chapter
+Coffee House, Paternoster Row--a strange, old-fashioned tavern, of
+which I shall have more to say hereafter.
+
+Mary's account of their journey is thus given.
+
+"In passing through London, she seemed to think our business was
+and ought to be, to see all the pictures and statues we could.
+She knew the artists, and know where other productions of theirs
+were to be found.  I don't remember what we saw except St. Paul's.
+Emily was like her in these habits of mind, but certainly never
+took her opinion, but always had one to offer . . . I don't know
+what Charlotte thought of Brussels.  We arrived in the dark, and
+went next morning to our respective schools to see them.  We were,
+of course, much preoccupied, and our prospects gloomy.  Charlotte
+used to like the country round Brussels.  'At the top of every
+hill you see something.'  She took, long solitary walks on the
+occasional holidays."
+
+Mr. Bronte took his daughters to the Rue d'Isabelle, Brussels;
+remained one night at Mr. Jenkins'; and straight returned to his
+wild Yorkshire village.
+
+What a contrast to that must the Belgian capital have presented to
+those two young women thus left behind!  Suffering acutely from
+every strange and unaccustomed contact--far away from their
+beloved home, and the dear moors beyond--their indomitable will
+was their great support.  Charlotte's own words, with regard to
+Emily, are:-
+
+
+"After the age of twenty, having meantime studied alone with
+diligence and perseverance, she went with me to an establishment
+on the continent.  The same suffering and conflict ensued,
+heightened by the strong recoil of her upright heretic and English
+spirit from the gentle Jesuitry of the foreign and Romish system.
+Once more she seemed sinking, but this time she rallied through
+the mere force of resolution:  with inward remorse and shame she
+looked back on her former failure, and resolved to conquer, but
+the victory cost her dear.  She was never happy till she carried
+her hard-won knowledge back to the remote English village, the old
+parsonage-house, and desolate Yorkshire hills."
+
+
+They wanted learning.  They came for learning.  They would learn.
+Where they had a distinct purpose to be achieved in intercourse
+with their fellows, they forgot themselves; at all other times
+they were miserably shy.  Mrs. Jenkins told me that she used to
+ask them to spend Sundays and holidays with her, until she found
+that they felt more pain than pleasure from such visits.  Emily
+hardly ever uttered more than a monosyllable.  Charlotte was
+sometimes excited sufficiently to speak eloquently and well--on
+certain subjects; but before her tongue was thus loosened, she had
+a habit of gradually wheeling round on her chair, so as almost to
+conceal her face from the person to whom she was speaking.
+
+And yet there was much in Brussels to strike a responsive chord in
+her powerful imagination.  At length she was seeing somewhat of
+that grand old world of which she had dreamed.  As the gay crowds
+passed by her, so had gay crowds paced those streets for
+centuries, in all their varying costumes.  Every spot told an
+historic tale, extending back into the fabulous ages when Jan and
+Jannika, the aboriginal giant and giantess, looked over the wall,
+forty feet high, of what is now the Rue Villa Hermosa, and peered
+down upon the new settlers who were to turn them out of the
+country in which they had lived since the deluge.  The great
+solemn Cathedral of St. Gudule, the religious paintings, the
+striking forms and ceremonies of the Romish Church--all made a
+deep impression on the girls, fresh from the bare walls and simple
+worship of Haworth Church.  And then they were indignant with
+themselves for having been susceptible of this impression, and
+their stout Protestant hearts arrayed themselves against the false
+Duessa that had thus imposed upon them.
+
+The very building they occupied as pupils, in Madame Heger's
+pensionnat, had its own ghostly train of splendid associations,
+marching for ever, in shadowy procession, through and through the
+ancient rooms, and shaded alleys of the gardens.  From the
+splendour of to-day in the Rue Royale, if you turn aside, near the
+statue of the General Beliard, you look down four flights of broad
+stone steps upon the Rue d'Isabelle.  The chimneys of the houses
+in it are below your feet.  Opposite to the lowest flight of
+steps, there is a large old mansion facing you, with a spacious
+walled garden behind--and to the right of it.  In front of this
+garden, on the same side as the mansion, and with great boughs of
+trees sweeping over their lowly roofs, is a row of small,
+picturesque, old-fashioned cottages, not unlike, in degree and
+uniformity, to the almshouses so often seen in an English country
+town.  The Rue d'Isabelle looks as though it had been untouched by
+the innovations of the builder for the last three centuries; and
+yet any one might drop a stone into it from the back windows of
+the grand modern hotels in the Rue Royale, built and furnished in
+the newest Parisian fashion.
+
+In the thirteenth century, the Rue d'Isabelle was called the
+Fosse-aux-Chiens; and the kennels for the ducal hounds occupied
+the place where Madame Heger's pensionnat now stands.  A hospital
+(in the ancient large meaning of the word) succeeded to the
+kennel.  The houseless and the poor, perhaps the leprous, were
+received, by the brethren of a religious order, in a building on
+this sheltered site; and what had been a fosse for defence, was
+filled up with herb-gardens and orchards for upwards of a hundred
+years.  Then came the aristocratic guild of the cross-bow men--
+that company the members whereof were required to prove their
+noble descent--untainted for so many generations, before they
+could be admitted into the guild; and, being admitted, were
+required to swear a solemn oath, that no other pastime or exercise
+should take up any part of their leisure, the whole of which was
+to be devoted to the practice of the noble art of shooting with
+the cross-bow.  Once a year a grand match was held, under the
+patronage of some saint, to whose church-steeple was affixed the
+bird, or semblance of a bird, to be hit by the victor. {5}  The
+conqueror in the game was Roi des Arbaletriers for the coming
+year, and received a jewelled decoration accordingly, which he was
+entitled to wear for twelve months; after which he restored it to
+the guild, to be again striven for.  The family of him who died
+during the year that he was king, were bound to present the
+decoration to the church of the patron saint of the guild, and to
+furnish a similar prize to be contended for afresh.  These noble
+cross-bow men of the middle ages formed a sort of armed guard to
+the powers in existence, and almost invariably took the
+aristocratic, in preference to the democratic side, in the
+numerous civil dissensions of the Flemish towns.  Hence they were
+protected by the authorities, and easily obtained favourable and
+sheltered sites for their exercise-ground.  And thus they came to
+occupy the old fosse, and took possession of the great orchard of
+the hospital, lying tranquil and sunny in the hollow below the
+rampart.
+
+But, in the sixteenth century, it became necessary to construct a
+street through the exercise-ground of the "Arbaletriers du Grand
+Serment," and, after much delay, the company were induced by the
+beloved Infanta Isabella to give up the requisite plot of ground.
+In recompense for this, Isabella--who herself was a member of the
+guild, and had even shot down the bird, and been queen in 1615--
+made many presents to the arbaletriers; and, in return, the
+grateful city, which had long wanted a nearer road to St. Gudule,
+but been baffled by the noble archers, called the street after her
+name.  She, as a sort of indemnification to the arbaletriers,
+caused a "great mansion" to be built for their accommodation in
+the new Rue d'Isabelle.  This mansion was placed in front of their
+exercise-ground, and was of a square shape.  On a remote part of
+the walls, may still be read -
+
+
+PHILLIPPO IIII.  HISPAN.  REGE.  ISABELLA-CLARA-EUGENIA HISPAN.
+INFANS.  MAGNAE GULDAE REGINA GULDAE FRATRIBUS POSUIT.
+
+
+In that mansion were held all the splendid feasts of the Grand
+Serment des Arbaletriers.  The master-archer lived there
+constantly, in order to be ever at hand to render his services to
+the guild.  The great saloon was also used for the court balls and
+festivals, when the archers were not admitted.  The Infanta caused
+other and smaller houses to be built in her new street, to serve
+as residences for her "garde noble;" and for her "garde
+bourgeoise," a small habitation each, some of which still remain,
+to remind us of English almshouses.  The "great mansion," with its
+quadrangular form; the spacious saloon--once used for the
+archducal balls, where the dark, grave Spaniards mixed with the
+blond nobility of Brabant and Flanders--now a school-room for
+Belgian girls; the cross-bow men's archery-ground--all are there--
+the pensionnat of Madame Heger.
+
+This lady was assisted in the work of instruction by her husband--
+a kindly, wise, good, and religious man--whose acquaintance I am
+glad to have made, and who has furnished me with some interesting
+details, from his wife's recollections and his own, of the two
+Miss Bronte during their residence in Brussels.  He had the better
+opportunities of watching them, from his giving lessons in the
+French language and literature in the school.  A short extract
+from a letter, written to me by a French lady resident in
+Brussels, and well qualified to judge, will help to show the
+estimation in which he is held.
+
+"Je ne connais pas personnellement M. Heger, mais je sais qu'il
+est peu de caracteres aussi nobles, aussi admirables que le sien.
+Il est un des membres les plus zeles de cette Societe de S.
+Vincent de Paul dont je t'ai deje parle, et ne se contente pas de
+servir les pauvres et les malades, mais leur consacre encore les
+soirees.  Apres des journees absorbees tout entieres par les
+devoirs que sa place lui impose, il reunit les pauvres, les
+ouvriers, leur donne des cours gratuits, et trouve encore le moyen
+de les amuser en les instruisant.  Ce devouement te dira assez que
+M. Heger est profondement et ouvertement religieux.  Il a des
+manieres franches et avenantes; il se fait aimer de tous ceux qui
+l'approchent, et surtout des enfants.  Il a la parole facile, et
+possde e un haut degre l'eloquence du bon sens et du coeur.  Il
+n'est point auteur.  Homme de zele et de conscience, il vient de
+se demettre des fonctions elevees et lucratives qu'il exercait e
+l'Athenee, celles de Prefet des Etudes, parce qu'il ne peut y
+realiser le bien qu'il avait espere, introduire l'enseignement
+religieux dans le programme des etudes.  J'ai vu une fois Madame
+Heger, qui a quelque chose de froid et de compasse dans son
+maintien, et qui previent peu en sa faveur.  Je la crois pourtant
+aimee et appreciee par ses eleves."
+
+There were from eighty to a hundred pupils in the pensionnat, when
+Charlotte and Emily Bronte entered in February 1842.
+
+M. Heger's account is that they knew nothing of French.  I suspect
+they knew as much (or as little), for all conversational purposes,
+as any English girls do, who have never been abroad, and have only
+learnt the idioms and pronunciation from an Englishwoman.  The two
+sisters clung together, and kept apart from the herd of happy,
+boisterous, well-befriended Belgian girls, who, in their turn,
+thought the new English pupils wild and scared-looking, with
+strange, odd, insular ideas about dress; for Emily had taken a
+fancy to the fashion, ugly and preposterous even during its reign,
+of gigot sleves, and persisted in wearing them long after they
+were "gone out."  Her petticoats, too, had not a curve or a wave
+in them, but hung down straight and long, clinging to her lank
+figure.  The sisters spoke to no one but from necessity.  They
+were too full of earnest thought, and of the exile's sick
+yearning, to be ready for careless conversation or merry game.  M.
+Heger, who had done little but observe, during the few first weeks
+of their residence in the Rue d'Isabelle, perceived that with
+their unusual characters, and extraordinary talents, a different
+mode must be adopted from that in which he generally taught French
+to English girls.  He seems to have rated Emily's genius as
+something even higher than Charlotte's; and her estimation of
+their relative powers was the same.  Emily had a head for logic,
+and a capability of argument, unusual in a man, and rare indeed in
+a woman, according to M. Heger.  Impairing the force of this gift,
+was a stubborn tenacity of will, which rendered her obtuse to all
+reasoning where her own wishes, or her own sense of right, was
+concerned.  "She should have been a man--a great navigator," said
+M. Heger in speaking of her.  "Her powerful reason would have
+deduced new spheres of discovery from the knowledge of the old;
+and her strong imperious will would never have been daunted by
+opposition or difficulty; never have given way but with life."
+And yet, moreover, her faculty of imagination was such that, if
+she had written a history, her view of scenes and characters would
+have been so vivid, and so powerfully expressed, and supported by
+such a show of argument, that it would have dominated over the
+reader, whatever might have been his previous opinions, or his
+cooler perceptions of its truth.  But she appeared egotistical and
+exacting compared to Charlotte, who was always unselfish (this is
+M. Heger's testimony); and in the anxiety of the elder to make her
+younger sister contented she allowed her to exercise a kind of
+unconscious tyranny over her.
+
+After consulting with his wife, M. Heger told them that he meant
+to dispense with the old method of grounding in grammar,
+vocabulary, &c., and to proceed on a new plan--something similar
+to what he had occasionally adopted with the elder among his
+French and Belgian pupils.  He proposed to read to them some of
+the master-pieces of the most celebrated French authors (such as
+Casimir de la Vigne's poem on the "Death of Joan of Arc," parts of
+Bossuet, the admirable translation of the noble letter of St.
+Ignatius to the Roman Christians in the "Bibliotheque Choisie des
+Peres de l'Eglise," &c.), and after having thus impressed the
+complete effect of the whole, to analyse the parts with them,
+pointing out in what such or such an author excelled, and where
+were the blemishes.  He believed that he had to do with pupils
+capable, from their ready sympathy with the intellectual, the
+refined, the polished, or the noble, of catching the echo of a
+style, and so reproducing their own thoughts in a somewhat similar
+manner.
+
+After explaining his plan to them, he awaited their reply.  Emily
+spoke first; and said that she saw no good to be derived from it;
+and that, by adopting it, they should lose all originality of
+thought and expression.  She would have entered into an argument
+on the subject, but for this, M. Heger had no time.  Charlotte
+then spoke; she also doubted the success of the plan; but she
+would follow out M. Heger's advice, because she was bound to obey
+him while she was his pupil.  Before speaking of the results, it
+may be desirable to give an extract from one of her letters, which
+shows some of her first impressions of her new life.
+
+"Brussels, 1842 (May?).
+
+"I was twenty-six years old a week or two since; and at this ripe
+time of life I am a school-girl, and, on the whole, very happy in
+that capacity.  It felt very strange at first to submit to
+authority instead of exercising it--to obey orders instead of
+giving them; but I like that state of things.  I returned to it
+with the same avidity that a cow, that has long been kept on dry
+hay, returns to fresh grass.  Don't laugh at my simile.  It is
+natural to me to submit, and very unnatural to command.
+
+"This is a large school, in which there are about forty externes,
+or day pupils, and twelve pensionnaires, or boarders.  Madame
+Heger, the head, is a lady of precisely the same cast of mind,
+degree of cultivation, and quality of intellect as Miss -.  I
+think the severe points are a little softened, because she has not
+been disappointed, and consequently soured.  In a word, she is a
+married instead of a maiden lady.  There are three teachers in the
+school--Mademoiselle Blanche, Mademoiselle Sophie, and
+Mademoiselle Marie.  The two first have no particular character.
+One is an old maid, and the other will be one.  Mademoiselle Marie
+is talented and original, but of repulsive and arbitrary manners,
+which have made the whole school, except myself and Emily, her
+bitter enemies.  No less than seven masters attend, to teach the
+different branches of education--French, Drawing, Music, Singing,
+Writing, Arithmetic, and German.  All in the house are Catholics
+except ourselves, one other girl, and the gouvernante of Madame's
+children, an Englishwoman, in rank something between a lady's maid
+and a nursery governess.  The difference in country and religion
+makes a broad line of demarcation between us and all the rest.  We
+are completely isolated in the midst of numbers.  Yet I think I am
+never unhappy; my present life is so delightful, so congenial to
+my own nature, compared to that of a governess.  My time,
+constantly occupied, passes too rapidly.  Hitherto both Emily and
+I have had good health, and therefore we have been able to work
+well.  There is one individual of whom I have not yet spoken--M.
+Heger, the husband of Madame.  He is professor of rhetoric, a man
+of power as to mind, but very choleric and irritable in
+temperament.  He is very angry with me just at present, because I
+have written a translation which he chose to stigmatize as 'PEU
+CORRECT.'  He did not tell me so, but wrote the word on the margin
+of my book, and asked, in brief stern phrase, how it happened that
+my compositions were always better than my translations? adding
+that the thing seemed to him inexplicable.  The fact is, some
+weeks ago, in a high-flown humour, he forbade me to use either
+dictionary or grammar in translating the most difficult English
+compositions into French.  This makes the task rather arduous, and
+compels me every now and then to introduce an English word, which
+nearly plucks the eyes out of his head when he sees it.  Emily and
+he don't draw well together at all.  Emily works like a horse, and
+she has had great difficulties to contend with--far greater than I
+have had.  Indeed, those who come to a French school for
+instruction ought previously to have acquired a considerable
+knowledge of the French language, otherwise they will lose a great
+deal of time, for the course of instruction is adapted to natives
+and not to foreigners; and in these large establishments they will
+not change their ordinary course for one or two strangers.  The
+few private lessons that M. Heger has vouchsafed to give us, are,
+I suppose, to be considered a great favour; and I can perceive
+they have already excited much spite and jealousy in the school.
+
+"You will abuse this letter for being short and dreary, and there
+are a hundred things which I want to tell you, but I have not
+time.  Brussels is a beautiful city.  The Belgians hate the
+English.  Their external morality is more rigid than ours.  To
+lace the stays without a handkerchief on the neck is considered a
+disgusting piece of indelicacy."
+
+The passage in this letter where M. Heger is represented as
+prohibiting the use of dictionary or grammar, refers, I imagine,
+to the time I have mentioned, when he determined to adopt a new
+method of instruction in the French language, of which they were
+to catch the spirit and rhythm rather from the ear and the heart,
+as its noblest accents fell upon them, than by over-careful and
+anxious study of its grammatical rules.  It seems to me a daring
+experiment on the part of their teacher; but, doubtless, he knew
+his ground; and that it answered is evident in the composition of
+some of Charlotte's DEVOIRS, written about this time.  I am
+tempted, in illustration of this season of mental culture, to
+recur to a conversation which I had with M. Heger on the manner in
+which he formed his pupils' style, and to give a proof of his
+success, by copying a DEVOIR of Charlotte's with his remarks upon
+it.
