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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/37843-8.txt b/37843-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d1cab5f --- /dev/null +++ b/37843-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6735 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Brontė Family, Vol. 1 of 2, by Francis A. Leyland + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Brontė Family, Vol. 1 of 2 + with special reference to Patrick Branwell Brontė + +Author: Francis A. Leyland + +Release Date: October 25, 2011 [EBook #37843] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BRONTĖ FAMILY, VOL. 1 OF 2 *** + + + + +Produced by StevenGibbs and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +THE BRONTĖ FAMILY + +WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO + +PATRICK BRANWELL BRONTĖ + + +VOL. I. + + +BY + +FRANCIS A. LEYLAND. + + +IN TWO VOLUMES. + +VOL. I. + + +LONDON: +HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, +13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. +1886. + +_All rights reserved._ + + + + +PREFACE. + + +It has long seemed to me that the history of the Brontė family is +incomplete, and, in some senses, not well understood. Those who have +written upon it--as I shall have occasion to point out in these +pages--have had certain objects in view, which have, perhaps +necessarily, led them to give undue weight to special points and to +overlook others. Thus it happens that, though there are in the hands of +the public several able works on the Brontės, there are many +circumstances relating to them that are yet in comparative obscurity. +Especially has injustice been done to one member of the family--Patrick +Branwell Brontė--whose life has several times been treated by those who +have had some other object in view; and, through a misunderstanding of +the character of the brother, the sisters, Anne in particular, have +been put, in some respects, in a false light also. This circumstance, +coupled with the fact that I am in possession of much new information, +and am able to print here a considerable quantity of unknown poetry +from Branwell's hand, has induced me to write this work. Those of his +poems which are included in these volumes are placed in dealing with +the periods of his life in which they were written, for I felt that, +however great might be the advantages of putting them together in a +complete form, much more would be lost both to the interest of the +poems and the life of their author in doing so. Branwell's poems, more, +perhaps, than those of any other writer, are so clearly expressive of +his feelings at the time of their writing, that a correct view of his +character is only to be obtained by looking upon them as parts of his +life-history, which indeed they are. And, moreover, when we consider +the circumstances under which any of these were written, our +understanding and appreciation of the subject must necessarily be much +fuller and truer. It has not escaped the attention of writers on the +Brontė story that Branwell had an important influence on his sisters; +and, though I maintain it to have been essentially different from what +others allege, it would not be possible to do justice either to him or +to them without saying a good deal about his character. + +I have felt it right, in these pages, to some extent also, to +re-consider the character of the Rev. Patrick Brontė, which has, along +with that of his son, suffered unfair treatment in the biographies of +his daughters. I have likewise entered upon some account of the local +circumstances of art and literature which surrounded the Brontės, an +element in their history which has hitherto been unknown, but is +especially necessary to a right understanding of the life and work of +Branwell Brontė and his sisters. These circumstances, and the altered +view I have taken of the tone of the lives of Mr. Brontė and his son, +have obliged me to deal more fully than would otherwise have been +necessary with the early years of the Brontės, but I venture to hope +that this may be atoned for by the new light I have thus been enabled +to throw on some important points. There are published here, for the +first time, a series of letters which Branwell Brontė addressed to an +intimate friend, J. B. Leyland, sculptor, who died in 1851, and it is +with these that a fresh insight is obtained into an interesting period +of Branwell's life. + +I am largely indebted in some parts of my work, especially those which +deal with the lives of the sisters, to Mrs. Gaskell's fascinating 'Life +of Charlotte Brontė'; and it is a source of sincere regret to me that I +am compelled to differ from that writer on many points. I am likewise +indebted in parts to Mr. T. Wemyss Reid's admirable 'Charlotte Brontė: +a Monograph,' a work which has corrected several errors and +misconceptions into which Mrs. Gaskell had fallen. The reader will +perceive that I am obliged in several places to combat the theories and +question the statements of Miss A. Mary F. Robinson in her 'Emily +Brontė,' a book which, nevertheless, so far as its special subject is +concerned, is a worthy contribution to the history of the Brontės. + +I have also found of much use, in writing this work, an article +entitled 'Branwell Brontė,' which Mr. George Searle Phillips--'January +Searle'--published in the 'Mirror' in 1872. The chapter in Mr. Francis +H. Grundy's 'Pictures of the Past' on Branwell Brontė, has likewise +been of the greatest service to me. Both these gentlemen were +Branwell's personal friends, and to them I gladly acknowledge my +indebtedness. + +Among many other sources of information respecting the Brontės, of +which I have availed myself in writing these pages, I may mention +_Hours at Home_, 'Unpublished Letters of Charlotte Brontė'; _Scribner_, +'Reminiscences of Charlotte Brontė'; the _Athenęum_, 'Notices and +Letters,' by Mr. A. C. Swinburne, and 'One of the Survivors of the +Brontė-Branwell Family.' To this lady I must also express my obligation +for her very kind letter to me. + +In the preparation of my work I have been greatly assisted by the +information, and encouraged by the sympathy, of several who had +personal knowledge of Patrick Branwell Brontė, and who have supported +the view I have taken of his life and character, and also who had like +knowledge of the other members of the Brontė family. Among these, I +have to express my sincere thanks to Mr. H. Merrall and to Mr. William +Wood, who were early acquaintances of Branwell; also to Mr. William +Dearden. To Mr. J. H. Thompson and Mrs. Thornton I am greatly indebted +for information respecting Branwell's sojourn in Bradford. I have +likewise derived much information from the family of the Browns, now +all deceased, except Mrs. Brown, to whom I have to express my +obligation. I have also gained much reliable information from Nancy +Garrs, now Mrs. Wainwright, the nurse of the Brontės, and to her I must +especially express my thanks. To these, I must not omit to add my deep +and sincere thanks to those who will not permit me to mention them by +name, for the unwearied assistance, counsel, and literary judgment +which they have as cheerfully, as they have ably, rendered. + +F. A. L. + +OAKWOOD, SKIRCOAT, HALIFAX, +October, 1885. + + + + +CONTENTS + +OF + +THE FIRST VOLUME. + + +CHAPTER I. + +Brontė Genius--Patrick Brontė--His Birthplace--His early +Endeavours--Ordained--Presented to Hartshead--High Town--His +Courtship and Marriage--Removes to Thornton--His House--Thornton +Chapel--Mrs. Brontė's failing Health--Mr. Brontė Accepts the Living +of Haworth--Rudeness of the Inhabitants--Local Fights between +Haworth and Heptonstall--Description of Haworth--Mrs. Brontė dies 1 + +CHAPTER II. + +The Mother of the Brontės--Her Character and Personal Appearance +--Her Literary Taste--Penzance, her Native Place--Description +of Penzance--The Branwell Family--Personal Traits of Maria +Branwell--Her Virtues--Her Letters to Mr. Brontė--Her Domestic +Experiences 33 + +CHAPTER III. + +Character of the Rev. P. Brontė--Charges against Him--Serious +Allegations of Biographers--Injustice of the Charges--Mr. Brontė's +indignant Denial of the Imputations--Testimony of Nancy Garrs--Mrs. +Brontė and the Silk-Dress Episode--Mr. Brontė, the supposed +Prototype of Mr. Helstone--The Pistol-shots Theory--Mr. Brontė +on Science Knowledge--Miss Branwell 41 + +CHAPTER IV. + +Girlhood--Gravity of Character--Charlotte's Description of the +Elf-land of Childhood--The Still and Solemn Moors of Haworth +influence their Writings--The Present of Toys--The Plays which +they Acted--Mr. Brontė on a Supposed Earthquake--The Evidence +of his Care for his Children--Grammar School at Haworth--His +Children under the Tuition of the Master--The Character of the +School--Cowan Bridge School--Charlotte's View of Mr. Carus +Wilson's Management--Deaths of Maria and Elizabeth 57 + +CHAPTER V. + +Reunion of the Brontė Family--Branwell is the supposed Prototype +of Victor Crimsworth--That Character not a complete Portrait of +Branwell--His Friendships--His Visit to the Keighley Feast--Its +Effect on Branwell's Nerves--The Wrestle--The Lost Spectacles--Fear +of his Father's Displeasure--Mrs. Gaskell's Story of the 'Black +Bull' Incident Questioned--Miss Branwell and her Nephew 81 + +CHAPTER VI. + +The youthful Compositions of the Brontės--Their Character-- +Branwell's Share in them--'The Secret,' a Fragment--The Reading +of the Brontė Children--Branwell's Character at this Period 93 + +CHAPTER VII. + +Charlotte goes to Roe Head--Return Home--Branwell at the Time--The +Companion of his Sisters--Escorts Charlotte on a Visit--He becomes +Interested in Pugilism--His Education--His Love for Music--His +Retentive Memory--His Personal Appearance--His Spirit 109 + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Love of Art in the Youthful Brontės--Their elaborate Drawings-- +J. B. Leyland, Sculptor--Spartacus--Mr. George Hogarth's +Opinion--Art Exhibition at Leeds--Mr. William Robinson, their +Drawing-Master--Branwell aims at Portrait-Painting--J. B. +Leyland in London--Branwell and the Royal Academy--He visits +London 123 + +CHAPTER IX. + +Charlotte returns as a Teacher, with Emily as a Pupil, to Roe +Head--Their Determination to Maintain themselves--Charlotte's +Fears respecting Emily--Charlotte's religious Melancholy--Accuses +herself of Flippancy--She is on the Borders of Despair--Anxiety +to Know more of the World--Emily at Law Hill, Halifax, as a +Teacher--Charlotte's Excitability--She returns Home out of +Health 147 + +CHAPTER X. + +The Light in which Biographers have regarded Branwell-- +Bibliography--Mrs. Gaskell--The Causes which led her into +Error--Resentment of Branwell's Friends--Mr. George Searle +Phillips--Branwell as Depicted by Mr. T. Wemyss Reid--Mr. F. H. +Grundy's Notice of Branwell--Miss A. Mary F. Robinson's Portrait +of Branwell 159 + +CHAPTER XI. + +Branwell becomes a Freemason--His love of Art undiminished--Has +Instruction in Oil-Painting--Commences Portrait-Painting at +Bradford--His Commissions--His Letter to Mr. Thompson, the +Artist--Miss Robinson's Charges of Misconduct--Her Erroneous +Statements--Branwell's true Character and Conduct at Bradford +--Remarks on his alleged Opium-eating there 172 + +CHAPTER XII. + +New Inspiration of Poetry--Wordsworth--Southey, Scott, and +Byron--Southey to Charlotte Brontė--Hartley Coleridge--His +Worthies of Yorkshire--Poets of the West-Riding--Alaric A. +Watts--Branwell's Literary Abilities 184 + +CHAPTER XIII. + +Branwell's Letter to Wordsworth, with Stanzas--Remarks upon +it--No Reply--He Tries Again--His Interest in the Manchester +and Leeds Railway--Branwell's Literary and Artistic Friends +at Bradford and Halifax--Leyland's Works there--Branwell's +great Interest in them--Early Verses--Mrs. Gaskell's Judgment +on his Literary Abilities 193 + +CHAPTER XIV. + +The Poetical bent of Branwell's Genius--'Caroline's Prayer'--'On +Caroline'--'Caroline'--Spirit of these Early Effusions 210 + +CHAPTER XV. + +Charlotte's first Offer of Marriage--Her Remarks concerning it +--A second Offer Declined--Anne a Governess--She Moralizes upon +it--Charlotte obtains a Situation--Unsuited to Her--She Leaves +it--Branwell takes Pleasure in Scenery--He Visits Liverpool with +his Friends--Charlotte goes to Easton--Curates at Haworth--Their +Visits to the Parsonage--Public Meetings on Church Rates-- +Charlotte's Attempt at a Richardsonian Novel--She sends the +Commencement of it to Wordsworth for his Opinion--Branwell +receives an Appointment as Private Tutor 228 + +CHAPTER XVI. + +The District of Black Comb--Branwell's Sonnet--Wordsworth and +Hartley Coleridge--Branwell's Letter to the 'Old Knave of +Trumps'--Its Publication by Miss Robinson in her 'Emily +Brontė'--Branwell's familiar Acquaintance with the People of +Haworth--He could Paint their Characters with Accuracy--His +Knowledge of the Human Passions--Emily's Isolation 249 + +CHAPTER XVII. + +Branwell's Appointment at Ulverston ends--He gets a Situation +on the Railroad at Sowerby Bridge--Branwell at Luddenden Foot-- +His Friends' Reminiscences of him--Charlotte and Emily reading +French Novels--Charlotte obtains a Situation--Anxious about +Anne--School Project of the Sisters--Charlotte's keen Desire +to visit Brussels--Her Letter to her Aunt Branwell 264 + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +Situation of Luddenden Foot--Branwell visits Manchester--The +Sultry Summer--He visits the Picturesque Places adjacent--His +impromptu Verses to Mr. Grundy--He leaves the Railway Company +--Miss Robinson's unjust Comments--His three Sonnets--His +poem, 'The Afghan War'--Branwell's letter to Mr. Grundy--His +Self-depreciation 287 + + + + +THE BRONTĖ FAMILY. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +EARLY CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE BRONTĖS. + +Brontė Genius--Patrick Brontė--His Birthplace--His early +Endeavours--Ordained--Presented to Hartshead--High Town--His +Courtship and Marriage--Removes to Thornton--His House--Thornton +Chapel--Mrs. Brontė's failing Health--Mr. Brontė Accepts the Living +of Haworth--Rudeness of the Inhabitants--Local Fights between +Haworth and Heptonstall--Description of Haworth--Mrs. Brontė dies. + + +Not many stories of literary success have attracted so much interest, +and are in themselves so curious and enthralling, as that of the Brontė +sisters. The question has often been asked how it came about that these +children, who were brought up in distant solitude, and cut off, in a +manner, from intellectual life, who had but a partial opportunity of +studying mankind, and scarcely any knowledge of the ways of the outside +world, were enabled, with searching hands, to dissect the finest meshes +of the passions, to hold up in the clearest light the springs of human +action, and to depict, with nervous power, the most masculine and +forcible aspects of character. The solution has been sought in the +initiatory strength and inherent mental disposition of the sisters, +framed and moulded by the weird and rugged surroundings of their youth, +and tinged with lurid light and vivid feeling by the misfortunes and +sins of their unhappy brother. To illustrate these several points, the +biographers of Charlotte and Emily Brontė have explained, as the matter +admitted of explanation, the intellectual beginnings and capability of +the sisters, have painted in sombre colours the story of their +friendless childhood, and lastly, with no lack of honest condemnation, +have told us as much as they knew of the sad history of Patrick +Branwell Brontė, their brother. It is a curious fact that this brother, +who was looked upon by his family as its brightest ornament and hope, +should be named in these days only in connection with his sisters, and +then but with apology, condemnation, or reproach. In the course of this +work, in which Branwell Brontė will be traced from his parentage to his +death, we shall find the explanation of this circumstance; but we shall +find, also, that, despite his failings and his sins, his intellectual +gifts, as they are testified by his literary promise and his remains, +entitle him to a high place as a worthy member of that extraordinary +family. It will be seen, moreover, that his influence upon Charlotte, +Emily, and Anne was not what has been generally supposed, and that +other circumstances, besides their own domestic troubles, inspired them +to write their masterpieces. + +The father of these gifted authors, Patrick Brontė, whose life and +personal characteristics well deserve study, was a native of the county +Down. He was born on St. Patrick's Day, 1777; and, after an infancy +passed at the house of his father, Hugh Brontė, or Brunty, at +Ahaderg--one of the ten children who made a noisy throng in the home of +his parents--he opened, at the age of sixteen, a village school at +Drumgooland, in the same county. In this occupation he continued after +he had attained his majority, and was never a tutor, as Mrs. Gaskell +supposes; but, being ambitious of a clerical life, through the +assistance of his patron, Mr. Tighe, incumbent of Drumgooland and +Drumballyroony, in the county of Down, he was admitted to St. John's +College, Cambridge, on the 1st of October in the year 1802, when he had +attained his twenty-fifth year. At Cambridge we may infer that he led +an active life. It is known that he joined a volunteer corps raised to +be in readiness for the French invasion, threatened at the time. After +a four years' sojourn at his college, having graduated as a bachelor of +arts, in the year 1806, he was ordained, and appointed to a curacy in +Essex, where he is said not to have stayed long. + +The perpetual curacy of Hartshead, in the West-Riding of Yorkshire, +having become vacant, Mr. Brontė received the appointment, on the +presentation of the vicar of Dewsbury. + +The church of St. Peter, at Hartshead--which has extensive remains of +Norman work, and has recently been restored--is situated on an eminence +about a mile from the actual hamlet of that name; and, with its broad, +low, and massive tower, and its grim old yew-tree, forms a conspicuous +object for miles around, commanding on all sides extensive and +magnificent views of the valleys of Calder and Colne, with their wooded +slopes, and pleasant farms, and the busy villages nestling in the +hollows. At the foot of the hill, the deep and sombre woods of Kirklees +hide the almost indistinguishable remains of the convent, founded by +Raynerus Flandrensis, in the reign of Henry II., for nuns of the order +of Citeaux. + +There are interesting circumstances and evidences concerning Kirklees, +its Roman entrenchments being very distinct within the park which +overlooks the Calder at this point. The priory, too, has its curious +history of the events which attended the cloistered life of Elizabeth +de Stainton, one of the prioresses, whose monumental memorial alone +remains of all that marked the graves of the religious of that house; +and there are stories relating to Robin Hood. Here still exists the +chamber in which tradition says the 'noble outlaw' died, and also the +grave, at a cross-bow shot from it, where long generations of men have +averred his dust reposes. The district of Kirklees had an interest for +Charlotte Brontė, and she has celebrated it in 'Shirley,' under the +name of Nunnely, with its old church, its forest, its monastic ruins, +and 'its man of title--its baronet.' It was to the house of the +latter--kind gentleman though he was--that Louis Moore could not go, +where he 'would much sooner have made an appointment with the ghost of +the Earl of Huntingdon to meet him, and a shadowy ring of his merry +men, under the canopy of the thickest, blackest, oldest oak in Nunnely +Forest ... would rather have appointed tryst with a phantom abbess, or +mist-pale nun, among the wet and weedy relics of that ruined sanctuary +of theirs, mouldering in the core of the wood.' + +Mr. Brontė entered upon his ministrations at Hartshead in the year +1811; and there are entries in the churchwarden's book of Easter-dues +paid to him up to 1815. It is curious to note that, in this early +mention of Mr. Brontė, the name is spelled 'Brunty' and 'Bronty.' + +Hartshead being destitute of a glebe house, and no suitable residence +existing either at this place or at the neighbouring village of Clifton +at the time, Mr. Brontė took up his residence at High Town, in a roomy +and pleasant house at the top of Clough Lane, near Liversedge in the +parish of Birstall, and about a mile from the place of his cure. The +house, which commands beautiful views, is entered by a passage of the +ordinary width, on the left of which is the drawing-room, having +cross-beams ornamented with plaster mouldings, as when first finished. +On the right of the passage is the dining-room. The breakfast-room and +kitchen are behind them. The house is three stories in height, and +stands back about two yards from the road, which points direct to the +now populous towns of Liversedge and Cleckheaton, both places of +considerable antiquity, whose inhabitants, employed in various +manufacturies, were increasing in Mr. Brontė's time. + +Finding himself now in possession of a competent income and a goodly +residence, he felt relieved from those anxieties which, in all +probability, had attended his early struggles; and, resting awhile in +his ambition, he turned in peace and contentment to poetical +meditation. His first book was called 'Cottage Poems,' on the +title-page of which he describes himself as the 'Reverend Patrick +Brontė, B.A., minister of Hartshead-cum-Clifton.' This book was +published at Halifax in the year 1811. The following are a few of its +subjects: 'The Happy Cottagers,' 'The Rainbow,' 'Winter Nights' +Meditations,' 'Verses sent to a Lady on her Birthday,' 'The Cottage +Maid,' and 'The Spider and the Fly.' Mr. Brontė thus speaks of himself +and his work: 'When relieved from clerical avocations he was occupied +in writing the "Cottage Poems;" from morning till noon, and from noon +till night, his employment was full of indescribable pleasure, such as +he could wish to taste as long as life lasts. His hours glided +pleasantly and almost imperceptibly by, and when night drew on, and he +retired to rest, ere his eyes closed in sleep with sweet calmness and +serenity of mind, he often reflected that, though the delicate palate +of criticism might be disgusted, the business of the day in the +prosecution of his humble task was well-pleasing in the sight of God, +and by His blessing might be rendered useful to some poor soul who +cared little about critical niceties.' Throughout he professes to be +indifferent to hostile criticism. + +It is pleasant to find that Mr. Brontė, although settled in competence +in a picturesque part of England, was not forgetful of his parents or +of the land of his birth. So long as his mother lived he sent her +twenty pounds a year; and, though we have no record of the occasion, we +may safely infer that he found opportunity to visit Ireland again. He +maintained his connection with the district of his early life; and, in +after-years, he appointed a relative of Mr. Tighe to be his own curate. +One of his 'Cottage Poems' is entitled 'The Irish Cabin,' a verse or +two from which may here be given:-- + + 'Should poverty, modest and clean, + E'er please when presented to view, + Should cabin on brown heath or green, + Disclose aught engaging to you; + Should Erin's wild harp soothe the ear, + When touched by such fingers as mine, + Then kindly attentive draw near, + And candidly ponder each line.' + +He describes a winter-scene on the mountains of Morne--a high range +of hills in the north of Ireland--and thus alludes to his hospitable +reception in the clean and industrious cabin of his verses:-- + + 'Escaped from the pitiless storm, + I entered the humble retreat; + Compact was the building, and warm, + In furniture simple and neat. + And now, gentle reader, approve + The ardour that glowed in each breast, + As kindly our cottagers strove + To cherish and welcome their guest.' + +It is unnecessary to give in this place further extracts from this +book; suffice it to say that, in all probability, Mr. Brontė lived to +see the day when he was pained and surprised that he had ever committed +it to the press. + +Although the poems of Mr. Brontė are inspired by the love of a peaceful +and contented life, free from excitement and care, yet in times of +trouble and emergency, such as those of the Luddite riots which +occurred during the period of his ministration at Hartshead, he showed +again the active and resolute spirit which had prompted and sustained +the efforts of his early ambition; and his ardour in helping to +suppress the turbulent spirit of the neighbourhood would have made him +very unpopular with the disaffected people, had they not learned to +respect the upright and unfailing rectitude of his conduct. In the +energetic character of Mr. Brontė's life in these early times, in his +persistent ambition, and in the literary pursuits which clearly were +dear to him, we may trace those factors of working power and literary +aspiration and taste which made up the characteristic intellectual +force of his children. + +Mrs. Gaskell, in her 'Life of Charlotte Brontė,' has given some of the +particulars of the Reverend Mr. Brontė's courtship and marriage, in +which she appears to have taken a lively interest. + +Mr. Brontė met his future wife, (Miss Maria Branwell--of whose +character I shall speak in the next chapter--the third daughter of Mr. +T. Branwell of Penzance, deceased) for the first time about the summer +of 1812, when she was on a visit to her uncle, the Rev. John Fennel, a +Methodist minister and head-master of the Wesleyan Academy at Woodhouse +Grove, near Bradford, but who became later a clergyman of the +Establishment, and was made incumbent of Cross-stone, in the parish of +Halifax. This meeting was soon followed by an engagement, and, says +Mrs. Gaskell, there were plans for happy picnic-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. + +In the account which Mr. Brontė gives of the aim and scope of the work +from which I have made an extract, and the state of his mind while +engaged upon it, we have a retrospect of the inner life of the father +of the Brontės, during his sojourn at Hartshead as perpetual curate, +prior to his marriage with Miss Branwell. In this period of his life, +he seems to have been perfectly happy, no cloud or anticipation of +future sorrow having obscured or diminished the fulness of his peace. +The marriage was celebrated on the 29th of December, 1812, at Guiseley, +near Bradford, by the Rev. W. Morgan, minister of Bierley, the +gentleman engaged to 'Cousin Jane.' It is a very curious circumstance +that on the same day, and at the same place, Mr. Brontė performed the +marriage ceremony between his wife's cousin, Miss Jane Fennel, only +daughter of the Mr. Fennel alluded to above, and the Rev. W. Morgan, +who had just been, as described, the officiating clergyman at his own +wedding. + +Mr. Fennel would naturally have performed the ceremony for his niece +and Mr. Brontė, had it not fallen to his lot to give the lady away. + +When Mr. Brontė found himself settled in married life at Hartshead, and +with the probability of a young family rising around him, he felt +pleasure in the contemplation of the future. Mrs. Brontė, ever gentle +and affectionate in her household ways, comforted and encouraged him in +his literary pursuits, and, by her acute observation and accurate +judgment, directed and aided his own. It was at this time that Mr. +Brontė wrote a book, entitled 'The Rural Ministry,' which was published +at Halifax, in 1813. The work consisted of a miscellany of descriptive +poems, with the following titles: 'The Sabbath Bells,' 'Kirkstall +Abbey,' 'Extempore Verses,' 'Lines to a Lady on her Birthday,' 'An +Elegy,' 'Reflections by Moonlight,' 'Winter,' 'Rural Happiness,' 'The +Distress and Relief,' 'The Christian's Farewell,' 'The Harper of Erin.' +It cannot be doubted that, in consequence of his two publications while +he was at Hartshead, Mr. Brontė became known in the surrounding +districts as an aspiring man, and one of literary culture and ability. + +Mr. Brontė had taken his bride to his house at High Town, and it was +there that his daughters Maria and Elizabeth were born. Maria was +baptized on April the 23rd, 1814, and is entered in the register as the +'daughter of Patrick Brontė and Maria his wife.' The Rev. Mr. Morgan +was the officiating minister. There is no such entry there relating to +Elizabeth, for she was baptized at Thornton with the other children. + +Mr. Brontė, after having been nearly five years minister of +Hartshead-cum-Clifton, resigned the benefice, and accepted, from the +vicar of Bradford, the incumbency of Thornton, a perpetual curacy in +that parish. This, probably, on the suggestion of Mr. Morgan, who was +then incumbent of Christ's Church at Bradford. + +Thornton is beautifully situated on the northern slope of a valley. +Green and fertile pastures spread over the adjacent hills, and wooded +dells with shady walks beautify and enrich the district. 'The +neighbourhood,' says Mrs. Gaskell, 'is desolate and wild; great tracts +of bleak land, enclosed by stone dykes, sweeping up Clayton Heights.' +This disagreeable picture of the place, painted by the biographer of +Charlotte, is scarcely justified by the actual appearance of the +district. The soil is naturally fertile, and the inhabitants are +notable for industry and enterprise. Hence no barren land, within the +wide range of hill and vale, is now seen obtruding on the cultivated +sweep. + +The town is somewhat regularly built. In the main street is situated +the house where Mr. Brontė took up his abode during his stay at +Thornton. The hall door was reached by several steps. There was a +dining-room on one side of the hall, and a drawing-room on the other. +Over the passage to the front was a dressing-room, at the window of +which the neighbours often saw Mr. Brontė at his toilet. Above the door +of the house, on a stone slab, there are still visible the letters: + + A. + J. S. + 1802 + +These are the initials of John and Sarah Ashworth, former inhabitants +of Thornton; and this residence remained as the parsonage until another +was built below, nearer to the chapel, by the successor of Mr. Brontė. + +The chapel of Thornton is a narrow, contracted, and unsightly building. +The north side is lighted by two rows of square cottage windows--on the +south side, five late perpendicular pointed windows permit the sun to +relieve the gloom of the interior. + +The diminutive communion-table is lighted by a four-mullioned window, +above which, externally, in the wall, appears the date 1620. The +interior is blocked, on the ground floor, with high-backed, unpainted +deal pews. Two galleries hide the windows almost from view, and cast a +gloom over the interior of the edifice. The area under the pews, and in +the aisles, is paved with gravestones, and a fetid, musty smell floats +through the damp and mouldering interior. In this chapel, Mr. Brontė +preached and ministered, and from the pulpit, placed high above the +curate and clerk, whence he delivered his sermons, he could see his +wife and children in a pew just below him. + +The new incumbent of Thornton seems to have taken active interest in +his chapel; for in the western screen, which divides a kind of lobby +from the nave, is painted, on a wooden tablet, an inscription recording +that in the year 1818 this chapel was 'Repaired and Beautified,' the +Rev. Patrick Brontė, B.A., being then minister. + +While at Thornton Mr. Brontė steadily pursued his literary avocations, +one of his books being a small volume entitled, 'The Cottage in the +Wood, or the Art of becoming Rich and Happy.' This is an account of a +pious family, consisting of an aged couple and a virtuous child, whose +appearance and education qualify her for a higher position in the world +than that of a cottager's daughter. Accident brings to their door a +young man in a state of almost helpless drunkenness, whose habits are +the most profligate and dissolute, as the sequel discloses; and the +object of the book is to show the dire consequences of continued +intemperance. The story is told in prose, but Mr. Brontė gives a +poetical version of one event in the narrative. It is entitled, 'The +Nightly Revel,' and possesses a dignity of its own. The following +extract shows considerable improvement, in diction and verse, upon the +style of his small volume published at Halifax, in 1811. For this +reason it is well worth reproducing. + + 'Around the table polish'd goblets shine, + Fill'd with brown ale, or crown'd with ruddy wine; + Each quaffs his glass, and, thirsty, calls for more, + Till maddening mirth, and song, and wild uproar, + And idly fierce dispute, and brutal fight + Break the soft slumbers of the peaceful night. + + 'Without, within, above, beneath, around, + Ungodly jests and deep-mouthed oaths resound; + Pale Reason, trembling, leaves her reeling throne, + Truth, Honour, Virtue, Justice, all are flown; + The sly, dark-glancing harlot's fatal breath + Allures to sin and sorrow, shame and death. + The gaming-table, too, that fatal snare, + Beset with fiercest passions fell is there; + Remorse, despair, revenge, and deadly hate, + With dark design, in bitter durance wait, + Till SCARLET MURDER waves his bloody hand, + Gives in sepulchral tone the dread command; + Then forth they rush, and from the secret sheath + Draw the keen blade and do the work of death.' + +Mr. Brontė also, in 1818, before his appointment to Haworth, published +his 'Maid of Killarney.' He had not been long at Thornton, where he +went about the year 1815, when a considerable increase in his family +added to his parental responsibilities. + +On his acceptance of the living, he probably enjoyed a larger stipend +than at Hartshead, but the demands of a young family, perhaps, on the +whole, made him a poorer man. There Charlotte Brontė was born in April, +1816; Patrick Branwell Brontė in 1817; Emily Jane Brontė in 1818; and +Anne Brontė probably just before Mr. Brontė's removal to Haworth, which +was on February 25th, 1820, as we are told by Mrs. Gaskell. + +Of the life of the Brontės at Thornton we know little. But there were +causes of anxiety pressing on Mr. Brontė at the time. The state of his +wife's health was a real sorrow, and although he derived solace from +his literary pursuits and the society of his clerical friends, his +spirits were damped by the contemplation of the season of bereavement +and affliction that assuredly threatened him at no distant date. + +With six young children, who might soon become motherless, Mr. Brontė's +future was dark and discouraging, and he entertained the idea of +resigning, at no distant day, the then place of his cure. Here, living +within a reasonable distance of Bradford, he had an opportunity of +moving in a larger circle of friends than at Hartshead, and it was here +that his children received their earliest impressions of local life and +character. Old inhabitants of Thornton remembered them playing in the +space opposite their father's residence, in the village street, and had +often seen them carried, or their parents lead them by the hand, in the +lanes of the neighbourhood. They were children only when they left +Thornton; yet, on many grounds, the inhabitants of that village may +feel privileged that it was the birthplace of the authors of 'Jane +Eyre,' 'Wuthering Heights,' and 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.' + +Shortly an opportunity presented itself to Mr. Brontė for leaving +Thornton, a vacancy having taken place at Haworth through the death of +the curate, Mr. Charnock. The situation of this chapelry was blessed +with a more bracing air, and the curate had a somewhat better stipend +than Thornton allowed, and so Mr. Brontė accepted the presentation from +the patron. We are informed, however, that, on visiting the place of +his intended ministrations, he was told that while to him personally +the parishioners had no objection, yet, as the nominee of the vicar of +Bradford, he would not be received. He had no idea that the inhabitants +had a veto in the appointment. + +On Mr. Brontė declaring that, if he had not the good-will of the +inhabitants, his ministrations would be useless, the place was +presented to Mr. Redhead by the patron, and the village seems to have +become the scene of extraordinary proceedings. It appears that, after +the Reformation, the presentation to the curacy of Haworth, which had +been from time immemorial vested in the vicar of Bradford, had become +subject to the control of the freeholders, and of certain trustees who +held possession of the principal funds from which the stipend of the +curate proceeded, which they could withhold, by virtue of an authority +they appear to have been empowered with. In effect, they could at any +time disallow or render void an appointment, if disagreeable to +themselves, by keeping back the stipend. Mr. Brontė, writing later of +Mr. Redhead, says of this: 'My predecessor took the living with the +consent of the vicar of Bradford and certain trustees, in consequence +of which he was so opposed that, after only three weeks' possession, he +was compelled to resign.' What this opposition and its immediate +effects were, we learn from the pages of Mrs. Gaskell's 'Life of +Charlotte Brontė,' and they may be mentioned here as illustrative of +the pre-eminent resolution and force of character which ever +distinguish the inhabitants of the West-Riding and the dwellers on +these rough-hewn and storm-beaten elevations. + +During the long illness which preceded the death of Mr. Charnock, +incumbent of Haworth, his assistant curate, Mr. Redhead, had supplied +his place; who, on Mr. Brontė's withdrawal, was presented, as is stated +above, to the vacant living by the patron, and he seems to have been +determined to hold the chapelry, _vi et armis_, in defiance of the +inhabitants. But the freeholders, conceiving they had been deprived of +their long established prerogative, or an attempt was being made to +interfere with it, protested against Mr. Redhead's appointment. On the +first occasion of this gentleman's preaching in the church, it was +crowded not by worshippers, but by a multitude of people bent on +mischief. These resolved the service should not proceed, or that it +should be rendered inaudible. To secure this object they had put on the +heavy wooden clogs they daily wore, except on Sundays, and, while the +surpliced minister was reading the opening service, the stamping and +clattering of the clogs drowned his voice, and the people left the +church, making all the noise and uproar that was in their power, which +was by no means feeble. The following Sunday witnessed proceedings +still more disgraceful. We are told that at the commencement of the +service, a man rode up the nave of the church on an ass, with his face +to the tail, and with a number of old hats piled on his head. On urging +his beast forward, the screams of delight, the roars of laughter, and +the shouts of the approving conspirators completely drowned the +clergyman's voice; and he left the chapel, but not yet discomfited. + +Mr. Redhead, on the third Sunday, resolved to make a strenuous and +final effort to keep the ecclesiastical citadel of which he had been +formally put in possession. For this purpose he brought with him a body +of cavalry, composed of a number of sympathising gentlemen, with their +horses; and the curate, thus accompanied by his supporters, ascended +the village street and put up at the 'Bull.' But the enemy had been on +the alert: the people were exasperated, and followed the new-comers to +the church, accompanied by a chimney-sweep who had, not long before, +finished his labours at some adjacent chimneys, and whom they had made +half drunk. Him they placed right before the reading-desk, which Mr. +Redhead had already reached, and the drunken, black-faced sweep nodded +assent to the measured utterances of the minister. 'At last,' it is +said, '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 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.'[1] They escaped from the place, and Mr. +Redhead, completely vanquished, retired from the curacy of Haworth. + + [1] 'Life of Charlotte Brontė,' chap. ii. + +Mr. Brontė, who had made a favourable impression on the inhabitants, +was now accepted by them, and the natural kindness of his disposition +and the urbanity of his manners, secured peace and contentment in the +village. + +His responsibilities as a pastor were not light, though the new scene +of his labours, in moral condition, was, perhaps, no worse than the +generality of similar villages in the north of England. The special +chroniclers of Haworth speak of the population of the barren mountains +west of York as 'rude and arrogant, after the manner of their wild +country.' This is the testimony of James Rither, a Yorkshire esquire. +The celebrated Oliver Haywood, preaching at the house of Jonas Foster, +at Haworth, on June 13th, 1672, broke out into lamentations about the +immorality, corruption, and profanity of the place. Mr. Grimshaw, in +the last century, while curate there, had a conviction that the +majority of the people were going to hell with their eyes open! Mrs. +Gaskell informs us that at Haworth, 'drinking without the head being +affected was considered a manly accomplishment.' A remarkable instance +of the loss of reverence and the increase of profanity, in those days, +is found in the observance of Palm Sunday at Heptonstall, a +neighbouring village, and at Haworth itself this feast was +pre-eminently distinguished in ancient times by the out-door +processions of people going from the church and returning to it, +bearing palm branches and singing the psalms and hymns appointed for +the special festival. + +It is known, indeed, that this feast was attended by the inhabitants of +the surrounding hills and valleys in those times; and, at the period of +which I speak, the attendance of the people was not diminished, but +increased, though they came for another object. It is a singular fact +that local feuds, if we may call them such, were kept up between the +villages of the West-Riding. And thus challenges were given alternately +by Haworth to Heptonstall, and by Heptonstall to Haworth, for struggles +between the champions of the respective villages, to be fought out on +Palm Sunday. The inhabitants of these places, therefore, met to pound +and pummel each other without any civil or religious cause to give +bitterness to the fray: greed of triumph and brutal indifference to +injuries inflicted characterized these hostile meetings. On such +occasions, at Heptonstall, amidst great drunkenness and rioting, there +were 'stand-up' fights from the church-gates to the 'Buttress,' a steep +part of the road, near the bridge which crosses the river at the foot +of Heptonstall Bank--nearly a mile in extent. On one of these feasts, a +Haworth belligerent, unwilling to return home, although night was +drawing on, and looking extremely dissatisfied, when asked by his wife +what ailed him, answered, 'Aw 'annot fawhten wi' onny body yet, an' +aw'll nut gooa whom till aw dun summat.' His affectionate spouse +replied, 'Then gooa, an' get fawhten' an' ha' done wi' it, for we mun +gooa.' The West-Riding police, on their institution, put an end to +these disagraceful proceedings. + +Haworth, the new place of Mr. Brontė's incumbency, which has been well +and very fully described by many writers, is situated on the western +confines of the parish of Bradford, and stands on a somewhat lofty +eminence. It is, however, protected in great measure from the western +storms by still higher ground, which consists of irreclaimable moors +and morasses. + +The church in which he, for the remainder of his life, performed his +religious services, and in which his more gifted children repose, after +their brief but memorable lives, was of ancient date. A chantry was +founded there at the beginning of the reign of Edward III., where a +priest celebrated daily for the repose of the soul of Adam de Battley, +and for the souls of his ancestors, and for all the faithful departed. +The church, which is dedicated to the glory of God, in honour of St. +Michael the archangel, has been recently, to a great extent, +re-edified. The old structure retained traces of one still older, of +the early English style. Invested as it was with the evidences of the +periods of taste good and bad through which it had passed, and with the +associations which attach to old and familiar internal arrangements, it +was endeared to the inhabitants. Of such associations the present +church--though an architectural gain upon its predecessor--is +necessarily destitute, and the world-wide interest with which the +former structure was invested through the genius of the Brontės has +been almost destroyed by the substitution of an edifice in which they +never prayed, and which they never saw; though their remains repose, it +is true, under its pavement, as is indicated by memorial tablets. + +During the existence of the old church, Haworth was visited by +continuous streams of people; but, on its removal, little was left to +attract pilgrims from afar, and there was a manifest diminution of +visitors to the village. + +In the recent alterations, the parsonage also, in which the children of +the Rev. Patrick Brontė lived and won for themselves enduring fame in +the path of literature, has undergone considerable changes. It has been +found necessary to add a new wing to the house, in order to obtain +larger accommodation, and, to beautify the parsonage still further, the +old cottage panes, through which light fell on precious and invaluable +pages of elaborate manuscript, as they passed through delicate and +gifted hands, have given way to plate-glass squares. Altogether the +house, both inside and out, presents a very different appearance from +that which it did in the time of the Brontės. + +The chapelry at Haworth, when Mr. Brontė accepted the perpetual curacy, +was much more populous and important than that of Thornton. The stipend +of £170 per annum, with a fair residence attached, and a sum of £27 +13s. for maintenance, made the change a desirable one on pecuniary +grounds; and, with Mrs. Brontė's annuity of £50 a year, anxiety on this +head was no doubt allayed. + +The population of the district was about four thousand seven hundred, +and, in the first ten years of Mr. Brontė's incumbency, increased by +nearly twelve hundred souls. The chapelry included within its bounds +the townships or hamlets of Stanbury and Near and Far Oxenhope, with +the extensive moors and scattered houses stretching to the borders of +Lancashire. The curacy of Stanbury, a place one mile west of Haworth, +with £100 per annum, was in the gift of Mr. Brontė; and there was also +the interest on £600, with a house, for the maintenance of a free +school at that place, and a sum of £90 per annum for a like purpose at +Haworth. In the year 1849, while Mr. Brontė was still incumbent, the +chapelry of Haworth was divided, a church having been erected at +Oxenhope at a cost of £1,500, the curacy there being valued at £150 per +annum. + +Among the considerations which had weight with Mr. Brontė in his +determination to accept the curacy of Haworth was, in all probability, +the delicate state of his wife's health, and the not over-robust +constitutions of his children. He knew, that though from the +smoke-laden atmosphere of the busy centres of West-Riding industry, +Keighley and Haworth were not wholly exempt, yet the winds which +prevailed from the west and the south-west for a great part of the +year, and swept over the moorlands from whose heights the Irish Channel +itself was visible, would, by their purity, give that invigoration of +which his family stood in need. It is quite possible, indeed, that by +Mr. Brontė's removal to Haworth, which gave an almost illimitable range +of wild, heathery hills for his children to wander over, an extension +of their short lives may have been attained. Mrs. Brontė, however, +derived little or no benefit from the change. She had suffered for some +time under a fatal malady--an internal cancer--of which, about eighteen +months after her arrival at Haworth, she died. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +MRS. BRONTĖ. + +The Mother of the Brontės--Her Character and Personal Appearance +--Her Literary Taste--Penzance, her Native Place--Description of +Penzance--The Branwell Family--Personal Traits of Maria Branwell +--Her Virtues--Her Letters to Mr. Brontė--Her Domestic Experiences. + + +The mother of the Brontės--whose death, in September, 1821, deprived +her children of the affectionate and tender care which, for the short +period of her married life, she had bestowed upon them--would, had she +been spared, have moulded their characters by her own meek, gentle, and +maternal virtues. Mrs. Brontė is said to have been small in person, but +of graceful and kindly manners; not beautiful, yet comely and +lady-like, and gifted with great discrimination, judgment, and modesty. +Mrs. Gaskell says she 'was very elegant, and always dressed with a +quiet simplicity of taste which accorded well with her general +character, and of which some details call to mind the style of dress +preferred by her daughter for her favourite heroines.' Mrs. Brontė was +also gifted with literary ability and taste. She had written an essay +entitled, 'The Advantages of Poverty in Religious Concerns,' with a +view to publication in some periodical; and her letters were +characterized by elegance and ease. Her relations in Penzance spoke of +her as 'their favourite aunt, and one to whom they, as well as the +family, looked up as a person of talent and great amiability of +disposition;' and again, as 'possessing more than ordinary talents, +which she inherited from her father.' + +Mrs. Brontė, as has been said, was a native of Penzance, a corporate +town in the county of Cornwall, and also a sea-port. Penzance is +situated in the hundred of Penwith, and is the most westerly town in +England. The climate is distinguished by great mildness and salubrity, +and the land is remarkable for its fertility, and the beauty of its +meads and pastures. Its maritime situation, however, had, in former +times, exposed it to the descents of foreign invaders, the last of +which appears to have been that of the Spaniards in the year 1595. The +account given of this event is that the invaders, being masters of +Bretagne, sent four vessels manned with a force sufficient to occupy +the Cornish coast. They landed near Mousehole--a well-known place on +the western side of Mount's Bay--and entered the town, which they set +on fire, the inhabitants fleeing before them. At a later date the town +became very pleasant, and many of the houses were large and +respectable, while the streets were well paved. Generally the people +enjoyed long lives, and some attained the patriarchal age: one of +these--Dolly Pentreath, who died in her one hundred and second year, +and who had made the 'Mousehole' her residence--was known as the last +who spoke Cornish. On account of the gentleness of the climate, many +suffering from pulmonary complaints took up their residence there. + +Penzance was a town surrounded by places of great interest to the +historian and the antiquary, which are fully described by Borlase and +others. The trades carried on at the place were of considerable extent +in tin and the pilchard fishery, as well as in copper, earthenware, +clay, and in other objects of manufacture and merchandise. In one of +the local industries, Mr. Thomas Branwell was engaged. He had married a +lady named Carne, and they had four daughters and one son. Maria was +their third daughter. The families of Mr. and Mrs. Branwell were well +connected, and moved in the best society in Penzance. They were +Wesleyan Methodist in religion, and the children were brought up in +that persuasion. Mr. Branwell relieved the cares of business by the +delights and consolations of music, in the performance of which he is +said to have had considerable ability. He and his wife lived to see +their children grown up; and died, Mr. Branwell in 1808, and his wife +in 1809. + +Maria Branwell visited her uncle, Mr. Fennel, at the beginning of the +summer of 1812, as is stated above, and, for the first time, saw Mr. +Brontė. A feeling of mutual admiration sprang up between them, and +something like the beginning of an engagement took place. When she +returned home, a correspondence opened between the two, and Mr. Brontė +preserved the letters. These have been referred to by the biographer of +his daughter, and we learn that the communications of Miss Branwell +were characterized by singular modesty, thoughtfulness, and piety. She +was surprised to find herself so suddenly engaged, but she accepted +with modest candour the proffer of Mr. Brontė's affection. The future +was determined by mutual acquiescence. On Miss Branwell, nature had +bestowed no great personal attractions, yet, as has been said, she was +comely, and lady-like in her manners; and her innate grace drew +irresistibly to her the esteem of all her acquaintances. Little is +known respecting her beyond the personal traits already mentioned; and +as to the circumstances and events of her life, unmarried or married, +which was one of an extremely even and uneventful kind, little or +nothing can be recorded beyond the ordinary routine of domestic duties +well and affectionately performed, and of obligations in her sphere +religiously observed. Blameless in her conduct, loving in her charge, +and patient in the sufferings she was called upon to endure, she was a +pattern of those excellencies which are the adornments of domestic +life, and make the hearth happy and contented. It cannot be doubted +that she ordered her household with judgment, and expended her +husband's income with frugality and to the best advantage. + +Mrs. Gaskell was enabled to give an extract from one of her letters +written to Mr. Brontė before her marriage, which displays in an +excellent manner her calm sensibility and understanding. 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.'[2] + + [2] 'Life of Charlotte Brontė,' chap. iii. + +The usual preparations, which Mrs. Gaskell has particularized, were +made for the wedding; but during the arrangements a disaster happened, +to which the following letter to Mr. Brontė refers:-- + + 'I suppose you never expected to be much 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 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 + home.'[3] + + [3] 'Life of Charlotte Brontė,' chap. iii. + +The wedding took place at Guiseley, on December 29th, 1812, as is +stated in the previous chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE REV. PATRICK BRONTĖ. + +Character of the Rev. P. Brontė--Charges against Him--Serious +Allegations of Biographers--Injustice of the Charges--Mr. Brontė's +indignant Denial of the Imputations--Testimony of Nancy Garrs--Mrs. +Brontė and the Silk-Dress Episode--Mr. Brontė, the Supposed Prototype +of Mr. Helstone--The Pistol-shots Theory--Mr. Brontė on Science +Knowledge--Miss Branwell. + + +The character of the Rev. Patrick Brontė, who was responsible, after +the death of his wife, for the education of his children, if we may +believe the accounts given of it by those who have admired their +genius, had many deplorable peculiarities. It would be difficult, +indeed, to find anywhere the record of such passionate outbreaks, such +unreasoning prejudices, and such unbending will as are revealed in the +stories which are told of him. But we shall see presently that most of +these charges have no foundation in fact, while others are, probably, +the result of total misconception. + +Mrs. Gaskell gives an account of these peculiarities. On one occasion, +she tells us, after the children had been out on the wet moors, the +nurse had rummaged out certain coloured boots given to them by the Rev. +Mr. Morgan, who had been sponsor for Maria at Hartshead, and had +arranged them before the fire. Mr. Brontė observing this, and thinking +the bright colours might foster pride, heaped the boots upon the coals, +and filled the house with a very strong odour of burnt leather. 'Long +before this,' she says, 'some one had given Mrs. Brontė a silk gown ... +she kept it treasured up in her drawers. One day, however, while in the +kitchen, she remembered that she had left the key in the drawer, and, +hearing Mr. Brontė upstairs, she augured some ill to her dress, and, +running up in haste, she found it cut into shreds.... He did not speak +when he was annoyed or displeased, but worked off his volcanic wrath by +firing pistols out of the back-door in rapid succession.... Now and +then his anger took a different form, but still was speechless. Once he +got the hearth-rug, and, stuffing it up the grate, deliberately set it +on fire, and remained in the room in spite of the stench until it had +smouldered and shrivelled away into uselessness. Another time he took +some chairs, and sawed away at the backs till they were reduced to the +condition of stools.'[4] + + [4] Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte Brontė,' chap. iii, 1st + edition. + +Mr. Wemyss Reid, who implicitly adopts the 'pistol shots' and 'pretty +dress' stories, while paying a high tribute to Mr. Brontė's rectitude, +and to his just pride in the celebrity of his daughters, says of him, +'He appears to have been a strange compound of good and evil. That he +was not without some good is acknowledged by all who knew him. He had +kindly feelings towards most people.... But throughout his whole life +there was but one person with whom he had any real sympathy, and that +person was himself.' He was 'passionate, self-willed, vain, habitually +cold and distant in his demeanour towards those of his own household.' +His wife 'lived in habitual dread of her lordly master.... It would be +a mistake to suppose that violence was one of the weapons to which Mr. +Brontė habitually resorted ... his general policy was to secure his end +by craft rather than by force.'[5] + + [5] 'Charlotte Brontė, a Monograph,' pp. 20, 21, 22. + +Miss Robinson, without hesitation, repeats the censures on Mr. Brontė +published by Mrs. Gaskell and Mr. Reid, asking, 'Who dare say if that +marriage was happy? Mrs. Gaskell, writing in the life and for the eyes +of Mr. Brontė, speaks of his unwearied care, his devotion in the +night-nursing. But, before that fatal illness was declared, she lets +fall many a hint of the young wife's loneliness ... of her patient +suffering, of his violent temper.'[6] + + [6] 'Emily Brontė,' by A. Mary F. Robinson, 1883, p. 16. + +It will thus be seen that the disposition of Mr. Brontė must have been +a sad one indeed, if all these statements are true; and marvellous +that, with 'such a father,' the young and sterling faculties of the +'six small children' should have been so admirably directed and trained +that, of the four who lived to later years, three at least occupy an +exalted and prominent position among women of letters in the present +century. And it would be still more strange that these children were +especially distinguished for the gentleness of their dispositions, and +the refinement of their ideas. It may be hoped that the readers of this +volume, with their additional knowledge of the affectionate, but often +wayward, Branwell, will sympathize with the sentiment which Monsieur +Héger expressed in his letter to Mr. Brontė, that, _en jugeant un +pčre de famille par ses enfants on ne risque pas de se tromper_. For +we can scarcely doubt that the characteristics of the children, which I +have named, were due, in fact, in great measure, to Mr. Brontė's +affectionate supervision and education of them. He had graduated at St. +John's College, Cambridge, as we have seen; and the culture and tone of +the university were brought under the roof of his house, where his +children--more especially Branwell--were subjected to its influence. +Moreover, whatever may be thought of Mr. Brontė's intellectual gifts, +or of the talent he displayed in his poems and prose writings, we may +be sure that he possessed, in a marked degree, a deep sympathy with a +higher mental training, and with the truth and simplicity of a pastoral +life. + +After the allegations against Mr. Brontė had appeared in the first +edition of the life of his daughter Charlotte, he never ceased to deny +the scandalous reflections upon his character in that work. 'They +were,' he said to me, 'wholly untrue.' He stated that he had 'fulfilled +every duty of a husband and a father with all the kindness, solicitude, +and affection which could be required of him.' And Mrs. Brontė herself +had said, as quoted by Mrs. Gaskell, 'Ought I not to be thankful that +he never gave me an angry word?' thus openly declaring that, whatever +might have been the peculiarities of Mr. Brontė's temper, his wife, at +least, never suffered the consequences. The children also ever looked +up to their father with reverence, gratitude, and devotion. + +In a conversation I had with Mr. Brontė on the 8th of July, 1857, he +spoke of the unjustifiable reflections upon himself which had been made +public, and he said, 'I did not know that I had an enemy in the world, +much less one who would traduce me before my death, till Mrs. Gaskell's +"Life of Charlotte" appeared. Every thing in that book which relates to +my conduct to my family is either false or distorted. I never did +commit such acts as are there ascribed to me.' At a later interview Mr. +Brontė explained that by the word 'enemies,' he implied, 'false +informants and hostile critics.' He believed that Mrs. Gaskell had +listened to village scandal, and had sought information from some +discarded servant. + +Let us then examine the source of these allegations. Mrs. Gaskell +tells us that her informant was 'a good old woman,' who had been +Mrs. Brontė's nurse in her illness. Now it is known that, whatever +good qualities this person may be supposed to have had, her +conscientiousness and rectitude, at least, were not of the first order, +and she was detected in proceedings which caused Mr. Brontė to dismiss +her at once. With the double effect of explaining her dismissal and +injuring Mr. Brontė, this person gave an account of his temper and +conduct, embellished with the stories which I have quoted from the +first edition of the 'Life of Charlotte,' to a minister of the place; +and it was in this way that Mrs. Gaskell became acquainted with her and +them. Nancy Garrs, a faithful young woman who had been in Mr. Brontė's +service at Thornton, who continued with the family after the removal to +Haworth, and who still survives--a widow, Mrs. Wainwright--at an +advanced age, a well-known inhabitant of Bradford, informs me that the +'silk dress' which Mr. Brontė is said to have torn to shreds was a +print dress, not new, and that Mr. Brontė, disliking its enormous +sleeves, one day, finding the opportunity, cut them off. The whole +thing was a joke, which Mrs. Brontė at once guessed at, and, going +upstairs, she brought the dress down, saying to Nancy, 'Look what he +has done; that falls to your share.' Nancy declares the other stories +to be wholly unfounded. She speaks of Mr. Brontė as a 'most +affectionate husband; there never was a more affectionate father, never +a kinder master;' and 'he was not of a violent temper at all; quite the +reverse.' + +This view of these slanderous stories is fortunately also confirmed out +of the mouth of Charlotte Brontė. In the fourth chapter of 'Shirley,' +speaking of Mr. Helstone--whose character, though not absolutely +founded on that of her father, is yet unquestionably influenced by her +knowledge of his disposition, and of some incidents in which he had +been concerned,--she says that on the death of his wife, 'his dry-eyed +and sober mourning scandalized an old housekeeper, and likewise a +female attendant who had waited upon Mrs. Helstone in her sickness ... +they gossiped together over the corpse, related anecdotes with +embellishments of her lingering decline, and its real or supposed +cause; in short, they worked each other up to some indignation against +the austere little man, who sat examining papers in an adjoining room, +unconscious of what opprobrium he was the object. Mrs. Helstone was +hardly under the sod when rumours began to be rife in the neighbourhood +that she had died of a broken heart; these magnified quickly into +reports of hard usage, and, finally, details of harsh treatment on the +part of her husband: reports grossly untrue, but not less eagerly +received on that account.' It will thus be seen that the character of +Mr. Helstone becomes in part a defence of Mr. Brontė. On the occasion +above referred to, Mr. Brontė went on to say that, 'while duly +acknowledging the obligations he felt himself under to Mrs. Gaskell for +her admirable memoir of his daughter, he could not but regard her +uncalled-for allusions to himself, and the failings of his son +Branwell, as the excrescences of a work otherwise ably carried out.' He +appeared, on this occasion, to be consoled by the thought that, owing +to the remonstrances he had made, the objectionable passages would be +expunged from the subsequent editions of the work, and that he would +ultimately be set right with the public. He concluded with these +words:--'I have long been an abstraction to the world, and it is not +consoling now to be thus dragged before the public; to be represented +as an unkind husband, and charged with acts which I never committed.' + +The story of the pistol-shots admits of ready explanation. It is known +that Mr. Brontė, like Helstone, had a strange fascination in military +affairs, and he seems to have had almost the spirit of Uncle Toby. He +lived, too, in the troublous times of the Luddites, and had kept +pistols, for defence as Mr. Helstone did. That gentleman, it will be +remembered, had two pairs suspended over the mantel-piece of his study, +in cloth cases, kept loaded. As I have reason to know, Mr. Brontė, +having been accustomed to the use of fire-arms, retained the possession +of them for safety in the night; but, fearing they might become +dangerous, occasionally discharged them in the day-time. + +Mr. Brontė's remonstrances and denials, and his refutation of the +scandals attributed to him, had their effect; and the charges +complained of were entirely omitted in the edition of the 'Life of +Charlotte,' published in the year 1860. Mr. Brontė was in his +eighty-fourth year when this tardy act of bare justice was done to him. +It may be added that the people of Haworth, when they saw in print Mrs. +Gaskell's exaggerated and erroneous statements, loudly expressed their +disapprobation. Mr. Wood, late churchwarden of Haworth, also denied the +stories of the cutting up of Mrs. Brontė's dress, and the other charges +just referred to. + +The truth about Mr. Brontė appears to be this: that though, like Mr. +Helstone--many of the _traits_ of whose character were derived +from that of the incumbent of Haworth--he might have missed his +vocation, like him he was 'not diabolical at all,' and that, like him, +also, 'he was a conscientious, hard-headed, hard-handed, brave, stern, +implacable, faithful little man: a man almost without sympathy, +ungentle, prejudiced, and rigid: but a man true to principle--honourable, +sagacious, and sincere.' Possibly we should not be wholly mistaken in +saying that, like the parson in 'Shirley,' Nature never intended him +'to make a very good husband, especially to a quiet wife.' He lacked +the fine sympathy and delicate perception that would have enabled +him to make his family entirely happy; and when brooding over his +politics, his pamphlets, and his sermons, like Mr. Helstone, he +probably locked 'his liveliness in his book-case and study-desk.' +Yet Mr. Helstone is neither brutal nor insane, 'neither tyrannical +nor hypocritical,' but 'simply a man who is rather liberal than +good-natured, rather brilliant than genial, rather scrupulously +equitable than truly just--if you can understand such superfine +distinctions?' + +It would not have been necessary, in this work, to defend at such +length the character of the Rev. Patrick Brontė, had it not happened, +unfortunately, that recent works, which have treated admirably of the +writings of his daughters, have also acquiesced in, and to a great +extent reiterated, the serious charges made against him. Moreover, it +can never be a useless thing to retrieve a character which has been +thoughtlessly taken away. This defence has now been made, and it may be +hoped that the 'six motherless children' had a more amiable and +affectionate father than is generally supposed, and that he paid +careful and anxious attention to their bringing-up and to their +education. Indeed, of this there need be no doubt. The death of his +wife had placed them in his hands, he being their only support on +earth, and it surely is not too much to say that he knew his duty, and +did it well, as the lives of his children prove, on the ground of +natural affection, and, perhaps, of higher motives also. + +The following extract from a letter written by Mr. Brontė a few +years later, in reference to scientific knowledge, is sufficiently +characteristic. He says: 'In this age of innovation and scepticism, it +is the incumbent duty of every man of an enlarged and pious mind to +promote, to the utmost extent of his abilities, every movement in the +variegated, complex system of human affairs, which may have either a +direct, indirect, or collateral tendency to purify and expand the +naturally polluted and circumscribed mind of fallen nature, and to +raise it to that elevation which the Scriptures require, as well as the +best interests of humanity.' + +Upon the death of his wife, Mr. Brontė felt the need of some one to +superintend the affairs of his household, and assist him in this +important charge of the bringing-up of his children; and so, towards +the end of the year 1822, an elder sister of the deceased lady, Miss +Elizabeth Branwell of Penzance, came to reside with him. She is +represented to have been, in personal appearance, of low and slight +proportions; prim and starched in her attire, which was, when prepared +for the reception of visitors, invariably of silk; and she wore, +according to the fashion of the time, a frontal of auburn curls, +gracefully overshadowing her forehead. She took occasionally, through +habit, a pinch from her gold snuff-box, which she had always at hand. +When she had taken up her residence at bleak, wild, and barren Haworth, +she is said to have sighed for the flower-decked meads of sunny +Penzance, her native place. Miss Branwell's affectionate regard for her +dead sister's children caused her to take deep interest in everything +relating to them, their health, the comfort and cleanliness of their +home, and the sedulous culture of their minds. In the management of +Mr. Brontė's household she was materially assisted by the faithful and +trustworthy Tabby, who, in 1825, was added to the family as a domestic +servant. By a long and faithful service of some thirty years in the +Brontė family, Tabby gained the respect and confidence of the +household. She had been born and nurtured in the chapelry of Haworth, +at a time when mills and machinery were not, when railways had not made +the inhabitants of the hills and valleys familiar with the cities and +towns of England; and, moreover, before the ancient dialect, so +interesting philologically to the readers of King Alfred's translations +of Orosius and Bede, and the like, came to be considered rude, vulgar, +and barbarous. Tabby used the dialect rightly, without any attempt to +improve on the language of her childhood and of her fathers; and she +was original and truthful in this, as in all her ways. It was from +Tabby, principally, that the youthful Brontės gained the familiarity +with the Yorkshire Doric, which they afterwards reproduced with such +accuracy in 'Shirley,' 'Wuthering Heights,' and others of their +writings. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE GIRLHOOD OF THE BRONTĖ SISTERS. + +Girlhood--Gravity of Character--Charlotte's Description of the Elf-land +of Childhood--The Still and Solemn Moors of Haworth influence their +Writings--The Present of Toys--The Plays which they Acted--Mr. +Brontė on a Supposed Earthquake--The Evidence of his Care for his +Children--Grammar School at Haworth--His Children under the Tuition +of the Master--The Character of the School--Cowan Bridge School-- +Charlotte's View of Mr. Carus Wilson's Management--Deaths of +Maria and Elizabeth. + + +The childhood of the Brontės in the parsonage of Haworth has been +pictured to us as a very strange one indeed. We have seen them deprived +in their early youth of that maternal care which they required so much, +and left in the hands of a father unfamiliar with such a charge, who +was filled with Spartan ideas of discipline, and with theories of +education above and beyond the capacity of childhood. There was +probably little room in the house of Mr. Brontė for gaiety and +amusement, very little tolerance for pretty dress, or home beauty, and +small comprehension of childish needs. Rigid formality, silent +chambers, staid attire, frugal fare, and secluded lives fell to the lot +of these thoughtful and gifted children. It was no wonder that they +grew up 'grave and silent beyond their years;' that, when infantine +relaxation failed them, they betook themselves to reading newspapers, +and debating the merits of Hannibal and Cęsar, of Buonaparte and +Wellington; or that, when they were deprived of the company of the +village children by the '_Quis ego et quis tu?_' which was forced +too early upon them, they fled for silent companionship with the moors. +Yet this childhood, stern and grim though it was, where we look in vain +for the beautiful simplicity and sunny gladness which should ever +distinguish the features of youth, had a beauty and a joy of its own; +and it had a merit also. Charlotte Brontė herself has left us one of +the most beautiful pictures which can be found in English literature of +the pleasures of childhood, that elf-land which is passed before the +shores of Reality have arisen in front; when they stand afar off, so +blue, soft, and gentle that we long to reach them; when we 'catch +glimpses of silver lines, and imagine the roll of living waters,' +heedless of 'many a wilderness, and often of the flood of Death, or +some stream of sorrow as cold and almost as black as Death' that must +be crossed ere true bliss can be tasted. So the Brontės, trooping +abroad on the moors, revelling in the freedom of Nature, while their +faculties expanded to the noblest ends, lived also in the heroic world +of childhood, 'its inhabitants half-divine or semi-demon; its scenes +dream-scenes; darker woods and stranger hills; brighter skies, more +dangerous waters; sweeter flowers, more tempting fruits; wider plains; +drearier deserts; sunnier fields than are found in Nature.' Can we +doubt that the Brontė children, endowed, as the world was afterwards to +know, with keener perceptions, more exalted sympathies, and nobler +gifts than other children, enjoyed these things more than others could? +And the merit of their childhood was this: that it impressed them in +the strongest form with the influence of locality, with the boundless +expanse of the moors, and with the weird and rugged character of the +people amongst whom they lived, and whom they afterwards drew so well. +Such influences as these are a quality more or less traceable in the +works of every author, but they are very apparent in the productions of +the Brontės. These writers could not have produced 'Jane Eyre,' +'Shirley,' and 'Wuthering Heights' without them, any more than +Goldsmith could have written his 'Vicar of Wakefield' if his early +years had not been passed in the pleasant village of Lissey. The moors, +clothed with purple heather and golden gorse in billowy waves, were +certainly all in all to Emily Brontė; and she and her sisters, and the +youthful Branwell with his ready admiration and brilliant fancy, +escorted by Tabby, enjoyed to the full the free atmosphere of the +heights around Haworth. The rushing sound of their own waterfall, and +the shrill cries of the grouse, which flew up as they came along, were +to them friendly voices of the opening life of Nature whose potent +influence inspired them so well. + +Of other companionship in their early years they had hardly any; and +being unable to associate much with children of their own age and +condition, or to play with their young and immediate neighbours in +childish games, Mr. Brontė's son and daughters grew up amongst their +elders with heads older than their years, and spoke with a knowledge +that might have sprung from actual experience of men and manners. They +were, in fact, 'old-fashioned children.' Their extraordinary cleverness +was soon observed, and the servants were always on their guard lest any +of their remarks might be repeated by the children. Notwithstanding +this, the little Brontės were children still, and took pleasure in the +things of childhood. Up-grown men will not whip a top on the causeways, +nor trundle a hoop through the streets, nor play at 'hide-and-seek' at +dusk as of yore; but the Brontė children in their youthful days did all +these things, and they entered at times with ardour, despite their +precocious gravity, into the simple joys and amusements of childhood, +as is testified by the eager delight with which they regarded the +presents of the toys they received. + +The earliest notice we have of Branwell Brontė is that Charlotte +remembered having seen her mother playing with him during one golden +sunset in the parlour of the parsonage at Haworth. Later, we are +informed that Mr. Brontė brought from Leeds on one occasion a box of +wooden soldiers for him. The children were in bed, but the 'next +morning,' says Charlotte, in one of her juvenile manuscripts, '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."' So Charlotte relates these glad incidents of their +childhood with pleasure, and places on record the joy they inspired. + +Mr. Brontė says, 'When mere children, as soon as they could read and +write, Charlotte and her brother 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 infrequently arise amongst them regarding the comparative merits of +Buonaparte, Hannibal, and Cęsar.' + +In acting their early plays, they performed them with childish glee, +and did not fail at times to 'tear a passion to tatters.' They observed +that Tabby did not approve of such extraordinary proceedings; but on +one occasion, with increased energy of action and voice, they so +wrought on her fears that she retreated to her nephew's house, and, as +soon as she could regain her breath, she exclaimed, 'William! yah mun +gooa up to Mr. Brontė's, for aw'm sure yon childer's all gooin mad, and +aw darn't stop 'ith hause ony longer wi' 'em; an' aw'll stay here woll +yah come back!' When the nephew reached the parsonage, 'the childer set +up a great crack o' laughin',' at the wonderful joke they had +perpetrated on faithful Tabby. + +Mr. Brontė--like other parents and friends of precocious and gifted +children, who, in after-life have become celebrated in religion, art, +poetry, literature, politics, or war, and who have given out in +childhood tokens of brilliant and sterling gifts which have been +recorded in their biographies--saw in his own children evidences of +that mental power, fervid imagination, and superior faculty of language +and expression, which were developed in them in after-years. He often +fancied that great powers lay in his children, and it cannot be doubted +that he sometimes looked forward to and hoped for a brilliant future +for his offspring. It was this hope that cheered him, and he gave to +Mrs. Gaskell, for publication, all the evidences of genius in his son +and daughters, as children, which he could remember. But, from the +information he imparted to that writer, we can scarcely gather, I fear, +sufficient to justify the inference he drew, or appears to have drawn, +for the particulars given border too much on the trivial and +unimportant. Perhaps Mr. Brontė failed to remember the special +evidences he had observed of what he intended to convey at the actual +moment of communication. Be this as it may, no doubt remained on his +mind that genius was apparent in his children above and apart from +their eager reading of magazines and newspapers, nor that other schemes +and objects occupied their thoughts than the interests and contentions +of the political parties of the hour. + +'When my children were very young,' says Mr. Brontė,--'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."' In answer to a question as to which were the two best books, +Charlotte said that 'the Bible,' and after it the 'Book of Nature,' +were the best. Mr. Brontė then asked the next daughter, 'What is the +best mode of education for a woman;' she answered, 'That which would +make her rule her house well.' He then asked the eldest, Maria, 'What +is the best mode of spending time;' she answered, 'By laying it out in +preparation for a happy eternity.' He says he may not have given the +exact words, but they were nearly so, and they had made a lasting +impression on his memory.[7] + + [7] Mrs. Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte Brontė,' chap. iii. + +But the intellectual pabulum of Mr. Brontė's children, for some time, +consisted, for the most part, as we are told, of magazines and +newspapers. As these took the place of toy-books and fairy tales, their +young minds were attracted by such moral subjects and entertaining +stories as were treated of in the serials of the day; and their +attention was also largely engaged in the political questions which +were then debated in the Houses of Parliament. Imbibing from their +father their religious and political views and opinions, they became +strong partizans and supporters of the leading Conservatives in the +House of Lords and the House of Commons. They had often heard +conversations between their father and aunt on these subjects; they +listened with interested attention, and obtained information as to the +outer world and its pursuits. By their surroundings their minds were +soon raised above the thoughts, desires, and interests of childhood in +general; and, under the circumstances, though it may seem odd, it is +not extraordinary that wooden soldiers should thus be made, by these +talented children, to represent the two great opposing warriors of the +present age. + +In addition to the general bringing-up of his children at home, and the +formal tasks which Mr. Brontė set them, magazines and other +publications were thrown about, and Maria, being the eldest, was wont +to read the newspapers when she was less than nine years old, and +reported matters of home and foreign interest, as well as those +relating to the public characters and current affairs of the day, to +her young brother and sisters. Indeed, so earnest was her relevancy on +such occasions in these unchildish and grave questions, that she could +talk upon them with discriminating intelligence to her father, whose +interest in his children thus grew, as their faculties expanded. The +young Brontės, though still in childhood's years, were soon no longer +children in intellect: they touched, in fact, the 'Shores of Reality' +at an earlier age than most children; and, though interested sometimes, +perhaps momentarily, in trivial matters, they seem to have turned +almost everything to literary account. Even Branwell's toys, which they +all received so gleefully, gave rise to the 'Young Men's Play.' + +Mr. Brontė, though interested deeply in the gradual development of the +mental gifts of his children, did not fail, after his wife's death, to +promote and protect their health, and he availed himself of the means +which the chapelry of Haworth afforded. For this object he encouraged +recreation on the moors at suitable times, and subjected the young +members of his family to the pure and exhilarating breeze that, +redolent of heather, breathed over them from the sea, during the summer +and autumnal months. + +On Tuesday, September the 2nd, 1824, a severe thunderstorm, and an +almost unprecedented downfall of rain which resembled, in volume, a +waterspout, caused the irruption of an immense bog, at Crow Hill, an +elevation, between Keighley and Colne, and about one thousand feet +above the sea-level. The mud, mingled with stones, many of large size, +rolled down a precipitous and rugged clough that descended from it. +Reaching the hamlet of Pondens, the torrent expanded and overspread the +corn-fields adjoining to the depth of several feet, with many other +devastating consequences. + +Mr. Brontė regarded this as the effect of an earthquake, and he sent a +communication to the 'Leeds Mercury,' in which he says: 'At the time of +the irruption, the clouds were copper-coloured, gloomy, and lowering, +the atmosphere was strongly electrified, and unusually close.' In the +same month--on Sunday, September 12th, 1824--he preached a sermon on +the subject, in Haworth Church, in which he informed his hearers that, +the day of disaster being exceedingly fine, he had sent his little +children, who were indisposed, accompanied by the servants, to take an +airing on the common, and, as they stayed rather longer than he +expected, he went to an upper chamber to look out for their return. The +heavens over the moors were blackening fast; he heard the muttering of +distant thunder, and saw the frequent flashes of lightning. Though, ten +minutes before, there was scarcely a breath of air stirring, the gale +freshened rapidly and carried along with it clouds of dust and stubble. +'My little family,' he continued, 'had escaped to a place of shelter, +but I did not know it.' These were Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and +Anne. Their sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, were then at Cowan Bridge. + +When Mr. Brontė accepted the living of Haworth, he had found existing +there a Grammar School, and he took in it a special and personal +interest, for it was an old institution, was endowed, and had recently +been renovated. It was his policy to show that he took an interest in +it; so that, by adding his support to that of the trustees, he might +possibly confirm their favourable opinion of him, and secure their +continued good feeling. This was essential at the time, as any +appearance of coldness on his part towards their cherished foundation +would have perhaps evoked a spirit akin to that which caused the +compulsory resignation of Mr. Redhead, or have induced an estrangement +between himself and the trustees. It is stated, with regard to this +Grammar School, that one Christopher Scott by will, dated the 4th of +October, 13th of Charles I., gave a school-house which he had built +adjoining the church-way; and ordained that there should be a +school-master who should be a graduate at least, a bachelor, if not a +master of arts, and who should teach Greek and Latin. The school had +been enlarged in 1818, when the Brontė family were still at Thornton, +and a new house was then erected for the master by the trustees. + +As this foundation was designed to provide a classical education for +its students, it was one to which the better classes in the +neighbourhood need not have hesitated to entrust their children for +superior instruction than could possibly be had in the ordinary schools +of the district. The school was situated close to the parsonage, a lane +only intervening, and it was commodious and lightsome. But Mr. Brontė, +on his arrival, found that it had not for some time been maintained as +a regular Grammar School: that there was little or no demand for the +advantages of a classical education for their children among the +inhabitants of the chapelry.