+
+He told me that one day this summer (when the Brontes had been for
+about four months receiving instruction from him) he read to them
+Victor Hugo's celebrated portrait of Mirabeau, "mais, dans ma
+lecon je me bornais e ce qui concerne MIRABEAU ORATEUR.  C'est
+apres l'analyse de ce morceau, considere surtout du point de vue
+du fond, de la disposition de ce qu'on pourrait appeler LA
+CHARPENTE qu'ont ete faits les deux portraits que je vous donne."
+He went on to say that he had pointed out to them the fault in
+Victor Hugo's style as being exaggeration in conception, and, at
+the same time, he had made them notice the extreme beauty of his
+"nuances" of expression.  They were then dismissed to choose the
+subject of a similar kind of portrait.  This selection M. Heger
+always left to them; for "it is necessary," he observed, "before
+sitting down to write on a subject, to have thoughts and feelings
+about it.  I cannot tell on what subject your heart and mind have
+been excited.  I must leave that to you."  The marginal comments,
+I need hardly say, are M. Heger's; the words in italics are
+Charlotte's, for which he substitutes a better form of expression,
+which is placed between brackets. {6}
+
+
+IMITATION.
+
+"Le 31 Juillet, 1842.
+
+PORTRAIT DE PIERRE L'HERMITE.  CHARLOTTE BRONTE
+
+
+"De temps en temps, il parait sur la terre des hommes destines e
+etre les instruments [predestines] {Pourquoi cette suppression?}
+de grands changements moraux ou politiques.  Quelquefois c'est un
+conquerant, un Alexandre ou un Attila, qui passe comme un ouragan,
+et purifie l'atmosphere moral, comme l'orage purifie l'atmosphere
+physique; quelquefois, c'est un revolutionnaire, un Cromwell, ou
+un Robespierre, qui fait expier par un roi {les fautes et} les
+vices de toute une dynastie; quelquefois c'est un enthousiaste
+religieux comme Mahomet, ou Pierre l'Hermite, qui, avec le seul
+levier de la pensee, souleve des nations entieres, les deracine et
+les transplante dans des climats nouveaux, PEUPLANT L'ASIE AVEC
+LES HABITANTS DE L'EUROPE.  Pierre l'Hermite etait gentilhomme de
+Picardie, en France, {Invtile, quand vous ecrivez er francais}
+pourquoi donc n'a-t-il passe sa vie comma les autres gentilhommes,
+ses contemporains, ont passe la leur, e table, e la chasse, dans
+son lit, sans s'inquieter de Saladin, ou de ses Sarrasins?  N'est-
+ce pas, parce qu'il y a dans certaines natures, UNE ARDOUR [un
+foyer d'activite] indomptable qui ne leur permet pas de rester
+inactives, QUI LES FORCE E SE REMUER AFIN D'EXERCER LES FACULTES
+PUISSANTES, QUI MEME EN DORMANT SONT PRETES, COMME SAMPSON, E
+BRISER LES NOEUDS QUI LES RETIENNENT?
+
+{Vous avez commence e parler de Pierre:  vous etes entree dans le
+sujet:  marchez au but.}
+
+"Pierre prit la profession des armes; SI SON ARDEUR AVAIT ETE DE
+CETTE ESPECE [s'il n'avait eu que cette ardeur vulgaire] qui
+provient d'une robuste sante, IL AURAIT [c'eut] ete un brave
+militaire, et rien de plus; mais son ardeur etait celle de l'ame,
+sa flamme etait pure et elle s'elevait vers le ciel.
+
+"SANS DOUTE [Il est vrai que] la jeunesse de Pierre ETAIT [fet]
+troublee par passions orageuses; les natures puissantes sont
+extremes en tout, elles ne connaissent la tiedeur ni dans le bien,
+ni dans le mal; Pierre donc chercha d'abord avidement la gloire
+qui se fletrit et les plaisirs qui trompent, mais IL FIT BIENTOT
+LA DECOUVERTE [bientot il s'apercut] que ce qu'il poursuivait
+n'etait qe'une illusion e laquelle il ne pourrait jamais
+atteindre; {Vnutile, quand vous avez dit illusion} il retourna
+donc sur ses pas, il recommenca le voyage de la vie, mais cette
+fois il evita le chemin spacieux qui mene e la perdition et il
+prit le chemin etroit qui mene e la vie; PUISQUE [comme] le trajet
+etait long et difficile il jeta la casque et les armes du soldat,
+et se vetit de l'habit simple du moine.  A la vie militaire
+succeda la vie monastique, car les extremes se touchent, et CHEZ
+L'HOMME SINCERE la sincerite du repentir amene [necessairement e
+la suite] AVEC LUI la rigueur de la penitence.  [Voile donc Pierre
+devenu moine!]
+
+"Mais PIERRE [il] avait en lui un principe qui l'empechait de
+rester long-temps inactif, ses idees, sur quel sujet QU'IL SOIT
+[que ce fut] ne pouvaient pas etre bornees; il ne lui suffisait
+pas que lui-meme fut religieux, que lui-meme fut convaincu de la
+realite de Christianisme (sic), il fallait que toute l'Europe, que
+toute l'Asie, partageat sa conviction et professat la croyance de
+la Croix.  La Piete [fervente] elevee par la Genie, nourrie par la
+Solitude, FIT NAITRE UNE ESPECE D'INSPIRATION [exalta son ame
+jusqu'e l'inspiration] DANS SON AME, et lorsqu'il quitta sa
+cellule et reparut dans le monde, il portait comme Moise
+l'empreinte de la Divinite sur son front, et TOUT [tous]
+reconnurent en lui la veritable apotre de la Croix.
+
+"Mahomet n'avait jamais remue les molles nations de l'Orient comme
+alors Pierre remua les peuples austeres de l'Occident; il fallait
+que cette eloquence fut d'une force presque miraculeuse QUI
+POUVAIT [presqu'elle] persuadER [ait] aux rois de vendre leurs
+royaumes AFIN DE PROCURER [pour avoir] des armes et des soldats
+POUR AIDER [e offrir] e Pierre dans la guerre sainte qu'il voulait
+livrer aux infideles.  La puissance de Pierre [l'Hermite] n'etait
+nullement une puissance physique, car la nature, ou pour mieux
+dire, Dieu est impartial dans la distribution de ses dons; il
+accorde e l'un de ses enfants la grace, la beaute, les perfections
+corporelles, e l'autre l'esprit, la grandeur morale.  Pierre donc
+etait un homme petit, d'une physionomie peu agreable; mais il
+avait ce courage, cette constance, cet enthousiasme, cette energie
+de sentiment qui ecrase toute opposition, et qui fait que la
+volonte d'un seul homme devient la loi de toute une nation.  Pour
+se former une juste idee de l'influence qu'exerca cet homme sur
+les CARACTERES [choses] et les idees de son temps, il faut se le
+representer au milieu de l'armee des croisees dans son double role
+de prophete et de guerrier; le pauvre hermite, vetu DU PAUVRE [de
+l'humble] habit gris est le plus puissant qieun roi; il est
+entoure D'UNE [de la] multitude [avide] une multitude qui ne voit
+que lui, tandis qui lui, il ne voit que le ciel; ses yeux leves
+semblent dire, 'Je vois Dieu et les anges, et j'ai perdu de vue la
+terre!'
+
+"DANS CE MOMENT LE [mais ce] pauvre HABIT [froc] gris est pour lui
+comme le manteau d'Elijah; il l'enveloppe d'inspiration; IL
+[Pierre] lit dans l'avenir; il voit Jerusalem delivree; [il voit]
+le saint sepulcre libre; il voit le Croissant argent est arrache
+du Temple, et l'Oriflamme et la Croix rouge sont etabli e sa
+place; non-seulement Pierre voit ces merveilles, mais il les fait
+voir e tous ceux qui l'entourent; il ravive l'esperance et le
+courage dans [tous ces corps epuises de fatigues et de
+privations].  La bataille ne sera livree que demain, mais la
+victoire est decidee ce soir.  Pierre a promis; et les Croises se
+fient e sa parole, comme les Israelites se fiaient e celle de
+Moise et de Josue."
+
+
+As a companion portrait to this, Emily chose to depict Harold on
+the eve of the battle of Hastings.  It appears to me that her
+DEVOIR is superior to Charlotte's in power and in imagination, and
+fully equal to it in language; and that this, in both cases,
+considering how little practical knowledge of French they had when
+they arrived at Brussels in February, and that they wrote without
+the aid of dictionary or grammar, is unusual and remarkable.  We
+shall see the progress Charlotte had made, in ease and grace of
+style, a year later.
+
+In the choice of subjects left to her selection, she frequently
+took characters and scenes from the Old Testament, with which all
+her writings show that she was especially familiar.  The
+picturesqueness and colour (if I may so express it), the grandeur
+and breadth of its narrations, impressed her deeply.  To use M.
+Heger's expression, "Elle etait nourrie de la Bible."  After he
+had read De la Vigne's poem on Joan of Arc, she chose the "Vision
+and Death of Moses on Mount Nebo" to write about; and, in looking
+over this DEVOIR, I was much struck with one or two of M. Heger's
+remarks.  After describing, in a quiet and simple manner, the
+circumstances under which Moses took leave of the Israelites, her
+imagination becomes warmed, and she launches out into a noble
+strain, depicting the glorious futurity of the Chosen People, as,
+looking down upon the Promised Land, he sees their prosperity in
+prophetic vision.  But, before reaching the middle of this glowing
+description, she interrupts herself to discuss for a moment the
+doubts that have been thrown on the miraculous relations of the
+Old Testament.  M. Heger remarks, "When you are writing, place
+your argument first in cool, prosaic language; but when you have
+thrown the reins on the neck of your imagination, do not pull her
+up to reason."  Again, in the vision of Moses, he sees the maidens
+leading forth their flocks to the wells at eventide, and they are
+described as wearing flowery garlands.  Here the writer is
+reminded of the necessity of preserving a certain verisimilitude:
+Moses might from his elevation see mountains and plains, groups of
+maidens and herds of cattle, but could hardly perceive the details
+of dress, or the ornaments of the head.
+
+When they had made further progress, M. Heger took up a more
+advanced plan, that of synthetical teaching.  He would read to
+them various accounts of the same person or event, and make them
+notice the points of agreement and disagreement.  Where they were
+different, he would make them seek the origin of that difference
+by causing them to examine well into the character and position of
+each separate writer, and how they would be likely to affect his
+conception of truth.  For instance, take Cromwell.  He would read
+Bossuet's description of him in the "Oraison Funebre de la Reine
+d'Angleterre," and show how in this he was considered entirely
+from the religious point of view, as an instrument in the hands of
+God, preordained to His work.  Then he would make them read
+Guizot, and see how, in this view, Cromwell was endowed with the
+utmost power of free-will, but governed by no higher motive than
+that of expediency; while Carlyle regarded him as a character
+regulated by a strong and conscientious desire to do the will of
+the Lord.  Then he would desire them to remember that the Royalist
+and Commonwealth men had each their different opinions of the
+great Protector.  And from these conflicting characters, he would
+require them to sift and collect the elements of truth, and try to
+unite them into a perfect whole.
+
+This kind of exercise delighted Charlotte.  It called into play
+her powers of analysis, which were extraordinary, and she very
+soon excelled in it.
+
+Wherever the Brontes could be national they were so, with the same
+tenacity of attachment which made them suffer as they did whenever
+they left Haworth.  They were Protestant to the backbone in other
+things beside their religion, but pre-eminently so in that.
+Touched as Charlotte was by the letter of St. Ignatius before
+alluded to, she claimed equal self-devotion, and from as high a
+motive, for some of the missionaries of the English Church sent
+out to toil and to perish on the poisonous African coast, and
+wrote as an "imitation," "Lettre d'un Missionnaire, Sierra Leone,
+Afrique."
+
+Something of her feeling, too, appears in the following letter:-
+
+
+"Brussels, 1842.
+
+"I consider it doubtful whether I shall come home in September or
+not.  Madame Heger has made a proposal for both me and Emily to
+stay another half-year, offering to dismiss her English master,
+and take me as English teacher; also to employ Emily some part of
+each day in teaching music to a certain number of the pupils.  For
+these services we are to be allowed to continue our studies in
+French and German, and to have board, &c., without paying for it;
+no salaries, however, are offered.  The proposal is kind, and in a
+great selfish city like Brussels, and a great selfish school,
+containing nearly ninety pupils (boarders and day pupils
+included), implies a degree of interest which demands gratitude in
+return.  I am inclined to accept it.  What think you?  I don't
+deny I sometimes wish to be in England, or that I have brief
+attacks of home sickness; but, on the whole, I have borne a very
+valiant heart so far; and I have been happy in Brussels, because I
+have always been fully occupied with the employments that I like.
+Emily is making rapid progress in French, German, music, and
+drawing.  Monsieur and Madame Heger begin to recognise the
+valuable parts of her character, under her singularities.
+
+"If the national character of the Belgians is to be measured by
+the character of most of the girls is this school, it in a
+character singularly cold, selfish, animal, and inferior.  They
+are very mutinous and difficult for the teachers to manage; and
+their principles are rotten to the core.  We avoid them, which it
+is not difficult to do, as we have the brand of Protestantism and
+Anglicism upon us.  People talk of the danger which Protestants
+expose themselves to in going to reside in Catholic countries, and
+thereby running the chance of changing their faith.  My advice to
+all Protestants who are tempted to do anything so besotted as turn
+Catholics, is, to walk over the sea on to the Continent; to attend
+mass sedulously for a time; to note well the mummeries thereof;
+also the idiotic, mercenary aspect of all the priests; and then,
+if they are still disposed to consider Papistry in any other light
+than a most feeble, childish piece of humbug, let them turn
+Papists at once--that's all.  I consider Methodism, Quakerism, and
+the extremes of High and Low Churchism foolish, but Roman
+Catholicism beats them all.  At the same time, allow me to tell
+you, that there are some Catholics who are as good as any
+Christians can be to whom the Bible is a sealed book, and much
+better than many Protestants."
+
+When the Brontes first went to Brussels, it was with the intention
+of remaining there for six months, or until the GRANDES VACANCES
+began in September.  The duties of the school were then suspended
+for six weeks or two months, and it seemed a desirable period for
+their return.  But the proposal mentioned in the foregoing letter
+altered their plans.  Besides, they were happy in the feeling that
+they were making progress in all the knowledge they had so long
+been yearning to acquire.  They were happy, too, in possessing
+friends whose society had been for years congenial to them, and in
+occasional meetings with these, they could have the inexpressible
+solace to residents in a foreign country--and peculiarly such to
+the Brontes--of talking over the intelligence received from their
+respective homes--referring to past, or planning for future days.
+"Mary" and her sister, the bright, dancing, laughing Martha, were
+parlour-boarders in an establishment just beyond the barriers of
+Brussels.  Again, the cousins of these friends were resident in
+the town; and at their house Charlotte and Emily were always
+welcome, though their overpowering shyness prevented their more
+valuable qualities from being known, and generally kept them
+silent.  They spent their weekly holiday with this family, for
+many months; but at the end of the time, Emily was as impenetrable
+to friendly advances as at the beginning; while Charlotte was too
+physically weak (as "Mary" has expressed it) to "gather up her
+forces" sufficiently to express any difference or opposition of
+opinion, and had consequently an assenting and deferential manner,
+strangely at variance with what they knew of her remarkable
+talents and decided character.  At this house, the T.'s and the
+Brontes could look forward to meeting each other pretty
+frequently.  There was another English family where Charlotte soon
+became a welcome guest, and where, I suspect, she felt herself
+more at her ease than either at Mrs. Jenkins', or the friends whom
+I have first mentioned.
+
+An English physician, with a large family of daughters, went to
+reside at Brussels, for the sake of their education.  He placed
+them at Madame Heger's school in July, 1842, not a month before
+the beginning of the GRANDES VACANCES on August 15th.  In order to
+make the most of their time, and become accustomed to the
+language, these English sisters went daily, through the holidays,
+to the pensionnat in the Rue d'Isabelle.  Six or eight boarders
+remained, besides the Miss Brontes.  They were there during the
+whole time, never even having the break to their monotonous life,
+which passing an occasional day with a friend would have afforded
+them; but devoting themselves with indefatigable diligence to the
+different studies in which they were engaged.  Their position in
+the school appeared, to these new comers, analogous to what is
+often called that of a parlour-boarder.  They prepared their
+French, drawing, German, and literature for their various masters;
+and to these occupations Emily added that of music, in which she
+was somewhat of a proficient; so much so as to be qualified to
+give instruction in it to the three younger sisters of my
+informant.
+
+The school was divided into three classes.  In the first were from
+fifteen to twenty pupils; in the second, sixty was about the
+average number--all foreigners, excepting the two Brontes and one
+other; in the third, there were from twenty to thirty pupils.  The
+first and second classes occupied a long room, divided by a wooden
+partition; in each division were four long ranges of desks; and at
+the end was the ESTRADE, or platform, for the presiding
+instructor.  On the last row, in the quietest corner, sat
+Charlotte and Emily, side by side, so deeply absorbed in their
+studies as to be insensible to any noise or movement around them.
+The school-hours were from nine to twelve (the luncheon hour),
+when the boarders and half-boarders--perhaps two-and-thirty girls-
+-went to the refectoire (a room with two long tables, having an
+oil-lamp suspended over each), to partake of bread and fruit; the
+EXTERNES, or morning pupils, who had brought their own refreshment
+with them, adjourning to eat it in the garden.  From one to two,
+there was fancy-work--a pupil reading aloud some light literature
+in each room; from two to four, lessons again.  At four, the
+externes left; and the remaining girls dined in the refectoire, M.
+and Madame Heger presiding.  From five to six there was
+recreation, from six to seven, preparation for lessons; and, after
+that succeeded the LECTURE PIEUSE--Charlotte's nightmare.  On rare
+occasions, M. Heger himself would come in, and substitute a book
+of a different and more interesting kind.  At eight, there was a
+slight meal of water and PISTOLETS (the delicious little Brussels
+rolls), which was immediately followed by prayers, and then to
+bed.
+
+The principal bedroom was over the long classe, or school-room.
+There were six or eight narrow beds on each side of the apartment,
+every one enveloped in its white draping curtain; a long drawer,
+beneath each, served for a wardrobe, and between each was a stand
+for ewer, basin, and looking-glass.  The beds of the two Miss
+Brontes were at the extreme end of the room, almost as private and
+retired as if they had been in a separate apartment.
+
+During the hours of recreation, which were always spent in the
+garden, they invariably walked together, and generally kept a
+profound silence; Emily, though so much the taller, leaning on her
+sister.  Charlotte would always answer when spoken to, taking the
+lead in replying to any remark addressed to both; Emily rarely
+spoke to any one.  Charlotte's quiet, gentle manner never changed.
+She was never seen out of temper for a moment; and occasionally,
+when she herself had assumed the post of English teacher, and the
+impertinence or inattention of her pupils was most irritating, a
+slight increase of colour, a momentary sparkling of the eye, and
+more decided energy of manner, were the only outward tokens she
+gave of being conscious of the annoyance to which she was
+subjected.  But this dignified endurance of hers subdued her
+pupils, in the long run, far more than the voluble tirades of the
+other mistresses.  My informant adds:- "The effect of this manner
+was singular.  I can speak from personal experience.  I was at
+that time high-spirited and impetuous, not respecting the French
+mistresses; yet, to my own astonishment, at one word from her, I
+was perfectly tractable; so much so, that at length, M. and Madame
+Heger invariably preferred all their wishes to me through her; the
+other pupils did not, perhaps, love her as I did, she was so quiet
+and silent; but all respected her."
+
+With the exception of that part which describes Charlotte's manner
+as English teacher--an office which she did not assume for some
+months later--all this description of the school life of the two
+Brontes refers to the commencement of the new scholastic year in
+October 1842; and the extracts I have given convey the first
+impression which the life at a foreign school, and the position of
+the two Miss Brontes therein, made upon an intelligent English
+girl of sixteen.  I will make a quotation from "Mary's" letter
+referring to this time.
+
+"The first part of her time at Brussels was not uninteresting.
+She spoke of new people and characters, and foreign ways of the
+pupils and teachers.  She knew the hopes and prospects of the
+teachers, and mentioned one who was very anxious to marry, 'she
+was getting so old.'  She used to get her father or brother (I
+forget which) to be the bearer of letters to different single men,
+who she thought might be persuaded to do her the favour, saying
+that her only resource was to become a sister of charity if her
+present employment failed and that she hated the idea.  Charlotte
+naturally looked with curiosity to people of her own condition.
+This woman almost frightened her.  'She declares there is nothing
+she can turn to, and laughs at the idea of delicacy,--and she is
+only ten years older than I am!'  I did not see the connection
+till she said, 'Well, Polly, I should hate being a sister of
+charity; I suppose that would shock some people, but I should.'  I
+thought she would have as much feeling as a nurse as most people,
+and more than some.  She said she did not know how people could
+bear the constant pressure of misery, and never to change except
+to a new form of it.  It would be impossible to keep one's natural
+feelings.  I promised her a better destiny than to go begging any
+one to marry her, or to lose her natural feelings as a sister of
+charity.  She said, 'My youth is leaving me; I can never do better
+than I have done, and I have done nothing yet.'  At such times she
+seemed to think that most human beings were destined by the
+pressure of worldly interests to lose one faculty and feeling
+after another 'till they went dead altogether.  I hope I shall be
+put in my grave as soon as I'm dead; I don't want to walk about
+so.'  Here we always differed.  I thought the degradation of
+nature she feared was a consequence of poverty, and that she
+should give her attention to earning money.  Sometimes she
+admitted this, but could find no means of earning money.  At
+others she seemed afraid of letting her thoughts dwell on the
+subject, saying it brought on the worst palsy of all.  Indeed, in
+her position, nothing less than entire constant absorption in
+petty money matters could have scraped together a provision.
+
+"Of course artists and authors stood high with Charlotte, and the
+best thing after their works would have been their company.  She
+used very inconsistently to rail at money and money-getting, and
+then wish she was able to visit all the large towns in Europe, see
+all the sights and know all the celebrities.  This was her notion
+of literary fame,--a passport to the society of clever people . .
+. When she had become acquainted with the people and ways at
+Brussels her life became monotonous, and she fell into the same
+hopeless state as at Miss W-'s, though in a less degree.  I wrote
+to her, urging her to go home or elsewhere; she had got what she
+wanted (French), and there was at least novelty in a new place, if
+no improvement.  That if she sank into deeper gloom she would soon
+not have energy to go, and she was too far from home for her
+friends to hear of her condition and order her home as they had
+done from Miss W-'s.  She wrote that I had done her a great
+service, that she should certainly follow my advice, and was much
+obliged to me.  I have often wondered at this letter.  Though she
+patiently tolerated advice, she could always quietly put it aside,
+and do as she thought fit.  More than once afterwards she
+mentioned the 'service' I had done her.  She sent me 10L. to New
+Zealand, on hearing some exaggerated accounts of my circumstances,
+and told me she hoped it would come in seasonably; it was a debt
+she owed me 'for the service I had done her.'  I should think 10L.
+was a quarter of her income.  The 'service' was mentioned as an
+apology, but kindness was the real motive."
+
+The first break in this life of regular duties and employments
+came heavily and sadly.  Martha--pretty, winning, mischievous,
+tricksome Martha--was taken ill suddenly at the Chateau de
+Koekelberg.  Her sister tended her with devoted love; but it was
+all in vain; in a few days she died.  Charlotte's own short
+account of this event is as follows:-
+
+"Martha T.'s illness was unknown to me till the day before she
+died.  I hastened to Koekelberg the next morning--unconscious that
+she was in great danger--and was told that it was finished.  She
+had died in the night.  Mary was taken away to Bruxelles.  I have
+seen Mary frequently since.  She is in no ways crushed by the
+event; but while Martha was ill, she was to her more than a
+mother--more than a sister:  watching, nursing, cherishing her so
+tenderly, so unweariedly.  She appears calm and serious now; no
+bursts of violent emotion; no exaggeration of distress.  I have
+seen Martha's grave--the place where her ashes lie in a foreign
+country."
+
+Who that has read "Shirley" does not remember the few lines--
+perhaps half a page--of sad recollection?
+
+
+"He has no idea that little Jessy will die young, she is so gay,
+and chattering, and arch--original even now; passionate when
+provoked, but most affectionate if caressed; by turns gentle and
+rattling; exacting yet generous; fearless . . . yet reliant on any
+who will help her.  Jessy, with her little piquant face, engaging
+prattle, and winning ways, is made to be a pet.
+
+* * *
+
+"Do you know this place?  No, you never saw it; but you recognise
+the nature of these trees, this foliage--the cypress, the willow,
+the yew.  Stone crosses like these are not unfamiliar to you, nor
+are these dim garlands of everlasting flowers.  Here is the place:
+green sod and a grey marble head-stone--Jessy sleeps below.  She
+lived through an April day; much loved was she, much loving.  She
+often, in her brief life, shed tears--she had frequent sorrows;
+she smiled between, gladdening whatever saw her.  Her death was
+tranquil and happy in Rose's guardian arms, for Rose had been her
+stay and defence through many trials; the dying and the watching
+English girls were at that hour alone in a foreign country, and
+the soil of that country gave Jessy a grave.
+
+* * *
+
+"But, Jessy, I will write about you no more.  This is an autumn
+evening, wet and wild.  There is only one cloud in the sky; but it
+curtains it from pole to pole.  The wind cannot rest; it hurries
+sobbing over hills of sullen outline, colourless with twilight and
+mist.  Rain has beat all day on that church tower" (Haworth):  "it
+rises dark from the stony enclosure of its graveyard:  the
+nettles, the long grass, and the tombs all drip with wet.  This
+evening reminds me too forcibly of another evening some years ago:
+a howling, rainy autumn evening too--when certain who had that day
+performed a pilgrimage to a grave new made in a heretic cemetery,
+sat near a wood fire on the hearth of a foreign dwelling.  They
+were merry and social, but they each knew that a gap, never to be
+filled, had been made in their circle.  They knew they had lost
+something whose absence could never be quite atoned for, so long
+as they lived; and they knew that heavy falling rain was soaking
+into the wet earth which covered their lost darling; and that the
+sad, sighing gale was mourning above her buried head.  The fire
+warmed them; Life and Friendship yet blessed them:  but Jessy lay
+cold, coffined, solitary--only the sod screening her from the
+storm."
+
+This was the first death that had occurred in the small circle of
+Charlotte's immediate and intimate friends since the loss of her
+two sisters long ago.  She was still in the midst of her deep
+sympathy with "Mary," when word came from home that her aunt, Miss
+Branwell, was ailing--was very ill.  Emily and Charlotte
+immediately resolved to go home straight, and hastily packed up
+for England, doubtful whether they should ever return to Brussels
+or not, leaving all their relations with M. and Madame Heger, and
+the pensionnat, uprooted, and uncertain of any future existence.
+Even before their departure, on the morning after they received
+the first intelligence of illness--when they were on the very
+point of starting--came a second letter, telling them of their
+aunt's death.  It could not hasten their movements, for every
+arrangement had been made for speed.  They sailed from Antwerp;
+they travelled night and day, and got home on a Tuesday morning.
+The funeral and all was over, and Mr. Bronte and Anne were sitting
+together, in quiet grief for the loss of one who had done her part
+well in their household for nearly twenty years, and earned the
+regard and respect of many who never knew how much they should
+miss her till she was gone.  The small property which she had
+accumulated, by dint of personal frugality and self-denial, was
+bequeathed to her nieces.  Branwell, her darling, was to have had
+his share; but his reckless expenditure had distressed the good
+old lady, and his name was omitted in her will.
+
+When the first shock was over, the three sisters began to enjoy
+the full relish of meeting again, after the longest separation
+they had had in their lives.  They had much to tell of the past,
+and much to settle for the future.  Anne had been for some little
+time in a situation, to which she was to return at the end of the
+Christmas holidays.  For another year or so they were again to be
+all three apart; and, after that, the happy vision of being
+together and opening a school was to be realised.  Of course they
+did not now look forward to settling at Burlington, or any other
+place which would take them away from their father; but the small
+sum which they each independently possessed would enable them to
+effect such alterations in the parsonage-house at Haworth as would
+adapt it to the reception of pupils.  Anne's plans for the
+interval were fixed.  Emily quickly decided to be the daughter to
+remain at home.  About Charlotte there was much deliberation and
+some discussion.
+
+Even in all the haste of their sudden departure from Brussels, M.
+Heger had found time to write a letter of sympathy to Mr. Bronte
+on the loss which he had just sustained; a letter containing such
+a graceful appreciation of the daughters' characters, under the
+form of a tribute of respect to their father, that I should have
+been tempted to copy it, even had there not also been a proposal
+made in it respecting Charlotte, which deserves a place in the
+record of her life.
+
+"Au Reverend Monsieur Bronte, Pasteur Evangelique, &c, &c.
+
+"Samedi, 5 Obre.
+
+"MONSIEUR,
+
+"Un evenement bien triste decide mesdemoiselles vas filles e
+retourner brusquement en Angleterre, ce depart qui nous afflige
+beaucoup a cependant ma complete approbation; il est bien naturel
+qu'elles cherchent e vous consoler de ce que le ciel vient de vous
+oter, on se serrant autour de vous, poui mieux vous faire
+apprecier ce que le ciel vous a donne et ce qu'il vous laisse
+encore.  J'espere que vous me pardonnerez, Monsieur, de profiter
+de cette circonstance pour vous faire parvenir l'expression de mon
+respect; je n'ai pas l'honneur de vous connaitre personnellement,
+et cependant j'eprouve pour votre personne un sentiment de sincere
+veneration, car en jugeant un pere de famille par ses enfants on
+ne risque pas de se tromper, et sous ce rapport l'education et les
+sentiments que nous avons trouves dans mesdemoiselles vos filles
+n'ont pu que nous donner une tres-haute idee de votre merite et de
+votre caractere.  Vous apprendrez sans doute avec plaisir que vos
+enfants ont fait du progres tresremarquable dans toutes les
+branches de l'enseignenient, et que ces progres sont entierement
+du e leur amour pour le travail et e leur perseverance; nous
+n'avons eu que bien peu e faire avec de pareilles eleves; leur
+avancement est votre oeuvre bien plus que la notre; nous n'avons
+pas eu e leur apprendre le prix du temps et de l'instruction,
+elles avaient appris tout cela dans la maison paternelle, et nous
+n'avons eu, pour notre part, que le faible merite de diriger leurs
+efforts et de fournir un aliment convenable e la louable activite
+que vos filles ont puisees dans votre exemple et dans vos lecons.
+Puissent les eloges meritees que nous donnons e vos enfants vous
+etre de quelque consolation dans le malheur que vous afflige;
+c'est le notre espoir en vous ecrivant, et ce sera, pour
+Mesdemoiselles Charlotte et Emily, une douce et belle recompense
+de leurs travaux.
+
+"En perdant nos deux cheres eleves, nous ne devons pas vous cacher
+que nous eprouvons e la fois et du chagrin et de l'inquietude;
+nous sommes affliges parce que cette brusque separation vient
+briser l'affection presque paternelle que nous leur avons vouee,
+et notre peine s'augmente e la vue de tant de travaux
+interrompues, de tant de choses bien commencees, et qui ne
+demandent que quelque temps encore pour etre menees e bonne fin.
+Dans un an, chacune de vos demoiselles eut ete entierement
+premunie contre les eventualites de l'avenir; chacune d'elles
+acquerait e la fois et l'instruction et la science d'enseignement;
+Mlle Emily allait apprendre le piano; recevoir les lecons du
+meilleur professeur que nous ayons en Belgique, et deje elle avait
+elle-meme de petites eleves; elle perdait donc e la fois un reste
+d'ignorance et un reste plus genant encore de timidite; Mlle
+Charlotte commencait e donner des lecons en francais, et
+d'acquerir cette assurance, cet aplomb si necessaire dans
+l'enseignement; encore un an tout au plus et l'oeuvre etait
+achevee et bien achevee.  Alors nous aurions pu, si cela vous eut
+convenu, offrir e mesdemoiselles vos filles ou du moins e l'une
+des deux une position qui eut ete dans ses gouts, et qui lui eut
+donne cette douce independance si difficile e trouver pour une
+jeune personne.  Ce n'est pas, croyez le bien, Monsieur, ce n'est
+pas ici pour nous une question d'interet personnel, c'est une
+question d'affection; vous me pardonnerez si nous vous parlons de
+vos enfants, si nous nous occupons de leur avenir, comme si elles
+faisaient partie de notre famille; leurs qualites personnelles,
+leur bon vouloir, leur zele extreme sont les seules causes qui
+nous poussent e nous hasarder de la sorte.  Nous savons, Monsieur,
+que vous peserez plus murement et plus sagement que nous la
+consequence qu'aurait pour l'avenir une interruption complete dans
+les etudes de vos deux filles; vous deciderez ce qu'il faut faire,
+et vous nous pardonnerez notre franchise, si vous daignez
+considerer que le motif qui nous fait agir est une affection bien
+desinteressee et qui s'affligerait beaucoup de devoir deje se
+resigner e n'etre plus utile e vos chers enfants.
+
+"Agreez, je vous prie, Monsieur, l'expression respectueuse de mes
+sentiments de haute consideration.
+
+"C. HEGER."
+
+
+There was so much truth, as well as so much kindness in this
+letter--it was so obvious that a second year of instruction would
+be far more valuable than the first, that there was no long
+hesitation before it was decided that Charlotte should return to
+Brussels.
+
+Meanwhile, they enjoyed their Christmas all together
+inexpressibly.  Branwell was with them; that was always a pleasure
+at this time; whatever might be his faults, or even his vices, his
+sisters yet held him up as their family hope, as they trusted that
+he would some day be their family pride.  They blinded themselves
+to the magnitude of the failings of which they were now and then
+told, by persuading themselves that such failings were common to
+all men of any strength of character; for, till sad experience
+taught them better, they fell into the usual error of confounding
+strong passions with strong character.
+
+Charlotte's friend came over to see her, and she returned the
+visit.  Her Brussels life must have seemed like a dream, so
+completely, in this short space of time, did she fall back into
+the old household ways; with more of household independence than
+she could ever have had during her aunt's lifetime.  Winter though
+it was, the sisters took their accustomed walks on the snow-
+covered moors; or went often down the long road to Keighley, for
+such books as had been added to the library there during their
+absence from England.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+
+Towards the end of January, the time came for Charlotte to return
+to Brussels.  Her journey thither was rather disastrous.  She had
+to make her way alone; and the train from Leeds to London, which
+should have reached Euston-square early in the afternoon, was so
+much delayed that it did not get in till ten at night.  She had
+intended to seek out the Chapter Coffee-house, where she had
+stayed before, and which would have been near the place where the
+steam-boats lay; but she appears to have been frightened by the
+idea of arriving at an hour which, to Yorkshire notions, was so
+late and unseemly; and taking a cab, therefore, at the station,
+she drove straight to the London Bridge Wharf, and desired a
+waterman to row her to the Ostend packet, which was to sail the
+next morning.  She described to me, pretty much as she has since
+described it in "Villette," her sense of loneliness, and yet her
+strange pleasure in the excitement of the situation, as in the
+dead of that winter's night she went swiftly over the dark river
+to the black hull's side, and was at first refused leave to ascend
+to the deck.  "No passengers might sleep on board," they said,
+with some appearance of disrespect.  She looked back to the lights
+and subdued noises of London--that "Mighty Heart" in which she had
+no place--and, standing up in the rocking boat, she asked to speak
+to some one in authority on board the packet.  He came, and her
+quiet simple statement of her wish, and her reason for it, quelled
+the feeling of sneering distrust in those who had first heard her
+request; and impressed the authority so favourably that he allowed
+her to come on board, and take possession of a berth.  The next
+morning she sailed; and at seven on Sunday evening she reached the
+Rue d'Isabelle once more; having only left Haworth on Friday
+morning at an early hour.