[8] Yet the master who received the +appointment from the trustees at the Midsummer of 1826, although not +even a graduate of either of the universities, was stated to be +competent to teach Latin, and was a man of considerable attainments, +instructing both boys and girls in every essential branch of knowledge. +In this the tutor differed nothing from some of his immediate +predecessors. But, though education of this sort was thus immediately +at hand, Mr. Brontė does not appear to have availed himself of it for +his daughters, or his son Branwell, for any great length of time. Mrs. +Gaskell says, indeed, that their regular tasks were given by himself. +Mr. Brontė, however, probably heard his children repeat early lessons +set by the master in order to ascertain with what facility they had +learned them. At a later date, Branwell and his sisters took a larger +interest in the Grammar School, and they became active and willing +teachers in the Sunday-school, which was connected with it. They were, +indeed, often seen, as is yet remembered, in the processions of the +scholars. + + [8] James's 'History of Bradford,' p. 358. + +Although Mr. Brontė had taken vigilant and affectionate care to promote +the health of his children, he was well aware that though he could +strengthen their constitutions in some sort, delicate by nature as they +were, he could not ward off with certainty the diseases and sufferings +incident to childhood, from which his children were, indeed, +unfortunately destined to suffer. Solicitude therefore came upon the +parsonage when Maria and Elizabeth were attacked by measles and +whooping-cough. Recovering partially from these attacks, it was thought +desirable to send them--perhaps partly for change of air--to a school +which had somewhat recently been established at Cowan Bridge, a hamlet +on the coach-road between Leeds and Kendal, which was easily reached +from Haworth, as the coach passed daily. This school was especially +established for the board and education of the daughters of such +clegymen of the Establishment as required it. It was begun, as we know +from Mrs. Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte Brontė,' by the Rev. William +Carus Wilson; and we are aware also that severe and unqualified +censures were passed upon its situation and management by the author of +'Jane Eyre,' in after-years, under the description of Lowood, and that +the Ellen Burns of the story was no other than Maria Brontė. Readers of +'Jane Eyre' became indignant, and the Cowan Bridge School was +execrated, denounced, and condemned by the public, to the utter +distress and pain of its founder and patron. + +In reference to this affair, Charlotte indeed said to her future +biographer 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 analyzing the conduct of those who had the +superintendence of the institution.' Mrs. Gaskell believes Charlotte +'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.'[9] + + [9] Gaskell's 'Charlotte Brontė,' chap. iv. + +But it is only just to Mr. Wilson to say that the low situation of the +premises fixed upon, the arrangement of the school-buildings, and the +inefficient management of the domestic department, do not appear to +have been so fatal to the boarders, even if we admit all the alleged +severities of the regimen. For, when a low fever, or influenza cold, +which was not regarded by Dr. Batty as 'either alarming or dangerous,' +broke out at the school, and some forty of the pupils fell more or less +under its influence, none died of it at Cowan Bridge, and only one, +Mrs. Gaskell informs us, from after consequences at home; and, though +delicate, the Brontė children entirely escaped the attack. Mrs. Gaskell +has, however, entered at considerable length into a detailed account of +the alleged mismanagement of the school, the severities exercised over +the pupils--especially by one of the responsible tutors, 'Miss +Scatcherd,'--the cooking and insufficiency of food, the general neglect +of sanitary regulations in the domestic department, and the utter +unfitness of the place itself for the continued health and comfort of +the inmates. But the biographer of Charlotte Brontė in after-years +considerably modified the severe strictures which her heroine had +thought fit to describe in 'Jane Eyre,'--an admirable work of fiction, +though not necessarily one of fact--and she says, speaking of +Charlotte's account of the Cowan Bridge School: '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 the 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 and conscientious.' It appears also that Mr. Wilson +had 'grand and fine qualities'--which were left unnoticed by +Charlotte--of which the biographer had received 'abundant evidence.'[10] +Of these Mr. Brontė seems to have been aware, as Charlotte and Emily +were sent back to Cowan Bridge after the deaths of Maria and Elizabeth. +Mrs. Gaskell wonders Charlotte did not remonstrate against her father's +decision to send her and Emily back to the place, knowing, as we may +suppose she did, of the alleged infliction which her dead sisters had +endured at the very school to which she and Emily were returning. +Surely such a very miserable state of things as is described in 'Jane +Eyre' could not have existed at the time to impress on Charlotte's mind +such a dread as we are asked to believe she had, and Mr. Brontė could +not be aware that any serious objections to the school existed. Indeed, +the true condition of the institution at the period is apparent from +the testimony of the noble and benevolent Miss Temple of 'Jane Eyre,' +whose husband thus writes: '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.' + + [10] Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte Brontė,' chap. iv. + +While at Cowan Bridge, Maria's health had suddenly given way, and +alarming symptoms declared themselves. Mr. Brontė was sent for. He had +known nothing of her illness, and was terribly shocked when he saw her. +He ascended the Leeds coach with his dying child. Mrs. Gaskell says, +'the girls crowded out into the road to follow her with their eyes, +over the bridge, past the cottages, and then out of sight for ever.' + +The poignancy of Mr. Brontė's grief on this occasion was profound, and +all but insupportable. Here was his first-born, the early joy of his +home at Hartshead, the intelligent and brilliantly gifted companion of +the first few years of his widowed life--dying before him! She, whose +innocent and thoughtful converse had cheered his solitary moments, and +whose merry laugh had often made the hearth glad, whose affectionate +care of her little brother and sisters, disinterested as it was +incessant, supplied for them the offices of their deceased mother--was +fading from his sight! Arriving at Haworth, they were received with +sincere and tearful sympathy by Miss Branwell, and with childish alarm +and dread by Branwell and Anne. Every care which affection could +provide was bestowed on the sinking child, but she died, a few days +after her arrival, on May 6, 1825. + +Elizabeth, too, struck down with the same fatal disease, came home to +die of consumption on June 15 in the same year, but a month and a few +days after her sister. These sorrowful events were never forgotten by +Branwell, and the impressions made upon his mind by the deaths and +funeral rites he had witnessed became the theme of some of his later +and more mournful effusions. + +The early recollection of Maria at Cowan Bridge was that she was +delicate, and unusually clever and thoughtful for her age. Of Elizabeth +Miss Temple writes: '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.... 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,' says Mrs. Gaskell, 'would be Emily. Charlotte was +considered the most talkative of the sisters--a "bright, clever little +child."'[11] + + [11] 'Life of Charlotte Brontė,' chap. iv. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +BRANWELL'S BOYHOOD. + +Reunion of the Brontė Family--Branwell is the supposed Prototype +of Victor Crimsworth--That Character not a complete Portrait of +Branwell--His Friendships--His Visit to the Keighley Feast--Its Effect +on Branwell's Nerves--The Wrestle--The Lost Spectacles--Fear of his +Father's Displeasure--Mrs. Gaskell's Story of the 'Black Bull' Incident +Questioned--Miss Branwell and her Nephew. + + +Upon the return of Charlotte and Emily from Cowan Bridge, the youthful +Brontės, whom death had spared, were united again; and, for some years +more, followed their pursuits together, until Charlotte went to school +at Roe Head in 1831. Branwell was the constant companion of his sisters +during these childish years, and they all looked upon him with pride +and affection. Charlotte, in those days, was a sympathetic friend to +him; and, in his later years, he felt it a source of deep regret that +she was somewhat estranged. But the gentle Emily--after the death of +Maria--was his chief companion, and a warm affection never lost its +ardour between them. The sisters were quick to perceive the Promethean +spark that burned in their brother, and they looked upon Branwell, as +indeed did all who knew him, as their own superior in mental gifts. In +his childhood even, Branwell Brontė showed great aptitude for acquiring +knowledge, and his perceptive powers were very marked. He was, too, +gifted with a sprightly disposition, tinged at times with great +melancholy, but he acquired early a lively and fascinating address. +There was a fiery ardour and eagerness in his manner which told of +his abundant animal spirits, and he entered with avidity into the +enjoyments of the life that lay before him. Charlotte, who knew well +the treasures of her brother's opening faculties, his ability, his +learning, and his affection, saw also many things that alarmed her in +his disposition. She saw the abnormal and unhealthy flashing of his +intellect, and marked that weakness and want of self-control which left +Branwell, when subjected to temptation, a prey to many destructive +influences, whose effect shall hereafter be traced. There is reason to +believe that Charlotte pictures this period of Branwell's life in 'The +Professor,' where she describes the childhood of Victor Crimsworth; +and, though the extract is rather long, it is given here as valuable, +because it furnishes a full record of the early powers of Branwell, +and of the manner in which his sister--by the light of subsequent +events--looked upon them and upon his failings, and it will be seen +that towards the latter she is somewhat inflexible. + +'Victor,' she makes William Crimsworth say, 'is as little of a pretty +child as I am of a handsome man ... he is pale and spare, with large +eyes.... His shape is symmetrical enough, but slight.... I never saw a +child smile less than he does, nor one who knits such a formidable brow +when sitting over a book that interests him, or while listening to +tales of adventure, peril, or wonder.... But, though still, he is not +unhappy--though serious, not morose; he has a susceptibility to +pleasurable sensations almost too keen, for it amounts to enthusiasm.... +When he could read, he became a glutton of books, and is so still. His +toys have been few, and he has never wanted more. For those he +possesses he seems to have contracted a partiality amounting to +affection; this feeling, directed towards one or two living animals of +the house, strengthens almost to a passion.... I saw in the soil of his +heart healthy and swelling germs of compassion, affection, fidelity. I +discovered in the garden of his intellect a rich growth of wholesome +principles--reason, justice, moral courage, promised, if not blighted, +a fertile bearing.... She (his mother) sees, as I also see, a something +in Victor's temper--a kind of electrical ardour and power--which emits, +now and then, ominous sparks; Hunsden calls it his spirit, and says it +should not be curbed. I call it the leaven of the offending Adam, and +consider that it should be, if not _whipped_ out of him, at least +soundly disciplined; and that he will be cheap of any amount of either +bodily or mental suffering which will ground him radically in the art +of self-control. Frances (his mother) gives this _something_ in her +son's marked character no name; but when it appears in the grinding of +his teeth, in the glittering of his eye, in the fierce revolt of +feeling against disappointment, mischance, sudden sorrow, or supposed +injustice, she folds him to her breast, or takes him to walk with her +alone in the wood; then she reasons with him like any philosopher, and +to reason Victor is ever accessible; then she looks at him with eyes of +love, and by love Victor can be infallibly subjugated. But will reason +or love be the weapons with which in future the world will meet his +violence? Oh, no! for that flash in his black eye--for that cloud on +his bony brow--for that compression of his statuesque lips, the lad +will some day get blows instead of blandishments, kicks instead of +kisses; then for the fit of mute fury which will sicken the body and +madden his soul; then for the ordeal of merited and salutary suffering +out of which he will come (I trust) a wiser and a better man.' + +The natural adornments and defects of Branwell's mind in boyhood, +which may to some extent be traced in Charlotte's picture of Victor +Crimsworth, in 'The Professor,' must not be regarded otherwise than as +possessing a general resemblance to those which are found in that +character. Physically, Branwell and Crimsworth were dissimilar, though +mentally there is a portraiture; but even here, Charlotte, having him +in her mind when she sketched the character of Victor, exaggerated +therein, as she had done in other instances, the actual defects of her +brother. It is true, nevertheless, that those who knew Branwell Brontė +in early life could see in him the original of Victor Crimsworth. + +In the following pages the greatness of Branwell's genius may be +observed,--great, though marred by the errors and misfortunes of his +life,--as well as by the sorrows which his impulsive, kindly, and +affectionate nature brought upon himself, sorrows thus sadly set forth +by his sister as the outcome of his passions, and described by her as +the penalty of his future years. + +In Branwell Brontė, the 'leaven of the offending Adam' might now and +then certainly be observed, but it was largely modified by the +ameliorating influences of his home; and, although, from the failings +common to humanity, the children of Mr. Brontė could not be free, his +early waywardness and petulance were, by the influence of sex, more +forcibly expressed than such failings could be in his sisters. Between +the children of Mr. Brontė, however, there existed even more than the +ordinary affections of childhood. At this period of their lives, they +were ignorant of the wiles of corrupt human nature, and Branwell, with +all the lightsome exuberance of his boyhood, returned without stint the +ardent and deep affection of his sisters. But, when a few years had +rolled on, he awoke to the sunny morning of youth; and, in the absence +of a brother, sought companionship with certain youths of Haworth, and +made them playmates. Amongst them was one, the brother of some friends +of his sisters, who became to him a personal associate, and it was with +this companion that he was wont to sport on the moors, across the +meadows, and, with joyous laugh, along the streets of the village. + +The survivor of these two friends gives me an incident that occurred at +the time of the annual Feast at Keighley, which the youths visited. The +town was, as is usual on such occasions, crowded with booths and shows, +and various places of entertainment. Players and riders,--men and +women,--clothed in gay raiments, rendered brilliant with spangles, +paced backwards and forwards along their platforms to the sound of +drums, organs, and Pandean pipes, cymbals, tambourines, and castanets. +There were stalls, too, weighted with nuts and various confectionaries, +and there were also rocking-boats and merry-go-rounds, with other +amusements. + +As the evening advanced, and the shows were lighted up, Branwell's +excitement, hilarity, and extravagance knew no bounds: he would see +everything and try everything. Into a rocking-boat he and his friend +gaily stepped. The rise of the boat, when it reached its full height, +gave Branwell a pleasant view of the fair beneath; but, when it +descended, he screamed out at the top of his voice, 'Oh! my nerves! my +nerves! Oh! my nerves!' On each descent, every nerve thrilled, tingled, +and vibrated with overwhelming effect through the overwrought and +delicate frame of the boy. Leaving the fair, the two proceeded +homeward; and, reaching a country spot, near a cottage standing among a +thicket of trees, Branwell, still full of exuberant life, proposed a +wrestle with his companion. They engaged in a struggle, when Branwell +was overthrown. It was not until reaching the village, and seeing the +lights in the windows, with considerably enlarged rays, that he became +aware he had lost his spectacles,--for Branwell was, like his sister +Charlotte, very near-sighted. This was, indeed, no little trouble to +him, as he was in great fear lest his father should notice his being +without them, and institute unpleasant inquiries as to what had become +of them. He told his fears to his companion; but, after a sleepless +night for both, Branwell's friend was early on the spot in search of +the missing spectacles, when the woman living in the cottage close by, +seeing a youth looking about, came to him, and, learning for what he +sought, brought out the glasses which she had picked up from the ground +just before he came. M----, glad of the discovery, hastened to the +parsonage, which he reached to find Branwell astir, who was overjoyed +on receiving the missing spectacles, as the danger of his father's +displeasure was avoided. + +Mrs. Gaskell has written an account of the brother of the Brontė +sisters, but from what source I am unable to ascertain. After giving +him credit for those abilities in his boyhood of which evidence is +given in these pages, she says that: '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 to 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.' This account of the landlord being accustomed to send to the +parsonage for Branwell to come down to the 'Bull' at Haworth on these +occasions is denied by those who knew Branwell at the time, as well as +by the landlord. The latter always said that he never ventured to do +anything of the kind. It would have been a vulgar liberty, and an +unpardonable offence to the inmates of the parsonage had he done so. +Besides, the message would, in all probability, have been delivered to +a servant, or perhaps to Mr. Brontė himself, or to one of his +daughters, and Branwell would have been forbidden, for the credit of +the family, to lend himself for such a purpose at the public-house +below. + +Branwell in these early days was not only the beloved of the household, +but the special favourite of his aunt. This good lady was proud of her +family and name, a name which her nephew bore to her infinite +satisfaction, so that his sometimes rough and noisy merriment made his +aunt glad, rather than grieved, because it was the true indication of +health of mind and body. She easily pardoned his boyish defects: and at +times, as she parted his auburn hair, she looked in his face with +fondness and affection, giving him moral advice, consistent with his +age, and showing him how, by sedulously cultivating the abilities with +which God had blessed him, he would attain an excellent position in the +world. It was this gentle and disinterested guide that Providence had +placed in the stead of his mother, to impart to her son the good maxims +she would herself have given him. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE LITERARY TASTES OF THE CHILDREN. + +The youthful Compositions of the Brontės--Their Character--Branwell's +Share in them--'The Secret,' a Fragment--The Reading of the Brontė +Children--Branwell's Character at this Period. + + +Mr. Brontė, perhaps, made use of a slight hyperbole when he said that, +as soon as they could read and write, Charlotte and her brother and +sisters used to invent and act little plays of their own; but it is +certain that, at an early period of their lives, they took pleasure and +pride in seeing their thoughts put down in the manifest form of written +words. Charlotte, indeed, gives a list of the juvenile works she had +composed. They filled twenty-two volumes, and consisted of Tales, +Adventures, Lives, Meditations, Stories, Poems, Songs, &c. Without +repeating all the titles which Mrs. Gaskell and others have published, +it may be said that the productions manifested extraordinary ability +and industry. Branwell, Emily, and Anne partook of the same spirit, and +displayed similar energy according to the leisure they could command. + +Before Charlotte went to Roe Head, in January, 1831, Branwell worked +with his sisters in producing their monthly magazine, with its youthful +stories.[12] Mrs. Gaskell has quoted Charlotte's introduction to the +'Tales of the Islanders,' one of these 'Little Magazines,' dated June, +1829, from which it appears that a remark of Branwell's led to the +composition of the play of that name, and that he chose the Isle of Man +as his territory, and named John Bull, Astley Cooper, and Leigh Hunt +as the chief men in it. Charlotte gives the dates of most of their +productions. She says: '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 +"Ęsop's Fables;" and the "Islanders" from several events which +happened.'[13] + + [12] 'Life of Charlotte Brontė,' chap. v. + + [13] Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte Brontė,' chap v. + +It would be difficult to arrive at a correct understanding of the +literary value of these productions of the youthful Brontės, but it +would be interesting to know what kind of assistance Branwell was able +to give in the work, as well as what was the general merit of these +early compositions. Mrs. Gaskell makes some mention of Branwell's +literary abilities in his youth. It is certain, from all we know, that +his mind was as much occupied in these matters as his sisters', and +that his ambition corresponded with theirs. It has, indeed, been placed +on record by Mrs. Gaskell that he was associated with his sisters in +the compilation of their youthful writings. This author says, also, +that their youthful occupations were 'mostly of a sedentary and +intellectual nature.'[14] + + [14] 'Life of Charlotte Brontė,' chap. v. + +Among the youthful stories of which Charlotte, as has been already +mentioned, wrote a catalogue or list, there was one, of which Mrs. +Gaskell has published a fragment in fac-simile, written in a small, +elaborate, and cramped hand--so small, indeed, as to be of little use +to the general reader. In the 'Life of Charlotte Brontė,' this was +inserted as a specimen of the hand-writing. It shows truly the literary +ability, dramatic skill, and force of imagination of the children at +the period of their lives of which I speak, and affords an interesting +specimen of the character of these early works. A few extracts from it +may be given here:-- + + THE SECRET. + + CHAPTER I. + + A dead silence had reigned in the Home Office of Verdopolis for + three hours in the morning of a fine summer's day, interrupted only + by such sounds as the scraping of a pen-knife, the dropping of a + ruler, or an occasional cough; or whispered now and then some brief + mandate, uttered by the noble first secretary, in his commanding + tones. At length that sublime personage, after completing some + score or so of despatches, addressing a small slightly-built young + gentleman who occupied the chief situation among the clerks, said: + + 'Mr. Rymer, will you be good enough to tell me what o'clock it is?' + + 'Certainly, my lord!' was the prompt reply as, springing from his + seat, the ready underling, instead of consulting his watch like + other people, hastened to the window in order to mark the sun's + situation; having made his observation, he answered: ''Tis twelve + precisely, my lord.' + + 'Very well,' said the marquis. 'You may all give up then, and see + that all your desks are locked, so that not a scrap of paper is + left to litter the office. Mr. Rymer, I shall expect you to take + care that my directions are fulfilled.' So saying, he assumed his + hat and gloves, and with a stately tread was approaching the + vestibule, when a slight bustle and whispering among the clerks + arrested his steps. + + 'What is the matter?' asked he, turning round. 'I hope these are + not sounds of contention I hear!' + + 'I--and--' said a broad, carrotty-locked young man of a most + pugnacious aspect, 'but--but--your lordship has forgotten + that--that----' + + 'That what?' asked the marquis, rather impatiently. + + 'Oh!--merely that this afternoon is a half-holiday--and--and----' + + 'I understand,' replied his superior, smiling, 'you need not tax + your modesty with further explanation, Flanagan; the truth is, I + suppose, you want your usual largess, and I'm obliged to you for + reminding me--will that do?' he continued, as, opening his + pocket-book, he took out a twenty-pound bank bill and laid it on + the nearest desk. + + 'My lord, you are too generous,' Flanagan answered; but the chief + secretary laughingly laid his gloved hand on his lips, and, with a + condescending nod to the other clerks, sprang down the steps of the + portico and strode hastily away, in order to escape the noisy + expressions of gratitude which now hailed his liberality. + + On the opposite side of the busy and wide street to that on which + the splendid Home Office stands, rises the no less splendid + Colonial Office; and, just as Arthur, Marquis of Douro, left the + former structure, Edward Stanley Sydney departed from the latter: + they met in the centre of the street. + + 'Well, Ned,' said my brother, as they shook hands, 'how are you + to-day? I should think this bright sun and sky ought to enliven + you if anything can.' + + 'Why, my dear Douro,' replied Mr. Sydney, with a faint smile, 'such + lovely, genial weather may, and I have no doubt does, elevate the + spirits of the free and healthy; but for me, whose mind and body + are a continual prey to all the heaviest cares of public and + private life, it signifies little whether sun cheer or rain damp + the atmosphere.' + + 'Edward,' replied Arthur, his features at the same time assuming + that disagreeable expression which my landlord denominates by the + term 'scorney;' 'now don't begin to bore me, Ned, with trash of + that description, I'm tired of it quite: pray have you recollected + that to-day is a half-holiday in all departments of the Treasury?' + + 'Yes; and the circumstance has cost me some money; these silly old + customs ought to be abolished in my opinion--they are ruinous.' + + 'Why, what have you given the poor fellows?' + + 'Two sovereigns;' an emphatic hem formed Arthur's reply to the + communication. + + They had now entered Nokel Street, and were proceeding in silence + past the line of magnificent shops which it contains, when the + sound of wheels was heard behind them, and a smooth-rolling chariot + dashed up and stopped just where they stood. One of the + window-glasses now fell, a white hand was put out and beckoned them + to draw near, while a silvery voice said, + + 'Mr. Sydney, Marquis of Douro, come hither a moment.' + + Both the gentlemen obeyed the summons, Arthur with alacrity, Sydney + with reluctance. + + 'What are your commands, fair ladies?' said the former, bowing + respectfully to the inmates of the carriage, who were Lady Julia + Sydney and Lady Maria Sneaky. + + 'Our commands are principally for your companion, my lord, not for + you,' replied the daughter of Alexander the First; 'now, Mr. + Sydney,' she continued, smiling on the senator, 'you must promise + not to be disobedient.' + + 'Let me first know what I am required to perform,' was the cautious + answer, accompanied by a fearful glance at the shops around. + + 'Nothing of much consequence, Edward,' said his wife, 'but I hope + you'll not refuse to oblige me this once, love. I only want a few + guineas to make out the price of a pair of earrings I have just + seen in Mr. Lapis's shop.' + + 'Not a bit of it,' answered he. 'Not a farthing will I give you: it + is scarce three weeks since you received your quarter's allowance, + and if that is done already you may suffer for it.' + + With this decisive reply, he instinctively thrust his hands into + his breeches' pockets, and marched off with a hurried step. + + 'Stingy little monkey!' exclaimed Lady Julia, sinking back on the + carriage-seat, while the bright flush of anger and disappointment + crimsoned her fair cheek. 'This is the way he always treats me, but + I'll make him suffer for it!' + + 'Do not discompose yourself so much, my dear,' said her companion, + 'my purse is at your service, if you will accept it.' + + 'I am sensible of your goodness, Maria, but of course I shall not + take advantage of it; no, no, I can do without the earrings--it is + only a fancy, though to be sure I would rather have them.' + + 'My pretty cousin,' observed the marquis, who, till now, had + remained a quiet though much-amused spectator of the whole scene, + 'you are certainly one of the most extravagant young ladies I know: + why, what on earth can you possibly want with these trinkets? To my + knowledge you have at least a dozen different sorts of + ear-ornaments.' + + 'That is true; but then these are quite of another kind; they are + so pretty and unique that I could not help wishing for them.' + + 'Well, since your heart is so much set upon the baubles, I will see + whether my purse can compass their price, if you will allow me to + accompany you to Mr. Lapis's.' + + 'Oh! thank you, Arthur, you are very kind,' said Lady Julia, and + both the ladies quickly made room for him as he sprang in and + seated himself between them. + + * * * * * + + In a few minutes they reached the jeweller's shop. Mr. Lapis + received them with an obsequious bow, and proceeded to display his + glittering stores. The pendants which had so fascinated Lady Julia + were in the form of two brilliant little humming-birds, whose + jewelled plumage equalled if not surpassed the bright hues of + nature.... + +This gay and pleasant fragment of a story, in which the characters and +scenes are so freshly drawn, may well be imagined as one of the best, +if not the best, of these productions of the Brontė children. We may, +indeed, regard the spirit and style of these early stories as the +outcome of their eager and observant reading of the magazine and +newspaper articles within their reach--when their plastic minds would +receive indelible impressions, from which they, perhaps without knowing +it, acquired the knowledge and practice of accurate literary +composition, and of how to clothe their thoughts in fitting words. +Their retentive memories, and their intuitive faculty of putting +things, brought them thus early to the threshold of the republic of +letters. Mrs. Gaskell states that these works were principally written +by Charlotte in a hand so small as to be 'almost impossible to decipher +without the aid of a magnifying glass.' The specimen she gives is +written in an upright hand, and was an attempt to represent the stories +in a kind of print, as near as might be to type. If, however, Charlotte +and Emily ever accustomed themselves in these early works to this +diminutive type-like writing, they threw it off completely in +after-years. This, Branwell never did, and Mrs. Gaskell's fac-simile +page is not without some resemblance to one of his ordinary pages of +manuscript reduced in size. + +Mr. T. Wemyss Reid observes that Mrs. Gaskell, in speaking of the +juvenile performances of the Brontė children, 'paid exclusive attention +to Charlotte's productions.' 'All readers of the Brontė story,' he +says, 'will remember the account of the play of "The Islanders," and +other remarkable specimens, showing with what real vigour and +originality Charlotte could handle her pen while she was still in the +first years of her teens.' And he adds that 'those few persons who have +seen the whole of the juvenile library of the family bear testimony to +the fact that Branwell and Emily were at least as industrious and +successful as Charlotte herself.'[15] + + [15] 'Charlotte Brontė, a monograph,' p. 27. + +Even at this early period the youthful Brontės had read industriously. +'Blackwood's Magazine' had, as early as the year 1829, asserted itself +to Charlotte's childish taste as 'the most able periodical there is,' +and ever afterwards the whole family looked with the greatest pleasure +for the brilliant essays of Christopher North and his coterie. Of other +papers they saw 'John Bull' and the 'Leeds Intelligencer,' both +uncompromising Conservatives, and the 'Leeds Mercury,' of the opposite +party. The youthful Brontės were also readers of the 'British +Essayists,' 'The Rambler,' 'The Mirror,' and 'The Lounger,' and they +were great admirers of Scott. + +But the advice which Charlotte afterwards gave to her friend 'E,' with +regard to books for perusal, shows that their reading had been much +wider: Shakespeare, Milton, Thomson, Goldsmith, Pope, Byron, Campbell, +and Wordsworth; Hume, Rollin, and the 'Universal History;' Johnson's +'Poets,' Boswell's 'Johnson,' Southey's 'Nelson,' Lockhart's 'Burns,' +Moore's 'Sheridan,' Moore's 'Byron,' and Wolfe's 'Remains;' and for +natural history, she recommends Bewick, Audubon, White, and, strangely +enough, Goldsmith. Branwell's favourite poets were Wordsworth and the +melancholy Cowper, whose 'Castaway' he was always fond of quoting. The +Brontės, in their young years, obtained much of their intellectual food +from the circulating library at Keighley. + +The extraordinary literary activity which prompted these children never +afterwards left them; and Branwell, along with his sisters, was, as we +have seen, the author of many effusions of remarkable character. But, +as time passed on, and experience was gained, his literary productions +began to acquire more vigour and polish. Yet the tone of his mind, +however joyous it might be at times, recurred, when the immediate +occasion had passed, to that pensive melancholy which, throughout his +life, was his most marked characteristic. + +Mr. Brontė looked with supreme pleasure on the growing talents of his +children; but his principal hope was centred in his son, who, as he +fondly trusted, should add lustre to and perpetuate his name. The boy, +in these years, was precocious and lively, overflowing with humour and +jollity, ready to crack a joke with the rustics he met, and all the +time gathering in, with the quickest perception, impressions, both for +good and ill, of human nature. Mr. Brontė sedulously, to the utmost of +his power, attending to the education of Branwell, did not see the +instability of his son's character, or did not apprehend any mischief +from the acquaintances he had formed. + +The incumbent of Haworth had distinct literary leanings, and it +delighted him to find that his son had manifested literary capacity. It +has been urged as somewhat of a reproach against Mr. Brontė that he did +not send Branwell to a public school, but relied solely upon his own +tutorship for his son's education. Situated as Mr. Brontė was, such a +step as that said to have been recommended to him was unnecessary. The +Grammar School adjoining was under the superintendance of a master who +was well qualified to give a higher education to his pupils, if +required; and Mr. Brontė himself was equally well able to do the same, +but his daily duties within his chapelry left him little or no time to +take upon himself the entire education of his son: all he could do was +to watch and ascertain occasionally how he was progressing. Mr. Brontė, +indeed, might have given the finishing touches to his son's +instruction. Those, however, who knew the brilliant youth in the +ripeness of his early manhood, recognized the extent of the knowledge +he had acquired, and felt, too, that he had been sufficiently +well-trained to know how to put it to good use. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +YOUTH. + +Charlotte goes to Roe Head--Return Home--Branwell at the Time--The +Companion of his Sisters--Escorts Charlotte on a Visit--He becomes +Interested in Pugilism--His Education--His Love for Music--His +Retentive Memory--His Personal Appearance--His Spirit. + + +Little more of interest seems to be known concerning the Brontės prior +to the year 1831, but it is very apparent that Mr. Brontė exercised +a large influence in the formation of his children's habits and +characters. He, for instance, had a study in which he spent a +considerable portion of his time. The children had their study also. +Mr. Brontė had written poems and tales, and was wont to tell strange +stories at the breakfast-table. The children imitated him in these +things. Mr. Brontė took an enthusiastic interest in all political +matters; and here the children followed him also. In short, they copied +him in almost everything. Afterwards, he was accustomed to hold himself +up as an example for their guidance, and to tell them how he had +struggled and worked his way to the position he held; and there is no +doubt that his children had a great admiration for his career. + +Miss Branwell's influence was altogether distinct from that of Mr. +Brontė. While taking pride in the mental ability of her nephew, she +aimed at making his sisters into good housewives and patterns of +domestic and unobtrusive virtue. With this object, turning her +bed-chamber into a school-room, she taught them to sew and to +embroider; and they occupied their time in making charity clothing, a +work which she maintained 'was not for the good of the recipients, but +of the sewers; it was proper for them to do it.' Under Miss Branwell +they likewise learned to clean, to wash, to bake, to cook, to make jams +and jellies, with many other domestic mysteries; and here, as in +everything else, they were apt pupils. + +But, towards the end of the year 1830, it was decided that Charlotte +should seek a wider training elsewhere; and a school, kept by Miss +Wooler, at Roe Head, between Leeds and Huddersfield, was fixed upon. It +was a quaint, old-fashioned house, standing in a pleasant country, +which had an interest for Charlotte, for it lay not far from Hartshead, +where her father's first Yorkshire curacy had been. This circumstance, +together with the proximity of the remains of Kirklees priory--which +had their traditions of Robin Hood--and the strange local stories she +heard from Miss Wooler, led her afterwards to make this district the +scene of her novel of 'Shirley.' Miss Wooler was a kind, motherly lady +who took an interest in each one of her pupils. She had long been a +keen observer, and knew well how to put her knowledge to use in +tuition. In this school, Charlotte, a girl of sixteen, was an +indefatigable student, scarcely resting in her pursuit of knowledge. +She was not exactly sociable, and sat often alone with her book in +play-hours--a thin fragile girl, whose brown hair overshadowed the page +on which her eyes, 'those expressive orbs,' were so intently fixed. Her +companions remarked at that time that she had a great store of +out-of-the-way knowledge, while on some points of general information +she was comparatively ignorant. But when Charlotte left Roe Head, in +June, 1832, she returned to the parsonage at Haworth with more expanded +ideas, and with wider knowledge, and possessing, perhaps, a keener +relish for the delights of the literary world. At Roe Head Charlotte +made the acquaintance of her life-long friend 'E,' and also of Mary and +Martha 'T.' + +The family of Brontė appears, about this time, to have been in perfect +peace. Charlotte had corresponded with Branwell when she was at Roe +Head, as a pupil of Miss Wooler; and Mrs. Gaskell has published +portions of a letter sent from that place to him on May 17th, 1832, +when he was in his fifteenth year, in which she showed her old +political leanings wherein Branwell shared. It runs: 'Lately I had +begun to think that I had lost all 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 the case, as, in +the little wild moorland village where we reside, there would be no +possibility of borrowing a work of this 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.'[16] + + [16] 'Life of Charlotte Brontė,' chap. vi. + +Charlotte's political principles were strongly Conservative, as were +those of her father, brother, and sisters, and these principles were +intensified in them all by their religious opinions. They held, +consistently enough, the cherished political convictions of their +party, and they looked upon every concession made to liberal clamour as +an inroad on the very vitals of the Constitution. Hence the jubilation +of Charlotte when the Reform Bill was rejected by the House of Lords on +October 7th, 1831. But the march of events, in after-years, modified +their political opinions considerably. + +Branwell at this period, while still under tuition at home, was the +constant companion of his sisters, and frequently accompanied them on +their visits to the moors and picturesque places in the neighbourhood. +'E,' writing in 'Scribner,' says: 'Charlotte's first visit from Haworth +was made about three months after she left school. She travelled in a +two-wheeled gig, the only conveyance to be had in Haworth except the +covered-cart which brought her to school. Mr. Brontė sent Branwell as +an escort; he was _then_ a very dear brother, as dear to Charlotte +as her own soul; they were in perfect accord of taste and feeling, and +it was a mutual delight to be together. Branwell had probably never +been from home before; he was in wild ecstacy with everything. He +walked about in unrestrained boyish enjoyment, taking views in every +direction of the turret-roofed house, the fine chestnut-trees on the +lawn (one tree especially interested him because it was iron-girthed, +having been split by storms, but still flourishing in great majesty), +and a large rookery, which gave to the house a good background--all +these he noted and commented upon with perfect enthusiasm. He told his +sister he was leaving her in Paradise, and if she were not intensely +happy she never would be! Happy, indeed, she then was _in himself_, for +she, with her own enthusiasm, looked forward to what her brother's +great promise and talent might effect. He would be, at this time, +between fifteen and sixteen years of age.[17] + + [17] Scribner, ii., 18, 'Reminiscences of Charlotte Brontė.' + +In the June of 1833, when Branwell was about this age, we learn that he +drove his sisters with great delight in a trap, or dog-cart, to Bolton +Bridge, to meet their friend 'E,' who waited for the young Brontės in a +carriage at the 'Devonshire Arms.'[18] This was a visit to the ancient +abbey and immemorial woods and vales of Bolton. We may well imagine +from the time of the year--the 'leafy month of June,' when all nature +would be glad, and the deep woods gay with varied leaves, while the +Wharfe, of amber hue, foamed and rushed impetuously down its rocky +channel, from the moorland hills above historic Barden, to the peaceful +meads of the ruined abbey--that the hearts of the Brontės rejoiced, +enchanted and impressed by these glorious and stately solitudes. + + [18] Reid's 'Charlotte Brontė, a Monograph,' p. 29. + +It cannot but be regretted that, while his sisters could confer in +confidence and familiarity together, and enjoy a community of interests +in secrecy and affection, Branwell had no brother whose sympathetic +counsel he could embrace; but, thrown back upon himself, was led to +seek the society of appreciative friends, who made him acquainted with +the manners and customs of the world, and the vices of society, before +his time had yet come to know much concerning them. It was, indeed, +unfortunately, no infrequent circumstance to see the plastic, +light-hearted, unsuspecting Branwell listening to the coarse jokes of +the sexton of Haworth--the noted John Brown--while that functionary was +employed in digging the graves so often opened in the churchyard, under +the shadow of the parsonage. + +It was the kind of society in which he sought relaxation at Haworth +that led him to take an interest, which he long retained, in the +pugilistic ring. The interest in pugilism and the 'noble art,' it must, +however, be remembered, had been made fashionable by wealthy, +influential, and titled people, amongst whom was Lord Byron, and by the +fops and dandies of an earlier period. Jackson, the noted professor, +was a great friend of the poet, and, on several occasions, visited him +at Newstead. Early in this century, too, many men about town were +accustomed to assemble for practice at the academy of Angelo and +Jackson. Branwell, also, read with eagerness the columns of 'Bell's +Life in London,' and other sporting papers of the day. The names and +personal appearance of the celebrated pugilists who, at that time, to +the delight of the _élite_ of society, pounded each other till they +were unlike anything human--for the applause of the multitude, and the +honour of wearing the 'Champion's Belt,'--were familiar to him. 'Bell's +Life' was taken in by an innkeeper at Haworth; and the members of the +village boxing-club, one of whom was Branwell, were posted up in all +public matters relating to the 'noble art of self-defence.' They had +sundry boxing-gloves, and, at intervals, amused themselves with +sparring in an upper room of a building at Haworth. These practices, at +the time of which we speak, were but boyish amusements, and were no +doubt congenial to the animal spirits and energetic temperaments of +those who entered into them, and they were so more especially to +Branwell, who had abundance of both. But it may be that here he became +acquainted with young men whose habits and conduct had a deleterious +influence upon him at the very opening of his career. If, however, +Branwell's high spirit allowed him sometimes to be led away by his +companions, his natural goodness of heart brought a ready and vehement +repentance. The respect he felt for his father's calling, magnified, in +his eyes, any fault of his own--who ought to have been more than +ordinarily good--and, exaggerating his failings, he would lament his +'dreadful conduct' in deep distress. Such unmistakable evidences of +sincerity and truthfulness procured him a ready pardon. He was +necessarily his aunt's favourite; but he attached himself to all about +him with so much readiness of affection that it is quite evident, +whatever his youthful faults, they were of a superficial character +only. + +The studies which Branwell pursued in his youth were noticed by his +literary friends, in after-years, to bear a considerable fruit of +classical knowledge. He possessed then a familiar and extensive +acquaintance with the Greek and Latin authors. He knew well the history +and condition of Europe, and of this country, in past and present +times; and his conversational powers on these, and the current +literature of the day, were of the highest order. Mr. Brontė had +obtained musical tuition for his son and daughters, and Branwell was +enthusiastically fond of sacred music, and could play the organ. He was +acquainted with the works of the great composers of recent and former +times; and, although he could not perform their elaborate compositions +well, he was always so excited when they were played for him by his +friends that he would walk about the room with measured footsteps, his +eyes raised to the ceiling, accompanying the music with his voice in an +impassioned manner, and beating time with his hand on the chairs as he +passed to and fro. He was an enthusiastic admirer of the oratorio of +'Samson,' which Handel deemed equal to the 'Messiah,' and of the +Mass-music of Haydn, Mozart, and others. Religion had, indeed, been +deeply implanted in Branwell's breast; but, whenever he heard sacred +music like this, his devotional impressions were deepened, and even in +times of temptation, indulgence, and folly the influence of early piety +was never effaced. Among his minor accomplishments, he had acquired the +practice of writing short-hand with facility, and also of writing with +both hands at the same time with perfect ease, so that he possessed the +extraordinary power of writing two letters at once. His hand-writing +was of an upright character. Branwell, too, had a wonderful power of +observation, and a most retentive memory. It is on record that, before +he visited London, he so mastered its labyrinths, by a diligent study +of maps and books, that he spoke with a perfect knowledge of it, and +astonished inhabitants of the metropolis by his intimate acquaintance +with by-ways and places of which they even had never heard. In person +he was rather below the middle height, but of refined and +gentleman-like appearance, and of graceful manners. His complexion was +fair and his features handsome; his mouth and chin were well-shaped; +his nose was prominent and of the Roman type; his eyes sparkled and +danced with delight, and his fine forehead made up a face of oval form +which gave an irresistible charm to its possessor, and attracted the +admiration of those who knew him. Added to this, his address was simple +and unadorned, yet polished; but, being familiar with the English +language in its highest form of expression, and with the Yorkshire and +Hibernian _patois_ also, he could easily make use of the quaintest +and broadest terms when occasion called for them. It was, indeed, +amazing how suddenly he could pass from the discussion of a grave and +lofty subject, or from a deep disquisition, or some exalted poetical +theme, to one of his light-hearted and amusing Irish or Yorkshire +sallies. He could be sad and joyful almost at the same time, like the +sunshine and gloom of April weather; exhibiting, by anticipation, the +future lights and shadows of his own sad, short, and chequered +existence. In a word, he seemed at times even to be jocular and merry +with gravity itself. + +It is known also that Branwell, at that period of his young life--when +manhood with its hopes and joys, its enterprises and aspirations, its +affections and its responsibilities, stretched before him--was also +busily laying, to the best of his ability, the foundations, as he +trusted, of a brilliant literary or artistic future. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +ART-AIMS OF THE BRONTĖS. + +Love of Art in the Youthful Brontės--Their elaborate Drawings-- +J. B. Leyland, Sculptor--Spartacus--Mr. George Hogarth's Opinion +--Art Exhibition at Leeds--Mr. William Robinson, their +Drawing-Master--Branwell aims at Portrait-Painting--J. B. + Leyland in London--Branwell and the Royal Academy--He visits +London. + + +The biographers of the Brontė sisters have pointed out especially the +artistic instinct of Charlotte and Emily; and the originality and +fidelity of their written descriptions, and the beauty of the +composition and 'colour' of their word-paintings, have formed an +inexhaustible theme for the various writers on the excellencies of +Brontė genius. The appreciation of art possessed by the members of this +family, whether in drawing, painting, or sculpture, was manifested +early; but, though highly gifted in felicity and aptness of verbal +expression in describing natural scenery, and in the delineation of +personal character, they were not endowed, in like degree, with the +faculty of placing their ideas--weird and wild, or beautiful and joyous +as they might be--in that tangible and fixed shape in which artists +have perpetuated the emanations of their genius. The devotion of +Charlotte and Branwell to art was, nevertheless, so intense, and their +belief was so profound, at one time, that the art-faculty consisted of +little more than mechanical dexterity, and could be obtained by long +study and practice in manipulation, that the sister toiled incessantly +in copying, almost line for line, the grand old engravings of Woollett, +Brown, Fittler, and others till her eyesight was dimmed and blurred by +the sedulous application; and Branwell, with the same belief, eagerly +followed her example. Great talent and perseverance they undoubtedly +had; and, although we are not possessed of any original drawings by +Charlotte of striking character, we know that Branwell drew in +pen-and-ink with much facility, humour, and originality. His +productions, in this manner, will be more particularly noticed in the +course of this work. Charlotte's drawings were said to be +pre-Raphaelite in detail, but they had no approach to the spirit of +that school; and Branwell's pictures, however meritorious they might be +as likenesses of the individuals they represented, lacked, in every +instance, that artistic touch which the hand of genius always gives, +and cannot help giving. While at school at Roe Head, Charlotte had been +noticed by her fellow-pupils to draw better and more quickly than they +had before seen anyone do, and we have been told by one of them that +'she picked up every scrap of information concerning painting, +sculpture, poetry, music, &c., as if it were gold.' The list she drew +up a year or two earlier of the great artists whose works she wished to +see, shows us that her interest in art, even in her thirteenth year, +led her to read of them and their productions. + +On her return home in 1832, Charlotte wrote on the 21st July respecting +her course of life at the parsonage: '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.' +Charlotte also told Mrs. Gaskell 'that, at this period of her life, +drawing, and walking with her sisters, formed the two great pleasures +and relaxations of her day.' + +Mr. Brontė, observing that his son and daughters took pleasure in the +art of drawing, and believing this to be one of their natural gifts +that ought to be cultivated, perhaps as an accomplishment which they +might some time find useful in tuition, obtained for them a +drawing-master. But he also observed that Branwell excelled his sisters +in the art, while he likewise painted in oils, and he may at times have +had some hope that his son would become a distinguished artist. + +It is apparent, indeed, that drawing not only engaged much of +Charlotte's leisure, but that it formed a part of home-education. Her +sisters as well as herself underwent great labour in acquiring the art +in these early years, and Branwell also was not behind them in +industrious pursuit of the same object. Charlotte even thought of art +as a profession for herself; and so strong was this intention, that she +could scarcely be convinced that it was not her true vocation. In +short, her appreciative spirit always dwelt with indescribable pleasure +on works of real art, and she derived, from their contemplation, one of +the chief enjoyments of her life. 'To paint them, in short,' says Jane +Eyre, speaking of the pictures she is showing to Mr. Rochester, 'was to +enjoy one of the keenest pleasures I have ever known.'[19] The love the +Brontės thus cherished for art became, as time passed on, a passion, +and its cultivation a pressing and sensible duty. They were not aware +that their industry in, and devotion to it, as they understood it, were +a misdirection of their genius. How far this love of it, and this +eagerness to acquire a knowledge of the mysteries of composition and +analysis, and to be possessed of art-practice and art-learning, may +have been excited and encouraged by the success that had been achieved +by others with whom they were familiar, in the same direction, may be +surmised. + + [19] 'Jane Eyre,' chap. xiii. + +In the year of Mr. Brontė's appointment to Hartshead, there was born, +at Halifax, an artist, Joseph Bentley Leyland, who was destined to +become the personal friend and inspirer of Mr. Brontė's son, Branwell. +Leyland, in his early boyhood, showed, by the ease and faithfulness +with which he modelled in clay, or sketched with pencil, the objects +that attracted his attention, the direction of his genius. The +sculptor, as he grew in years, treated, with artistic power, classical +subjects which had not hitherto been embodied in sculpture. At the age +of twenty-one he modelled a statue of Spartacus, the Thracian, a +general who, after defeating several Roman armies in succession, was +overthrown with his forces by Crassus the prętor, and slain. The dead +leader was represented at that moment after death before the muscles +have acquired extreme rigidity. The statue, which was of colossal size, +was modelled from living subjects, and was, in all respects, a +production far beyond the sculptor's years. It was the most striking +work of art at the Manchester Exhibition in the year 1832, and was +favourably noticed in the 'Manchester Courier,' on November the 3rd of +that year. Such notices were productive of increased exertion, which +soon became manifest in the creation of other more lofty and successful +works. Among these was a colossal bust of Satan, some six feet in +height, which was pronounced to be 'truly that of Milton's "Arch-angel +ruined."' Mr. George Hogarth, the father-in-law of Charles Dickens--a +gentleman of literary power and knowledge--was the editor of the +'Halifax Guardian' at the time, and visited the artist's small studio, +where he saw, in one corner, under its lean-to roof, for the first +time, the bust of Satan. He was astonished at its merit, and published +his criticism of the work in the paper on May the 24th, 1834. Leyland +was then strongly urged to forward the bust to London, which he did, +with some others he had modelled; and the critics were invited to visit +his studio. The favourable opinion which Mr. Hogarth published, in the +paper of which he was editor, was endorsed, but in more flattering +terms, in the 'Morning Chronicle' of December 2nd, 1834. But there was +held at Leeds, in these years, the Annual Exhibition of the Northern +Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts; and Leyland, before he +sent his work to London, included it in his contributions to the +exhibition at Leeds. + +The oil-paintings and water-colour drawings that were hung there, in +the summer of 1834, appear to have formed a fine and varied collection. +There were beautiful landscapes in water-colour by Copley Fielding, and +in oil by Alexander Nasmyth, John Linnel, Robert Macreth; and others +were well represented, while historical paintings by H. Fradelle, +sea-pieces by Carmichael, and animal paintings by Schwanfelder, always +good, were highly creditable to these well-known names. A number of +fine portraits by William Bewick and William Robinson added interest +and beauty to the galleries. The reader may conceive, if he will, the +Brontės--Charlotte and Branwell, and, it may be, Mr. Brontė and +Emily--enjoying to the full the paintings and sculptures which were +before them. He may fancy the suddenly expressed, 'Look, Charlotte!' as +some newly discovered picture flashed as a keen delight on the eager +fancy of Branwell's appreciative spirit. He may imagine the ready +criticism of Charlotte, and the attempts which she and her brother made +to divine how much thought had gone to make up the composition of a +work. The young Brontė critics, as they looked on the colossal head of +Satan--on the stern and inflexible firmness of the features 'whose +superhuman beauty is yet covered with a cloud of the deepest +melancholy;' on the representation 'of the great and glorious being +sunk in utter despair,'--might ponder, perhaps, whether an ideal has +dawned upon the imagination of the artist, and so been wrought from no +model, but from the vision of his meditations, or whether success is, +after all, but the evidence of painful elaboration. At any rate, it was +just on such an exhibition of paintings and works of art that Charlotte +and Branwell delighted to dwell in intelligent and educated +observation. + +That a new impetus and a new meaning were given to their art-practice +about this time is certain, and it was probably not long after this +date that Mr. Brontė engaged, for the instruction of his son and +daughters, an artist of Leeds, the Mr. William Robinson I have +mentioned as having contributed a number of portraits to the +exhibition. The object of the Brontės was now to practise painting, and +this able instructor was consequently engaged. + +Mr. Robinson was a native of Leeds, who had, by natural talent and +steady perseverance, acquired something more than a local reputation. +His early love of art had been such that the wishes of his friends +failed to divert him from its pursuit, and he received lessons from Mr. +Rhodes, sen., of Leeds, an admirable painter in water-colours. But Mr. +Robinson had a strong predilection for portrait-painting, to which he +had devoted his powers, at the same time availing himself of every +opportunity for improving in its practice. In the year 1820, he visited +the metropolis, taking with him an introduction to Sir Thomas Lawrence, +who received him with great kindness, and he became a pupil of this +eminent artist. Sir Thomas, however, with noble generosity, declined +any remuneration whatever, and Robinson assisted his master in his +work. He was introduced to Fuseli, and gained the privilege of studying +at the Royal Academy, his work being characterized by the requisite +merit. He was stimulated to renewed exertion by this much desired +success. In 1824, he had returned to his native town, where he procured +numerous commissions. He was subsequently introduced to Earl de Grey, +of whom he painted portraits, as also of his family. Mr. Robinson, in +addition, painted four portraits for the United Service Club, one of +which was of the Duke of Wellington, who honoured him with several +sittings. Besides these, amongst his other works, was a portrait of the +Princess Sophia, and a copy of one of the Duke of York for the Duchess +of Gloucester. It was from this gentleman that Branwell Brontė and his +sister received a few lessons in portrait-painting at the time of which +I speak, and a knowledge of the master's career did not a little to +fire the mind of the enthusiastic Branwell with ardour to aim in the +same direction, while the contemporary efforts of others added fuel to +the fire. + +At this time there were certain artists of the neighbourhood who were +trying their fortunes in London, and who were known to Branwell Brontė +by reputation: C. H. Schwanfelder, the animal painter, and John W. +Rhodes, the son of the artist under whom Mr. Robinson had studied. The +father of the latter had endeavoured to dissuade him from making art +his profession, but all to no purpose: the bent of his genius could not +be curbed. He painted in water-colour and oil with great beauty and +fidelity; the green lane, the wild flower hanging from an old wall, +were his subjects. His works met with well-deserved encomiums in the +London press, and with praise wherever they were exhibited; but, when +full of aspiring hopes, he was attacked, like Girtin, Liversedge, and +Bonnington, by inflammation in the eyes, and ill health. He died at the +early age of thirty-three, and a memoir of him appeared in 'The Art +Journal' of March, 1843. The determination of Charlotte and Branwell to +take, as it were, the Temple of Art by forcible possession, was, it may +be conceived, due also, in some measure, to the growing celebrity of +Leyland; for, in literature and art, Halifax was nearer to the Brontės +than any of the surrounding towns. The praise of Leyland's works, +moreover, had been re-published from the London press in all the papers +of his native county, and poetic eulogies appeared in the 'Leeds +Intelligencer' and in the 'Leeds Mercury;' and, therefore, that they +were eager to emulate his works and to equal his success seems very +probable. + +I have felt it necessary to mention these influences, as they alone +serve to explain how it was that Branwell and his sister were led to +think of, and--as regards the brother--to persist for a time in making +a profession of painting for which they had no special aptitude. +Branwell, in fact, designed to become himself a portrait-painter, and +he conceived that a course of instruction at the Royal Academy afforded +the best means of preparation for that profession. + +Being gifted with a keen and distinct observation, combined with the +faculty of retaining impressions once formed, and being an excellent +draughtsman, he could with ease produce admirable representations of +the persons he portrayed on canvas. But it is quite clear that he never +had been instructed either in the right mode of mixing his pigments, or +how to use them when properly prepared, or, perhaps, he had not been an +apt scholar. He was, therefore, unable to obtain the necessary flesh +tints, which require so much delicacy in handling, or the gradations of +light and shade so requisite in the painting of a good portrait or +picture. Had Branwell possessed this knowledge, the portraits he +painted would have been valuable works from his hand; but the colours +he used have all but vanished, and scarcely any tint, beyond that of +the boiled oil with which they appear to have been mixed, remains. Yet, +even if Branwell had been fortunate in his work, he would only have +attained the position, probably, of a moderate portrait-painter. His +ambition, however, took a higher range, and he prepared himself for the +venture, hoping that the desiderata which Haworth could not supply +would be amply provided for him in London, when the long-desired +opportunity arrived. + +At Haworth he had been industrious, for he had painted some portraits +of the members of his family, and of several friends. One of these is +well described by Mrs. Gaskell, and her account is worth giving +here:--'It was a group of his sisters, life-size, three-quarters +length ... the likenesses were, I should think, admirable. I 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 these 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 fate 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.'[20] + + [20] 'Life of Charlotte Brontė,' chap. vii. + +From Mrs. Gaskell's description of this one picture, it is apparent +that Branwell possessed, not only the faculty, as we have seen, of +obtaining excellent portraits, but that he had the ability to impress +the faces of his sisters with thought, intelligence, and sensibility; +and to invest them with the habitual expressions they wore, of power, +solicitude, and tenderness. The deep reflection which Branwell bestowed +on this picture, and the care he lavished on its mysterious +composition, show unquestionably the aptitude and capacity of his own +mind, which enabled him to obtain these essential expressions; and it +is evident that his peculiarity of thought invested his picture with +that sadness and gloom which, in after times, tinctured the poems he +wrote under the solemn-sounding pseudonym of 'Northangerland.' This +picture is only one among many others he painted in preparing himself +for his intended studies at the Royal Academy; and the old nurse, Nancy +Garrs, tells me that he often wanted to paint her portrait, but she +told him that she did not think herself 'good-looking enough.' + +At a later date Branwell related to Mr. George Searle Phillips the +story of his artistic hopes.[21] He spoke of the great fondness for +drawing manifested by the whole family; and declared that Charlotte, +especially, was well read in art-learning, and knew the lives of the +old masters, whose works she criticized with discrimination and +judgment. But he said that she had ruined her eyesight by making minute +copies of line-engravings, on one of which she was occupied six months. +He also spoke of his own passionate love of art, and of the bright and +confident anticipations with which he had looked forward to his +projected studies at the Royal Academy, which had been the cherished +hope of his family and himself. + + [21] 'The Mirror,' 1872. + +Leyland had visited London in the December of 1833, when he obtained +from Stothard a letter of introduction to Ottley, the curator of the +Elgin Marbles, to allow him to study the marbles in the British Museum. +Permission was readily granted, and the sculptor availed himself of it. +A year later Leyland took up his residence in the metropolis. He was +received in a friendly manner by Chantrey and Westmacott, the latter +inviting him to dinner, and afterwards showing him his foundry at +Pimlico, and his works in progress, among which was the statue of the +Duke of York. He was also introduced to, and enjoyed the friendship of +Nasmyth--the father of the eminent engineer whose story has recently +been given to the world--and of Warley: one a landscape-painter of +celebrity, and the other famed as an artist in water-colour. The +latter, who had considerable faith in astrology, persisted in drawing +the younger sculptor's horoscope. Among others, he became known to +Haydon, under whom he subsequently studied anatomy. This lamented +artist was a genuine friend, and it was under his instructions that +Leyland perfected his natural perception of the grand and beautiful in +art. While here he modelled, in life-size, a figure of 'Kilmeny,' in +illustration of the passage in Hogg's 'Queen's Wake,' where the sinless +maiden is awakened by Elfin music in fairy-land. It was a successful +work, and was favourably noticed by the critics. It was subsequently +purchased for the Literary and Philosophical Society of his native +town. + +It was while Leyland was in the metropolis that Charlotte wrote, on the +6th July, 1835: + +'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.' + +While this project was warmly engaging the attention of the Brontė +family, Leyland was living in London, at the house of Mr. Geller, a +mezzotinto-engraver, who was a native of Bradford; and, at the time, +the sculptor modelled a group of three figures illustrative of a +passage in Maturin's tragedy of 'Bertram,' which represented the +warrior listening to the prior reading. The work was engraved by +Geller. This group was said to be conceived in the 'true spirit of +Maturin,' and met with the favourable notice of the London periodicals +of the year 1835, the year of Branwell's visit to the metropolis. The +reviews were also reproduced in most of the Yorkshire papers. + +The design of putting Branwell forward as an artist, and of giving him +the opportunity and the means of beginning and continuing his studies, +where he might be imbued with the spirit of the great sculptors and +painters who have left imperishable names, and whose works are stored +in the public art-galleries of London, had at last been determined +upon. The sacrifices the Brontė family were prepared to make in order +to secure this object require but a passing notice here. Branwell was a +treasured brother; and they would feel, no doubt, a sincere happiness +in promoting his interests, in furthering his views, and in bringing +his artistic abilities before the world. It would, however, seem +scarcely possible that the difficulties attending Branwell's admission +as a student at the Royal Academy had been duly considered. He could +not be admitted without a preliminary examination of his drawings from +the antique and the skeleton, to ascertain if his ability as a +draughtsman was of such an order as would qualify him for studentship; +and, if successful in this, he would be required to undergo a regular +course of education, and to pass through the various schools where +professors and academicians attended to give instruction. No doubt it +was wished that Branwell should have a regular and prolonged +preparation for his professional artistic career; but it would have +lasted for years, and the pecuniary strain consequent upon it would, +perhaps, have been severely felt, even if Branwell's genius had +justified the outlay. But there is no evidence that he ever subjected +himself to the preliminary test, or made an application even to be +admitted as a probationer. + +It would seem that, so far as Mr. Brontė was concerned, his promotion +of the wishes of his children arose rather from a desire to gratify +them. It does not appear that he had any over-sanguine expectation that +Branwell could carry out his ardent intention of becoming an artist. +Mr. Brontė's own wish was, indeed, that his son should adopt his +profession, but the mercurial youth was probably little attracted by +the functions of the clergyman's office. + +To London Branwell, however, went, where, without doubt, his object was +to draw from the Elgin Marbles, and to study the pictures at the Royal +Academy and other galleries, with a perfectly honest intention. +Whatever impression he may have received of his own powers as an +artist, when he saw those of the great painters of the time, we have no +certain knowledge; but it does not exceed belief that he was +discouraged when he looked upon the brilliant chef d'oeuvres of Sir +Joshua Reynolds, Gainsborough, Sir Thomas Lawrence, and others; and +that, when he reflected on the immeasurable distance between his own +works and theirs, his hopes of a brilliant artistic career were +partially dissipated. Whether it was due to these circumstances, or +that he had become more fully aware of the early struggles that meet +all who attempt art as a profession, or that his courage failed him at +the contemplation of the unhappy lot which falls to those who, either +from lack of talent or through misfortune, fail to make their mark in +the artistic world; or whether it was because his father was unable to +support him in London during the years of preparation and study for the +professional career,--the requirements of which had not been +sufficiently considered,--is not now accurately known. Branwell, during +his short stay in London, visited most of the public institutions; and, +among other places, Westminster Abbey, the western faēade of which he +some time afterwards sketched from memory with an accuracy that +astonished his acquaintance, Mr. Grundy. + +Before he left the metropolis, Branwell could not resist a visit to the +Castle Tavern, Holborn, then kept by the veteran prize-fighter, Tom +Spring, a place frequented by the principal sporting characters of the +time. A gentleman named Woolven, who was present through the same +curiosity which led Branwell there, noticed the young man, whose +unusual flow of language and strength of memory had so attracted the +attention of the spectators that they had made him umpire in some +dispute arising about the dates of certain celebrated battles. Branwell +and he became personal friends in after-years. + +Branwell returned to the parsonage a wiser man. His disappointment that +he was not to do as others were doing, whom he wished to emulate, was +very great, but he was not yet finally discouraged. We shall see +subsequently to what purpose Branwell put his artistic knowledge. The +failure of the hopes regarding his academical career in art was keenly +felt by his family. It was grievous as it was humiliating, but it was +borne with exemplary patience and resignation. When these painful +experiences had impressed the Brontė sisters with the hopelessness of +high artistic study for Branwell, and when their eyes were opened to +the consciousness that their large gifts did not include art, Charlotte +wrote, in her novel of 'Villette,' under the character of Lucy Snowe: +'I sat bent over my desk, drawing--that is, copying an elaborate +line-engraving, tediously working up my copy to the finish of the +original, for that was my practical notion of art; and, strange to say, +I took extreme pleasure in the labour, and could even produce curiously +finished fac-similes of steel or mezzotinto plates--things about as +valuable as so many achievements in worsted work, but I thought pretty +well of them in those days.' + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +CHARLOTTE AT ROE HEAD. + +Charlotte returns as a Teacher, with Emily as a Pupil, to Roe +Head--Their Determination to Maintain themselves--Charlotte's Fears +respecting Emily--Charlotte's religious Melancholy--Accuses herself of +Flippancy--She is on the Borders of Despair--Anxiety to Know More of +the World--Emily at Law Hill, Halifax, as a Teacher--Charlotte's +Excitability--She returns Home out of Health. + + +'We are all about to divide, break up, separate,' Charlotte said, when +conveying to her friend the news of the Academy project, and of her +determination to enter upon life as a governess. If Branwell's ambition +had encouraged her own, its failure made no change in her plans. She +was 'sad,' she says, 'very sad,' at the thoughts of leaving home; yet +she was going back to the school of Miss Wooler, whom she both loved +and respected, to live at Roe Head, this time to teach, it is true, +instead of to be taught. But her sister Emily was to accompany her, as +a pupil of the school, and that they would be together was a +consolation to both sisters; and Charlotte, too, would be near the +homes of the friends she had made when she was herself a pupil there. +It was a pleasure to think she would be able to see them sometimes. + +At the end of July, then, the two proceeded to Roe Head. This was the +first of those adventurous moves which the sisters, from time to time, +made. One of the strongest features, indeed, in their lives is the +persistency with which they essayed to maintain themselves, even when +no apparently pressing necessity impelled them. Yet we may not doubt +that one sad reflection sometimes moved them, and it was that their +father's stipend ceased with his life; that they had no other resource +beyond their own endeavours; and that, such was the uncertainty of all +human concerns, they might at any moment be deprived of home, support, +and shelter. It behoved them then to secure by their personal energies, +while they were able, the very means of subsistence. + +When Mr. Brontė saw his young family around him, and when he enjoyed +the comfort of his hearth, the contingency of his death, and the +consequent helplessness of his children, often struck him with +apprehension and sadness. But he had the alleviation that they +inherited, in a marked degree, his own adventurous and energetic +disposition, whose successful career was always before them as an +example and incentive to honourable endeavour. + +Mr. Brontė looked back with just satisfaction on the early sacrifices +he had made to advance himself in the world. His children were familiar +with the story of his exertions. They, however, with far higher +talents, were not possessed of the physical strength and powers of +endurance which had aided his progress; and Charlotte and Emily, when +any unusual strain was cast upon them, soon felt their strength +exhausted, and they suffered depression of spirits as the consequence. +Home-sickness was the great trouble of the younger sister, and, before +she had been long at school, Emily grew pale and ill. Charlotte felt in +her heart that, if she remained, she would die; and, at the end of +three months, she returned to Haworth, where, alone among the moors, +with all the wild things of nature, which had inspired so deep an +interest in her feelings, she could be contented. But the youngest +sister, Anne, came to Roe Head in her place, and she and Charlotte seem +to have been very happy there for some time; but a tendency to +religious melancholy had been developing in the elder sister's mind, +imperceptibly, out of her deep religious feeling, and it increased upon +her. + +So early as the letter to 'E,' July 6th, 1835, she had spoken of 'duty, +necessity, these are stern mistresses,' as controlling her action in +seeking a situation. Her friend Mary went to see her, and in her letter +to Mrs. Gaskell she says: 'I asked her 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.' Some +relaxation was gained by the Midsummer holidays of the year 1836. All +the family were at home, and their friend 'E' visited them, so that a +pleasant period of mental diversion was secured. But, after her return +to her school, despondency came upon her again, and crowded her +thoughts; and she wrote respecting her feelings in religious concerns: +'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 +insure the prospect of reconciliation to God, and a 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.' + +Let us not under-estimate the mental suffering which could dictate this +confession. Happily, this was not constantly present, nor her feelings +always so acutely wrought upon. Even in the same letter from which the +above is taken, she wishes her friends should know the thrill of +delight which she experienced when she saw the packet of her friend +thrown over the wall by the bearer, passing in his gig to Huddersfield +Market. She persevered in her place, the whole tendency of her +exaggerated reasoning forbidding her to seek that ease and relaxation +which she needed so much; but she was not incapacitated for her duties, +and probably her family were quite unaware of her troubles: so she +remained. + +Branwell and Emily were resolved not to be behind their sister in their +endeavours, and they were full of anxiety to know more of the world +than they could meet with at Haworth. Emily obtained a similar +situation to Charlotte's, in a large school at Law Hill, near Halifax, +where she found her duties far from light. Her extreme reserve with +strangers is remembered by one who knew her there, but she was not at +all of an unkindly nature; on the contrary, her disposition was +generous and considerate to those with whom she was on familiar terms: +her stay at Law Hill terminated at the end of six months. The place of +her sojourn is a lofty elevation, overlooking Halifax. Emily would find +the situation of the school agreeable to her taste, and to her delight +in the weird and grand as presented by the solemn heath-grown heights +of the West-Riding: besides, the air was as pure as that of Haworth, +and Law Hill commanded finer views, among which the range of Oxenhope +moors, in her father's chapelry, was visible. In the other direction, +she could overlook the more cultivated district of Hartshead and +Kirklees, and could see Roe Head, where her sisters Charlotte and Anne +resided. Branwell also, emulating his sisters, obtained the situation +of usher in the locality, which he retained for a few months. + +Some adventures with their literary productions interested them at the +close of this year, of which I shall have further to speak. Miss +Wooler's removal of her school to Dewsbury Moor was, in some respects, +unfortunate for the sisters, as the situation was less healthy than the +former one, and, when Charlotte and Anne returned home at Christmas, in +the year 1837, neither was well. Charlotte's nerves were over-strung, +and Anne was suffering from chest affections, which conjured up anew +their recollection of the deaths of Maria and Elizabeth from +consumption. To add to their troubles, Tabby fell on the ice in the +lane, and fractured her leg. The consequence of this was, that they had +to forego the expected pleasure of a visit from their friend 'E,' +through their attendance on the old servant, whom they were unwilling +should be removed to her friends, however desirable this might be on +many grounds. They even went so far as to refuse to eat at all, till +their aunt, who had arranged the matter to the satisfaction of all +concerned, except her nieces, should give up her intention of removing +Tabby. They succeeded, and Tabby remained at the parsonage, where in +time she became convalescent, and Charlotte was enabled to visit her +friends before she resumed her occupation. + +Charlotte again returned to her accustomed duties, her nervousness +increasing, not the less; and Mrs. Gaskell says: 'About this time she +would turn sick and trembling at any sudden noise, and could hardly +repress her screams when startled.' Through Miss Wooler's urgency, she +was induced to consult a medical man, who advised her immediate return +to Haworth, where quiet and rest had become for her imperatively +necessary. Then her father sought for her the companionship of her two +friends, Mary and Martha T----, than whose society Charlotte had never +known a more rousing pleasure. They came to stay at the parsonage, and +their cheerful converse and agreeable manners greatly improved +Charlotte's health and spirits. We obtain an interesting picture of the +young party in the following letter that Charlotte addressed to her +friend 'E,' which Mrs. Gaskell has published: + + 'Haworth, + + 'June 9th, 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. 