+
+Her salary was 16L. a year; out of which she had to pay for her
+German lessons, for which she was charged as much (the lessons
+being probably rated by time) as when Emily learnt with her and
+divided the expense, viz., ten francs a month.  By Miss Bronte's
+own desire, she gave her English lessons in the CLASSE, or
+schoolroom, without the supervision of Madame or M. Heger.  They
+offered to be present, with a view to maintain order among the
+unruly Belgian girls; but she declined this, saying that she would
+rather enforce discipline by her own manner and character than be
+indebted for obedience to the presence of a GENDARME.  She ruled
+over a new school-room, which had been built on the space in the
+play-ground adjoining the house.  Over that First Class she was
+SURVEILLANTE at all hours; and henceforward she was called
+MADEMOISELLE Charlotte by M. Heger's orders.  She continued her
+own studies, principally attending to German, and to Literature;
+and every Sunday she went alone to the German and English chapels.
+Her walks too were solitary, and principally taken in the allee
+defendue, where she was secure from intrusion.  This solitude was
+a perilous luxury to one of her temperament; so liable as she was
+to morbid and acute mental suffering.
+
+On March 6th, 1843, she writes thus:-
+
+"I am settled by this time, of course.  I am not too much
+overloaded with occupation; and besides teaching English, I have
+time to improve myself in German.  I ought to consider myself well
+off, and to be thankful for my good fortunes.  I hope I am
+thankful; and if I could always keep up my spirits and never feel
+lonely, or long for companionship, or friendship, or whatever they
+call it, I should do very well.  As I told you before, M. and
+Madame Heger are the only two persons in the house for whom I
+really experience regard and esteem, and of course, I cannot be
+always with them, nor even very often.  They told me, when I first
+returned, that I was to consider their sitting-room my sitting-
+room also, and to go there whenever I was not engaged in the
+schoolroom.  This, however, I cannot do.  In the daytime it is a
+public room, where music-masters and mistresses are constantly
+passing in and out; and in the evening, I will not, and ought not
+to intrude on M. and Madame Heger and their children.  Thus I am a
+good deal by myself, out of school-hours; but that does not
+signify.  I now regularly give English lessons to M. Heger and his
+brother-in-law.  They get on with wonderful rapidity; especially
+the first.  He already begins to speak English very decently.  If
+you could see and hear the efforts I make to teach them to
+pronounce like Englishmen, and their unavailing attempts to
+imitate, you would laugh to all eternity.
+
+"The Carnival is just over, and we have entered upon the gloom and
+abstinence of Lent.  The first day of Lent we had coffee without
+milk for breakfast; vinegar and vegetables, with a very little
+salt fish, for dinner; and bread for supper.  The Carnival was
+nothing but masking and mummery.  M. Heger took me and one of the
+pupils into the town to see the masks.  It was animating to see
+the immense crowds, and the general gaiety, but the masks were
+nothing.  I have been twice to the D.'s" (those cousins of
+"Mary's" of whom I have before made mention).  "When she leaves
+Bruxelles, I shall have nowhere to go to.  I have had two letters
+from Mary.  She does not tell me she has been ill, and she does
+not complain; but her letters are not the letters of a person in
+the enjoyment of great happiness.  She has nobody to be as good to
+her as M. Heger is to me; to lend her books; to converse with her
+sometimes, &c.
+
+"Good-bye.  When I say so, it seems to me that you will hardly
+hear me; all the waves of the Channel heaving and roaring between
+must deaden the sound."
+
+
+From the tone of this letter, it may easily be perceived that the
+Brussels of 1843 was a different place from that of 1842.  Then
+she had Emily for a daily and nightly solace and companion.  She
+had the weekly variety of a visit to the family of the D.s; and
+she had the frequent happiness of seeing "Mary" and Martha.  Now
+Emily was far away in Haworth--where she or any other loved one,
+might die, before Charlotte, with her utmost speed, could reach
+them, as experience, in her aunt's case, had taught her.  The D.s
+were leaving Brussels; so, henceforth, her weekly holiday would
+have to be passed in the Rue d'Isabelle, or so she thought.
+"Mary" was gone off on her own independent course; Martha alone
+remained--still and quiet for ever, in the cemetery beyond the
+Porte de Louvain.  The weather, too, for the first few weeks after
+Charlotte's return, had been piercingly cold; and her feeble
+constitution was always painfully sensitive to an inclement
+season.  Mere bodily pain, however acute, she could always put
+aside; but too often ill-health assailed her in a part far more to
+be dreaded.  Her depression of spirits, when she was not well, was
+pitiful in its extremity.  She was aware that it was
+constitutional, and could reason about it; but no reasoning
+prevented her suffering mental agony, while the bodily cause
+remained in force.
+
+The Hegers have discovered, since the publication of "Villette,"
+that at this beginning of her career as English teacher in their
+school, the conduct of her pupils was often impertinent and
+mutinous in the highest degree.  But of this they were unaware at
+the time, as she had declined their presence, and never made any
+complaint.  Still it must have been a depressing thought to her at
+this period, that her joyous, healthy, obtuse pupils were so
+little answerable to the powers she could bring to bear upon them;
+and though from their own testimony, her patience, firmness, and
+resolution, at length obtained their just reward, yet with one so
+weak in health and spirits, the reaction after such struggles as
+she frequently had with her pupils, must have been very sad and
+painful.
+
+She thus writes to her friend E.:-
+
+
+"April, 1843.
+
+"Is there any talk of your coming to Brussels?  During the bitter
+cold weather we had through February, and the principal part of
+March, I did not regret that you had not accompanied me.  If I had
+seen you shivering as I shivered myself, if I had seen your hands
+and feet as red and swelled as mine were, my discomfort would just
+have been doubled.  I can do very well under this sort of thing;
+it does not fret me; it only makes me numb and silent; but if you
+were to pass a winter in Belgium, you would be ill.  However, more
+genial weather is coming now, and I wish you were here.  Yet I
+never have pressed you, and never would press you too warmly to
+come.  There are privations and humiliations to submit to; there
+is monotony and uniformity of life; and, above all, there is a
+constant sense of solitude in the midst of numbers.  The
+Protestant, the foreigner, is a solitary being, whether as teacher
+or pupil.  I do not say this by way of complaining of my own lot;
+for though I acknowledge that there are certain disadvantages in
+my present position, what position on earth is without them?  And,
+whenever I turn back to compare what I am with what I was--my
+place here with my place at Mrs. -'s for instance--I am thankful.
+There was an observation in your last letter which excited, for a
+moment, my wrath.  At first, I thought it would be folly to reply
+to it, and I would let it die.  Afterwards, I determined to give
+one answer, once for all.  'Three or four people,' it seems, 'have
+the idea that the future EPOUX of Mademoiselle Bronte is on the
+Continent.'  These people are wiser than I am.  They could not
+believe that I crossed the sea merely to return as teacher to
+Madame Hegers.  I must have some more powerful motive than respect
+for my master and mistress, gratitude for their kindness, &c., to
+induce me to refuse a salary of 50L. in England, and accept one of
+16L. in Belgium.  I must, forsooth, have some remote hope of
+entrapping a husband somehow, or somewhere.  If these charitable
+people knew the total seclusion of the life I lead,--that I never
+exchange a word with any other man than Monsieur Heger, and seldom
+indeed with him,--they would, perhaps, cease to suppose that any
+such chimerical and groundless notion had influenced my
+proceedings.  Have I said enough to clear myself of so silly an
+imputation?  Not that it is a crime to marry, or a crime to wish
+to be married; but it is an imbecility, which I reject with
+contempt, for women, who have neither fortune nor beauty, to make
+marriage the principal object of their wishes and hopes, and the
+aim of all their actions; not to be able to convince themselves
+that they are unattractive, and that they had better be quiet, and
+think of other things than wedlock."
+
+The following is an extract, from one of the few letters which
+have been preserved, of her correspondence with her sister Emily:-
+
+
+"May 29, 1843
+
+"I get on here from day to day in a Robinson-Crusoe-like sort of
+way, very lonely, but that does not signify.  In other respects, I
+have nothing substantial to complain of, nor is this a cause for
+complaint.  I hope you are well.  Walk out often on the moors.  My
+love to Tabby.  I hope she keeps well."
+
+And about this time she wrote to her father,
+
+"June 2nd, 1818,
+
+"I was very glad to hear from home.  I had begun to get low-
+spirited at not receiving any news, and to entertain indefinite
+fears that something was wrong.  You do not say anything about
+your own health, but I hope you are well, and Emily also.  I am
+afraid she will have a good deal of hard work to do now that
+Hannah" (a servant-girl who had been assisting Tabby) "is gone.  I
+am exceedingly glad to hear that you still keep Tabby"
+(considerably upwards of seventy).  "It is an act of great charity
+to her, and I do not think it will be unrewarded, for she is very
+faithful, and will always serve you, when she has occasion, to the
+best of her abilities; besides, she will be company for Emily,
+who, without her, would be very lonely."
+
+I gave a DEVOIR, written after she had been four months under M.
+Heger's tuition.  I will now copy out another, written nearly a
+year later, during which the progress made appears to me very
+great.
+
+"31 Mai, 1843.
+
+"SUR LA MORT DE NAPOLEON.
+
+"Napoleon naquit en Corse et mourut e Ste. Helene.  Entre ces deux
+iles rien qu'un vaste et brulant desert et l'ocean immense.  Il
+naquit fils d'un simple gentilhomme, et mourut empereur, mais sans
+couronne et dans les fers.  Entre son berceau et sa tombe qu'y a-
+t-il? la carriere d'un soldat parvenu, des champs de bataille, une
+mer de sang, un trone, puis du sang encore, et des fers.  Sa vie,
+c'est l'arc en ciel; les deux points extremes touchent la terre,
+la comble lumi-neuse mesure les cieux.  Sur Napoleon au berceau
+une mere brillait; dans la maison paternelle il avait des freres
+et des soeurs; plus tard dans son palais il eut une femme qui
+l'aimait.  Mais sur son lit de mort Napoleon est seul; plus de
+mere, ni de frere, ni de soeur, ni de femme, ni d'enfant!!
+D'autres ont dit et rediront ses exploits, moi, je m'arrete e
+contempler l'abandonnement de sa derniere heure!
+
+"Il est le, exile et captif, enchaine sur un ecueil.  Nouveau
+Promethee il subit le chatiment de son orgueil!  Promethee avait
+voulu etre Dieu et Createur; il deroba le feu du Ciel pour animer
+le corps qu'il avait forme.  Et lui, Buonaparte, il a voulu creer,
+non pas un homme, mais un empire, et pour donner une existence,
+une ame, e son oeuvre gigantesque, il n'a pas hesite e arracher la
+vie e des nations entieres.  Jupiter indigne de l'impiete de
+Promethee, le riva vivant e la cime du Caucase.  Ainsi, pour punir
+l'ambition rapace de Buonaparte, la Providence l'a enchaine,
+jusqu'e ce que la mort s'en suivit, sur un roc isole de
+l'Atlantique.  Peut-etre le aussi a-t-il senti lui fouillant le
+flanc cet insatiable vautour dont parle la fable, peut-etre a-t-il
+souffert aussi cette soif du coeur, cette faim de l'ame, qui
+torturent l'exile, loin de sa famille et de sa patrie.  Mais
+parler ainsi n'est-ce pas attribuer gratuitement e Napoleon une
+humaine faiblesse qu'il n'eprouva jamais?  Quand donc s'est-il
+laisse enchainer par un lien d'affection?  Sans doute d'autres
+conquerants ont hesite dans leur carriere de gloire, arretes par
+un obstacle d'amour ou d'amitie, retenus par la main d'une femme,
+rappeles par la voix d'un ami--lui, jamais!  Il n'eut pas besoin,
+comme Ulysse, de se lier au mat du navire, ni de se boucher les
+oreilles avec de la cire; il ne redoutait pas le chant des
+Sirenes--il le dedaignait; il se fit marbre et fer pour executer
+ses grands projets.  Napoleon ne se regardait pas comme un homme,
+mais comme l'incarnation d'un peuple.  Il n'aimait pas; il ne
+considerait ses amis et ses proches que comme des instruments
+auxquels il tint, tant qu'ils furent utiles, et qu'il jeta de cote
+quand ils cesserent de l'etre.  Qu'on ne se permette donc pas
+d'approcher du sepulcre du Corse avec sentiments de pitie, ou de
+souiller de larmes la pierre qui couvre ses restes, son ame
+repudierait tout cela.  On a dit, je le sais, qu'elle fut cruelle
+la main qui le separa de sa femme et de son enfant.  Non, c'etait
+une main qui, comme la sienne, ne tremblait ni de passion ni de
+crainte, c'etait la main d'un homme froid, convaincu, qui avait su
+deviner Buonaparte; et voici ce que disait cet homme que la
+defaite n'a pu humilier, ni la victoire enorgueiller.  'Marie-
+Louise n'est pas la femme de Napoleon; c'est la France que
+Napoleon a epousee; c'est la France qu'il aime, leur union enfante
+la perte de l'Europe; voile la divorce que je veux; voile l'union
+qu'il faut briser.'
+
+"La voix des timides et des traitres protesta contre cette
+sentence.  'C'est abuser de droit de la victoire!  C'est fouler
+aux pieds le vaincu!  Que l'Angleterre se montre clemente, qu'elle
+ouvre ses bras pour recevoir comme hote son ennemi desarme.'
+L'Angleterre aurait peut-etre ecoute ce conseii, car partout et
+toujours il y a des ames faibles et timorees bientot seduites par
+la flatterie ou effrayees par le reproche.  Mais la Providence
+permit qu'un homme se trouvat qui n'a jamais su ce que c'est que
+la crainte; qui aima sa patrie mieux que sa renommee; impenetrable
+devant les menaces, inaccessible aux louanges, il se presenta
+devant le conseil de la nation, et levant son front tranquille en
+haut, il osa dire:  'Que la trahison se taise! car c'est trahir
+que de conseiller de temporiser avec Buonaparte.  Moi je sais ce
+que sont ces guerres dont l'Europe saigne encore, comme une
+victime sous le couteau du boucher.  Il faut en finir avec
+Napoleon Buonaparte.  Vous vous effrayez e tort d'un mot si dur!
+Je n'ai pas de magnanimite, dit-on?  Soit! que m'importe ce qu'on
+dit de moi?  Je n'ai pas ici e me faire une reputation de heros
+magnanime, mais e guerir, si la cure est possible, l'Europe qui se
+meurt, epuisee de ressources et de sang, l'Europe dont vous
+negligez les vrais interets, pre-occupes que vous etes d'une vaine
+renommee de clemence.  Vous etes faibles!  Eh bien! je viens vous
+aider.  Envoyez Buonaparte e Ste. Helene! n'hesitez pas, ne
+cherchez pas un autre endroit; c'est le seul convenable.  Je vous
+le dis, j'ai reflechi pour vous; c'est le qu'il doit etre et non
+pas ailleurs.  Quant e Napoleon, homme, soldat, je n'ai rien
+contre lui; c'est un lion royal, aupres de qui vous n'etes que des
+chacals.  Mais Napoleon Empereur, c'est autre chose, je
+l'extirperai du sol de l'Europe.'  Et celui qui parla ainsi
+toujours sut garder sa promesse, celle-le comme toutes les autres.
+Je l'ai dit, et je le repete, cet homme est l'egal de Napoleon par
+le genie; comme trempe de caractere, comme droiture, comme
+elevation de pensee et de but, il est d'une tout autre espece.
+Napoleon Buonaparte etait avide de renommee et de gloire; Arthur
+Wellesley ne se soucie ni de l'une ni de l'autre; l'opinion
+publique, la popularite, etaient choses de grand valeur aux yeux
+de Napoleon; pour Wellington l'opinion publique est une rumeur, un
+rien que le souffle de son inflexible volonte fait disparaitre
+comme une bulle de savon.  Napoleon flattait le peuple; Wellington
+le brusqne; l'un cherchait les applau-dissements, l'autre ne se
+soucie que du temoignage de sa conscience; quand elle approuve,
+c'est assez; toute autre louange l'obsede.  Aussi ce peuple, qui
+adorait Buonaparte s'irritait, s'insurgeait contre la morgue de
+Wellington:  parfois il lui temoigna sa colere et sa haine par des
+grognements, par des hurlements de betes fauves; et alors, avec
+une impassibilite de senateur romain, le moderne Coriolan toisait
+du regard l'emeute furieuse; il croisait ses bras nerveux sur sa
+large poitrine, et seul, debout sur son seuil, il attendait, il
+bravait cette tempete populaire dont les flots venaient mourir e
+quelques pas de lui:  et quand la foule, honteuse de sa rebellion,
+venait lecher les pieds du maitre, le hautain patricien meprisait
+l'hommage d'aujourd'hui comme la haine d'hier, et dans les rues de
+Londres, et devant son palais ducal d'Apsley, il repoussait d'un
+genre plein de froid dedain l'incommode empressement du peuple
+enthousiaste.  Cette fierte neanmoins n'excluait pas en lui une
+rare modestie; partout il se soustrait e l'eloge; se derobe au
+panegyrique; jamais il ne parle de ses exploits, et jamais il ne
+souffre qu'un autre lui en parle en sa presence.  Son caractere
+egale en grandeur et surpasse en verite celui de tout autre heros
+ancien ou moderne.  La gloire de Napoleon crut en une nuit, comme
+la vigne de Jonas, et il suffit d'un jour pour la fletrir; la
+gloire de Wellington est comme les vieux chenes qui ombragent le
+chateau de ses peres sur les rives du Shannon; le chene croit
+lentement; il lui faut du temps pour pousser vers le ciel ses
+branches noueuses, et pour enfoncer dans le sol ces racines
+profondes qui s'enchevetrent dans les fondements solides de la
+terre; mais alors, l'arbre seculaire, inebranlable comme le roc ou
+il a sa base, brave et la faux du temps et l'effort des vents et
+des tempetes.  Il faudra peut-etre un siecle e l'Angleterre pour
+qu'elle connaise la valeur de son heros.  Dans un siecle, l'Europe
+entiere saura combien Wellington a des droits e sa
+reconnaissance."
+
+
+How often in writing this paper "in a strange land," must Miss
+Bronte have thought of the old childish disputes in the kitchen of
+Haworth parsonage, touching the respective merits of Wellington
+and Buonaparte!  Although the title given to her DEVOIR is, "On
+the Death of Napoleon," she seems yet to have considered it a
+point of honour rather to sing praises to an English hero than to
+dwell on the character of a foreigner, placed as she was among
+those who cared little either for an England or for Wellington.
+She now felt that she had made great progress towards obtaining
+proficiency in the French language, which had been her main object
+in coming to Brussels.  But to the zealous learner "Alps on Alps
+arise."  No sooner is one difficulty surmounted than some other
+desirable attainment appears, and must be laboured after.  A
+knowledge of German now became her object; and she resolved to
+compel herself to remain in Brussels till that was gained.  The
+strong yearning to go home came upon her; the stronger self-
+denying will forbade.  There was a great internal struggle; every
+fibre of her heart quivered in the strain to master her will; and,
+when she conquered herself, she remained, not like a victor calm
+and supreme on the throne, but like a panting, torn, and suffering
+victim.  Her nerves and her spirits gave way.  Her health became
+much shaken.
+
+
+"Brussels, August 1st, 1843.
+
+"If I complain in this letter, have mercy and don't blame me, for,
+I forewarn you, I am in low spirits, and that earth and heaven are
+dreary and empty to me at this moment.  In a few days our vacation
+will begin; everybody is joyous and animated at the prospect,
+because everybody is to go home.  I know that I am to stay here
+during the five weeks that the holidays last, and that I shall be
+much alone during that time, and consequently get downcast, and
+find both days and nights of a weary length.  It is the first time
+in my life that I have really dreaded the vacation.  Alas!  I can
+hardly write, I have such a dreary weight at my heart; and I do so
+wish to go home.  Is not this childish?  Pardon me, for I cannot
+help it.  However, though I am not strong enough to bear up
+cheerfully, I can still bear up; and I will continue to stay (D.
+V.) some months longer, till I have acquired German; and then I
+hope to see all your faces again.  Would that the vacation were
+well over! it will pass so slowly.  Do have the Christian charity
+to write me a long, long letter; fill it with the minutest
+details; nothing will be uninteresting.  Do not think it is
+because people are unkind to me that I wish to leave Belgium;
+nothing of the sort.  Everybody is abundantly civil, but home-
+sickness keeps creeping over me.  I cannot shake it off.  Believe
+me, very merrily, vivaciously, gaily, yours,
+
+"C.B."
+
+The GRANDES VACANCES began soon after the date of this letter,
+when she was left in the great deserted pensionnat, with only one
+teacher for a companion.  This teacher, a Frenchwoman, had always
+been uncongenial to her; but, left to each other's sole
+companionship, Charlotte soon discovered that her associate was
+more profligate, more steeped in a kind of cold, systematic
+sensuality, than she had before imagined it possible for a human
+being to be; and her whole nature revolted from this woman's
+society.  A low nervous fever was gaining upon Miss Bronte.  She
+had never been a good sleeper, but now she could not sleep at all.
+Whatever had been disagreeable, or obnoxious, to her during the
+day, was presented when it was over with exaggerated vividness to
+her disordered fancy.  There were causes for distress and anxiety
+in the news from home, particularly as regarded Branwell.  In the
+dead of the night, lying awake at the end of the long deserted
+dormitory, in the vast and silent house, every fear respecting
+those whom she loved, and who were so far off in another country,
+became a terrible reality, oppressing her and choking up the very
+life-blood in her heart.  Those nights were times of sick, dreary,
+wakeful misery; precursors of many such in after years.
+
+In the day-time, driven abroad by loathing of her companion and by
+the weak restlessness of fever, she tried to walk herself into
+such a state of bodily fatigue as would induce sleep.  So she went
+out, and with weary steps would traverse the Boulevards and the
+streets, sometimes for hours together; faltering and resting
+occasionally on some of the many benches placed for the repose of
+happy groups, or for solitary wanderers like herself.  Then up
+again--anywhere but to the pensionnat--out to the cemetery where
+Martha lay--out beyond it, to the hills whence there is nothing to
+be seen but fields as far as the horizon.  The shades of evening
+made her retrace her footsteps--sick for want of food, but not
+hungry; fatigued with long continued exercise--yet restless still,
+and doomed to another weary, haunted night of sleeplessness.  She
+would thread the streets in the neighbourhood of the Rue
+d'Isabelle, and yet avoid it and its occupant, till as late an
+hour as she dared be out.  At last, she was compelled to keep her
+bed for some days, and this compulsory rest did her good.  She was
+weak, but less depressed in spirits than she had been, when the
+school re-opened, and her positive practical duties recommenced.
+
+She writes thus:-
+
+"October 13th, 1843
+
+"Mary is getting on well, as she deserves to do.  I often hear
+from her.  Her letters and yours are one of my few pleasures.  She
+urges me very much to leave Brussels and go to her; but, at
+present, however tempted to take such a step, I should not feel
+justified in doing so.  To leave a certainty for a complete
+uncertainty, would be to the last degree imprudent.
+Notwithstanding that, Brussels is indeed desolate to me now.
+Since the D.s left, I have had no friend.  I had, indeed, some
+very kind acquaintances in the family of a Dr. -, but they, too,
+are gone now.  They left in the latter part of August, and I am
+completely alone.  I cannot count the Belgians anything.  It is a
+curious position to be so utterly solitary in the midst of
+numbers.  Sometimes the solitude oppresses me to an excess.  One
+day, lately, I felt as if I could bear it no longer, and I went to
+Madame Heger, and gave her notice.  If it had depended on her, I
+should certainly have soon been at liberty; but M. Heger, having
+heard of what was in agitation, sent for me the day after, and
+pronounced with vehemence his decision, that I should not leave.
+I could not, at that time, have persevered in my intention without
+exciting him to anger; so I promised to stay a little while
+longer.  How long that will be, I do not know.  I should not like
+to return to England to do nothing.  I am too old for that now;
+but if I could hear of a favourable opportunity for commencing a
+school, I think I should embrace it.  We have as yet no fires
+here, and I suffer much from cold; otherwise, I am well in health.
+Mr.--will take this letter to England.  He is a pretty-looking and
+pretty behaved young man, apparently constructed without a back-
+bone; by which I don't allude to his corporal spine, which is all
+right enough, but to his character.
+
+"I get on here after a fashion; but now that Mary D. has left
+Brussels, I have nobody to speak to, for I count the Belgians as
+nothing.  Sometimes I ask myself how long shall I stay here; but
+as yet I have only asked the question; I have not answered it.
+However, when I have acquired as much German as I think fit, I
+think I shall pack up bag and baggage and depart.  Twinges of
+homesickness cut me to the heart, every now and then.  To-day the
+weather is glaring, and I am stupified with a bad cold and
+headache.  I have nothing to tell you.  One day is like another in
+this place.  I know you, living in the country, can hardly believe
+it is possible life can be monotonous in the centre of a brilliant
+capital like Brussels; but so it is.  I feel it most on holidays,
+when all the girls and teachers go out to visit, and it sometimes
+happens that I am left, during several hours, quite alone, with
+four great desolate schoolrooms at my disposition.  I try to read,
+I try to write; but in vain.  I then wander about from room to
+room, but the silence and loneliness of all the house weighs down
+one's spirits like lead.  You will hardly believe that Madame
+Heger (good and kind as I have described her) never comes near me
+on these occasions.  I own, I was astonished the first time I was
+left alone thus; when everybody else was enjoying the pleasures of
+a fete day with their friends, and she knew I was quite by myself,
+and never took the least notice of me.  Yet, I understand, she
+praises me very much to everybody, and says what excellent lessons
+I give.  She is not colder to me than she is to the other
+teachers; but they are less dependent on her than I am.  They have
+relations and acquaintances in Bruxelles.  You remember the letter
+she wrote me, when I was in England?  How kind and affectionate
+that was? is it not odd?  In the meantime, the complaints I make
+at present are a sort of relief which I permit myself.  In all
+other respects I am well satisfied with my position, and you may
+say so to people who inquire after me (if any one does).  Write to
+me, dear, whenever you can.  You do a good deed when you send me a
+letter, for you comfort a very desolate heart."
+
+
+One of the reasons for the silent estrangement between Madame
+Heger and Miss Bronte, in the second year of her residence at
+Brussels, is to be found in the fact, that the English
+Protestant's dislike of Romanism increased with her knowledge of
+it, and its effects upon those who professed it; and when occasion
+called for an expression of opinion from Charlotte Bronte, she was
+uncompromising truth.  Madame Heger, on the opposite side, was not
+merely a Roman Catholic, she was DEVOTE.  Not of a warm or
+impulsive temperament, she was naturally governed by her
+conscience, rather than by her affections; and her conscience was
+in the hands of her religious guides.  She considered any slight
+thrown upon her Church as blasphemy against the Holy Truth; and,
+though she was not given to open expression of her thoughts and
+feelings, yet her increasing coolness of behaviour showed how much
+her most cherished opinions had been wounded.  Thus, although
+there was never any explanation of Madame Heger's change of
+manner, this may be given as one great reason why, about this
+time, Charlotte was made painfully conscious of a silent
+estrangement between them; an estrangement of which, perhaps, the
+former was hardly aware.  I have before alluded to intelligence
+from home, calculated to distress Charlotte exceedingly with fears
+respecting Branwell, which I shall speak of more at large when the
+realisation of her worst apprehensions came to affect the daily
+life of herself and her sisters.  I allude to the subject again
+here, in order that the reader may remember the gnawing, private
+cares, which she had to bury in her own heart; and the pain of
+which could only be smothered for a time under the diligent
+fulfilment of present duty.  Another dim sorrow was faintly
+perceived at this time.  Her father's eyesight began to fail; it
+was not unlikely that he might shortly become blind; more of his
+duty must devolve on a curate, and Mr. Bronte, always liberal,
+would have to pay at a higher rate than he had heretofore done for
+this assistance.
+
+She wrote thus to Emily:-
+
+"Dec.1st, 1843.
+
+"This is Sunday morning.  They are at their idolatrous 'messe,'
+and I am here, that is in the Refectoire.  I should like
+uncommonly to be in the dining-room at home, or in the kitchen, or
+in the back kitchen.  I should like even to be cutting up the
+hash, with the clerk and some register people at the other table,
+and you standing by, watching that I put enough flour, not too
+much pepper, and, above all, that I save the best pieces of the
+leg of mutton for Tiger and Keeper, the first of which personages
+would be jumping about the dish and carving-knife, and the latter
+standing like a devouring flame on the kitchen-floor.  To complete
+the picture, Tabby blowing the fire, in order to boil the potatoes
+to a sort of vegetable glue!  How divine are these recollections
+to me at this moment!  Yet I have no thought of coming home just
+now.  I lack a real pretext for doing so; it is true this place is
+dismal to me, but I cannot go home without a fixed prospect when I
+get there; and this prospect must not be a situation; that would
+be jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire.  YOU call yourself
+idle! absurd, absurd! . . . Is papa well?  Are you well? and
+Tabby?  You ask about Queen Victoria's visit to Brussels.  I saw
+her for an instant flashing through the Rue Royale in a carriage
+and six, surrounded by soldiers.  She was laughing and talking
+very gaily.  She looked a little stout, vivacious lady, very
+plainly dressed, not much dignity or pretension about her.  The
+Belgians liked her very well on the whole.  They said she
+enlivened the sombre court of King Leopold, which is usually as
+gloomy as a conventicle.  Write to me again soon.  Tell me whether
+papa really wants me very much to come home, and whether you do
+likewise.  I have an idea that I should be of no use there--a sort
+of aged person upon the parish.  I pray, with heart and soul, that
+all may continue well at Haworth; above all in our grey half-
+inhabited house.  God bless the walls thereof!  Safety, health,
+happiness, and prosperity to you, papa, and Tabby.  Amen.
+
+"C. B."
+
+Towards the end of this year (1843) various reasons conspired with
+the causes of anxiety which have been mentioned, to make her feel
+that her presence was absolutely and imperatively required at
+home, while she had acquired all that she proposed to herself in
+coming to Brussels the second time; and was, moreover, no longer
+regarded with the former kindliness of feeling by Madame Heger.
+In consequence of this state of things, working down with sharp
+edge into a sensitive mind, she suddenly announced to that lady
+her immediate intention of returning to England.  Both M. and
+Madame Heger agreed that it would be for the best, when they
+learnt only that part of the case which she could reveal to them--
+namely, Mr. Bronte's increasing blindness.  But as the inevitable
+moment of separation from people and places, among which she had
+spent so many happy hours, drew near, her spirits gave way; she
+had the natural presentiment that she saw them all for the last
+time, and she received but a dead kind of comfort from being
+reminded by her friends that Brussels and Haworth were not so very
+far apart; that access from one place to the other was not so
+difficult or impracticable as her tears would seem to predicate;
+nay, there was some talk of one of Madame Heger's daughters being
+sent to her as a pupil, if she fulfilled her intention of trying
+to begin a school.  To facilitate her success in this plan, should
+she ever engage in it, M. Heger gave her a kind of diploma, dated
+from, and sealed with the seal of the Athenee Royal de Bruxelles,
+certifying that she was perfectly capable of teaching the French
+language, having well studied the grammar and composition thereof,
+and, moreover, having prepared herself for teaching by studying
+and practising the best methods of instruction.  This certificate
+is dated December 29th 1843, and on the 2nd of January, 1844, she
+arrived at Haworth.
+
+On the 23rd of the month she writes as follows:-
+
+"Every one asks me what I am going to do, now that I am returned
+home; and every one seems to expect that I should immediately
+commence a school.  In truth, it is what I should wish to do.  I
+desire it above all things.  I have sufficient money for the
+undertaking, and I hope now sufficient qualifications to give me a
+fair chance of success; yet I cannot yet permit myself to enter
+upon life--to touch the object which seems now within my reach,
+and which I have been so long straining to attain.  You will ask
+me why?  It is on papa's account; he is now, as you know, getting
+old, and it grieves me to tell you that he is losing his sight.  I
+have felt for some months that I ought not to be away from him;
+and I feel now that it would be too selfish to leave him (at
+least, as long as Branwell and Anne are absent), in order to
+pursue selfish interests of my own.  With the help of God, I will
+try to deny myself in this matter, and to wait.
+
+"I suffered much before I left Brussels.  I think, however long I
+live, I shall not forget what the parting with M. Heger cost me.
+It grieved me so much to grieve him who has been so true, kind,
+and disinterested a friend.  At parting he gave me a kind of
+diploma certifying my abilities as a teacher, sealed with the seal
+of the Athenee Royal, of which he is professor.  I was surprised
+also at the degree of regret expressed by my Belgian pupils, when
+they knew I was going to leave.  I did not think it had been in
+their phlegmatic nature . . . I do not know whether you feel as I
+do, but there are times now when it appears to me as if all my
+ideas and feelings, except a few friendships and affections, are
+changed from what they used to be; something in me, which used to
+be enthusiasm, is tamed down and broken.  I have fewer illusions;
+what I wish for now is active exertion--a stake in life.  Haworth
+seems such a lonely, quiet spot, buried away from the world.  I no
+longer regard myself as young--indeed, I shall soon be twenty-
+eight; and it seems as if I ought to be working and braving the
+rough realities of the world, as other people do.  It is, however,
+my duty to restrain this feeling at present, and I will endeavour
+to do so."
+
+Of course her absent sister and brother obtained a holiday to
+welcome her return home, and in a few weeks she was spared to pay
+a visit to her friend at B.  But she was far from well or strong,
+and the short journey of fourteen miles seems to have fatigued her
+greatly.
+
+Soon after she came back to Haworth, in a letter to one of the
+household in which she had been staying, there occurs this
+passage:- "Our poor little cat has been ill two days, and is just
+dead.  It is piteous to see even an animal lying lifeless.  Emily
+is sorry."  These few words relate to points in the characters of
+the two sisters, which I must dwell upon a little.  Charlotte was
+more than commonly tender in her treatment of all dumb creatures,
+and they, with that fine instinct so often noticed, were
+invariably attracted towards her.  The deep and exaggerated
+consciousness of her personal defects--the constitutional absence
+of hope, which made her slow to trust in human affection, and,
+consequently, slow to respond to any manifestation of it--made her
+manner shy and constrained to men and women, and even to children.
+We have seen something of this trembling distrust of her own
+capability of inspiring affection, in the grateful surprise she
+expresses at the regret felt by her Belgian pupils at her
+departure.  But not merely were her actions kind, her words and
+tones were ever gentle and caressing, towards animals:  and she
+quickly noticed the least want of care or tenderness on the part
+of others towards any poor brute creature.  The readers of
+"Shirley" may remember that it is one of the tests which the
+heroine applies to her lover.