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 + so 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.' + +Branwell, in these days, was well enough, and could be lively enough, +when occasion served. He had his hopes, his enthusiasm yet: but, in +after-years, he was to fall into a yet deeper and more serious +depression than that through which Charlotte had passed. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +BRANWELL BRONTĖ AND HIS SISTERS' BIOGRAPHERS. + +The Light in which Biographers have regarded Branwell--Bibliography +--Mrs. Gaskell--The Causes which led her into Error--Resentment of +Branwell's Friends--Mr. George Searle Phillips--Branwell as Depicted +by Mr. T. Wemyss Reid--Mr. F. H. Grundy's Notice of Branwell--Miss +A. Mary F. Robinson's Portrait of Branwell. + + +It will be well here--before we reach the periods of Branwell's life +that have been misunderstood--to pause, in our sketch of the Brontė +family, in order to consider certain circumstances regarding him, +which it will be impossible for any future writer on the Brontės to +disregard. It is especially necessary to consider them in a book +which--while dealing with the Brontė sisters, their lives and their +works--proposes, as a special aim, to make Branwell's position clear. +When Derwent Coleridge wrote the short biography of his father, which +is prefixed to the poet's works, he approached the subject in a +somewhat regretful way, asking if the public has a right to inquire as +to that part of a poet's life which does not influence his fellow-men +after death, and declaring that the privacy of the dead is sacred. +He felt too keenly that the sanctity of Coleridge's life had been +broken in upon by those who lacked both accurate knowledge and just +discretion. It is a source of sincere regret to the writer of this +volume that he, too, is compelled by circumstances to treat a part of +his work almost in a deprecatory spirit, and sometimes to assume the +position of defence. For, if the failings of Coleridge have been +discovered and fed upon by those whose curiosity leads them to delight +in such things, what shall we say of Patrick Branwell Brontė, whose +misdeeds have not only been sought out with a persistency worthy of a +better cause, but have also been exaggerated and misrepresented to a +great degree, and whose whole life, moreover, has been contorted by +writers who have endeavoured to find in it some evidence for their own +hypotheses? It has been the misfortune of Branwell that his life has, +to some extent, been already several times written by those who have +had some other object in view, and who, consequently, have not been +studious to acquire a correct view of the circumstances of it. These +writers, it will be seen, have therefore, perhaps unavoidably, fallen +into many grievous errors regarding him, so that his name, at this day, +has come to be held up as a reproach and even as a token of ignominy. +If it be remembered that Mrs. Gaskell, in her 'Life of Charlotte +Brontė,' describes him as a drunkard and an opium-eater, as one who +rendered miserable the lives of his sisters, and might very well have +shot his father; that Mr. T. Wemyss Reid, in his 'Charlotte Brontė, a +Monograph,' has spoken of him as 'this lost and degraded man;' that +Miss Robinson, in her 'Emily Brontė,' has called him a 'poor, +half-demented lonely creature,' and has moralized upon his 'vulgar +weakness,' his 'corrupt and loathsome sentimentality,' and his 'maudlin +Micawber penitence;' and lastly that Mr. Swinburne, in a notice of the +last-named work in the 'Athenęum,' has said, 'of that lamentable and +contemptible caitiff--contemptible not so much for his common-place +debauchery as for his abject selfishness, his lying pretension, and his +nerveless cowardice--there is far too much in this memoir;' it may well +appear that we have here a strange subject for a biography. + +But, since the publication of Miss Robinson's 'Emily Brontė,'--in which +Branwell is specially degraded,--it has been felt by many admirers of +the Brontės that it was desirable his life should be treated +independently of the theories and necessities of his sisters' +biographers, and in a spirit not unfriendly to him; for there are many +people who believe that Branwell's genius has never been sufficiently +recognized, and there are a few who know that, notwithstanding his many +failings and misdeeds, the charges made against him are, not a few of +them, wholly untrue, while many more are grossly exaggerated, and that +his disposition and character have been wholly misrepresented. Having +in my possession many of his letters and poems, and having been +personally acquainted with him, I have undertaken the task of telling +the story of his life in connection with the lives of his sisters, for +I think that there is much in his strange and sad history that ought to +be known, while sufficient evidence exists of his mental power to prove +that he was a worthy member of the intellectual family to which he +belonged. It may not be amiss here, in order to illustrate +circumstances that will be alluded to in parts of this work, to touch +slightly upon the bibliography of Branwell's life, and endeavour to +discover the causes which have contributed to the ill-repute in which +he is generally held. + +Mrs. Gaskell, who became acquainted with Charlotte Brontė after the +deaths of her brother and sisters, when all that was most sorrowful in +her life had been enacted, saw, or thought she saw, in her the +evidences of a deep dejection, the result of a life passed under +circumstances of misery and depression. In her 'Life of Charlotte +Brontė,' this writer's endeavour to trace the successive influences of +the trials of Charlotte's life upon her, and to find in them the +explanation of what was, perhaps, in some measure, an idiosyncrasy of +character, has led her, in the strength of her own preconception, to +interpret many circumstances to the attestation of her theory. Such, at +all events, is the explanation which Mr. T. Wemyss Reid has offered, in +his 'Charlotte Brontė, a Monograph,' of the partial manner in which +Mrs. Gaskell has dealt with certain of Miss Brontė's letters. If we +conceive Mrs. Gaskell writing with this preconception, tending to give +undue weight to all that was unhappy in the history of her heroine, we +need feel little surprise that her account of the lives of the Brontės +is too often a gloomy one, that their isolation at Haworth, their +poverty, and their struggles have been exaggerated, or that, in order +to throw in a sombre background to her picture, she was unduly +credulous in listening to those unfounded stories with which she made +Mr. Brontė to appear, in act, at least, diabolical, and which have +helped to depict the career of Patrick Branwell Brontė in such dark and +tragic colours. She had heard at Haworth the story of his disgrace, his +subsequent intemperance, and his death. Herein she believed was the +great sorrow of the sisters' minds, the care which had induced a morbid +peculiarity in their writings, and cast a shadow upon their lives. Mrs. +Gaskell seems to have thought it devolved upon her, not merely to +picture beginnings of evil in the brother, and trace them to his ruin; +but, also, to punish the lady whom she held responsible for what has +been termed 'Branwell's fall.' To this end she thought it right to lay +at the lady's door, in part, the premature deaths of the sisters; and, +in sustaining the idea that the effect on them of the brother's +disgrace was what she believed it to be, she was led to employ partial +versions of the letters, and exaggerate the whole course of Branwell's +conduct. Her book was read with astonishment by those whose characters +were made to suffer by it, and she was obliged, in later editions, to +omit the charges against the lady; and also those against Mr. Brontė. +But Mrs. Gaskell still maintained that, whatever the cause, the effect +was the same. + +It was not believed at the time, by some, that, because Mrs. Gaskell +had been obliged to withdraw the statements complained of, in the later +editions of her work, they were necessarily untrue. Mr. Thackeray had +said that the life was 'necessarily incomplete, though most touching +and admirable,' and the original edition was still in circulation, and +was pirated abroad. + +The friends of Branwell Brontė, those who from actual acquaintance knew +his mental power and real disposition, resented greatly the wrong that +had been done to his memory; and several representations were made in +his favour. One of these was in an article entitled: 'A Winter's Day at +Haworth,' published in 'Chambers's Journal,' 1869. Mr. George Searle +Phillips, in the 'Mirror,' of 1872, also published some valuable +reminiscences which tended to show Branwell's true elevation of +character and gentleness of disposition. + +The publication of Mr. Wemyss Reid's 'Charlotte Brontė, a Monograph,' +in the year 1877, while it called attention to the original view of +Branwell's life and character, did not aim to remove it. Mr. Reid +repudiated, with success, the idea that the effect of Branwell's career +upon Charlotte and Emily was what Mrs. Gaskell represented it to have +been, without expressing any dissent from the story itself. This writer +does not, indeed, appear to have suspected that the explanation was to +be found in the fact that Branwell was not so bad as he had been made +to appear, or that Mrs. Gaskell had fallen into other errors besides +those of the letters which he corrected. But, though Mr. Reid carefully +avoided the reproduction of the details of Mrs. Gaskell's account of +Branwell's life, what reference is made to him in the 'Monograph,' +after the period of his youth, is always in terms of reprobation, which +have done nothing to discourage belief in the suppressed scandal. +Moreover, Mr. Reid revived some of the charges against Mr. Brontė, and +painted a sinister portrait of him. + +It was under these circumstances that Mr. F. H. Grundy, C.E., another +friend of Branwell's, in his 'Pictures of the Past' (1879), endeavoured +to do some justice to his memory, and declared, notwithstanding his +great failings, that his abilities were of a very high order, and his +disposition one that should be admired. I have found Mr. Grundy's +materials of use in this work. But, unfortunately, this friend of +Branwell's wrote from recollection, and made such great mistakes in +the chronology of his life that his account did not give a true +interpretation of actual circumstances. Mr. Grundy, too, had evidently +refreshed his memory with a perusal of Mrs. Gaskell's volume, and +so his information was considerably tinctured with that writer's +misconceptions. This notice had the very opposite effect to that which +was intended, and has since been largely used by writers whose purpose +has led them to rank Branwell with the fallen. + +In Miss Robinson's recently published 'Emily Brontė,' the scandal of +Branwell's life, which Mrs. Gaskell laid before the reading world, +has been reproduced, and her evil report of his character greatly +increased. 'Why,' it might well be asked, 'should it be necessary to +publish the records of a brother's misdeeds as a conspicuous feature +in a sister's memoir? Why revive a scandal that has been so long +suppressed?' Miss Robinson has, indeed, given her reason, in that +Branwell's sins had so large a share in determining the bent of his +sister's genius, that 'to have passed them by would have been to ignore +the shock which turned the fantasy of the "poems" into the tragedy of +"Wuthering Heights,"' and here, probably, is the only adequate purpose +that could have been found in doing so; but it is scarcely sufficient +to explain why Miss Robinson has, almost from her first mention of +Branwell Brontė to her remarks on his death, treated every act of his +life with contumely, censure, and contempt, or that she has, in +opposition to every previous opinion, represented his abilities as +almost void. While Mr. Reid suggested that Emily Brontė, in writing her +novel, must have obtained some of her impressions from her brother's +conduct, Mr. Grundy had made a statement tending to show that Branwell +had written a portion of the story himself. If Branwell's abilities +were no better than Miss Robinson says they were, she has disposed of +Mr. Grundy's assertion at once; but not the less does she employ other +reasons for that end, and the degradation she has thought it necessary +to show in Branwell, answers quite as much to prove the impossibility +of his having written the work, as to picture the cause of brooding in +Emily, under which she produced the tragedy of 'Wuthering Heights.' + +With views similar to those with which Mrs. Gaskell wrote, Miss +Robinson, in following the biographer of Charlotte, has fallen into the +same errors. In order to make it clear that the part Branwell had in +the production of 'Wuthering Heights,' by his sister, was subjective, +this writer has found it necessary to show in his life much of what is +worst in the characters of the story. So completely has Miss Robinson +carried out this portion of her work, that Mr. Swinburne was led to +say, in his notice of it, that 'Emily Brontė's tenderness for the +lower animals ... was so vast as to include even her own miserable +brother.'[22] But Miss Robinson has not succeeded so far without much +unfairness to the victim of her theory, in omissions and errors of +fact. I shall have occasion to treat at some length, later, Branwell's +relationship both to 'Wuthering Heights' and 'The Tenant of Wildfell +Hall.' + + [22] 'Athenęum,' June 16th, 1883, p. 762. + +I hope, indeed, to be able to prove that Branwell was (as all who +personally knew him aver him to have been) a man of great and powerful +intellectual gifts, to relieve his memory of much of the obloquy +that has been heaped upon it, and to clearly show the remarkable +individuality of his character. I shall find it necessary, in doing so, +to take exception to the portions of Mrs. Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte +Brontė' which deal with her brother, as to some extent I had to do to +those which refer to Mr. Brontė. More especially, however, will it be +necessary to deal with the fuller statements in the first edition of +the work, and with their repetition and amplification in the more +recent volumes of Mr. Reid and Miss Robinson. + +I have thought it necessary to introduce these remarks in this place, +in order that the reader, when he comes to the consideration of certain +statements made by previous writers concerning Branwell, and his +relationship with his sisters, may have a clear understanding of the +views with which the works containing these statements have been +written. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +BRANWELL AT BRADFORD. + +Branwell becomes a Freemason--His love of Art undiminished--Has +Instruction in Oil-Painting--Commences Portrait-Painting at +Bradford--His Commissions--His Letter to Mr. Thompson, the Artist +--Miss Robinson's Charges of Misconduct--Her Erroneous Statements +--Branwell's true Character and Conduct at Bradford--Remarks on +his alleged Opium-eating there. + + +When Branwell returned from London it was not without sincere +satisfaction that his acquaintances welcomed their gifted and versatile +friend back to Haworth, certain of whom induced him to become a +freemason. Thus Branwell was brought into closer connection with the +convivial circles of the village. + +There was held at Haworth, at the time, 'The Lodge of the Three +Graces.' In this lodge Branwell was proposed as a brother, and accepted +on the 1st of February, 1836, initiated February the 29th, passed March +the 28th, and raised April the 25th of that year, John Brown being the +'Worshipful Master.' Branwell was present at eleven meetings in 1836, +the minutes of one of these--September the 18th--being fully entered by +him. On December the 20th of the same year, he fulfilled the duties of +'Junior Warden;' and, at seven meetings of the lodge, from January the +16th to December the 11th, 1837, he was secretary, and entered the +minutes. He also, on Christmas Day of the same year, officiated as +organist.[23] In addition to his duties in connection with the Masonic +Lodge, he likewise undertook the secretaryship of the local Temperance +Society, of which he was a member. + + [23] Riley's 'History of the Airedale Lodge,' p. 48. + +Branwell's love of art had been too strong, and his interest in its +practice too intense, to allow even such a check as that which his +aspirations had received in the failure of the Academy project to +finally discourage him. Hence it was, I suppose, when he had +relinquished his place of usher that his passionate desire of becoming +an artist, still cherished under disappointment, revived. He conceived, +as the project of studying at the Royal Academy had not proved +feasible, that, if he had a full course of instruction from Mr. +Robinson, he could, in that way, qualify himself, perhaps as well, to +adopt the profession of a portrait-painter, more valuable in those +days, when photographers were not, than now; and Mr. Brontė, leaning to +his son's wish, was induced to sanction the proposal, as it might +provide Branwell with an alternative occupation to that of tutor, the +only other that seemed open to him. + +Mr. Robinson's charge, on the few occasions of his lessons at Haworth +parsonage, had been two guineas for each visit. But it was now arranged +that Branwell should receive instruction from the artist at his studio +in Leeds. In this way he would not only have better opportunities of +acquiring the art, but the cost would be much less. For this purpose, +he stayed at an inn in Briggate, but occasionally took his master's +pictures to Haworth to copy. Under this kind of tuition he continued +for some months, when, having completed his studies, he resolved upon +turning the instruction he had received, probably through the kindness +of his aunt, to profitable account. With this professional intention, +he engaged private apartments in Bradford, and took up his residence as +a portrait-painter, under the interest of his mother's relative, the +Rev. William Morgan, of Christ Church. Among others, he painted +portraits of this gentleman, and of the Rev. Henry Heap, the vicar. For +some months Branwell was successful in maintaining himself by these +praiseworthy efforts; but it was scarcely to be expected that he could +succeed sufficiently well in competition with the older and more +experienced artists of the neighbourhood. + +Among his other pictures, were portraits of Mrs. Kirby, his landlady, +and her two children. One of these, a beautiful little girl, was his +special favourite. At his frequent request, she dined with him in his +private sitting-room, her pleasant smiles and cheerful prattling always +charming him. + +It may be mentioned here that, when Branwell had entered upon his +studies under Mr. Robinson, he formed an acquaintance with a +fellow-student, Mr. J. H. Thompson, who was a portrait-painter at +Bradford. A close friendship grew up between them; and this artist, +being more experienced than Branwell, gave, now and then, finishing +touches to the productions of his young friend. + +Soon after Branwell gave up his profession as an artist at Bradford, he +wrote to Mr. Thompson, in reference to some misunderstanding which had +arisen between himself and his landlady. The letter is dated from +'Haworth, May the 17th, 1839.' + + 'DEAR SIR, + + 'Your last has made me resolve on a visit to you at Bradford, for + certainly this train of misconceptions and delays must at last be + put a stop to. + + 'I shall (Deo volente) be at the "Bull's Head" at two o'clock this + afternoon (Friday), and _do_ be there, or in Bradford, to give + me your aid when I arrive! + + 'I am astonished at Mrs. Kirby. I have no pictures of hers to + finish. But I said that, if I returned there, I would varnish three + for her; and also I do not understand people who look on a kindness + as a duty. + + 'Once more my heartfelt thanks to you for your consideration for + one who has none for himself. + + 'Yours faithfully, + + 'P. B. BRONTĖ.' + +Mrs. Kirby had not been quite satisfied with the pictures before +mentioned; but, on hearing Mr. Thompson's favourable opinion, she at +once gave way. Although Branwell ceased his residence at Bradford for +the reasons assigned, he afterwards painted portraits occasionally at +Haworth; but also frequently visited his friends at the former place, +having become acquainted with the poets and artists of the +neighbourhood, as we shall presently see. + +Miss Robinson has undertaken to draw Branwell's portrait at this +juncture of his affairs, when she says he had attained the age of +twenty years, though in fact he was twenty-two; and the following is +the labour of her hands: 'He went to Bradford as a portrait-painter, +and--so impressive is audacity--actually succeeded for some months in +gaining a living there.... His tawny mane, his pose of untaught genius, +his verses in the poet's corner of the paper could not for ever keep +afloat this untaught and thriftless portrait-painter of twenty. Soon +there came an end to his painting there. He disappeared from Bradford +suddenly, heavily in debt, and was lost to sight until, unnerved, a +drunkard, and an opium-eater, he came back to home and Emily at +Haworth.'[24] + + [24] 'Emily Brontė,' p. 64. It may be noted here, to show in + some sort what amount of credibility attaches to these + representations, that Miss Robinson has placed Branwell's + portrait-painting at Bradford subsequent to his tutorship at + Broughton-in-Furness, though really he did not go there until + a year later. + +These statements are simply untrue. I have the positive information of +one who knew Branwell in Leeds, and who resided in Bradford at the time +when he was there, that he did not leave that town in debt; that he +certainly was not a drunkard; and that, if he took anything at all, it +was but occasionally, and then no more than the commonest custom would +permit. I would rather believe--if all other evidence were wanting--the +account of Branwell given by the friends who knew him personally, and +who, at the moment in which I write, are still living on the spot where +he exerted himself to gain a living by the labour of his own hands, +than the unfair, unjust, and exaggerated charges quoted above. But +Branwell's letter to his friend disposes at once of the assertion that +he 'disappeared from Bradford suddenly, heavily in debt, and was lost +to sight.' And, as to the statement that he was unnerved and a +drunkard, one should surely rather accept the evidence of those who +knew him, that he was, on the contrary, as they unhesitatingly say, 'a +quiet, unassuming young man, retiring, and diffident, seeming rather of +a passive nature, and delicate constitution, than otherwise.' And, +moreover, his visits to Bradford, after he had given up his profession +there, were frequent, for his literary tastes, his artistic pursuits, +and his musical abilities had secured him many friends in that town. +Assuredly the biographer of Emily has been very unfortunate, to say the +least, in her account of Branwell's honest, upright, and honourable +endeavour to make his living by the profession of art at Bradford. + +Miss Robinson asserts that Branwell was an opium-eater 'of twenty,' in +addition to the other baneful habits she ascribes to him. There is, +however, no reliable evidence that, at this period of his life, he was +any such thing; and, considering the fact that the biographer of Emily +has assigned Branwell's art-practice at Bradford to a period subsequent +to his tutorship at Broughton-in-Furness, one may, perhaps, be +permitted to suspect that she is equally in error in her assertions as +to his opium-eating so young. Branwell did, indeed, later, fall into +the baneful habit, and suffered at times in consequence; but there is +no reason to believe that he became wholly subject to it, or was +greatly injured by the practice, either in mind or body. We can only +surmise as to the original cause of his use of opium; but, when we +consider the extraordinary fascination which De Quincey's wonderful +book had for the younger generation of literary men of his day, we +shall recognize that Branwell, who read the book, in all probability +fell under its influence. Let us remember, moreover, that the young +man's two sisters had died of consumption, and that De Quincey declares +the use of the drug had saved him from the fate of his father who had +fallen a victim to the same scourge. Lastly, it should not be forgotten +that, in the first half of this century, the use of opium became, in +some sort, fashionable amongst literary men, and that many admirers of +De Quincey and Coleridge deemed that the practice had received a +sufficient sanction. But the former of these writers had used the drug +intermittently, and we have reason to believe that Branwell, who +followed him, did likewise. Let us, then, imagine the young Brontė, +revelling in the realm of the dreamy and impassioned, and hoping fondly +that consumption might be driven away, resolving to try the effect of +the 'dread agent of unimaginable pleasure and pain,' a proceeding from +which many less brave would have shrunk. Branwell had doubtless read, +in the 'Confessions of an English Opium-eater,' that the drug does not +disorder the system; but gives tone, a sort of health, that might be +natural if it were not for the means by which it is procured. He would +believe that--in one under this magic spell, that is--'the diviner part +of his nature is paramount, the moral affections are in a state of +cloudless serenity; and high over all the great light of the majestic +intellect.' Mrs. Gaskell describes the operation of opium upon herself. +She says: 'I asked her' (Charlotte) 'whether she had ever taken opium, +as the description of its effects, given in "Villette," was so exactly +like what I had experienced--vivid and exaggerated presence of objects +of which the outlines were indistinct, or lost in golden mist, etc.'[25] +Branwell could not have tasted these stronger effects of the drug when +he first made use of it; but it should be remembered that he several +times recurred to the practice, and suffered the consequent pains and +penalties. + + [25] 'Life of Charlotte Brontė,' chap, xxvii. + +After his portrait-painting at Bradford, he never again resided there, +and it was about the period of his leaving that place that he began to +see the artistic career he had chosen was a mistake, and he determined +to give it up as a profession. Moreover, other influences, as we shall +see, had been, and were still, at work upon him which caused him to +turn once more to literature. From the period of his acquaintance with +the drawing-masters, he had become associated with the literary as well +as the artistic circles of the neighbourhood; and he anticipated the +literary future of his sisters. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +LITERARY INFLUENCES AND ASPIRATIONS. + +New Inspiration of Poetry--Wordsworth--Southey, Scott, and Byron +--Southey to Charlotte Brontė--Hartley Coleridge--His Worthies of +Yorkshire--Poets of the West-Riding--Alaric A. Watts--Branwell's +Literary Abilities. + + +In the early part of the present century, the spirit of poetry began to +make itself felt in quarters where previously it had never been known. +The pedantic affectation of the Della Cruscan school gave place, in the +works of a passionate lover of Nature like Wordsworth, to a fresher and +purer inspiration, that delighted in familiar themes of domestic and +rural beauty, which were often both humble and obscure. It was +Wordsworth, indeed, who 'developed the theory of poetry,'--as Branwell +Brontė well knew--that has worked a greater change in literature than +has, perhaps, been known since the period of the Renaissance. In his +endeavour to solve the difficulty of 'fitting to metrical arrangement a +selection of the real language of men in a state of vivid sensation,' +Wordsworth had prepared the way for a natural outburst of poetic +feeling, occupied with familiar and simple topics. The writers of the +so-called 'Lake School' of poets, and especially Wordsworth, Coleridge, +and Southey, were, in fact, the leaders of the new movement; and, +speedily, responsive to the free note of genius uncurbed, there arose +from many an unknown place in England the sweet sound of poetic voices +not heard before. At the same time, the touch of romanticism, which was +imparted by Scott and Byron, had a great influence on many of the +younger poets of the new school. It is evident, to anyone who has +studied the local literature of that time, that the works produced +under such inspiration were often of great and permanent merit. +Southey, writing to Charlotte Brontė in 1837, indeed says, '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.' + +Nowhere, probably, in England was the influence of the poets of +Westmoreland felt more deeply than in the valleys of the West-Riding +of Yorkshire. Indeed, a young publisher of that district, Mr. F. E. +Bingley, had sufficient appreciation of genius, and enterprise enough, +to bring him to Leeds for the purpose of publishing works from Hartley +Coleridge's hand. The younger Coleridge--besides the prestige of his +fathers name--had already become known as an occasional contributor to +'Blackwood's Magazine,' wherein first appeared his poem of 'Leonard +and Susan,' so much admired. Mr. Bingley entered into an engagement +to enable him to publish two volumes of poems, and a series of +'Biographical notices of the Worthies of Yorkshire and Lancashire,' +which Hartley Coleridge was to write. One of the volumes of poems was +issued from the press in 1833, and was well received. 'The Worthies' +proceeded to the third number, forming an octavo volume of six hundred +and thirty-two pages, when circumstances compelled Mr. Bingley to sell +the remainders to another publisher, who issued a second edition of +this well-known work, with a new title, in the year 1836. From the same +press there came, in 1834, 'Cyril, a Poem in Four Cantos; and Minor +Poems,' by George Wilson. C. F. Edgar, who was editor of the 'Yorkshire +Literary Annual,' the first volume of which appeared in 1831, was also +the author of a volume of poems, published by Mr. Bingley in the +succeeding year; and other poetical works followed from the Leeds +press. + +But, in those days, there was scarcely a locality in the populous +West-Riding of Yorkshire without its poet, and that poet, too, a man of +no mean powers. Nicholson, the Airedale poet, had, previously to the +time of which I speak, published his 'Airedale, and other Poems,' and +his 'Lyre of Ebor.' His poetical talents were really excellent, and his +versatility, and the happy character of his effusions, made Nicholson +very popular in the West-Riding. He died in 1843. The gifted poet of +Gargrave, Robert Story, had published, in earlier years, many songs and +poems in the local papers; and he issued, in 1836, a volume, entitled, +'The Magic Fountain.' This was followed, in 1838, by 'The Outlaw,' and +by 'Love and Literature,' in the year 1842. This poet was an ardent +partizan of the Conservatives, and his lyrical abilities were devoted +with unflagging energy to their cause. His 'Songs and Poems,' and his +'Lyrical, and other Minor Poems,' were subsequently published. His +political songs were vigorous, and his pastoral ones were redolent of +pastures, meadows, and moors, breathing all the freshness of nature in +its happiest time. Thomas Crossley, the 'Bard of Ovenden,' like Story, +possessed of lyrical talents of the highest order, was a frequent +contributor to the county papers; and he published, in 1837, an +admirable and delightful volume, entitled, 'The Flowers of Ebor.' In +the same year, William Dearden, the 'Bard of Caldene,' the possessor of +high gifts, published his 'Star-Seer; a Poem in Five Cantos,' which was +distinguished by great power, originality, and loftiness of conception. +It was largely influenced by the spirit of romanticism, and flowed with +the sweetest diction. + +This also was the age of 'Souvenirs,' 'Keepsakes,' 'Forget-me-nots,' +and 'Annuals,' which sold very largely, and contained much that was +really good. Heath, the proprietor of the 'Keepsake,' as we are told by +Southey, sold fifteen thousand copies in one year, and used four +thousand yards of watered-silk for the next issue; for these volumes +were always resplendent in silk and gold. Alaric A. Watts, who +published, in 1822, his 'Poetical Sketches' (a fourth edition of which, +enlarged and exquisitely illustrated with designs by Stothard and +Nesfield, was required), became, in the same year, editor of the 'Leeds +Intelligencer,' which he conducted with much spirit and ability. He +afterwards established the 'Manchester Courier,' which he for some time +edited, and was well-known in the northern shires. In 1828 and 1829 +appeared his 'Poetical Album,' 'Scenes of Life, and Shades of +Character,' in 1831; and from 1825 to 1834 he produced his 'Literary +Souvenir; a Cabinet of Poetry and Romance,' with great and deserved +success. It is more than likely that the great popularity of his +venture led to the publication of 'The White Rose of York,' a similar +volume, which was brought out at Halifax in the year 1834. This work +was edited by George Hogarth, and, in addition to the authors already +mentioned--who were, with the exception of Nicholson, the Airedale +poet, and the Leeds authors, contributors to it--were F. C. Spencer, +author of 'The Vale of Bolton,' a volume of poems; Henry Ingram, author +of a volume entitled, 'Matilda'; Henry Martin, editor of the 'Halifax +Express'; John Roby, author of 'The Traditions of Lancashire;' and +others. There was also in the work a contribution, entitled 'Morley +Hall,'--treating of a legend of the last-named county--by C. Peters, +the subject of which also exercised the abilities of the author of 'The +Flowers of Ebor'; and subsequently interested Branwell Brontė in a +similar manner--his friend Leyland having modelled a scene from the +story, in clay. + +It is beyond question that these literary influences, which stirred the +depths of feeling in Yorkshire, had a profound effect on the earlier +writings of the Brontės, and probably were their original inspiration. +All the local papers were filled with the news of the literary +movement; and the busy brains in the parsonage of Haworth could not but +be raised to emulation by the tidings. Branwell, especially, who knew +personally many of the workers in the new field whom I have named, and +was never so happy as when he could enjoy their company, was soon +moved, in the midst of his art-aspirations, to partake in their +literary labours. At this time, the tastes of the Brontės in this +direction, and their progress in poetical and prose composition, began +to inspire them with hopes and anticipations of the brightest +character. From childhood their attempts at literary composition had +formed, according to Charlotte herself, the highest stimulus, and one +of the liveliest pleasures they had known. They began to find out that +their genius was not artistic, but literary, and to pursue its bent +with increasing ardour and the warmest interest. + +It cannot be doubted that Branwell, greatly influenced, perhaps, by his +sisters, or they, more probably, by him--for they ever regarded his +genius as greater than their own--was soon employing his pen as often, +and more successfully, than his pencil. Mr. Brontė's daughters were +possessed largely of discriminating and critical powers, sufficient to +enable them to judge accurately of the abilities of their brother; and +Mrs. Gaskell allows that, to begin with, he was perhaps the greatest +genius of this rare family, and this more even in a literary than in an +artistic sense. Their favourable judgment was based on evidence they +had before them. They were not ignorant of his poetical and prose +compositions; and that these showed great beauty of thought and much +felicity of expression, as well as considerable power, originality, and +freshness of treatment, the evidences will appear in the subsequent +pages. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +EARLY POEMS. + +Branwell's Letter to Wordsworth, with Stanzas--Remarks upon it--No +Reply--He Tries Again--His Interest in the Manchester and Leeds +Railway--Branwell's Literary and Artistic Friends at Bradford and +Halifax--Leyland's Works there--Branwell's great Interest in +them--Early Verses--Mrs. Gaskell's Judgment on his Literary Abilities. + + +Branwell, even while working at art with great energy, was not, as I +have said, oblivious of his literary power. While, however, the work of +his sisters was to be conducted with great earnestness of purpose, it +was unfortunate that the scintillations of Branwell's genius were too +often fitful, erratic, and uncertain: his mind, indeed, even at this +time, was unstable. + +It may be noted, as characteristic of all Mr. Brontė's children, that, +united with sterling gifts of intellectual power and literary acumen, +there was always some mistrust as to the merit of their _own_ +productions, especially of poetical ones. They seem to have felt +themselves like travellers wandering in mist, or struggling through a +thicket, or toiling on devious paths with no reliable information at +hand, until they arrived at a point where progress looked impossible, +until they had obtained a guide in whom they had confidence. It +appeared, indeed, to the Brontės that, without an opinion on their +work, time might be altogether wasted on what was unprofitable. +Charlotte, therefore, in the December of 1836, determined to submit +some of her poems to the judgment of Southey; and it would seem that +she also consulted Hartley Coleridge. + +Before, however, Southey had answered his sister's letter, Branwell +ventured, in a similar spirit, to address Wordsworth, for whose +writings he had a great admiration. The following is his letter; and, +although it has been previously published, it must not be omitted +here.[26] + + [26] Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte Brontė,' chap. viii. + + 'Haworth, near Bradford, + + 'Yorkshire, January 19th, 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 further 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 old 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 + kind-heartedness--_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. BRONTĖ.' + +Mrs. Gaskell gives the following six stanzas, which are about a third +of the whole, and declares them not to be the worst part of the +composition:-- + + '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.' + +Branwell's letter to Wordsworth is, for the most part, well written, +and breathes an eager spirit, which shows the anxiety he was under to +know the opinion of a high and competent judge as to how he stood +with the Nine. It tells us the ardour with which he read and wrote, +the ambitious turn of his mind, and the special aims which he then +had in the literary world. But the verses, although imbued with a +fervent spirit of early piety, were such as Wordsworth could not +justly review without giving discouragement, and it seems probable he +preferred to keep silence rather than, by an open avowal, to give +pain--if pain must be given--as the lesser evil of the two. Or, +perhaps, he took amiss the ready frankness and apparent self-esteem +which, notwithstanding the disavowal, would probably seem present to +him in the letter of the young stranger who addressed him, without +sending any evidence of the powers of which he expressed himself so +confidently. But, at any rate, Mrs. Gaskell informs us that the +letter and verses were preserved by the poet till the Brontės became +celebrated, and that he gave the communication to his friend, Mr. +Quillinan, in 1850, when the real name of 'Currer Bell' became known. + +It must not be overlooked that, in the verses which Mrs. Gaskell has +printed, we have no opportunity of studying Branwell's dramatic +powers, which apparently found scope in the poem he had written. In +them is no development of the effect of the passionate feelings which +Branwell describes: 'struggling with a high imagination and acute +feelings,' and ending 'in mental misery and bodily ruin.' + +However, discouraged by long waiting, or assisted by friendly advice +and criticism, he toiled on in silence at his literary work, as he +did at art. The year 1837 turned out an important one for Charlotte. +In March, she at last received the answer from Southey, which she +considered a 'little stringent,' and from which she declared she had +derived good. She says, in her reply to the Laureate, 'I trust I +shall never more feel ambitious to see my name in print.... That +letter is consecrated; no one shall ever see it, but papa, and my +brother and my sisters.' + +It would seem that Branwell, notwithstanding the failure of his first +venture with Wordsworth, tried again, at a later date, with some +other, and more matured, compositions, which he submitted to that +poet and to Hartley Coleridge, 'who both,' says Mrs. Gaskell, +'expressed kind and laudatory opinions.' But, perhaps, the fact that, +to the letter quoted above, Wordsworth sent no answer, and did not +tell him whether he should 'write on, or write no more,' discouraged +Branwell for a time; and he may have been led to suspect that his +productions were worthless, and that time might 'henceforth be too +precious to be wasted upon them.' In this way, perhaps, he was +induced to turn with greater energy to his profession of art, as a +means of getting on, of which I spoke in a former chapter, though we +shall see that he did not abandon his literary work. + +Branwell also now found opportunities of making himself acquainted +with the grand and wild scenery of the mountainous borders of the +counties of York and Lancaster, a wider district than his sisters +could well survey. + +The Manchester and Leeds Railway was, at the time, in course of +construction below Littleborough, passing through the picturesque and +romantic vale of Todmorden. Branwell became greatly interested in the +work; and as stores, and other things for the completion of the line +to Hebden Bridge, were forwarded from Littleborough by canal, having +been previously sent to that place from Manchester by train, he soon +ingratiated himself with the boatmen, and was frequently seen in +their boats. It was on one of these occasions that Mr. Woolven, +previously mentioned, who was officially employed on the works, +recognized at once the clever young man who had surprised the company +at the 'Castle Tavern,' Holborn, and entered into conversation with +him. These incidents led to a friendly intercourse between them, +which continued for some years. + +Among his Bradford acquaintances, Branwell numbered, in addition to +Geller, the mezzotinto-engraver, previously mentioned, Wilson +Anderson, an admirable landscape-painter, whose productions are +valued as truthful pictures of the places they represent, and on +account of the skilfulness of their manipulation and colouring; and +also Richard Waller, a well-known and excellent portrait-painter. To +these may be added Edward Collinson, a local poet; Robert Story; and +John James, the future historian of Bradford. All these were personal +acquaintances of Branwell, as well as of Leyland, and the intercourse +between them was frequent. For more than twenty years a party of +these friends was accustomed to meet, from time to time, at the +'George Hotel,' Bradford, under the auspices of Miss Rennie, who +greatly prided herself on seeing at her house, in their hours of +leisure, the artistic and literary celebrities of the neighbourhood. +Leyland was at Halifax, being there to erect certain monuments, which +he had executed in London for various patrons in his native town. +While there, he modelled, in the upper room of an ancient house, his +colossal group of 'African Bloodhounds,' his model being a living +specimen of the breed; and the group, which was exhibited in London, +was favourably noticed. Landseer regarded it as the 'noblest modern +work of its kind.' It is now in the Salford Museum. The progress of +this group intensely interested Branwell and his Bradford friends; +and they frequently visited Leyland's temporary studio. It also +formed the subject of a poem by Dearden.[27] Finding this studio of +insufficient height for a great work he contemplated--a colossal +group of 'Thracian Falconers'--Leyland afterwards took a suitable +place in another part of the town, which, likewise, became a +meeting-place of the local _literati_. The new work was to consist of +three figures, the centre one being seated, and having upon his right +fore-finger a hawk; while his left hand rested on the shoulder of a +youth just roused, as if by some sudden sound; and, on his right, was +a similar youth, half-recumbent, and also in a listening attitude. The +centre figure was alone completed, and is now in the Salford Museum. + + [27] 'The Death of Leyland's African Bloodhound,' by William + Dearden, author of 'The Star-Seer.' London, 1837. (Longmans.) + +Branwell, on his visits to the artist's studio, often lamented the +dissipation of his high artistic hopes, and confessed that he saw +with pain how misplaced his confidence in his own powers had been. +But the sculptor was a poet also, and thus Branwell and he worked in +the same field. Many of Leyland's poems were published in the +Yorkshire papers, and also in the 'Morning Chronicle,' and were +always considered to be of true poetic excellence. Branwell relied +much on the artist's judgment in literary matters, and often +submitted his productions to him. + +Although Brontė had, as we have seen, abandoned the hope of a high +artistic career, he still clung to the practice of portrait-painting, +and this gave him leisure to court the muse. The following are the +earliest of his poems, of which the MSS. are in my possession; and +these are fragments only. The first is a verse of eleven lines, dated +January 23rd, 1838, which originally concluded a poem of sixty;-- + + 'There's many a grief to shade the scene, + And hide the starry skies; + But all such clouds that intervene + From mortal life arise. + And--may I smile--O God! to see + Their storms of sorrow beat on me, + When I so surely know + That Thou, the while, art shining on; + That I, at last, when they are gone, + Shall see the glories of Thy throne, + So far more bright than now.' + +This fragment, written by Branwell at the age of twenty-one, is +characteristic of the early tone of his mind. His naturally amiable +and susceptible disposition had soon become imbued with the spirit of +Christian piety which surrounded his life. He was, too, at the time, +full of noble impulses and high aspirations; but the shade of +melancholy implanted in his constitution had begun to influence his +writings. The following, which is the beginning of another poem, must +have been written in some such thoughtful mood, though the title is +not borne out in the portion I am able to give. + + DEATH TRIUMPHANT. + + MAY, 1838. + + 'Oh! on this first bright Mayday morn, + That seems to change our earth to Heaven, + May my own bitter thoughts be borne, + With the wild winter it has driven! + Like this earth, may my mind be made + To feel the freshness round me spreading, + No other aid to rouse it needing + Than thy glad light, so long delayed. + Sweet woodland sunshine!--none but thee + Can wake the joys of memory, + Which seemed decaying, as all decayed. + + 'O! may they bud, as thou dost now, + With promise of a summer near! + Nay--let me feel my weary brow-- + Where are the ringlets wreathing there? + Why does the hand that shades it tremble? + Why do these limbs, so languid, shun + Their walk beneath the morning sun? + Ah, mortal Self! couldst thou dissemble + Like Sister-Soul! But forms refuse + The real and unreal to confuse. + But, with caprice of fancy, She + Joins things long past with things to be, + Till even I doubt if I have told + My tale of woes and wonders o'er, + Or think Her magic can unfold + A phantom path of joys before-- + Or, laid beneath this Mayday blaze-- + Ask, "Live I o'er departed days?" + Am I the child by Gambia's side, + Beneath its woodlands waving wide? + Have I the footsteps bounding free, + The happy laugh of infancy?' + +In this beautiful fragment we have the first passionate out-pouring +of the self-imposed woes, which, proceeding from within, were +thereafter to overspread and tincture with darkest colours every +thought of Branwell's mind. We see him here for a moment, standing in +incipient melancholia, in what appears to him to be a desert of +mental despondency; but, turning back with a fond affection for the +past, and recalling, in plaintive words, the joys of 'departed days.' +He seems here, indeed, to seek in the mysteries of the soul those +pleasures and hopes which his mortal self cannot afford him. Branwell +never appears to have forgotten, as I have previously suggested, the +sad circumstances of the death of his sisters; and his solitary +broodings over these visitations gave a morbid tone to his writings. +It was in 1838 that he adopted the pseudonym of 'Northangerland.' His +earlier poems, although occasionally showing some power, were not +sufficiently gifted to add to the lustre of Brontė literature. + +Mrs. Gaskell, alluding to Branwell's literary abilities about this +time, says: '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,' continues Mrs. Gaskell, 'a stronger desire for literary fame +burning in his heart than even that which occasionally flashed up in +his sisters'.' She says also that, 'He tried various outlets for his +talents ... and he frequently contributed verses to the "Leeds +Mercury."' The latter statement, however, is incorrect, for nothing +of Branwell's appears in that journal. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +POEMS ON 'CAROLINE.' + +The Poetical bent of Branwell's Genius--'Caroline's Prayer'--'On +Caroline'--'Caroline'--Spirit of these Early Effusions. + + +While Branwell was occupying his leisure as stated in the last +chapter, and otherwise employing himself in a desultory way, he +pursued the poetic bent of his genius, and sought the improvement of +his diction and verse. Among the earliest of his poetical productions, +the following are, perhaps, the best. They are distinguished by a +similar train of thought and reflection, and by similar sentiments of +piety and devotion, as also by the same gloom and sadness of mood, +which pervade the poems of his sisters. Indeed, without knowing they +were actually Branwell's, we might easily believe them to be from the +pen of Charlotte, Emily, or Anne. + +The three following poetical essays are on 'Caroline,' under which +name Branwell indicates his sister Maria; and, in two of them, he +records his reminiscences of her death and funeral obsequies. The +first of the three, which he has framed in the sentiments and words +of a child, is entitled: + + CAROLINE'S PRAYER, + + OR THE CHANGE FROM CHILDHOOD TO WOMANHOOD. + + 'My Father, and my childhood's guide! + If oft I've wandered far from Thee; + E'en though Thine only Son has died + To save from death a child like me; + + 'O! still--to Thee when turns my heart + In hours of sadness, frequent now-- + Be Thou the God that once Thou wert, + And calm my breast, and clear my brow. + + 'I'm now no more a little child + O'ershadowed by Thy mighty wing; + My very dreams seem now more wild + Than those my slumbers used to bring. + + 'I further see--I deeper feel-- + With hope more warm, but heart less mild; + And former things new shapes reveal, + All strangely brightened or despoiled. + + 'I'm entering on Life's open tide; + So--farewell childhood's shores divine! + And, oh, my Father, deign to guide, + Through these wide waters, Caroline!' + +The second is: + + ON CAROLINE. + + 'The light of thy ancestral hall, + Thy Caroline, no longer smiles: + She has changed her palace for a pall, + Her garden walks for minster aisles: + Eternal sleep has stilled her breast + Where peace and pleasure made their shrine; + Her golden head has sunk to rest-- + Oh, would that rest made calmer mine! + + 'To thee, while watching o'er the bed + Where, mute and motionless, she lay, + How slow the midnight moments sped! + How void of sunlight woke the day! + Nor ope'd her eyes to morning's beam, + Though all around thee woke to her; + Nor broke thy raven-pinioned dream + Of coffin, shroud, and sepulchre. + + 'Why beats thy breast when hers is still? + Why linger'st thou when she is gone? + Hop'st thou to light on good or ill? + To find companionship alone? + Perhaps thou think'st the churchyard stone + Can hide past smiles and bury sighs: + That Memory, with her soul, has flown; + That thou canst leave her where she lies. + + 'No! joy _itself_ is but a shade, + So well may its remembrance die; + But cares, life's conquerors, never fade, + So strong is their reality! + Thou may'st forget the day which gave + That child of beauty to thy side, + But not the moment when the grave + Took back again thy borrowed bride.' + +Here Branwell, though he has changed the form of expression and the +circumstance of the loss, is still occupied with the same theme of +family bereavement, with which Charlotte herself was so much +impressed. + +The following was intended as the first canto of a long poem. It also +is entitled, 'Caroline;' and is the soliloquy of one 'Harriet,' who +mourns for her sister, the subject of the poem, calling to mind her +early recollection of the death and funeral of the departed one. It +is extremely probable that Branwell made 'Harriet' a vehicle of +expression for Charlotte or Emily, as he had adopted the name of +'Caroline' for Maria. + + CAROLINE. + + 'Calm and clear the day declining, + Lends its brightness to the air, + With a slanted sunlight shining, + Mixed with shadows stretching far: + Slow the river pales its glancing, + Soft its waters cease their dancing, + As the hush of eve advancing + Tells our toils that rest is near. + + 'Why is such a silence given + To this summer day's decay? + Does our earth feel aught of Heaven? + Can the voice of Nature pray? + And when daylight's toils are done, + Beneath its mighty Maker's throne. + Can it, for noontide sunshine gone, + Its debt with smiles repay? + + 'Quiet airs of sacred gladness + Breathing through these woodlands wild, + O'er the whirl of mortal madness + Spread the slumbers of a child: + These surrounding sweeps of trees + Swaying to the evening breeze, + With a voice like distant seas, + Making music mild. + + 'Woodchurch Hall above them lowering + Dark against the pearly sky, + With its clustered chimneys towering, + Wakes the wind while passing by: + And in old ancestral glory, + Round that scene of ancient story, + All its oak-trees, huge and hoary, + Wave their boughs on high. + + ''Mid those gables there is one-- + The soonest dark when day is gone-- + Which, when autumn winds are strongest, + Moans the most and echoes longest. + There--with her curls like sunset air, + Like it all balmy, bright, and fair-- + Sits Harriet, with her cheek reclined + On arm as white as mountain snow; + While, with a bursting swell, her mind + Fills with thoughts of "Long Ago." + + 'As from yon spire a funeral bell, + Wafting through heaven its mourning knell, + Warns man that life's uncertain day + Like lifeless Nature's must decay; + And tells her that the warning deep + Speaks where her own forefathers sleep, + And where destruction makes a prey + Of what was once this world to her, + But which--like other gods of clay-- + Has cheated its blind worshipper: + With swelling breast and shining eyes + That seem to chide the thoughtless skies, + She strives in words to find relief + For long-pent thoughts of mellowed grief. + + '"Time's clouds roll back, and memory's light + Bursts suddenly upon my sight; + For thoughts, which words could never tell, + Find utterance in that funeral bell. + My heart, this eve, seemed full of feeling, + Yet nothing clear to me revealing; + Sounding in breathings undefined + Ęolian music to my mind: + Then strikes that bell, and all subsides + Into a harmony, which glides + As sweet and solemn as the dream + Of a remembered funeral hymn. + This scene seemed like the magic glass, + Which bore upon its clouded face + Strange shadows that deceived the eye + With forms defined uncertainly; + That Bell is old Agrippa's wand, + Which parts the clouds on either hand, + And shows the pictured forms of doom + Momently brightening through the gloom: + Yes--shows a scene of bygone years-- + Opens a fount of sealed-up tears-- + And wakens memory's pensive thought + To visions sleeping--not forgot. + It brings me back a summer's day, + Shedding like this its parting ray, + With skies as shining and serene, + And hills as blue, and groves as green. + + '"Ah, well I recollect that hour, + When I sat, gazing, just as now, + Toward that ivy-mantled tower + Among these flowers which wave below! + No--not these flowers--they're long since dead, + And flowers have budded, bloomed, and gone, + Since those were plucked which gird the head + Laid underneath yon churchyard stone! + I stooped to pluck a rose that grew + Beside this window, waving then; + But back my little hand withdrew, + From some reproof of inward pain; + For _she who loved it_ was not there + To check me with her dove-like eye, + And something bid my heart forbear + _Her_ favourite rosebud to destroy. + Was it that bell--that funeral bell, + Sullenly sounding on the wind? + Was it that melancholy knell + Which first to sorrow woke my mind? + I looked upon my mourning dress + Till my heart beat with childish fear, + And--frightened at my loneliness-- + I watched, some well-known sound to hear. + But all without lay silent in + The sunny hush of afternoon, + And only muffled steps within + Passed slowly and sedately on. + I well can recollect the awe + With which I hastened to depart; + And, as I ran, the instinctive start + With which my mother's form I saw, + Arrayed in black, with pallid face, + And cheeks and 'kerchief wet with tears, + As down she stooped to kiss my face + And quiet my uncertain fears. + + '"She led me, in her mourning hood, + Through voiceless galleries, to a room, + 'Neath whose black hangings crowded stood, + With downcast eyes and brows of gloom, + My known relations; while--with head + Declining o'er my sister's bed-- + My father's stern eye dropt a tear + Upon the coffin resting there. + My mother lifted me to see + What might within that coffin be; + And, to this moment, I can feel + The voiceless gasp--the sickening chill-- + With which I hid my whitened face + In the dear folds of her embrace; + For hardly dared I turn my head + Lest its wet eyes should view that bed. + 'But, Harriet,' said my mother mild, + 'Look at _your_ sister and my child + One moment, ere her form be hid + For ever 'neath its coffin lid!' + I heard the appeal, and answered too; + For down I bent to bid adieu. + But, as I looked, forgot affright + In mild and magical delight. + + '"There lay she then, as now she lies-- + For not a limb has moved since then-- + In dreamless slumber closed, those eyes + That never more might wake again. + She lay, as I had seen her lie + On many a happy night before, + When I was humbly kneeling by-- + Whom she was teaching to adore: + Oh, just as when by her I prayed, + And she to heaven sent up my prayer, + She lay with flowers about her head-- + Though formal grave-clothes hid her hair! + Still did her lips the smile retain + Which parted them when hope was high, + Still seemed her brow as smoothed from pain + As when all thought she could not die. + And, though her bed looked cramped and strange, + Her _too_ bright cheek all faded now, + My young eyes scarcely saw a change + From hours when moonlight paled her brow. + And yet I felt--and scarce could speak-- + A chilly face, a faltering breath, + When my hand touched the marble cheek + Which lay so passively beneath. + In fright I gasped, 'Speak, Caroline!' + And bade my sister to arise; + But answered not her voice to mine, + Nor ope'd her sleeping eyes. + I turned toward my mother then + And prayed on her to call; + But, though she strove to hide her pain, + It forced her tears to fall. + She pressed me to her aching breast + As if her heart would break, + And bent in silence o'er the rest + Of one she could not wake: + The rest of one, whose vanished years + Her soul had watched in vain; + The end of mother's hopes and fears, + And happiness and pain. + + '"They came--they pressed the coffin lid + Above my Caroline, + And then, I felt, for ever hid + My sister's face from mine! + There was one moment's wildered start-- + One pang remembered well-- + When first from my unhardened heart + The tears of anguish fell: + That swell of thought which seemed to fill + The bursting heart, the gushing eye, + While fades all _present_ good or ill + Before the shades of things gone by. + All else seems blank--the mourning march, + The proud parade of woe, + The passage 'neath the churchyard arch, + The crowd that met the show. + My place or thoughts amid the train + I strive to recollect, in vain-- + I could not think or see: + I cared not whither I was borne: + And only felt that death had torn + My Caroline from me. + + '"Slowly and sadly, o'er her grave, + The organ peals its passing stave, + And, to its last dark dwelling-place, + The corpse attending mourners bear, + While, o'er it bending, many a face + 'Mongst young companions shows a tear. + I think I glanced toward the crowd + That stood in musing silence by, + And even now I hear the sound + Of some one's voice amongst them cry-- + 'I am the Resurrection and the Life-- + He who believes in me shall never die!' + + '"Long years have never worn away + The unnatural strangeness of that day, + When I beheld--upon the plate + Of grim death's mockery of state-- + That well-known word, that long-loved name, + Now but remembered like the dream + Of half-forgotten hymns divine, + My sister's name--my Caroline! + Down, down, they lowered her, sad and slow, + Into her narrow house below: + And deep, indeed, appeared to be + That one glimpse of eternity, + Where, cut from life, corruption lay, + Where beauty soon should turn to clay! + Though scarcely conscious, hotly fell + The drops that spoke my last farewell; + And wild my sob, when hollow rung + The first cold clod above her flung, + When glitter was to turn to rust, + 'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust!' + + '"How bitter seemed that moment when, + Earth's ceremonies o'er, + We from the filled grave turned again + To leave her evermore; + And, when emerging from the cold + Of damp, sepulchral air, + As I turned, listless to behold + The evening fresh and fair, + How sadly seemed to smile the face + Of the descending sun! + How seemed as if his latest race + Were with that evening run! + There sank his orb behind the grove + Of my ancestral home, + With heaven's unbounded vault above + To canopy his tomb. + Yet lingering sadly and serene, + As for his last farewell, + To shine upon those wild woods green + O'er which he'd loved to dwell. + + '"I lost him, and the silent room, + Where soon at rest I lay, + Began to darken, 'neath the gloom + Of twilight's dull decay; + So, sobbing as my heart would break, + And blind with gushing eyes, + Hours seemed whole nights to me awake, + And day as 'twould not rise. + I almost prayed that I might die-- + But then the thought would come + That, if I did, my corpse must lie + In yonder dismal tomb; + Until, methought, I saw its stone, + By moonshine glistening clear, + While Caroline's bright form alone + Kept silent watching there: + All white with angel's wings she seemed, + And indistinct to see; + But when the unclouded moonlight beamed + I saw her beckon me, + And fade, thus beckoning, while the wind + Around that midnight wall, + To me--now lingering years behind-- + Seemed then my sister's call! + + '"And thus it brought me back the hours + When we, at rest together, + Used to lie listening to the showers + Of wild December weather; + Which, when, as oft, they woke in her + The chords of inward thought, + Would fill with pictures that wild air, + From far off memories brought; + So, while I lay, I heard again + Her silver-sounding tongue, + Rehearsing some remembered strain + Of old times long agone! + And, flashed across my spirit's sight, + What she had often told me-- + When, laid awake on Christmas night, + Her sheltering arms would fold me-- + About that midnight-seeming day, + Whose gloom o'er Calvary thrown, + Showed trembling Nature's deep dismay + At what her sons had done: + When sacred Salem's murky air + Was riven with the cry, + Which told the world how mortals dare + The Immortal crucify; + When those who, sorrowing, sat afar, + With aching heart and eye, + Beheld their great Redeemer there, + 'Mid sneers and scoffings die; + When all His earthly vigour fled, + When thirsty faintness bowed His head, + When His pale limbs were moistened o'er + With deathly dews and dripping gore, + When quivered all His worn-out frame, + As Death, triumphant, quenched life's flame, + When upward gazed His glazing eyes + To those tremendous-seeming skies, + When burst His cry of agony-- + 'My God!--my God!--hast Thou forsaken me!' + My youthful feelings startled then, + As if the temple, rent in twain, + Horribly pealing on my ear + With its deep thunder note of fear, + Wrapping the world in general gloom, + As if her God's were Nature's tomb; + While sheeted ghosts before my gaze + Passed, flitting 'mid the dreary maze, + As if rejoicing at the day + When death--their king--o'er Heaven had sway. + In glistening charnel damps arrayed, + They seemed to gibber round my head, + Through night's drear void directing me + Toward still and solemn Calvary, + Where gleamed that cross with steady shine + Around the thorn-crowned head divine-- + A flaming cross--a beacon light + To this world's universal night! + It seemed to shine with such a glow, + And through my spirit piercing so, + That, pantingly, I strove to cry + For her, whom I thought slumbered by, + And hide me from that awful shine + In the embrace of Caroline! + I wakened in the attempt--'twas day; + The troubled dream had fled away; + 'Twas day--and I, alone, was laid + In that great room and stately bed; + No Caroline beside me! Wide + And unrelenting swept the tide + Of death 'twixt her and me!" + There paused + Sweet Harriet's voice, for such thoughts caused--' + + * * * * * + +This poem springs from the deepest feelings, and from sorrows the +most poignant. The respective images, tinctured with grief and +despondency, pass before us with weird and vivid reality; and many of +the passages are imbued with great tenderness, beauty, and pathos. +The painful, and, perhaps, too morbid intensity of some of the +pictures, whether of dreams or realities, is painted here with the +skill of no common artist, whatever youthful defects may be observed +in the composition. The poem is one more notable for tender sweetness +than any other that remains from Branwell; but it lacks in places the +vigour and power of his later compositions, and is, in several parts, +of unequal merit. In the earlier portion of it, where he assumes the +iambic measure, it is not difficult to perceive the influence of +Byron on his diction. In this work Branwell again recurs to the time +when tears of anguish flowed from his yet 'unhardened heart,' whose +present woes are forgotten in the swelling thoughts of 'things gone +by.' We recognize with what pathetic feeling he paints in Caroline +all the qualities of instructress, guardian, and friend, which had +characterized his sister Maria. Long afterwards Charlotte Brontė, +inspired by similar feelings, devoted the first chapters of 'Jane +Eyre' to a delineation, in the character of Helen Burns, of the +disposition of her dead sister, whose death, a few days after her +return from Cowan Bridge, she could scarcely ever either forget or +forgive. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +EVENTS AT THE PARSONAGE. + +Charlotte's first Offer of Marriage--Her Remarks concerning it-- +A second Offer Declined--Anne a Governess--She Moralizes upon +it--Charlotte obtains a Situation--Unsuited to Her--She Leaves +it--Branwell takes Pleasure in Scenery--He Visits Liverpool with his +Friends--Charlotte goes to Easton--Curates at Haworth--Their Visits +to the Parsonage--Public Meetings on Church Rates--Charlotte's +Attempt at a Richardsonian Novel--She sends the Commencement of it +to Wordsworth for his Opinion--Branwell receives an Appointment as +Private Tutor. + + +After the return of Charlotte and Anne from Dewsbury Moor, whither +Miss Wooler had removed her school, the three sisters were at home +together for some months, and, in this happy, unrestrained +intercourse, with their literary relaxations and their plans for the +future, Charlotte's mind expanded, and her strength returned. There +was Branwell, too, to think about; his venture at Bradford and his +progress with his portraits. Then they would have to go and see the +likeness of Mr. Morgan; and, on such occasions, Branwell would have +much to say of art and literature, and, acquaintances. But Branwell +was usually at Haworth on Sundays, and then he would hear of +Charlotte's visits to her friends, and her adventures on these +occasions. It was shortly before the date of Branwell's return from +Bradford, in the spring of 1839, that Charlotte received her first +offer of marriage. A young clergyman, who had, as Mrs. Gaskell +thought, some resemblance to the St. John in the last volume of 'Jane +Eyre,' had evidently been attracted by Charlotte Brontė; but +matrimony does not seem, at the time, to have seriously entered into +her thoughts. In some respects the proposal might have had strong +temptations for her, and she thought how happy her married life might +be. However, it was not the way with Charlotte Brontė to take the +path of smoothness and comfort, and leave the thorny one untrod; and +she asked herself if she loved the clergyman in question as much as a +woman should love her husband, and whether she was the one best +qualified to make him happy. 'Alas!' she says, 'my conscience +answered "No" to both these questions.' She knew very well that she +had a 'kindly leaning' towards him, but this was not enough for her, +for it was impossible that she could ever feel for him such an +intense attachment as would make her sacrifice her life for him. +Short of such a devotion awakened in herself, she would never marry +anyone. Her comment is characteristic: 'Ten to one I shall never have +the chance again; but _n'importe_.' + +Charlotte Brontė felt that there was a want of sympathy between the +young clergyman and herself, for he was a 'grave, quiet young man;' +and she knew that he would be startled, and would think her a wild, +romantic enthusiast, when she showed her character, and laughed, and +satirized, and said whatever came into her head. Nor was her next +offer any more to her taste; for, within a few months, a neighbouring +curate, a young Irishman, fresh from the Dublin University, made her +a proposal. The circumstance amused Charlotte, for it was, on his +part, a case of love at first sight. He came with his vicar to be +introduced to the family, and was speedily struck with Mr. Brontė's +daughter. Charlotte was never troubled at home with the _mauvaise +honte_ that troubled her abroad; and so she talked and jested with +the clergyman, and was much amused at the originality of his +character. A pleasant afternoon was spent, for he made himself at +home, after the fashion of his countrymen, and was witty, lively, +ardent, and clever; but, withal, wanting in the dignity and +discretion of an Englishman. As the evening drew on, Charlotte was +not much pleased with the spice of Hibernian flattery with which he +began to season his discourse, and, as she expresses it, she 'cooled +a little.' The vicar and his curate went away; but what was +Charlotte's astonishment to receive a letter next morning from the +latter containing a proposal of marriage, and filled with ardent +expressions of devotion! 'I hope you are laughing heartily,' she says +to her friend. '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 have 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.' + +Although the married state does not appear, from Charlotte's letters +at this time, to have had many attractions for her, we know, from +those she wrote later, and, perhaps, more than all from the +concluding chapters of 'Jane Eyre,' that she could enter into the +joys and sacrifices of domestic life, that she had a correct view of +the affections, and knew how to appreciate conjugal love at its true +value. But, in the present instances--although, at a later period of +her life, when she was on the Continent, she is believed to have felt +the full force of that 'passion of the heart' which those about whom +she wrote had failed to evoke--she declined to sever herself from the +contented circumstances that surrounded her, and in which she was +mistress, for a condition of doubtful peace and certain obedience. +Charlotte's decision was not discordant with the feelings of her +family; for, as she had determined to continue at home, their plans +for the future would not be disconcerted. + +Anne was now resolved on making a trial of the life of a governess +for herself, she having completed her education, and being wishful to +exert herself as her sisters had done. Inquiries were made, and at +length a situation was obtained. Anne continued in this kind of +employment during the next six years, and it was her experience that +suggested to her the subject of her first novel, 'Agnes Grey.' If we +may suppose that she has recounted her own experience at this time, +where her heroine describes the circumstances of her preparation and +departure for her first situation, it would appear that she had some +difficulty in convincing her friends of the wisdom of her purpose. +Agnes Grey says, after she has made the suggestion to her family: + +'I was silenced for that day, and for many succeeding ones; but still +I did not wholly relinquish my darling scheme. Mary got her drawing +materials, and steadily set to work. I got mine too; but, while I +drew, I thought of other things. How delightful it would be to be a +governess! To go out into the world; to enter upon a new life; to act +for myself; to exercise my unused faculties; to try my unknown +powers; to earn my own maintenance, and something to comfort and help +my father, mother, and sister, besides exonerating them from the +provision of my food and clothing; to show papa what his little Agnes +could do; to convince mamma and Mary that I was not quite the +helpless, thoughtless being they supposed. And then, how charming to +be entrusted with the care and education of children! Whatever others +said, I felt I was fully competent to the task: the clear remembrance +of my own thoughts in early childhood would be a surer guide than the +instructions of the most mature adviser. I had but to turn from my +little pupils to myself at their age, and I should know at once how +to win their confidence and affections; how to waken the contrition +of the erring; how to embolden the timid and console the afflicted; +how to make virtue practicable, instruction desirable, and religion +lively and comprehensible.'[28] + + [28] 'Agnes Grey,' chap. i. + +Anne Brontė was of a milder and more cheerful temperament than her +sisters; she had not the fire, the morbid feeling, or the mental +force that characterized Charlotte, yet she had more of the +initiatory faculty than she had hitherto received credit for. But her +gentle nature, her confiding piety, her more equable temper, enabled +her to succeed better in the circumstances she had chosen. She had +her troubles, her timidity, and her diffidence to contend with, but +she made life supportable and even happy. 'Agnes Grey' thus speaks of +her departure, which we cannot doubt is the experience of Anne +Brontė: + +'Some weeks more were yet to be devoted to preparation. How long, how +tedious those weeks appeared to me! Yet they were happy ones in the +main, full of bright hopes and ardent expectations. With what +peculiar pleasure I assisted at the making of my new clothes, and, +subsequently, the packing of my trunks! But there was a feeling of +bitterness mingling with the latter occupation too; and when it was +done--when all was ready for my departure on the morrow, and the last +night at home approached--a sudden anguish seemed to swell my heart. +My dear friends looked sad, and spoke so very kindly, that I could +scarcely keep my heart from overflowing; but I still affected to be +gay. I had taken my last ramble with Mary on the moors, my last walk +in the garden and round the house ... I had played my last tune on +the old piano, and sung my last song to papa, not the last, I hoped, +but the last for what appeared to me a very long time.'[29] + + [29] 'Agnes Grey,' chap. i. + +Charlotte and Emily made themselves busy in assisting Anne with her +preparations for departure, and they were very sad and apprehensive +when she left them on Monday, April 15th, 1839. She went alone, at +her own wish, thinking she could manage better if left to her own +resources, and when her failings were unwitnessed by those whose +hopes she wished to sustain. However, she wrote, expressing +satisfaction with the place she had secured, for the lady of the +house was very kind. She had two of the eldest girls under her +charge, the children being confined to the nursery, with which she +had no concern. + +Charlotte, although remarking in a letter to her friend on the +cleverness and sensibility with which Anne could express herself in +epistolary correspondence, had some fear that, such was the natural +diffidence of her manner, her mistress would sometimes believe her to +have an impediment in her speech. + +Charlotte's eagerness to obtain a situation was now so great that she +does not seem to have considered well the step she was about to take, +and she obtained one that was not satisfactory to her. It was in the +family of a wealthy Yorkshire manufacturer; and we may well believe +that the stylish surroundings of her employers differed materially +from those of the family at Haworth. Here a large quantity of +miscellaneous work was thrown on Charlotte, which displeased her and +destroyed her comfort. In a letter to Emily, she says she is +'overwhelmed with oceans of needlework; yards of cambric to hem, +muslin night-caps to make, etc.' She found the outside attractions of +the house beautiful in 'pleasant woods, white paths, green lawns, and +blue, sunshiny sky;' but these surroundings did not compensate for +the humiliations which her situation imposed upon her, and her +mistress and she did not like each other; so Charlotte did not return +to the place after the July holidays of 1839. + +Branwell was as yet unemployed, and he sought, and took much pleasure +in the scenery, the events and circumstances of the hills and valleys +of the West-Riding of Yorkshire, and was frequently from home. He +went about the country, associating with the people, and revelling in +their ready wit, which enabled him afterwards, by such observations +and experience, to give vivid pictures of life and character. At the +time of the Haworth 'Rushbearing,' of July, 1839, he visited +Liverpool with one or two friends, and, while there, in compliance +with an injunction of his father, made a stenographic report, at St. +Jude's church, of a sermon by the Rev. H. McNeile, the well-known +evangelical preacher. Here, a sudden attack of Tic compelled him to +resort to opium, in some form, as an anodyne, whose soothing effect +in pain he had previously known. Subsequently, passing a music shop, +in one of their rambles through the town, Branwell's attention was +arrested by a copy of the oratorio of 'Samson,' by Handel, displayed +in the window, the performance of which had always excited him to the +highest degree, and he eagerly besought his friend to purchase it, as +well as some Mass, and various oratorio music, which was done. + +On their return from Liverpool, Branwell, being under some obligation +to his friend, proffered to paint his portrait, to which Mr. M---- +agreed. A sitting once a week was decided upon, to be in the room at +the parsonage where Branwell studied and painted. On his visits, Mr. +M---- invariably noticed a row of potatoes, placed on the uppermost +rib of the range to roast, Branwell being very fond of them done in +this way, even as Jane Eyre was in the novel. 'That night,' she says, +'on going to bed, I forgot to prepare, in imagination, the Barmecide +supper of hot roast potatoes ... with which I was wont to amuse my +inward cravings.' When Mr. M---- paid his weekly visits to the +parsonage he always heard some one speaking aloud in the room +adjoining Branwell's studio; and, at last, his curiosity being +excited, he inquired whom it was. Branwell answered that it was his +father committing his Sunday's sermon to memory. When the portrait +was ready for the finishing touches, Mr. M---- discovered that +Branwell had painted the names of Johann Sebastian Bach, Mozart, +Haydn, and Handel at each corner of the canvas respectively. He +remonstrated, but Branwell was firm, maintaining that, as his friend +was an accomplished musician, and could perform the most elaborate +and difficult compositions of these immortal men, with expression and +ease, he was, in every way, worthy of being associated with them in +the manner he designed. Mr. M---- complied. When the portrait was +finished, Branwell pressed his friend to take a glass of wine; and, +while the two were chatting over the affair, Mr. Brontė and his +daughters entered the room to view Branwell's work on its completion. +They were pleased with it, and praised it as a truthful likeness and +an excellent picture. + +We may well imagine the enthusiasm with which Branwell would recount +his experience of Liverpool. How much he would have to tell of the +wonders of the Mersey, the great ships that rode upon its surface, +and its commerce with the new world, out across the ocean! His visit +seems to have originated a proposal that the family should spend a +week or a fortnight at that sea-port, but, almost at the same moment, +Charlotte's friend suggested to her that they should visit +Cleethorpes together, a suggestion that pleased her very much. + +'The idea of seeing the sea,' she says, '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.' + +The visit of Charlotte to the sea-side seems to have been put off +again and again, by often-recurring obstacles. The irresolution of +her family in regard to the Liverpool project, and the manifest +unwillingness that she should leave home on a visit anywhere else, +put off, from time to time, the pleasure she had anticipated for +herself; but at last she decided to go. Her box was packed and +everything prepared, but no conveyance could be procured. Mr. Brontė +objected to her going by coach, and walking part of the way to meet +her friend, and her aunt exclaimed against 'the weather, and the +roads, and the four winds of heaven,' so Charlotte almost gave up +hope. She told her friend that the elders of the house had never +cordially acquiesced in the measure, and that opposition was growing +more open, though her father would willingly have indulged her. Even +he, however, wished her to remain at home. Charlotte was 'provoked' +that her aunt had deferred opposition until arrangements had been +made. In the end 'E' was asked to pay a visit to the parsonage. + +Owing to the circumstances indicated, Charlotte's visit to the +sea-coast was put off until the following September, when an +opportunity occurred favourable to the project, which does not seem +to have been entirely abandoned; and she and her friend visited +Easton where they spent a fortnight. Here for the first time +Charlotte beheld the sea. + +Afterwards she wrote, '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?' The Liverpool journey +appears to have been finally abandoned. + +It was in a letter, written about this time that Mrs. Gaskell found +the first mention of a succession of curates who henceforth revolved +round Haworth Parsonage. Three years earlier Mr. Brontė had sought +aid from the 'Additional Curates' Society,' or some similar +institution, and was provided at once with assistance. The increasing +duties of his chapelry had rendered this step necessary. It would +seem also that a curate was appointed to Stanbury, while another +became master of the National or Grammar School. These gentlemen were +not infrequent in their visits to the parsonage, and they varied the +life of its inmates, sometimes one way and sometimes another. This +circumstance, at the same time, provided Charlotte Brontė with those +living studies which she did not fail afterwards to remember in her +delineation of the three curates in 'Shirley.' Emily, on the other +hand, invariably avoided these gentlemen. + +The arrival of the curates at Haworth was the occasion of increased +activity in the affairs of the chapelry; and, the church-rate +question being uppermost at this juncture, the new-comers entered +into a crusade against the Dissenters who had refused to pay +church-rates. Charlotte wrote a long letter in which she spoke of a +violent public meeting held at Haworth about the affair, and of two +sermons against dissent--one by Mr. W. a 'noble, eloquent, +high-church, apostolical-succession discourse, in which he banged the +Dissenters most fearlessly and unflinchingly;' the other by Mr. C., a +'keener, cleverer, bolder, and more heart-stirring harangue,' than +Charlotte, perhaps, had ever heard from the Haworth pulpit. She, +however, did not entirely agree with either of these gentlemen, and +thought, if she had been a Dissenter, she would have 'taken the first +opportunity of kicking or of horse-whipping both.' + +In the winter of 1839-40, Charlotte employed her leisure in the +composition of a story which she had commenced on a scale +commensurate with one of Richardson's novels of seven or eight +volumes. Mrs. Gaskell saw some fragments of the manuscript, written +in a very small hand: but she was less solicitous to decipher it, as +Charlotte had herself condemned it in the preface to 'The Professor.' +Branwell, to whom she submitted it, seems to have understood, at the +time, that in its florid style of composition she was working in +opposition to her genius, and he told her she was making a mistake. +It appears not unlikely that Branwell was himself similarly engaged +on prose writing when he gave her this opinion. A few months later, +however, Charlotte resolved to send the commencement of her tale to +Wordsworth, and that an unfavourable judgment was the result, for +which she was not altogether unprepared, may be gathered from the +following letter she addressed to the poet:-- + +'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 or 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 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, reading them by stealth with the most exquisite pleasure. +You give a correct description of the patient Grisels of these 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 dressmaker. I will not +help you at all in the discovery....' + +In the midst of their literary endeavours, their efforts were not +relaxed to obtain new places. Charlotte was obliged by circumstances +to give up her subscriptions to the Jews, and she determined to force +herself to take a situation, if one could be found, though she says, +'I hate and abhor the very thoughts of governess-ship.' An +alternative which the sisters talked over in these holidays was the +opening of a school at Haworth, for which an enlargement of the +parsonage would be required. + +Branwell was more successful in his pursuit of employment than +Charlotte, having procured the place of a tutor; and he was to +commence his duties with the new year. Charlotte says of this event, +'One thing, however, will make the daily routine more unvaried than +ever. Branwell, who used to enliven us, is to leave us in a few days, +and enter the situation of a private tutor in the neighbourhood of +Ulverston. How he will like to settle remains yet to be seen. At +present he is full of hope and resolution. I, who know his variable +nature, and his strong turn for active life, dare not be too +sanguine.' + +Branwell seems to have paid a farewell visit to the 'Lodge of the +Three Graces' on the Christmas Day of this year, when he acted as +organist. This is the only occasion on which he is recorded as having +attended at the meetings of the Lodge in 1839, and it is the last on +which his name appears in the minute book of the Haworth masonic +body. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +BRANWELL AT BROUGHTON-IN-FURNESS. + +The District of Black Comb--Branwell's Sonnet--Wordsworth and +Hartley Coleridge--Branwell's Letter to the 'Old Knave of +Trumps'--Its Publication by Miss Robinson in her 'Emily +Brontė'--Branwell's familiar Acquaintance with the People of +Haworth--He could Paint their Characters with Accuracy--His +Knowledge of the Human Passions--Emily's Isolation. + + +Branwell, being as desirous of employment as his sisters, had sought +for, and obtained, a situation as tutor in the family of Mr. +Postlethwaite, of Broughton-in-Furness. He entered upon his new +duties on the 1st of January, 1840. + +Now that he found himself resident near the English lake district, +consecrated as it is by so many poetic memories, and dear to him as +the home of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey he naturally felt an +intense interest in all that surrounded him; and, when he was not +engaged in teaching the sons of his employer, he took occasion to +visit such places as had any attraction for him. On one of his +pedestrian excursions, he had stepped into a wayside inn, and was +seated musing before the parlour fire, when a young gentleman entered +the room. Branwell turned round, and recognized at once a friend of +the name of Ayrton, whose acquaintance he had formed in Leeds. The +surprise and delight at this unexpected meeting was mutual; and +Branwell's friend, who was driving about the country, requested his +company for some distance on the journey, for the purpose of +prolonging the interview, and of continuing the conversation that had +been begun. The young tutor drove some ten miles with his friend, +utterly regardless of the long return walk to Ulverston. + +Branwell delighted in the writings of the 'Lake Poets,' and was much +influenced by Southey's prose works. He read the 'Life of Nelson,' +and was himself moved to write a poem illustrative of the life of +that great naval hero. He also read the 'Colloquies on Society,' and +others of Southey's works. But it was Wordsworth who at this moment, +was the object of Branwell's chief admiration. He revelled in that +poet's fine description of the view from the top of Black Comb, and, +perhaps, knew the lines written by his 'deity of the mind' on a stone +on the side of the mountain, and probably had himself looked from its +summit. But Branwell certainly knew Black Comb from afar. Five miles +away he could see it; and he celebrated it in the following sonnet: + + BLACK COMB. + + 'Far off, and half revealed, 'mid shade and light, + Black Comb half smiles, half frowns; his mighty form + Scarce bending into peace--more formed to fight + A thousand years of struggles with a storm + Than bask one hour, subdued by sunshine warm, + To bright and breezeless rest; yet even his height + Towers not o'er this world's sympathies, he smiles-- + While many a human heart to pleasures' wiles + Can bear to bend, and still forget to rise-- + As though he, huge and heath-clad, on our sight, + Again rejoices in his stormy skies. + Man loses vigour in unstable joys. + Thus tempests find Black Comb invincible, + While we are lost, who should know life so well!' + +It was doubtless while Branwell was living at Ulverston that he +obtained the favourable opinion of Wordsworth on some poems which he +submitted for criticism. Probably he found opportunity to visit the +writer whose works he 'loved most in our literature,' and it would be +on some similar excursion that he obtained an encouraging expression +of opinion from Hartley Coleridge. The author of 'The Northern +Worthies' was not unknown to the circle at 'The George,' at Bradford, +and was acquainted with Branwell Brontė and Leyland. + +The master of the 'Lodge of the Three Graces,' at Haworth, did not, +however, long permit Branwell to forget his old acquaintance there; +for this worthy soon addressed to him a communication which provoked +a reply that Branwell dated from Broughton-in-Furness on the 13th of +the March following his arrival. This unfortunate response, in which +Branwell addressed the masonic sexton of Haworth, with sarcastic +humour, as 'Old Knave of Trumps,' is the one which Miss Robinson has +been so ill advised as to publish in her 'Emily Brontė;' and which +has done not a little to draw down on the head of Branwell the full +and unmitigated volume of Mr. Swinburne's vocabulary of abuse. And, +in fact, if this letter could be taken as the proper and natural +expression of an abject profligate, altogether shameless and +unredeemed, he could find a defender neither here nor elsewhere. But +there are good reasons for hoping that it was otherwise. We have seen +that Branwell had been led to join the rude village society of +Haworth, where, on account of his brilliance, and of his position as +the incumbent's son, he was not a little looked up to. It was +natural, then, that he should be led, foolishly enough, to endeavour +to stand well with the friends he had selected, and his knowledge of +character was sufficiently good to enable him to know what kind of +letter would best suit the tastes and inclinations of many of his +companions of the 'Lodge of the Three Graces.' He assumed in fact, +that bravado of vice, that air of _diablerie_, which was thought +by many people, in those days, and is so yet by not a few, to be the +best proof of manhood, because it betokened a knowledge of the world. +Yet, at the end of the letter,--the passage is not given by Miss +Robinson--Branwell appears to take it as a matter of course that the +sexton will not show it, and he begs him, for 'Heaven's sake,' to +blot out the lines scored in red. Branwell knew the 'Old Knave of +Trumps' well, and he was certain that his letter would cause no +little amusement among his immediate friends to whom the sexton was +sure to read it. He was ashamed of certain passages in it, which is +evidence enough that it was not the outcome of a depraved and +shameless nature, but rather the expression of the _acted_ character +of a vicious and _blasé_ worldling. And it is, moreover, inconceivable +that a young man, who was of the sensitive nature betokened by the +contemporary poems we have published, could, at the same time, have +been a hardened and cynical profligate. Indeed, it is evident that the +objectionable allusions were not of his origination, but were called +forth by the remarks of others, for whom Branwell does not fail to +show his contempt. + +It has, however, been the misfortune of Branwell Brontė, that a +letter which he wrote in folly, for the eyes of personal friends +alone, has been published to the world as the token and evidence of +his infamy. One use, at any rate, flows from the publication of it, +for it shows us the quick and vivid grasp of character, and the +incisive mode of composition which now began, in his more vigorous +moods, to distinguish its author. The letter is as follows:-- + + 'Broughton-in-Furness, + + 'March 13, 1840. + + 'OLD KNAVE OF TRUMPS, + + 'Don't think I have forgotten you, though I have delayed so long + in writing to you. It was my purpose to send you a yarn as soon + as I could find materials to spin one with, and it is only just + now that I have had time to turn myself round and know where I + am. If you saw me now, you would not know me, and you would laugh + to hear the character the people give me. Oh, the falsehood and + hypocrisy of this world! I am fixed in a little retired town by + the sea-shore, among wild woody hills that rise round me--huge, + rocky, and capped with clouds. My employer is a retired county + magistrate, a large landowner, and of a right hearty and generous + disposition. His wife is a quiet, silent, and amiable woman, + and his sons are two fine, spirited lads. My landlord is a + respectable surgeon, and six days out of seven is as drunk as a + lord! His wife is a bustling, chattering, kind-hearted soul; and + his daughter!--oh! death and damnation! Well, what am I? That is, + what do they think I am? A most calm, sedate, sober, abstemious, + patient, mild-hearted, virtuous, gentlemanly philosopher,--the + picture of good works, and the treasure-house of righteous + thoughts. Cards are shuffled under the table-cloth, glasses are + thrust into the cupboard, if I enter the room. I take neither + spirits, wine, nor malt liquors. I dress in black, and smile like + a saint or martyr. Everybody says, "What a good young gentleman + is Mr. Postlethwaite's tutor!" This is fact, as I am a living + soul, and right comfortably do I laugh at them. I mean to + continue in their good opinion. I took a half year's farewell of + old friend whisky at Kendal on the night after I left. There was + a party of gentlemen at the Royal Hotel, and I joined them. We + ordered in supper and whisky-toddy as "hot as hell!" They thought + I was a physician, and put me in the chair. I gave sundry toasts, + that were washed down at the same time, till the room spun round + and the candles danced in our eyes. One of the guests was a + respectable old gentleman with powdered head, rosy cheeks, fat + paunch, and ringed fingers. He gave "The Ladies," ... after which + he brayed off with a speech; and in two minutes, in the middle of + a grand sentence, he stopped, wiped his head, looked wildly + round, stammered, coughed, stopped again, and called for his + slippers. The waiter helped him to bed. Next a tall Irish squire + and a native of the land of Israel began to quarrel about their + countries; and, in the warmth of argument, discharged their + glasses, each at his neighbour's throat instead of his own. I + recommended bleeding, purging, and blistering; but they + administered each other a real "Jem Warder," so I flung my + tumbler on the floor, too, and swore I'd join "Old Ireland!" A + regular rumpus ensued, but we were tamed at last. I found myself + in bed next morning, with a bottle of porter, a glass, and a + corkscrew beside me. Since then I have not tasted anything + stronger than milk-and-water, nor, I hope, shall, till I return + at Midsummer; when we will see about it. I am getting as fat as + Prince William at Springhead, and as godly as his friend, Parson + Winterbotham. My hand shakes no longer. I ride to the banker's at + Ulverston with Mr. Postlethwaite, and sit drinking tea and + talking scandal with old ladies. As to the young ones! I have one + sitting by me just now--fair-faced, blue-eyed, dark-haired, sweet + eighteen--she little thinks the devil is so near her! + + 'I was delighted to see thy note, old squire, but I do not + understand one sentence--you will perhaps know what I mean.... + How are all about you? I long to hear and see them again. How is + the "Devil's Thumb," whom men call ---- ----, and the "Devil in + Mourning," whom they call ---- ----? How are ---- ----, and ---- + ----, and the Doctor; and him who will be used as the tongs of + hell--he whose eyes Satan looks out of, as from windows--I mean + ---- ----, esquire? How are little ---- ----, ---- "Longshanks," + ---- ----, and the rest of them? Are they married, buried, + devilled, and damned? When I come I'll give them a good squeeze + of the hand; till then I am too godly for them to think of. That + bow-legged devil used to ask me impertinent questions which I + answered him in kind. Beelzebub will make of him a walking-stick! + Keep to thy teetotalism, old squire, till I return; it will mend + thy old body.... Does "Little Nosey" think I have forgotten him? + No, by Jupiter! nor his clock either.[30] I'll send him a + remembrancer some of these days! But I must talk to some one + prettier than thee; so good-night, old boy, and + + 'Believe me thine, + + 'THE PHILOSOPHER. + + 'Write directly. Of course you won't show this letter; and, for + Heaven's sake, blot out all the lines scored with red ink.' + + [30] The clock mentioned by Branwell was one that stood in a + corner of the 'Snug' at 'The Bull,' inside the door of which + the landlord--'Little Nosey'--used to chalk up the 'shots' of + his guests. + +This letter, as I have intimated, was never intended for more than a +moment's amusement, at most, to a small circle of acquaintances at +Haworth, and was not to exist after having been read. But John +Brown kept the letter, which I saw and copied. It is a curious +circumstance, illustrating the hold which it obtained over the +Haworth circle, that, though the original was lost so long since as +1874, the brother of the sexton knew it by heart, and could repeat it +with considerable accuracy. In this way it has been several times +written down. No allusion would have been made to the letter in the +present work, if Miss Robinson--strange to say--had not thought it a +fitting embellishment for her 'Emily Brontė.' If Branwell had known +its fate at the moment he wrote it, it would never have reached the +'Worshipful Master of the Lodge of the Three Graces,' but would have +been committed to the flames by his own hand; for, as we have seen, +he was ashamed of some expressions scored in red, which he begged +might be obliterated. + +This letter, however, is valuable; inasmuch as it shows what +Branwell, at this young period of his life, knew about human nature, +and the depths to which it can descend. He had penetrated into the +passions, feelings, and dispositions of his acquaintances by frequent +intercourse, by keen perception, and by familiar conversation. He had +heard them, noticed them, and could paint their characters with +unerring precision and vivid colouring. He was acquainted with the +ways of society, and the customs of domestic life. The world was to +him a picture-gallery, and all living things in it were studies of +the deepest interest. His knowledge of men and manners, of the hard, +implacable, and selfish, and also of the soft, tender, and gentle +natures of men and women, enabled him to cast their stories of sorrow +and gladness faithfully and well. + +At the time when he had attained manhood, when his intellects were +reaching their full development, he had already been drawn into +society, and indoctrinated into the mysteries of Haworth life; and +had become acquainted with the excesses of men older and harder than +himself. It cannot be wondered at that, if he had learned more than +is usual in youth, he did not escape the temptations attendant on the +peculiar knowledge he had acquired. But, while _he_ was thus passing +through the crooked ways and reckless deviations of the world, +obtaining a large crop of experiences, good and bad, his _sisters_ +were, for the most part, at home, living like recluses, and, when +away, were still in similar seclusion. Of Emily, Charlotte says, 'I am +bound to avow that she had scarcely more practical knowledge of the +peasantry amongst whom she lived, than a nun has of the country people +who sometimes pass her convent gates. My sister's disposition was not +naturally gregarious; circumstances favoured and fostered her tendency +to seclusion; except to go to church or take a walk on the hills, she +rarely crossed the threshold of home. Though her feeling for the +people round her was benevolent, intercourse with them she never +sought, nor, with very few exceptions, ever experienced. And yet she +knew them, knew their ways, their language, their family histories; +she could hear of them with interest, and talk of them _with_ +detail, minute, graphic, and accurate; but with them she rarely +exchanged a word.'[31] But Branwell walked and held personal +intercourse, as we have seen, with the people whom Emily shunned; and +his personal knowledge, and his unquestionable genius combined, +enabled him to grasp and appreciate, to dissect with penetrating +skill, and to estimate and define the tendency of the strong and +marked character of the people around him. It is, therefore, doubly +unfortunate that, from Branwell, we have little remaining in the way +of graphic description, and that the rich treasures of observation +which he outpoured have, for the most part, left their impressions +only in the memories of those who were privileged to hear him +discourse. + + [31] Charlotte Brontė.--Memoir prefixed to 'Wuthering + Heights.' + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +BRANWELL AT SOWERBY BRIDGE.--CHARLOTTE'S EXERTIONS. + +Branwell's Appointment at Ulverston ends--He gets a Situation on +the Railroad at Sowerby Bridge--Branwell at Luddenden Foot--His +Friends' Reminiscences of him--Charlotte and Emily reading French +Novels--Charlotte obtains a Situation--Anxious about Anne--School +Project of the Sisters--Charlotte's keen Desire to visit Brussels +--Her Letter to her Aunt Branwell. + + +If the performance of the responsible duties of his appointment at +Mr. Postlethwaite's, which ended, at his father's wish, in the June +of 1840, had been felt by Branwell as a banishment from the cheerful +company of his Haworth acquaintances, it had been still greater from +his artistic and literary friends in the neighbourhood of Bradford +and Halifax. Hence he sought, with a perseverance amounting to +anxiety, to obtain a post on the Leeds and Manchester Railway,--to +the opening of which he had looked forward with concern--at some +place in the valley of the Calder, near Halifax; and he received the +appointment of clerk in charge, at the station at Sowerby Bridge. +Charlotte says of Branwell's determination: '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.'[32] Branwell commenced +his new occupation at Sowerby Bridge on the 1st of October, 1840, +just before the opening of the line from Hebden Bridge to Normanton. + + [32] Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte Brontė,' chap. ix. + +As has been already seen, an acquaintance had existed between +Branwell and Leyland; but now that the former had become a resident +in the immediate neighbourhood, after his visits to the artist's +studio had been interrupted for six months, or more, by his stay at +Broughton-in-Furness, a more frequent intercourse followed between +the two. It was on a bright Sunday afternoon in the autumn of 1840, +at the desire of my brother, the sculptor, that I accompanied him to +the station at Sowerby Bridge to see Branwell. The young railway +clerk was of gentleman-like appearance, and seemed to be qualified +for a much better position than the one he had chosen. In stature he +was a little below the middle height; not 'almost insignificantly +small,' as Mr. Grundy states, nor had he 'a downcast look;' neither +was he 'a plain specimen of humanity.'[33] He was slim and agile in +figure, yet of well-formed outline. His complexion was clear and +ruddy, and the expression of his face, at the time, lightsome and +cheerful. His voice had a ringing sweetness, and the utterance and +use of his English were perfect. Branwell appeared to be in excellent +spirits, and showed none of those traces of intemperance with which +some writers have unjustly credited him about this period of his +life. + + [33] 'Pictures of the Past,' by Francis H. Grundy, C.E. (1879) + p. 75. + +My brother had often spoken to me of Branwell's poetical abilities, +his conversational powers, and the polish of his education; and, on a +personal acquaintance, I found nothing to question in this estimate +of his mental gifts, and of his literary attainments. + +Branwell stayed at Sowerby Bridge some months, whence he was +transferred, in 1841, to Luddenden Foot, a place about a mile further +up the valley, where a station had been recently fixed. Mr. Grundy, +who was an assistant-engineer on the line, became acquainted with +Branwell at the latter place; and says of it, 'there was no village +near at hand,' and that, 'had a position been chosen for this strange +creature, for the express purpose of driving him several steps to the +bad, this must have been it.'[34] + + [34] 'Pictures of the Past,' p. 75. + +Mr. Grundy must have spoken from memory only. The ancient village +of Luddenden Foot, within two minutes' walk of the station, with +its population employed in the mills and manufactories of the +neighbourhood, together with its two old hostelries of the 'Red +Lion,' and the 'Shuttle and Anchor,' was surely sufficient to banish +all solitude and wildness from the neighbourhood of Branwell's +sojourn. Yet the change was scarcely a desirable one, and doubtless +helped to disgust Branwell with his employment. It is to be regretted +that the respective occupations of Branwell and Mr. Grundy were of +such a nature as to prevent a regular and continual intercourse, and +that distance of time and place have so far dimmed Mr. Grundy's +reminiscences of his friend, that, valuable though the letters he +has wisely preserved are, many inaccuracies have entered into his +recollections of him, and Mrs. Gaskell's exaggerated account has had +undue weight in the picture he has drawn. + +Mr. William Heaton, author of a minor volume of poems entitled the +'Flowers of Caldervale,' knew Branwell Brontė well when he was at +Luddenden Foot. He wrote to me a letter in which occurred the +following description of his mind and character, and also of his +conversation when at one of the village inns, where they sometimes +met:-- + +'He was,' says Heaton, 'blithe and gay, but at times appeared +downcast and sad; yet, if the subject were some topic that he was +acquainted with, or some author he loved, he would rise from his +seat, and, in beautiful language, describe the author's character, +with a zeal and fluency I had never heard equalled. His talents were +of a very exalted kind. I have heard him quote pieces from the bard +of Avon, from Shelley, Wordsworth, and Byron, as well as from +Butler's "Hudibras," in such a manner as often made me wish I had +been a scholar, as he was. At that time I was just beginning to write +verses. It is true I had written many pieces, but they had never seen +the light; and, on a certain occasion, I showed him one, which he +pronounced very good. He lent me books which I had never seen before, +and was ever ready to give me information. His temper was always mild +towards me. I shall never forget his love for the sublime and +beautiful works of Nature, nor how he would tell of the lovely +flowers and rare plants he had observed by the mountain stream and +woodland rill. All these had excellencies for him; and I have often +heard him dilate on the sweet strains of the nightingale, and on the +thoughts that bewitched him the first time he heard one.' + +During Branwell's twelvemonths' stay at Luddenden Foot, he formed new +acquaintances, but the avocations, tastes, and pursuits of the +well-to-do inhabitants did not accord with his; and he, perhaps, more +frequently than was compatible with his duties, visited Halifax to +seek the intellectual enjoyment which his own narrow occupation and +the society of Luddenden Foot did not afford. + +While he was occupied in the service of the railway company at this +place, we hear nothing relating to him, of moment, in Charlotte's +correspondence. Happy that he was employed, his sisters engaged +eagerly and earnestly in devising schemes for obtaining a livelihood +that might enable them to work together for their mutual assistance +in literary labour. + +Charlotte was still at home with Emily, reading French novels, of +which, we learn, she had got another bale, 'containing upwards of +forty volumes.' 'I have read about half,' she says. '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.' We scarcely recognize, in +this employment, the Charlotte Brontė of three years before, whose +religious mania was driving her to despair, unless, indeed, it be in +the force with which she pursues the new bent of her inclination. She +has read twenty volumes of this, the second, batch, and was proposing +to read twenty more. It was her expectation that, by this process, +she would become sufficiently familiar with the language to enable +her to teach it to others. + +In the letter in which she announced that Branwell had gone to his +post on the railway--written in good spirits, when she saw everything +_couleur-de-rose_, which, however, she attributes to the high +wind blowing over the 'hills of Judea' at Haworth--she says: '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 Wooler to tell her so. +Verily, it is a delightful thing to live 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 Ęsop; the +grasshoppers sang all the summer, and starved all the winter.' + +Branwell was proving himself no grasshopper, for, if he sang, he was +anxious to exert himself in a practical way at the same time; and, so +far, he was doing well at Luddenden Foot. Charlotte, too, was +resolved to be employed, but the negotiation with Mrs. B---- failed. +The lady expressed herself pleased with the frankness with which +Charlotte stated her qualifications, but she required some one who +could undertake to give instruction in music and singing. This Miss +Brontė could not do. She does not appear to have had the musical +taste which her brother and sisters had inherited from the Branwell +family. She resembled her father, perhaps, more closely than did any +of the other children. At last, however, in March, 1841, she entered +her second situation as a private governess. 'I told you, some time +since,' she writes to her friend, '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.' + +Charlotte found her residence not very large, but the grounds were +fine and extensive. She had made some sacrifice to secure comfort, as +she says, not good living, but cheerful faces and warm hearts. Her +pupils were two in number, one a girl of eight, and the other a boy +of six. Though always more or less afflicted with home-sickness, +whenever she was at a distance from her father's house, with its +familiar and affectionate ways, she enjoyed, in her new place, +considerable relief from it, owing to the spontaneous generosity and +kindliness of her employers. She says, indeed, '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.' + +Charlotte found matters a little easier after the first month of her +stay, and her home-sickness became less oppressive. Though her time +was much occupied, great kindness was shown towards her, and her +father and her friend were invited to come to see her. + +In June she wrote, in the absence of her employer, '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.'[35] + + [35] 'Life of Charlotte Brontė,' chap. x. + +The delicate Anne, struggling with all the troubles, the indignities, +of the life of a governess, was a picture that was naturally +distressing enough to Charlotte, ever anxious, ever watchful over the +welfare of her youngest sister, and she would, perhaps, be apt, in +her imagination, to exaggerate her sister's difficulties in the +light of her own. In truth the sisters had qualities of mind and +heart which did much to unfit them for the enjoyment of content or +happiness amongst strangers. Charlotte, in particular, with a nature, +sensitive, observant, and tenacious; an imagination highly wrought, +active, and fertile, but too often morbid; with a will, powerful, yet +constrained by the nervous weakness of an excitable constitution, +could with difficulty conform inclination to the necessities of such +a career; she longed for freedom. It was not surprising, then, that +when Charlotte reached Haworth--which she did before Anne's +return--there was a revival of the project I have before mentioned of +the opening of a school, wherein they could enjoy the liberty of +home. + +Mr. Brontė and Miss Branwell were not unfavourably disposed towards +the project, and they conversed now and then, at the breakfast-table +or in the evenings, as to how they could best help the girls into the +position they so much coveted. The sisters must always have had a +friend in their father in these matters; he could not but be pleased +and interested in struggles and expectations which reproduced so +closely the hopeful days of his own early life, and we learn, as the +result of the deliberations of the elders, that the aunt offered a +loan, or intimated that she would, perhaps, offer one, in case her +nieces could give some assurance of the solidity of their plans in +the shape of a situation decided upon and of pupils promised. The +East-Riding was thought to be not so well provided with schools as +the West, and the favourite idea of the sisters was to open their +projected academy in the neighbourhood of Burlington, where the +health, both of themselves and of their pupils, might be hoped for. +But there was a question how much their aunt would be disposed to +advance them. Charlotte did not think she would sink more than £150 +in such a venture, and she doubted if this would be a sufficient sum +with which to establish a school and commence house-keeping, on +however modest a scale. These were reflections which damped a little +the excitement of hopeful expectation in which the sisters, +especially Charlotte, revolved these plans. She anxiously awaited the +coming of her friend, on the day she was expected to visit them +during their holidays at the parsonage, wearying her eyes with +watching from the window, eye-glass in hand, and, sometimes, +spectacles on nose, eager to talk over her schemes with some one else +than her sisters and to hear a new opinion. But her friend could not +come, and she says, 'a hundred things I had to say to you will now be +forgotten, and never said.' Charlotte began to fear some time must +elapse before her plans could be executed, and she resolved not to +relinquish her situation till something was assured. But this +expectation of keeping a school, cherished through long years, was +never realized by the sisters; ever and anon the shifting sands of +circumstance, the changing currents of life, moved them away, even +while they believed themselves approaching the goal of their hopes. + +Charlotte returned to her situation, and she tells her friend, in a +letter dated August the 7th, 1841, that she 'felt herself' again. Mr. +and Mrs. ---- were from home, and she takes the opportunity of saying +that to be solitary there was to her the happiest part of her time. +She enters into particulars of the household: the children were under +decent control, and the servants were observant and attentive to her; +she says of herself, moreover, that the absence of the master and +mistress relieved her from the duty of always putting on the +appearance of being cheerful and conversable. + +Her friends, Martha and Mary T----, were enjoying great advantages on +the Continent, where they had gone to stay a month with their +brother. Charlotte had had a long letter from Mary, and a packet +enclosing a handsome black silk scarf, and a pair of beautiful kid +gloves bought in Brussels as a present. She was pleased with them, +and that she had been remembered so far off, amidst the excitement of +'one of the most splendid capitals of Europe.' Mary's letters spoke +of 'some of the pictures and cathedrals she had seen--pictures the +most exquisite, cathedrals the most venerable.' Something swelled to +the throat of Charlotte as she read this account. She was seized with +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.' She was tantalized for a time by the +consciousness of faculties unexercised; then all collapsed. She +considered these emotions, momentary as they were, rebellious and +absurd, and they were speedily quelled by the resolute spirit they +had disturbed. She hoped they would not revive, as they had been +acutely painful. The school project, instead of at all fading, was +gaining strength, and the three sisters kept it in view as the +pole-star round which all their other schemes, as of lesser +importance, revolved. To this they looked in their despondency. +Charlotte was haunted, sometimes, and dismayed, at the conviction +that she had no natural knack for her occupation. She says that, if +teaching only were requisite, all would be smooth and easy; and she +adds, '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.' + +It appears that Miss Wooler was about this time intending to give up +her school at Dewsbury Moor, and had offered it to the Misses Brontė. +One or two disadvantages had to be set against the favourable terms +on which they might have the school. The situation could not commend +itself to Charlotte, anxious as she was concerning Anne's health; the +number of pupils had also diminished, and it would be necessary to +offer special advantages in the way of education before they could +hope to have a prosperous establishment--so their friends argued. But +Charlotte had resolved to take the school. The sisters, however, +could not feel confident that their qualifications were such as would +render success certain. Hence, a suggestion that was made to +Charlotte which would provide her with the necessary powers, was at +once taken up with all the energy of her nature; she thus writes to +her aunt, on whom all must depend: + + 'September 29th, 1841. + + 'DEAR AUNT, + + 'I have heard nothing of Miss Wooler 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 £100, which you have been so kind + as to offer us, will, perhaps, not be all required now, as Miss + Wooler 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 £5; living there is 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._, + provided 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 Chāteau 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, £50 or £100, 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 whoever 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.' + +Charlotte had some time to wait for an answer, but it came at last; +her enthusiasm had carried the day. The answer was favourable: she +and Emily were to go to Brussels. + +At times, during his stay with the railway company, Branwell would +drive over from Luddenden Foot to visit his family at the Haworth +parsonage, having hired a gig for the purpose. Mr. Grundy sometimes +accompanied him, and they would escape to the moors together, or pay +curious visits to the old fortune-teller, with the curates. Then, +says his friend, he was 'at his best, and would be eloquent and +amusing, though, on returning sometimes, he would burst into tears, +and swear he meant to mend.' This last statement is favourable to +Branwell's calm judgment upon himself. Few--and Branwell was one of +the last--drift deliberately into wrong-doing. He was, like most +other men, often placed under influences which a habit of attention +and self-control would have enabled him to resist. He knew, perhaps, +in a desultory way, what he ought to do, and what he ought not; but, +owing to his inattention to consequences, he might, now and then, go +wrong, sometimes yielding to whatever illusion was paramount within, +acting in concert with whatever was most alluring without; yet he +could draw his mental forces together, and review his past actions +with keen and painful accuracy. Hence he was not destitute of the +faculty of analyzing his acts in the light of their moral quality, +and, when his sober judgment enabled him to see them in their true +bearing, he exhibited a due contrition. + +On Branwell's visits home, he learned much of the exertions, the +projects, and the resolves of his sisters. He was aware of their +aims, and how important were the steps being taken to qualify them +the better for teaching others, more especially in perfecting their +knowledge of the French language and of music. He also knew of the +ultimate hope of his sisters--that, were the future secure, they +would have leisure to realize their early dream of one day becoming +authors, never relinquished, even when distance divided, and when +absorbing tasks occupied them. He had the highest appreciation of +their genius; and, although he had his times of hilarity, indulgence, +and enjoyment, he was certainly never forgetful of his own hopes and +aspirations in the same direction. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +BRANWELL'S POETRY, 1842. + +Situation of Luddenden Foot--Branwell visits Manchester--The Sultry +Summer--He visits the Picturesque Places adjacent--His impromptu +Verses to Mr. Grundy--He leaves the Railway Company--Miss Robinson's +unjust Comments--His three Sonnets--His poem 'The Afghan War'-- +Branwell's letter to Mr. Grundy--His Self-depreciation. + + +Luddenden Foot--the second place of Branwell Brontė's appointment as +clerk in charge on the Leeds and Manchester Railway--was a village +about equi-distant between Sowerby Bridge and Mytholmroyd, situated +in a fertile and moderately-wooded valley, on the left bank of +the Calder as it descends from its source in Cliviger Dean. The +cultivated hills rise to a considerable height on both sides of the +river, and are very romantic in character. Among the manufacturers +and gentry of the neighbourhood, Branwell found few to welcome him, +and from these he turned to the artists and literary men he had +previously known at Halifax. + +But Branwell, in addition, made excursions up the valley (Mr. W----, +his fellow-assistant, acting for him in his absence) in the direction +of Hebden Bridge, Heptonstall, the Ridge, Todmorden, and the heights +of Wadsworth. There were, indeed, many places of marvellous beauty +and interest near, that have long been the theme of artists and +poets, with which he did not fail to make himself acquainted. + +The huge, rounded hills, which border this valley, are intersected in +places by lovely cloughs and glens, whose peat-stained streams rush +over their rocky beds, from the elevated grouse-moors around, to pour +their waters into the Calder. From Luddenden Dean, between the +townships of Warley and Midgley, a brook makes its way to Luddenden +Foot, through a glen on whose verdant slopes stand several ancient +houses of architectural and historic interest. Among these are Ewood +Hall, where Bishop Farrer was born, and Kershaw House, a beautiful +Jacobean mansion. Crag Valley, which descends to the Calder on the +opposite bank, a mile or more from Luddenden Foot, is deeper and more +thickly wooded. On one hand lies Sowerby--with Haugh End, the +birthplace of Archbishop Tillotson--and, on the other, Erringden, +which was a royal deer-park in the days of the Plantagenets. But the +loveliest of the valleys through which the confluent streams of +the Calder run, is that of Hebden, a romantic glen, winding between +the wooded and precipitous slopes of Heptonstall--crowned with the +ancient and now ruined church of St. Thomas ą Becket--and of +Wadsworth, with its narrow dell of Crimsworth, which gave Charlotte +Brontė a name for the hero of the earliest of her novels. Between +these solemn heights the stream flows beneath the huge crags of +Hardcastle, and roars over many a rocky obstruction in its channel +before it reaches the Calder at Hebden Bridge. This was a district to +which picnic-parties from Haworth often came, there being a direct +road over the hills. + +Branwell also visited Manchester on one occasion; and, on his +return, he gave an account to a young clergyman, then living in the +neighbourhood of Mytholmroyd, who sometimes went to his wooden shanty +at Luddenden Foot to hear his conversation, of how he had been +impressed with the architecture of the parish church at Manchester, +as he stood under the arched portal, and beheld the long lines of +pillars and arches, and the fretted roof, the lightsome details of +which had charmed him. He went forward on that occasion to the choir +of the church, and saw the Lady Chapel--which still retained its +beautiful screen, with its Perpendicular tracery and shafts of that +period--occupied by the gravedigger's implements, which reminded +him of the 'Worshipful Master of the Lodge of the Three Graces,' +consisting of crowbar, mattock, spade, barrow, planks and ropes; for +the Lady Chapel had been made a convenient receptacle for these +dismal chattels. + +The summer of 1841 was a somewhat monotonous time for Branwell and +his friend at the quiet station. Here, in the intervals of the +trains, scarcely anything was heard except the occasional hum of a +bee or a wasp, or the drone of a blue-bottle, while the almost +vertical rays of a summer sun darted down on the roof of the wooden +hut, and made the place unendurable. It was in moments of weary +lassitude, or in hours of drowsy leisure, that Branwell whiled away +the time by sketching carelessly on the margins of the books--for +the amusement of himself and his friend--free-hand portraits of +characters of the neighbourhood, and of the celebrated pugilists of +the day. + +But about Hebden Bridge there were people known to Branwell, and he +did not fail to visit them. His sister, Charlotte, in after-years, +sometimes came to Hanging Royd, Hebden Bridge, the house of my late +friend, the Rev. Sutcliffe Sowden, then incumbent of Mytholm--the +gentleman who afterwards performed the marriage ceremony between the +gifted lady and Mr. Nicholls. The friendship of the latter and Mr. +Sowden dated from earlier years, and to them Branwell was known when +he was at Luddenden Foot. He had, indeed, sometimes clerical visitors +at his 'wooden shanty' to hear his conversation. Mr. Sowden was an +enthusiastic lover of scenery, and the sphere of his duties abounded +in moors, wilds, crags, rivers, brooks, and dells, which he often +visited. Branwell's tastes accorded with his, but these attractions +clearly drew Branwell's attention, too often and too far, from the +imperative duties of his situation, comparatively light though they +were. As might be expected, therefore, the work of this talented but +changeful young man was found unsatisfactory, and explanations were +demanded. About the time of the close of his twelve months' official +duties at Luddenden Foot, an examination of his books was made, and +they were found to be confused and incomplete. The irregularity and +the defects of his returns had also been remarked, and an inquiry was +set on foot respecting them. The officials, in looking over the +books, discovered the pen-and-ink sketches on the margins of the +pages, which I have already mentioned; and these were taken as +conclusive evidence of carelessness and indifference on the part of +the unfortunate Branwell in the performance of his duties and the +keeping of his accounts. + +He had been made aware, by unwelcome inquiries and remonstrances, +that his position with the railway company was precarious, and he +was filled with apprehension as to the ultimate consequences. He +was requested finally to appear at the audit of the company, and +his friend W---- accompanied him. + +It was at the Christmas of 1841, that the Brontės expected to meet +at home together, in anticipation of Charlotte and Emily's journey to +Brussels; but Charlotte had not found her brother there in the January +of 1842, for she writes on the 20th of that month and year: '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.'[36] Branwell certainly returned home, but only when it +had been intimated to him that his services were no longer required by +the railway company. How far he had felt the duties of his post +irksome, and the power of perseverance required inconsistent with his +tastes and pursuits, does not appear, though the inference that they +were so will scarcely be doubted. But the humiliation and sorrow he +felt on the loss of his employment plunged him, for a time, into +despair; and the natural gloom of his disposition, caused him to +magnify the common pleasures and enjoyments of his leisure hours into +crimes and omissions of duty of no ordinary magnitude. But the +erroneous recollections of Mr. Grundy, respecting the situation of the +station at Luddenden Foot, and its supposed deleterious influence on +Branwell's manners and obligations, may justify a doubt as to the +particular accuracy of many of his reminiscences of his friend. + + [36] 'Life of Charlotte Brontė,' chap. x. + +The following incident of Branwell's stay at that place, which Mr. +Grundy gives, may be regarded as affording a valuable contribution to +his writings; for, although impromptu, the verses show that he could, +even on unexpected occasions, bring into play his innate faculty of +verse with no mean grasp of his subject, and a certain harmony of +rhythmical expression. + +Mr. Grundy says, 'On one occasion he (Branwell) thought I was +disposed to treat him distantly at a party, and he retired in great +dudgeon. When I arrived at my lodgings the same evening, I found the +following, necessarily an impromptu:-- + + '"The man who will not know another, + Whose heart can never sympathize, + Who loves not comrade, friend, or brother, + Unhonoured lives--unnoticed dies: + His frozen eye, his bloodless heart, + Nature, repugnant, bids depart. + + '"O, Grundy! born for nobler aim, + Be thine the task to shun such shame; + And henceforth never think that he + Who gives his hand in courtesy + To one who kindly feels to him, + His gentle birth or name can dim. + + '"However mean a man may be, + Know man _is_ man as well as thee; + However high thy gentle line, + Know he who writes can rank with thine; + And though his frame be worn and dead, + Some light still glitters round his head. + + '"Yes! though his tottering limbs seem old, + His heart and blood are not yet cold. + Ah, Grundy! shun his evil ways, + His restless nights, his troubled days; + But never slight his mind, which flies, + Instinct with noble sympathies, + Afar from spleen and treachery, + To thought, to kindness, and to thee. + + '"P. B. BRONTĖ."'[37] + + [37] 'Pictures of the Past,' pp. 78-79. + +Branwell's extreme sensibility caused him, indeed, to exaggerate both +the lights and the shadows of his existence. He was gleeful, as I +found, full of fun, jest, and anecdote, in social circles, or where +literature and art were the theme; and then, almost involuntarily, +would rise to his feet, and, with a beaming countenance, treat the +subject with a vivid flow of imagination, displaying the rich stores +of his information with wondrous and enthralling eloquence. But, under +disappointment or misfortune, he fell a prey to gloomy thoughts, and +reached a state often near akin to despair. It was at such moments +that he usually took up his pen to express, in poetry, the fulness of +his feelings and the depth of his sorrow; and it is to this fact that +the pathetic sadness of most of his writings is due. I have had +occasion already to speak of the melancholy tone which characterized +also the minds of his sisters. + +The worth of Branwell's poetic genius about this time,--the year of +1842,--has been unfairly commented upon. Miss Robinson, questioning +the judgment of the Brontė sisters, undertakes to doubt if Branwell's +mental gifts were any better than his moral qualities, and says: 'It +is doubtful, judging from Branwell's letters and his verses, whether +anything much better than his father's "Cottage in the Wood" would +have resulted from his following the advice of James Montgomery. +Fluent ease, often on the verge of twaddle, with here and there a +bright felicitous touch, with here and there a smack of the +conventional hymn-book and pulpit twang--such weak and characterless +effusions are all that is left of the passion-ridden pseudo-genius of +Haworth.'[38] + + [38] 'Emily Brontė,' p. 97. + +Miss Robinson's ignorance of Branwell's more matured poems and +writings has caused her, in company with others, to fall into very +grave errors regarding him; and she,--with extreme bitterness, it must +be said,--has embellished her biography of Emily with elaborate +censures of his misdeeds, and with accounts of his imputed glaring +inferiority to his sisters in intellectual power. It is pitiable, +indeed, that Miss Robinson,--and not she alone,--in the want of +Branwell's true life and remains, with nothing to set against the +primary errors of Mrs. Gaskell,--should have joined the hue and cry +against him, and have essayed, almost as of set purpose, to write down +the gifted brother of the author whose life she was giving to the +world. + +In 1842 Branwell began to feel more perceptibly the development of his +intellectual powers, and to discern more clearly his natural ability +to define, in poetic and felicitous language, his thoughts, feelings, +and emotions. While under the depression and gloom consequent upon his +disgrace, and the recent loss of his employment, he wrote the three +following sonnets. The profound depth of feeling, expressed with +mournful voice, which pervades them, the full consciousness of woe by +which they are informed, leave nothing wanting in their expression of +pathetic beauty; and they are distinguished by much sweetness of +diction. These sonnets favourably show the poetical genius of +Branwell. His soul is carried beyond his frail mortality; but sadness +and sorrow, enshrouding his imagination, bind it to the precincts of +the tomb. Here, with pessimistic and gloomy philosophy, he bids us, +impressed with the slender sum of human happiness, to recognize the +constant recurrence of the misery to which we are born, and to discern +how little there is beneficent in nature or mankind. + + SONNET I. + + ON LANDSEER'S PAINTING. + + _'The Shepherd's Chief Mourner'--A Dog Keeping Watch at Twilight + over its Master's Grave._ + + The beams of Fame dry up affection's tears; + And those who rise forget from whom they spring; + Wealth's golden glories--pleasure's glittering wing-- + All that we follow through our chase of years-- + All that our hope seeks--all our caution fears, + Dim or destroy those holy thoughts which cling + Round where the forms we loved lie slumbering; + But, not with _thee_--our slave--whose joys and cares + We deem so grovelling--power nor pride are thine, + Nor our pursuits, nor ties; yet, o'er this grave, + Where lately crowds the form of mourning gave, + I only hear _thy_ low heart-broken whine-- + I only see _thee_ left long hours to pine + For _him_ whom thou--if love had power--would'st save! + + + SONNET II. + + ON THE CALLOUSNESS PRODUCED BY CARE. + + Why hold young eyes the fullest fount of tears? + And why do youthful hearts the oftenest sigh, + When fancied friends forsake, or lovers fly, + Or fancied woes and dangers wake their fears? + Ah! he who asks has known but spring-tide years, + Or Time's rough voice had long since told him why! + Increase of days increases misery; + And misery brings selfishness, which sears + The heart's first feelings: 'mid the battle's roar, + In Death's dread grasp, the soldier's eyes are blind + To comrades dying, and he whose hopes are o'er + Turns coldest from the sufferings of mankind; + A bleeding spirit oft delights in gore: + A tortured heart oft makes a tyrant mind. + + + SONNET III. + + _On Peaceful Death and Painful Life._ + + Why dost thou sorrow for the happy dead? + For, if their life be lost, their toils are o'er, + And woe and want can trouble them no more; + Nor ever slept they in an earthly bed + So sound as now they sleep, while dreamless laid + In the dark chambers of the unknown shore, + Where Night and Silence guard each sealed door. + So, turn from such as these thy drooping head, + And mourn the _Dead Alive_--whose spirit flies-- + Whose life departs, before his death has come; + Who knows no Heaven beneath Life's gloomy skies, + Who sees no Hope to brighten up that gloom,-- + 'Tis _He_ who feels the worm that never dies,-- + The _real_ death and darkness of the tomb. + +It is painful to find the writer of these sad and beautiful sonnets +spoken of in terms of reprobation, as being, at the time he wrote +them, and when asking Mr. Grundy's aid while seeking a situation, +'sunk and contemptible.' + +'Alas,' says Miss Robinson, 'no helping hand rescued the sinking +wretch from the quicksands of idle sensuality which slowly engulfed +him!'[39] Let us look further. + + [39] 'Emily Brontė,' p. 99. + +The Afghan War, which commenced in 1838, and had secured for the +English arms what seemed at the time a complete conquest, was followed +by the conspiracy of Akbar Khan, the son of Dost Mohammed, which +occurred at the beginning of winter, when help from India was +hopeless. There was an uprising at Cabul, and several officers and men +were slain, which compelled Major Pottinger to submit to humiliating +conditions. The British left Cabul; and the disastrous retreat to +India, through the Khyber Pass, which commenced on January 6th, 1842, +will long be sadly remembered. Of sixteen thousand troops--accompanied +by women and children to the number of ten thousand more--who were +continually harassed by hostile tribes on the way, and benumbed by the +severity of the winter, only one man, Doctor Brydon, survived to tell +the tidings. Branwell, overwhelmed by these horrors, published the +following powerful and impressive poem in the 'Leeds Intelligencer,' +on May the 7th of the same year. + + THE AFGHAN WAR. + + 'Winds within our chimney thunder, + Rain-showers shake each window-pane, + Still--if nought our household sunder-- + We can smile at wind or rain. + Sickness shades a loved one's chamber, + Steps glide gently to and fro, + Still--'mid woe--our hearts remember + _We_ are there to soothe that woe. + + 'Comes at last the hour of mourning, + Solemn tolls the funeral bell; + And we feel that no returning + Fate allows to such farewell: + Still a holy hope shines o'er us; + We wept by the One who died; + And 'neath earth shall death restore us; + As round hearthstone--side by side. + + 'But--when all at eve, together, + Circle round the flickering light, + While December's howling weather + Ushers in a stormy night: + When each ear, scarce conscious, listens + To the outside Winter's war, + When each trembling eyelash glistens + As each thinks of _one_ afar-- + + Man to chilly silence dying, + Ceases story, song, and smile; + Thought asks--"Is the loved one lying + Cold upon some storm-beat isle?" + And with death--when doubtings vanish, + When despair still hopes and fears-- + Though our anguish toil may banish, + Rest brings unavailing tears. + + 'So, Old England--when the warning + Of thy funeral bells I hear-- + Though thy dead a host is mourning, + Friends and kindred watch each bier. + But alas! Atlantic waters + Bear another sound from far! + Unknown woes, uncounted slaughters, + Cruel deaths, inglorious war! + + 'Breasts and banners, crushed and gory, + That seemed once invincible; + England's children--England's glory, + Moslem sabres smite and quell! + Far away their bones are wasting, + But I hear their spirits call-- + "Is our Mighty Mother hasting + To avenge her children's fall?" + + 'England rise! Thine ancient thunder + Humbled mightier foes than these; + Broke a whole world's bonds asunder, + Gave thee empire o'er the seas: + And while yet one rose may blossom, + Emblem of thy former bloom, + Let not age invade thy bosom-- + Brightest shine in darkest gloom! + + 'While one oak thy homes shall shadow, + Stand like it as thou hast stood; + While a Spring greets grove and meadow, + Let not Winter freeze thy blood. + Till this hour St. George's standard + Led the advancing march of time; + England! keep it streaming vanward, + Conqueror over age and clime!' + +In this poem Branwell prefaces his subject with a picture of domestic +suffering--one with which he is familiar--and compares the consolation +which accompanies the affectionate attentions of those present, with +the hopeless fate and untended deaths of such as perish in the storms +and wars of distant places, far away from their homes and friends. In +the true, loyal, and national spirit which animates him, his manly +appeal to England, comprised principally in the last two verses, is +perhaps one of the noblest and most vigorous ever written. + +In the May of 1842, Leyland was commissioned to execute certain +monuments for Haworth and its neighbourhood; and, on the 15th of that +month, Branwell wrote to him, in reference to a design for a monument +which he had sent for submission to a committee of which the Rev. P. +Brontė was chairman, and invited him to the parsonage on the 20th of +the month, being sure his father would be pleased to see him. Leyland +visited Haworth and partook of Mr. Brontė's hospitality; and in the +evening, accompanied by the incumbent and his son, appeared before the +monument committee. + +Branwell also wrote an interesting letter to Mr. Grundy on May 22nd, +1842, which that gentleman erroneously assigns to 1845.[40] In it he +says that he cannot avoid the temptation, while sitting alone, all the +household being at church, and he being the sole occupant of the +parsonage, to scribble a few lines to cheer his spirits. He alludes to +the extreme pain, illness, and mental depression he has endured since +his dismissal. He describes himself, while at Luddenden Foot, as a +'miserable wreck,' as requiring six glasses of whisky to stimulate +him, as almost insane! And he feels his recovery from this last stage +of his condition to be retarded by 'having nothing to listen to except +the wind moaning among old chimneys and older ash trees,--nothing to +look at except heathery hills, walked over when life had all to hope +for, and nothing to regret.' He reproaches himself, in bitter terms, +with seeking indulgence, while at Luddenden Foot, in failings which +formed, he declares, the black spot on his character. His sister +Charlotte's mind appears to have been cast in the same gloomy mould; +for, when suffering under bodily ailment, or the despondency and +hopelessness which overshadowed her soul, she was impelled, as we have +seen, to make confessions to her friend 'E' of her 'stings of +conscience,' her 'visitings of remorse.' She hates her 'former +flippancy and forwardness.' She is in a state of 'horrid, gloomy +uncertainty,' and clouds are 'gathering darker,' and a more depressing +despondency weighs upon her spirits.[41] + + [40] 'Pictures of the Past,' p. 84. + + [41] Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte Brontė,' chap. viii. + +In another letter to her friend, Charlotte says she is 'in a strange +state of mind--still gloomy, but not despairing. I keep trying to do +right.... I abhor myself, I despise myself.' And again, later, she +wonders if the new year will be 'stained as darkly as the last with +all our sins, follies, secret vanities, and uncontrolled passions and +propensities,' saying 'I trust not; but I feel in nothing better, +neither humbler nor purer.'[42] + + [42] 'Unpublished letters of Charlotte Brontė,' _Hours at + Home_, vol. xi. + +Branwell, however, while making, in a like tone, his unnecessarily +exaggerated confession to his friend, sets forth his renovation of +soul and body. He has, at length, acquired health, strength, and +soundness of mind far superior to anything he had known at Luddenden +Foot. He can speak cheerfully, and enjoy the company of another, +without his former stimulus. He can write, think, and act, with some +apparent approach to resolution, and he only wants a motive for +exertion to be happier than he has been for years. He has still +something left in him which might do him service. He thinks he ought +not to live too long in solitude, as the world soon forgets those who +wish it 'Goodbye.' Then, although ashamed of it, he asks for answers +to some inquiries he had made about obtaining a new situation, +evidently thinking Mr. Grundy's influence of importance in the matter. + +This letter must receive a passing notice. It shows Branwell's mind +vigorous and healthy, although it had been disordered by physical +illness accompanied by brooding melancholy. His picture of the lonely +parsonage and the solitude of the surrounding country, combined with +the expression of his own sad emotions, is graphic enough. His sisters +wrote with the same power and the same artistic feeling. The occasion +of his writing this letter to Mr. Grundy was his wish to obtain some +employment in connection with the railway, and he made this overdrawn +confession of his habits and indulgences when at Luddenden Foot, and +contrasted them with the great mental, moral, and bodily improvement +he had acquired since he left. It was his hope that by this contrast +he might make a favourable impression, and that Mr. Grundy's position +with the Messrs. Stephenson might be a means of helping him to some +employment suited to his tastes and abilities. But Mr. Grundy could +not aid him in this object, which he pursued with all the feverish +eagerness of his urgent and impetuous nature. With great vigour of +expression he declares, 'I would rather give my hand than undergo +again the grovelling carelessness, the malignant yet cold debauchery, +the determination to find how far mind could carry body without both +being chucked into hell.' + +But Branwell, at the time of which I speak, was full of energy and +industry; indeed, he could not be idle. He wrote another letter in +reply to one he had received from Mr. Grundy, dated June the 9th, +1842. From this we learn that his friend had either not entertained +his applications, or was unable to further his interests in the +quarter from which employment could come, for he had given +discouraging answers. Branwell felt the disappointment keenly, but +says that it was allayed by Mr. Grundy's kind and considerate tone. +His friend had asked why he did not turn his attention elsewhere. To +this Branwell replies that most of his relations are clergymen, and +others of them, by a private life, removed from the busy world. As for +the church, he declares he has not one mental qualification, 'save, +perhaps, hypocrisy,' which might make him 'cut a figure in its +pulpits.' He informs Mr. Grundy that Mr. James Montgomery and another +literary gentleman, who had lately seen something of his work, wished +him to turn his attention to literature. He declares that he has +little conceit of himself, but that he has a great desire for +activity. He is somewhat changed, yet, although not possessed of the +buoyant spirits of his friend, he might, in dress and appearance, +emulate something like ordinary decency. + +In Leyland's art commissions at Haworth, Branwell took great interest, +and in his correspondence considerable activity and industry appear. +He wrote, on June the 29th, 1842, to the sculptor, a letter, in which +he alludes to the conduct of some gentlemen of the committee at +Haworth, who had acted in an unfair way to his friend on a +professional matter. He says:-- + +'I have not often felt more heartily ashamed than when you left the +committee at Haworth; but I did not like to speak on the subject then, +and I trusted that you would make that allowance, which you have +perhaps often ere now had to do, for gothic ignorance and ill +breeding; and one or two of the persons present afterwards felt that +they had left by no means an enviable impression on your mind. + +'Though it is but a poor compliment,--I long much to see you again at +Haworth, and forget for half-a-day the amiable society in which I am +placed, where I never hear a word more musical than an ass's bray. +When you come over, bring with you Mr. Constable, but leave behind +Father Matthew, as his conversation is too cold and freezing for +comfort among the moors of Yorkshire.' + +At the bottom of the sheet on which this letter is written, Branwell +has drawn a pen-and-ink sketch of rare merit. The weird waste, which +stretches to the horizon, may represent well the lonely wilds of +Haworth, overshadowed by the clouds of approaching night, and +interspersed with streaks of fading day, among which the crescent moon +appears. In the foreground is a group of monuments, one a tomb sunk on +its side; and, of the head-stones, one is inscribed with the word +'Resurgam.' Branwell was no mean draughtsman, and that his hand did +not shake with the excesses he is represented to have gone through at +this period of his life, the delicacy of this elaborate drawing is +sufficient proof. + +Mr. Constable, mentioned in the letter, was an acquaintance of the +sculptor, a gentleman of considerable ability in art and poetry. The +conviviality, which Branwell did not consider altogether a dereliction +of moral duty, led him to make his quiet and humorous allusion to +Father Matthew. + + +END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. + + +LONDON: PRINTED BY DUNCAN MACDONALD, BLENHEIM HOUSE. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Brontė Family, Vol. 1 of 2, by +Francis A. 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Leyland + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Brontė Family, Vol. 1 of 2 + with special reference to Patrick Branwell Brontė + +Author: Francis A. Leyland + +Release Date: October 25, 2011 [EBook #37843] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BRONTĖ FAMILY, VOL. 1 OF 2 *** + + + + +Produced by StevenGibbs and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1> +THE BRONTË FAMILY +</h1> +<br> +<h3> +WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO +</h3> + +<h2> +PATRICK BRANWELL BRONTË +</h2> + +<h3> +VOL. I. +</h3> + +<br> +<h3> +BY +</h3> + +<h2> +FRANCIS A. LEYLAND. +</h2> + +<br> +<h3> +IN TWO VOLUMES. +</h3> + +<h3> +VOL. I. +</h3> + +<br> +<h4> +LONDON:<br> +HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS,<br> +13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.<br> +1886. +</h4> + +<h4> +<i>All rights reserved.</i> +</h4> + + +<hr cLass="med"> + +<p class="section"> +PREFACE. +</p> + + +<p> +It has long seemed to me that the history of the Brontë family is +incomplete, and, in some senses, not well understood. Those who have +written upon it—as I shall have occasion to point out in these +pages—have had certain objects in view, which have, perhaps +necessarily, led them to give undue weight to special points and to +overlook others. Thus it happens that, though there are in the hands of +the public several able works on the Brontës, there are many +circumstances relating to them that are yet in comparative obscurity. +Especially has injustice been done to one member of the family—Patrick +Branwell Brontë—whose life has several times been treated by those who +have had some other object in view; and, through a misunderstanding of +the character of the brother, the sisters, Anne in particular, have +been put, in some respects, in a false light also. This circumstance, +coupled with the fact that I am in possession of much new information, +and am able to print here a considerable quantity of unknown poetry +from Branwell's hand, has induced me to write this work. Those of his +poems which are included in these volumes are placed in dealing with +the periods of his life in which they were written, for I felt that, +however great might be the advantages of putting them together in a +complete form, much more would be lost both to the interest of the +poems and the life of their author in doing so. Branwell's poems, more, +perhaps, than those of any other writer, are so clearly expressive of +his feelings at the time of their writing, that a correct view of his +character is only to be obtained by looking upon them as parts of his +life-history, which indeed they are. And, moreover, when we consider +the circumstances under which any of these were written, our +understanding and appreciation of the subject must necessarily be much +fuller and truer. It has not escaped the attention of writers on the +Brontë story that Branwell had an important influence on his sisters; +and, though I maintain it to have been essentially different from what +others allege, it would not be possible to do justice either to him or +to them without saying a good deal about his character. +</p> + +<p> +I have felt it right, in these pages, to some extent also, to +re-consider the character of the Rev. Patrick Brontë, which has, along +with that of his son, suffered unfair treatment in the biographies of +his daughters. I have likewise entered upon some account of the local +circumstances of art and literature which surrounded the Brontës, an +element in their history which has hitherto been unknown, but is +especially necessary to a right understanding of the life and work of +Branwell Brontë and his sisters. These circumstances, and the altered +view I have taken of the tone of the lives of Mr. Brontë and his son, +have obliged me to deal more fully than would otherwise have been +necessary with the early years of the Brontës, but I venture to hope +that this may be atoned for by the new light I have thus been enabled +to throw on some important points. There are published here, for the +first time, a series of letters which Branwell Brontë addressed to an +intimate friend, J. B. Leyland, sculptor, who died in 1851, and it is +with these that a fresh insight is obtained into an interesting period +of Branwell's life. +</p> + +<p> +I am largely indebted in some parts of my work, especially those which +deal with the lives of the sisters, to Mrs. Gaskell's fascinating 'Life +of Charlotte Brontë'; and it is a source of sincere regret to me that I +am compelled to differ from that writer on many points. I am likewise +indebted in parts to Mr. T. Wemyss Reid's admirable 'Charlotte Brontë: +a Monograph,' a work which has corrected several errors and +misconceptions into which Mrs. Gaskell had fallen. The reader will +perceive that I am obliged in several places to combat the theories and +question the statements of Miss A. Mary F. Robinson in her 'Emily +Brontë,' a book which, nevertheless, so far as its special subject is +concerned, is a worthy contribution to the history of the Brontës. +</p> + +<p> +I have also found of much use, in writing this work, an article +entitled 'Branwell Brontë,' which Mr. George Searle Phillips—'January +Searle'—published in the 'Mirror' in 1872. The chapter in Mr. Francis +H. Grundy's 'Pictures of the Past' on Branwell Brontë, has likewise +been of the greatest service to me. Both these gentlemen were +Branwell's personal friends, and to them I gladly acknowledge my +indebtedness. +</p> + +<p> +Among many other sources of information respecting the Brontës, of +which I have availed myself in writing these pages, I may mention +<i>Hours at Home</i>, 'Unpublished Letters of Charlotte Brontë'; +<i>Scribner</i>, 'Reminiscences of Charlotte Brontë'; the +<i>Athenæum</i>, 'Notices and Letters,' by Mr. A. C. Swinburne, and +'One of the Survivors of the Brontë-Branwell Family.' To this lady I +must also express my obligation for her very kind letter to me. +</p> + +<p> +In the preparation of my work I have been greatly assisted by the +information, and encouraged by the sympathy, of several who had +personal knowledge of Patrick Branwell Brontë, and who have supported +the view I have taken of his life and character, and also who had like +knowledge of the other members of the Brontë family. Among these, I +have to express my sincere thanks to Mr. H. Merrall and to Mr. William +Wood, who were early acquaintances of Branwell; also to Mr. William +Dearden. To Mr. J. H. Thompson and Mrs. Thornton I am greatly indebted +for information respecting Branwell's sojourn in Bradford. I have +likewise derived much information from the family of the Browns, now +all deceased, except Mrs. Brown, to whom I have to express my +obligation. I have also gained much reliable information from Nancy +Garrs, now Mrs. Wainwright, the nurse of the Brontës, and to her I must +especially express my thanks. To these, I must not omit to add my deep +and sincere thanks to those who will not permit me to mention them by +name, for the unwearied assistance, counsel, and literary judgment +which they have as cheerfully, as they have ably, rendered. +</p> + +<p class="sig"> +F. A. L. +</p> + +<p> +<span class="sc">Oakwood, Skircoat, Halifax</span>,<br> +October, 1885. +</p> + +<hr class="med"> + + +<p class="section"> +CONTENTS + + +<br> +<small>OF</small> + + +<br>THE FIRST VOLUME. +</p> + +<table class="contents" summary="Contents"> +<tr> +<td class="chpt"><a href="#I">CHAPTER I.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"> +Brontë Genius‌—‌Patrick Brontë‌—‌His Birthplace‌—‌His early +Endeavours‌—‌Ordained‌—‌Presented to Hartshead‌—‌High Town‌—‌His +Courtship and Marriage‌—‌Removes to Thornton‌—‌His House‌—‌Thornton +Chapel‌—‌Mrs. Brontë's failing Health‌—‌Mr. Brontë Accepts the Living +of Haworth‌—‌Rudeness of the Inhabitants‌—‌Local Fights between +Haworth and Heptonstall‌—‌Description of Haworth‌—‌Mrs. Brontë dies</td> +<td class="pg">1</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt"><a href="#II">CHAPTER II.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"> +The Mother of the Brontës‌—‌Her Character and Personal Appearance +‌—‌Her Literary Taste‌—‌Penzance, her Native Place‌—‌Description +of Penzance‌—‌The Branwell Family‌—‌Personal Traits of Maria +Branwell‌—‌Her Virtues‌—‌Her Letters to Mr. Brontë‌—‌Her Domestic +Experiences</td> +<td class="pg">33</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt"><a href="#III">CHAPTER III.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"> +Character of the Rev. P. Brontë‌—‌Charges against Him‌—‌Serious +Allegations of Biographers‌—‌Injustice of the Charges‌—‌Mr. Brontë's +indignant Denial of the Imputations‌—‌Testimony of Nancy Garrs‌—‌Mrs. +Brontë and the Silk-Dress Episode‌—‌Mr. Brontë, the supposed +Prototype of Mr. Helstone‌—‌The Pistol-shots Theory‌—‌Mr. Brontë +on Science Knowledge‌—‌Miss Branwell</td> +<td class="pg">41</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt"><a href="#IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"> +Girlhood‌—‌Gravity of Character‌—‌Charlotte's Description of the +Elf-land of Childhood‌—‌The Still and Solemn Moors of Haworth +influence their Writings‌—‌The Present of Toys‌—‌The Plays which +they Acted‌—‌Mr. Brontë on a Supposed Earthquake‌—‌The Evidence +of his Care for his Children‌—‌Grammar School at Haworth‌—‌His +Children under the Tuition of the Master‌—‌The Character of the +School‌—‌Cowan Bridge School‌—‌Charlotte's View of Mr. Carus +Wilson's Management‌—‌Deaths of Maria and Elizabeth</td> +<td class="pg">57</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt"><a href="#V">CHAPTER V.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"> +Reunion of the Brontë Family‌—‌Branwell is the supposed Prototype +of Victor Crimsworth‌—‌That Character not a complete Portrait of +Branwell‌—‌His Friendships‌—‌His Visit to the Keighley Feast‌—‌Its +Effect on Branwell's Nerves‌—‌The Wrestle‌—‌The Lost Spectacles‌—‌Fear +of his Father's Displeasure‌—‌Mrs. Gaskell's Story of the 'Black +Bull' Incident Questioned‌—‌Miss Branwell and her Nephew</td> +<td class="pg">81</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt"><a href="#VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"> +The youthful Compositions of the Brontës‌—‌Their Character‌—‌ +Branwell's Share in them‌—‌'The Secret,' a Fragment‌—‌The Reading +of the Brontë Children‌—‌Branwell's Character at this Period</td> +<td class="pg">93</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt"><a href="#VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"> +Charlotte goes to Roe Head‌—‌Return Home‌—‌Branwell at the Time‌—‌The +Companion of his Sisters‌—‌Escorts Charlotte on a Visit‌—‌He becomes +Interested in Pugilism‌—‌His Education‌—‌His Love for Music‌—‌His +Retentive Memory‌—‌His Personal Appearance‌—‌His Spirit</td> +<td class="pg">109</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt"><a href="#VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"> +Love of Art in the Youthful Brontës‌—‌Their elaborate Drawings‌—‌ +J. B. Leyland, Sculptor‌—‌Spartacus‌—‌Mr. George Hogarth's +Opinion‌—‌Art Exhibition at Leeds‌—‌Mr. William Robinson, their +Drawing-Master‌—‌Branwell aims at Portrait-Painting‌—‌J. B. +Leyland in London‌—‌Branwell and the Royal Academy‌—‌He visits +London</td> +<td class="pg">123</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt"><a href="#IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"> +Charlotte returns as a Teacher, with Emily as a Pupil, to Roe +Head‌—‌Their Determination to Maintain themselves‌—‌Charlotte's +Fears respecting Emily‌—‌Charlotte's religious Melancholy‌—‌Accuses +herself of Flippancy‌—‌She is on the Borders of Despair‌—‌Anxiety +to Know more of the World‌—‌Emily at Law Hill, Halifax, as a +Teacher‌—‌Charlotte's Excitability‌—‌She returns Home out of +Health</td> +<td class="pg">147</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt"><a href="#X">CHAPTER X.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"> +The Light in which Biographers have regarded Branwell‌—‌ +Bibliography‌—‌Mrs. Gaskell‌—‌The Causes which led her into +Error‌—‌Resentment of Branwell's Friends‌—‌Mr. George Searle +Phillips‌—‌Branwell as Depicted by Mr. T. Wemyss Reid‌—‌Mr. F. H. +Grundy's Notice of Branwell‌—‌Miss A. Mary F. Robinson's Portrait +of Branwell</td> +<td class="pg">159</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt"><a href="#XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"> +Branwell becomes a Freemason‌—‌His love of Art undiminished‌—‌Has +Instruction in Oil-Painting‌—‌Commences Portrait-Painting at +Bradford‌—‌His Commissions‌—‌His Letter to Mr. Thompson, the +Artist‌—‌Miss Robinson's Charges of Misconduct‌—‌Her Erroneous +Statements‌—‌Branwell's true Character and Conduct at Bradford +‌—‌Remarks on his alleged Opium-eating there</td> +<td class="pg">172</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt"><a href="#XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"> +New Inspiration of Poetry‌—‌Wordsworth‌—‌Southey, Scott, and +Byron‌—‌Southey to Charlotte Brontë‌—‌Hartley Coleridge‌—‌His +Worthies of Yorkshire‌—‌Poets of the West-Riding‌—‌Alaric A. +Watts‌—‌Branwell's Literary Abilities</td> +<td class="pg">184</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt"><a href="#XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"> +Branwell's Letter to Wordsworth, with Stanzas‌—‌Remarks upon +it‌—‌No Reply‌—‌He Tries Again‌—‌His Interest in the Manchester +and Leeds Railway‌—‌Branwell's Literary and Artistic Friends +at Bradford and Halifax‌—‌Leyland's Works there‌—‌Branwell's +great Interest in them‌—‌Early Verses‌—‌Mrs. Gaskell's Judgment +on his Literary Abilities</td> +<td class="pg">193</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt"><a href="#XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"> +The Poetical bent of Branwell's Genius‌—‌'Caroline's Prayer'‌—‌'On +Caroline'‌—‌'Caroline'‌—‌Spirit of these Early Effusions</td> +<td class="pg">210</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt"><a href="#XV">CHAPTER XV.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"> +Charlotte's first Offer of Marriage‌—‌Her Remarks concerning it +‌—‌A second Offer Declined‌—‌Anne a Governess‌—‌She Moralizes upon +it‌—‌Charlotte obtains a Situation‌—‌Unsuited to Her‌—‌She Leaves +it‌—‌Branwell takes Pleasure in Scenery‌—‌He Visits Liverpool with +his Friends‌—‌Charlotte goes to Easton‌—‌Curates at Haworth‌—‌Their +Visits to the Parsonage‌—‌Public Meetings on Church Rates‌—‌ +Charlotte's Attempt at a Richardsonian Novel‌—‌She sends the +Commencement of it to Wordsworth for his Opinion‌—‌Branwell +receives an Appointment as Private Tutor</td> +<td class="pg">228</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt"><a href="#XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"> +The District of Black Comb‌—‌Branwell's Sonnet‌—‌Wordsworth and +Hartley Coleridge‌—‌Branwell's Letter to the 'Old Knave of +Trumps'‌—‌Its Publication by Miss Robinson in her 'Emily +Brontë'‌—‌Branwell's familiar Acquaintance with the People of +Haworth‌—‌He could Paint their Characters with Accuracy‌—‌His +Knowledge of the Human Passions‌—‌Emily's Isolation</td> +<td class="pg">249</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt"><a href="#XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"> +Branwell's Appointment at Ulverston ends‌—‌He gets a Situation +on the Railroad at Sowerby Bridge‌—‌Branwell at Luddenden Foot‌—‌ +His Friends' Reminiscences of him‌—‌Charlotte and Emily reading +French Novels‌—‌Charlotte obtains a Situation‌—‌Anxious about +Anne‌—‌School Project of the Sisters‌—‌Charlotte's keen Desire +to visit Brussels‌—‌Her Letter to her Aunt Branwell</td> +<td class="pg">264</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt"><a href="#XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"> +Situation of Luddenden Foot‌—‌Branwell visits Manchester‌—‌The +Sultry Summer‌—‌He visits the Picturesque Places adjacent‌—‌His +impromptu Verses to Mr. Grundy‌—‌He leaves the Railway Company +‌—‌Miss Robinson's unjust Comments‌—‌His three Sonnets‌—‌His +poem, 'The Afghan War'‌—‌Branwell's letter to Mr. Grundy‌—‌His +Self-depreciation</td> +<td class="pg">287</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr class="med"> + + +<p class="ctr"> +<b><big>THE BRONTË FAMILY.</big></b> +</p> + + + +<a name="I"> </a> +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER I. +</p> + +<p class="head"> +EARLY CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE BRONTËS. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +Brontë Genius‌—‌Patrick Brontë‌—‌His Birthplace‌—‌His early +Endeavours‌—‌Ordained‌—‌Presented to Hartshead‌—‌High Town‌—‌His +Courtship and Marriage‌—‌Removes to Thornton‌—‌His House‌—‌Thornton +Chapel‌—‌Mrs. Brontë's failing Health‌—‌Mr. Brontë Accepts the Living +of Haworth‌—‌Rudeness of the Inhabitants‌—‌Local Fights between +Haworth and Heptonstall‌—‌Description of Haworth‌—‌Mrs. Brontë dies. +</p> + + +<p> +Not many stories of literary success have attracted so much interest, +and are in themselves so curious and enthralling, as that of the Brontë +sisters. The question has often been asked how it came about that these +children, who were brought up in distant solitude, and cut off, in a +manner, from intellectual life, who had but a partial opportunity of +studying mankind, and scarcely any knowledge of the ways of the outside +world, were enabled, with searching hands, to dissect the finest meshes +of the passions, to hold up in the clearest light the springs of human +action, and to depict, with nervous power, the most masculine and +forcible aspects of character. The solution has been sought in the +initiatory strength and inherent mental disposition of the sisters, +framed and moulded by the weird and rugged surroundings of their youth, +and tinged with lurid light and vivid feeling by the misfortunes and +sins of their unhappy brother. To illustrate these several points, the +biographers of Charlotte and Emily Brontë have explained, as the matter +admitted of explanation, the intellectual beginnings and capability of +the sisters, have painted in sombre colours the story of their +friendless childhood, and lastly, with no lack of honest condemnation, +have told us as much as they knew of the sad history of Patrick +Branwell Brontë, their brother. It is a curious fact that this brother, +who was looked upon by his family as its brightest ornament and hope, +should be named in these days only in connection with his sisters, and +then but with apology, condemnation, or reproach. In the course of this +work, in which Branwell Brontë will be traced from his parentage to his +death, we shall find the explanation of this circumstance; but we shall +find, also, that, despite his failings and his sins, his intellectual +gifts, as they are testified by his literary promise and his remains, +entitle him to a high place as a worthy member of that extraordinary +family. It will be seen, moreover, that his influence upon Charlotte, +Emily, and Anne was not what has been generally supposed, and that +other circumstances, besides their own domestic troubles, inspired them +to write their masterpieces. +</p> + +<p> +The father of these gifted authors, Patrick Brontë, whose life and +personal characteristics well deserve study, was a native of the county +Down. He was born on St. Patrick's Day, 1777; and, after an infancy +passed at the house of his father, Hugh Brontë, or Brunty, at +Ahaderg—one of the ten children who made a noisy throng in the home of +his parents—he opened, at the age of sixteen, a village school at +Drumgooland, in the same county. In this occupation he continued after +he had attained his majority, and was never a tutor, as Mrs. Gaskell +supposes; but, being ambitious of a clerical life, through the +assistance of his patron, Mr. Tighe, incumbent of Drumgooland and +Drumballyroony, in the county of Down, he was admitted to St. John's +College, Cambridge, on the 1st of October in the year 1802, when he had +attained his twenty-fifth year. At Cambridge we may infer that he led +an active life. It is known that he joined a volunteer corps raised to +be in readiness for the French invasion, threatened at the time. After +a four years' sojourn at his college, having graduated as a bachelor of +arts, in the year 1806, he was ordained, and appointed to a curacy in +Essex, where he is said not to have stayed long. +</p> + +<p> +The perpetual curacy of Hartshead, in the West-Riding of Yorkshire, +having become vacant, Mr. Brontë received the appointment, on the +presentation of the vicar of Dewsbury. +</p> + +<p> +The church of St. Peter, at Hartshead—which has extensive remains of +Norman work, and has recently been restored—is situated on an eminence +about a mile from the actual hamlet of that name; and, with its broad, +low, and massive tower, and its grim old yew-tree, forms a conspicuous +object for miles around, commanding on all sides extensive and +magnificent views of the valleys of Calder and Colne, with their wooded +slopes, and pleasant farms, and the busy villages nestling in the +hollows. At the foot of the hill, the deep and sombre woods of Kirklees +hide the almost indistinguishable remains of the convent, founded by +Raynerus Flandrensis, in the reign of Henry II., for nuns of the order +of Citeaux. +</p> + +<p> +There are interesting circumstances and evidences concerning Kirklees, +its Roman entrenchments being very distinct within the park which +overlooks the Calder at this point. The priory, too, has its curious +history of the events which attended the cloistered life of Elizabeth +de Stainton, one of the prioresses, whose monumental memorial alone +remains of all that marked the graves of the religious of that house; +and there are stories relating to Robin Hood. Here still exists the +chamber in which tradition says the 'noble outlaw' died, and also the +grave, at a cross-bow shot from it, where long generations of men have +averred his dust reposes. The district of Kirklees had an interest for +Charlotte Brontë, and she has celebrated it in 'Shirley,' under the +name of Nunnely, with its old church, its forest, its monastic ruins, +and 'its man of title—its baronet.' It was to the house of the +latter—kind gentleman though he was—that Louis Moore could not go, +where he 'would much sooner have made an appointment with the ghost of +the Earl of Huntingdon to meet him, and a shadowy ring of his merry +men, under the canopy of the thickest, blackest, oldest oak in Nunnely +Forest … would rather have appointed tryst with a phantom abbess, or +mist-pale nun, among the wet and weedy relics of that ruined sanctuary +of theirs, mouldering in the core of the wood.' +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Brontë entered upon his ministrations at Hartshead in the year +1811; and there are entries in the churchwarden's book of Easter-dues +paid to him up to 1815. It is curious to note that, in this early +mention of Mr. Brontë, the name is spelled 'Brunty' and 'Bronty.' +</p> + +<p> +Hartshead being destitute of a glebe house, and no suitable residence +existing either at this place or at the neighbouring village of Clifton +at the time, Mr. Brontë took up his residence at High Town, in a roomy +and pleasant house at the top of Clough Lane, near Liversedge in the +parish of Birstall, and about a mile from the place of his cure. The +house, which commands beautiful views, is entered by a passage of the +ordinary width, on the left of which is the drawing-room, having +cross-beams ornamented with plaster mouldings, as when first finished. +On the right of the passage is the dining-room. The breakfast-room and +kitchen are behind them. The house is three stories in height, and +stands back about two yards from the road, which points direct to the +now populous towns of Liversedge and Cleckheaton, both places of +considerable antiquity, whose inhabitants, employed in various +manufacturies, were increasing in Mr. Brontë's time. +</p> + +<p> +Finding himself now in possession of a competent income and a goodly +residence, he felt relieved from those anxieties which, in all +probability, had attended his early struggles; and, resting awhile in +his ambition, he turned in peace and contentment to poetical +meditation. His first book was called 'Cottage Poems,' on the +title-page of which he describes himself as the 'Reverend Patrick +Brontë, B.A., minister of Hartshead-cum-Clifton.' This book was +published at Halifax in the year 1811. The following are a few of its +subjects: 'The Happy Cottagers,' 'The Rainbow,' 'Winter Nights' +Meditations,' 'Verses sent to a Lady on her Birthday,' 'The Cottage +Maid,' and 'The Spider and the Fly.' Mr. Brontë thus speaks of himself +and his work: 'When relieved from clerical avocations he was occupied +in writing the "Cottage Poems;" from morning till noon, and from noon +till night, his employment was full of indescribable pleasure, such as +he could wish to taste as long as life lasts. His hours glided +pleasantly and almost imperceptibly by, and when night drew on, and he +retired to rest, ere his eyes closed in sleep with sweet calmness and +serenity of mind, he often reflected that, though the delicate palate +of criticism might be disgusted, the business of the day in the +prosecution of his humble task was well-pleasing in the sight of God, +and by His blessing might be rendered useful to some poor soul who +cared little about critical niceties.' Throughout he professes to be +indifferent to hostile criticism. +</p> + +<p> +It is pleasant to find that Mr. Brontë, although settled in competence +in a picturesque part of England, was not forgetful of his parents or +of the land of his birth. So long as his mother lived he sent her +twenty pounds a year; and, though we have no record of the occasion, we +may safely infer that he found opportunity to visit Ireland again. He +maintained his connection with the district of his early life; and, in +after-years, he appointed a relative of Mr. Tighe to be his own curate. +One of his 'Cottage Poems' is entitled 'The Irish Cabin,' a verse or +two from which may here be given:— +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'Should poverty, modest and clean,</p> +<p class="i2">E'er please when presented to view,</p> +<p>Should cabin on brown heath or green,</p> +<p class="i2">Disclose aught engaging to you;</p> +<p>Should Erin's wild harp soothe the ear,</p> +<p class="i2">When touched by such fingers as mine,</p> +<p>Then kindly attentive draw near,</p> +<p class="i2">And candidly ponder each line.'</p></div></div> + +<p> +He describes a winter-scene on the mountains of Morne—a high range +of hills in the north of Ireland—and thus alludes to his hospitable +reception in the clean and industrious cabin of his verses:— +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'Escaped from the pitiless storm,</p> +<p class="i2">I entered the humble retreat;</p> +<p>Compact was the building, and warm,</p> +<p class="i2">In furniture simple and neat.</p> +<p>And now, gentle reader, approve</p> +<p class="i2">The ardour that glowed in each breast,</p> +<p>As kindly our cottagers strove</p> +<p class="i2">To cherish and welcome their guest.'</p></div></div> + +<p> +It is unnecessary to give in this place further extracts from this +book; suffice it to say that, in all probability, Mr. Brontë lived to +see the day when he was pained and surprised that he had ever committed +it to the press. +</p> + +<p> +Although the poems of Mr. Brontë are inspired by the love of a peaceful +and contented life, free from excitement and care, yet in times of +trouble and emergency, such as those of the Luddite riots which +occurred during the period of his ministration at Hartshead, he showed +again the active and resolute spirit which had prompted and sustained +the efforts of his early ambition; and his ardour in helping to +suppress the turbulent spirit of the neighbourhood would have made him +very unpopular with the disaffected people, had they not learned to +respect the upright and unfailing rectitude of his conduct. In the +energetic character of Mr. Brontë's life in these early times, in his +persistent ambition, and in the literary pursuits which clearly were +dear to him, we may trace those factors of working power and literary +aspiration and taste which made up the characteristic intellectual +force of his children. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Gaskell, in her 'Life of Charlotte Brontë,' has given some of the +particulars of the Reverend Mr. Brontë's courtship and marriage, in +which she appears to have taken a lively interest. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Brontë met his future wife, (Miss Maria Branwell—of whose +character I shall speak in the next chapter—the third daughter of Mr. +T. Branwell of Penzance, deceased) for the first time about the summer +of 1812, when she was on a visit to her uncle, the Rev. John Fennel, a +Methodist minister and head-master of the Wesleyan Academy at Woodhouse +Grove, near Bradford, but who became later a clergyman of the +Establishment, and was made incumbent of Cross-stone, in the parish of +Halifax. This meeting was soon followed by an engagement, and, says +Mrs. Gaskell, there were plans for happy picnic-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. +</p> + +<p> +In the account which Mr. Brontë gives of the aim and scope of the work +from which I have made an extract, and the state of his mind while +engaged upon it, we have a retrospect of the inner life of the father +of the Brontës, during his sojourn at Hartshead as perpetual curate, +prior to his marriage with Miss Branwell. In this period of his life, +he seems to have been perfectly happy, no cloud or anticipation of +future sorrow having obscured or diminished the fulness of his peace. +The marriage was celebrated on the 29th of December, 1812, at Guiseley, +near Bradford, by the Rev. W. Morgan, minister of Bierley, the +gentleman engaged to 'Cousin Jane.' It is a very curious circumstance +that on the same day, and at the same place, Mr. Brontë performed the +marriage ceremony between his wife's cousin, Miss Jane Fennel, only +daughter of the Mr. Fennel alluded to above, and the Rev. W. Morgan, +who had just been, as described, the officiating clergyman at his own +wedding. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Fennel would naturally have performed the ceremony for his niece +and Mr. Brontë, had it not fallen to his lot to give the lady away. +</p> + +<p> +When Mr. Brontë found himself settled in married life at Hartshead, and +with the probability of a young family rising around him, he felt +pleasure in the contemplation of the future. Mrs. Brontë, ever gentle +and affectionate in her household ways, comforted and encouraged him in +his literary pursuits, and, by her acute observation and accurate +judgment, directed and aided his own. It was at this time that Mr. +Brontë wrote a book, entitled 'The Rural Ministry,' which was published +at Halifax, in 1813. The work consisted of a miscellany of descriptive +poems, with the following titles: 'The Sabbath Bells,' 'Kirkstall +Abbey,' 'Extempore Verses,' 'Lines to a Lady on her Birthday,' 'An +Elegy,' 'Reflections by Moonlight,' 'Winter,' 'Rural Happiness,' 'The +Distress and Relief,' 'The Christian's Farewell,' 'The Harper of Erin.' +It cannot be doubted that, in consequence of his two publications while +he was at Hartshead, Mr. Brontë became known in the surrounding +districts as an aspiring man, and one of literary culture and ability. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Brontë had taken his bride to his house at High Town, and it was +there that his daughters Maria and Elizabeth were born. Maria was +baptized on April the 23rd, 1814, and is entered in the register as the +'daughter of Patrick Brontë and Maria his wife.' The Rev. Mr. Morgan +was the officiating minister. There is no such entry there relating to +Elizabeth, for she was baptized at Thornton with the other children. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Brontë, after having been nearly five years minister of +Hartshead-cum-Clifton, resigned the benefice, and accepted, from the +vicar of Bradford, the incumbency of Thornton, a perpetual curacy in +that parish. This, probably, on the suggestion of Mr. Morgan, who was +then incumbent of Christ's Church at Bradford. +</p> + +<p> +Thornton is beautifully situated on the northern slope of a valley. +Green and fertile pastures spread over the adjacent hills, and wooded +dells with shady walks beautify and enrich the district. 'The +neighbourhood,' says Mrs. Gaskell, 'is desolate and wild; great tracts +of bleak land, enclosed by stone dykes, sweeping up Clayton Heights.' +This disagreeable picture of the place, painted by the biographer of +Charlotte, is scarcely justified by the actual appearance of the +district. The soil is naturally fertile, and the inhabitants are +notable for industry and enterprise. Hence no barren land, within the +wide range of hill and vale, is now seen obtruding on the cultivated +sweep. +</p> + +<p> +The town is somewhat regularly built. In the main street is situated +the house where Mr. Brontë took up his abode during his stay at +Thornton. The hall door was reached by several steps. There was a +dining-room on one side of the hall, and a drawing-room on the other. +Over the passage to the front was a dressing-room, at the window of +which the neighbours often saw Mr. Brontë at his toilet. Above the door +of the house, on a stone slab, there are still visible the letters: +</p> +<table summary="Letters on door"> +<tr> +<td class="c"> </td> +<td class="c">A.</td> +<td class="c"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="c">J.</td> +<td class="c"> </td> +<td class="c">S.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="c"> </td> +<td class="c">1802</td> +<td class="c"> </td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p> +These are the initials of John and Sarah Ashworth, former inhabitants +of Thornton; and this residence remained as the parsonage until another +was built below, nearer to the chapel, by the successor of Mr. Brontë. +</p> + +<p> +The chapel of Thornton is a narrow, contracted, and unsightly building. +The north side is lighted by two rows of square cottage windows—on the +south side, five late perpendicular pointed windows permit the sun to +relieve the gloom of the interior. +</p> + +<p> +The diminutive communion-table is lighted by a four-mullioned window, +above which, externally, in the wall, appears the date 1620. The +interior is blocked, on the ground floor, with high-backed, unpainted +deal pews. Two galleries hide the windows almost from view, and cast a +gloom over the interior of the edifice. The area under the pews, and in +the aisles, is paved with gravestones, and a fetid, musty smell floats +through the damp and mouldering interior. In this chapel, Mr. Brontë +preached and ministered, and from the pulpit, placed high above the +curate and clerk, whence he delivered his sermons, he could see his +wife and children in a pew just below him. +</p> + +<p> +The new incumbent of Thornton seems to have taken active interest in +his chapel; for in the western screen, which divides a kind of lobby +from the nave, is painted, on a wooden tablet, an inscription recording +that in the year 1818 this chapel was 'Repaired and Beautified,' the +Rev. Patrick Brontë, B.A., being then minister. +</p> + +<p> +While at Thornton Mr. Brontë steadily pursued his literary avocations, +one of his books being a small volume entitled, 'The Cottage in the +Wood, or the Art of becoming Rich and Happy.' This is an account of a +pious family, consisting of an aged couple and a virtuous child, whose +appearance and education qualify her for a higher position in the world +than that of a cottager's daughter. Accident brings to their door a +young man in a state of almost helpless drunkenness, whose habits are +the most profligate and dissolute, as the sequel discloses; and the +object of the book is to show the dire consequences of continued +intemperance. The story is told in prose, but Mr. Brontë gives a +poetical version of one event in the narrative. It is entitled, 'The +Nightly Revel,' and possesses a dignity of its own. The following +extract shows considerable improvement, in diction and verse, upon the +style of his small volume published at Halifax, in 1811. For this +reason it is well worth reproducing. +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'Around the table polish'd goblets shine,</p> +<p>Fill'd with brown ale, or crown'd with ruddy wine;</p> +<p>Each quaffs his glass, and, thirsty, calls for more,</p> +<p>Till maddening mirth, and song, and wild uproar,</p> +<p>And idly fierce dispute, and brutal fight</p> +<p>Break the soft slumbers of the peaceful night.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'Without, within, above, beneath, around,</p> +<p>Ungodly jests and deep-mouthed oaths resound;</p> +<p>Pale Reason, trembling, leaves her reeling throne,</p> +<p>Truth, Honour, Virtue, Justice, all are flown;</p> +<p>The sly, dark-glancing harlot's fatal breath</p> +<p>Allures to sin and sorrow, shame and death.</p> +<p>The gaming-table, too, that fatal snare,</p> +<p>Beset with fiercest passions fell is there;</p> +<p>Remorse, despair, revenge, and deadly hate,</p> +<p>With dark design, in bitter durance wait,</p> +<p>Till <span class="sc">Scarlet Murder</span> waves his bloody hand,</p> +<p>Gives in sepulchral tone the dread command;</p> +<p>Then forth they rush, and from the secret sheath</p> +<p>Draw the keen blade and do the work of death.'</p></div></div> + +<p> +Mr. Brontë also, in 1818, before his appointment to Haworth, published +his 'Maid of Killarney.' He had not been long at Thornton, where he +went about the year 1815, when a considerable increase in his family +added to his parental responsibilities. +</p> + +<p> +On his acceptance of the living, he probably enjoyed a larger stipend +than at Hartshead, but the demands of a young family, perhaps, on the +whole, made him a poorer man. There Charlotte Brontë was born in April, +1816; Patrick Branwell Brontë in 1817; Emily Jane Brontë in 1818; and +Anne Brontë probably just before Mr. Brontë's removal to Haworth, which +was on February 25th, 1820, as we are told by Mrs. Gaskell. +</p> + +<p> +Of the life of the Brontës at Thornton we know little. But there were +causes of anxiety pressing on Mr. Brontë at the time. The state of his +wife's health was a real sorrow, and although he derived solace from +his literary pursuits and the society of his clerical friends, his +spirits were damped by the contemplation of the season of bereavement +and affliction that assuredly threatened him at no distant date. +</p> + +<p> +With six young children, who might soon become motherless, Mr. Brontë's +future was dark and discouraging, and he entertained the idea of +resigning, at no distant day, the then place of his cure. Here, living +within a reasonable distance of Bradford, he had an opportunity of +moving in a larger circle of friends than at Hartshead, and it was here +that his children received their earliest impressions of local life and +character. Old inhabitants of Thornton remembered them playing in the +space opposite their father's residence, in the village street, and had +often seen them carried, or their parents lead them by the hand, in the +lanes of the neighbourhood. They were children only when they left +Thornton; yet, on many grounds, the inhabitants of that village may +feel privileged that it was the birthplace of the authors of 'Jane +Eyre,' 'Wuthering Heights,' and 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.' +</p> + +<p> +Shortly an opportunity presented itself to Mr. Brontë for leaving +Thornton, a vacancy having taken place at Haworth through the death of +the curate, Mr. Charnock. The situation of this chapelry was blessed +with a more bracing air, and the curate had a somewhat better stipend +than Thornton allowed, and so Mr. Brontë accepted the presentation from +the patron. We are informed, however, that, on visiting the place of +his intended ministrations, he was told that while to him personally +the parishioners had no objection, yet, as the nominee of the vicar of +Bradford, he would not be received. He had no idea that the inhabitants +had a veto in the appointment. +</p> + +<p> +On Mr. Brontë declaring that, if he had not the good-will of the +inhabitants, his ministrations would be useless, the place was +presented to Mr. Redhead by the patron, and the village seems to have +become the scene of extraordinary proceedings. It appears that, after +the Reformation, the presentation to the curacy of Haworth, which had +been from time immemorial vested in the vicar of Bradford, had become +subject to the control of the freeholders, and of certain trustees who +held possession of the principal funds from which the stipend of the +curate proceeded, which they could withhold, by virtue of an authority +they appear to have been empowered with. In effect, they could at any +time disallow or render void an appointment, if disagreeable to +themselves, by keeping back the stipend. Mr. Brontë, writing later of +Mr. Redhead, says of this: 'My predecessor took the living with the +consent of the vicar of Bradford and certain trustees, in consequence +of which he was so opposed that, after only three weeks' possession, he +was compelled to resign.' What this opposition and its immediate +effects were, we learn from the pages of Mrs. Gaskell's 'Life of +Charlotte Brontë,' and they may be mentioned here as illustrative of +the pre-eminent resolution and force of character which ever +distinguish the inhabitants of the West-Riding and the dwellers on +these rough-hewn and storm-beaten elevations. +</p> + +<p> +During the long illness which preceded the death of Mr. Charnock, +incumbent of Haworth, his assistant curate, Mr. Redhead, had supplied +his place; who, on Mr. Brontë's withdrawal, was presented, as is stated +above, to the vacant living by the patron, and he seems to have been +determined to hold the chapelry, <i>vi et armis</i>, in defiance of the +inhabitants. But the freeholders, conceiving they had been deprived of +their long established prerogative, or an attempt was being made to +interfere with it, protested against Mr. Redhead's appointment. On the +first occasion of this gentleman's preaching in the church, it was +crowded not by worshippers, but by a multitude of people bent on +mischief. These resolved the service should not proceed, or that it +should be rendered inaudible. To secure this object they had put on the +heavy wooden clogs they daily wore, except on Sundays, and, while the +surpliced minister was reading the opening service, the stamping and +clattering of the clogs drowned his voice, and the people left the +church, making all the noise and uproar that was in their power, which +was by no means feeble. The following Sunday witnessed proceedings +still more disgraceful. We are told that at the commencement of the +service, a man rode up the nave of the church on an ass, with his face +to the tail, and with a number of old hats piled on his head. On urging +his beast forward, the screams of delight, the roars of laughter, and +the shouts of the approving conspirators completely drowned the +clergyman's voice; and he left the chapel, but not yet discomfited. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Redhead, on the third Sunday, resolved to make a strenuous and +final effort to keep the ecclesiastical citadel of which he had been +formally put in possession. For this purpose he brought with him a body +of cavalry, composed of a number of sympathising gentlemen, with their +horses; and the curate, thus accompanied by his supporters, ascended +the village street and put up at the 'Bull.' But the enemy had been on +the alert: the people were exasperated, and followed the new-comers to +the church, accompanied by a chimney-sweep who had, not long before, +finished his labours at some adjacent chimneys, and whom they had made +half drunk. Him they placed right before the reading-desk, which Mr. +Redhead had already reached, and the drunken, black-faced sweep nodded +assent to the measured utterances of the minister. 'At last,' it is +said, '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 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.'<a href="#note1" name="noteref1"> +<small>[1]</small></a> They escaped from the place, and Mr. +Redhead, completely vanquished, retired from the curacy of Haworth. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Brontë, who had made a favourable impression on the inhabitants, +was now accepted by them, and the natural kindness of his disposition +and the urbanity of his manners, secured peace and contentment in the +village. +</p> + +<p> +His responsibilities as a pastor were not light, though the new scene +of his labours, in moral condition, was, perhaps, no worse than the +generality of similar villages in the north of England. The special +chroniclers of Haworth speak of the population of the barren mountains +west of York as 'rude and arrogant, after the manner of their wild +country.' This is the testimony of James Rither, a Yorkshire esquire. +The celebrated Oliver Haywood, preaching at the house of Jonas Foster, +at Haworth, on June 13th, 1672, broke out into lamentations about the +immorality, corruption, and profanity of the place. Mr. Grimshaw, in +the last century, while curate there, had a conviction that the +majority of the people were going to hell with their eyes open! Mrs. +Gaskell informs us that at Haworth, 'drinking without the head being +affected was considered a manly accomplishment.' A remarkable instance +of the loss of reverence and the increase of profanity, in those days, +is found in the observance of Palm Sunday at Heptonstall, a +neighbouring village, and at Haworth itself this feast was +pre-eminently distinguished in ancient times by the out-door +processions of people going from the church and returning to it, +bearing palm branches and singing the psalms and hymns appointed for +the special festival. +</p> + +<p> +It is known, indeed, that this feast was attended by the inhabitants of +the surrounding hills and valleys in those times; and, at the period of +which I speak, the attendance of the people was not diminished, but +increased, though they came for another object. It is a singular fact +that local feuds, if we may call them such, were kept up between the +villages of the West Riding. And thus challenges were given alternately +by Haworth to Heptonstall, and by Heptonstall to Haworth, for struggles +between the champions of the respective villages, to be fought out on +Palm Sunday. The inhabitants of these places, therefore, met to pound +and pummel each other without any civil or religious cause to give +bitterness to the fray: greed of triumph and brutal indifference to +injuries inflicted characterized these hostile meetings. On such +occasions, at Heptonstall, amidst great drunkenness and rioting, there +were 'stand-up' fights from the church-gates to the 'Buttress,' a steep +part of the road, near the bridge which crosses the river at the foot +of Heptonstall Bank—nearly a mile in extent. On one of these feasts, a +Haworth belligerent, unwilling to return home, although night was +drawing on, and looking extremely dissatisfied, when asked by his wife +what ailed him, answered, 'Aw 'annot fawhten wi' onny body yet, an' +aw'll nut gooa whom till aw dun summat.' His affectionate spouse +replied, 'Then gooa, an' get fawhten' an' ha' done wi' it, for we mun +gooa.' The West-Riding police, on their institution, put an end to +these disagraceful proceedings. +</p> + +<p> +Haworth, the new place of Mr. Brontë's incumbency, which has been well +and very fully described by many writers, is situated on the western +confines of the parish of Bradford, and stands on a somewhat lofty +eminence. It is, however, protected in great measure from the western +storms by still higher ground, which consists of irreclaimable moors +and morasses. +</p> + +<p> +The church in which he, for the remainder of his life, performed his +religious services, and in which his more gifted children repose, after +their brief but memorable lives, was of ancient date. A chantry was +founded there at the beginning of the reign of Edward III., where a +priest celebrated daily for the repose of the soul of Adam de Battley, +and for the souls of his ancestors, and for all the faithful departed. +The church, which is dedicated to the glory of God, in honour of St. +Michael the archangel, has been recently, to a great extent, +re-edified. The old structure retained traces of one still older, of +the early English style. Invested as it was with the evidences of the +periods of taste good and bad through which it had passed, and with the +associations which attach to old and familiar internal arrangements, it +was endeared to the inhabitants. Of such associations the present +church—though an architectural gain upon its predecessor—is +necessarily destitute, and the world-wide interest with which the +former structure was invested through the genius of the Brontës has +been almost destroyed by the substitution of an edifice in which they +never prayed, and which they never saw; though their remains repose, it +is true, under its pavement, as is indicated by memorial tablets. +</p> + +<p> +During the existence of the old church, Haworth was visited by +continuous streams of people; but, on its removal, little was left to +attract pilgrims from afar, and there was a manifest diminution of +visitors to the village. +</p> + +<p> +In the recent alterations, the parsonage also, in which the children of +the Rev. Patrick Brontë lived and won for themselves enduring fame in +the path of literature, has undergone considerable changes. It has been +found necessary to add a new wing to the house, in order to obtain +larger accommodation, and, to beautify the parsonage still further, the +old cottage panes, through which light fell on precious and invaluable +pages of elaborate manuscript, as they passed through delicate and +gifted hands, have given way to plate-glass squares. Altogether the +house, both inside and out, presents a very different appearance from +that which it did in the time of the Brontës. +</p> + +<p> +The chapelry at Haworth, when Mr. Brontë accepted the perpetual curacy, +was much more populous and important than that of Thornton. The stipend +of £170 per annum, with a fair residence attached, and a sum of £27 +13s. for maintenance, made the change a desirable one on pecuniary +grounds; and, with Mrs. Brontë's annuity of £50 a year, anxiety on this +head was no doubt allayed. +</p> + +<p> +The population of the district was about four thousand seven hundred, +and, in the first ten years of Mr. Brontë's incumbency, increased by +nearly twelve hundred souls. The chapelry included within its bounds +the townships or hamlets of Stanbury and Near and Far Oxenhope, with +the extensive moors and scattered houses stretching to the borders of +Lancashire. The curacy of Stanbury, a place one mile west of Haworth, +with £100 per annum, was in the gift of Mr. Brontë; and there was also +the interest on £600, with a house, for the maintenance of a free +school at that place, and a sum of £90 per annum for a like purpose at +Haworth. In the year 1849, while Mr. Brontë was still incumbent, the +chapelry of Haworth was divided, a church having been erected at +Oxenhope at a cost of £1,500, the curacy there being valued at £150 per +annum. +</p> + +<p> +Among the considerations which had weight with Mr. Brontë in his +determination to accept the curacy of Haworth was, in all probability, +the delicate state of his wife's health, and the not over-robust +constitutions of his children. He knew, that though from the +smoke-laden atmosphere of the busy centres of West-Riding industry, +Keighley and Haworth were not wholly exempt, yet the winds which +prevailed from the west and the south-west for a great part of the +year, and swept over the moorlands from whose heights the Irish Channel +itself was visible, would, by their purity, give that invigoration of +which his family stood in need. It is quite possible, indeed, that by +Mr. Brontë's removal to Haworth, which gave an almost illimitable range +of wild, heathery hills for his children to wander over, an extension +of their short lives may have been attained. Mrs. Brontë, however, +derived little or no benefit from the change. She had suffered for some +time under a fatal malady—an internal cancer—of which, about eighteen +months after her arrival at Haworth, she died. +</p> + +<a name="II"> </a> +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER II. +</p> + +<p class="head"> +MRS. BRONTË. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +The Mother of the Brontës‌—‌Her Character and Personal Appearance +‌—‌Her Literary Taste‌—‌Penzance, her Native Place‌—‌Description of +Penzance‌—‌The Branwell Family‌—‌Personal Traits of Maria Branwell +‌—‌Her Virtues‌—‌Her Letters to Mr. Brontë‌—‌Her Domestic Experiences. +</p> + + +<p> +The mother of the Brontës—whose death, in September, 1821, deprived +her children of the affectionate and tender care which, for the short +period of her married life, she had bestowed upon them—would, had she +been spared, have moulded their characters by her own meek, gentle, and +maternal virtues. Mrs. Brontë is said to have been small in person, but +of graceful and kindly manners; not beautiful, yet comely and +lady-like, and gifted with great discrimination, judgment, and modesty. +Mrs. Gaskell says she 'was very elegant, and always dressed with a +quiet simplicity of taste which accorded well with her general +character, and of which some details call to mind the style of dress +preferred by her daughter for her favourite heroines.' Mrs. Brontë was +also gifted with literary ability and taste. She had written an essay +entitled, 'The Advantages of Poverty in Religious Concerns,' with a +view to publication in some periodical; and her letters were +characterized by elegance and ease. Her relations in Penzance spoke of +her as 'their favourite aunt, and one to whom they, as well as the +family, looked up as a person of talent and great amiability of +disposition;' and again, as 'possessing more than ordinary talents, +which she inherited from her father.' +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Brontë, as has been said, was a native of Penzance, a corporate +town in the county of Cornwall, and also a sea-port. Penzance is +situated in the hundred of Penwith, and is the most westerly town in +England. The climate is distinguished by great mildness and salubrity, +and the land is remarkable for its fertility, and the beauty of its +meads and pastures. Its maritime situation, however, had, in former +times, exposed it to the descents of foreign invaders, the last of +which appears to have been that of the Spaniards in the year 1595. The +account given of this event is that the invaders, being masters of +Bretagne, sent four vessels manned with a force sufficient to occupy +the Cornish coast. They landed near Mousehole—a well-known place on +the western side of Mount's Bay—and entered the town, which they set +on fire, the inhabitants fleeing before them. At a later date the town +became very pleasant, and many of the houses were large and +respectable, while the streets were well paved. Generally the people +enjoyed long lives, and some attained the patriarchal age: one of +these—Dolly Pentreath, who died in her one hundred and second year, +and who had made the 'Mousehole' her residence—was known as the last +who spoke Cornish. On account of the gentleness of the climate, many +suffering from pulmonary complaints took up their residence there. +</p> + +<p> +Penzance was a town surrounded by places of great interest to the +historian and the antiquary, which are fully described by Borlase and +others. The trades carried on at the place were of considerable extent +in tin and the pilchard fishery, as well as in copper, earthenware, +clay, and in other objects of manufacture and merchandise. In one of +the local industries, Mr. Thomas Branwell was engaged. He had married a +lady named Carne, and they had four daughters and one son. Maria was +their third daughter. The families of Mr. and Mrs. Branwell were well +connected, and moved in the best society in Penzance. They were +Wesleyan Methodist in religion, and the children were brought up in +that persuasion. Mr. Branwell relieved the cares of business by the +delights and consolations of music, in the performance of which he is +said to have had considerable ability. He and his wife lived to see +their children grown up; and died, Mr. Branwell in 1808, and his wife +in 1809. +</p> + +<p> +Maria Branwell visited her uncle, Mr. Fennel, at the beginning of the +summer of 1812, as is stated above, and, for the first time, saw Mr. +Brontë. A feeling of mutual admiration sprang up between them, and +something like the beginning of an engagement took place. When she +returned home, a correspondence opened between the two, and Mr. Brontë +preserved the letters. These have been referred to by the biographer of +his daughter, and we learn that the communications of Miss Branwell +were characterized by singular modesty, thoughtfulness, and piety. She +was surprised to find herself so suddenly engaged, but she accepted +with modest candour the proffer of Mr. Brontë's affection. The future +was determined by mutual acquiescence. On Miss Branwell, nature had +bestowed no great personal attractions, yet, as has been said, she was +comely, and lady-like in her manners; and her innate grace drew +irresistibly to her the esteem of all her acquaintances. Little is +known respecting her beyond the personal traits already mentioned; and +as to the circumstances and events of her life, unmarried or married, +which was one of an extremely even and uneventful kind, little or +nothing can be recorded beyond the ordinary routine of domestic duties +well and affectionately performed, and of obligations in her sphere +religiously observed. Blameless in her conduct, loving in her charge, +and patient in the sufferings she was called upon to endure, she was a +pattern of those excellencies which are the adornments of domestic +life, and make the hearth happy and contented. It cannot be doubted +that she ordered her household with judgment, and expended her +husband's income with frugality and to the best advantage. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Gaskell was enabled to give an extract from one of her letters +written to Mr. Brontë before her marriage, which displays in an +excellent manner her calm sensibility and understanding. 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.'<a href="#note2" name="noteref2"> +<small>[2]</small></a> +</p> + +<p> +The usual preparations, which Mrs. Gaskell has particularized, were +made for the wedding; but during the arrangements a disaster happened, +to which the following letter to Mr. Brontë refers:— +</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> +'I suppose you never expected to be much 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 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 +home.'<a href="#note3" name="noteref3"> +<small>[3]</small></a> +</p> +</div> +<p> +The wedding took place at Guiseley, on December 29th, 1812, as is +stated in the previous chapter. +</p> + +<a name="III"> </a> +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER III. +</p> + +<p class="head"> +THE REV. PATRICK BRONTË. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +Character of the Rev. P. Brontë‌—‌Charges against Him‌—‌Serious +Allegations of Biographers‌—‌Injustice of the Charges‌—‌Mr. Brontë's +indignant Denial of the Imputations‌—‌Testimony of Nancy Garrs‌—‌Mrs. +Brontë and the Silk-Dress Episode‌—‌Mr. Brontë, the Supposed Prototype +of Mr. Helstone‌—‌The Pistol-shots Theory‌—‌Mr. Brontë on Science +Knowledge‌—‌Miss Branwell. +</p> + + +<p> +The character of the Rev. Patrick Brontë, who was responsible, after +the death of his wife, for the education of his children, if we may +believe the accounts given of it by those who have admired their +genius, had many deplorable peculiarities. It would be difficult, +indeed, to find anywhere the record of such passionate outbreaks, such +unreasoning prejudices, and such unbending will as are revealed in the +stories which are told of him. But we shall see presently that most of +these charges have no foundation in fact, while others are, probably, +the result of total misconception. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Gaskell gives an account of these peculiarities. On one occasion, +she tells us, after the children had been out on the wet moors, the +nurse had rummaged out certain coloured boots given to them by the Rev. +Mr. Morgan, who had been sponsor for Maria at Hartshead, and had +arranged them before the fire. Mr. Brontë observing this, and thinking +the bright colours might foster pride, heaped the boots upon the coals, +and filled the house with a very strong odour of burnt leather. 'Long +before this,' she says, 'some one had given Mrs. Brontë a silk gown …. +she kept it treasured up in her drawers. One day, however, while in the +kitchen, she remembered that she had left the key in the drawer, and, +hearing Mr. Brontë upstairs, she augured some ill to her dress, and, +running up in haste, she found it cut into shreds…. He did not speak +when he was annoyed or displeased, but worked off his volcanic wrath by +firing pistols out of the back-door in rapid succession…. Now and +then his anger took a different form, but still was speechless. Once he +got the hearth-rug, and, stuffing it up the grate, deliberately set it +on fire, and remained in the room in spite of the stench until it had +smouldered and shrivelled away into uselessness. Another time he took +some chairs, and sawed away at the backs till they were reduced to the +condition of stools.'<a href="#note4" name="noteref4"> +<small>[4]</small></a> +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Wemyss Reid, who implicitly adopts the 'pistol shots' and 'pretty +dress' stories, while paying a high tribute to Mr. Brontë's rectitude, +and to his just pride in the celebrity of his daughters, says of him, +'He appears to have been a strange compound of good and evil. That he +was not without some good is acknowledged by all who knew him. He had +kindly feelings towards most people…. But throughout his whole life +there was but one person with whom he had any real sympathy, and that +person was himself.' He was 'passionate, self-willed, vain, habitually +cold and distant in his demeanour towards those of his own household.' +His wife 'lived in habitual dread of her lordly master…. It would be +a mistake to suppose that violence was one of the weapons to which Mr. +Brontë habitually resorted … his general policy was to secure his end +by craft rather than by force.'<a href="#note5" name="noteref5"> +<small>[5]</small></a> +</p> + +<p> +Miss Robinson, without hesitation, repeats the censures on Mr. Brontë +published by Mrs. Gaskell and Mr. Reid, asking, 'Who dare say if that +marriage was happy? Mrs. Gaskell, writing in the life and for the eyes +of Mr. Brontë, speaks of his unwearied care, his devotion in the +night-nursing. But, before that fatal illness was declared, she lets +fall many a hint of the young wife's loneliness … of her patient +suffering, of his violent temper.'<a href="#note6" name="noteref6"> +<small>[6]</small></a> +</p> + +<p> +It will thus be seen that the disposition of Mr. Brontë must have been +a sad one indeed, if all these statements are true; and marvellous +that, with 'such a father,' the young and sterling faculties of the +'six small children' should have been so admirably directed and trained +that, of the four who lived to later years, three at least occupy an +exalted and prominent position among women of letters in the present +century. And it would be still more strange that these children were +especially distinguished for the gentleness of their dispositions, and +the refinement of their ideas. It may be hoped that the readers of this +volume, with their additional knowledge of the affectionate, but often +wayward, Branwell, will sympathize with the sentiment which Monsieur +Héger expressed in his letter to Mr. Brontë, that, <i>en jugeant un +père de famille par ses enfants on ne risque pas de se tromper</i>. For +we can scarcely doubt that the characteristics of the children, which I +have named, were due, in fact, in great measure, to Mr. Brontë's +affectionate supervision and education of them. He had graduated at St. +John's College, Cambridge, as we have seen; and the culture and tone of +the university were brought under the roof of his house, where his +children—more especially Branwell—were subjected to its influence. +Moreover, whatever may be thought of Mr. Brontë's intellectual gifts, +or of the talent he displayed in his poems and prose writings, we may +be sure that he possessed, in a marked degree, a deep sympathy with a +higher mental training, and with the truth and simplicity of a pastoral +life. +</p> + +<p> +After the allegations against Mr. Brontë had appeared in the first +edition of the life of his daughter Charlotte, he never ceased to deny +the scandalous reflections upon his character in that work. 'They +were,' he said to me, 'wholly untrue.' He stated that he had 'fulfilled +every duty of a husband and a father with all the kindness, solicitude, +and affection which could be required of him.' And Mrs. Brontë herself +had said, as quoted by Mrs. Gaskell, 'Ought I not to be thankful that +he never gave me an angry word?' thus openly declaring that, whatever +might have been the peculiarities of Mr. Brontë's temper, his wife, at +least, never suffered the consequences. The children also ever looked +up to their father with reverence, gratitude, and devotion. +</p> + +<p> +In a conversation I had with Mr. Brontë on the 8th of July, 1857, he +spoke of the unjustifiable reflections upon himself which had been made +public, and he said, 'I did not know that I had an enemy in the world, +much less one who would traduce me before my death, till Mrs. Gaskell's +"Life of Charlotte" appeared. Every thing in that book which relates to +my conduct to my family is either false or distorted. I never did +commit such acts as are there ascribed to me.' At a later interview Mr. +Brontë explained that by the word 'enemies,' he implied, 'false +informants and hostile critics.' He believed that Mrs. Gaskell had +listened to village scandal, and had sought information from some +discarded servant. +</p> + +<p> +Let us then examine the source of these allegations. Mrs. Gaskell +tells us that her informant was 'a good old woman,' who had been +Mrs. Brontë's nurse in her illness. Now it is known that, whatever +good qualities this person may be supposed to have had, her +conscientiousness and rectitude, at least, were not of the first order, +and she was detected in proceedings which caused Mr. Brontë to dismiss +her at once. With the double effect of explaining her dismissal and +injuring Mr. Brontë, this person gave an account of his temper and +conduct, embellished with the stories which I have quoted from the +first edition of the 'Life of Charlotte,' to a minister of the place; +and it was in this way that Mrs. Gaskell became acquainted with her and +them. Nancy Garrs, a faithful young woman who had been in Mr. Brontë's +service at Thornton, who continued with the family after the removal to +Haworth, and who still survives—a widow, Mrs. Wainwright—at an +advanced age, a well-known inhabitant of Bradford, informs me that the +'silk dress' which Mr. Brontë is said to have torn to shreds was a +print dress, not new, and that Mr. Brontë, disliking its enormous +sleeves, one day, finding the opportunity, cut them off. The whole +thing was a joke, which Mrs. Brontë at once guessed at, and, going +upstairs, she brought the dress down, saying to Nancy, 'Look what he +has done; that falls to your share.' Nancy declares the other stories +to be wholly unfounded. She speaks of Mr. Brontë as a 'most +affectionate husband; there never was a more affectionate father, never +a kinder master;' and 'he was not of a violent temper at all; quite the +reverse.' +</p> + +<p> +This view of these slanderous stories is fortunately also confirmed out +of the mouth of Charlotte Brontë. In the fourth chapter of 'Shirley,' +speaking of Mr. Helstone—whose character, though not absolutely +founded on that of her father, is yet unquestionably influenced by her +knowledge of his disposition, and of some incidents in which he had +been concerned,—she says that on the death of his wife, 'his dry-eyed +and sober mourning scandalized an old housekeeper, and likewise a +female attendant who had waited upon Mrs. Helstone in her sickness … +they gossiped together over the corpse, related anecdotes with +embellishments of her lingering decline, and its real or supposed +cause; in short, they worked each other up to some indignation against +the austere little man, who sat examining papers in an adjoining room, +unconscious of what opprobrium he was the object. Mrs. Helstone was +hardly under the sod when rumours began to be rife in the neighbourhood +that she had died of a broken heart; these magnified quickly into +reports of hard usage, and, finally, details of harsh treatment on the +part of her husband: reports grossly untrue, but not less eagerly +received on that account.' It will thus be seen that the character of +Mr. Helstone becomes in part a defence of Mr. Brontë. On the occasion +above referred to, Mr. Brontë went on to say that, 'while duly +acknowledging the obligations he felt himself under to Mrs. Gaskell for +her admirable memoir of his daughter, he could not but regard her +uncalled-for allusions to himself, and the failings of his son +Branwell, as the excrescences of a work otherwise ably carried out.' He +appeared, on this occasion, to be consoled by the thought that, owing +to the remonstrances he had made, the objectionable passages would be +expunged from the subsequent editions of the work, and that he would +ultimately be set right with the public. He concluded with these +words:—'I have long been an abstraction to the world, and it is not +consoling now to be thus dragged before the public; to be represented +as an unkind husband, and charged with acts which I never committed.' +</p> + +<p> +The story of the pistol-shots admits of ready explanation. It is known +that Mr. Brontë, like Helstone, had a strange fascination in military +affairs, and he seems to have had almost the spirit of Uncle Toby. He +lived, too, in the troublous times of the Luddites, and had kept +pistols, for defence as Mr. Helstone did. That gentleman, it will be +remembered, had two pairs suspended over the mantel-piece of his study, +in cloth cases, kept loaded. As I have reason to know, Mr. Brontë, +having been accustomed to the use of fire-arms, retained the possession +of them for safety in the night; but, fearing they might become +dangerous, occasionally discharged them in the day-time. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Brontë's remonstrances and denials, and his refutation of the +scandals attributed to him, had their effect; and the charges +complained of were entirely omitted in the edition of the 'Life of +Charlotte,' published in the year 1860. Mr. Brontë was in his +eighty-fourth year when this tardy act of bare justice was done to him. +It may be added that the people of Haworth, when they saw in print Mrs. +Gaskell's exaggerated and erroneous statements, loudly expressed their +disapprobation. Mr. Wood, late churchwarden of Haworth, also denied the +stories of the cutting up of Mrs. Brontë's dress, and the other charges +just referred to. +</p> + +<p> +The truth about Mr. Brontë appears to be this: that though, like Mr. +Helstone—many of the <i>traits</i> of whose character were derived +from that of the incumbent of Haworth—he might have missed his +vocation, like him he was 'not diabolical at all,' and that, like him, +also, 'he was a conscientious, hard-headed, hard-handed, brave, stern, +implacable, faithful little man: a man almost without sympathy, +ungentle, prejudiced, and rigid: but a man true to principle—honourable, +sagacious, and sincere.' Possibly we should not be wholly mistaken in +saying that, like the parson in 'Shirley,' Nature never intended him +'to make a very good husband, especially to a quiet wife.' He lacked +the fine sympathy and delicate perception that would have enabled +him to make his family entirely happy; and when brooding over his +politics, his pamphlets, and his sermons, like Mr. Helstone, he +probably locked 'his liveliness in his book-case and study-desk.' +Yet Mr. Helstone is neither brutal nor insane, 'neither tyrannical +nor hypocritical,' but 'simply a man who is rather liberal than +good-natured, rather brilliant than genial, rather scrupulously +equitable than truly just—if you can understand such superfine +distinctions?' +</p> + +<p> +It would not have been necessary, in this work, to defend at such +length the character of the Rev. Patrick Brontë, had it not happened, +unfortunately, that recent works, which have treated admirably of the +writings of his daughters, have also acquiesced in, and to a great +extent reiterated, the serious charges made against him. Moreover, it +can never be a useless thing to retrieve a character which has been +thoughtlessly taken away. This defence has now been made, and it may be +hoped that the 'six motherless children' had a more amiable and +affectionate father than is generally supposed, and that he paid +careful and anxious attention to their bringing-up and to their +education. Indeed, of this there need be no doubt. The death of his +wife had placed them in his hands, he being their only support on +earth, and it surely is not too much to say that he knew his duty, and +did it well, as the lives of his children prove, on the ground of +natural affection, and, perhaps, of higher motives also. +</p> + +<p> +The following extract from a letter written by Mr. Brontë a few +years later, in reference to scientific knowledge, is sufficiently +characteristic. He says: 'In this age of innovation and scepticism, it +is the incumbent duty of every man of an enlarged and pious mind to +promote, to the utmost extent of his abilities, every movement in the +variegated, complex system of human affairs, which may have either a +direct, indirect, or collateral tendency to purify and expand the +naturally polluted and circumscribed mind of fallen nature, and to +raise it to that elevation which the Scriptures require, as well as the +best interests of humanity.' +</p> + +<p> +Upon the death of his wife, Mr. Brontë felt the need of some one to +superintend the affairs of his household, and assist him in this +important charge of the bringing-up of his children; and so, towards +the end of the year 1822, an elder sister of the deceased lady, Miss +Elizabeth Branwell of Penzance, came to reside with him. She is +represented to have been, in personal appearance, of low and slight +proportions; prim and starched in her attire, which was, when prepared +for the reception of visitors, invariably of silk; and she wore, +according to the fashion of the time, a frontal of auburn curls, +gracefully overshadowing her forehead. She took occasionally, through +habit, a pinch from her gold snuff-box, which she had always at hand. +When she had taken up her residence at bleak, wild, and barren Haworth, +she is said to have sighed for the flower-decked meads of sunny +Penzance, her native place. Miss Branwell's affectionate regard for her +dead sister's children caused her to take deep interest in everything +relating to them, their health, the comfort and cleanliness of their +home, and the sedulous culture of their minds. In the management of +Mr. Brontë's household she was materially assisted by the faithful and +trustworthy Tabby, who, in 1825, was added to the family as a domestic +servant. By a long and faithful service of some thirty years in the +Brontë family, Tabby gained the respect and confidence of the +household. She had been born and nurtured in the chapelry of Haworth, +at a time when mills and machinery were not, when railways had not made +the inhabitants of the hills and valleys familiar with the cities and +towns of England; and, moreover, before the ancient dialect, so +interesting philologically to the readers of King Alfred's translations +of Orosius and Bede, and the like, came to be considered rude, vulgar, +and barbarous. Tabby used the dialect rightly, without any attempt to +improve on the language of her childhood and of her fathers; and she +was original and truthful in this, as in all her ways. It was from +Tabby, principally, that the youthful Brontës gained the familiarity +with the Yorkshire Doric, which they afterwards reproduced with such +accuracy in 'Shirley,' 'Wuthering Heights,' and others of their +writings. +</p> + +<a name="IV"> </a> +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER IV. +</p> + +<p class="head"> +THE GIRLHOOD OF THE BRONTË SISTERS. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +Girlhood‌—‌Gravity of Character‌—‌Charlotte's Description of the Elf-land +of Childhood‌—‌The Still and Solemn Moors of Haworth influence their +Writings‌—‌The Present of Toys‌—‌The Plays which they Acted‌—‌Mr. +Brontë on a Supposed Earthquake‌—‌The Evidence of his Care for his +Children‌—‌Grammar School at Haworth‌—‌His Children under the Tuition +of the Master‌—‌The Character of the School‌—‌Cowan Bridge School‌—‌ +Charlotte's View of Mr. Carus Wilson's Management‌—‌Deaths of +Maria and Elizabeth. +</p> + + +<p> +The childhood of the Brontës in the parsonage of Haworth has been +pictured to us as a very strange one indeed. We have seen them deprived +in their early youth of that maternal care which they required so much, +and left in the hands of a father unfamiliar with such a charge, who +was filled with Spartan ideas of discipline, and with theories of +education above and beyond the capacity of childhood. There was +probably little room in the house of Mr. Brontë for gaiety and +amusement, very little tolerance for pretty dress, or home beauty, and +small comprehension of childish needs. Rigid formality, silent +chambers, staid attire, frugal fare, and secluded lives fell to the lot +of these thoughtful and gifted children. It was no wonder that they +grew up 'grave and silent beyond their years;' that, when infantine +relaxation failed them, they betook themselves to reading newspapers, +and debating the merits of Hannibal and Cæsar, of Buonaparte and +Wellington; or that, when they were deprived of the company of the +village children by the '<i>Quis ego et quis tu?</i>' which was forced +too early upon them, they fled for silent companionship with the moors. +Yet this childhood, stern and grim though it was, where we look in vain +for the beautiful simplicity and sunny gladness which should ever +distinguish the features of youth, had a beauty and a joy of its own; +and it had a merit also. Charlotte Brontë herself has left us one of +the most beautiful pictures which can be found in English literature of +the pleasures of childhood, that elf-land which is passed before the +shores of Reality have arisen in front; when they stand afar off, so +blue, soft, and gentle that we long to reach them; when we 'catch +glimpses of silver lines, and imagine the roll of living waters,' +heedless of 'many a wilderness, and often of the flood of Death, or +some stream of sorrow as cold and almost as black as Death' that must +be crossed ere true bliss can be tasted. So the Brontës, trooping +abroad on the moors, revelling in the freedom of Nature, while their +faculties expanded to the noblest ends, lived also in the heroic world +of childhood, 'its inhabitants half-divine or semi-demon; its scenes +dream-scenes; darker woods and stranger hills; brighter skies, more +dangerous waters; sweeter flowers, more tempting fruits; wider plains; +drearier deserts; sunnier fields than are found in Nature.' Can we +doubt that the Brontë children, endowed, as the world was afterwards to +know, with keener perceptions, more exalted sympathies, and nobler +gifts than other children, enjoyed these things more than others could? +And the merit of their childhood was this: that it impressed them in +the strongest form with the influence of locality, with the boundless +expanse of the moors, and with the weird and rugged character of the +people amongst whom they lived, and whom they afterwards drew so well. +Such influences as these are a quality more or less traceable in the +works of every author, but they are very apparent in the productions of +the Brontës. These writers could not have produced 'Jane Eyre,' +'Shirley,' and 'Wuthering Heights' without them, any more than +Goldsmith could have written his 'Vicar of Wakefield' if his early +years had not been passed in the pleasant village of Lissey. The moors, +clothed with purple heather and golden gorse in billowy waves, were +certainly all in all to Emily Brontë; and she and her sisters, and the +youthful Branwell with his ready admiration and brilliant fancy, +escorted by Tabby, enjoyed to the full the free atmosphere of the +heights around Haworth. The rushing sound of their own waterfall, and +the shrill cries of the grouse, which flew up as they came along, were +to them friendly voices of the opening life of Nature whose potent +influence inspired them so well. +</p> + +<p> +Of other companionship in their early years they had hardly any; and +being unable to associate much with children of their own age and +condition, or to play with their young and immediate neighbours in +childish games, Mr. Brontë's son and daughters grew up amongst their +elders with heads older than their years, and spoke with a knowledge +that might have sprung from actual experience of men and manners. They +were, in fact, 'old-fashioned children.' Their extraordinary cleverness +was soon observed, and the servants were always on their guard lest any +of their remarks might be repeated by the children. Notwithstanding +this, the little Brontës were children still, and took pleasure in the +things of childhood. Up-grown men will not whip a top on the causeways, +nor trundle a hoop through the streets, nor play at 'hide-and-seek' at +dusk as of yore; but the Brontë children in their youthful days did all +these things, and they entered at times with ardour, despite their +precocious gravity, into the simple joys and amusements of childhood, +as is testified by the eager delight with which they regarded the +presents of the toys they received. +</p> + +<p> +The earliest notice we have of Branwell Brontë is that Charlotte +remembered having seen her mother playing with him during one golden +sunset in the parlour of the parsonage at Haworth. Later, we are +informed that Mr. Brontë brought from Leeds on one occasion a box of +wooden soldiers for him. The children were in bed, but the 'next +morning,' says Charlotte, in one of her juvenile manuscripts, '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."' So Charlotte relates these glad incidents of their +childhood with pleasure, and places on record the joy they inspired. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Brontë says, 'When mere children, as soon as they could read and +write, Charlotte and her brother 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 infrequently arise amongst them regarding the comparative merits of +Buonaparte, Hannibal, and Cæsar.' +</p> + +<p> +In acting their early plays, they performed them with childish glee, +and did not fail at times to 'tear a passion to tatters.' They observed +that Tabby did not approve of such extraordinary proceedings; but on +one occasion, with increased energy of action and voice, they so +wrought on her fears that she retreated to her nephew's house, and, as +soon as she could regain her breath, she exclaimed, 'William! yah mun +gooa up to Mr. Brontë's, for aw'm sure yon childer's all gooin mad, and +aw darn't stop 'ith hause ony longer wi' 'em; an' aw'll stay here woll +yah come back!' When the nephew reached the parsonage, 'the childer set +up a great crack o' laughin',' at the wonderful joke they had +perpetrated on faithful Tabby. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Brontë—like other parents and friends of precocious and gifted +children, who, in after-life have become celebrated in religion, art, +poetry, literature, politics, or war, and who have given out in +childhood tokens of brilliant and sterling gifts which have been +recorded in their biographies—saw in his own children evidences of +that mental power, fervid imagination, and superior faculty of language +and expression, which were developed in them in after-years. He often +fancied that great powers lay in his children, and it cannot be doubted +that he sometimes looked forward to and hoped for a brilliant future +for his offspring. It was this hope that cheered him, and he gave to +Mrs. Gaskell, for publication, all the evidences of genius in his son +and daughters, as children, which he could remember. But, from the +information he imparted to that writer, we can scarcely gather, I fear, +sufficient to justify the inference he drew, or appears to have drawn, +for the particulars given border too much on the trivial and +unimportant. Perhaps Mr. Brontë failed to remember the special +evidences he had observed of what he intended to convey at the actual +moment of communication. Be this as it may, no doubt remained on his +mind that genius was apparent in his children above and apart from +their eager reading of magazines and newspapers, nor that other schemes +and objects occupied their thoughts than the interests and contentions +of the political parties of the hour. +</p> + +<p> +'When my children were very young,' says Mr. Brontë,—'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."' In answer to a question as to which were the two best books, +Charlotte said that 'the Bible,' and after it the 'Book of Nature,' +were the best. Mr. Brontë then asked the next daughter, 'What is the +best mode of education for a woman;' she answered, 'That which would +make her rule her house well.' He then asked the eldest, Maria, 'What +is the best mode of spending time;' she answered, 'By laying it out in +preparation for a happy eternity.' He says he may not have given the +exact words, but they were nearly so, and they had made a lasting +impression on his memory.<a href="#note7" name="noteref7"> +<small>[7]</small></a> +</p> + +<p> +But the intellectual pabulum of Mr. Brontë's children, for some time, +consisted, for the most part, as we are told, of magazines and +newspapers. As these took the place of toy-books and fairy tales, their +young minds were attracted by such moral subjects and entertaining +stories as were treated of in the serials of the day; and their +attention was also largely engaged in the political questions which +were then debated in the Houses of Parliament. Imbibing from their +father their religious and political views and opinions, they became +strong partizans and supporters of the leading Conservatives in the +House of Lords and the House of Commons. They had often heard +conversations between their father and aunt on these subjects; they +listened with interested attention, and obtained information as to the +outer world and its pursuits. By their surroundings their minds were +soon raised above the thoughts, desires, and interests of childhood in +general; and, under the circumstances, though it may seem odd, it is +not extraordinary that wooden soldiers should thus be made, by these +talented children, to represent the two great opposing warriors of the +present age. +</p> + +<p> +In addition to the general bringing-up of his children at home, and the +formal tasks which Mr. Brontë set them, magazines and other +publications were thrown about, and Maria, being the eldest, was wont +to read the newspapers when she was less than nine years old, and +reported matters of home and foreign interest, as well as those +relating to the public characters and current affairs of the day, to +her young brother and sisters. Indeed, so earnest was her relevancy on +such occasions in these unchildish and grave questions, that she could +talk upon them with discriminating intelligence to her father, whose +interest in his children thus grew, as their faculties expanded. The +young Brontës, though still in childhood's years, were soon no longer +children in intellect: they touched, in fact, the 'Shores of Reality' +at an earlier age than most children; and, though interested sometimes, +perhaps momentarily, in trivial matters, they seem to have turned +almost everything to literary account. Even Branwell's toys, which they +all received so gleefully, gave rise to the 'Young Men's Play.' +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Brontë, though interested deeply in the gradual development of the +mental gifts of his children, did not fail, after his wife's death, to +promote and protect their health, and he availed himself of the means +which the chapelry of Haworth afforded. For this object he encouraged +recreation on the moors at suitable times, and subjected the young +members of his family to the pure and exhilarating breeze that, +redolent of heather, breathed over them from the sea, during the summer +and autumnal months. +</p> + +<p> +On Tuesday, September the 2nd, 1824, a severe thunderstorm, and an +almost unprecedented downfall of rain which resembled, in volume, a +waterspout, caused the irruption of an immense bog, at Crow Hill, an +elevation, between Keighley and Colne, and about one thousand feet +above the sea-level. The mud, mingled with stones, many of large size, +rolled down a precipitous and rugged clough that descended from it. +Reaching the hamlet of Pondens, the torrent expanded and overspread the +corn-fields adjoining to the depth of several feet, with many other +devastating consequences. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Brontë regarded this as the effect of an earthquake, and he sent a +communication to the 'Leeds Mercury,' in which he says: 'At the time of +the irruption, the clouds were copper-coloured, gloomy, and lowering, +the atmosphere was strongly electrified, and unusually close.' In the +same month—on Sunday, September 12th, 1824—he preached a sermon on +the subject, in Haworth Church, in which he informed his hearers that, +the day of disaster being exceedingly fine, he had sent his little +children, who were indisposed, accompanied by the servants, to take an +airing on the common, and, as they stayed rather longer than he +expected, he went to an upper chamber to look out for their return. The +heavens over the moors were blackening fast; he heard the muttering of +distant thunder, and saw the frequent flashes of lightning. Though, ten +minutes before, there was scarcely a breath of air stirring, the gale +freshened rapidly and carried along with it clouds of dust and stubble. +'My little family,' he continued, 'had escaped to a place of shelter, +but I did not know it.' These were Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and +Anne. Their sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, were then at Cowan Bridge. +</p> + +<p> +When Mr. Brontë accepted the living of Haworth, he had found existing +there a Grammar School, and he took in it a special and personal +interest, for it was an old institution, was endowed, and had recently +been renovated. It was his policy to show that he took an interest in +it; so that, by adding his support to that of the trustees, he might +possibly confirm their favourable opinion of him, and secure their +continued good feeling. This was essential at the time, as any +appearance of coldness on his part towards their cherished foundation +would have perhaps evoked a spirit akin to that which caused the +compulsory resignation of Mr. Redhead, or have induced an estrangement +between himself and the trustees. It is stated, with regard to this +Grammar School, that one Christopher Scott by will, dated the 4th of +October, 13th of Charles I., gave a school-house which he had built +adjoining the church-way; and ordained that there should be a +school-master who should be a graduate at least, a bachelor, if not a +master of arts, and who should teach Greek and Latin. The school had +been enlarged in 1818, when the Brontë family were still at Thornton, +and a new house was then erected for the master by the trustees. +</p> + +<p> +As this foundation was designed to provide a classical education for +its students, it was one to which the better classes in the +neighbourhood need not have hesitated to entrust their children for +superior instruction than could possibly be had in the ordinary schools +of the district. The school was situated close to the parsonage, a lane +only intervening, and it was commodious and lightsome. But Mr. Brontë, +on his arrival, found that it had not for some time been maintained as +a regular Grammar School: that there was little or no demand for the +advantages of a classical education for their children among the +inhabitants of the chapelry.<a href="#note8" name="noteref8"> +<small>[8]</small></a> Yet the master who received the +appointment from the trustees at the Midsummer of 1826, although not +even a graduate of either of the universities, was stated to be +competent to teach Latin, and was a man of considerable attainments, +instructing both boys and girls in every essential branch of knowledge. +In this the tutor differed nothing from some of his immediate +predecessors. But, though education of this sort was thus immediately +at hand, Mr. Brontë does not appear to have availed himself of it for +his daughters, or his son Branwell, for any great length of time. Mrs. +Gaskell says, indeed, that their regular tasks were given by himself. +Mr. Brontë, however, probably heard his children repeat early lessons +set by the master in order to ascertain with what facility they had +learned them. At a later date, Branwell and his sisters took a larger +interest in the Grammar School, and they became active and willing +teachers in the Sunday-school, which was connected with it. They were, +indeed, often seen, as is yet remembered, in the processions of the +scholars. +</p> + +<p> +Although Mr. Brontë had taken vigilant and affectionate care to promote +the health of his children, he was well aware that though he could +strengthen their constitutions in some sort, delicate by nature as they +were, he could not ward off with certainty the diseases and sufferings +incident to childhood, from which his children were, indeed, +unfortunately destined to suffer. Solicitude therefore came upon the +parsonage when Maria and Elizabeth were attacked by measles and +whooping-cough. Recovering partially from these attacks, it was thought +desirable to send them—perhaps partly for change of air—to a school +which had somewhat recently been established at Cowan Bridge, a hamlet +on the coach-road between Leeds and Kendal, which was easily reached +from Haworth, as the coach passed daily. This school was especially +established for the board and education of the daughters of such +clegymen of the Establishment as required it. It was begun, as we know +from Mrs. Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte Brontë,' by the Rev. William +Carus Wilson; and we are aware also that severe and unqualified +censures were passed upon its situation and management by the author of +'Jane Eyre,' in after-years, under the description of Lowood, and that +the Ellen Burns of the story was no other than Maria Brontë. Readers of +'Jane Eyre' became indignant, and the Cowan Bridge School was +execrated, denounced, and condemned by the public, to the utter +distress and pain of its founder and patron. +</p> + +<p> +In reference to this affair, Charlotte indeed said to her future +biographer 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 analyzing the conduct of those who had the +superintendence of the institution.' Mrs. Gaskell believes Charlotte +'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.'<a href="#note9" name="noteref9"> +<small>[9]</small></a> +</p> + +<p> +But it is only just to Mr. Wilson to say that the low situation of the +premises fixed upon, the arrangement of the school-buildings, and the +inefficient management of the domestic department, do not appear to +have been so fatal to the boarders, even if we admit all the alleged +severities of the regimen. For, when a low fever, or influenza cold, +which was not regarded by Dr. Batty as 'either alarming or dangerous,' +broke out at the school, and some forty of the pupils fell more or less +under its influence, none died of it at Cowan Bridge, and only one, +Mrs. Gaskell informs us, from after consequences at home; and, though +delicate, the Brontë children entirely escaped the attack. Mrs. Gaskell +has, however, entered at considerable length into a detailed account of +the alleged mismanagement of the school, the severities exercised over +the pupils—especially by one of the responsible tutors, 'Miss +Scatcherd,'—the cooking and insufficiency of food, the general neglect +of sanitary regulations in the domestic department, and the utter +unfitness of the place itself for the continued health and comfort of +the inmates. But the biographer of Charlotte Brontë in after-years +considerably modified the severe strictures which her heroine had +thought fit to describe in 'Jane Eyre,'—an admirable work of fiction, +though not necessarily one of fact—and she says, speaking of +Charlotte's account of the Cowan Bridge School: '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 the 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 and conscientious.' It appears also that Mr. Wilson +had 'grand and fine qualities'—which were left unnoticed by +Charlotte—of which the biographer had received 'abundant evidence.'<a href="#note10" name="noteref10"> +<small>[10]</small></a> +Of these Mr. Brontë seems to have been aware, as Charlotte and Emily +were sent back to Cowan Bridge after the deaths of Maria and Elizabeth. +Mrs. Gaskell wonders Charlotte did not remonstrate against her father's +decision to send her and Emily back to the place, knowing, as we may +suppose she did, of the alleged infliction which her dead sisters had +endured at the very school to which she and Emily were returning. +Surely such a very miserable state of things as is described in 'Jane +Eyre' could not have existed at the time to impress on Charlotte's mind +such a dread as we are asked to believe she had, and Mr. Brontë could +not be aware that any serious objections to the school existed. Indeed, +the true condition of the institution at the period is apparent from +the testimony of the noble and benevolent Miss Temple of 'Jane Eyre,' +whose husband thus writes: '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.' +</p> + +<p> +While at Cowan Bridge, Maria's health had suddenly given way, and +alarming symptoms declared themselves. Mr. Brontë was sent for. He had +known nothing of her illness, and was terribly shocked when he saw her. +He ascended the Leeds coach with his dying child. Mrs. Gaskell says, +'the girls crowded out into the road to follow her with their eyes, +over the bridge, past the cottages, and then out of sight for ever.' +</p> + +<p> +The poignancy of Mr. Brontë's grief on this occasion was profound, and +all but insupportable. Here was his first-born, the early joy of his +home at Hartshead, the intelligent and brilliantly gifted companion of +the first few years of his widowed life—dying before him! She, whose +innocent and thoughtful converse had cheered his solitary moments, and +whose merry laugh had often made the hearth glad, whose affectionate +care of her little brother and sisters, disinterested as it was +incessant, supplied for them the offices of their deceased mother—was +fading from his sight! Arriving at Haworth, they were received with +sincere and tearful sympathy by Miss Branwell, and with childish alarm +and dread by Branwell and Anne. Every care which affection could +provide was bestowed on the sinking child, but she died, a few days +after her arrival, on May 6, 1825. +</p> + +<p> +Elizabeth, too, struck down with the same fatal disease, came home to +die of consumption on June 15 in the same year, but a month and a few +days after her sister. These sorrowful events were never forgotten by +Branwell, and the impressions made upon his mind by the deaths and +funeral rites he had witnessed became the theme of some of his later +and more mournful effusions. +</p> + +<p> +The early recollection of Maria at Cowan Bridge was that she was +delicate, and unusually clever and thoughtful for her age. Of Elizabeth +Miss Temple writes: '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…. 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.' +</p> + +<p> +'This last,' says Mrs. Gaskell, 'would be Emily. Charlotte was +considered the most talkative of the sisters—a "bright, clever little +child."'<a href="#note11" name="noteref11"> +<small>[11]</small></a> +</p> + +<a name="V"> </a> +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER V. +</p> + +<p class="head"> +BRANWELL'S BOYHOOD. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +Reunion of the Brontë Family‌—‌Branwell is the supposed Prototype +of Victor Crimsworth‌—‌That Character not a complete Portrait of +Branwell‌—‌His Friendships‌—‌His Visit to the Keighley Feast‌—‌Its Effect +on Branwell's Nerves‌—‌The Wrestle‌—‌The Lost Spectacles‌—‌Fear of his +Father's Displeasure‌—‌Mrs. Gaskell's Story of the 'Black Bull' Incident +Questioned‌—‌Miss Branwell and her Nephew. +</p> + + +<p> +Upon the return of Charlotte and Emily from Cowan Bridge, the youthful +Brontës, whom death had spared, were united again; and, for some years +more, followed their pursuits together, until Charlotte went to school +at Roe Head in 1831. Branwell was the constant companion of his sisters +during these childish years, and they all looked upon him with pride +and affection. Charlotte, in those days, was a sympathetic friend to +him; and, in his later years, he felt it a source of deep regret that +she was somewhat estranged. But the gentle Emily—after the death of +Maria—was his chief companion, and a warm affection never lost its +ardour between them. The sisters were quick to perceive the Promethean +spark that burned in their brother, and they looked upon Branwell, as +indeed did all who knew him, as their own superior in mental gifts. In +his childhood even, Branwell Brontë showed great aptitude for acquiring +knowledge, and his perceptive powers were very marked. He was, too, +gifted with a sprightly disposition, tinged at times with great +melancholy, but he acquired early a lively and fascinating address. +There was a fiery ardour and eagerness in his manner which told of +his abundant animal spirits, and he entered with avidity into the +enjoyments of the life that lay before him. Charlotte, who knew well +the treasures of her brother's opening faculties, his ability, his +learning, and his affection, saw also many things that alarmed her in +his disposition. She saw the abnormal and unhealthy flashing of his +intellect, and marked that weakness and want of self-control which left +Branwell, when subjected to temptation, a prey to many destructive +influences, whose effect shall hereafter be traced. There is reason to +believe that Charlotte pictures this period of Branwell's life in 'The +Professor,' where she describes the childhood of Victor Crimsworth; +and, though the extract is rather long, it is given here as valuable, +because it furnishes a full record of the early powers of Branwell, +and of the manner in which his sister—by the light of subsequent +events—looked upon them and upon his failings, and it will be seen +that towards the latter she is somewhat inflexible. +</p> + +<p> +'Victor,' she makes William Crimsworth say, 'is as little of a pretty +child as I am of a handsome man … he is pale and spare, with large +eyes…. His shape is symmetrical enough, but slight…. I never saw a +child smile less than he does, nor one who knits such a formidable brow +when sitting over a book that interests him, or while listening to +tales of adventure, peril, or wonder…. But, though still, he is not +unhappy—though serious, not morose; he has a susceptibility to +pleasurable sensations almost too keen, for it amounts to enthusiasm…. +When he could read, he became a glutton of books, and is so still. His +toys have been few, and he has never wanted more. For those he +possesses he seems to have contracted a partiality amounting to +affection; this feeling, directed towards one or two living animals of +the house, strengthens almost to a passion…. I saw in the soil of his +heart healthy and swelling germs of compassion, affection, fidelity. I +discovered in the garden of his intellect a rich growth of wholesome +principles—reason, justice, moral courage, promised, if not blighted, +a fertile bearing…. She (his mother) sees, as I also see, a something +in Victor's temper—a kind of electrical ardour and power—which emits, +now and then, ominous sparks; Hunsden calls it his spirit, and says it +should not be curbed. I call it the leaven of the offending Adam, and +consider that it should be, if not <i>whipped</i> out of him, at least +soundly disciplined; and that he will be cheap of any amount of either +bodily or mental suffering which will ground him radically in the art +of self-control. Frances (his mother) gives this <i>something</i> in +her son's marked character no name; but when it appears in the grinding +of his teeth, in the glittering of his eye, in the fierce revolt of +feeling against disappointment, mischance, sudden sorrow, or supposed +injustice, she folds him to her breast, or takes him to walk with her +alone in the wood; then she reasons with him like any philosopher, and +to reason Victor is ever accessible; then she looks at him with eyes of +love, and by love Victor can be infallibly subjugated. But will reason +or love be the weapons with which in future the world will meet his +violence? Oh, no! for that flash in his black eye—for that cloud on +his bony brow—for that compression of his statuesque lips, the lad +will some day get blows instead of blandishments, kicks instead of +kisses; then for the fit of mute fury which will sicken the body and +madden his soul; then for the ordeal of merited and salutary suffering +out of which he will come (I trust) a wiser and a better man.' +</p> + +<p> +The natural adornments and defects of Branwell's mind in boyhood, +which may to some extent be traced in Charlotte's picture of Victor +Crimsworth, in 'The Professor,' must not be regarded otherwise than as +possessing a general resemblance to those which are found in that +character. Physically, Branwell and Crimsworth were dissimilar, though +mentally there is a portraiture; but even here, Charlotte, having him +in her mind when she sketched the character of Victor, exaggerated +therein, as she had done in other instances, the actual defects of her +brother. It is true, nevertheless, that those who knew Branwell Brontë +in early life could see in him the original of Victor Crimsworth. +</p> + +<p> +In the following pages the greatness of Branwell's genius may be +observed,—great, though marred by the errors and misfortunes of his +life,—as well as by the sorrows which his impulsive, kindly, and +affectionate nature brought upon himself, sorrows thus sadly set forth +by his sister as the outcome of his passions, and described by her as +the penalty of his future years. +</p> + +<p> +In Branwell Brontë, the 'leaven of the offending Adam' might now and +then certainly be observed, but it was largely modified by the +ameliorating influences of his home; and, although, from the failings +common to humanity, the children of Mr. Brontë could not be free, his +early waywardness and petulance were, by the influence of sex, more +forcibly expressed than such failings could be in his sisters. Between +the children of Mr. Brontë, however, there existed even more than the +ordinary affections of childhood. At this period of their lives, they +were ignorant of the wiles of corrupt human nature, and Branwell, with +all the lightsome exuberance of his boyhood, returned without stint the +ardent and deep affection of his sisters. But, when a few years had +rolled on, he awoke to the sunny morning of youth; and, in the absence +of a brother, sought companionship with certain youths of Haworth, and +made them playmates. Amongst them was one, the brother of some friends +of his sisters, who became to him a personal associate, and it was with +this companion that he was wont to sport on the moors, across the +meadows, and, with joyous laugh, along the streets of the village. +</p> + +<p> +The survivor of these two friends gives me an incident that occurred at +the time of the annual Feast at Keighley, which the youths visited. The +town was, as is usual on such occasions, crowded with booths and shows, +and various places of entertainment. Players and riders,—men and +women,—clothed in gay raiments, rendered brilliant with spangles, +paced backwards and forwards along their platforms to the sound of +drums, organs, and Pandean pipes, cymbals, tambourines, and castanets. +There were stalls, too, weighted with nuts and various confectionaries, +and there were also rocking-boats and merry-go-rounds, with other +amusements. +</p> + +<p> +As the evening advanced, and the shows were lighted up, Branwell's +excitement, hilarity, and extravagance knew no bounds: he would see +everything and try everything. Into a rocking-boat he and his friend +gaily stepped. The rise of the boat, when it reached its full height, +gave Branwell a pleasant view of the fair beneath; but, when it +descended, he screamed out at the top of his voice, 'Oh! my nerves! my +nerves! Oh! my nerves!' On each descent, every nerve thrilled, tingled, +and vibrated with overwhelming effect through the overwrought and +delicate frame of the boy. Leaving the fair, the two proceeded +homeward; and, reaching a country spot, near a cottage standing among a +thicket of trees, Branwell, still full of exuberant life, proposed a +wrestle with his companion. They engaged in a struggle, when Branwell +was overthrown. It was not until reaching the village, and seeing the +lights in the windows, with considerably enlarged rays, that he became +aware he had lost his spectacles,—for Branwell was, like his sister +Charlotte, very near-sighted. This was, indeed, no little trouble to +him, as he was in great fear lest his father should notice his being +without them, and institute unpleasant inquiries as to what had become +of them. He told his fears to his companion; but, after a sleepless +night for both, Branwell's friend was early on the spot in search of +the missing spectacles, when the woman living in the cottage close by, +seeing a youth looking about, came to him, and, learning for what he +sought, brought out the glasses which she had picked up from the ground +just before he came. M——, glad of the discovery, hastened to the +parsonage, which he reached to find Branwell astir, who was overjoyed +on receiving the missing spectacles, as the danger of his father's +displeasure was avoided. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Gaskell has written an account of the brother of the Brontë +sisters, but from what source I am unable to ascertain. After giving +him credit for those abilities in his boyhood of which evidence is +given in these pages, she says that: '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 to 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.' This account of the landlord being accustomed to send to the +parsonage for Branwell to come down to the 'Bull' at Haworth on these +occasions is denied by those who knew Branwell at the time, as well as +by the landlord. The latter always said that he never ventured to do +anything of the kind. It would have been a vulgar liberty, and an +unpardonable offence to the inmates of the parsonage had he done so. +Besides, the message would, in all probability, have been delivered to +a servant, or perhaps to Mr. Brontë himself, or to one of his +daughters, and Branwell would have been forbidden, for the credit of +the family, to lend himself for such a purpose at the public-house +below. +</p> + +<p> +Branwell in these early days was not only the beloved of the household, +but the special favourite of his aunt. This good lady was proud of her +family and name, a name which her nephew bore to her infinite +satisfaction, so that his sometimes rough and noisy merriment made his +aunt glad, rather than grieved, because it was the true indication of +health of mind and body. She easily pardoned his boyish defects: and at +times, as she parted his auburn hair, she looked in his face with +fondness and affection, giving him moral advice, consistent with his +age, and showing him how, by sedulously cultivating the abilities with +which God had blessed him, he would attain an excellent position in the +world. It was this gentle and disinterested guide that Providence had +placed in the stead of his mother, to impart to her son the good maxims +she would herself have given him. +</p> + +<a name="VI"> </a> +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER VI. +</p> + +<p class="head"> +THE LITERARY TASTES OF THE CHILDREN. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +The youthful Compositions of the Brontës‌—‌Their Character‌—‌Branwell's +Share in them‌—‌'The Secret,' a Fragment‌—‌The Reading of the Brontë +Children‌—‌Branwell's Character at this Period. +</p> + + +<p> +Mr. Brontë, perhaps, made use of a slight hyperbole when he said that, +as soon as they could read and write, Charlotte and her brother and +sisters used to invent and act little plays of their own; but it is +certain that, at an early period of their lives, they took pleasure and +pride in seeing their thoughts put down in the manifest form of written +words. Charlotte, indeed, gives a list of the juvenile works she had +composed. They filled twenty-two volumes, and consisted of Tales, +Adventures, Lives, Meditations, Stories, Poems, Songs, &c. Without +repeating all the titles which Mrs. Gaskell and others have published, +it may be said that the productions manifested extraordinary ability +and industry. Branwell, Emily, and Anne partook of the same spirit, and +displayed similar energy according to the leisure they could command. +</p> + +<p> +Before Charlotte went to Roe Head, in January, 1831, Branwell worked +with his sisters in producing their monthly magazine, with its youthful +stories.<a href="#note12" name="noteref12"> +<small>[12]</small></a> Mrs. Gaskell has quoted Charlotte's introduction to the +'Tales of the Islanders,' one of these 'Little Magazines,' dated June, +1829, from which it appears that a remark of Branwell's led to the +composition of the play of that name, and that he chose the Isle of Man +as his territory, and named John Bull, Astley Cooper, and Leigh Hunt +as the chief men in it. Charlotte gives the dates of most of their +productions. She says: '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 +"Æsop's Fables;" and the "Islanders" from several events which +happened.'<a href="#note13" name="noteref13"> +<small>[13]</small></a> +</p> + +<p> +It would be difficult to arrive at a correct understanding of the +literary value of these productions of the youthful Brontës, but it +would be interesting to know what kind of assistance Branwell was able +to give in the work, as well as what was the general merit of these +early compositions. Mrs. Gaskell makes some mention of Branwell's +literary abilities in his youth. It is certain, from all we know, that +his mind was as much occupied in these matters as his sisters', and +that his ambition corresponded with theirs. It has, indeed, been placed +on record by Mrs. Gaskell that he was associated with his sisters in +the compilation of their youthful writings. This author says, also, +that their youthful occupations were 'mostly of a sedentary and +intellectual nature.'<a href="#note14" name="noteref14"> +<small>[14]</small></a> +</p> + +<p> +Among the youthful stories of which Charlotte, as has been already +mentioned, wrote a catalogue or list, there was one, of which Mrs. +Gaskell has published a fragment in fac-simile, written in a small, +elaborate, and cramped hand—so small, indeed, as to be of little use +to the general reader. In the 'Life of Charlotte Brontë,' this was +inserted as a specimen of the hand-writing. It shows truly the literary +ability, dramatic skill, and force of imagination of the children at +the period of their lives of which I speak, and affords an interesting +specimen of the character of these early works. A few extracts from it +may be given here:— +</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p class="ctr"> +THE SECRET. +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +CHAPTER I. +</p> + +<p> +A dead silence had reigned in the Home Office of Verdopolis for +three hours in the morning of a fine summer's day, interrupted only +by such sounds as the scraping of a pen-knife, the dropping of a +ruler, or an occasional cough; or whispered now and then some brief +mandate, uttered by the noble first secretary, in his commanding +tones. At length that sublime personage, after completing some +score or so of despatches, addressing a small slightly-built young +gentleman who occupied the chief situation among the clerks, said: +</p> + +<p> +'Mr. Rymer, will you be good enough to tell me what o'clock it is?' +</p> + +<p> +'Certainly, my lord!' was the prompt reply as, springing from his +seat, the ready underling, instead of consulting his watch like +other people, hastened to the window in order to mark the sun's +situation; having made his observation, he answered: ''Tis twelve +precisely, my lord.' +</p> + +<p> +'Very well,' said the marquis. 'You may all give up then, and see +that all your desks are locked, so that not a scrap of paper is +left to litter the office. Mr. Rymer, I shall expect you to take +care that my directions are fulfilled.' So saying, he assumed his +hat and gloves, and with a stately tread was approaching the +vestibule, when a slight bustle and whispering among the clerks +arrested his steps. +</p> + +<p> +'What is the matter?' asked he, turning round. 'I hope these are +not sounds of contention I hear!' +</p> + +<p> +'I—and—' said a broad, carrotty-locked young man of a most +pugnacious aspect, 'but—but—your lordship has forgotten +that—that——' +</p> + +<p> +'That what?' asked the marquis, rather impatiently. +</p> + +<p> +'Oh!—merely that this afternoon is a half-holiday—and—and——' +</p> + +<p> +'I understand,' replied his superior, smiling, 'you need not tax +your modesty with further explanation, Flanagan; the truth is, I +suppose, you want your usual largess, and I'm obliged to you for +reminding me—will that do?' he continued, as, opening his +pocket-book, he took out a twenty-pound bank bill and laid it on +the nearest desk. +</p> + +<p> +'My lord, you are too generous,' Flanagan answered; but the chief +secretary laughingly laid his gloved hand on his lips, and, with a +condescending nod to the other clerks, sprang down the steps of the +portico and strode hastily away, in order to escape the noisy +expressions of gratitude which now hailed his liberality. +</p> + +<p> +On the opposite side of the busy and wide street to that on which +the splendid Home Office stands, rises the no less splendid +Colonial Office; and, just as Arthur, Marquis of Douro, left the +former structure, Edward Stanley Sydney departed from the latter: +they met in the centre of the street. +</p> + +<p> +'Well, Ned,' said my brother, as they shook hands, 'how are you +to-day? I should think this bright sun and sky ought to enliven +you if anything can.' +</p> + +<p> +'Why, my dear Douro,' replied Mr. Sydney, with a faint smile, 'such +lovely, genial weather may, and I have no doubt does, elevate the +spirits of the free and healthy; but for me, whose mind and body +are a continual prey to all the heaviest cares of public and +private life, it signifies little whether sun cheer or rain damp +the atmosphere.' +</p> + +<p> +'Edward,' replied Arthur, his features at the same time assuming +that disagreeable expression which my landlord denominates by the +term 'scorney;' 'now don't begin to bore me, Ned, with trash of +that description, I'm tired of it quite: pray have you recollected +that to-day is a half-holiday in all departments of the Treasury?' +</p> + +<p> +'Yes; and the circumstance has cost me some money; these silly old +customs ought to be abolished in my opinion—they are ruinous.' +</p> + +<p> +'Why, what have you given the poor fellows?' +</p> + +<p> +'Two sovereigns;' an emphatic hem formed Arthur's reply to the +communication. +</p> + +<p> +They had now entered Nokel Street, and were proceeding in silence +past the line of magnificent shops which it contains, when the +sound of wheels was heard behind them, and a smooth-rolling chariot +dashed up and stopped just where they stood. One of the +window-glasses now fell, a white hand was put out and beckoned them +to draw near, while a silvery voice said, +</p> + +<p> +'Mr. Sydney, Marquis of Douro, come hither a moment.' +</p> + +<p> +Both the gentlemen obeyed the summons, Arthur with alacrity, Sydney +with reluctance. +</p> + +<p> +'What are your commands, fair ladies?' said the former, bowing +respectfully to the inmates of the carriage, who were Lady Julia +Sydney and Lady Maria Sneaky. +</p> + +<p> +'Our commands are principally for your companion, my lord, not for +you,' replied the daughter of Alexander the First; 'now, Mr. +Sydney,' she continued, smiling on the senator, 'you must promise +not to be disobedient.' +</p> + +<p> +'Let me first know what I am required to perform,' was the cautious +answer, accompanied by a fearful glance at the shops around. +</p> + +<p> +'Nothing of much consequence, Edward,' said his wife, 'but I hope +you'll not refuse to oblige me this once, love. I only want a few +guineas to make out the price of a pair of earrings I have just +seen in Mr. Lapis's shop.' +</p> + +<p> +'Not a bit of it,' answered he. 'Not a farthing will I give you: it +is scarce three weeks since you received your quarter's allowance, +and if that is done already you may suffer for it.' +</p> + +<p> +With this decisive reply, he instinctively thrust his hands into +his breeches' pockets, and marched off with a hurried step. +</p> + +<p> +'Stingy little monkey!' exclaimed Lady Julia, sinking back on the +carriage-seat, while the bright flush of anger and disappointment +crimsoned her fair cheek. 'This is the way he always treats me, but +I'll make him suffer for it!' +</p> + +<p> +'Do not discompose yourself so much, my dear,' said her companion, +'my purse is at your service, if you will accept it.' +</p> + +<p> +'I am sensible of your goodness, Maria, but of course I shall not +take advantage of it; no, no, I can do without the earrings—it is +only a fancy, though to be sure I would rather have them.' +</p> + +<p> +'My pretty cousin,' observed the marquis, who, till now, had +remained a quiet though much-amused spectator of the whole scene, +'you are certainly one of the most extravagant young ladies I know: +why, what on earth can you possibly want with these trinkets? To my +knowledge you have at least a dozen different sorts of +ear-ornaments.' +</p> + +<p> +'That is true; but then these are quite of another kind; they are +so pretty and unique that I could not help wishing for them.' +</p> + +<p> +'Well, since your heart is so much set upon the baubles, I will see +whether my purse can compass their price, if you will allow me to +accompany you to Mr. Lapis's.' +</p> + +<p> +'Oh! thank you, Arthur, you are very kind,' said Lady Julia, and +both the ladies quickly made room for him as he sprang in and +seated himself between them. +</p> + +<hr class="short"> + +<p> +In a few minutes they reached the jeweller's shop. Mr. Lapis +received them with an obsequious bow, and proceeded to display his +glittering stores. The pendants which had so fascinated Lady Julia +were in the form of two brilliant little humming-birds, whose +jewelled plumage equalled if not surpassed the bright hues of +nature…. +</p> +</div> + +<p> +This gay and pleasant fragment of a story, in which the characters and +scenes are so freshly drawn, may well be imagined as one of the best, +if not the best, of these productions of the Brontë children. We may, +indeed, regard the spirit and style of these early stories as the +outcome of their eager and observant reading of the magazine and +newspaper articles within their reach—when their plastic minds would +receive indelible impressions, from which they, perhaps without knowing +it, acquired the knowledge and practice of accurate literary +composition, and of how to clothe their thoughts in fitting words. +Their retentive memories, and their intuitive faculty of putting +things, brought them thus early to the threshold of the republic of +letters. Mrs. Gaskell states that these works were principally written +by Charlotte in a hand so small as to be 'almost impossible to decipher +without the aid of a magnifying glass.' The specimen she gives is +written in an upright hand, and was an attempt to represent the stories +in a kind of print, as near as might be to type. If, however, Charlotte +and Emily ever accustomed themselves in these early works to this +diminutive type-like writing, they threw it off completely in +after-years. This, Branwell never did, and Mrs. Gaskell's fac-simile +page is not without some resemblance to one of his ordinary pages of +manuscript reduced in size. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. T. Wemyss Reid observes that Mrs. Gaskell, in speaking of the +juvenile performances of the Brontë children, 'paid exclusive attention +to Charlotte's productions.' 'All readers of the Brontë story,' he +says, 'will remember the account of the play of "The Islanders," and +other remarkable specimens, showing with what real vigour and +originality Charlotte could handle her pen while she was still in the +first years of her teens.' And he adds that 'those few persons who have +seen the whole of the juvenile library of the family bear testimony to +the fact that Branwell and Emily were at least as industrious and +successful as Charlotte herself.'<a href="#note15" name="noteref15"> +<small>[15]</small></a> +</p> + +<p> +Even at this early period the youthful Brontës had read industriously. +'Blackwood's Magazine' had, as early as the year 1829, asserted itself +to Charlotte's childish taste as 'the most able periodical there is,' +and ever afterwards the whole family looked with the greatest pleasure +for the brilliant essays of Christopher North and his coterie. Of other +papers they saw 'John Bull' and the 'Leeds Intelligencer,' both +uncompromising Conservatives, and the 'Leeds Mercury,' of the opposite +party. The youthful Brontës were also readers of the 'British +Essayists,' 'The Rambler,' 'The Mirror,' and 'The Lounger,' and they +were great admirers of Scott. +</p> + +<p> +But the advice which Charlotte afterwards gave to her friend 'E,' with +regard to books for perusal, shows that their reading had been much +wider: Shakespeare, Milton, Thomson, Goldsmith, Pope, Byron, Campbell, +and Wordsworth; Hume, Rollin, and the 'Universal History;' Johnson's +'Poets,' Boswell's 'Johnson,' Southey's 'Nelson,' Lockhart's 'Burns,' +Moore's 'Sheridan,' Moore's 'Byron,' and Wolfe's 'Remains;' and for +natural history, she recommends Bewick, Audubon, White, and, strangely +enough, Goldsmith. Branwell's favourite poets were Wordsworth and the +melancholy Cowper, whose 'Castaway' he was always fond of quoting. The +Brontës, in their young years, obtained much of their intellectual food +from the circulating library at Keighley. +</p> + +<p> +The extraordinary literary activity which prompted these children never +afterwards left them; and Branwell, along with his sisters, was, as we +have seen, the author of many effusions of remarkable character. But, +as time passed on, and experience was gained, his literary productions +began to acquire more vigour and polish. Yet the tone of his mind, +however joyous it might be at times, recurred, when the immediate +occasion had passed, to that pensive melancholy which, throughout his +life, was his most marked characteristic. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Brontë looked with supreme pleasure on the growing talents of his +children; but his principal hope was centred in his son, who, as he +fondly trusted, should add lustre to and perpetuate his name. The boy, +in these years, was precocious and lively, overflowing with humour and +jollity, ready to crack a joke with the rustics he met, and all the +time gathering in, with the quickest perception, impressions, both for +good and ill, of human nature. Mr. Brontë sedulously, to the utmost of +his power, attending to the education of Branwell, did not see the +instability of his son's character, or did not apprehend any mischief +from the acquaintances he had formed. +</p> + +<p> +The incumbent of Haworth had distinct literary leanings, and it +delighted him to find that his son had manifested literary capacity. It +has been urged as somewhat of a reproach against Mr. Brontë that he did +not send Branwell to a public school, but relied solely upon his own +tutorship for his son's education. Situated as Mr. Brontë was, such a +step as that said to have been recommended to him was unnecessary. The +Grammar School adjoining was under the superintendance of a master who +was well qualified to give a higher education to his pupils, if +required; and Mr. Brontë himself was equally well able to do the same, +but his daily duties within his chapelry left him little or no time to +take upon himself the entire education of his son: all he could do was +to watch and ascertain occasionally how he was progressing. Mr. Brontë, +indeed, might have given the finishing touches to his son's +instruction. Those, however, who knew the brilliant youth in the +ripeness of his early manhood, recognized the extent of the knowledge +he had acquired, and felt, too, that he had been sufficiently +well-trained to know how to put it to good use. +</p> + +<a name="VII"> </a> +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER VII. +</p> + +<p class="head"> +YOUTH. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +Charlotte goes to Roe Head‌—‌Return Home‌—‌Branwell at the Time‌—‌The +Companion of his Sisters‌—‌Escorts Charlotte on a Visit‌—‌He becomes +Interested in Pugilism‌—‌His Education‌—‌His Love for Music‌—‌His +Retentive Memory‌—‌His Personal Appearance‌—‌His Spirit. +</p> + + +<p> +Little more of interest seems to be known concerning the Brontës prior +to the year 1831, but it is very apparent that Mr. Brontë exercised +a large influence in the formation of his children's habits and +characters. He, for instance, had a study in which he spent a +considerable portion of his time. The children had their study also. +Mr. Brontë had written poems and tales, and was wont to tell strange +stories at the breakfast-table. The children imitated him in these +things. Mr. Brontë took an enthusiastic interest in all political +matters; and here the children followed him also. In short, they copied +him in almost everything. Afterwards, he was accustomed to hold himself +up as an example for their guidance, and to tell them how he had +struggled and worked his way to the position he held; and there is no +doubt that his children had a great admiration for his career. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Branwell's influence was altogether distinct from that of Mr. +Brontë. While taking pride in the mental ability of her nephew, she +aimed at making his sisters into good housewives and patterns of +domestic and unobtrusive virtue. With this object, turning her +bed-chamber into a school-room, she taught them to sew and to +embroider; and they occupied their time in making charity clothing, a +work which she maintained 'was not for the good of the recipients, but +of the sewers; it was proper for them to do it.' Under Miss Branwell +they likewise learned to clean, to wash, to bake, to cook, to make jams +and jellies, with many other domestic mysteries; and here, as in +everything else, they were apt pupils. +</p> + +<p> +But, towards the end of the year 1830, it was decided that Charlotte +should seek a wider training elsewhere; and a school, kept by Miss +Wooler, at Roe Head, between Leeds and Huddersfield, was fixed upon. It +was a quaint, old-fashioned house, standing in a pleasant country, +which had an interest for Charlotte, for it lay not far from Hartshead, +where her father's first Yorkshire curacy had been. This circumstance, +together with the proximity of the remains of Kirklees priory—which +had their traditions of Robin Hood—and the strange local stories she +heard from Miss Wooler, led her afterwards to make this district the +scene of her novel of 'Shirley.' Miss Wooler was a kind, motherly lady +who took an interest in each one of her pupils. She had long been a +keen observer, and knew well how to put her knowledge to use in +tuition. In this school, Charlotte, a girl of sixteen, was an +indefatigable student, scarcely resting in her pursuit of knowledge. +She was not exactly sociable, and sat often alone with her book in +play-hours—a thin fragile girl, whose brown hair overshadowed the page +on which her eyes, 'those expressive orbs,' were so intently fixed. Her +companions remarked at that time that she had a great store of +out-of-the-way knowledge, while on some points of general information +she was comparatively ignorant. But when Charlotte left Roe Head, in +June, 1832, she returned to the parsonage at Haworth with more expanded +ideas, and with wider knowledge, and possessing, perhaps, a keener +relish for the delights of the literary world. At Roe Head Charlotte +made the acquaintance of her life-long friend 'E,' and also of Mary and +Martha 'T.' +</p> + +<p> +The family of Brontë appears, about this time, to have been in perfect +peace. Charlotte had corresponded with Branwell when she was at Roe +Head, as a pupil of Miss Wooler; and Mrs. Gaskell has published +portions of a letter sent from that place to him on May 17th, 1832, +when he was in his fifteenth year, in which she showed her old +political leanings wherein Branwell shared. It runs: 'Lately I had +begun to think that I had lost all 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 the case, as, in +the little wild moorland village where we reside, there would be no +possibility of borrowing a work of this 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.'<a href="#note16" name="noteref16"> +<small>[16]</small></a> +</p> + +<p> +Charlotte's political principles were strongly Conservative, as were +those of her father, brother, and sisters, and these principles were +intensified in them all by their religious opinions. They held, +consistently enough, the cherished political convictions of their +party, and they looked upon every concession made to liberal clamour as +an inroad on the very vitals of the Constitution. Hence the jubilation +of Charlotte when the Reform Bill was rejected by the House of Lords on +October 7th, 1831. But the march of events, in after-years, modified +their political opinions considerably. +</p> + +<p> +Branwell at this period, while still under tuition at home, was the +constant companion of his sisters, and frequently accompanied them on +their visits to the moors and picturesque places in the neighbourhood. +'E,' writing in 'Scribner,' says: 'Charlotte's first visit from Haworth +was made about three months after she left school. She travelled in a +two-wheeled gig, the only conveyance to be had in Haworth except the +covered-cart which brought her to school. Mr. Brontë sent Branwell as +an escort; he was <i>then</i> a very dear brother, as dear to Charlotte +as her own soul; they were in perfect accord of taste and feeling, and +it was a mutual delight to be together. Branwell had probably never +been from home before; he was in wild ecstacy with everything. He +walked about in unrestrained boyish enjoyment, taking views in every +direction of the turret-roofed house, the fine chestnut-trees on the +lawn (one tree especially interested him because it was iron-girthed, +having been split by storms, but still flourishing in great majesty), +and a large rookery, which gave to the house a good background—all +these he noted and commented upon with perfect enthusiasm. He told his +sister he was leaving her in Paradise, and if she were not intensely +happy she never would be! Happy, indeed, she then was <i>in +himself</i>, for she, with her own enthusiasm, looked forward to what +her brother's great promise and talent might effect. He would be, at +this time, between fifteen and sixteen years of age.<a href="#note17" name="noteref17"> +<small>[17]</small></a> +</p> + +<p> +In the June of 1833, when Branwell was about this age, we learn that he +drove his sisters with great delight in a trap, or dog-cart, to Bolton +Bridge, to meet their friend 'E,' who waited for the young Brontës in a +carriage at the 'Devonshire Arms.'<a href="#note18" name="noteref18"> +<small>[18]</small></a> This was a visit to the ancient +abbey and immemorial woods and vales of Bolton. We may well imagine +from the time of the year—the 'leafy month of June,' when all nature +would be glad, and the deep woods gay with varied leaves, while the +Wharfe, of amber hue, foamed and rushed impetuously down its rocky +channel, from the moorland hills above historic Barden, to the peaceful +meads of the ruined abbey—that the hearts of the Brontës rejoiced, +enchanted and impressed by these glorious and stately solitudes. +</p> + +<p> +It cannot but be regretted that, while his sisters could confer in +confidence and familiarity together, and enjoy a community of interests +in secrecy and affection, Branwell had no brother whose sympathetic +counsel he could embrace; but, thrown back upon himself, was led to +seek the society of appreciative friends, who made him acquainted with +the manners and customs of the world, and the vices of society, before +his time had yet come to know much concerning them. It was, indeed, +unfortunately, no infrequent circumstance to see the plastic, +light-hearted, unsuspecting Branwell listening to the coarse jokes of +the sexton of Haworth—the noted John Brown—while that functionary was +employed in digging the graves so often opened in the churchyard, under +the shadow of the parsonage. +</p> + +<p> +It was the kind of society in which he sought relaxation at Haworth +that led him to take an interest, which he long retained, in the +pugilistic ring. The interest in pugilism and the 'noble art,' it must, +however, be remembered, had been made fashionable by wealthy, +influential, and titled people, amongst whom was Lord Byron, and by the +fops and dandies of an earlier period. Jackson, the noted professor, +was a great friend of the poet, and, on several occasions, visited him +at Newstead. Early in this century, too, many men about town were +accustomed to assemble for practice at the academy of Angelo and +Jackson. Branwell, also, read with eagerness the columns of 'Bell's +Life in London,' and other sporting papers of the day. The names and +personal appearance of the celebrated pugilists who, at that time, to +the delight of the <i>élite</i> of society, pounded each other till +they were unlike anything human—for the applause of the multitude, and +the honour of wearing the 'Champion's Belt,'—were familiar to him. +'Bell's Life' was taken in by an innkeeper at Haworth; and the members +of the village boxing-club, one of whom was Branwell, were posted up in +all public matters relating to the 'noble art of self-defence.' They +had sundry boxing-gloves, and, at intervals, amused themselves with +sparring in an upper room of a building at Haworth. These practices, at +the time of which we speak, were but boyish amusements, and were no +doubt congenial to the animal spirits and energetic temperaments of +those who entered into them, and they were so more especially to +Branwell, who had abundance of both. But it may be that here he became +acquainted with young men whose habits and conduct had a deleterious +influence upon him at the very opening of his career. If, however, +Branwell's high spirit allowed him sometimes to be led away by his +companions, his natural goodness of heart brought a ready and vehement +repentance. The respect he felt for his father's calling, magnified, in +his eyes, any fault of his own—who ought to have been more than +ordinarily good—and, exaggerating his failings, he would lament his +'dreadful conduct' in deep distress. Such unmistakable evidences of +sincerity and truthfulness procured him a ready pardon. He was +necessarily his aunt's favourite; but he attached himself to all about +him with so much readiness of affection that it is quite evident, +whatever his youthful faults, they were of a superficial character +only. +</p> + +<p> +The studies which Branwell pursued in his youth were noticed by his +literary friends, in after-years, to bear a considerable fruit of +classical knowledge. He possessed then a familiar and extensive +acquaintance with the Greek and Latin authors. He knew well the history +and condition of Europe, and of this country, in past and present +times; and his conversational powers on these, and the current +literature of the day, were of the highest order. Mr. Brontë had +obtained musical tuition for his son and daughters, and Branwell was +enthusiastically fond of sacred music, and could play the organ. He was +acquainted with the works of the great composers of recent and former +times; and, although he could not perform their elaborate compositions +well, he was always so excited when they were played for him by his +friends that he would walk about the room with measured footsteps, his +eyes raised to the ceiling, accompanying the music with his voice in an +impassioned manner, and beating time with his hand on the chairs as he +passed to and fro. He was an enthusiastic admirer of the oratorio of +'Samson,' which Handel deemed equal to the 'Messiah,' and of the +Mass-music of Haydn, Mozart, and others. Religion had, indeed, been +deeply implanted in Branwell's breast; but, whenever he heard sacred +music like this, his devotional impressions were deepened, and even in +times of temptation, indulgence, and folly the influence of early piety +was never effaced. Among his minor accomplishments, he had acquired the +practice of writing short-hand with facility, and also of writing with +both hands at the same time with perfect ease, so that he possessed the +extraordinary power of writing two letters at once. His hand-writing +was of an upright character. Branwell, too, had a wonderful power of +observation, and a most retentive memory. It is on record that, before +he visited London, he so mastered its labyrinths, by a diligent study +of maps and books, that he spoke with a perfect knowledge of it, and +astonished inhabitants of the metropolis by his intimate acquaintance +with by-ways and places of which they even had never heard. In person +he was rather below the middle height, but of refined and +gentleman-like appearance, and of graceful manners. His complexion was +fair and his features handsome; his mouth and chin were well-shaped; +his nose was prominent and of the Roman type; his eyes sparkled and +danced with delight, and his fine forehead made up a face of oval form +which gave an irresistible charm to its possessor, and attracted the +admiration of those who knew him. Added to this, his address was simple +and unadorned, yet polished; but, being familiar with the English +language in its highest form of expression, and with the Yorkshire and +Hibernian <i>patois</i> also, he could easily make use of the quaintest +and broadest terms when occasion called for them. It was, indeed, +amazing how suddenly he could pass from the discussion of a grave and +lofty subject, or from a deep disquisition, or some exalted poetical +theme, to one of his light-hearted and amusing Irish or Yorkshire +sallies. He could be sad and joyful almost at the same time, like the +sunshine and gloom of April weather; exhibiting, by anticipation, the +future lights and shadows of his own sad, short, and chequered +existence. In a word, he seemed at times even to be jocular and merry +with gravity itself. +</p> + +<p> +It is known also that Branwell, at that period of his young life—when +manhood with its hopes and joys, its enterprises and aspirations, its +affections and its responsibilities, stretched before him—was also +busily laying, to the best of his ability, the foundations, as he +trusted, of a brilliant literary or artistic future. +</p> + +<a name="VIII"> </a> +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER VIII. +</p> + +<p class="head"> +ART-AIMS OF THE BRONTËS. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +Love of Art in the Youthful Brontës‌—‌Their elaborate Drawings‌—‌ +J. B. Leyland, Sculptor‌—‌Spartacus‌—‌Mr. George Hogarth's Opinion +‌—‌Art Exhibition at Leeds‌—‌Mr. William Robinson, their +Drawing-Master‌—‌Branwell aims at Portrait-Painting‌—‌J. B. + Leyland in London‌—‌Branwell and the Royal Academy‌—‌He visits +London. +</p> + + +<p> +The biographers of the Brontë sisters have pointed out especially the +artistic instinct of Charlotte and Emily; and the originality and +fidelity of their written descriptions, and the beauty of the +composition and 'colour' of their word-paintings, have formed an +inexhaustible theme for the various writers on the excellencies of +Brontë genius. The appreciation of art possessed by the members of this +family, whether in drawing, painting, or sculpture, was manifested +early; but, though highly gifted in felicity and aptness of verbal +expression in describing natural scenery, and in the delineation of +personal character, they were not endowed, in like degree, with the +faculty of placing their ideas—weird and wild, or beautiful and joyous +as they might be—in that tangible and fixed shape in which artists +have perpetuated the emanations of their genius. The devotion of +Charlotte and Branwell to art was, nevertheless, so intense, and their +belief was so profound, at one time, that the art-faculty consisted of +little more than mechanical dexterity, and could be obtained by long +study and practice in manipulation, that the sister toiled incessantly +in copying, almost line for line, the grand old engravings of Woollett, +Brown, Fittler, and others till her eyesight was dimmed and blurred by +the sedulous application; and Branwell, with the same belief, eagerly +followed her example. Great talent and perseverance they undoubtedly +had; and, although we are not possessed of any original drawings by +Charlotte of striking character, we know that Branwell drew in +pen-and-ink with much facility, humour, and originality. His +productions, in this manner, will be more particularly noticed in the +course of this work. Charlotte's drawings were said to be +pre-Raphaelite in detail, but they had no approach to the spirit of +that school; and Branwell's pictures, however meritorious they might be +as likenesses of the individuals they represented, lacked, in every +instance, that artistic touch which the hand of genius always gives, +and cannot help giving. While at school at Roe Head, Charlotte had been +noticed by her fellow-pupils to draw better and more quickly than they +had before seen anyone do, and we have been told by one of them that +'she picked up every scrap of information concerning painting, +sculpture, poetry, music, &c., as if it were gold.' The list she drew +up a year or two earlier of the great artists whose works she wished to +see, shows us that her interest in art, even in her thirteenth year, +led her to read of them and their productions. +</p> + +<p> +On her return home in 1832, Charlotte wrote on the 21st July respecting +her course of life at the parsonage: '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.' +Charlotte also told Mrs. Gaskell 'that, at this period of her life, +drawing, and walking with her sisters, formed the two great pleasures +and relaxations of her day.' +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Brontë, observing that his son and daughters took pleasure in the +art of drawing, and believing this to be one of their natural gifts +that ought to be cultivated, perhaps as an accomplishment which they +might some time find useful in tuition, obtained for them a +drawing-master. But he also observed that Branwell excelled his sisters +in the art, while he likewise painted in oils, and he may at times have +had some hope that his son would become a distinguished artist. +</p> + +<p> +It is apparent, indeed, that drawing not only engaged much of +Charlotte's leisure, but that it formed a part of home-education. Her +sisters as well as herself underwent great labour in acquiring the art +in these early years, and Branwell also was not behind them in +industrious pursuit of the same object. Charlotte even thought of art +as a profession for herself; and so strong was this intention, that she +could scarcely be convinced that it was not her true vocation. In +short, her appreciative spirit always dwelt with indescribable pleasure +on works of real art, and she derived, from their contemplation, one of +the chief enjoyments of her life. 'To paint them, in short,' says Jane +Eyre, speaking of the pictures she is showing to Mr. Rochester, 'was to +enjoy one of the keenest pleasures I have ever known.'<a href="#note19" name="noteref19"> +<small>[19]</small></a> The love the +Brontës thus cherished for art became, as time passed on, a passion, +and its cultivation a pressing and sensible duty. They were not aware +that their industry in, and devotion to it, as they understood it, were +a misdirection of their genius. How far this love of it, and this +eagerness to acquire a knowledge of the mysteries of composition and +analysis, and to be possessed of art-practice and art-learning, may +have been excited and encouraged by the success that had been achieved +by others with whom they were familiar, in the same direction, may be +surmised. +</p> + +<p> +In the year of Mr. Brontë's appointment to Hartshead, there was born, +at Halifax, an artist, Joseph Bentley Leyland, who was destined to +become the personal friend and inspirer of Mr. Brontë's son, Branwell. +Leyland, in his early boyhood, showed, by the ease and faithfulness +with which he modelled in clay, or sketched with pencil, the objects +that attracted his attention, the direction of his genius. The +sculptor, as he grew in years, treated, with artistic power, classical +subjects which had not hitherto been embodied in sculpture. At the age +of twenty-one he modelled a statue of Spartacus, the Thracian, a +general who, after defeating several Roman armies in succession, was +overthrown with his forces by Crassus the prætor, and slain. The dead +leader was represented at that moment after death before the muscles +have acquired extreme rigidity. The statue, which was of colossal size, +was modelled from living subjects, and was, in all respects, a +production far beyond the sculptor's years. It was the most striking +work of art at the Manchester Exhibition in the year 1832, and was +favourably noticed in the 'Manchester Courier,' on November the 3rd of +that year. Such notices were productive of increased exertion, which +soon became manifest in the creation of other more lofty and successful +works. Among these was a colossal bust of Satan, some six feet in +height, which was pronounced to be 'truly that of Milton's "Arch-angel +ruined."' Mr. George Hogarth, the father-in-law of Charles Dickens—a +gentleman of literary power and knowledge—was the editor of the +'Halifax Guardian' at the time, and visited the artist's small studio, +where he saw, in one corner, under its lean-to roof, for the first +time, the bust of Satan. He was astonished at its merit, and published +his criticism of the work in the paper on May the 24th, 1834. Leyland +was then strongly urged to forward the bust to London, which he did, +with some others he had modelled; and the critics were invited to visit +his studio. The favourable opinion which Mr. Hogarth published, in the +paper of which he was editor, was endorsed, but in more flattering +terms, in the 'Morning Chronicle' of December 2nd, 1834. But there was +held at Leeds, in these years, the Annual Exhibition of the Northern +Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts; and Leyland, before he +sent his work to London, included it in his contributions to the +exhibition at Leeds. +</p> + +<p> +The oil-paintings and water-colour drawings that were hung there, in +the summer of 1834, appear to have formed a fine and varied collection. +There were beautiful landscapes in water-colour by Copley Fielding, and +in oil by Alexander Nasmyth, John Linnel, Robert Macreth; and others +were well represented, while historical paintings by H. Fradelle, +sea-pieces by Carmichael, and animal paintings by Schwanfelder, always +good, were highly creditable to these well-known names. A number of +fine portraits by William Bewick and William Robinson added interest +and beauty to the galleries. The reader may conceive, if he will, the +Brontës—Charlotte and Branwell, and, it may be, Mr. Brontë and +Emily—enjoying to the full the paintings and sculptures which were +before them. He may fancy the suddenly expressed, 'Look, Charlotte!' as +some newly discovered picture flashed as a keen delight on the eager +fancy of Branwell's appreciative spirit. He may imagine the ready +criticism of Charlotte, and the attempts which she and her brother made +to divine how much thought had gone to make up the composition of a +work. The young Brontë critics, as they looked on the colossal head of +Satan—on the stern and inflexible firmness of the features 'whose +superhuman beauty is yet covered with a cloud of the deepest +melancholy;' on the representation 'of the great and glorious being +sunk in utter despair,'—might ponder, perhaps, whether an ideal has +dawned upon the imagination of the artist, and so been wrought from no +model, but from the vision of his meditations, or whether success is, +after all, but the evidence of painful elaboration. At any rate, it was +just on such an exhibition of paintings and works of art that Charlotte +and Branwell delighted to dwell in intelligent and educated +observation. +</p> + +<p> +That a new impetus and a new meaning were given to their art-practice +about this time is certain, and it was probably not long after this +date that Mr. Brontë engaged, for the instruction of his son and +daughters, an artist of Leeds, the Mr. William Robinson I have +mentioned as having contributed a number of portraits to the +exhibition. The object of the Brontës was now to practise painting, and +this able instructor was consequently engaged. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Robinson was a native of Leeds, who had, by natural talent and +steady perseverance, acquired something more than a local reputation. +His early love of art had been such that the wishes of his friends +failed to divert him from its pursuit, and he received lessons from Mr. +Rhodes, sen., of Leeds, an admirable painter in water-colours. But Mr. +Robinson had a strong predilection for portrait-painting, to which he +had devoted his powers, at the same time availing himself of every +opportunity for improving in its practice. In the year 1820, he visited +the metropolis, taking with him an introduction to Sir Thomas Lawrence, +who received him with great kindness, and he became a pupil of this +eminent artist. Sir Thomas, however, with noble generosity, declined +any remuneration whatever, and Robinson assisted his master in his +work. He was introduced to Fuseli, and gained the privilege of studying +at the Royal Academy, his work being characterized by the requisite +merit. He was stimulated to renewed exertion by this much desired +success. In 1824, he had returned to his native town, where he procured +numerous commissions. He was subsequently introduced to Earl de Grey, +of whom he painted portraits, as also of his family. Mr. Robinson, in +addition, painted four portraits for the United Service Club, one of +which was of the Duke of Wellington, who honoured him with several +sittings. Besides these, amongst his other works, was a portrait of the +Princess Sophia, and a copy of one of the Duke of York for the Duchess +of Gloucester. It was from this gentleman that Branwell Brontë and his +sister received a few lessons in portrait-painting at the time of which +I speak, and a knowledge of the master's career did not a little to +fire the mind of the enthusiastic Branwell with ardour to aim in the +same direction, while the contemporary efforts of others added fuel to +the fire. +</p> + +<p> +At this time there were certain artists of the neighbourhood who were +trying their fortunes in London, and who were known to Branwell Brontë +by reputation: C. H. Schwanfelder, the animal painter, and John W. +Rhodes, the son of the artist under whom Mr. Robinson had studied. The +father of the latter had endeavoured to dissuade him from making art +his profession, but all to no purpose: the bent of his genius could not +be curbed. He painted in water-colour and oil with great beauty and +fidelity; the green lane, the wild flower hanging from an old wall, +were his subjects. His works met with well-deserved encomiums in the +London press, and with praise wherever they were exhibited; but, when +full of aspiring hopes, he was attacked, like Girtin, Liversedge, and +Bonnington, by inflammation in the eyes, and ill health. He died at the +early age of thirty-three, and a memoir of him appeared in 'The Art +Journal' of March, 1843. The determination of Charlotte and Branwell to +take, as it were, the Temple of Art by forcible possession, was, it may +be conceived, due also, in some measure, to the growing celebrity of +Leyland; for, in literature and art, Halifax was nearer to the Brontës +than any of the surrounding towns. The praise of Leyland's works, +moreover, had been re-published from the London press in all the papers +of his native county, and poetic eulogies appeared in the 'Leeds +Intelligencer' and in the 'Leeds Mercury;' and, therefore, that they +were eager to emulate his works and to equal his success seems very +probable. +</p> + +<p> +I have felt it necessary to mention these influences, as they alone +serve to explain how it was that Branwell and his sister were led to +think of, and—as regards the brother—to persist for a time in making +a profession of painting for which they had no special aptitude. +Branwell, in fact, designed to become himself a portrait-painter, and +he conceived that a course of instruction at the Royal Academy afforded +the best means of preparation for that profession. +</p> + +<p> +Being gifted with a keen and distinct observation, combined with the +faculty of retaining impressions once formed, and being an excellent +draughtsman, he could with ease produce admirable representations of +the persons he portrayed on canvas. But it is quite clear that he never +had been instructed either in the right mode of mixing his pigments, or +how to use them when properly prepared, or, perhaps, he had not been an +apt scholar. He was, therefore, unable to obtain the necessary flesh +tints, which require so much delicacy in handling, or the gradations of +light and shade so requisite in the painting of a good portrait or +picture. Had Branwell possessed this knowledge, the portraits he +painted would have been valuable works from his hand; but the colours +he used have all but vanished, and scarcely any tint, beyond that of +the boiled oil with which they appear to have been mixed, remains. Yet, +even if Branwell had been fortunate in his work, he would only have +attained the position, probably, of a moderate portrait-painter. His +ambition, however, took a higher range, and he prepared himself for the +venture, hoping that the desiderata which Haworth could not supply +would be amply provided for him in London, when the long-desired +opportunity arrived. +</p> + +<p> +At Haworth he had been industrious, for he had painted some portraits +of the members of his family, and of several friends. One of these is +well described by Mrs. Gaskell, and her account is worth giving +here:—'It was a group of his sisters, life-size, three-quarters +length … the likenesses were, I should think, admirable. I 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 these 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 fate 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 <i>her</i>—that the light in the picture fell +on <i>her</i>. I might more truly have sought in her presentment—nay, +in her living face—for the sign of death in her prime.'<a href="#note20" name="noteref20"> +<small>[20]</small></a> +</p> + +<p> +From Mrs. Gaskell's description of this one picture, it is apparent +that Branwell possessed, not only the faculty, as we have seen, of +obtaining excellent portraits, but that he had the ability to impress +the faces of his sisters with thought, intelligence, and sensibility; +and to invest them with the habitual expressions they wore, of power, +solicitude, and tenderness. The deep reflection which Branwell bestowed +on this picture, and the care he lavished on its mysterious +composition, show unquestionably the aptitude and capacity of his own +mind, which enabled him to obtain these essential expressions; and it +is evident that his peculiarity of thought invested his picture with +that sadness and gloom which, in after times, tinctured the poems he +wrote under the solemn-sounding pseudonym of 'Northangerland.' This +picture is only one among many others he painted in preparing himself +for his intended studies at the Royal Academy; and the old nurse, Nancy +Garrs, tells me that he often wanted to paint her portrait, but she +told him that she did not think herself 'good-looking enough.' +</p> + +<p> +At a later date Branwell related to Mr. George Searle Phillips the +story of his artistic hopes.<a href="#note21" name="noteref21"> +<small>[21]</small></a> He spoke of the great fondness for +drawing manifested by the whole family; and declared that Charlotte, +especially, was well read in art-learning, and knew the lives of the +old masters, whose works she criticized with discrimination and +judgment. But he said that she had ruined her eyesight by making minute +copies of line-engravings, on one of which she was occupied six months. +He also spoke of his own passionate love of art, and of the bright and +confident anticipations with which he had looked forward to his +projected studies at the Royal Academy, which had been the cherished +hope of his family and himself. +</p> + +<p> +Leyland had visited London in the December of 1833, when he obtained +from Stothard a letter of introduction to Ottley, the curator of the +Elgin Marbles, to allow him to study the marbles in the British Museum. +Permission was readily granted, and the sculptor availed himself of it. +A year later Leyland took up his residence in the metropolis. He was +received in a friendly manner by Chantrey and Westmacott, the latter +inviting him to dinner, and afterwards showing him his foundry at +Pimlico, and his works in progress, among which was the statue of the +Duke of York. He was also introduced to, and enjoyed the friendship of +Nasmyth—the father of the eminent engineer whose story has recently +been given to the world—and of Warley: one a landscape-painter of +celebrity, and the other famed as an artist in water-colour. The +latter, who had considerable faith in astrology, persisted in drawing +the younger sculptor's horoscope. Among others, he became known to +Haydon, under whom he subsequently studied anatomy. This lamented +artist was a genuine friend, and it was under his instructions that +Leyland perfected his natural perception of the grand and beautiful in +art. While here he modelled, in life-size, a figure of 'Kilmeny,' in +illustration of the passage in Hogg's 'Queen's Wake,' where the sinless +maiden is awakened by Elfin music in fairy-land. It was a successful +work, and was favourably noticed by the critics. It was subsequently +purchased for the Literary and Philosophical Society of his native +town. +</p> + +<p> +It was while Leyland was in the metropolis that Charlotte wrote, on the +6th July, 1835: +</p> + +<p> +'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.' +</p> + +<p> +While this project was warmly engaging the attention of the Brontë +family, Leyland was living in London, at the house of Mr. Geller, a +mezzotinto-engraver, who was a native of Bradford; and, at the time, +the sculptor modelled a group of three figures illustrative of a +passage in Maturin's tragedy of 'Bertram,' which represented the +warrior listening to the prior reading. The work was engraved by +Geller. This group was said to be conceived in the 'true spirit of +Maturin,' and met with the favourable notice of the London periodicals +of the year 1835, the year of Branwell's visit to the metropolis. The +reviews were also reproduced in most of the Yorkshire papers. +</p> + +<p> +The design of putting Branwell forward as an artist, and of giving him +the opportunity and the means of beginning and continuing his studies, +where he might be imbued with the spirit of the great sculptors and +painters who have left imperishable names, and whose works are stored +in the public art-galleries of London, had at last been determined +upon. The sacrifices the Brontë family were prepared to make in order +to secure this object require but a passing notice here. Branwell was a +treasured brother; and they would feel, no doubt, a sincere happiness +in promoting his interests, in furthering his views, and in bringing +his artistic abilities before the world. It would, however, seem +scarcely possible that the difficulties attending Branwell's admission +as a student at the Royal Academy had been duly considered. He could +not be admitted without a preliminary examination of his drawings from +the antique and the skeleton, to ascertain if his ability as a +draughtsman was of such an order as would qualify him for studentship; +and, if successful in this, he would be required to undergo a regular +course of education, and to pass through the various schools where +professors and academicians attended to give instruction. No doubt it +was wished that Branwell should have a regular and prolonged +preparation for his professional artistic career; but it would have +lasted for years, and the pecuniary strain consequent upon it would, +perhaps, have been severely felt, even if Branwell's genius had +justified the outlay. But there is no evidence that he ever subjected +himself to the preliminary test, or made an application even to be +admitted as a probationer. +</p> + +<p> +It would seem that, so far as Mr. Brontë was concerned, his promotion +of the wishes of his children arose rather from a desire to gratify +them. It does not appear that he had any over-sanguine expectation that +Branwell could carry out his ardent intention of becoming an artist. +Mr. Brontë's own wish was, indeed, that his son should adopt his +profession, but the mercurial youth was probably little attracted by +the functions of the clergyman's office. +</p> + +<p> +To London Branwell, however, went, where, without doubt, his object was +to draw from the Elgin Marbles, and to study the pictures at the Royal +Academy and other galleries, with a perfectly honest intention. +Whatever impression he may have received of his own powers as an +artist, when he saw those of the great painters of the time, we have no +certain knowledge; but it does not exceed belief that he was +discouraged when he looked upon the brilliant chef d'oeuvres of Sir +Joshua Reynolds, Gainsborough, Sir Thomas Lawrence, and others; and +that, when he reflected on the immeasurable distance between his own +works and theirs, his hopes of a brilliant artistic career were +partially dissipated. Whether it was due to these circumstances, or +that he had become more fully aware of the early struggles that meet +all who attempt art as a profession, or that his courage failed him at +the contemplation of the unhappy lot which falls to those who, either +from lack of talent or through misfortune, fail to make their mark in +the artistic world; or whether it was because his father was unable to +support him in London during the years of preparation and study for the +professional career,—the requirements of which had not been +sufficiently considered,—is not now accurately known. Branwell, during +his short stay in London, visited most of the public institutions; and, +among other places, Westminster Abbey, the western façade of which he +some time afterwards sketched from memory with an accuracy that +astonished his acquaintance, Mr. Grundy. +</p> + +<p> +Before he left the metropolis, Branwell could not resist a visit to the +Castle Tavern, Holborn, then kept by the veteran prize-fighter, Tom +Spring, a place frequented by the principal sporting characters of the +time. A gentleman named Woolven, who was present through the same +curiosity which led Branwell there, noticed the young man, whose +unusual flow of language and strength of memory had so attracted the +attention of the spectators that they had made him umpire in some +dispute arising about the dates of certain celebrated battles. Branwell +and he became personal friends in after-years. +</p> + +<p> +Branwell returned to the parsonage a wiser man. His disappointment that +he was not to do as others were doing, whom he wished to emulate, was +very great, but he was not yet finally discouraged. We shall see +subsequently to what purpose Branwell put his artistic knowledge. The +failure of the hopes regarding his academical career in art was keenly +felt by his family. It was grievous as it was humiliating, but it was +borne with exemplary patience and resignation. When these painful +experiences had impressed the Brontë sisters with the hopelessness of +high artistic study for Branwell, and when their eyes were opened to +the consciousness that their large gifts did not include art, Charlotte +wrote, in her novel of 'Villette,' under the character of Lucy Snowe: +'I sat bent over my desk, drawing—that is, copying an elaborate +line-engraving, tediously working up my copy to the finish of the +original, for that was my practical notion of art; and, strange to say, +I took extreme pleasure in the labour, and could even produce curiously +finished fac-similes of steel or mezzotinto plates—things about as +valuable as so many achievements in worsted work, but I thought pretty +well of them in those days.' +</p> + +<a name="IX"> </a> +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER IX. +</p> + +<p class="head"> +CHARLOTTE AT ROE HEAD. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +Charlotte returns as a Teacher, with Emily as a Pupil, to Roe +Head‌—‌Their Determination to Maintain themselves‌—‌Charlotte's Fears +respecting Emily‌—‌Charlotte's religious Melancholy‌—‌Accuses herself of +Flippancy‌—‌She is on the Borders of Despair‌—‌Anxiety to Know More of +the World‌—‌Emily at Law Hill, Halifax, as a Teacher‌—‌Charlotte's +Excitability‌—‌She returns Home out of Health. +</p> + + +<p> +'We are all about to divide, break up, separate,' Charlotte said, when +conveying to her friend the news of the Academy project, and of her +determination to enter upon life as a governess. If Branwell's ambition +had encouraged her own, its failure made no change in her plans. She +was 'sad,' she says, 'very sad,' at the thoughts of leaving home; yet +she was going back to the school of Miss Wooler, whom she both loved +and respected, to live at Roe Head, this time to teach, it is true, +instead of to be taught. But her sister Emily was to accompany her, as +a pupil of the school, and that they would be together was a +consolation to both sisters; and Charlotte, too, would be near the +homes of the friends she had made when she was herself a pupil there. +It was a pleasure to think she would be able to see them sometimes. +</p> + +<p> +At the end of July, then, the two proceeded to Roe Head. This was the +first of those adventurous moves which the sisters, from time to time, +made. One of the strongest features, indeed, in their lives is the +persistency with which they essayed to maintain themselves, even when +no apparently pressing necessity impelled them. Yet we may not doubt +that one sad reflection sometimes moved them, and it was that their +father's stipend ceased with his life; that they had no other resource +beyond their own endeavours; and that, such was the uncertainty of all +human concerns, they might at any moment be deprived of home, support, +and shelter. It behoved them then to secure by their personal energies, +while they were able, the very means of subsistence. +</p> + +<p> +When Mr. Brontë saw his young family around him, and when he enjoyed +the comfort of his hearth, the contingency of his death, and the +consequent helplessness of his children, often struck him with +apprehension and sadness. But he had the alleviation that they +inherited, in a marked degree, his own adventurous and energetic +disposition, whose successful career was always before them as an +example and incentive to honourable endeavour. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Brontë looked back with just satisfaction on the early sacrifices +he had made to advance himself in the world. His children were familiar +with the story of his exertions. They, however, with far higher +talents, were not possessed of the physical strength and powers of +endurance which had aided his progress; and Charlotte and Emily, when +any unusual strain was cast upon them, soon felt their strength +exhausted, and they suffered depression of spirits as the consequence. +Home-sickness was the great trouble of the younger sister, and, before +she had been long at school, Emily grew pale and ill. Charlotte felt in +her heart that, if she remained, she would die; and, at the end of +three months, she returned to Haworth, where, alone among the moors, +with all the wild things of nature, which had inspired so deep an +interest in her feelings, she could be contented. But the youngest +sister, Anne, came to Roe Head in her place, and she and Charlotte seem +to have been very happy there for some time; but a tendency to +religious melancholy had been developing in the elder sister's mind, +imperceptibly, out of her deep religious feeling, and it increased upon +her. +</p> + +<p> +So early as the letter to 'E,' July 6th, 1835, she had spoken of 'duty, +necessity, these are stern mistresses,' as controlling her action in +seeking a situation. Her friend Mary went to see her, and in her letter +to Mrs. Gaskell she says: 'I asked her 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.' Some +relaxation was gained by the Midsummer holidays of the year 1836. All +the family were at home, and their friend 'E' visited them, so that a +pleasant period of mental diversion was secured. But, after her return +to her school, despondency came upon her again, and crowded her +thoughts; and she wrote respecting her feelings in religious concerns: +'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 +insure the prospect of reconciliation to God, and a 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.' +</p> + +<p> +Let us not under-estimate the mental suffering which could dictate this +confession. Happily, this was not constantly present, nor her feelings +always so acutely wrought upon. Even in the same letter from which the +above is taken, she wishes her friends should know the thrill of +delight which she experienced when she saw the packet of her friend +thrown over the wall by the bearer, passing in his gig to Huddersfield +Market. She persevered in her place, the whole tendency of her +exaggerated reasoning forbidding her to seek that ease and relaxation +which she needed so much; but she was not incapacitated for her duties, +and probably her family were quite unaware of her troubles: so she +remained. +</p> + +<p> +Branwell and Emily were resolved not to be behind their sister in their +endeavours, and they were full of anxiety to know more of the world +than they could meet with at Haworth. Emily obtained a similar +situation to Charlotte's, in a large school at Law Hill, near Halifax, +where she found her duties far from light. Her extreme reserve with +strangers is remembered by one who knew her there, but she was not at +all of an unkindly nature; on the contrary, her disposition was +generous and considerate to those with whom she was on familiar terms: +her stay at Law Hill terminated at the end of six months. The place of +her sojourn is a lofty elevation, overlooking Halifax. Emily would find +the situation of the school agreeable to her taste, and to her delight +in the weird and grand as presented by the solemn heath-grown heights +of the West-Riding: besides, the air was as pure as that of Haworth, +and Law Hill commanded finer views, among which the range of Oxenhope +moors, in her father's chapelry, was visible. In the other direction, +she could overlook the more cultivated district of Hartshead and +Kirklees, and could see Roe Head, where her sisters Charlotte and Anne +resided. Branwell also, emulating his sisters, obtained the situation +of usher in the locality, which he retained for a few months. +</p> + +<p> +Some adventures with their literary productions interested them at the +close of this year, of which I shall have further to speak. Miss +Wooler's removal of her school to Dewsbury Moor was, in some respects, +unfortunate for the sisters, as the situation was less healthy than the +former one, and, when Charlotte and Anne returned home at Christmas, in +the year 1837, neither was well. Charlotte's nerves were over-strung, +and Anne was suffering from chest affections, which conjured up anew +their recollection of the deaths of Maria and Elizabeth from +consumption. To add to their troubles, Tabby fell on the ice in the +lane, and fractured her leg. The consequence of this was, that they had +to forego the expected pleasure of a visit from their friend 'E,' +through their attendance on the old servant, whom they were unwilling +should be removed to her friends, however desirable this might be on +many grounds. They even went so far as to refuse to eat at all, till +their aunt, who had arranged the matter to the satisfaction of all +concerned, except her nieces, should give up her intention of removing +Tabby. They succeeded, and Tabby remained at the parsonage, where in +time she became convalescent, and Charlotte was enabled to visit her +friends before she resumed her occupation. +</p> + +<p> +Charlotte again returned to her accustomed duties, her nervousness +increasing, not the less; and Mrs. Gaskell says: 'About this time she +would turn sick and trembling at any sudden noise, and could hardly +repress her screams when startled.' Through Miss Wooler's urgency, she +was induced to consult a medical man, who advised her immediate return +to Haworth, where quiet and rest had become for her imperatively +necessary. Then her father sought for her the companionship of her two +friends, Mary and Martha T——, than whose society Charlotte had never +known a more rousing pleasure. They came to stay at the parsonage, and +their cheerful converse and agreeable manners greatly improved +Charlotte's health and spirits. We obtain an interesting picture of the +young party in the following letter that Charlotte addressed to her +friend 'E,' which Mrs. Gaskell has published: +</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p class="ralign"> +'Haworth, +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +'June 9th, 1838. +</p> + +<p> +'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. I am now, I trust, fairly in the way to be myself +again. +</p> + +<p> +'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 +so 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…. +</p> + +<p> +'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.' +</p> +</div> +<p> +Branwell, in these days, was well enough, and could be lively enough, +when occasion served. He had his hopes, his enthusiasm yet: but, in +after-years, he was to fall into a yet deeper and more serious +depression than that through which Charlotte had passed. +</p> + +<a name="X"> </a> +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER X. +</p> + +<p class="head"> +BRANWELL BRONTË AND HIS SISTERS' BIOGRAPHERS. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +The Light in which Biographers have regarded Branwell‌—‌Bibliography +‌—‌Mrs. Gaskell‌—‌The Causes which led her into Error‌—‌Resentment of +Branwell's Friends‌—‌Mr. George Searle Phillips‌—‌Branwell as Depicted +by Mr. T. Wemyss Reid‌—‌Mr. F. H. Grundy's Notice of Branwell‌—‌Miss +A. Mary F. Robinson's Portrait of Branwell. +</p> + + +<p> +It will be well here—before we reach the periods of Branwell's life +that have been misunderstood—to pause, in our sketch of the Brontë +family, in order to consider certain circumstances regarding him, +which it will be impossible for any future writer on the Brontës to +disregard. It is especially necessary to consider them in a book +which—while dealing with the Brontë sisters, their lives and their +works—proposes, as a special aim, to make Branwell's position clear. +When Derwent Coleridge wrote the short biography of his father, which +is prefixed to the poet's works, he approached the subject in a +somewhat regretful way, asking if the public has a right to inquire as +to that part of a poet's life which does not influence his fellow-men +after death, and declaring that the privacy of the dead is sacred. +He felt too keenly that the sanctity of Coleridge's life had been +broken in upon by those who lacked both accurate knowledge and just +discretion. It is a source of sincere regret to the writer of this +volume that he, too, is compelled by circumstances to treat a part of +his work almost in a deprecatory spirit, and sometimes to assume the +position of defence. For, if the failings of Coleridge have been +discovered and fed upon by those whose curiosity leads them to delight +in such things, what shall we say of Patrick Branwell Brontë, whose +misdeeds have not only been sought out with a persistency worthy of a +better cause, but have also been exaggerated and misrepresented to a +great degree, and whose whole life, moreover, has been contorted by +writers who have endeavoured to find in it some evidence for their own +hypotheses? It has been the misfortune of Branwell that his life has, +to some extent, been already several times written by those who have +had some other object in view, and who, consequently, have not been +studious to acquire a correct view of the circumstances of it. These +writers, it will be seen, have therefore, perhaps unavoidably, fallen +into many grievous errors regarding him, so that his name, at this day, +has come to be held up as a reproach and even as a token of ignominy. +If it be remembered that Mrs. Gaskell, in her 'Life of Charlotte +Brontë,' describes him as a drunkard and an opium-eater, as one who +rendered miserable the lives of his sisters, and might very well have +shot his father; that Mr. T. Wemyss Reid, in his 'Charlotte Brontë, a +Monograph,' has spoken of him as 'this lost and degraded man;' that +Miss Robinson, in her 'Emily Brontë,' has called him a 'poor, +half-demented lonely creature,' and has moralized upon his 'vulgar +weakness,' his 'corrupt and loathsome sentimentality,' and his 'maudlin +Micawber penitence;' and lastly that Mr. Swinburne, in a notice of the +last-named work in the 'Athenæum,' has said, 'of that lamentable and +contemptible caitiff—contemptible not so much for his common-place +debauchery as for his abject selfishness, his lying pretension, and his +nerveless cowardice—there is far too much in this memoir;' it may well +appear that we have here a strange subject for a biography. +</p> + +<p> +But, since the publication of Miss Robinson's 'Emily Brontë,'—in which +Branwell is specially degraded,—it has been felt by many admirers of +the Brontës that it was desirable his life should be treated +independently of the theories and necessities of his sisters' +biographers, and in a spirit not unfriendly to him; for there are many +people who believe that Branwell's genius has never been sufficiently +recognized, and there are a few who know that, notwithstanding his many +failings and misdeeds, the charges made against him are, not a few of +them, wholly untrue, while many more are grossly exaggerated, and that +his disposition and character have been wholly misrepresented. Having +in my possession many of his letters and poems, and having been +personally acquainted with him, I have undertaken the task of telling +the story of his life in connection with the lives of his sisters, for +I think that there is much in his strange and sad history that ought to +be known, while sufficient evidence exists of his mental power to prove +that he was a worthy member of the intellectual family to which he +belonged. It may not be amiss here, in order to illustrate +circumstances that will be alluded to in parts of this work, to touch +slightly upon the bibliography of Branwell's life, and endeavour to +discover the causes which have contributed to the ill-repute in which +he is generally held. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Gaskell, who became acquainted with Charlotte Brontë after the +deaths of her brother and sisters, when all that was most sorrowful in +her life had been enacted, saw, or thought she saw, in her the +evidences of a deep dejection, the result of a life passed under +circumstances of misery and depression. In her 'Life of Charlotte +Brontë,' this writer's endeavour to trace the successive influences of +the trials of Charlotte's life upon her, and to find in them the +explanation of what was, perhaps, in some measure, an idiosyncrasy of +character, has led her, in the strength of her own preconception, to +interpret many circumstances to the attestation of her theory. Such, at +all events, is the explanation which Mr. T. Wemyss Reid has offered, in +his 'Charlotte Brontë, a Monograph,' of the partial manner in which +Mrs. Gaskell has dealt with certain of Miss Brontë's letters. If we +conceive Mrs. Gaskell writing with this preconception, tending to give +undue weight to all that was unhappy in the history of her heroine, we +need feel little surprise that her account of the lives of the Brontës +is too often a gloomy one, that their isolation at Haworth, their +poverty, and their struggles have been exaggerated, or that, in order +to throw in a sombre background to her picture, she was unduly +credulous in listening to those unfounded stories with which she made +Mr. Brontë to appear, in act, at least, diabolical, and which have +helped to depict the career of Patrick Branwell Brontë in such dark and +tragic colours. She had heard at Haworth the story of his disgrace, his +subsequent intemperance, and his death. Herein she believed was the +great sorrow of the sisters' minds, the care which had induced a morbid +peculiarity in their writings, and cast a shadow upon their lives. Mrs. +Gaskell seems to have thought it devolved upon her, not merely to +picture beginnings of evil in the brother, and trace them to his ruin; +but, also, to punish the lady whom she held responsible for what has +been termed 'Branwell's fall.' To this end she thought it right to lay +at the lady's door, in part, the premature deaths of the sisters; and, +in sustaining the idea that the effect on them of the brother's +disgrace was what she believed it to be, she was led to employ partial +versions of the letters, and exaggerate the whole course of Branwell's +conduct. Her book was read with astonishment by those whose characters +were made to suffer by it, and she was obliged, in later editions, to +omit the charges against the lady; and also those against Mr. Brontë. +But Mrs. Gaskell still maintained that, whatever the cause, the effect +was the same. +</p> + +<p> +It was not believed at the time, by some, that, because Mrs. Gaskell +had been obliged to withdraw the statements complained of, in the later +editions of her work, they were necessarily untrue. Mr. Thackeray had +said that the life was 'necessarily incomplete, though most touching +and admirable,' and the original edition was still in circulation, and +was pirated abroad. +</p> + +<p> +The friends of Branwell Brontë, those who from actual acquaintance knew +his mental power and real disposition, resented greatly the wrong that +had been done to his memory; and several representations were made in +his favour. One of these was in an article entitled: 'A Winter's Day at +Haworth,' published in 'Chambers's Journal,' 1869. Mr. George Searle +Phillips, in the 'Mirror,' of 1872, also published some valuable +reminiscences which tended to show Branwell's true elevation of +character and gentleness of disposition. +</p> + +<p> +The publication of Mr. Wemyss Reid's 'Charlotte Brontë, a Monograph,' +in the year 1877, while it called attention to the original view of +Branwell's life and character, did not aim to remove it. Mr. Reid +repudiated, with success, the idea that the effect of Branwell's career +upon Charlotte and Emily was what Mrs. Gaskell represented it to have +been, without expressing any dissent from the story itself. This writer +does not, indeed, appear to have suspected that the explanation was to +be found in the fact that Branwell was not so bad as he had been made +to appear, or that Mrs. Gaskell had fallen into other errors besides +those of the letters which he corrected. But, though Mr. Reid carefully +avoided the reproduction of the details of Mrs. Gaskell's account of +Branwell's life, what reference is made to him in the 'Monograph,' +after the period of his youth, is always in terms of reprobation, which +have done nothing to discourage belief in the suppressed scandal. +Moreover, Mr. Reid revived some of the charges against Mr. Brontë, and +painted a sinister portrait of him. +</p> + +<p> +It was under these circumstances that Mr. F. H. Grundy, C.E., another +friend of Branwell's, in his 'Pictures of the Past' (1879), endeavoured +to do some justice to his memory, and declared, notwithstanding his +great failings, that his abilities were of a very high order, and his +disposition one that should be admired. I have found Mr. Grundy's +materials of use in this work. But, unfortunately, this friend of +Branwell's wrote from recollection, and made such great mistakes in +the chronology of his life that his account did not give a true +interpretation of actual circumstances. Mr. Grundy, too, had evidently +refreshed his memory with a perusal of Mrs. Gaskell's volume, and +so his information was considerably tinctured with that writer's +misconceptions. This notice had the very opposite effect to that which +was intended, and has since been largely used by writers whose purpose +has led them to rank Branwell with the fallen. +</p> + +<p> +In Miss Robinson's recently published 'Emily Brontë,' the scandal of +Branwell's life, which Mrs. Gaskell laid before the reading world, +has been reproduced, and her evil report of his character greatly +increased. 