+
+
+"Do you know what soothsayers I would consult?" . . . "The little
+Irish beggar that comes barefoot to my door; the mouse that steals
+out of the cranny in my wainscot; the bird in frost and snow that
+pecks at my window for a crumb; the dog that licks my hand and
+sits beside my knee.  I know somebody to whose knee the black cat
+loves to climb, against whose shoulder and cheek it likes to purr.
+The old dog always comes out of his kennel and wags his tail, and
+whines affectionately when somebody passes."  [For "somebody" and
+"he," read "Charlotte Bronte" and "she."]  "He quietly strokes the
+cat, and lets her sit while he conveniently can; and when he must
+disturb her by rising, he puts her softly down, and never flings
+her from him roughly:  he always whistles to the dog, and gives
+him a caress."
+
+
+The feeling, which in Charlotte partook of something of the nature
+of an affection, was, with Emily, more of a passion.  Some one
+speaking of her to me, in a careless kind of strength of
+expression, said, "she never showed regard to any human creature;
+all her love was reserved for animals."  The helplessness of an
+animal was its passport to Charlotte's heart; the fierce, wild,
+intractability of its nature was what often recommended it to
+Emily.  Speaking of her dead sister, the former told me that from
+her many traits in Shirley's character were taken; her way of
+sitting on the rug reading, with her arm round her rough bull-
+dog's neck; her calling to a strange dog, running past, with
+hanging head and lolling tongue, to give it a merciful draught of
+water, its maddened snap at her, her nobly stern presence of mind,
+going right into the kitchen, and taking up one of Tabby's red-hot
+Italian irons to sear the bitten place, and telling no one, till
+the danger was well-nigh over, for fear of the terrors that might
+beset their weaker minds.  All this, looked upon as a well-
+invented fiction in "Shirley," was written down by Charlotte with
+streaming eyes; it was the literal true account of what Emily had
+done.  The same tawny bull-dog (with his "strangled whistle"),
+called "Tartar" in "Shirley," was "Keeper" in Haworth parsonage; a
+gift to Emily.  With the gift came a warning.  Keeper was faithful
+to the depths of his nature as long as he was with friends; but he
+who struck him with a stick or whip, roused the relentless nature
+of the brute, who flew at his throat forthwith, and held him there
+till one or the other was at the point of death.  Now Keeper's
+household fault was this.  He loved to steal upstairs, and stretch
+his square, tawny limbs, on the comfortable beds, covered over
+with delicate white counterpanes.  But the cleanliness of the
+parsonage arrangements was perfect; and this habit of Keeper's was
+so objectionable, that Emily, in reply to Tabby's remonstrances,
+declared that, if he was found again transgressing, she herself,
+in defiance of warning and his well-known ferocity of nature,
+would beat him so severely that he would never offend again.  In
+the gathering dusk of an autumn evening, Tabby came, half-
+triumphantly, half-tremblingly, but in great wrath, to tell Emily
+that Keeper was lying on the best bed, in drowsy voluptuousness.
+Charlotte saw Emily's whitening face, and set mouth, but dared not
+speak to interfere; no one dared when Emily's eyes glowed in that
+manner out of the paleness of her face, and when her lips were so
+compressed into stone.  She went upstairs, and Tabby and Charlotte
+stood in the gloomy passage below, full of the dark shadows of
+coming night.  Down-stairs came Emily, dragging after her the
+unwilling Keeper, his hind legs set in a heavy attitude of
+resistance, held by the "scuft of his neck," but growling low and
+savagely all the time.  The watchers would fain have spoken, but
+durst not, for fear of taking off Emily's attention, and causing
+her to avert her head for a moment from the enraged brute.  She
+let him go, planted in a dark corner at the bottom of the stairs;
+no time was there to fetch stick or rod, for fear of the
+strangling clutch at her throat--her bare clenched fist struck
+against his red fierce eyes, before he had time to make his
+spring, and, in the language of the turf, she "punished him" till
+his eyes were swelled up, and the half-blind, stupified beast was
+led to his accustomed lair, to have his swollen head fomented and
+cared for by the very Emily herself.  The generous dog owed her no
+grudge; he loved her dearly ever after; he walked first among the
+mourners to her funeral; he slept moaning for nights at the door
+of her empty room, and never, so to speak, rejoiced, dog fashion,
+after her death.  He, in his turn, was mourned over by the
+surviving sister.  Let us somehow hope, in half Red Indian creed,
+that he follows Emily now; and, when he rests, sleeps on some soft
+white bed of dreams, unpunished when he awakens to the life of the
+land of shadows.
+
+Now we can understand the force of the words, "Our poor little cat
+is dead.  Emily is sorry."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+
+The moors were a great resource this spring; Emily and Charlotte
+walked out on them perpetually, "to the great damage of our shoes,
+but I hope, to the benefit of our health."  The old plan of
+school-keeping was often discussed in these rambles; but in-doors
+they set with vigour to shirt-making for the absent Branwell, and
+pondered in silence over their past and future life.  At last they
+came to a determination.
+
+"I have seriously entered into the enterprise of keeping a school-
+-or rather, taking a limited number of pupils at home.  That is, I
+have begun in good earnest to seek for pupils.  I wrote to Mrs.--"
+(the lady with whom she had lived as governess, just before going
+to Brussels), "not asking her for her daughter--I cannot do that--
+but informing her of my intention.  I received an answer from Mr.-
+-expressive of, I believe, sincere regret that I had not informed
+them a month sooner, in which case, he said, they would gladly
+have sent me their own daughter, and also Colonel S.'s, but that
+now both were promised to Miss C.  I was partly disappointed by
+this answer, and partly gratified; indeed, I derived quite an
+impulse of encouragement from the warm assurance that if I had but
+applied a little sooner they would certainly have sent me their
+daughter.  I own I had misgivings that nobody would be willing to
+send a child for education to Haworth.  These misgivings are
+partly done away with.  I have written also to Mrs. B., and have
+enclosed the diploma which M. Heger gave me before I left
+Brussels.  I have not yet received her answer, but I wait for it
+with some anxiety.  I do not expect that she will send me any of
+her children, but if she would, I dare say she could recommend me
+other pupils.  Unfortunately, she knows us only very slightly.  As
+soon as I can get an assurance of only ONE pupil, I will have
+cards of terms printed, and will commence the repairs necessary in
+the house.  I wish all that to be done before winter.  I think of
+fixing the board and English education at 25L. per annum."
+
+Again, at a later date, July 24th, in the same year, she writes:-
+
+"I am driving on with my small matter as well as I can.  I have
+written to all the friends on whom I have the slightest claim, and
+to some on whom I have no claim; Mrs. B., for example.  On her,
+also, I have actually made bold to call.  She was exceedingly
+polite; regretted that her children were already at school at
+Liverpool; thought the undertaking a most praiseworthy one, but
+feared I should have some difficulty in making it succeed on
+account of the SITUATION.  Such is the answer I receive from
+almost every one.  I tell them the RETIRED SITUATION is, in some
+points of view, an advantage; that were it in the midst of a large
+town I could not pretend to take pupils on terms so moderate (Mrs.
+B. remarked that she thought the terms very moderate), but that,
+as it is, not having house-rent to pay, we can offer the same
+privileges of education that are to be had in expensive
+seminaries, at little more than half their price; and as our
+number must be limited, we can devote a large share of time and
+pains to each pupil.  Thank you for the very pretty little purse
+you have sent me.  I make to you a curious return in the shape of
+half a dozen cards of terms.  Make such use of them as your
+judgment shall dictate.  You will see that I have fixed the sum at
+35L., which I think is the just medium, considering advantages and
+disadvantages."
+
+This was written in July; August, September, and October passed
+away, and no pupils were to be heard of.  Day after day, there was
+a little hope felt by the sisters until the post came in.  But
+Haworth village was wild and lonely, and the Brontes but little
+known, owing to their want of connections.  Charlotte writes on
+the subject, in the early winter months, to this effect -
+
+"I, Emily, and Anne, are truly obliged to you for the efforts you
+have made in our behalf; and if you have not been successful, you
+are only like ourselves.  Every one wishes us well; but there are
+no pupils to be had.  We have no present intention, however, of
+breaking our hearts on the subject, still less of feeling
+mortified at defeat.  The effort must be beneficial, whatever the
+result may be, because it teaches us experience, and an additional
+knowledge of this world.  I send you two more circulars."
+
+A month later, she says:-
+
+"We have made no alterations yet in our house.  It would be folly
+to do so, while there is so little likelihood of our ever getting
+pupils.  I fear you are giving yourself too much trouble on our
+account.  Depend upon it, if you were to persuade a mamma to bring
+her child to Haworth, the aspect of the place would frighten her,
+and she would probably take the dear girl back with her,
+instanter.  We are glad that we have made the attempt, and we will
+not be cast down because it has not succeeded."
+
+
+There were, probably, growing up in each sister's heart, secret
+unacknowledged feelings of relief, that their plan had not
+succeeded.  Yes! a dull sense of relief that their cherished
+project had been tried and had failed.  For that house, which was
+to be regarded as an occasional home for their brother, could
+hardly be a fitting residence for the children of strangers.  They
+had, in all likelihood, become silently aware that his habits were
+such as to render his society at times most undesirable.
+Possibly, too, they had, by this time, heard distressing rumours
+concerning the cause of that remorse and agony of mind, which at
+times made him restless and unnaturally merry, at times rendered
+him moody and irritable.
+
+In January, 1845, Charlotte says:- "Branwell has been quieter and
+less irritable, on the whole, this time than he was in summer.
+Anne is, as usual, always good, mild, and patient."  The deep-
+seated pain which he was to occasion to his relations had now
+taken a decided form, and pressed heavily on Charlotte's health
+and spirits.  Early in this year, she went to H. to bid good-bye
+to her dear friend "Mary," who was leaving England for Australia.
+
+Branwell, I have mentioned, had obtained the situation of a
+private tutor.  Anne was also engaged as governess in the same
+family, and was thus a miserable witness to her brother's
+deterioration of character at this period.  Of the causes of this
+deterioration I cannot speak; but the consequences were these.  He
+went home for his holidays reluctantly, stayed there as short a
+time as possible, perplexing and distressing them all by his
+extraordinary conduct--at one time in the highest spirits, at
+another, in the deepest depression--accusing himself of blackest
+guilt and treachery, without specifying what they were; and
+altogether evincing an irritability of disposition bordering on
+insanity.
+
+Charlotte and Emily suffered acutely from his mysterious
+behaviour.  He expressed himself more than satisfied with his
+situation; he was remaining in it for a longer time than he had
+ever done in any kind of employment before; so that for some time
+they could not conjecture that anything there made him so wilful,
+and restless, and full of both levity and misery.  But a sense of
+something wrong connected with him, sickened and oppressed them.
+They began to lose all hope in his future career.  He was no
+longer the family pride; an indistinct dread, caused partly by his
+own conduct, partly by expressions of agonising suspicion in
+Anne's letters home, was creeping over their minds that he might
+turn out their deep disgrace.  But, I believe, they shrank from
+any attempt to define their fears, and spoke of him to each other
+as little as possible.  They could not help but think, and mourn,
+and wonder.
+
+"Feb. 20th, 1845.
+
+"I spent a week at H., not very pleasantly; headache, sickliness,
+and flatness of spirits, made me a poor companion, a sad drag on
+the vivacious and loquacious gaiety of all the other inmates of
+the house.  I never was fortunate enough to be able to rally, for
+as much as a single hour, while I was there.  I am sure all, with
+the exception perhaps of Mary, were very glad when I took my
+departure.  I begin to perceive that I have too little life in me,
+now-a-days, to be fit company for any except very quiet people.
+Is it age, or what else, that changes me so?"
+
+Alas! she hardly needed to have asked this question.  How could
+she be otherwise than "flat-spirited," "a poor companion," and a
+"sad drag" on the gaiety of those who were light-hearted and
+happy!  Her honest plan for earning her own livelihood had fallen
+away, crumbled to ashes; after all her preparations, not a pupil
+had offered herself; and, instead of being sorry that this wish of
+many years could not be realised, she had reason to be glad.  Her
+poor father, nearly sightless, depended upon her cares in his
+blind helplessness; but this was a sacred pious charge, the duties
+of which she was blessed in fulfilling.  The black gloom hung over
+what had once been the brightest hope of the family--over
+Branwell, and the mystery in which his wayward conduct was
+enveloped.  Somehow and sometime, he would have to turn to his
+home as a hiding place for shame; such was the sad foreboding of
+his sisters.  Then how could she be cheerful, when she was losing
+her dear and noble "Mary," for such a length of time and distance
+of space that her heart might well prophesy that it was "for
+ever"?  Long before, she had written of Mary T., that she "was
+full of feelings noble, warm, generous, devoted, and profound.
+God bless her!  I never hope to see in this world a character more
+truly noble.  She would die willingly for one she loved.  Her
+intellect and attainments are of the very highest standard."  And
+this was the friend whom she was to lose!  Hear that friend's
+account of their final interview:-
+
+"When I last saw Charlotte (Jan. 1845), she told me she had quite
+decided to stay at home.  She owned she did not like it.  Her
+health was weak.  She said she should like any change at first, as
+she had liked Brussels at first, and she thought that there must
+be some possibility for some people of having a life of more
+variety and more communion with human kind, but she saw none for
+her.  I told her very warmly, that she ought not to stay at home;
+that to spend the next five years at home, in solitude and weak
+health, would ruin her; that she would never recover it.  Such a
+dark shadow came over her face when I said, 'Think of what you'll
+be five years hence!' that I stopped, and said, 'Don't cry,
+Charlotte!'  She did not cry, but went on walking up and down the
+room, and said in a little while, 'But I intend to stay, Polly.'"
+
+A few weeks after she parted from Mary, she gives this account of
+her days at Haworth.
+
+"March 24th, 1845.
+
+"I can hardly tell you how time gets on at Haworth.  There is no
+event whatever to mark its progress.  One day resembles another;
+and all have heavy, lifeless physiognomies.  Sunday, baking-day,
+and Saturday, are the only ones that have any distinctive mark.
+Meantime, life wears away.  I shall soon be thirty; and I have
+done nothing yet.  Sometimes I get melancholy at the prospect
+before and behind me.  Yet it is wrong and foolish to repine.
+Undoubtedly, my duty directs me to stay at home for the present.
+There was a time when Haworth was a very pleasant place to me; it
+is not so now.  I feel as if we were all buried here.  I long to
+travel; to work; to live a life of action.  Excuse me, dear, for
+troubling you with my fruitless wishes.  I will put by the rest,
+and not trouble you with them.  You must write to me.  If you knew
+how welcome your letters are, you would write very often.  Your
+letters, and the French newspapers, are the only messengers that
+come to me from the outer world beyond our moors; and very welcome
+messengers they are."
+
+One of her daily employments was to read to her father, and it
+required a little gentle diplomacy on her part to effect this
+duty; for there were times when the offer of another to do what he
+had been so long accustomed to do for himself, only reminded him
+too painfully of the deprivation under which he was suffering.
+And, in secret, she, too, dreaded a similar loss for herself.
+Long-continued ill health, a deranged condition of the liver, her
+close application to minute drawing and writing in her younger
+days, her now habitual sleeplessness at nights, the many bitter
+noiseless tears she had shed over Branwell's mysterious and
+distressing conduct--all these causes were telling on her poor
+eyes; and about this time she thus writes to M. Heger:-
+
+"Il n'y a rien que je crains comme le desoeuvrement, l'inertie, la
+lethargie des facultes.  Quand le corps est paresseux l'esprit
+souffre cruellement; je ne connaitrais pas cette lethargie, si je
+pouvais ecrire.  Autrefois je passais des journees, des semaines,
+des mois entiers e ecrire, et pas tout-e-fait sans fruit, puisque
+Southey et Coleridge, deux de nos meilleurs auteurs, e qui j'ai
+envoye certains manuscrits, en ont bien voulu temoigner leur
+approbation; mais e present, j'ai la vue trop faible; si
+j'ecrivais beaueoup je deviendrais aveugle.  Cette faiblesse de
+vue est pour moi une terrible privation; sans cela, savez-vous ce
+que je ferais, Monsieur?  J'ecrirais un livre et je le dedierais e
+mon maitre de litterature, au seul maitre que j'aie jamais eu--e
+vous, Monsieur!  Je vous ai dit souvent en francais combien je
+vous respecte, combien je suis redevable e votre bonte, e vos
+conseils.  Je voudrais le dire une fois en anglais.  Cela ne se
+peut pas; il ne faut pas y penser.  La carriere des lettres m'est
+fermee . . . N'oubliez pas de me dire comment vous vous portez,
+comment Madame et les enfants se portent.  Je compte bientot avoir
+de vos nouvelles; cette idee me souris, car le souvenir de vos
+bontes ne s'effacera jamais de ma memoire, et tant que ce souvenir
+durera, le respect que vous m'avez inspire durera aussi.  Agreez,
+Monsieur," &c.
+
+
+It is probable, that even her sisters and most intimate friends
+did not know of this dread of ultimate blindness which beset her
+at this period.  What eyesight she had to spare she reserved for
+the use of her father.  She did but little plain-sewing; not more
+writing than could be avoided, and employed herself principally in
+knitting.
+
+"April 2nd, 1845.
+
+"I see plainly it is proved to us that there is scarcely a draught
+of unmingled happiness to be had in this world.  -'s illness comes
+with -'s marriage.  Mary T. finds herself free, and on that path
+to adventure and exertion to which she has so long been seeking
+admission.  Sickness, hardship, danger are her fellow travellers--
+her inseparable companions.  She may have been out of the reach of
+these S. W. N. W. gales, before they began to blow, or they may
+have spent their fury on land, and not ruffled the sea much.  If
+it has been otherwise, she has been sorely tossed, while we have
+been sleeping in our beds, or lying awake thinking about her.  Yet
+these real, material dangers, when once past, leave in the mind
+the satisfaction of having struggled with difficulty, and overcome
+it.  Strength, courage, and experience are their invariable
+results; whereas, I doubt whether suffering purely mental has any
+good result, unless it be to make us by comparison less sensitive
+to physical suffering . . . Ten years ago, I should have laughed
+at your account of the blunder you made in mistaking the bachelor
+doctor for a married man.  I should have certainly thought you
+scrupulous over-much, and wondered how you could possibly regret
+being civil to a decent individual, merely because he happened to
+be single, instead of double.  Now, however, I can perceive that
+your scruples are founded on common sense.  I know that if women
+wish to escape the stigma of husband-seeking, they must act and
+look like marble or clay--cold, expressionless, bloodless; for
+every appearance of feeling, of joy, sorrow, friendliness,
+antipathy, admiration, disgust, are alike construed by the world
+into the attempt to hook a husband.  Never mind! well-meaning
+women have their own consciences to comfort them after all.  Do
+not, therefore, be too much afraid of showing yourself as you are,
+affectionate and good-hearted; do not too harshly repress
+sentiments and feelings excellent in themselves, because you fear
+that some puppy may fancy that you are letting them come out to
+fascinate him; do not condemn yourself to live only by halves,
+because if you showed too much animation some pragmatical thing in
+breeches might take it into his pate to imagine that you designed
+to dedicate your life to his inanity.  Still, a composed, decent,
+equable deportment is a capital treasure to a woman, and that you
+possess.  Write again soon, for I feel rather fierce, and want
+stroking down."
+
+"June 13th, 1845.
+
+"As to the Mrs. -, who, you say, is like me, I somehow feel no
+leaning to her at all.  I never do to people who are said to be
+like me, because I have always a notion that they are only like me
+in the disagreeable, outside, first-acquaintance part of my
+character; in those points which are obvious to the ordinary run
+of people, and which I know are not pleasing.  You say she is
+'clever'--'a clever person.'  How I dislike the term!  It means
+rather a shrewd, very ugly, meddling, talking woman . . . I feel
+reluctant to leave papa for a single day.  His sight diminishes
+weekly; and can it be wondered at that, as he sees the most
+precious of his faculties leaving him, his spirits sometimes sink?
+It is so hard to feel that his few and scanty pleasures must all
+soon go.  He has now the greatest difficulty in either reading or
+writing; and then he dreads the state of dependence to which
+blindness will inevitably reduce him.  He fears that he will be
+nothing in his parish.  I try to cheer him; sometimes I succeed
+temporarily, but no consolation can restore his sight, or atone
+for the want of it.  Still he is never peevish; never impatient;
+only anxious and dejected."
+
+
+For the reason just given, Charlotte declined an invitation to the
+only house to which she was now ever asked to come.  In answer to
+her correspondent's reply to this letter, she says:-
+
+"You thought I refused you coldly, did you?  It was a queer sort
+of coldness, when I would have given my ears to say Yes, and was
+obliged to say No.  Matters, however, are now a little changed.
+Anne is come home, and her presence certainly makes me feel more
+at liberty.  Then, if all be well, I will come and see you.  Tell
+me only when I must come.  Mention the week and the day.  Have the
+kindness also to answer the following queries, if you can.  How
+far is it from Leeds to Sheffield?  Can you give me a notion of
+the cost?  Of course, when I come, you will let me enjoy your own
+company in peace, and not drag me out a visiting.  I have no
+desire at all to see your curate.  I think he must be like all the
+other curates I have seen; and they seem to me a self-seeking,
+vain, empty race.  At this blessed moment, we have no less than
+three of them in Haworth parish--and there is not one to mend
+another.  The other day, they all three, accompanied by Mr. S.,
+dropped, or rather rushed, in unexpectedly to tea.  It was Monday
+(baking day), and I was hot and tired; still, if they had behaved
+quietly and decently, I would have served them out their tea in
+peace; but they began glorifying themselves, and abusing
+Dissenters in such a manner, that my temper lost its balance, and
+I pronounced a few sentences sharply and rapidly, which struck
+them all dumb.  Papa was greatly horrified also, but I don't
+regret it."
+
+
+On her return from this short visit to her friend, she travelled
+with a gentleman in the railway carriage, whose features and
+bearing betrayed him, in a moment, to be a Frenchman.  She
+ventured to ask him if such was not the case; and, on his
+admitting it, she further inquired if he had not passed a
+considerable time in Germany, and was answered that he had; her
+quick ear detected something of the thick guttural pronunciation,
+which, Frenchmen say, they are able to discover even in the
+grandchildren of their countrymen who have lived any time beyond
+the Rhine.  Charlotte had retained her skill in the language by
+the habit of which she thus speaks to M. Heger:-
+
+
+"Je crains beaucoup d'oublier le francais--j'apprends tous les
+jours une demie page de francais par coeur, et j'ai grand plaisir
+e apprendre cette lecon, Veuillez presenter e Madame l'assurance
+de mon estime; je crains que Maria-Louise et Claire ne m'aient
+deje oubliees; mais je vous reverrai un jour; aussitot que
+j'aurais gagne assez d'argent pour alter e Bruxelles, j'y irai."
+
+
+And so her journey back to Haworth, after the rare pleasure of
+this visit to her friend, was pleasantly beguiled by conversation
+with the French gentleman; and she arrived at home refreshed and
+happy.  What to find there?
+
+It was ten o'clock when she reached the parsonage.  Branwell was
+there, unexpectedly, very ill.  He had come home a day or two
+before, apparently for a holiday; in reality, I imagine, because
+some discovery had been made which rendered his absence
+imperatively desirable.  The day of Charlotte's return, he had
+received a letter from Mr. -, sternly dismissing him, intimating
+that his proceedings were discovered, characterising them as bad
+beyond expression, and charging him, on pain of exposure, to break
+off immediately, and for ever, all communication with every member
+of the family.
+
+Whatever may have been the nature and depth of Branwell's sins,--
+whatever may have been his temptation, whatever his guilt,--there
+is no doubt of the suffering which his conduct entailed upon his
+poor father and his innocent sisters.  The hopes and plans they
+had cherished long, and laboured hard to fulfil, were cruelly
+frustrated; henceforward their days were embittered and the
+natural rest of their nights destroyed by his paroxysms of
+remorse.  Let us read of the misery caused to his poor sisters in
+Charlotte's own affecting words:-
+
+
+"We have had sad work with Branwell.  He thought of nothing but
+stunning or drowning his agony of mind.  No one in this house
+could have rest; and, at last, we have been obliged to send him
+from home for a week, with some one to look after him.  He has
+written to me this morning, expressing some sense of contrition .
+. . but as long as he remains at home, I scarce dare hope for
+peace in the house.  We must all, I fear, prepare for a season of
+distress and disquietude.  When I left you, I was strongly
+impressed with the feeling that I was going back to sorrow."
+
+"August, 1845.
+
+"Things here at home are much as usual; not very bright as it
+regards Branwell, though his health, and consequently his temper,
+have been somewhat better this last day or two, because he is now
+FORCED TO abstain."
+
+"August 18th, 1845.
+
+"I have delayed writing, because I have no good news to
+communicate.  My hopes ebb low indeed about Branwell.  I sometimes
+fear he will never be fit for much.  The late blow to his
+prospects and feelings has quite made him reckless.  It is only
+absolute want of means that acts as any check to him.  One ought,
+indeed, to hope to the very last; and I try to do so, but
+occasionally hope in his case seems so fallacious."
+
+"Nov. 4th, 1845.
+
+"I hoped to be able to ask you to come to Haworth.  It almost
+seemed as if Branwell had a chance of getting employment, and I
+waited to know the result of his efforts in order to say, dear -,
+come and see us.  But the place (a secretaryship to a railway
+committee) is given to another person.  Branwell still remains at
+home; and while HE is here, YOU shall not come.  I am more
+confirmed in that resolution the more I see of him.  I wish I
+could say one word to you in his favour, but I cannot.  I will
+hold my tongue.  We are all obliged to you for your kind
+suggestion about Leeds; but I think our school schemes are, for
+the present, at rest."
+
+"Dec. 31st, 1845.
+
+"You say well, in speaking of -, that no sufferings are so awful
+as those brought on by dissipation; alas! I see the truth of this
+observation daily proved. --and--must have as weary and burdensome
+a life of it in waiting upon their unhappy brother.  It seems
+grievous, indeed, that those who have not sinned should suffer so
+largely."
+
+In fact, all their latter days blighted with the presence of
+cruel, shameful suffering,--the premature deaths of two at least
+of the sisters,--all the great possibilities of their earthly
+lives snapped short,--may be dated from Midsummer 1845.
+
+For the last three years of Branwell's life, he took opium
+habitually, by way of stunning conscience; he drank moreover,
+whenever he could get the opportunity.  The reader may say that I
+have mentioned his tendency to intemperance long before.  It is
+true; but it did not become habitual, as far as I can learn, until
+after he was dismissed from his tutorship.  He took opium, because
+it made him forget for a time more effectually than drink; and,
+besides, it was more portable.  In procuring it he showed all the
+cunning of the opium-eater.  He would steal out while the family
+were at church--to which he had professed himself too ill to go--
+and manage to cajole the village druggist out of a lump; or, it
+might be, the carrier had unsuspiciously brought him some in a
+packet from a distance.  For some time before his death he had
+attacks of delirium tremens of the most frightful character; he
+slept in his father's room, and he would sometimes declare that
+either he or his father should be dead before the morning.  The
+trembling sisters, sick with fright, would implore their father
+not to expose himself to this danger; but Mr. Bronte is no timid
+man, and perhaps he felt that he could possibly influence his son
+to some self-restraint, more by showing trust in him than by
+showing fear.  The sisters often listened for the report of a
+pistol in the dead of the night, till watchful eye and hearkening
+ear grew heavy and dull with the perpetual strain upon their
+nerves.  In the mornings young Bronte would saunter out, saying,
+with a drunkard's incontinence of speech, "The poor old man and I
+have had a terrible night of it; he does his best--the poor old
+man! but it's all over with me."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+
+In the course of this sad autumn of 1845, a new interest came up;
+faint, indeed, and often lost sight of in the vivid pain and
+constant pressure of anxiety respecting their brother.  In the
+biographical notice of her sisters, which Charlotte prefixed to
+the edition of "Wuthering Heights" and "Agnes Grey," published in
+1850--a piece of writing unique, as far as I know, in its pathos
+and its power--she says:-
+
+
+"One day in the autumn of 1845, I accidentally lighted on a MS.
+volume of verse, in my sister Emily's hand-writing.  Of course, I
+was not surprised, knowing that she could and did write verse:  I
+looked it over, and something more than surprise seized me--a deep
+conviction that these were not common effusions, nor at all like
+the poetry women generally write.  I thought them condensed and
+terse, vigorous and genuine.  To my ear they had also a peculiar
+music, wild, melancholy, and elevating.  My sister Emily was not a
+person of demonstrative character, nor one on the recesses of
+whose mind and feelings even those nearest and dearest to her
+could, with impunity, intrude unlicensed:  it took hours to
+reconcile her to the discovery I had made, and days to persuade
+her that such poems merited publication . . . Meantime, my younger
+sister quietly produced some of her own compositions, intimating
+that since Emily's had given me pleasure, I might like to look at
+hers.  I could not but be a partial judge, yet I thought that
+these verses too had a sweet sincere pathos of their own.  We had
+very early cherished the dream of one day being authors.  We
+agreed to arrange a small selection of our poems, and, if
+possible, get them printed.  Averse to personal publicity, we
+veiled our own names under those of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell;
+the ambiguous choice being dictated by a sort of conscientious
+scruple at assuming Christian names, positively masculine, while
+we did not like to declare ourselves women, because--without at
+the time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking was not
+what is called 'feminine,' we had a vague impression that
+authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice; we noticed
+how critics sometimes use for their chastisement the weapon of
+personality, and for their reward, a flattery, which is not true
+praise.  The bringing out of our little book was hard work.  As
+was to be expected, neither we nor our poems were at all wanted;
+but for this we had been prepared at the outset; though
+inexperienced ourselves, we had read the experience of others.
+The great puzzle lay in the difficulty of getting answers of any
+kind from the publishers to whom we applied.  Being greatly
+harassed by this obstacle, I ventured to apply to the Messrs.
+Chambers, of Edinburgh, for a word of advice; THEY may have
+forgotten the circumstance, but I have not, for from them I
+received a brief and business-like, but civil and sensible reply,
+on which we acted, and at last made way."
+
+I inquired from Mr. Robert Chambers, and found, as Miss Bronte
+conjectured, that he had entirely forgotten the application which
+had been made to him and his brother for advice; nor had they any
+copy or memorandum of the correspondence.
+
+There is an intelligent man living in Haworth, who has given me
+some interesting particulars relating to the sisters about this
+period.  He says:-
+
+"I have known Miss Bronte, as Miss Bronte, a long time; indeed,
+ever since they came to Haworth in 1819.  But I had not much
+acquaintance with the family till about 1843, when I began to do a
+little in the stationery line.  Nothing of that kind could be had
+nearer than Keighley before I began.  They used to buy a great
+deal of writing paper, and I used to wonder whatever they did with
+so much.  I sometimes thought they contributed to the Magazines.
+When I was out of stock, I was always afraid of their coming; they
+seemed so distressed about it, if I had none.  I have walked to
+Halifax (a distance of ten miles) many a time, for half a ream of
+paper, for fear of being without it when they came.  I could not
+buy more at a time for want of capital.  I was always short of
+that.  I did so like them to come when I had anything for them;
+they were so much different to anybody else; so gentle and kind,
+and so very quiet.  They never talked much.  Charlotte sometimes
+would sit and inquire about our circumstances so kindly and
+feelingly! . . . Though I am a poor working man (which I have
+never felt to be any degradation), I could talk with her with the
+greatest freedom.  I always felt quite at home with her.  Though I
+never had any school education, I never felt the want of it in her
+company."
+
+The publishers to whom she finally made a successful application
+for the production of "Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell's poems,"
+were Messrs. Aylott and Jones, Paternoster Row.  Mr. Aylott has
+kindly placed the letters which she wrote to them on the subject
+at my disposal.  The first is dated January 28th, 1846, and in it
+she inquires if they will publish one volume octavo of poems; if
+not at their own risk, on the author's account.  It is signed "C.
+Bronte."  They must have replied pretty speedily, for on January
+31st she writes again:-
+
+"GENTLEMEN,
+
+"Since you agree to undertake the publication of the work
+respecting which I applied to you, I should wish now to know, as
+soon as possible, the cost of paper and printing.  I will then
+send the necessary remittance, together with the manuscript.  I
+should like it to be printed in one octavo volume, of the same
+quality of paper and size of type as Moxon's last edition of
+Wordsworth.  The poems will occupy, I should think, from 200 to
+250 pages.  They are not the production of a clergyman, nor are
+they exclusively of a religious character; but I presume these
+circumstances will be immaterial.  It will, perhaps, be necessary
+that you should see the manuscript, in order to calculate
+accurately the expense of publication; in that case I will send it
+immediately.  I should like, however, previously, to have some
+idea of the probable cost; and if, from what I have said, you can
+make a rough calculation on the subject, I should be greatly
+obliged to you."
+
+In her next letter, February 6th, she says:-
+
+"You will perceive that the poems are the work of three persons,
+relatives--their separate pieces are distinguished by their
+respective signatures."
+
+She writes again on February 15th; and on the 16th she says:-
+
+"The MS. will certainly form a thinner volume than I had
+anticipated.  I cannot name another model which I should like it
+precisely to resemble, yet, I think, a duodecimo form, and a
+somewhat reduced, though still CLEAR type, would be preferable.  I
+only stipulate for CLEAR type, not too small, and good paper."
+
+On February 21st she selects the "long primer type" for the poems,
+and will remit 31L. 10S. in a few days.
+
+Minute as the details conveyed in these notes are, they are not
+trivial, because they afford such strong indications of character.
+If the volume was to be published at their own risk, it was
+necessary that the sister conducting the negotiation should make
+herself acquainted with the different kinds of type, and the
+various sizes of books.  Accordingly she bought a small volume,
+from which to learn all she could on the subject of preparation
+for the press.  No half-knowledge--no trusting to other people for
+decisions which she could make for herself; and yet a generous and
+full confidence, not misplaced, in the thorough probity of Messrs.
+Aylott and Jones.  The caution in ascertaining the risk before
+embarking in the enterprise, and the prompt payment of the money
+required, even before it could be said to have assumed the shape
+of a debt, were both parts of a self-reliant and independent
+character.  Self-contained also was she.  During the whole time
+that the volume of poems was in the course of preparation and
+publication, no word was written telling anyone, out of the
+household circle, what was in progress.
+
+I have had some of the letters placed in my hands, which she
+addressed to her old school-mistress, Miss W-.  They begin a
+little before this time.  Acting on the conviction, which I have
+all along entertained, that where Charlotte Bronte's own words
+could be used, no others ought to take their place, I shall make
+extracts from this series, according to their dates.
+
+"Jan. 30th, 1846.
+
+"MY DEAR MISS W-,
+
+"I have not yet paid my visit to -; it is, indeed, more than a
+year since I was there, but I frequently hear from E., and she did
+not fail to tell me that you were gone into Worcestershire; she
+was unable, however, to give me your exact address.  Had I known
+it, I should have written to you long since.  I thought you would
+wonder how we were getting on, when you heard of the railway
+panic; and you may be sure that I am very glad to be able to
+answer your kind inquiries by the assurance that our small capital
+is as yet undiminished.  The York and Midland is, as you say, a
+very good line, yet, I confess to you, I should wish, for my own
+part, to be wise in time.  I cannot think that even the very best
+lines will continue for many years at their present premiums; and
+I have been most anxious for us to sell our shares ere it be too
+late, and to secure the proceeds in some safer, if, for the
+present, less profitable investment.  I cannot, however, persuade
+my sisters to regard the affair precisely from my point of view;
+and I feel as if I would rather run the risk of loss than hurt
+Emily's feelings by acting in direct opposition to her opinion.
+She managed in a most handsome and able manner for me, when I was
+in Brussels, and prevented by distance from looking after my own
+interests; therefore, I will let her manage still, and take the
+consequences.  Disinterested and energetic she certainly is; and
+if she be not quite so tractable or open to conviction as I could
+wish, I must remember perfection is not the lot of humanity; and
+as long as we can regard those we love, and to whom we are closely
+allied, with profound and never-shaken esteem, it is a small thing
+that they should vex us occasionally by what appear to us
+unreasonable and headstrong notions.
+
+"You, my dear Miss W-, know, full as well as I do, the value of
+sisters' affection to each other; there is nothing like it in this
+world, I believe, when they are nearly equal in age, and similar
+in education, tastes, and sentiments.  You ask about Branwell; he
+never thinks of seeking employment, and I begin to fear that he
+has rendered himself incapable of filling any respectable station
+in life; besides, if money were at his disposal, he would use it
+only to his own injury; the faculty of self-government is, I fear,
+almost destroyed in him.  You ask me if I do not think that men
+are strange beings?  I do, indeed.  I have often thought so; and I
+think, too, that the mode of bringing them up is strange:  they
+are not sufficiently guarded from temptation.  Girls are protected
+as if they were something very frail or silly indeed, while boys
+are turned loose on the world, as if they, of all beings in
+existence, were the wisest and least liable to be led astray.  I
+am glad you like Broomsgrove, though, I dare say, there are few
+places you would NOT like, with Mrs. M. for a companion.  I always
+feel a peculiar satisfaction when I hear of your enjoying
+yourself, because it proves that there really is such a thing as
+retributive justice even in this world.  You worked hard; you
+denied yourself all pleasure, almost all relaxation, in your
+youth, and in the prime of life; now you are free, and that while
+you have still, I hope, many years of vigour and health in which
+you can enjoy freedom.  Besides, I have another and very
+egotistical motive for being pleased; it seems that even 'a lone
+woman' can be happy, as well as cherished wives and proud mothers.
+I am glad of that.  I speculate much on the existence of unmarried
+and never-to-be-married women now-a-days; and I have already got
+to the point of considering that there is no more respectable
+character on this earth than an unmarried woman, who makes her own
+way through life quietly, perseveringly, without support of
+husband or brother; and who, having attained the age of forty-five
+or upwards, retains in her possession a well-regulated mind, a
+disposition to enjoy simple pleasures, and fortitude to support
+inevitably pains, sympathy with the sufferings of others, and
+willingness to relieve want as far as her means extend."
+
+
+During the time that the negotiation with Messrs. Aylott and Co.
+was going on, Charlotte went to visit her old school-friend, with
+whom she was in such habits of confidential intimacy; but neither
+then nor afterwards, did she ever speak to her of the publication
+of the poems; nevertheless, this young lady suspected that the
+sisters wrote for Magazines; and in this idea she was confirmed
+when, on one of her visits to Haworth, she saw Anne with a number
+of "Chambers's Journal," and a gentle smile of pleasure stealing
+over her placid face as she read.
+
+"What is the matter?" asked the friend.  "Why do you smile?"
+
+"Only because I see they have inserted one of my poems," was the
+quiet reply; and not a word more was said on the subject.
+
+To this friend Charlotte addressed the following letters:-
+
+"March 3rd, 1846.
+
+"I reached home a little after two o'clock, all safe and right
+yesterday; I found papa very well; his sight much the same.  Emily
+and Anne were going to Keighley to meet me; unfortunately, I had
+returned by the old road, while they were gone by the new, and we
+missed each other.  They did not get home till half-past four, and
+were caught in the heavy shower of rain which fell in the
+afternoon.  I am sorry to say Anne has taken a little cold in
+consequence, but I hope she will soon be well.  Papa was much
+cheered by my report of Mr. C.'s opinion, and of old Mrs. E.'s
+experience; but I could perceive he caught gladly at the idea of
+deferring the operation a few months longer.  I went into the room
+where Branwell was, to speak to him, about an hour after I got
+home:  it was very forced work to address him.  I might have
+spared myself the trouble, as he took no notice, and made no
+reply; he was stupified.  My fears were not in vain.  I hear that
+he got a sovereign while I have been away, under pretence of
+paying a pressing debt; he went immediately and changed it at a
+public-house, and has employed it as was to be expected. --
+concluded her account by saying he was a 'hopeless being;' it is
+too true.  In his present state it is scarcely possible to stay in
+the room where he is.  What the future has in store I do not
+know."
+
+"March 31st, 1846.
+
+"Our poor old servant Tabby had a sort of fit, a fortnight since,
+but is nearly recovered now.  Martha" (the girl they had to assist
+poor old Tabby, and who remains still the faithful servant at the
+parsonage,) "is ill with a swelling in her knee, and obliged to go
+home.  I fear it will be long before she is in working condition
+again.  I received the number of the 'Record' you sent . . . I
+read D'Aubigne's letter.  It is clever, and in what he says about
+Catholicism very good.  The Evangelical Alliance part is not very
+practicable, yet certainly it is more in accordance with the
+spirit of the Gospel to preach unity among Christians than to
+inculcate mutual intolerance and hatred.  I am very glad I went
+to--when I did, for the changed weather has somewhat changed my
+health and strength since.  How do you get on?  I long for mild
+south and west winds.  I am thankful papa continues pretty well,
+though often made very miserable by Branwell's wretched conduct.
+THERE--there is no change but for the worse."
+
+
+Meanwhile the printing of the volume of poems was quietly
+proceeding.  After some consultation and deliberation, the sisters
+had determined to correct the proofs themselves, Up to March 28th
+the publishers had addressed their correspondent as C. Bronte,
+Esq.; but at this time some "little mistake occurred," and she
+desired Messrs. Aylott and Co. in future to direct to her real
+address, "MISS Bronte," &c.  She had, however, evidently left it
+to be implied that she was not acting on her own behalf, but as
+agent for the real authors, since in a note dated April 6th, she
+makes a proposal on behalf of "C., E., and A. Bell," which is to
+the following effect, that they are preparing for the press a work
+of fiction, consisting of three distinct and unconnected tales,
+which may be published either together, as a work of three
+volumes, of the ordinary novel size, or separately, as single
+volumes, as may be deemed most advisable.  She states, in
+addition, that it is not their intention to publish these tales on
+their own account; but that the authors direct her to ask Messrs.
+Aylott and Co. whether they would be disposed to undertake the
+work, after having, of course, by due inspection of the MS.,
+ascertained that its contents are such as to warrant an
+expectation of success.  To this letter of inquiry the publishers
+replied speedily, and the tenor of their answer may be gathered
+from Charlotte's, dated April 11th.
+
+
+"I beg to thank you, in the name of C., E., and A. Bell, for your
+obliging offer of advice.  I will avail myself of it, to request
+information on two or three points.  It is evident that unknown
+authors have great difficulties to contend with, before they can
+succeed in bringing their works before the public.  Can you give
+me any hint as to the way in which these difficulties are best
+met?  For instance, in the present case, where a work of fiction
+is in question, in what form would a publisher be most likely to
+accept the MS.?  Whether offered as a work of three vols., or as
+tales which might be published in numbers, or as contributions to
+a periodical?
+
+"What publishers would be most likely to receive favourably a
+proposal of this nature?
+
+"Would it suffice to WRITE to a publisher on the subject, or would
+it be necessary to have recourse to a personal interview?
+
+"Your opinion and advice on these three points, or on any other
+which your experience may suggest as important, would be esteemed
+by us as a favour."
+
+
+It is evident from the whole tenor of this correspondence, that
+the truthfulness and probity of the firm of publishers with whom
+she had to deal in this her first literary venture, were strongly
+impressed upon her mind, and was followed by the inevitable
+consequence of reliance on their suggestions.  And the progress of
+the poems was not unreasonably lengthy or long drawn out.  On
+April 20th she writes to desire that three copies may be sent to
+her, and that Messrs. Aylott will advise her as to the reviewers
+to whom copies ought to be sent.
+
+I give the next letter as illustrating the ideas of these girls as
+to what periodical reviews or notices led public opinion.
+
+"The poems to be neatly done up in cloth.  Have the goodness to
+send copies and advertisements, AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE, to each of
+the undermentioned periodicals.
+
+"'Colburn's New Monthly Magazine.'
+
+"'Bentley's Magazine.'
+
+"'Hood's Magazine.'
+
+"'Jerrold's Shilling Magazine.'
+
+"'Blackwood's Magazine.'
+
+"'The Edinburgh Review.'
+
+"'Tait's Edinburgh Magazine.'
+
+"'The Dublin University Magazine.'
+
+"Also to the 'Daily News' and to the 'Britannia' papers.
+
+"If there are any other periodicals to which you have been in the
+habit of sending copies of works, let them be supplied also with
+copies.  I think those I have mentioned will suffice for
+advertising."
+
+In compliance with this latter request, Messrs. Aylott suggest
+that copies and advertisements of the work should be sent to the
+"Athenaeum," "Literary Gazette," "Critic," and "Times;" but in her
+reply Miss Bronte says, that she thinks the periodicals she first
+mentioned will be sufficient for advertising in at present, as the
+authors do not wish to lay out a larger sum than two pounds in
+advertising, esteeming the success of a work dependent more on the
+notice it receives from periodicals than on the quantity of
+advertisements.  In case of any notice of the poems appearing,
+whether favourable or otherwise, Messrs. Aylott and Co. are
+requested to send her the name and number of those periodicals in
+which such notices appear; as otherwise, since she has not the
+opportunity of seeing periodicals regularly, she may miss reading
+the critique.  "Should the poems be remarked upon favourably, it
+is my intention to appropriate a further sum for advertisements.
+If, on the other hand, they should pass unnoticed or be condemned,
+I consider it would be quite useless to advertise, as there is
+nothing, either in the title of the work, or the names of the
+authors, to attract attention from a single individual."
+
+I suppose the little volume of poems was published some time about
+the end of May, 1846.  It stole into life; some weeks passed over,
+without the mighty murmuring public discovering that three more
+voices were uttering their speech.  And, meanwhile, the course of
+existence moved drearily along from day to day with the anxious
+sisters, who must have forgotten their sense of authorship in the
+vital care gnawing at their hearts.  On June 17th, Charlotte
+writes:-
+
+"Branwell declares that he neither can nor will do anything for
+himself; good situations have been offered him, for which, by a
+fortnight's work, he might have qualified himself, but he will do
+nothing except drink and make us all wretched."
+
+In the "Athenaeum" of July 4th, under the head of poetry for the
+million, came a short review of the poems of C., E., and A. Bell.
+The reviewer assigns to Ellis the highest rank of the three
+"brothers," as he supposes them to be; he calls Ellis "a fine,
+quaint spirit;" and speaks of "an evident power of wing that may
+reach heights not here attempted."  Again, with some degree of
+penetration, the reviewer says, that the poems of Ellis "convey an
+impression of originality beyond what his contributions to these
+volumes embody."  Currer is placed midway between Ellis and Acton.
+But there is little in the review to strain out, at this distance
+of time, as worth preserving.  Still, we can fancy with what
+interest it was read at Haworth Parsonage, and how the sisters
+would endeavour to find out reasons for opinions, or hints for the
+future guidance of their talents.
+
+I call particular attention to the following letter of
+Charlotte's, dated July 10th, 1846.  To whom it was written,
+matters not; but the wholesome sense of duty in it--the sense of
+the supremacy of that duty which God, in placing us in families,
+has laid out for us, seems to deserve especial regard in these
+days.
+
+
+"I see you are in a dilemma, and one of a peculiar and difficult
+nature.  Two paths lie before you; you conscientiously wish to
+choose the right one, even though it be the most steep, strait,
+and rugged; but you do not know which is the right one; you cannot
+decide whether duty and religion command you to go out into the
+cold and friendless world, and there to earn your living by
+governess drudgery, or whether they enjoin your continued stay
+with your aged mother, neglecting, FOR THE PRESENT, every prospect
+of independency for yourself, and putting up with daily
+inconvenience, sometimes even with privations.  I can well
+imagine, that it is next to impossible for you to decide for
+yourself in this matter, so I will decide it for you.  At least, I
+will tell you what is my earnest conviction on the subject; I will
+show you candidly how the question strikes me.  The right path is
+that which necessitates the greatest sacrifice of self-interest--
+which implies the greatest good to others; and this path, steadily
+followed, will lead, I believe, in time, to prosperity and to
+happiness, though it may seem, at the outset, to tend quite in a
+contrary direction.  Your mother is both old and infirm; old and
+infirm people have but few sources of happiness--fewer almost than
+the comparatively young and healthy can conceive; to deprive them
+of one of these is cruel.  If your mother is more composed when
+you are with her, stay with her.  If she would be unhappy in case
+you left her, stay with her.  It will not apparently, as far as
+short-sighted humanity can see, be for your advantage to remain at
+-, nor will you be praised and admired for remaining at home to
+comfort your mother; yet, probably, your own conscience will
+approve, and if it does, stay with her.  I recommend you to do
+what I am trying to do myself."
+
+
+The remainder of this letter is only interesting to the reader as
+it conveys a peremptory disclaimer of the report that the writer
+was engaged to be married to her father's curate--the very same
+gentleman to whom, eight years afterwards, she was united; and
+who, probably, even now, although she was unconscious of the fact,
+had begun his service to her, in the same tender and faithful
+spirit as that in which Jacob served for Rachel.  Others may have
+noticed this, though she did not.
+
+A few more notes remain of her correspondence "on behalf of the
+Messrs. Bell" with Mr. Aylott.  On July 15th she says, "I suppose,
+as you have not written, no other notices have yet appeared, nor
+has the demand for the work increased.  Will you favour me with a
+line stating whether ANY, or how many copies have yet been sold?"
+
+But few, I fear; for, three days later, she wrote the following:-
+
+"The Messrs. Bell desire me to thank you for your suggestion
+respecting the advertisements.  They agree with you that, since
+the season is unfavourable, advertising had better be deferred.
+They are obliged to you for the information respecting the number
+of copies sold."
+
+On July 23rd she writes to the Messrs. Aylott:-
+
+"The Messrs. Bell would be obliged to you to post the enclosed
+note in London.  It is an answer to the letter you forwarded,
+which contained an application for their autographs from a person
+who professed to have read and admired their poems.  I think I
+before intimated, that the Messrs. Bell are desirous for the
+present of remaining unknown, for which reason they prefer having
+the note posted in London to sending it direct, in order to avoid
+giving any clue to residence, or identity by post-mark, &c."
+
+Once more, in September, she writes, "As the work has received no
+further notice from any periodical, I presume the demand for it
+has not greatly increased."
+
+In the biographical notice of her sisters, she thus speaks of the
+failure of the modest hopes vested in this publication.  "The book
+was printed; it is scarcely known, and all of it that merits to be
+known are the poems of Ellis Bell.
+
+"The fixed conviction I held, and hold, of the worth of these
+poems, has not, indeed, received the confirmation of much
+favourable criticism; but I must retain it notwithstanding."
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+{1}  A reviewer pointed out the discrepancy between the age
+(twenty-seven years) assigned, on the mural tablet, to Anne Bronte
+at the time of her death in 1849, and the alleged fact that she
+was born at Thornton, from which place Mr. Bronte removed on
+February 25th, 1820.  I was aware of the discrepancy, but I did
+not think it of sufficient consequence to be rectified by an
+examination of the register of births.  Mr. Bronte's own words, on
+which I grounded my statement as to the time of Anne Bronte's
+birth, are as follows:-
+
+"In Thornton, Charlotte, Patrick Branwell, Emily Jane, and Anne
+were born."  And such of the inhabitants of Haworth as have spoken
+on the subject say that all the children of Mr. and Mrs. Bronte
+were born before they removed to Haworth.  There is probably some
+mistake in the inscription on the tablet.
+
+{2}  In the month of April 1858, a neat mural tablet was erected
+within the Communion railing of the Church at Haworth, to the
+memory of the deceased members of the Bronte family.  The tablet
+is of white Carrara marble on a ground of dove-coloured marble,
+with a cornice surmounted by an ornamental pediment of chaste
+design.  Between the brackets which support the tablet, is
+inscribed the sacred monogram I.H.S., in old English letters.
+
+{3}  With regard to my own opinion of the present school, I can
+only give it as formed after what was merely a cursory and
+superficial inspection, as I do not believe that I was in the
+house above half an hour; but it was and is this,--that the house
+at Casterton seemed thoroughly healthy and well kept, and is
+situated in a lovely spot; that the pupils looked bright, happy,
+and well, and that the lady superintendent was a most
+prepossessing looking person, who, on my making some inquiry as to
+the accomplishments taught to the pupils, said that the scheme of
+education was materially changed since the school had been opened.
+I would have inserted this testimony in the first edition, had I
+believed that any weight could be attached to an opinion formed on
+such slight and superficial grounds.
+
+{4}  "Jane Eyre," vol. I., page 20.
+
+{5}  Scott describes the sport, "Shooting at the Popinjay," "as an
+ancient game formerly practised with archery, but at this period
+(1679) with firearms.  This was the figure of a bird decked with
+parti-coloured feathers, so as to resemble a popinjay or parrot.
+It was suspended to a pole, and served for a mark at which the
+competitors discharged their fusees and carbines in rotation, at
+the distance of seventy paces.  He whose ball brought down the
+mark held the proud title of Captain of the Popinjay for the
+remainder of the day, and was usually escorted in triumph to the
+most respectable change-house in the neighbourhood, where the
+evening was closed with conviviality, conducted under his
+auspices, and if he was able to maintain it, at his expense."--Old
+Mortality.
+
+{6}  In this Gutenberg eText M. Heger's comments are given in {}
+at approximately the place where they occur--DP.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg Etext of Life of Charlotte Bronte by Gaskell V 1
+
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