'Why,' it might well be asked, 'should it be necessary to +publish the records of a brother's misdeeds as a conspicuous feature +in a sister's memoir? Why revive a scandal that has been so long +suppressed?' Miss Robinson has, indeed, given her reason, in that +Branwell's sins had so large a share in determining the bent of his +sister's genius, that 'to have passed them by would have been to ignore +the shock which turned the fantasy of the "poems" into the tragedy of +"Wuthering Heights,"' and here, probably, is the only adequate purpose +that could have been found in doing so; but it is scarcely sufficient +to explain why Miss Robinson has, almost from her first mention of +Branwell Brontë to her remarks on his death, treated every act of his +life with contumely, censure, and contempt, or that she has, in +opposition to every previous opinion, represented his abilities as +almost void. While Mr. Reid suggested that Emily Brontë, in writing her +novel, must have obtained some of her impressions from her brother's +conduct, Mr. Grundy had made a statement tending to show that Branwell +had written a portion of the story himself. If Branwell's abilities +were no better than Miss Robinson says they were, she has disposed of +Mr. Grundy's assertion at once; but not the less does she employ other +reasons for that end, and the degradation she has thought it necessary +to show in Branwell, answers quite as much to prove the impossibility +of his having written the work, as to picture the cause of brooding in +Emily, under which she produced the tragedy of 'Wuthering Heights.' +</p> + +<p> +With views similar to those with which Mrs. Gaskell wrote, Miss +Robinson, in following the biographer of Charlotte, has fallen into the +same errors. In order to make it clear that the part Branwell had in +the production of 'Wuthering Heights,' by his sister, was subjective, +this writer has found it necessary to show in his life much of what is +worst in the characters of the story. So completely has Miss Robinson +carried out this portion of her work, that Mr. Swinburne was led to +say, in his notice of it, that 'Emily Brontë's tenderness for the +lower animals … was so vast as to include even her own miserable +brother.'<a href="#note22" name="noteref22"> +<small>[22]</small></a> But Miss Robinson has not succeeded so far without much +unfairness to the victim of her theory, in omissions and errors of +fact. I shall have occasion to treat at some length, later, Branwell's +relationship both to 'Wuthering Heights' and 'The Tenant of Wildfell +Hall.' +</p> + +<p> +I hope, indeed, to be able to prove that Branwell was (as all who +personally knew him aver him to have been) a man of great and powerful +intellectual gifts, to relieve his memory of much of the obloquy +that has been heaped upon it, and to clearly show the remarkable +individuality of his character. I shall find it necessary, in doing so, +to take exception to the portions of Mrs. Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte +Brontë' which deal with her brother, as to some extent I had to do to +those which refer to Mr. Brontë. More especially, however, will it be +necessary to deal with the fuller statements in the first edition of +the work, and with their repetition and amplification in the more +recent volumes of Mr. Reid and Miss Robinson. +</p> + +<p> +I have thought it necessary to introduce these remarks in this place, +in order that the reader, when he comes to the consideration of certain +statements made by previous writers concerning Branwell, and his +relationship with his sisters, may have a clear understanding of the +views with which the works containing these statements have been +written. +</p> + +<a name="XI"> </a> +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XI. +</p> + +<p class="head"> +BRANWELL AT BRADFORD. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +Branwell becomes a Freemason‌—‌His love of Art undiminished‌—‌Has +Instruction in Oil-Painting‌—‌Commences Portrait-Painting at +Bradford‌—‌His Commissions‌—‌His Letter to Mr. Thompson, the Artist +‌—‌Miss Robinson's Charges of Misconduct‌—‌Her Erroneous Statements +‌—‌Branwell's true Character and Conduct at Bradford‌—‌Remarks on +his alleged Opium-eating there. +</p> + + +<p> +When Branwell returned from London it was not without sincere +satisfaction that his acquaintances welcomed their gifted and versatile +friend back to Haworth, certain of whom induced him to become a +freemason. Thus Branwell was brought into closer connection with the +convivial circles of the village. +</p> + +<p> +There was held at Haworth, at the time, 'The Lodge of the Three +Graces.' In this lodge Branwell was proposed as a brother, and accepted +on the 1st of February, 1836, initiated February the 29th, passed March +the 28th, and raised April the 25th of that year, John Brown being the +'Worshipful Master.' Branwell was present at eleven meetings in 1836, +the minutes of one of these—September the 18th—being fully entered by +him. On December the 20th of the same year, he fulfilled the duties of +'Junior Warden;' and, at seven meetings of the lodge, from January the +16th to December the 11th, 1837, he was secretary, and entered the +minutes. He also, on Christmas Day of the same year, officiated as +organist.<a href="#note23" name="noteref23"> +<small>[23]</small></a> In addition to his duties in connection with the Masonic +Lodge, he likewise undertook the secretaryship of the local Temperance +Society, of which he was a member. +</p> + +<p> +Branwell's love of art had been too strong, and his interest in its +practice too intense, to allow even such a check as that which his +aspirations had received in the failure of the Academy project to +finally discourage him. Hence it was, I suppose, when he had +relinquished his place of usher that his passionate desire of becoming +an artist, still cherished under disappointment, revived. He conceived, +as the project of studying at the Royal Academy had not proved +feasible, that, if he had a full course of instruction from Mr. +Robinson, he could, in that way, qualify himself, perhaps as well, to +adopt the profession of a portrait-painter, more valuable in those +days, when photographers were not, than now; and Mr. Brontë, leaning to +his son's wish, was induced to sanction the proposal, as it might +provide Branwell with an alternative occupation to that of tutor, the +only other that seemed open to him. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Robinson's charge, on the few occasions of his lessons at Haworth +parsonage, had been two guineas for each visit. But it was now arranged +that Branwell should receive instruction from the artist at his studio +in Leeds. In this way he would not only have better opportunities of +acquiring the art, but the cost would be much less. For this purpose, +he stayed at an inn in Briggate, but occasionally took his master's +pictures to Haworth to copy. Under this kind of tuition he continued +for some months, when, having completed his studies, he resolved upon +turning the instruction he had received, probably through the kindness +of his aunt, to profitable account. With this professional intention, +he engaged private apartments in Bradford, and took up his residence as +a portrait-painter, under the interest of his mother's relative, the +Rev. William Morgan, of Christ Church. Among others, he painted +portraits of this gentleman, and of the Rev. Henry Heap, the vicar. For +some months Branwell was successful in maintaining himself by these +praiseworthy efforts; but it was scarcely to be expected that he could +succeed sufficiently well in competition with the older and more +experienced artists of the neighbourhood. +</p> + +<p> +Among his other pictures, were portraits of Mrs. Kirby, his landlady, +and her two children. One of these, a beautiful little girl, was his +special favourite. At his frequent request, she dined with him in his +private sitting-room, her pleasant smiles and cheerful prattling always +charming him. +</p> + +<p> +It may be mentioned here that, when Branwell had entered upon his +studies under Mr. Robinson, he formed an acquaintance with a +fellow-student, Mr. J. H. Thompson, who was a portrait-painter at +Bradford. A close friendship grew up between them; and this artist, +being more experienced than Branwell, gave, now and then, finishing +touches to the productions of his young friend. +</p> + +<p> +Soon after Branwell gave up his profession as an artist at Bradford, he +wrote to Mr. Thompson, in reference to some misunderstanding which had +arisen between himself and his landlady. The letter is dated from +'Haworth, May the 17th, 1839.' +</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> +'<span class="sc">Dear Sir</span>, +</p> + +<p> +'Your last has made me resolve on a visit to you at Bradford, for +certainly this train of misconceptions and delays must at last be +put a stop to. +</p> + +<p> +'I shall (Deo volente) be at the "Bull's Head" at two o'clock this +afternoon (Friday), and <i>do</i> be there, or in Bradford, to give +me your aid when I arrive! +</p> + +<p> +'I am astonished at Mrs. Kirby. I have no pictures of hers to +finish. But I said that, if I returned there, I would varnish three +for her; and also I do not understand people who look on a kindness +as a duty. +</p> + +<p> +'Once more my heartfelt thanks to you for your consideration for +one who has none for himself. +</p> + +<p class="close"> +'Yours faithfully, +</p> + +<p class="sig"> +'<span class="sc">P. B. Brontë</span>.' +</p> +</div> +<p> +Mrs. Kirby had not been quite satisfied with the pictures before +mentioned; but, on hearing Mr. Thompson's favourable opinion, she at +once gave way. Although Branwell ceased his residence at Bradford for +the reasons assigned, he afterwards painted portraits occasionally at +Haworth; but also frequently visited his friends at the former place, +having become acquainted with the poets and artists of the +neighbourhood, as we shall presently see. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Robinson has undertaken to draw Branwell's portrait at this +juncture of his affairs, when she says he had attained the age of +twenty years, though in fact he was twenty-two; and the following is +the labour of her hands: 'He went to Bradford as a portrait-painter, +and—so impressive is audacity—actually succeeded for some months in +gaining a living there…. His tawny mane, his pose of untaught genius, +his verses in the poet's corner of the paper could not for ever keep +afloat this untaught and thriftless portrait-painter of twenty. Soon +there came an end to his painting there. He disappeared from Bradford +suddenly, heavily in debt, and was lost to sight until, unnerved, a +drunkard, and an opium-eater, he came back to home and Emily at +Haworth.'<a href="#note24" name="noteref24"> +<small>[24]</small></a> +</p> + +<p> +These statements are simply untrue. I have the positive information of +one who knew Branwell in Leeds, and who resided in Bradford at the time +when he was there, that he did not leave that town in debt; that he +certainly was not a drunkard; and that, if he took anything at all, it +was but occasionally, and then no more than the commonest custom would +permit. I would rather believe—if all other evidence were wanting—the +account of Branwell given by the friends who knew him personally, and +who, at the moment in which I write, are still living on the spot where +he exerted himself to gain a living by the labour of his own hands, +than the unfair, unjust, and exaggerated charges quoted above. But +Branwell's letter to his friend disposes at once of the assertion that +he 'disappeared from Bradford suddenly, heavily in debt, and was lost +to sight.' And, as to the statement that he was unnerved and a +drunkard, one should surely rather accept the evidence of those who +knew him, that he was, on the contrary, as they unhesitatingly say, 'a +quiet, unassuming young man, retiring, and diffident, seeming rather of +a passive nature, and delicate constitution, than otherwise.' And, +moreover, his visits to Bradford, after he had given up his profession +there, were frequent, for his literary tastes, his artistic pursuits, +and his musical abilities had secured him many friends in that town. +Assuredly the biographer of Emily has been very unfortunate, to say the +least, in her account of Branwell's honest, upright, and honourable +endeavour to make his living by the profession of art at Bradford. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Robinson asserts that Branwell was an opium-eater 'of twenty,' in +addition to the other baneful habits she ascribes to him. There is, +however, no reliable evidence that, at this period of his life, he was +any such thing; and, considering the fact that the biographer of Emily +has assigned Branwell's art-practice at Bradford to a period subsequent +to his tutorship at Broughton-in-Furness, one may, perhaps, be +permitted to suspect that she is equally in error in her assertions as +to his opium-eating so young. Branwell did, indeed, later, fall into +the baneful habit, and suffered at times in consequence; but there is +no reason to believe that he became wholly subject to it, or was +greatly injured by the practice, either in mind or body. We can only +surmise as to the original cause of his use of opium; but, when we +consider the extraordinary fascination which De Quincey's wonderful +book had for the younger generation of literary men of his day, we +shall recognize that Branwell, who read the book, in all probability +fell under its influence. Let us remember, moreover, that the young +man's two sisters had died of consumption, and that De Quincey declares +the use of the drug had saved him from the fate of his father who had +fallen a victim to the same scourge. Lastly, it should not be forgotten +that, in the first half of this century, the use of opium became, in +some sort, fashionable amongst literary men, and that many admirers of +De Quincey and Coleridge deemed that the practice had received a +sufficient sanction. But the former of these writers had used the drug +intermittently, and we have reason to believe that Branwell, who +followed him, did likewise. Let us, then, imagine the young Brontë, +revelling in the realm of the dreamy and impassioned, and hoping fondly +that consumption might be driven away, resolving to try the effect of +the 'dread agent of unimaginable pleasure and pain,' a proceeding from +which many less brave would have shrunk. Branwell had doubtless read, +in the 'Confessions of an English Opium-eater,' that the drug does not +disorder the system; but gives tone, a sort of health, that might be +natural if it were not for the means by which it is procured. He would +believe that—in one under this magic spell, that is—'the diviner part +of his nature is paramount, the moral affections are in a state of +cloudless serenity; and high over all the great light of the majestic +intellect.' Mrs. Gaskell describes the operation of opium upon herself. +She says: 'I asked her' (Charlotte) 'whether she had ever taken opium, +as the description of its effects, given in "Villette," was so exactly +like what I had experienced—vivid and exaggerated presence of objects +of which the outlines were indistinct, or lost in golden mist, etc.'<a href="#note25" name="noteref25"> +<small>[25]</small></a> +Branwell could not have tasted these stronger effects of the drug when +he first made use of it; but it should be remembered that he several +times recurred to the practice, and suffered the consequent pains and +penalties. +</p> + +<p> +After his portrait-painting at Bradford, he never again resided there, +and it was about the period of his leaving that place that he began to +see the artistic career he had chosen was a mistake, and he determined +to give it up as a profession. Moreover, other influences, as we shall +see, had been, and were still, at work upon him which caused him to +turn once more to literature. From the period of his acquaintance with +the drawing-masters, he had become associated with the literary as well +as the artistic circles of the neighbourhood; and he anticipated the +literary future of his sisters. +</p> + +<a name="XII"> </a> +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XII. +</p> + +<p class="head"> +LITERARY INFLUENCES AND ASPIRATIONS. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +New Inspiration of Poetry‌—‌Wordsworth‌—‌Southey, Scott, and Byron +‌—‌Southey to Charlotte Brontë‌—‌Hartley Coleridge‌—‌His Worthies of +Yorkshire‌—‌Poets of the West-Riding‌—‌Alaric A. Watts‌—‌Branwell's +Literary Abilities. +</p> + + +<p> +In the early part of the present century, the spirit of poetry began to +make itself felt in quarters where previously it had never been known. +The pedantic affectation of the Della Cruscan school gave place, in the +works of a passionate lover of Nature like Wordsworth, to a fresher and +purer inspiration, that delighted in familiar themes of domestic and +rural beauty, which were often both humble and obscure. It was +Wordsworth, indeed, who 'developed the theory of poetry,'—as Branwell +Brontë well knew—that has worked a greater change in literature than +has, perhaps, been known since the period of the Renaissance. In his +endeavour to solve the difficulty of 'fitting to metrical arrangement a +selection of the real language of men in a state of vivid sensation,' +Wordsworth had prepared the way for a natural outburst of poetic +feeling, occupied with familiar and simple topics. The writers of the +so-called 'Lake School' of poets, and especially Wordsworth, Coleridge, +and Southey, were, in fact, the leaders of the new movement; and, +speedily, responsive to the free note of genius uncurbed, there arose +from many an unknown place in England the sweet sound of poetic voices +not heard before. At the same time, the touch of romanticism, which was +imparted by Scott and Byron, had a great influence on many of the +younger poets of the new school. It is evident, to anyone who has +studied the local literature of that time, that the works produced +under such inspiration were often of great and permanent merit. +Southey, writing to Charlotte Brontë in 1837, indeed says, '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.' +</p> + +<p> +Nowhere, probably, in England was the influence of the poets of +Westmoreland felt more deeply than in the valleys of the West-Riding +of Yorkshire. Indeed, a young publisher of that district, Mr. F. E. +Bingley, had sufficient appreciation of genius, and enterprise enough, +to bring him to Leeds for the purpose of publishing works from Hartley +Coleridge's hand. The younger Coleridge—besides the prestige of his +fathers name—had already become known as an occasional contributor to +'Blackwood's Magazine,' wherein first appeared his poem of 'Leonard +and Susan,' so much admired. Mr. Bingley entered into an engagement +to enable him to publish two volumes of poems, and a series of +'Biographical notices of the Worthies of Yorkshire and Lancashire,' +which Hartley Coleridge was to write. One of the volumes of poems was +issued from the press in 1833, and was well received. 'The Worthies' +proceeded to the third number, forming an octavo volume of six hundred +and thirty-two pages, when circumstances compelled Mr. Bingley to sell +the remainders to another publisher, who issued a second edition of +this well-known work, with a new title, in the year 1836. From the same +press there came, in 1834, 'Cyril, a Poem in Four Cantos; and Minor +Poems,' by George Wilson. C. F. Edgar, who was editor of the 'Yorkshire +Literary Annual,' the first volume of which appeared in 1831, was also +the author of a volume of poems, published by Mr. Bingley in the +succeeding year; and other poetical works followed from the Leeds +press. +</p> + +<p> +But, in those days, there was scarcely a locality in the populous +West-Riding of Yorkshire without its poet, and that poet, too, a man of +no mean powers. Nicholson, the Airedale poet, had, previously to the +time of which I speak, published his 'Airedale, and other Poems,' and +his 'Lyre of Ebor.' His poetical talents were really excellent, and his +versatility, and the happy character of his effusions, made Nicholson +very popular in the West-Riding. He died in 1843. The gifted poet of +Gargrave, Robert Story, had published, in earlier years, many songs and +poems in the local papers; and he issued, in 1836, a volume, entitled, +'The Magic Fountain.' This was followed, in 1838, by 'The Outlaw,' and +by 'Love and Literature,' in the year 1842. This poet was an ardent +partizan of the Conservatives, and his lyrical abilities were devoted +with unflagging energy to their cause. His 'Songs and Poems,' and his +'Lyrical, and other Minor Poems,' were subsequently published. His +political songs were vigorous, and his pastoral ones were redolent of +pastures, meadows, and moors, breathing all the freshness of nature in +its happiest time. Thomas Crossley, the 'Bard of Ovenden,' like Story, +possessed of lyrical talents of the highest order, was a frequent +contributor to the county papers; and he published, in 1837, an +admirable and delightful volume, entitled, 'The Flowers of Ebor.' In +the same year, William Dearden, the 'Bard of Caldene,' the possessor of +high gifts, published his 'Star-Seer; a Poem in Five Cantos,' which was +distinguished by great power, originality, and loftiness of conception. +It was largely influenced by the spirit of romanticism, and flowed with +the sweetest diction. +</p> + +<p> +This also was the age of 'Souvenirs,' 'Keepsakes,' 'Forget-me-nots,' +and 'Annuals,' which sold very largely, and contained much that was +really good. Heath, the proprietor of the 'Keepsake,' as we are told by +Southey, sold fifteen thousand copies in one year, and used four +thousand yards of watered-silk for the next issue; for these volumes +were always resplendent in silk and gold. Alaric A. Watts, who +published, in 1822, his 'Poetical Sketches' (a fourth edition of which, +enlarged and exquisitely illustrated with designs by Stothard and +Nesfield, was required), became, in the same year, editor of the 'Leeds +Intelligencer,' which he conducted with much spirit and ability. He +afterwards established the 'Manchester Courier,' which he for some time +edited, and was well-known in the northern shires. In 1828 and 1829 +appeared his 'Poetical Album,' 'Scenes of Life, and Shades of +Character,' in 1831; and from 1825 to 1834 he produced his 'Literary +Souvenir; a Cabinet of Poetry and Romance,' with great and deserved +success. It is more than likely that the great popularity of his +venture led to the publication of 'The White Rose of York,' a similar +volume, which was brought out at Halifax in the year 1834. This work +was edited by George Hogarth, and, in addition to the authors already +mentioned—who were, with the exception of Nicholson, the Airedale +poet, and the Leeds authors, contributors to it—were F. C. Spencer, +author of 'The Vale of Bolton,' a volume of poems; Henry Ingram, author +of a volume entitled, 'Matilda'; Henry Martin, editor of the 'Halifax +Express'; John Roby, author of 'The Traditions of Lancashire;' and +others. There was also in the work a contribution, entitled 'Morley +Hall,'—treating of a legend of the last-named county—by C. Peters, +the subject of which also exercised the abilities of the author of 'The +Flowers of Ebor'; and subsequently interested Branwell Brontë in a +similar manner—his friend Leyland having modelled a scene from the +story, in clay. +</p> + +<p> +It is beyond question that these literary influences, which stirred the +depths of feeling in Yorkshire, had a profound effect on the earlier +writings of the Brontës, and probably were their original inspiration. +All the local papers were filled with the news of the literary +movement; and the busy brains in the parsonage of Haworth could not but +be raised to emulation by the tidings. Branwell, especially, who knew +personally many of the workers in the new field whom I have named, and +was never so happy as when he could enjoy their company, was soon +moved, in the midst of his art-aspirations, to partake in their +literary labours. At this time, the tastes of the Brontës in this +direction, and their progress in poetical and prose composition, began +to inspire them with hopes and anticipations of the brightest +character. From childhood their attempts at literary composition had +formed, according to Charlotte herself, the highest stimulus, and one +of the liveliest pleasures they had known. They began to find out that +their genius was not artistic, but literary, and to pursue its bent +with increasing ardour and the warmest interest. +</p> + +<p> +It cannot be doubted that Branwell, greatly influenced, perhaps, by his +sisters, or they, more probably, by him—for they ever regarded his +genius as greater than their own—was soon employing his pen as often, +and more successfully, than his pencil. Mr. Brontë's daughters were +possessed largely of discriminating and critical powers, sufficient to +enable them to judge accurately of the abilities of their brother; and +Mrs. Gaskell allows that, to begin with, he was perhaps the greatest +genius of this rare family, and this more even in a literary than in an +artistic sense. Their favourable judgment was based on evidence they +had before them. They were not ignorant of his poetical and prose +compositions; and that these showed great beauty of thought and much +felicity of expression, as well as considerable power, originality, and +freshness of treatment, the evidences will appear in the subsequent +pages. +</p> + +<a name="XIII"> </a> +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XIII. +</p> + +<p class="head"> +EARLY POEMS. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +Branwell's Letter to Wordsworth, with Stanzas‌—‌Remarks upon it‌—‌No +Reply‌—‌He Tries Again‌—‌His Interest in the Manchester and Leeds +Railway‌—‌Branwell's Literary and Artistic Friends at Bradford and +Halifax‌—‌Leyland's Works there‌—‌Branwell's great Interest in +them‌—‌Early Verses‌—‌Mrs. Gaskell's Judgment on his Literary Abilities. +</p> + + +<p> +Branwell, even while working at art with great energy, was not, as I +have said, oblivious of his literary power. While, however, the work of +his sisters was to be conducted with great earnestness of purpose, it +was unfortunate that the scintillations of Branwell's genius were too +often fitful, erratic, and uncertain: his mind, indeed, even at this +time, was unstable. +</p> + +<p> +It may be noted, as characteristic of all Mr. Brontë's children, that, +united with sterling gifts of intellectual power and literary acumen, +there was always some mistrust as to the merit of their <i>own</i> +productions, especially of poetical ones. They seem to have felt +themselves like travellers wandering in mist, or struggling through a +thicket, or toiling on devious paths with no reliable information at +hand, until they arrived at a point where progress looked impossible, +until they had obtained a guide in whom they had confidence. It +appeared, indeed, to the Brontës that, without an opinion on their +work, time might be altogether wasted on what was unprofitable. +Charlotte, therefore, in the December of 1836, determined to submit +some of her poems to the judgment of Southey; and it would seem that +she also consulted Hartley Coleridge. +</p> + +<p> +Before, however, Southey had answered his sister's letter, Branwell +ventured, in a similar spirit, to address Wordsworth, for whose +writings he had a great admiration. The following is his letter; and, +although it has been previously published, it must not be omitted +here.<a href="#note26" name="noteref26"> +<small>[26]</small></a> +</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p class="ralign"> +'Haworth, near Bradford, +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +'Yorkshire, January 19th, 1837. +</p> + +<p> +'<span class="sc">Sir</span>, +</p> + +<p> +'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. +</p> + +<p> +'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. +</p> + +<p> +'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. +</p> + +<p> +'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 further 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 +<i>writing</i> poet worth a sixpence, the field must be open, if a +better man can step forward. +</p> + +<p> +'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 old 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 +kind-heartedness—<i>return</i> me an <i>answer</i>, 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, +</p> + +<p class="close"> +'Your really humble servant, +</p> + +<p class="sig"> +'<span class="sc">P. B. Brontë</span>.' +</p> +</div> +<p> +Mrs. Gaskell gives the following six stanzas, which are about a third +of the whole, and declares them not to be the worst part of the +composition:— +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'So where He reigns in glory bright,</p> +<p>Above those starry skies of night,</p> +<p>Amid His Paradise of light,</p> +<p class="i14">Oh, why may I not be?</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'Oft when awake on Christmas morn,</p> +<p>In sleepless twilight laid forlorn,</p> +<p>Strange thoughts have o'er my mind been borne</p> +<p class="i14">How He has died for me.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'And oft, within my chamber lying,</p> +<p>Have I awaked myself with crying,</p> +<p>From dreams, where I beheld Him dying</p> +<p class="i14">Upon the accursed tree.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'And often has my mother said,</p> +<p>While on her lap I laid my head,</p> +<p>She feared for time I was not made,</p> +<p class="i14">But for Eternity.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'So "I can read my title clear</p> +<p class="i2">To mansions in the skies,</p> +<p>And let me bid farewell to fear,</p> +<p class="i2">And wipe my weeping eyes."</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'I'll lay me down on this marble stone,</p> +<p class="i2">And set the world aside,</p> +<p>To see upon her ebon throne</p> +<p class="i2">The Moon in glory ride.'</p></div></div> + +<p> +Branwell's letter to Wordsworth is, for the most part, well written, +and breathes an eager spirit, which shows the anxiety he was under to +know the opinion of a high and competent judge as to how he stood +with the Nine. It tells us the ardour with which he read and wrote, +the ambitious turn of his mind, and the special aims which he then +had in the literary world. But the verses, although imbued with a +fervent spirit of early piety, were such as Wordsworth could not +justly review without giving discouragement, and it seems probable he +preferred to keep silence rather than, by an open avowal, to give +pain—if pain must be given—as the lesser evil of the two. Or, +perhaps, he took amiss the ready frankness and apparent self-esteem +which, notwithstanding the disavowal, would probably seem present to +him in the letter of the young stranger who addressed him, without +sending any evidence of the powers of which he expressed himself so +confidently. But, at any rate, Mrs. Gaskell informs us that the +letter and verses were preserved by the poet till the Brontës became +celebrated, and that he gave the communication to his friend, Mr. +Quillinan, in 1850, when the real name of 'Currer Bell' became known. +</p> + +<p> +It must not be overlooked that, in the verses which Mrs. Gaskell has +printed, we have no opportunity of studying Branwell's dramatic +powers, which apparently found scope in the poem he had written. In +them is no development of the effect of the passionate feelings which +Branwell describes: 'struggling with a high imagination and acute +feelings,' and ending 'in mental misery and bodily ruin.' +</p> + +<p> +However, discouraged by long waiting, or assisted by friendly advice +and criticism, he toiled on in silence at his literary work, as he +did at art. The year 1837 turned out an important one for Charlotte. +In March, she at last received the answer from Southey, which she +considered a 'little stringent,' and from which she declared she had +derived good. She says, in her reply to the Laureate, 'I trust I +shall never more feel ambitious to see my name in print…. That +letter is consecrated; no one shall ever see it, but papa, and my +brother and my sisters.' +</p> + +<p> +It would seem that Branwell, notwithstanding the failure of his first +venture with Wordsworth, tried again, at a later date, with some +other, and more matured, compositions, which he submitted to that +poet and to Hartley Coleridge, 'who both,' says Mrs. Gaskell, +'expressed kind and laudatory opinions.' But, perhaps, the fact that, +to the letter quoted above, Wordsworth sent no answer, and did not +tell him whether he should 'write on, or write no more,' discouraged +Branwell for a time; and he may have been led to suspect that his +productions were worthless, and that time might 'henceforth be too +precious to be wasted upon them.' In this way, perhaps, he was +induced to turn with greater energy to his profession of art, as a +means of getting on, of which I spoke in a former chapter, though we +shall see that he did not abandon his literary work. +</p> + +<p> +Branwell also now found opportunities of making himself acquainted +with the grand and wild scenery of the mountainous borders of the +counties of York and Lancaster, a wider district than his sisters +could well survey. +</p> + +<p> +The Manchester and Leeds Railway was, at the time, in course of +construction below Littleborough, passing through the picturesque and +romantic vale of Todmorden. Branwell became greatly interested in the +work; and as stores, and other things for the completion of the line +to Hebden Bridge, were forwarded from Littleborough by canal, having +been previously sent to that place from Manchester by train, he soon +ingratiated himself with the boatmen, and was frequently seen in +their boats. It was on one of these occasions that Mr. Woolven, +previously mentioned, who was officially employed on the works, +recognized at once the clever young man who had surprised the company +at the 'Castle Tavern,' Holborn, and entered into conversation with +him. These incidents led to a friendly intercourse between them, +which continued for some years. +</p> + +<p> +Among his Bradford acquaintances, Branwell numbered, in addition to +Geller, the mezzotinto-engraver, previously mentioned, Wilson +Anderson, an admirable landscape-painter, whose productions are +valued as truthful pictures of the places they represent, and on +account of the skilfulness of their manipulation and colouring; and +also Richard Waller, a well-known and excellent portrait-painter. To +these may be added Edward Collinson, a local poet; Robert Story; and +John James, the future historian of Bradford. All these were personal +acquaintances of Branwell, as well as of Leyland, and the intercourse +between them was frequent. For more than twenty years a party of +these friends was accustomed to meet, from time to time, at the +'George Hotel,' Bradford, under the auspices of Miss Rennie, who +greatly prided herself on seeing at her house, in their hours of +leisure, the artistic and literary celebrities of the neighbourhood. +Leyland was at Halifax, being there to erect certain monuments, which +he had executed in London for various patrons in his native town. +While there, he modelled, in the upper room of an ancient house, his +colossal group of 'African Bloodhounds,' his model being a living +specimen of the breed; and the group, which was exhibited in London, +was favourably noticed. Landseer regarded it as the 'noblest modern +work of its kind.' It is now in the Salford Museum. The progress of +this group intensely interested Branwell and his Bradford friends; +and they frequently visited Leyland's temporary studio. It also +formed the subject of a poem by Dearden.<a href="#note27" name="noteref27"> +<small>[27]</small></a> Finding this studio of +insufficient height for a great work he contemplated—a colossal +group of 'Thracian Falconers'—Leyland afterwards took a suitable +place in another part of the town, which, likewise, became a +meeting-place of the local <i>literati</i>. The new work was to +consist of three figures, the centre one being seated, and having +upon his right fore-finger a hawk; while his left hand rested on the +shoulder of a youth just roused, as if by some sudden sound; and, on +his right, was a similar youth, half-recumbent, and also in a +listening attitude. The centre figure was alone completed, and is now +in the Salford Museum. +</p> + +<p> +Branwell, on his visits to the artist's studio, often lamented the +dissipation of his high artistic hopes, and confessed that he saw +with pain how misplaced his confidence in his own powers had been. +But the sculptor was a poet also, and thus Branwell and he worked in +the same field. Many of Leyland's poems were published in the +Yorkshire papers, and also in the 'Morning Chronicle,' and were +always considered to be of true poetic excellence. Branwell relied +much on the artist's judgment in literary matters, and often +submitted his productions to him. +</p> + +<p> +Although Brontë had, as we have seen, abandoned the hope of a high +artistic career, he still clung to the practice of portrait-painting, +and this gave him leisure to court the muse. The following are the +earliest of his poems, of which the MSS. are in my possession; and +these are fragments only. The first is a verse of eleven lines, dated +January 23rd, 1838, which originally concluded a poem of sixty;— +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'There's many a grief to shade the scene,</p> +<p class="i2">And hide the starry skies;</p> +<p>But all such clouds that intervene</p> +<p class="i2">From mortal life arise.</p> +<p>And—may I smile—O God! to see</p> +<p>Their storms of sorrow beat on me,</p> +<p class="i2">When I so surely know</p> +<p>That Thou, the while, art shining on;</p> +<p>That I, at last, when they are gone,</p> +<p>Shall see the glories of Thy throne,</p> +<p class="i2">So far more bright than now.'</p></div></div> + +<p> +This fragment, written by Branwell at the age of twenty-one, is +characteristic of the early tone of his mind. His naturally amiable +and susceptible disposition had soon become imbued with the spirit of +Christian piety which surrounded his life. He was, too, at the time, +full of noble impulses and high aspirations; but the shade of +melancholy implanted in his constitution had begun to influence his +writings. The following, which is the beginning of another poem, must +have been written in some such thoughtful mood, though the title is +not borne out in the portion I am able to give. +</p> +<p class="space"> </p> + +<p class="ctr"> +DEATH TRIUMPHANT. +</p> + + +<p class="ctr"> +<span class="sc">May</span>, 1838. +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'Oh! on this first bright Mayday morn,</p> +<p class="i2">That seems to change our earth to Heaven,</p> +<p>May my own bitter thoughts be borne,</p> +<p class="i2">With the wild winter it has driven!</p> +<p>Like this earth, may my mind be made</p> +<p class="i2">To feel the freshness round me spreading,</p> +<p class="i2">No other aid to rouse it needing</p> +<p>Than thy glad light, so long delayed.</p> +<p class="i2">Sweet woodland sunshine!—none but thee</p> +<p class="i2">Can wake the joys of memory,</p> +<p>Which seemed decaying, as all decayed.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'O! may they bud, as thou dost now,</p> +<p class="i2">With promise of a summer near!</p> +<p>Nay—let me feel my weary brow—</p> +<p class="i2">Where are the ringlets wreathing there?</p> +<p>Why does the hand that shades it tremble?</p> +<p class="i2">Why do these limbs, so languid, shun</p> +<p class="i2">Their walk beneath the morning sun?</p> +<p>Ah, mortal Self! couldst thou dissemble</p> +<p class="i2">Like Sister-Soul! But forms refuse</p> +<p class="i2">The real and unreal to confuse.</p> +<p>But, with caprice of fancy, She</p> +<p>Joins things long past with things to be,</p> +<p>Till even I doubt if I have told</p> +<p class="i2">My tale of woes and wonders o'er,</p> +<p>Or think Her magic can unfold</p> +<p class="i2">A phantom path of joys before—</p> +<p>Or, laid beneath this Mayday blaze—</p> +<p>Ask, "Live I o'er departed days?"</p> +<p>Am I the child by Gambia's side,</p> +<p>Beneath its woodlands waving wide?</p> +<p>Have I the footsteps bounding free,</p> +<p>The happy laugh of infancy?'</p></div></div> + +<p> +In this beautiful fragment we have the first passionate out-pouring +of the self-imposed woes, which, proceeding from within, were +thereafter to overspread and tincture with darkest colours every +thought of Branwell's mind. We see him here for a moment, standing in +incipient melancholia, in what appears to him to be a desert of +mental despondency; but, turning back with a fond affection for the +past, and recalling, in plaintive words, the joys of 'departed days.' +He seems here, indeed, to seek in the mysteries of the soul those +pleasures and hopes which his mortal self cannot afford him. Branwell +never appears to have forgotten, as I have previously suggested, the +sad circumstances of the death of his sisters; and his solitary +broodings over these visitations gave a morbid tone to his writings. +It was in 1838 that he adopted the pseudonym of 'Northangerland.' His +earlier poems, although occasionally showing some power, were not +sufficiently gifted to add to the lustre of Brontë literature. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Gaskell, alluding to Branwell's literary abilities about this +time, says: '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,' continues Mrs. Gaskell, 'a stronger desire for literary fame +burning in his heart than even that which occasionally flashed up in +his sisters'.' She says also that, 'He tried various outlets for his +talents … and he frequently contributed verses to the "Leeds +Mercury."' The latter statement, however, is incorrect, for nothing +of Branwell's appears in that journal. +</p> + +<a name="XIV"> </a> +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XIV. +</p> + +<p class="head"> +POEMS ON 'CAROLINE.' +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +The Poetical bent of Branwell's Genius‌—‌'Caroline's Prayer'‌—‌'On +Caroline'‌—‌'Caroline'‌—‌Spirit of these Early Effusions. +</p> + + +<p> +While Branwell was occupying his leisure as stated in the last +chapter, and otherwise employing himself in a desultory way, he +pursued the poetic bent of his genius, and sought the improvement of +his diction and verse. Among the earliest of his poetical productions, +the following are, perhaps, the best. They are distinguished by a +similar train of thought and reflection, and by similar sentiments of +piety and devotion, as also by the same gloom and sadness of mood, +which pervade the poems of his sisters. Indeed, without knowing they +were actually Branwell's, we might easily believe them to be from the +pen of Charlotte, Emily, or Anne. +</p> + +<p> +The three following poetical essays are on 'Caroline,' under which +name Branwell indicates his sister Maria; and, in two of them, he +records his reminiscences of her death and funeral obsequies. The +first of the three, which he has framed in the sentiments and words +of a child, is entitled: +</p> +<p class="space"> </p> +<p class="ctr"> +CAROLINE'S PRAYER, +</p> + +<p class="ctrclose"> +OR THE CHANGE FROM CHILDHOOD TO WOMANHOOD. +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'My Father, and my childhood's guide!</p> +<p class="i2">If oft I've wandered far from Thee;</p> +<p>E'en though Thine only Son has died</p> +<p class="i2">To save from death a child like me;</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'O! still—to Thee when turns my heart</p> +<p class="i2">In hours of sadness, frequent now—</p> +<p>Be Thou the God that once Thou wert,</p> +<p class="i2">And calm my breast, and clear my brow.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'I'm now no more a little child</p> +<p class="i2">O'ershadowed by Thy mighty wing;</p> +<p>My very dreams seem now more wild</p> +<p class="i2">Than those my slumbers used to bring.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'I further see—I deeper feel—</p> +<p class="i2">With hope more warm, but heart less mild;</p> +<p>And former things new shapes reveal,</p> +<p class="i2">All strangely brightened or despoiled.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'I'm entering on Life's open tide;</p> +<p class="i2">So—farewell childhood's shores divine!</p> +<p>And, oh, my Father, deign to guide,</p> +<p class="i2">Through these wide waters, Caroline!'</p></div></div> + +<p> +The second is: +</p> +<p class="space"> </p> + +<p class="ctr"> +ON CAROLINE. +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'The light of thy ancestral hall,</p> +<p class="i2">Thy Caroline, no longer smiles:</p> +<p>She has changed her palace for a pall,</p> +<p class="i2">Her garden walks for minster aisles:</p> +<p>Eternal sleep has stilled her breast</p> +<p class="i2">Where peace and pleasure made their shrine;</p> +<p>Her golden head has sunk to rest—</p> +<p class="i2">Oh, would that rest made calmer mine!</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'To thee, while watching o'er the bed</p> +<p class="i2">Where, mute and motionless, she lay,</p> +<p>How slow the midnight moments sped!</p> +<p class="i2">How void of sunlight woke the day!</p> +<p>Nor ope'd her eyes to morning's beam,</p> +<p class="i2">Though all around thee woke to her;</p> +<p>Nor broke thy raven-pinioned dream</p> +<p class="i2">Of coffin, shroud, and sepulchre.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'Why beats thy breast when hers is still?</p> +<p class="i2">Why linger'st thou when she is gone?</p> +<p>Hop'st thou to light on good or ill?</p> +<p class="i2">To find companionship alone?</p> +<p>Perhaps thou think'st the churchyard stone</p> +<p class="i2">Can hide past smiles and bury sighs:</p> +<p>That Memory, with her soul, has flown;</p> +<p class="i2">That thou canst leave her where she lies.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'No! joy <i>itself</i> is but a shade,</p> +<p class="i2">So well may its remembrance die;</p> +<p>But cares, life's conquerors, never fade,</p> +<p class="i2">So strong is their reality!</p> +<p>Thou may'st forget the day which gave</p> +<p class="i2">That child of beauty to thy side,</p> +<p>But not the moment when the grave</p> +<p class="i2">Took back again thy borrowed bride.'</p></div></div> + +<p> +Here Branwell, though he has changed the form of expression and the +circumstance of the loss, is still occupied with the same theme of +family bereavement, with which Charlotte herself was so much +impressed. +</p> + +<p> +The following was intended as the first canto of a long poem. It also +is entitled, 'Caroline;' and is the soliloquy of one 'Harriet,' who +mourns for her sister, the subject of the poem, calling to mind her +early recollection of the death and funeral of the departed one. It +is extremely probable that Branwell made 'Harriet' a vehicle of +expression for Charlotte or Emily, as he had adopted the name of +'Caroline' for Maria. +</p> +<p class="space"> </p> + +<p class="ctr"> +CAROLINE. +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'Calm and clear the day declining,</p> +<p class="i2">Lends its brightness to the air,</p> +<p>With a slanted sunlight shining,</p> +<p class="i2">Mixed with shadows stretching far:</p> +<p>Slow the river pales its glancing,</p> +<p>Soft its waters cease their dancing,</p> +<p>As the hush of eve advancing</p> +<p class="i2">Tells our toils that rest is near.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'Why is such a silence given</p> +<p class="i2">To this summer day's decay?</p> +<p>Does our earth feel aught of Heaven?</p> +<p class="i2">Can the voice of Nature pray?</p> +<p>And when daylight's toils are done,</p> +<p>Beneath its mighty Maker's throne.</p> +<p>Can it, for noontide sunshine gone,</p> +<p class="i2">Its debt with smiles repay?</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'Quiet airs of sacred gladness</p> +<p class="i2">Breathing through these woodlands wild,</p> +<p>O'er the whirl of mortal madness</p> +<p class="i2">Spread the slumbers of a child:</p> +<p>These surrounding sweeps of trees</p> +<p>Swaying to the evening breeze,</p> +<p>With a voice like distant seas,</p> +<p class="i2">Making music mild.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'Woodchurch Hall above them lowering</p> +<p class="i2">Dark against the pearly sky,</p> +<p>With its clustered chimneys towering,</p> +<p class="i2">Wakes the wind while passing by:</p> +<p>And in old ancestral glory,</p> +<p>Round that scene of ancient story,</p> +<p>All its oak-trees, huge and hoary,</p> +<p class="i2">Wave their boughs on high.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>''Mid those gables there is one—</p> +<p class="i2">The soonest dark when day is gone—</p> +<p>Which, when autumn winds are strongest,</p> +<p class="i2">Moans the most and echoes longest.</p> +<p>There—with her curls like sunset air,</p> +<p>Like it all balmy, bright, and fair—</p> +<p>Sits Harriet, with her cheek reclined</p> +<p class="i2">On arm as white as mountain snow;</p> +<p>While, with a bursting swell, her mind</p> +<p class="i2">Fills with thoughts of "Long Ago."</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'As from yon spire a funeral bell,</p> +<p>Wafting through heaven its mourning knell,</p> +<p>Warns man that life's uncertain day</p> +<p>Like lifeless Nature's must decay;</p> +<p>And tells her that the warning deep</p> +<p>Speaks where her own forefathers sleep,</p> +<p>And where destruction makes a prey</p> +<p class="i2">Of what was once this world to her,</p> +<p>But which—like other gods of clay—</p> +<p class="i2">Has cheated its blind worshipper:</p> +<p>With swelling breast and shining eyes</p> +<p>That seem to chide the thoughtless skies,</p> +<p>She strives in words to find relief</p> +<p>For long-pent thoughts of mellowed grief.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'"Time's clouds roll back, and memory's light</p> +<p>Bursts suddenly upon my sight;</p> +<p>For thoughts, which words could never tell,</p> +<p>Find utterance in that funeral bell.</p> +<p>My heart, this eve, seemed full of feeling,</p> +<p>Yet nothing clear to me revealing;</p> +<p>Sounding in breathings undefined</p> +<p>Æolian music to my mind:</p> +<p class="i2">Then strikes that bell, and all subsides</p> +<p>Into a harmony, which glides</p> +<p>As sweet and solemn as the dream</p> +<p>Of a remembered funeral hymn.</p> +<p class="i2">This scene seemed like the magic glass,</p> +<p>Which bore upon its clouded face</p> +<p>Strange shadows that deceived the eye</p> +<p>With forms defined uncertainly;</p> +<p>That Bell is old Agrippa's wand,</p> +<p>Which parts the clouds on either hand,</p> +<p>And shows the pictured forms of doom</p> +<p>Momently brightening through the gloom:</p> +<p>Yes—shows a scene of bygone years—</p> +<p>Opens a fount of sealed-up tears—</p> +<p>And wakens memory's pensive thought</p> +<p>To visions sleeping—not forgot.</p> +<p>It brings me back a summer's day,</p> +<p>Shedding like this its parting ray,</p> +<p>With skies as shining and serene,</p> +<p>And hills as blue, and groves as green.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'"Ah, well I recollect that hour,</p> +<p class="i2">When I sat, gazing, just as now,</p> +<p>Toward that ivy-mantled tower</p> +<p class="i2">Among these flowers which wave below!</p> +<p>No—not these flowers—they're long since dead,</p> +<p class="i2">And flowers have budded, bloomed, and gone,</p> +<p>Since those were plucked which gird the head</p> +<p class="i2">Laid underneath yon churchyard stone!</p> +<p>I stooped to pluck a rose that grew</p> +<p class="i2">Beside this window, waving then;</p> +<p>But back my little hand withdrew,</p> +<p class="i2">From some reproof of inward pain;</p> +<p>For <i>she who loved it</i> was not there</p> +<p class="i2">To check me with her dove-like eye,</p> +<p>And something bid my heart forbear</p> +<p class="i2"><i>Her</i> favourite rosebud to destroy.</p> +<p>Was it that bell—that funeral bell,</p> +<p class="i2">Sullenly sounding on the wind?</p> +<p>Was it that melancholy knell</p> +<p class="i2">Which first to sorrow woke my mind?</p> +<p>I looked upon my mourning dress</p> +<p class="i2">Till my heart beat with childish fear,</p> +<p>And—frightened at my loneliness—</p> +<p class="i2">I watched, some well-known sound to hear.</p> +<p>But all without lay silent in</p> +<p class="i2">The sunny hush of afternoon,</p> +<p>And only muffled steps within</p> +<p class="i2">Passed slowly and sedately on.</p> +<p>I well can recollect the awe</p> +<p class="i2">With which I hastened to depart;</p> +<p class="i2">And, as I ran, the instinctive start</p> +<p>With which my mother's form I saw,</p> +<p>Arrayed in black, with pallid face,</p> +<p class="i2">And cheeks and 'kerchief wet with tears,</p> +<p>As down she stooped to kiss my face</p> +<p class="i2">And quiet my uncertain fears.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'"She led me, in her mourning hood,</p> +<p class="i2">Through voiceless galleries, to a room,</p> +<p>'Neath whose black hangings crowded stood,</p> +<p class="i2">With downcast eyes and brows of gloom,</p> +<p>My known relations; while—with head</p> +<p>Declining o'er my sister's bed—</p> +<p>My father's stern eye dropt a tear</p> +<p>Upon the coffin resting there.</p> +<p>My mother lifted me to see</p> +<p>What might within that coffin be;</p> +<p>And, to this moment, I can feel</p> +<p>The voiceless gasp—the sickening chill—</p> +<p>With which I hid my whitened face</p> +<p>In the dear folds of her embrace;</p> +<p>For hardly dared I turn my head</p> +<p>Lest its wet eyes should view that bed.</p> +<p class="i2">'But, Harriet,' said my mother mild,</p> +<p>'Look at <i>your</i> sister and my child</p> +<p>One moment, ere her form be hid</p> +<p>For ever 'neath its coffin lid!'</p> +<p class="i2">I heard the appeal, and answered too;</p> +<p>For down I bent to bid adieu.</p> +<p>But, as I looked, forgot affright</p> +<p>In mild and magical delight.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'"There lay she then, as now she lies—</p> +<p class="i2">For not a limb has moved since then—</p> +<p>In dreamless slumber closed, those eyes</p> +<p class="i2">That never more might wake again.</p> +<p>She lay, as I had seen her lie</p> +<p class="i2">On many a happy night before,</p> +<p>When I was humbly kneeling by—</p> +<p class="i2">Whom she was teaching to adore:</p> +<p>Oh, just as when by her I prayed,</p> +<p class="i2">And she to heaven sent up my prayer,</p> +<p>She lay with flowers about her head—</p> +<p class="i2">Though formal grave-clothes hid her hair!</p> +<p>Still did her lips the smile retain</p> +<p class="i2">Which parted them when hope was high,</p> +<p>Still seemed her brow as smoothed from pain</p> +<p class="i2">As when all thought she could not die.</p> +<p>And, though her bed looked cramped and strange,</p> +<p class="i2">Her <i>too</i> bright cheek all faded now,</p> +<p>My young eyes scarcely saw a change</p> +<p class="i2">From hours when moonlight paled her brow.</p> +<p>And yet I felt—and scarce could speak—</p> +<p class="i2">A chilly face, a faltering breath,</p> +<p>When my hand touched the marble cheek</p> +<p class="i2">Which lay so passively beneath.</p> +<p>In fright I gasped, 'Speak, Caroline!'</p> +<p class="i2">And bade my sister to arise;</p> +<p>But answered not her voice to mine,</p> +<p class="i2">Nor ope'd her sleeping eyes.</p> +<p>I turned toward my mother then</p> +<p class="i2">And prayed on her to call;</p> +<p>But, though she strove to hide her pain,</p> +<p class="i2">It forced her tears to fall.</p> +<p>She pressed me to her aching breast</p> +<p class="i2">As if her heart would break,</p> +<p>And bent in silence o'er the rest</p> +<p class="i2">Of one she could not wake:</p> +<p>The rest of one, whose vanished years</p> +<p class="i2">Her soul had watched in vain;</p> +<p>The end of mother's hopes and fears,</p> +<p class="i2">And happiness and pain.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'"They came—they pressed the coffin lid</p> +<p class="i2">Above my Caroline,</p> +<p>And then, I felt, for ever hid</p> +<p class="i2">My sister's face from mine!</p> +<p>There was one moment's wildered start—</p> +<p class="i2">One pang remembered well—</p> +<p>When first from my unhardened heart</p> +<p class="i2">The tears of anguish fell:</p> +<p>That swell of thought which seemed to fill</p> +<p class="i2">The bursting heart, the gushing eye,</p> +<p>While fades all <i>present</i> good or ill</p> +<p class="i2">Before the shades of things gone by.</p> +<p>All else seems blank—the mourning march,</p> +<p class="i2">The proud parade of woe,</p> +<p>The passage 'neath the churchyard arch,</p> +<p class="i2">The crowd that met the show.</p> +<p>My place or thoughts amid the train</p> +<p>I strive to recollect, in vain—</p> +<p class="i2">I could not think or see:</p> +<p>I cared not whither I was borne:</p> +<p>And only felt that death had torn</p> +<p class="i2">My Caroline from me.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'"Slowly and sadly, o'er her grave,</p> +<p>The organ peals its passing stave,</p> +<p>And, to its last dark dwelling-place,</p> +<p class="i2">The corpse attending mourners bear,</p> +<p>While, o'er it bending, many a face</p> +<p class="i2">'Mongst young companions shows a tear.</p> +<p>I think I glanced toward the crowd</p> +<p class="i2">That stood in musing silence by,</p> +<p>And even now I hear the sound</p> +<p class="i2">Of some one's voice amongst them cry—</p> +<p>'I am the Resurrection and the Life—</p> +<p class="i2">He who believes in me shall never die!'</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'"Long years have never worn away</p> +<p>The unnatural strangeness of that day,</p> +<p>When I beheld—upon the plate</p> +<p>Of grim death's mockery of state—</p> +<p>That well-known word, that long-loved name,</p> +<p>Now but remembered like the dream</p> +<p>Of half-forgotten hymns divine,</p> +<p>My sister's name—my Caroline!</p> +<p class="i2">Down, down, they lowered her, sad and slow,</p> +<p>Into her narrow house below:</p> +<p>And deep, indeed, appeared to be</p> +<p>That one glimpse of eternity,</p> +<p>Where, cut from life, corruption lay,</p> +<p>Where beauty soon should turn to clay!</p> +<p>Though scarcely conscious, hotly fell</p> +<p>The drops that spoke my last farewell;</p> +<p>And wild my sob, when hollow rung</p> +<p>The first cold clod above her flung,</p> +<p>When glitter was to turn to rust,</p> +<p>'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust!'</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'"How bitter seemed that moment when,</p> +<p class="i2">Earth's ceremonies o'er,</p> +<p>We from the filled grave turned again</p> +<p class="i2">To leave her evermore;</p> +<p>And, when emerging from the cold</p> +<p class="i2">Of damp, sepulchral air,</p> +<p>As I turned, listless to behold</p> +<p class="i2">The evening fresh and fair,</p> +<p>How sadly seemed to smile the face</p> +<p class="i2">Of the descending sun!</p> +<p>How seemed as if his latest race</p> +<p class="i2">Were with that evening run!</p> +<p>There sank his orb behind the grove</p> +<p class="i2">Of my ancestral home,</p> +<p>With heaven's unbounded vault above</p> +<p class="i2">To canopy his tomb.</p> +<p>Yet lingering sadly and serene,</p> +<p class="i2">As for his last farewell,</p> +<p>To shine upon those wild woods green</p> +<p class="i2">O'er which he'd loved to dwell.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'"I lost him, and the silent room,</p> +<p class="i2">Where soon at rest I lay,</p> +<p>Began to darken, 'neath the gloom</p> +<p class="i2">Of twilight's dull decay;</p> +<p>So, sobbing as my heart would break,</p> +<p class="i2">And blind with gushing eyes,</p> +<p>Hours seemed whole nights to me awake,</p> +<p class="i2">And day as 'twould not rise.</p> +<p>I almost prayed that I might die—</p> +<p class="i2">But then the thought would come</p> +<p>That, if I did, my corpse must lie</p> +<p class="i2">In yonder dismal tomb;</p> +<p>Until, methought, I saw its stone,</p> +<p class="i2">By moonshine glistening clear,</p> +<p>While Caroline's bright form alone</p> +<p class="i2">Kept silent watching there:</p> +<p>All white with angel's wings she seemed,</p> +<p class="i2">And indistinct to see;</p> +<p>But when the unclouded moonlight beamed</p> +<p class="i2">I saw her beckon me,</p> +<p>And fade, thus beckoning, while the wind</p> +<p class="i2">Around that midnight wall,</p> +<p>To me—now lingering years behind—</p> +<p class="i2">Seemed then my sister's call!</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'"And thus it brought me back the hours</p> +<p class="i2">When we, at rest together,</p> +<p>Used to lie listening to the showers</p> +<p class="i2">Of wild December weather;</p> +<p>Which, when, as oft, they woke in her</p> +<p class="i2">The chords of inward thought,</p> +<p>Would fill with pictures that wild air,</p> +<p class="i2">From far off memories brought;</p> +<p>So, while I lay, I heard again</p> +<p class="i2">Her silver-sounding tongue,</p> +<p>Rehearsing some remembered strain</p> +<p class="i2">Of old times long agone!</p> +<p>And, flashed across my spirit's sight,</p> +<p class="i2">What she had often told me—</p> +<p>When, laid awake on Christmas night,</p> +<p class="i2">Her sheltering arms would fold me—</p> +<p>About that midnight-seeming day,</p> +<p class="i2">Whose gloom o'er Calvary thrown,</p> +<p>Showed trembling Nature's deep dismay</p> +<p class="i2">At what her sons had done:</p> +<p>When sacred Salem's murky air</p> +<p class="i2">Was riven with the cry,</p> +<p>Which told the world how mortals dare</p> +<p class="i2">The Immortal crucify;</p> +<p>When those who, sorrowing, sat afar,</p> +<p class="i2">With aching heart and eye,</p> +<p>Beheld their great Redeemer there,</p> +<p class="i2">'Mid sneers and scoffings die;</p> +<p>When all His earthly vigour fled,</p> +<p>When thirsty faintness bowed His head,</p> +<p>When His pale limbs were moistened o'er</p> +<p>With deathly dews and dripping gore,</p> +<p>When quivered all His worn-out frame,</p> +<p>As Death, triumphant, quenched life's flame,</p> +<p>When upward gazed His glazing eyes</p> +<p>To those tremendous-seeming skies,</p> +<p>When burst His cry of agony—</p> +<p>'My God!—my God!—hast Thou forsaken me!'</p> +<p class="i2">My youthful feelings startled then,</p> +<p>As if the temple, rent in twain,</p> +<p>Horribly pealing on my ear</p> +<p>With its deep thunder note of fear,</p> +<p>Wrapping the world in general gloom,</p> +<p>As if her God's were Nature's tomb;</p> +<p>While sheeted ghosts before my gaze</p> +<p>Passed, flitting 'mid the dreary maze,</p> +<p>As if rejoicing at the day</p> +<p>When death—their king—o'er Heaven had sway.</p> +<p class="i2">In glistening charnel damps arrayed,</p> +<p>They seemed to gibber round my head,</p> +<p>Through night's drear void directing me</p> +<p>Toward still and solemn Calvary,</p> +<p>Where gleamed that cross with steady shine</p> +<p>Around the thorn-crowned head divine—</p> +<p>A flaming cross—a beacon light</p> +<p>To this world's universal night!</p> +<p>It seemed to shine with such a glow,</p> +<p>And through my spirit piercing so,</p> +<p>That, pantingly, I strove to cry</p> +<p>For her, whom I thought slumbered by,</p> +<p>And hide me from that awful shine</p> +<p>In the embrace of Caroline!</p> +<p class="i2">I wakened in the attempt—'twas day;</p> +<p>The troubled dream had fled away;</p> +<p>'Twas day—and I, alone, was laid</p> +<p>In that great room and stately bed;</p> +<p>No Caroline beside me! Wide</p> +<p>And unrelenting swept the tide</p> +<p>Of death 'twixt her and me!"</p> +<p class="i16">There paused</p> +<p>Sweet Harriet's voice, for such thoughts caused—'</p></div></div> + +<hr class="short"> + +<p> +This poem springs from the deepest feelings, and from sorrows the +most poignant. The respective images, tinctured with grief and +despondency, pass before us with weird and vivid reality; and many of +the passages are imbued with great tenderness, beauty, and pathos. +The painful, and, perhaps, too morbid intensity of some of the +pictures, whether of dreams or realities, is painted here with the +skill of no common artist, whatever youthful defects may be observed +in the composition. The poem is one more notable for tender sweetness +than any other that remains from Branwell; but it lacks in places the +vigour and power of his later compositions, and is, in several parts, +of unequal merit. In the earlier portion of it, where he assumes the +iambic measure, it is not difficult to perceive the influence of +Byron on his diction. In this work Branwell again recurs to the time +when tears of anguish flowed from his yet 'unhardened heart,' whose +present woes are forgotten in the swelling thoughts of 'things gone +by.' We recognize with what pathetic feeling he paints in Caroline +all the qualities of instructress, guardian, and friend, which had +characterized his sister Maria. Long afterwards Charlotte Brontë, +inspired by similar feelings, devoted the first chapters of 'Jane +Eyre' to a delineation, in the character of Helen Burns, of the +disposition of her dead sister, whose death, a few days after her +return from Cowan Bridge, she could scarcely ever either forget or +forgive. +</p> + +<a name="XV"> </a> +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XV. +</p> + +<p class="head"> +EVENTS AT THE PARSONAGE. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +Charlotte's first Offer of Marriage‌—‌Her Remarks concerning it‌—‌ +A second Offer Declined‌—‌Anne a Governess‌—‌She Moralizes upon +it‌—‌Charlotte obtains a Situation‌—‌Unsuited to Her‌—‌She Leaves +it‌—‌Branwell takes Pleasure in Scenery‌—‌He Visits Liverpool with his +Friends‌—‌Charlotte goes to Easton‌—‌Curates at Haworth‌—‌Their Visits +to the Parsonage‌—‌Public Meetings on Church Rates‌—‌Charlotte's +Attempt at a Richardsonian Novel‌—‌She sends the Commencement of it +to Wordsworth for his Opinion‌—‌Branwell receives an Appointment as +Private Tutor. +</p> + + +<p> +After the return of Charlotte and Anne from Dewsbury Moor, whither +Miss Wooler had removed her school, the three sisters were at home +together for some months, and, in this happy, unrestrained +intercourse, with their literary relaxations and their plans for the +future, Charlotte's mind expanded, and her strength returned. There +was Branwell, too, to think about; his venture at Bradford and his +progress with his portraits. Then they would have to go and see the +likeness of Mr. Morgan; and, on such occasions, Branwell would have +much to say of art and literature, and, acquaintances. But Branwell +was usually at Haworth on Sundays, and then he would hear of +Charlotte's visits to her friends, and her adventures on these +occasions. It was shortly before the date of Branwell's return from +Bradford, in the spring of 1839, that Charlotte received her first +offer of marriage. A young clergyman, who had, as Mrs. Gaskell +thought, some resemblance to the St. John in the last volume of 'Jane +Eyre,' had evidently been attracted by Charlotte Brontë; but +matrimony does not seem, at the time, to have seriously entered into +her thoughts. In some respects the proposal might have had strong +temptations for her, and she thought how happy her married life might +be. However, it was not the way with Charlotte Brontë to take the +path of smoothness and comfort, and leave the thorny one untrod; and +she asked herself if she loved the clergyman in question as much as a +woman should love her husband, and whether she was the one best +qualified to make him happy. 'Alas!' she says, 'my conscience +answered "No" to both these questions.' She knew very well that she +had a 'kindly leaning' towards him, but this was not enough for her, +for it was impossible that she could ever feel for him such an +intense attachment as would make her sacrifice her life for him. +Short of such a devotion awakened in herself, she would never marry +anyone. Her comment is characteristic: 'Ten to one I shall never have +the chance again; but <i>n'importe</i>.' +</p> + +<p> +Charlotte Brontë felt that there was a want of sympathy between the +young clergyman and herself, for he was a 'grave, quiet young man;' +and she knew that he would be startled, and would think her a wild, +romantic enthusiast, when she showed her character, and laughed, and +satirized, and said whatever came into her head. Nor was her next +offer any more to her taste; for, within a few months, a neighbouring +curate, a young Irishman, fresh from the Dublin University, made her +a proposal. The circumstance amused Charlotte, for it was, on his +part, a case of love at first sight. He came with his vicar to be +introduced to the family, and was speedily struck with Mr. Brontë's +daughter. Charlotte was never troubled at home with the <i>mauvaise +honte</i> that troubled her abroad; and so she talked and jested with +the clergyman, and was much amused at the originality of his +character. A pleasant afternoon was spent, for he made himself at +home, after the fashion of his countrymen, and was witty, lively, +ardent, and clever; but, withal, wanting in the dignity and +discretion of an Englishman. As the evening drew on, Charlotte was +not much pleased with the spice of Hibernian flattery with which he +began to season his discourse, and, as she expresses it, she 'cooled +a little.' The vicar and his curate went away; but what was +Charlotte's astonishment to receive a letter next morning from the +latter containing a proposal of marriage, and filled with ardent +expressions of devotion! 'I hope you are laughing heartily,' she says +to her friend. '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 have 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.' +</p> + +<p> +Although the married state does not appear, from Charlotte's letters +at this time, to have had many attractions for her, we know, from +those she wrote later, and, perhaps, more than all from the +concluding chapters of 'Jane Eyre,' that she could enter into the +joys and sacrifices of domestic life, that she had a correct view of +the affections, and knew how to appreciate conjugal love at its true +value. But, in the present instances—although, at a later period of +her life, when she was on the Continent, she is believed to have felt +the full force of that 'passion of the heart' which those about whom +she wrote had failed to evoke—she declined to sever herself from the +contented circumstances that surrounded her, and in which she was +mistress, for a condition of doubtful peace and certain obedience. +Charlotte's decision was not discordant with the feelings of her +family; for, as she had determined to continue at home, their plans +for the future would not be disconcerted. +</p> + +<p> +Anne was now resolved on making a trial of the life of a governess +for herself, she having completed her education, and being wishful to +exert herself as her sisters had done. Inquiries were made, and at +length a situation was obtained. Anne continued in this kind of +employment during the next six years, and it was her experience that +suggested to her the subject of her first novel, 'Agnes Grey.' If we +may suppose that she has recounted her own experience at this time, +where her heroine describes the circumstances of her preparation and +departure for her first situation, it would appear that she had some +difficulty in convincing her friends of the wisdom of her purpose. +Agnes Grey says, after she has made the suggestion to her family: +</p> + +<p> +'I was silenced for that day, and for many succeeding ones; but still +I did not wholly relinquish my darling scheme. Mary got her drawing +materials, and steadily set to work. I got mine too; but, while I +drew, I thought of other things. How delightful it would be to be a +governess! To go out into the world; to enter upon a new life; to act +for myself; to exercise my unused faculties; to try my unknown +powers; to earn my own maintenance, and something to comfort and help +my father, mother, and sister, besides exonerating them from the +provision of my food and clothing; to show papa what his little Agnes +could do; to convince mamma and Mary that I was not quite the +helpless, thoughtless being they supposed. And then, how charming to +be entrusted with the care and education of children! Whatever others +said, I felt I was fully competent to the task: the clear remembrance +of my own thoughts in early childhood would be a surer guide than the +instructions of the most mature adviser. I had but to turn from my +little pupils to myself at their age, and I should know at once how +to win their confidence and affections; how to waken the contrition +of the erring; how to embolden the timid and console the afflicted; +how to make virtue practicable, instruction desirable, and religion +lively and comprehensible.'<a href="#note28" name="noteref28"> +<small>[28]</small></a> +</p> + +<p> +Anne Brontë was of a milder and more cheerful temperament than her +sisters; she had not the fire, the morbid feeling, or the mental +force that characterized Charlotte, yet she had more of the +initiatory faculty than she had hitherto received credit for. But her +gentle nature, her confiding piety, her more equable temper, enabled +her to succeed better in the circumstances she had chosen. She had +her troubles, her timidity, and her diffidence to contend with, but +she made life supportable and even happy. 'Agnes Grey' thus speaks of +her departure, which we cannot doubt is the experience of Anne +Brontë: +</p> + +<p> +'Some weeks more were yet to be devoted to preparation. How long, how +tedious those weeks appeared to me! Yet they were happy ones in the +main, full of bright hopes and ardent expectations. With what +peculiar pleasure I assisted at the making of my new clothes, and, +subsequently, the packing of my trunks! But there was a feeling of +bitterness mingling with the latter occupation too; and when it was +done—when all was ready for my departure on the morrow, and the last +night at home approached—a sudden anguish seemed to swell my heart. +My dear friends looked sad, and spoke so very kindly, that I could +scarcely keep my heart from overflowing; but I still affected to be +gay. I had taken my last ramble with Mary on the moors, my last walk +in the garden and round the house … I had played my last tune on +the old piano, and sung my last song to papa, not the last, I hoped, +but the last for what appeared to me a very long time.'<a href="#note29" name="noteref29"> +<small>[29]</small></a> +</p> + +<p> +Charlotte and Emily made themselves busy in assisting Anne with her +preparations for departure, and they were very sad and apprehensive +when she left them on Monday, April 15th, 1839. She went alone, at +her own wish, thinking she could manage better if left to her own +resources, and when her failings were unwitnessed by those whose +hopes she wished to sustain. However, she wrote, expressing +satisfaction with the place she had secured, for the lady of the +house was very kind. She had two of the eldest girls under her +charge, the children being confined to the nursery, with which she +had no concern. +</p> + +<p> +Charlotte, although remarking in a letter to her friend on the +cleverness and sensibility with which Anne could express herself in +epistolary correspondence, had some fear that, such was the natural +diffidence of her manner, her mistress would sometimes believe her to +have an impediment in her speech. +</p> + +<p> +Charlotte's eagerness to obtain a situation was now so great that she +does not seem to have considered well the step she was about to take, +and she obtained one that was not satisfactory to her. It was in the +family of a wealthy Yorkshire manufacturer; and we may well believe +that the stylish surroundings of her employers differed materially +from those of the family at Haworth. Here a large quantity of +miscellaneous work was thrown on Charlotte, which displeased her and +destroyed her comfort. In a letter to Emily, she says she is +'overwhelmed with oceans of needlework; yards of cambric to hem, +muslin night-caps to make, etc.' She found the outside attractions of +the house beautiful in 'pleasant woods, white paths, green lawns, and +blue, sunshiny sky;' but these surroundings did not compensate for +the humiliations which her situation imposed upon her, and her +mistress and she did not like each other; so Charlotte did not return +to the place after the July holidays of 1839. +</p> + +<p> +Branwell was as yet unemployed, and he sought, and took much pleasure +in the scenery, the events and circumstances of the hills and valleys +of the West-Riding of Yorkshire, and was frequently from home. He +went about the country, associating with the people, and revelling in +their ready wit, which enabled him afterwards, by such observations +and experience, to give vivid pictures of life and character. At the +time of the Haworth 'Rushbearing,' of July, 1839, he visited +Liverpool with one or two friends, and, while there, in compliance +with an injunction of his father, made a stenographic report, at St. +Jude's church, of a sermon by the Rev. H. McNeile, the well-known +evangelical preacher. Here, a sudden attack of Tic compelled him to +resort to opium, in some form, as an anodyne, whose soothing effect +in pain he had previously known. Subsequently, passing a music shop, +in one of their rambles through the town, Branwell's attention was +arrested by a copy of the oratorio of 'Samson,' by Handel, displayed +in the window, the performance of which had always excited him to the +highest degree, and he eagerly besought his friend to purchase it, as +well as some Mass, and various oratorio music, which was done. +</p> + +<p> +On their return from Liverpool, Branwell, being under some obligation +to his friend, proffered to paint his portrait, to which Mr. M—— +agreed. A sitting once a week was decided upon, to be in the room at +the parsonage where Branwell studied and painted. On his visits, Mr. +M—— invariably noticed a row of potatoes, placed on the uppermost +rib of the range to roast, Branwell being very fond of them done in +this way, even as Jane Eyre was in the novel. 'That night,' she says, +'on going to bed, I forgot to prepare, in imagination, the Barmecide +supper of hot roast potatoes … with which I was wont to amuse my +inward cravings.' When Mr. M—— paid his weekly visits to the +parsonage he always heard some one speaking aloud in the room +adjoining Branwell's studio; and, at last, his curiosity being +excited, he inquired whom it was. Branwell answered that it was his +father committing his Sunday's sermon to memory. When the portrait +was ready for the finishing touches, Mr. M—— discovered that +Branwell had painted the names of Johann Sebastian Bach, Mozart, +Haydn, and Handel at each corner of the canvas respectively. He +remonstrated, but Branwell was firm, maintaining that, as his friend +was an accomplished musician, and could perform the most elaborate +and difficult compositions of these immortal men, with expression and +ease, he was, in every way, worthy of being associated with them in +the manner he designed. Mr. M—— complied. When the portrait was +finished, Branwell pressed his friend to take a glass of wine; and, +while the two were chatting over the affair, Mr. Brontë and his +daughters entered the room to view Branwell's work on its completion. +They were pleased with it, and praised it as a truthful likeness and +an excellent picture. +</p> + +<p> +We may well imagine the enthusiasm with which Branwell would recount +his experience of Liverpool. How much he would have to tell of the +wonders of the Mersey, the great ships that rode upon its surface, +and its commerce with the new world, out across the ocean! His visit +seems to have originated a proposal that the family should spend a +week or a fortnight at that sea-port, but, almost at the same moment, +Charlotte's friend suggested to her that they should visit +Cleethorpes together, a suggestion that pleased her very much. +</p> + +<p> +'The idea of seeing the sea,' she says, '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.' +</p> + +<p> +The visit of Charlotte to the sea-side seems to have been put off +again and again, by often-recurring obstacles. The irresolution of +her family in regard to the Liverpool project, and the manifest +unwillingness that she should leave home on a visit anywhere else, +put off, from time to time, the pleasure she had anticipated for +herself; but at last she decided to go. Her box was packed and +everything prepared, but no conveyance could be procured. Mr. Brontë +objected to her going by coach, and walking part of the way to meet +her friend, and her aunt exclaimed against 'the weather, and the +roads, and the four winds of heaven,' so Charlotte almost gave up +hope. She told her friend that the elders of the house had never +cordially acquiesced in the measure, and that opposition was growing +more open, though her father would willingly have indulged her. Even +he, however, wished her to remain at home. Charlotte was 'provoked' +that her aunt had deferred opposition until arrangements had been +made. In the end 'E' was asked to pay a visit to the parsonage. +</p> + +<p> +Owing to the circumstances indicated, Charlotte's visit to the +sea-coast was put off until the following September, when an +opportunity occurred favourable to the project, which does not seem +to have been entirely abandoned; and she and her friend visited +Easton where they spent a fortnight. Here for the first time +Charlotte beheld the sea. +</p> + +<p> +Afterwards she wrote, '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?' The Liverpool journey +appears to have been finally abandoned. +</p> + +<p> +It was in a letter, written about this time that Mrs. Gaskell found +the first mention of a succession of curates who henceforth revolved +round Haworth Parsonage. Three years earlier Mr. Brontë had sought +aid from the 'Additional Curates' Society,' or some similar +institution, and was provided at once with assistance. The increasing +duties of his chapelry had rendered this step necessary. It would +seem also that a curate was appointed to Stanbury, while another +became master of the National or Grammar School. These gentlemen were +not infrequent in their visits to the parsonage, and they varied the +life of its inmates, sometimes one way and sometimes another. This +circumstance, at the same time, provided Charlotte Brontë with those +living studies which she did not fail afterwards to remember in her +delineation of the three curates in 'Shirley.' Emily, on the other +hand, invariably avoided these gentlemen. +</p> + +<p> +The arrival of the curates at Haworth was the occasion of increased +activity in the affairs of the chapelry; and, the church-rate +question being uppermost at this juncture, the new-comers entered +into a crusade against the Dissenters who had refused to pay +church-rates. Charlotte wrote a long letter in which she spoke of a +violent public meeting held at Haworth about the affair, and of two +sermons against dissent—one by Mr. W. a 'noble, eloquent, +high-church, apostolical-succession discourse, in which he banged the +Dissenters most fearlessly and unflinchingly;' the other by Mr. C., a +'keener, cleverer, bolder, and more heart-stirring harangue,' than +Charlotte, perhaps, had ever heard from the Haworth pulpit. She, +however, did not entirely agree with either of these gentlemen, and +thought, if she had been a Dissenter, she would have 'taken the first +opportunity of kicking or of horse-whipping both.' +</p> + +<p> +In the winter of 1839-40, Charlotte employed her leisure in the +composition of a story which she had commenced on a scale +commensurate with one of Richardson's novels of seven or eight +volumes. Mrs. Gaskell saw some fragments of the manuscript, written +in a very small hand: but she was less solicitous to decipher it, as +Charlotte had herself condemned it in the preface to 'The Professor.' +Branwell, to whom she submitted it, seems to have understood, at the +time, that in its florid style of composition she was working in +opposition to her genius, and he told her she was making a mistake. +It appears not unlikely that Branwell was himself similarly engaged +on prose writing when he gave her this opinion. A few months later, +however, Charlotte resolved to send the commencement of her tale to +Wordsworth, and that an unfavourable judgment was the result, for +which she was not altogether unprepared, may be gathered from the +following letter she addressed to the poet:— +</p> + +<p> +'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 or 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 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, reading them by stealth with the most exquisite pleasure. +You give a correct description of the patient Grisels of these 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 dressmaker. I will not +help you at all in the discovery….' +</p> + +<p> +In the midst of their literary endeavours, their efforts were not +relaxed to obtain new places. Charlotte was obliged by circumstances +to give up her subscriptions to the Jews, and she determined to force +herself to take a situation, if one could be found, though she says, +'I hate and abhor the very thoughts of governess-ship.' An +alternative which the sisters talked over in these holidays was the +opening of a school at Haworth, for which an enlargement of the +parsonage would be required. +</p> + +<p> +Branwell was more successful in his pursuit of employment than +Charlotte, having procured the place of a tutor; and he was to +commence his duties with the new year. Charlotte says of this event, +'One thing, however, will make the daily routine more unvaried than +ever. Branwell, who used to enliven us, is to leave us in a few days, +and enter the situation of a private tutor in the neighbourhood of +Ulverston. How he will like to settle remains yet to be seen. At +present he is full of hope and resolution. I, who know his variable +nature, and his strong turn for active life, dare not be too +sanguine.' +</p> + +<p> +Branwell seems to have paid a farewell visit to the 'Lodge of the +Three Graces' on the Christmas Day of this year, when he acted as +organist. This is the only occasion on which he is recorded as having +attended at the meetings of the Lodge in 1839, and it is the last on +which his name appears in the minute book of the Haworth masonic +body. +</p> + +<a name="XVI"> </a> +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XVI. +</p> + +<p class="head"> +BRANWELL AT BROUGHTON-IN-FURNESS. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +The District of Black Comb‌—‌Branwell's Sonnet‌—‌Wordsworth and +Hartley Coleridge‌—‌Branwell's Letter to the 'Old Knave of +Trumps'‌—‌Its Publication by Miss Robinson in her 'Emily +Brontë'‌—‌Branwell's familiar Acquaintance with the People of +Haworth‌—‌He could Paint their Characters with Accuracy‌—‌His +Knowledge of the Human Passions‌—‌Emily's Isolation. +</p> + + +<p> +Branwell, being as desirous of employment as his sisters, had sought +for, and obtained, a situation as tutor in the family of Mr. +Postlethwaite, of Broughton-in-Furness. He entered upon his new +duties on the 1st of January, 1840. +</p> + +<p> +Now that he found himself resident near the English lake district, +consecrated as it is by so many poetic memories, and dear to him as +the home of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey he naturally felt an +intense interest in all that surrounded him; and, when he was not +engaged in teaching the sons of his employer, he took occasion to +visit such places as had any attraction for him. On one of his +pedestrian excursions, he had stepped into a wayside inn, and was +seated musing before the parlour fire, when a young gentleman entered +the room. Branwell turned round, and recognized at once a friend of +the name of Ayrton, whose acquaintance he had formed in Leeds. The +surprise and delight at this unexpected meeting was mutual; and +Branwell's friend, who was driving about the country, requested his +company for some distance on the journey, for the purpose of +prolonging the interview, and of continuing the conversation that had +been begun. The young tutor drove some ten miles with his friend, +utterly regardless of the long return walk to Ulverston. +</p> + +<p> +Branwell delighted in the writings of the 'Lake Poets,' and was much +influenced by Southey's prose works. He read the 'Life of Nelson,' +and was himself moved to write a poem illustrative of the life of +that great naval hero. He also read the 'Colloquies on Society,' and +others of Southey's works. But it was Wordsworth who at this moment, +was the object of Branwell's chief admiration. He revelled in that +poet's fine description of the view from the top of Black Comb, and, +perhaps, knew the lines written by his 'deity of the mind' on a stone +on the side of the mountain, and probably had himself looked from its +summit. But Branwell certainly knew Black Comb from afar. Five miles +away he could see it; and he celebrated it in the following sonnet: +</p> +<p class="space"> </p> + +<p class="ctr"> +BLACK COMB. +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'Far off, and half revealed, 'mid shade and light,</p> +<p class="i2">Black Comb half smiles, half frowns; his mighty form</p> +<p>Scarce bending into peace—more formed to fight</p> +<p class="i2">A thousand years of struggles with a storm</p> +<p class="i2">Than bask one hour, subdued by sunshine warm,</p> +<p>To bright and breezeless rest; yet even his height</p> +<p>Towers not o'er this world's sympathies, he smiles—</p> +<p>While many a human heart to pleasures' wiles</p> +<p class="i2">Can bear to bend, and still forget to rise—</p> +<p>As though he, huge and heath-clad, on our sight,</p> +<p class="i2">Again rejoices in his stormy skies.</p> +<p> Man loses vigour in unstable joys.</p> +<p>Thus tempests find Black Comb invincible,</p> +<p>While we are lost, who should know life so well!'</p></div></div> + +<p> +It was doubtless while Branwell was living at Ulverston that he +obtained the favourable opinion of Wordsworth on some poems which he +submitted for criticism. Probably he found opportunity to visit the +writer whose works he 'loved most in our literature,' and it would be +on some similar excursion that he obtained an encouraging expression +of opinion from Hartley Coleridge. The author of 'The Northern +Worthies' was not unknown to the circle at 'The George,' at Bradford, +and was acquainted with Branwell Brontë and Leyland. +</p> + +<p> +The master of the 'Lodge of the Three Graces,' at Haworth, did not, +however, long permit Branwell to forget his old acquaintance there; +for this worthy soon addressed to him a communication which provoked +a reply that Branwell dated from Broughton-in-Furness on the 13th of +the March following his arrival. This unfortunate response, in which +Branwell addressed the masonic sexton of Haworth, with sarcastic +humour, as 'Old Knave of Trumps,' is the one which Miss Robinson has +been so ill advised as to publish in her 'Emily Brontë;' and which +has done not a little to draw down on the head of Branwell the full +and unmitigated volume of Mr. Swinburne's vocabulary of abuse. And, +in fact, if this letter could be taken as the proper and natural +expression of an abject profligate, altogether shameless and +unredeemed, he could find a defender neither here nor elsewhere. But +there are good reasons for hoping that it was otherwise. We have seen +that Branwell had been led to join the rude village society of +Haworth, where, on account of his brilliance, and of his position as +the incumbent's son, he was not a little looked up to. It was +natural, then, that he should be led, foolishly enough, to endeavour +to stand well with the friends he had selected, and his knowledge of +character was sufficiently good to enable him to know what kind of +letter would best suit the tastes and inclinations of many of his +companions of the 'Lodge of the Three Graces.' He assumed in fact, +that bravado of vice, that air of <i>diablerie</i>, which was thought +by many people, in those days, and is so yet by not a few, to be the +best proof of manhood, because it betokened a knowledge of the world. +Yet, at the end of the letter,—the passage is not given by Miss +Robinson—Branwell appears to take it as a matter of course that the +sexton will not show it, and he begs him, for 'Heaven's sake,' to +blot out the lines scored in red. Branwell knew the 'Old Knave of +Trumps' well, and he was certain that his letter would cause no +little amusement among his immediate friends to whom the sexton was +sure to read it. He was ashamed of certain passages in it, which is +evidence enough that it was not the outcome of a depraved and +shameless nature, but rather the expression of the <i>acted</i> +character of a vicious and <i>blasé</i> worldling. And it is, +moreover, inconceivable that a young man, who was of the sensitive +nature betokened by the contemporary poems we have published, could, +at the same time, have been a hardened and cynical profligate. +Indeed, it is evident that the objectionable allusions were not of +his origination, but were called forth by the remarks of others, for +whom Branwell does not fail to show his contempt. +</p> + +<p> +It has, however, been the misfortune of Branwell Brontë, that a +letter which he wrote in folly, for the eyes of personal friends +alone, has been published to the world as the token and evidence of +his infamy. One use, at any rate, flows from the publication of it, +for it shows us the quick and vivid grasp of character, and the +incisive mode of composition which now began, in his more vigorous +moods, to distinguish its author. The letter is as follows:— +</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p class="ralign"> +'Broughton-in-Furness, +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +'March 13, 1840. +</p> + +<p> +'<span class="sc">Old Knave of Trumps</span>, +</p> + +<p> +'Don't think I have forgotten you, though I have delayed so long +in writing to you. It was my purpose to send you a yarn as soon +as I could find materials to spin one with, and it is only just +now that I have had time to turn myself round and know where I +am. If you saw me now, you would not know me, and you would laugh +to hear the character the people give me. Oh, the falsehood and +hypocrisy of this world! I am fixed in a little retired town by +the sea-shore, among wild woody hills that rise round me—huge, +rocky, and capped with clouds. My employer is a retired county +magistrate, a large landowner, and of a right hearty and generous +disposition. His wife is a quiet, silent, and amiable woman, +and his sons are two fine, spirited lads. My landlord is a +respectable surgeon, and six days out of seven is as drunk as a +lord! His wife is a bustling, chattering, kind-hearted soul; and +his daughter!—oh! death and damnation! Well, what am I? That is, +what do they think I am? A most calm, sedate, sober, abstemious, +patient, mild-hearted, virtuous, gentlemanly philosopher,—the +picture of good works, and the treasure-house of righteous +thoughts. Cards are shuffled under the table-cloth, glasses are +thrust into the cupboard, if I enter the room. I take neither +spirits, wine, nor malt liquors. I dress in black, and smile like +a saint or martyr. Everybody says, "What a good young gentleman +is Mr. Postlethwaite's tutor!" This is fact, as I am a living +soul, and right comfortably do I laugh at them. I mean to +continue in their good opinion. I took a half year's farewell of +old friend whisky at Kendal on the night after I left. There was +a party of gentlemen at the Royal Hotel, and I joined them. We +ordered in supper and whisky-toddy as "hot as hell!" They thought +I was a physician, and put me in the chair. I gave sundry toasts, +that were washed down at the same time, till the room spun round +and the candles danced in our eyes. One of the guests was a +respectable old gentleman with powdered head, rosy cheeks, fat +paunch, and ringed fingers. He gave "The Ladies," … after which +he brayed off with a speech; and in two minutes, in the middle of +a grand sentence, he stopped, wiped his head, looked wildly +round, stammered, coughed, stopped again, and called for his +slippers. The waiter helped him to bed. Next a tall Irish squire +and a native of the land of Israel began to quarrel about their +countries; and, in the warmth of argument, discharged their +glasses, each at his neighbour's throat instead of his own. I +recommended bleeding, purging, and blistering; but they +administered each other a real "Jem Warder," so I flung my +tumbler on the floor, too, and swore I'd join "Old Ireland!" A +regular rumpus ensued, but we were tamed at last. I found myself +in bed next morning, with a bottle of porter, a glass, and a +corkscrew beside me. Since then I have not tasted anything +stronger than milk-and-water, nor, I hope, shall, till I return +at Midsummer; when we will see about it. I am getting as fat as +Prince William at Springhead, and as godly as his friend, Parson +Winterbotham. My hand shakes no longer. I ride to the banker's at +Ulverston with Mr. Postlethwaite, and sit drinking tea and +talking scandal with old ladies. As to the young ones! I have one +sitting by me just now—fair-faced, blue-eyed, dark-haired, sweet +eighteen—she little thinks the devil is so near her! +</p> + +<p> +'I was delighted to see thy note, old squire, but I do not +understand one sentence—you will perhaps know what I mean…. +How are all about you? I long to hear and see them again. How is +the "Devil's Thumb," whom men call —— ——, and the "Devil in +Mourning," whom they call —— ——? How are —— ——, and —— +——, and the Doctor; and him who will be used as the tongs of +hell—he whose eyes Satan looks out of, as from windows—I mean +—— ——, esquire? How are little —— ——, —— "Longshanks," +—— ——, and the rest of them? Are they married, buried, +devilled, and damned? When I come I'll give them a good squeeze +of the hand; till then I am too godly for them to think of. That +bow-legged devil used to ask me impertinent questions which I +answered him in kind. Beelzebub will make of him a walking-stick! +Keep to thy teetotalism, old squire, till I return; it will mend +thy old body…. Does "Little Nosey" think I have forgotten him? +No, by Jupiter! nor his clock either.<a href="#note30" name="noteref30"> +<small>[30]</small></a> I'll send him a +remembrancer some of these days! But I must talk to some one +prettier than thee; so good-night, old boy, and +</p> + +<p class="close"> +'Believe me thine, +</p> + +<p class="sig"> +'<span class="sc">The Philosopher</span>. +</p> + +<p> +'Write directly. Of course you won't show this letter; and, for +Heaven's sake, blot out all the lines scored with red ink.' +</p> +</div> +<p> +This letter, as I have intimated, was never intended for more than a +moment's amusement, at most, to a small circle of acquaintances at +Haworth, and was not to exist after having been read. But John +Brown kept the letter, which I saw and copied. It is a curious +circumstance, illustrating the hold which it obtained over the +Haworth circle, that, though the original was lost so long since as +1874, the brother of the sexton knew it by heart, and could repeat it +with considerable accuracy. In this way it has been several times +written down. No allusion would have been made to the letter in the +present work, if Miss Robinson—strange to say—had not thought it a +fitting embellishment for her 'Emily Brontë.' If Branwell had known +its fate at the moment he wrote it, it would never have reached the +'Worshipful Master of the Lodge of the Three Graces,' but would have +been committed to the flames by his own hand; for, as we have seen, +he was ashamed of some expressions scored in red, which he begged +might be obliterated. +</p> + +<p> +This letter, however, is valuable; inasmuch as it shows what +Branwell, at this young period of his life, knew about human nature, +and the depths to which it can descend. He had penetrated into the +passions, feelings, and dispositions of his acquaintances by frequent +intercourse, by keen perception, and by familiar conversation. He had +heard them, noticed them, and could paint their characters with +unerring precision and vivid colouring. He was acquainted with the +ways of society, and the customs of domestic life. The world was to +him a picture-gallery, and all living things in it were studies of +the deepest interest. His knowledge of men and manners, of the hard, +implacable, and selfish, and also of the soft, tender, and gentle +natures of men and women, enabled him to cast their stories of sorrow +and gladness faithfully and well. +</p> + +<p> +At the time when he had attained manhood, when his intellects were +reaching their full development, he had already been drawn into +society, and indoctrinated into the mysteries of Haworth life; and +had become acquainted with the excesses of men older and harder than +himself. It cannot be wondered at that, if he had learned more than +is usual in youth, he did not escape the temptations attendant on the +peculiar knowledge he had acquired. But, while <i>he</i> was thus +passing through the crooked ways and reckless deviations of the +world, obtaining a large crop of experiences, good and bad, his +<i>sisters</i> were, for the most part, at home, living like +recluses, and, when away, were still in similar seclusion. Of Emily, +Charlotte says, 'I am bound to avow that she had scarcely more +practical knowledge of the peasantry amongst whom she lived, than a +nun has of the country people who sometimes pass her convent gates. +My sister's disposition was not naturally gregarious; circumstances +favoured and fostered her tendency to seclusion; except to go to +church or take a walk on the hills, she rarely crossed the threshold +of home. Though her feeling for the people round her was benevolent, +intercourse with them she never sought, nor, with very few +exceptions, ever experienced. And yet she knew them, knew their ways, +their language, their family histories; she could hear of them with +interest, and talk of them <i>with</i> detail, minute, graphic, and +accurate; but with them she rarely exchanged a word.'<a href="#note31" name="noteref31"> +<small>[31]</small></a> But +Branwell walked and held personal intercourse, as we have seen, with +the people whom Emily shunned; and his personal knowledge, and his +unquestionable genius combined, enabled him to grasp and appreciate, +to dissect with penetrating skill, and to estimate and define the +tendency of the strong and marked character of the people around him. +It is, therefore, doubly unfortunate that, from Branwell, we have +little remaining in the way of graphic description, and that the rich +treasures of observation which he outpoured have, for the most part, +left their impressions only in the memories of those who were +privileged to hear him discourse. +</p> + +<a name="XVII"> </a> +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XVII. +</p> + +<p class="head"> +BRANWELL AT SOWERBY BRIDGE.—CHARLOTTE'S EXERTIONS. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +Branwell's Appointment at Ulverston ends‌—‌He gets a Situation on +the Railroad at Sowerby Bridge‌—‌Branwell at Luddenden Foot‌—‌His +Friends' Reminiscences of him‌—‌Charlotte and Emily reading French +Novels‌—‌Charlotte obtains a Situation‌—‌Anxious about Anne‌—‌School +Project of the Sisters‌—‌Charlotte's keen Desire to visit Brussels +‌—‌Her Letter to her Aunt Branwell. +</p> + + +<p> +If the performance of the responsible duties of his appointment at +Mr. Postlethwaite's, which ended, at his father's wish, in the June +of 1840, had been felt by Branwell as a banishment from the cheerful +company of his Haworth acquaintances, it had been still greater from +his artistic and literary friends in the neighbourhood of Bradford +and Halifax. Hence he sought, with a perseverance amounting to +anxiety, to obtain a post on the Leeds and Manchester Railway,—to +the opening of which he had looked forward with concern—at some +place in the valley of the Calder, near Halifax; and he received the +appointment of clerk in charge, at the station at Sowerby Bridge. +Charlotte says of Branwell's determination: '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.'<a href="#note32" name="noteref32"> +<small>[32]</small></a> Branwell commenced +his new occupation at Sowerby Bridge on the 1st of October, 1840, +just before the opening of the line from Hebden Bridge to Normanton. +</p> + +<p> +As has been already seen, an acquaintance had existed between +Branwell and Leyland; but now that the former had become a resident +in the immediate neighbourhood, after his visits to the artist's +studio had been interrupted for six months, or more, by his stay at +Broughton-in-Furness, a more frequent intercourse followed between +the two. It was on a bright Sunday afternoon in the autumn of 1840, +at the desire of my brother, the sculptor, that I accompanied him to +the station at Sowerby Bridge to see Branwell. The young railway +clerk was of gentleman-like appearance, and seemed to be qualified +for a much better position than the one he had chosen. In stature he +was a little below the middle height; not 'almost insignificantly +small,' as Mr. Grundy states, nor had he 'a downcast look;' neither +was he 'a plain specimen of humanity.'<a href="#note33" name="noteref33"> +<small>[33]</small></a> He was slim and agile in +figure, yet of well-formed outline. His complexion was clear and +ruddy, and the expression of his face, at the time, lightsome and +cheerful. His voice had a ringing sweetness, and the utterance and +use of his English were perfect. Branwell appeared to be in excellent +spirits, and showed none of those traces of intemperance with which +some writers have unjustly credited him about this period of his +life. +</p> + +<p> +My brother had often spoken to me of Branwell's poetical abilities, +his conversational powers, and the polish of his education; and, on a +personal acquaintance, I found nothing to question in this estimate +of his mental gifts, and of his literary attainments. +</p> + +<p> +Branwell stayed at Sowerby Bridge some months, whence he was +transferred, in 1841, to Luddenden Foot, a place about a mile further +up the valley, where a station had been recently fixed. Mr. Grundy, +who was an assistant-engineer on the line, became acquainted with +Branwell at the latter place; and says of it, 'there was no village +near at hand,' and that, 'had a position been chosen for this strange +creature, for the express purpose of driving him several steps to the +bad, this must have been it.'<a href="#note34" name="noteref34"> +<small>[34]</small></a> +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Grundy must have spoken from memory only. The ancient village +of Luddenden Foot, within two minutes' walk of the station, with +its population employed in the mills and manufactories of the +neighbourhood, together with its two old hostelries of the 'Red +Lion,' and the 'Shuttle and Anchor,' was surely sufficient to banish +all solitude and wildness from the neighbourhood of Branwell's +sojourn. Yet the change was scarcely a desirable one, and doubtless +helped to disgust Branwell with his employment. It is to be regretted +that the respective occupations of Branwell and Mr. Grundy were of +such a nature as to prevent a regular and continual intercourse, and +that distance of time and place have so far dimmed Mr. Grundy's +reminiscences of his friend, that, valuable though the letters he +has wisely preserved are, many inaccuracies have entered into his +recollections of him, and Mrs. Gaskell's exaggerated account has had +undue weight in the picture he has drawn. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. William Heaton, author of a minor volume of poems entitled the +'Flowers of Caldervale,' knew Branwell Brontë well when he was at +Luddenden Foot. He wrote to me a letter in which occurred the +following description of his mind and character, and also of his +conversation when at one of the village inns, where they sometimes +met:— +</p> + +<p> +'He was,' says Heaton, 'blithe and gay, but at times appeared +downcast and sad; yet, if the subject were some topic that he was +acquainted with, or some author he loved, he would rise from his +seat, and, in beautiful language, describe the author's character, +with a zeal and fluency I had never heard equalled. His talents were +of a very exalted kind. I have heard him quote pieces from the bard +of Avon, from Shelley, Wordsworth, and Byron, as well as from +Butler's "Hudibras," in such a manner as often made me wish I had +been a scholar, as he was. At that time I was just beginning to write +verses. It is true I had written many pieces, but they had never seen +the light; and, on a certain occasion, I showed him one, which he +pronounced very good. He lent me books which I had never seen before, +and was ever ready to give me information. His temper was always mild +towards me. I shall never forget his love for the sublime and +beautiful works of Nature, nor how he would tell of the lovely +flowers and rare plants he had observed by the mountain stream and +woodland rill. All these had excellencies for him; and I have often +heard him dilate on the sweet strains of the nightingale, and on the +thoughts that bewitched him the first time he heard one.' +</p> + +<p> +During Branwell's twelvemonths' stay at Luddenden Foot, he formed new +acquaintances, but the avocations, tastes, and pursuits of the +well-to-do inhabitants did not accord with his; and he, perhaps, more +frequently than was compatible with his duties, visited Halifax to +seek the intellectual enjoyment which his own narrow occupation and +the society of Luddenden Foot did not afford. +</p> + +<p> +While he was occupied in the service of the railway company at this +place, we hear nothing relating to him, of moment, in Charlotte's +correspondence. Happy that he was employed, his sisters engaged +eagerly and earnestly in devising schemes for obtaining a livelihood +that might enable them to work together for their mutual assistance +in literary labour. +</p> + +<p> +Charlotte was still at home with Emily, reading French novels, of +which, we learn, she had got another bale, 'containing upwards of +forty volumes.' 'I have read about half,' she says. '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.' We scarcely recognize, in +this employment, the Charlotte Brontë of three years before, whose +religious mania was driving her to despair, unless, indeed, it be in +the force with which she pursues the new bent of her inclination. She +has read twenty volumes of this, the second, batch, and was proposing +to read twenty more. It was her expectation that, by this process, +she would become sufficiently familiar with the language to enable +her to teach it to others. +</p> + +<p> +In the letter in which she announced that Branwell had gone to his +post on the railway—written in good spirits, when she saw everything +<i>couleur-de-rose</i>, which, however, she attributes to the high +wind blowing over the 'hills of Judea' at Haworth—she says: '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 Wooler to tell her so. +Verily, it is a delightful thing to live 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 Æsop; the +grasshoppers sang all the summer, and starved all the winter.' +</p> + +<p> +Branwell was proving himself no grasshopper, for, if he sang, he was +anxious to exert himself in a practical way at the same time; and, so +far, he was doing well at Luddenden Foot. Charlotte, too, was +resolved to be employed, but the negotiation with Mrs. B—— failed. +The lady expressed herself pleased with the frankness with which +Charlotte stated her qualifications, but she required some one who +could undertake to give instruction in music and singing. This Miss +Brontë could not do. She does not appear to have had the musical +taste which her brother and sisters had inherited from the Branwell +family. She resembled her father, perhaps, more closely than did any +of the other children. At last, however, in March, 1841, she entered +her second situation as a private governess. 'I told you, some time +since,' she writes to her friend, '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.' +</p> + +<p> +Charlotte found her residence not very large, but the grounds were +fine and extensive. She had made some sacrifice to secure comfort, as +she says, not good living, but cheerful faces and warm hearts. Her +pupils were two in number, one a girl of eight, and the other a boy +of six. Though always more or less afflicted with home-sickness, +whenever she was at a distance from her father's house, with its +familiar and affectionate ways, she enjoyed, in her new place, +considerable relief from it, owing to the spontaneous generosity and +kindliness of her employers. She says, indeed, '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.' +</p> + +<p> +Charlotte found matters a little easier after the first month of her +stay, and her home-sickness became less oppressive. Though her time +was much occupied, great kindness was shown towards her, and her +father and her friend were invited to come to see her. +</p> + +<p> +In June she wrote, in the absence of her employer, '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>I should like to see her</i>, 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.'<a href="#note35" name="noteref35"> +<small>[35]</small></a> +</p> + +<p> +The delicate Anne, struggling with all the troubles, the indignities, +of the life of a governess, was a picture that was naturally +distressing enough to Charlotte, ever anxious, ever watchful over the +welfare of her youngest sister, and she would, perhaps, be apt, in +her imagination, to exaggerate her sister's difficulties in the +light of her own. In truth the sisters had qualities of mind and +heart which did much to unfit them for the enjoyment of content or +happiness amongst strangers. Charlotte, in particular, with a nature, +sensitive, observant, and tenacious; an imagination highly wrought, +active, and fertile, but too often morbid; with a will, powerful, yet +constrained by the nervous weakness of an excitable constitution, +could with difficulty conform inclination to the necessities of such +a career; she longed for freedom. It was not surprising, then, that +when Charlotte reached Haworth—which she did before Anne's +return—there was a revival of the project I have before mentioned of +the opening of a school, wherein they could enjoy the liberty of +home. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Brontë and Miss Branwell were not unfavourably disposed towards +the project, and they conversed now and then, at the breakfast-table +or in the evenings, as to how they could best help the girls into the +position they so much coveted. The sisters must always have had a +friend in their father in these matters; he could not but be pleased +and interested in struggles and expectations which reproduced so +closely the hopeful days of his own early life, and we learn, as the +result of the deliberations of the elders, that the aunt offered a +loan, or intimated that she would, perhaps, offer one, in case her +nieces could give some assurance of the solidity of their plans in +the shape of a situation decided upon and of pupils promised. The +East-Riding was thought to be not so well provided with schools as +the West, and the favourite idea of the sisters was to open their +projected academy in the neighbourhood of Burlington, where the +health, both of themselves and of their pupils, might be hoped for. +But there was a question how much their aunt would be disposed to +advance them. Charlotte did not think she would sink more than £150 +in such a venture, and she doubted if this would be a sufficient sum +with which to establish a school and commence house-keeping, on +however modest a scale. These were reflections which damped a little +the excitement of hopeful expectation in which the sisters, +especially Charlotte, revolved these plans. She anxiously awaited the +coming of her friend, on the day she was expected to visit them +during their holidays at the parsonage, wearying her eyes with +watching from the window, eye-glass in hand, and, sometimes, +spectacles on nose, eager to talk over her schemes with some one else +than her sisters and to hear a new opinion. But her friend could not +come, and she says, 'a hundred things I had to say to you will now be +forgotten, and never said.' Charlotte began to fear some time must +elapse before her plans could be executed, and she resolved not to +relinquish her situation till something was assured. But this +expectation of keeping a school, cherished through long years, was +never realized by the sisters; ever and anon the shifting sands of +circumstance, the changing currents of life, moved them away, even +while they believed themselves approaching the goal of their hopes. +</p> + +<p> +Charlotte returned to her situation, and she tells her friend, in a +letter dated August the 7th, 1841, that she 'felt herself' again. Mr. +and Mrs. —— were from home, and she takes the opportunity of saying +that to be solitary there was to her the happiest part of her time. +She enters into particulars of the household: the children were under +decent control, and the servants were observant and attentive to her; +she says of herself, moreover, that the absence of the master and +mistress relieved her from the duty of always putting on the +appearance of being cheerful and conversable. +</p> + +<p> +Her friends, Martha and Mary T——, were enjoying great advantages on +the Continent, where they had gone to stay a month with their +brother. Charlotte had had a long letter from Mary, and a packet +enclosing a handsome black silk scarf, and a pair of beautiful kid +gloves bought in Brussels as a present. She was pleased with them, +and that she had been remembered so far off, amidst the excitement of +'one of the most splendid capitals of Europe.' Mary's letters spoke +of 'some of the pictures and cathedrals she had seen—pictures the +most exquisite, cathedrals the most venerable.' Something swelled to +the throat of Charlotte as she read this account. She was seized with +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.' She was tantalized for a time by the +consciousness of faculties unexercised; then all collapsed. She +considered these emotions, momentary as they were, rebellious and +absurd, and they were speedily quelled by the resolute spirit they +had disturbed. She hoped they would not revive, as they had been +acutely painful. The school project, instead of at all fading, was +gaining strength, and the three sisters kept it in view as the +pole-star round which all their other schemes, as of lesser +importance, revolved. To this they looked in their despondency. +Charlotte was haunted, sometimes, and dismayed, at the conviction +that she had no natural knack for her occupation. She says that, if +teaching only were requisite, all would be smooth and easy; and she +adds, '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.' +</p> + +<p> +It appears that Miss Wooler was about this time intending to give up +her school at Dewsbury Moor, and had offered it to the Misses Brontë. +One or two disadvantages had to be set against the favourable terms +on which they might have the school. The situation could not commend +itself to Charlotte, anxious as she was concerning Anne's health; the +number of pupils had also diminished, and it would be necessary to +offer special advantages in the way of education before they could +hope to have a prosperous establishment—so their friends argued. But +Charlotte had resolved to take the school. The sisters, however, +could not feel confident that their qualifications were such as would +render success certain. Hence, a suggestion that was made to +Charlotte which would provide her with the necessary powers, was at +once taken up with all the energy of her nature; she thus writes to +her aunt, on whom all must depend: +</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p class="ralign"> +'September 29th, 1841. +</p> + +<p> +'<span class="sc">Dear Aunt</span>, +</p> + +<p> +'I have heard nothing of Miss Wooler 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 £100, which you have been so kind +as to offer us, will, perhaps, not be all required now, as Miss +Wooler 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. +</p> + +<p> +'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 £5; living there is 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>i.e.</i>, +provided 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 Château 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. +</p> + +<p> +'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, £50 or £100, 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 whoever 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.' +</p> +</div> +<p> +Charlotte had some time to wait for an answer, but it came at last; +her enthusiasm had carried the day. The answer was favourable: she +and Emily were to go to Brussels. +</p> + +<p> +At times, during his stay with the railway company, Branwell would +drive over from Luddenden Foot to visit his family at the Haworth +parsonage, having hired a gig for the purpose. Mr. Grundy sometimes +accompanied him, and they would escape to the moors together, or pay +curious visits to the old fortune-teller, with the curates. Then, +says his friend, he was 'at his best, and would be eloquent and +amusing, though, on returning sometimes, he would burst into tears, +and swear he meant to mend.' This last statement is favourable to +Branwell's calm judgment upon himself. Few—and Branwell was one of +the last—drift deliberately into wrong-doing. He was, like most +other men, often placed under influences which a habit of attention +and self-control would have enabled him to resist. He knew, perhaps, +in a desultory way, what he ought to do, and what he ought not; but, +owing to his inattention to consequences, he might, now and then, go +wrong, sometimes yielding to whatever illusion was paramount within, +acting in concert with whatever was most alluring without; yet he +could draw his mental forces together, and review his past actions +with keen and painful accuracy. Hence he was not destitute of the +faculty of analyzing his acts in the light of their moral quality, +and, when his sober judgment enabled him to see them in their true +bearing, he exhibited a due contrition. +</p> + +<p> +On Branwell's visits home, he learned much of the exertions, the +projects, and the resolves of his sisters. He was aware of their +aims, and how important were the steps being taken to qualify them +the better for teaching others, more especially in perfecting their +knowledge of the French language and of music. He also knew of the +ultimate hope of his sisters—that, were the future secure, they +would have leisure to realize their early dream of one day becoming +authors, never relinquished, even when distance divided, and when +absorbing tasks occupied them. He had the highest appreciation of +their genius; and, although he had his times of hilarity, indulgence, +and enjoyment, he was certainly never forgetful of his own hopes and +aspirations in the same direction. +</p> + +<a name="XVIII"> </a> +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XVIII. +</p> + +<p class="head"> +BRANWELL'S POETRY, 1842. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +Situation of Luddenden Foot‌—‌Branwell visits Manchester‌—‌The Sultry +Summer‌—‌He visits the Picturesque Places adjacent‌—‌His impromptu +Verses to Mr. Grundy‌—‌He leaves the Railway Company‌—‌Miss Robinson's +unjust Comments‌—‌His three Sonnets‌—‌His poem 'The Afghan War'‌—‌ +Branwell's letter to Mr. Grundy‌—‌His Self-depreciation. +</p> + + +<p> +Luddenden Foot—the second place of Branwell Brontë's appointment as +clerk in charge on the Leeds and Manchester Railway—was a village +about equi-distant between Sowerby Bridge and Mytholmroyd, situated +in a fertile and moderately-wooded valley, on the left bank of +the Calder as it descends from its source in Cliviger Dean. The +cultivated hills rise to a considerable height on both sides of the +river, and are very romantic in character. Among the manufacturers +and gentry of the neighbourhood, Branwell found few to welcome him, +and from these he turned to the artists and literary men he had +previously known at Halifax. +</p> + +<p> +But Branwell, in addition, made excursions up the valley (Mr. W——, +his fellow-assistant, acting for him in his absence) in the direction +of Hebden Bridge, Heptonstall, the Ridge, Todmorden, and the heights +of Wadsworth. There were, indeed, many places of marvellous beauty +and interest near, that have long been the theme of artists and +poets, with which he did not fail to make himself acquainted. +</p> + +<p> +The huge, rounded hills, which border this valley, are intersected in +places by lovely cloughs and glens, whose peat-stained streams rush +over their rocky beds, from the elevated grouse-moors around, to pour +their waters into the Calder. From Luddenden Dean, between the +townships of Warley and Midgley, a brook makes its way to Luddenden +Foot, through a glen on whose verdant slopes stand several ancient +houses of architectural and historic interest. Among these are Ewood +Hall, where Bishop Farrer was born, and Kershaw House, a beautiful +Jacobean mansion. Crag Valley, which descends to the Calder on the +opposite bank, a mile or more from Luddenden Foot, is deeper and more +thickly wooded. On one hand lies Sowerby—with Haugh End, the +birthplace of Archbishop Tillotson—and, on the other, Erringden, +which was a royal deer-park in the days of the Plantagenets. But the +loveliest of the valleys through which the confluent streams of +the Calder run, is that of Hebden, a romantic glen, winding between +the wooded and precipitous slopes of Heptonstall—crowned with the +ancient and now ruined church of St. Thomas à Becket—and of +Wadsworth, with its narrow dell of Crimsworth, which gave Charlotte +Brontë a name for the hero of the earliest of her novels. Between +these solemn heights the stream flows beneath the huge crags of +Hardcastle, and roars over many a rocky obstruction in its channel +before it reaches the Calder at Hebden Bridge. This was a district to +which picnic-parties from Haworth often came, there being a direct +road over the hills. +</p> + +<p> +Branwell also visited Manchester on one occasion; and, on his +return, he gave an account to a young clergyman, then living in the +neighbourhood of Mytholmroyd, who sometimes went to his wooden shanty +at Luddenden Foot to hear his conversation, of how he had been +impressed with the architecture of the parish church at Manchester, +as he stood under the arched portal, and beheld the long lines of +pillars and arches, and the fretted roof, the lightsome details of +which had charmed him. He went forward on that occasion to the choir +of the church, and saw the Lady Chapel—which still retained its +beautiful screen, with its Perpendicular tracery and shafts of that +period—occupied by the gravedigger's implements, which reminded +him of the 'Worshipful Master of the Lodge of the Three Graces,' +consisting of crowbar, mattock, spade, barrow, planks and ropes; for +the Lady Chapel had been made a convenient receptacle for these +dismal chattels. +</p> + +<p> +The summer of 1841 was a somewhat monotonous time for Branwell and +his friend at the quiet station. Here, in the intervals of the +trains, scarcely anything was heard except the occasional hum of a +bee or a wasp, or the drone of a blue-bottle, while the almost +vertical rays of a summer sun darted down on the roof of the wooden +hut, and made the place unendurable. It was in moments of weary +lassitude, or in hours of drowsy leisure, that Branwell whiled away +the time by sketching carelessly on the margins of the books—for +the amusement of himself and his friend—free-hand portraits of +characters of the neighbourhood, and of the celebrated pugilists of +the day. +</p> + +<p> +But about Hebden Bridge there were people known to Branwell, and he +did not fail to visit them. His sister, Charlotte, in after-years, +sometimes came to Hanging Royd, Hebden Bridge, the house of my late +friend, the Rev. Sutcliffe Sowden, then incumbent of Mytholm—the +gentleman who afterwards performed the marriage ceremony between the +gifted lady and Mr. Nicholls. The friendship of the latter and Mr. +Sowden dated from earlier years, and to them Branwell was known when +he was at Luddenden Foot. He had, indeed, sometimes clerical visitors +at his 'wooden shanty' to hear his conversation. Mr. Sowden was an +enthusiastic lover of scenery, and the sphere of his duties abounded +in moors, wilds, crags, rivers, brooks, and dells, which he often +visited. Branwell's tastes accorded with his, but these attractions +clearly drew Branwell's attention, too often and too far, from the +imperative duties of his situation, comparatively light though they +were. As might be expected, therefore, the work of this talented but +changeful young man was found unsatisfactory, and explanations were +demanded. About the time of the close of his twelve months' official +duties at Luddenden Foot, an examination of his books was made, and +they were found to be confused and incomplete. The irregularity and +the defects of his returns had also been remarked, and an inquiry was +set on foot respecting them. The officials, in looking over the +books, discovered the pen-and-ink sketches on the margins of the +pages, which I have already mentioned; and these were taken as +conclusive evidence of carelessness and indifference on the part of +the unfortunate Branwell in the performance of his duties and the +keeping of his accounts. +</p> + +<p> +He had been made aware, by unwelcome inquiries and remonstrances, +that his position with the railway company was precarious, and he +was filled with apprehension as to the ultimate consequences. He +was requested finally to appear at the audit of the company, and +his friend W—— accompanied him. +</p> + +<p> +It was at the Christmas of 1841, that the Brontës expected to meet +at home together, in anticipation of Charlotte and Emily's journey to +Brussels; but Charlotte had not found her brother there in the January +of 1842, for she writes on the 20th of that month and year: '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.'<a href="#note36" name="noteref36"> +<small>[36]</small></a> Branwell certainly returned home, but only when it +had been intimated to him that his services were no longer required by +the railway company. How far he had felt the duties of his post +irksome, and the power of perseverance required inconsistent with his +tastes and pursuits, does not appear, though the inference that they +were so will scarcely be doubted. But the humiliation and sorrow he +felt on the loss of his employment plunged him, for a time, into +despair; and the natural gloom of his disposition, caused him to +magnify the common pleasures and enjoyments of his leisure hours into +crimes and omissions of duty of no ordinary magnitude. But the +erroneous recollections of Mr. Grundy, respecting the situation of the +station at Luddenden Foot, and its supposed deleterious influence on +Branwell's manners and obligations, may justify a doubt as to the +particular accuracy of many of his reminiscences of his friend. +</p> + +<p> +The following incident of Branwell's stay at that place, which Mr. +Grundy gives, may be regarded as affording a valuable contribution to +his writings; for, although impromptu, the verses show that he could, +even on unexpected occasions, bring into play his innate faculty of +verse with no mean grasp of his subject, and a certain harmony of +rhythmical expression. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Grundy says, 'On one occasion he (Branwell) thought I was +disposed to treat him distantly at a party, and he retired in great +dudgeon. When I arrived at my lodgings the same evening, I found the +following, necessarily an impromptu:— +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'"The man who will not know another,</p> +<p class="i2">Whose heart can never sympathize,</p> +<p>Who loves not comrade, friend, or brother,</p> +<p class="i2">Unhonoured lives—unnoticed dies:</p> +<p>His frozen eye, his bloodless heart,</p> +<p>Nature, repugnant, bids depart.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'"O, Grundy! born for nobler aim,</p> +<p>Be thine the task to shun such shame;</p> +<p>And henceforth never think that he</p> +<p>Who gives his hand in courtesy</p> +<p>To one who kindly feels to him,</p> +<p>His gentle birth or name can dim.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'"However mean a man may be,</p> +<p>Know man <i>is</i> man as well as thee;</p> +<p>However high thy gentle line,</p> +<p>Know he who writes can rank with thine;</p> +<p>And though his frame be worn and dead,</p> +<p>Some light still glitters round his head.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'"Yes! though his tottering limbs seem old,</p> +<p>His heart and blood are not yet cold.</p> +<p>Ah, Grundy! shun his evil ways,</p> +<p>His restless nights, his troubled days;</p> +<p>But never slight his mind, which flies,</p> +<p>Instinct with noble sympathies,</p> +<p>Afar from spleen and treachery,</p> +<p>To thought, to kindness, and to thee.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i20">'"<span class="sc">P. B. Brontë.</span>"'<a href="#note37" name="noteref37"> +<small>[37]</small></a> +</p></div></div> + +<p> +Branwell's extreme sensibility caused him, indeed, to exaggerate both +the lights and the shadows of his existence. He was gleeful, as I +found, full of fun, jest, and anecdote, in social circles, or where +literature and art were the theme; and then, almost involuntarily, +would rise to his feet, and, with a beaming countenance, treat the +subject with a vivid flow of imagination, displaying the rich stores +of his information with wondrous and enthralling eloquence. But, under +disappointment or misfortune, he fell a prey to gloomy thoughts, and +reached a state often near akin to despair. It was at such moments +that he usually took up his pen to express, in poetry, the fulness of +his feelings and the depth of his sorrow; and it is to this fact that +the pathetic sadness of most of his writings is due. I have had +occasion already to speak of the melancholy tone which characterized +also the minds of his sisters. +</p> + +<p> +The worth of Branwell's poetic genius about this time,—the year of +1842,—has been unfairly commented upon. Miss Robinson, questioning +the judgment of the Brontë sisters, undertakes to doubt if Branwell's +mental gifts were any better than his moral qualities, and says: 'It +is doubtful, judging from Branwell's letters and his verses, whether +anything much better than his father's "Cottage in the Wood" would +have resulted from his following the advice of James Montgomery. +Fluent ease, often on the verge of twaddle, with here and there a +bright felicitous touch, with here and there a smack of the +conventional hymn-book and pulpit twang—such weak and characterless +effusions are all that is left of the passion-ridden pseudo-genius of +Haworth.'<a href="#note38" name="noteref38"> +<small>[38]</small></a> +</p> + +<p> +Miss Robinson's ignorance of Branwell's more matured poems and +writings has caused her, in company with others, to fall into very +grave errors regarding him; and she,—with extreme bitterness, it must +be said,—has embellished her biography of Emily with elaborate +censures of his misdeeds, and with accounts of his imputed glaring +inferiority to his sisters in intellectual power. It is pitiable, +indeed, that Miss Robinson,—and not she alone,—in the want of +Branwell's true life and remains, with nothing to set against the +primary errors of Mrs. Gaskell,—should have joined the hue and cry +against him, and have essayed, almost as of set purpose, to write down +the gifted brother of the author whose life she was giving to the +world. +</p> + +<p> +In 1842 Branwell began to feel more perceptibly the development of his +intellectual powers, and to discern more clearly his natural ability +to define, in poetic and felicitous language, his thoughts, feelings, +and emotions. While under the depression and gloom consequent upon his +disgrace, and the recent loss of his employment, he wrote the three +following sonnets. The profound depth of feeling, expressed with +mournful voice, which pervades them, the full consciousness of woe by +which they are informed, leave nothing wanting in their expression of +pathetic beauty; and they are distinguished by much sweetness of +diction. These sonnets favourably show the poetical genius of +Branwell. His soul is carried beyond his frail mortality; but sadness +and sorrow, enshrouding his imagination, bind it to the precincts of +the tomb. Here, with pessimistic and gloomy philosophy, he bids us, +impressed with the slender sum of human happiness, to recognize the +constant recurrence of the misery to which we are born, and to discern +how little there is beneficent in nature or mankind. +</p> +<p class="space"> </p> +<p class="ctr">SONNET I. +</p> + +<p class="ctr"><span class="sc">On Landseer's Painting.</span> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"><i>'The Shepherd's Chief Mourner'—A Dog Keeping +Watch at Twilight over its Master's Grave.</i> +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>The beams of Fame dry up affection's tears;</p> +<p class="i2">And those who rise forget from whom they spring;</p> +<p class="i2">Wealth's golden glories—pleasure's glittering wing—</p> +<p>All that we follow through our chase of years—</p> +<p>All that our hope seeks—all our caution fears,</p> +<p class="i2">Dim or destroy those holy thoughts which cling</p> +<p class="i2">Round where the forms we loved lie slumbering;</p> +<p>But, not with <i>thee</i>—our slave—whose joys and cares</p> +<p class="i2">We deem so grovelling—power nor pride are thine,</p> +<p>Nor our pursuits, nor ties; yet, o'er this grave,</p> +<p>Where lately crowds the form of mourning gave,</p> +<p class="i2">I only hear <i>thy</i> low heart-broken whine—</p> +<p class="i2">I only see <i>thee</i> left long hours to pine</p> +<p>For <i>him</i> whom thou—if love had power—would'st save!</p></div></div> + +<p class="space"> </p> + +<p class="ctr">SONNET II. +</p> + +<p class="ctr"><span class="sc">On the Callousness produced by Care.</span> +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Why hold young eyes the fullest fount of tears?</p> +<p class="i2">And why do youthful hearts the oftenest sigh,</p> +<p class="i2">When fancied friends forsake, or lovers fly,</p> +<p>Or fancied woes and dangers wake their fears?</p> +<p>Ah! he who asks has known but spring-tide years,</p> +<p class="i2">Or Time's rough voice had long since told him why!</p> +<p class="i2">Increase of days increases misery;</p> +<p>And misery brings selfishness, which sears</p> +<p class="i2">The heart's first feelings: 'mid the battle's roar,</p> +<p>In Death's dread grasp, the soldier's eyes are blind</p> +<p class="i2">To comrades dying, and he whose hopes are o'er</p> +<p>Turns coldest from the sufferings of mankind;</p> +<p class="i2">A bleeding spirit oft delights in gore:</p> +<p>A tortured heart oft makes a tyrant mind.</p></div></div> + +<p class="space"> </p> + +<p class="ctr">SONNET III. +</p> + +<p class="ctr"><i>On Peaceful Death and Painful Life.</i> +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Why dost thou sorrow for the happy dead?</p> +<p class="i2">For, if their life be lost, their toils are o'er,</p> +<p class="i2">And woe and want can trouble them no more;</p> +<p>Nor ever slept they in an earthly bed</p> +<p>So sound as now they sleep, while dreamless laid</p> +<p class="i2">In the dark chambers of the unknown shore,</p> +<p class="i2">Where Night and Silence guard each sealed door.</p> +<p>So, turn from such as these thy drooping head,</p> +<p class="i2">And mourn the <i>Dead Alive</i>—whose spirit flies—</p> +<p>Whose life departs, before his death has come;</p> +<p class="i2">Who knows no Heaven beneath Life's gloomy skies,</p> +<p>Who sees no Hope to brighten up that gloom,—</p> +<p class="i2">'Tis <i>He</i> who feels the worm that never dies,—</p> +<p>The <i>real</i> death and darkness of the tomb.</p></div></div> + +<p> +It is painful to find the writer of these sad and beautiful sonnets +spoken of in terms of reprobation, as being, at the time he wrote +them, and when asking Mr. Grundy's aid while seeking a situation, +'sunk and contemptible.' +</p> + +<p> +'Alas,' says Miss Robinson, 'no helping hand rescued the sinking +wretch from the quicksands of idle sensuality which slowly engulfed +him!'<a href="#note39" name="noteref39"> +<small>[39]</small></a> Let us look further. +</p> + +<p> +The Afghan War, which commenced in 1838, and had secured for the +English arms what seemed at the time a complete conquest, was followed +by the conspiracy of Akbar Khan, the son of Dost Mohammed, which +occurred at the beginning of winter, when help from India was +hopeless. There was an uprising at Cabul, and several officers and men +were slain, which compelled Major Pottinger to submit to humiliating +conditions. The British left Cabul; and the disastrous retreat to +India, through the Khyber Pass, which commenced on January 6th, 1842, +will long be sadly remembered. Of sixteen thousand troops—accompanied +by women and children to the number of ten thousand more—who were +continually harassed by hostile tribes on the way, and benumbed by the +severity of the winter, only one man, Doctor Brydon, survived to tell +the tidings. Branwell, overwhelmed by these horrors, published the +following powerful and impressive poem in the 'Leeds Intelligencer,' +on May the 7th of the same year. +</p> +<p class="space"> </p> + +<p class="ctr"> +THE AFGHAN WAR. +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'Winds within our chimney thunder,</p> +<p class="i2">Rain-showers shake each window-pane,</p> +<p>Still—if nought our household sunder—</p> +<p class="i2">We can smile at wind or rain.</p> +<p>Sickness shades a loved one's chamber,</p> +<p class="i2">Steps glide gently to and fro,</p> +<p>Still—'mid woe—our hearts remember</p> +<p class="i2"><i>We</i> are there to soothe that woe.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'Comes at last the hour of mourning,</p> +<p class="i2">Solemn tolls the funeral bell;</p> +<p>And we feel that no returning</p> +<p class="i2">Fate allows to such farewell:</p> +<p>Still a holy hope shines o'er us;</p> +<p class="i2">We wept by the One who died;</p> +<p>And 'neath earth shall death restore us;</p> +<p class="i2">As round hearthstone—side by side.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'But—when all at eve, together,</p> +<p class="i2">Circle round the flickering light,</p> +<p>While December's howling weather</p> +<p class="i2">Ushers in a stormy night:</p> +<p>When each ear, scarce conscious, listens</p> +<p class="i2">To the outside Winter's war,</p> +<p>When each trembling eyelash glistens</p> +<p class="i2">As each thinks of <i>one</i> afar—</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Man to chilly silence dying,</p> +<p class="i2">Ceases story, song, and smile;</p> +<p>Thought asks—"Is the loved one lying</p> +<p class="i2">Cold upon some storm-beat isle?"</p> +<p>And with death—when doubtings vanish,</p> +<p class="i2">When despair still hopes and fears—</p> +<p>Though our anguish toil may banish,</p> +<p class="i2">Rest brings unavailing tears.</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'So, Old England—when the warning</p> +<p class="i2">Of thy funeral bells I hear—</p> +<p>Though thy dead a host is mourning,</p> +<p class="i2">Friends and kindred watch each bier.</p> +<p>But alas! Atlantic waters</p> +<p class="i2">Bear another sound from far!</p> +<p>Unknown woes, uncounted slaughters,</p> +<p class="i2">Cruel deaths, inglorious war!</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'Breasts and banners, crushed and gory,</p> +<p class="i2">That seemed once invincible;</p> +<p>England's children—England's glory,</p> +<p class="i2">Moslem sabres smite and quell!</p> +<p>Far away their bones are wasting,</p> +<p class="i2">But I hear their spirits call—</p> +<p>"Is our Mighty Mother hasting</p> +<p class="i2">To avenge her children's fall?"</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'England rise! Thine ancient thunder</p> +<p class="i2">Humbled mightier foes than these;</p> +<p>Broke a whole world's bonds asunder,</p> +<p class="i2">Gave thee empire o'er the seas:</p> +<p>And while yet one rose may blossom,</p> +<p class="i2">Emblem of thy former bloom,</p> +<p>Let not age invade thy bosom—</p> +<p class="i2">Brightest shine in darkest gloom!</p></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p>'While one oak thy homes shall shadow,</p> +<p class="i2">Stand like it as thou hast stood;</p> +<p>While a Spring greets grove and meadow,</p> +<p class="i2">Let not Winter freeze thy blood.</p> +<p>Till this hour St. George's standard</p> +<p class="i2">Led the advancing march of time;</p> +<p>England! keep it streaming vanward,</p> +<p class="i2">Conqueror over age and clime!'</p></div></div> + +<p> +In this poem Branwell prefaces his subject with a picture of domestic +suffering—one with which he is familiar—and compares the consolation +which accompanies the affectionate attentions of those present, with +the hopeless fate and untended deaths of such as perish in the storms +and wars of distant places, far away from their homes and friends. In +the true, loyal, and national spirit which animates him, his manly +appeal to England, comprised principally in the last two verses, is +perhaps one of the noblest and most vigorous ever written. +</p> + +<p> +In the May of 1842, Leyland was commissioned to execute certain +monuments for Haworth and its neighbourhood; and, on the 15th of that +month, Branwell wrote to him, in reference to a design for a monument +which he had sent for submission to a committee of which the Rev. P. +Brontë was chairman, and invited him to the parsonage on the 20th of +the month, being sure his father would be pleased to see him. Leyland +visited Haworth and partook of Mr. Brontë's hospitality; and in the +evening, accompanied by the incumbent and his son, appeared before the +monument committee. +</p> + +<p> +Branwell also wrote an interesting letter to Mr. Grundy on May 22nd, +1842, which that gentleman erroneously assigns to 1845.<a href="#note40" name="noteref40"> +<small>[40]</small></a> In it he +says that he cannot avoid the temptation, while sitting alone, all the +household being at church, and he being the sole occupant of the +parsonage, to scribble a few lines to cheer his spirits. He alludes to +the extreme pain, illness, and mental depression he has endured since +his dismissal. He describes himself, while at Luddenden Foot, as a +'miserable wreck,' as requiring six glasses of whisky to stimulate +him, as almost insane! And he feels his recovery from this last stage +of his condition to be retarded by 'having nothing to listen to except +the wind moaning among old chimneys and older ash trees,—nothing to +look at except heathery hills, walked over when life had all to hope +for, and nothing to regret.' He reproaches himself, in bitter terms, +with seeking indulgence, while at Luddenden Foot, in failings which +formed, he declares, the black spot on his character. His sister +Charlotte's mind appears to have been cast in the same gloomy mould; +for, when suffering under bodily ailment, or the despondency and +hopelessness which overshadowed her soul, she was impelled, as we have +seen, to make confessions to her friend 'E' of her 'stings of +conscience,' her 'visitings of remorse.' She hates her 'former +flippancy and forwardness.' She is in a state of 'horrid, gloomy +uncertainty,' and clouds are 'gathering darker,' and a more depressing +despondency weighs upon her spirits.<a href="#note41" name="noteref41"> +<small>[41]</small></a> +</p> + +<p> +In another letter to her friend, Charlotte says she is 'in a strange +state of mind—still gloomy, but not despairing. I keep trying to do +right…. I abhor myself, I despise myself.' And again, later, she +wonders if the new year will be 'stained as darkly as the last with +all our sins, follies, secret vanities, and uncontrolled passions and +propensities,' saying 'I trust not; but I feel in nothing better, +neither humbler nor purer.'<a href="#note42" name="noteref42"> +<small>[42]</small></a> +</p> + +<p> +Branwell, however, while making, in a like tone, his unnecessarily +exaggerated confession to his friend, sets forth his renovation of +soul and body. He has, at length, acquired health, strength, and +soundness of mind far superior to anything he had known at Luddenden +Foot. He can speak cheerfully, and enjoy the company of another, +without his former stimulus. He can write, think, and act, with some +apparent approach to resolution, and he only wants a motive for +exertion to be happier than he has been for years. He has still +something left in him which might do him service. He thinks he ought +not to live too long in solitude, as the world soon forgets those who +wish it 'Goodbye.' Then, although ashamed of it, he asks for answers +to some inquiries he had made about obtaining a new situation, +evidently thinking Mr. Grundy's influence of importance in the matter. +</p> + +<p> +This letter must receive a passing notice. It shows Branwell's mind +vigorous and healthy, although it had been disordered by physical +illness accompanied by brooding melancholy. His picture of the lonely +parsonage and the solitude of the surrounding country, combined with +the expression of his own sad emotions, is graphic enough. His sisters +wrote with the same power and the same artistic feeling. The occasion +of his writing this letter to Mr. Grundy was his wish to obtain some +employment in connection with the railway, and he made this overdrawn +confession of his habits and indulgences when at Luddenden Foot, and +contrasted them with the great mental, moral, and bodily improvement +he had acquired since he left. It was his hope that by this contrast +he might make a favourable impression, and that Mr. Grundy's position +with the Messrs. Stephenson might be a means of helping him to some +employment suited to his tastes and abilities. But Mr. Grundy could +not aid him in this object, which he pursued with all the feverish +eagerness of his urgent and impetuous nature. With great vigour of +expression he declares, 'I would rather give my hand than undergo +again the grovelling carelessness, the malignant yet cold debauchery, +the determination to find how far mind could carry body without both +being chucked into hell.' +</p> + +<p> +But Branwell, at the time of which I speak, was full of energy and +industry; indeed, he could not be idle. He wrote another letter in +reply to one he had received from Mr. Grundy, dated June the 9th, +1842. From this we learn that his friend had either not entertained +his applications, or was unable to further his interests in the +quarter from which employment could come, for he had given +discouraging answers. Branwell felt the disappointment keenly, but +says that it was allayed by Mr. Grundy's kind and considerate tone. +His friend had asked why he did not turn his attention elsewhere. To +this Branwell replies that most of his relations are clergymen, and +others of them, by a private life, removed from the busy world. As for +the church, he declares he has not one mental qualification, 'save, +perhaps, hypocrisy,' which might make him 'cut a figure in its +pulpits.' He informs Mr. Grundy that Mr. James Montgomery and another +literary gentleman, who had lately seen something of his work, wished +him to turn his attention to literature. He declares that he has +little conceit of himself, but that he has a great desire for +activity. He is somewhat changed, yet, although not possessed of the +buoyant spirits of his friend, he might, in dress and appearance, +emulate something like ordinary decency. +</p> + +<p> +In Leyland's art commissions at Haworth, Branwell took great interest, +and in his correspondence considerable activity and industry appear. +He wrote, on June the 29th, 1842, to the sculptor, a letter, in which +he alludes to the conduct of some gentlemen of the committee at +Haworth, who had acted in an unfair way to his friend on a +professional matter. He says:— +</p> + +<p> +'I have not often felt more heartily ashamed than when you left the +committee at Haworth; but I did not like to speak on the subject then, +and I trusted that you would make that allowance, which you have +perhaps often ere now had to do, for gothic ignorance and ill +breeding; and one or two of the persons present afterwards felt that +they had left by no means an enviable impression on your mind. +</p> + +<p> +'Though it is but a poor compliment,—I long much to see you again at +Haworth, and forget for half-a-day the amiable society in which I am +placed, where I never hear a word more musical than an ass's bray. +When you come over, bring with you Mr. Constable, but leave behind +Father Matthew, as his conversation is too cold and freezing for +comfort among the moors of Yorkshire.' +</p> + +<p> +At the bottom of the sheet on which this letter is written, Branwell +has drawn a pen-and-ink sketch of rare merit. The weird waste, which +stretches to the horizon, may represent well the lonely wilds of +Haworth, overshadowed by the clouds of approaching night, and +interspersed with streaks of fading day, among which the crescent moon +appears. In the foreground is a group of monuments, one a tomb sunk on +its side; and, of the head-stones, one is inscribed with the word +'Resurgam.' Branwell was no mean draughtsman, and that his hand did +not shake with the excesses he is represented to have gone through at +this period of his life, the delicacy of this elaborate drawing is +sufficient proof. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Constable, mentioned in the letter, was an acquaintance of the +sculptor, a gentleman of considerable ability in art and poetry. The +conviviality, which Branwell did not consider altogether a dereliction +of moral duty, led him to make his quiet and humorous allusion to +Father Matthew. +</p> + +<br> +<p class="ctr"> +END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. +</p> + + +<p class="ctr"> +<small>LONDON: PRINTED BY DUNCAN MACDONALD, BLENHEIM HOUSE.</small> +</p> + +<hr class="med"> + +<p class="ctr"> +Footnotes +</p> +<br> + + +<p class="fn"><a name="note1" href="#noteref1"> [1]</a> +'Life of Charlotte Brontë,' chap. ii. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note2" href="#noteref2"> [2]</a> +'Life of Charlotte Brontë,' chap. iii. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note3" href="#noteref3"> [3]</a> +'Life of Charlotte Brontë,' chap. iii. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note4" href="#noteref4"> [4]</a> +Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte Brontë,' chap. iii, 1st edition. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note5" href="#noteref5"> [5]</a> +'Charlotte Brontë, a Monograph,' pp. 20, 21, 22. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note6" href="#noteref6"> [6]</a> +'Emily Brontë,' by A. Mary F. Robinson, 1883, p. 16. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note7" href="#noteref7"> [7]</a> +Mrs. Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte Brontë,' chap. iii. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note8" href="#noteref8"> [8]</a> +James's 'History of Bradford,' p. 358. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note9" href="#noteref9"> [9]</a> +Gaskell's 'Charlotte Brontë,' chap. iv. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note10" href="#noteref10">[10]</a> Gaskell's +'Life of Charlotte Brontë,' chap. iv. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note11" href="#noteref11">[11]</a> 'Life of +Charlotte Brontë,' chap. iv. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note12" href="#noteref12">[12]</a> 'Life of +Charlotte Brontë,' chap. v. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note13" href="#noteref13">[13]</a> Gaskell's +'Life of Charlotte Brontë,' chap v. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note14" href="#noteref14">[14]</a> 'Life of +Charlotte Brontë,' chap. v. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note15" href="#noteref15">[15]</a> 'Charlotte +Brontë, a monograph,' p. 27. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note16" href="#noteref16">[16]</a> 'Life of +Charlotte Brontë,' chap. vi. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note17" href="#noteref17">[17]</a> Scribner, +ii., 18, 'Reminiscences of Charlotte Brontë.' </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note18" href="#noteref18">[18]</a> Reid's +'Charlotte Brontë, a Monograph,' p. 29. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note19" href="#noteref19">[19]</a> 'Jane Eyre,' +chap. xiii. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note20" href="#noteref20">[20]</a> 'Life of +Charlotte Brontë,' chap. vii. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note21" href="#noteref21">[21]</a> 'The Mirror,' +1872. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note22" href="#noteref22">[22]</a> +'Athenæum,' June 16th, 1883, p. 762. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note23" href="#noteref23">[23]</a> Riley's +'History of the Airedale Lodge,' p. 48. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note24" href="#noteref24">[24]</a> 'Emily +Brontë,' p. 64. It may be noted here, to show in some sort what +amount of credibility attaches to these representations, that Miss +Robinson has placed Branwell's portrait-painting at Bradford subsequent +to his tutorship at Broughton-in-Furness, though really he did not go +there until a year later. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note25" href="#noteref25">[25]</a> 'Life of +Charlotte Brontë,' chap, xxvii. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note26" href="#noteref26">[26]</a> Gaskell's +'Life of Charlotte Brontë,' chap. viii. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note27" href="#noteref27">[27]</a> 'The Death of +Leyland's African Bloodhound,' by William Dearden, author of 'The +Star-Seer.' London, 1837. (Longmans.) </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note28" href="#noteref28">[28]</a> 'Agnes Grey,' +chap. i. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note29" href="#noteref29">[29]</a> 'Agnes Grey,' +chap. i. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note30" href="#noteref30">[30]</a> The clock +mentioned by Branwell was one that stood in a corner of the 'Snug' at +'The Bull,' inside the door of which the landlord—'Little +Nosey'—used to chalk up the 'shots' of his guests. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note31" href="#noteref31">[31]</a> Charlotte +Brontë.—Memoir prefixed to 'Wuthering Heights.' </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note32" href="#noteref32">[32]</a> Gaskell's +'Life of Charlotte Brontë,' chap. ix. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note33" href="#noteref33">[33]</a> 'Pictures of +the Past,' by Francis H. Grundy, C.E. (1879) p. 75. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note34" href="#noteref34">[34]</a> 'Pictures of +the Past,' p. 75. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note35" href="#noteref35">[35]</a> 'Life of +Charlotte Brontë,' chap. x. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note36" href="#noteref36">[36]</a> 'Life of +Charlotte Brontë,' chap. x. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note37" href="#noteref37">[37]</a> 'Pictures of +the Past,' pp. 78-79. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note38" href="#noteref38">[38]</a> 'Emily +Brontë,' p. 97. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note39" href="#noteref39">[39]</a> 'Emily +Brontë,' p. 99. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note40" href="#noteref40">[40]</a> 'Pictures of +the Past,' p. 84. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note41" href="#noteref41">[41]</a> Gaskell's +'Life of Charlotte Brontë,' chap. viii. </p> + +<p class="fn"><a name="note42" href="#noteref42">[42]</a> 'Unpublished +letters of Charlotte Brontë,' <i>Hours at Home</i>, vol. xi. </p> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Brontė Family, Vol. 1 of 2, by +Francis A. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Bronte Family, Vol. 1 of 2 + with special reference to Patrick Branwell Bronte + +Author: Francis A. Leyland + +Release Date: October 25, 2011 [EBook #37843] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BRONTE FAMILY, VOL. 1 OF 2 *** + + + + +Produced by StevenGibbs and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +THE BRONTE FAMILY + +WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO + +PATRICK BRANWELL BRONTE + + +VOL. I. + + +BY + +FRANCIS A. LEYLAND. + + +IN TWO VOLUMES. + +VOL. I. + + +LONDON: +HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, +13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. +1886. + +_All rights reserved._ + + + + +PREFACE. + + +It has long seemed to me that the history of the Bronte family is +incomplete, and, in some senses, not well understood. Those who have +written upon it--as I shall have occasion to point out in these +pages--have had certain objects in view, which have, perhaps +necessarily, led them to give undue weight to special points and to +overlook others. Thus it happens that, though there are in the hands of +the public several able works on the Brontes, there are many +circumstances relating to them that are yet in comparative obscurity. +Especially has injustice been done to one member of the family--Patrick +Branwell Bronte--whose life has several times been treated by those who +have had some other object in view; and, through a misunderstanding of +the character of the brother, the sisters, Anne in particular, have +been put, in some respects, in a false light also. This circumstance, +coupled with the fact that I am in possession of much new information, +and am able to print here a considerable quantity of unknown poetry +from Branwell's hand, has induced me to write this work. Those of his +poems which are included in these volumes are placed in dealing with +the periods of his life in which they were written, for I felt that, +however great might be the advantages of putting them together in a +complete form, much more would be lost both to the interest of the +poems and the life of their author in doing so. Branwell's poems, more, +perhaps, than those of any other writer, are so clearly expressive of +his feelings at the time of their writing, that a correct view of his +character is only to be obtained by looking upon them as parts of his +life-history, which indeed they are. And, moreover, when we consider +the circumstances under which any of these were written, our +understanding and appreciation of the subject must necessarily be much +fuller and truer. It has not escaped the attention of writers on the +Bronte story that Branwell had an important influence on his sisters; +and, though I maintain it to have been essentially different from what +others allege, it would not be possible to do justice either to him or +to them without saying a good deal about his character. + +I have felt it right, in these pages, to some extent also, to +re-consider the character of the Rev. Patrick Bronte, which has, along +with that of his son, suffered unfair treatment in the biographies of +his daughters. I have likewise entered upon some account of the local +circumstances of art and literature which surrounded the Brontes, an +element in their history which has hitherto been unknown, but is +especially necessary to a right understanding of the life and work of +Branwell Bronte and his sisters. These circumstances, and the altered +view I have taken of the tone of the lives of Mr. Bronte and his son, +have obliged me to deal more fully than would otherwise have been +necessary with the early years of the Brontes, but I venture to hope +that this may be atoned for by the new light I have thus been enabled +to throw on some important points. There are published here, for the +first time, a series of letters which Branwell Bronte addressed to an +intimate friend, J. B. Leyland, sculptor, who died in 1851, and it is +with these that a fresh insight is obtained into an interesting period +of Branwell's life. + +I am largely indebted in some parts of my work, especially those which +deal with the lives of the sisters, to Mrs. Gaskell's fascinating 'Life +of Charlotte Bronte'; and it is a source of sincere regret to me that I +am compelled to differ from that writer on many points. I am likewise +indebted in parts to Mr. T. Wemyss Reid's admirable 'Charlotte Bronte: +a Monograph,' a work which has corrected several errors and +misconceptions into which Mrs. Gaskell had fallen. The reader will +perceive that I am obliged in several places to combat the theories and +question the statements of Miss A. Mary F. Robinson in her 'Emily +Bronte,' a book which, nevertheless, so far as its special subject is +concerned, is a worthy contribution to the history of the Brontes. + +I have also found of much use, in writing this work, an article +entitled 'Branwell Bronte,' which Mr. George Searle Phillips--'January +Searle'--published in the 'Mirror' in 1872. The chapter in Mr. Francis +H. Grundy's 'Pictures of the Past' on Branwell Bronte, has likewise +been of the greatest service to me. Both these gentlemen were +Branwell's personal friends, and to them I gladly acknowledge my +indebtedness. + +Among many other sources of information respecting the Brontes, of +which I have availed myself in writing these pages, I may mention +_Hours at Home_, 'Unpublished Letters of Charlotte Bronte'; _Scribner_, +'Reminiscences of Charlotte Bronte'; the _Athenaeum_, 'Notices and +Letters,' by Mr. A. C. Swinburne, and 'One of the Survivors of the +Bronte-Branwell Family.' To this lady I must also express my obligation +for her very kind letter to me. + +In the preparation of my work I have been greatly assisted by the +information, and encouraged by the sympathy, of several who had +personal knowledge of Patrick Branwell Bronte, and who have supported +the view I have taken of his life and character, and also who had like +knowledge of the other members of the Bronte family. Among these, I +have to express my sincere thanks to Mr. H. Merrall and to Mr. William +Wood, who were early acquaintances of Branwell; also to Mr. William +Dearden. To Mr. J. H. Thompson and Mrs. Thornton I am greatly indebted +for information respecting Branwell's sojourn in Bradford. I have +likewise derived much information from the family of the Browns, now +all deceased, except Mrs. Brown, to whom I have to express my +obligation. I have also gained much reliable information from Nancy +Garrs, now Mrs. Wainwright, the nurse of the Brontes, and to her I must +especially express my thanks. To these, I must not omit to add my deep +and sincere thanks to those who will not permit me to mention them by +name, for the unwearied assistance, counsel, and literary judgment +which they have as cheerfully, as they have ably, rendered. + +F. A. L. + +OAKWOOD, SKIRCOAT, HALIFAX, +October, 1885. + + + + +CONTENTS + +OF + +THE FIRST VOLUME. + + +CHAPTER I. + +Bronte Genius--Patrick Bronte--His Birthplace--His early +Endeavours--Ordained--Presented to Hartshead--High Town--His +Courtship and Marriage--Removes to Thornton--His House--Thornton +Chapel--Mrs. Bronte's failing Health--Mr. Bronte Accepts the Living +of Haworth--Rudeness of the Inhabitants--Local Fights between +Haworth and Heptonstall--Description of Haworth--Mrs. Bronte dies 1 + +CHAPTER II. + +The Mother of the Brontes--Her Character and Personal Appearance +--Her Literary Taste--Penzance, her Native Place--Description +of Penzance--The Branwell Family--Personal Traits of Maria +Branwell--Her Virtues--Her Letters to Mr. Bronte--Her Domestic +Experiences 33 + +CHAPTER III. + +Character of the Rev. P. Bronte--Charges against Him--Serious +Allegations of Biographers--Injustice of the Charges--Mr. Bronte's +indignant Denial of the Imputations--Testimony of Nancy Garrs--Mrs. +Bronte and the Silk-Dress Episode--Mr. Bronte, the supposed +Prototype of Mr. Helstone--The Pistol-shots Theory--Mr. Bronte +on Science Knowledge--Miss Branwell 41 + +CHAPTER IV. + +Girlhood--Gravity of Character--Charlotte's Description of the +Elf-land of Childhood--The Still and Solemn Moors of Haworth +influence their Writings--The Present of Toys--The Plays which +they Acted--Mr. Bronte on a Supposed Earthquake--The Evidence +of his Care for his Children--Grammar School at Haworth--His +Children under the Tuition of the Master--The Character of the +School--Cowan Bridge School--Charlotte's View of Mr. Carus +Wilson's Management--Deaths of Maria and Elizabeth 57 + +CHAPTER V. + +Reunion of the Bronte Family--Branwell is the supposed Prototype +of Victor Crimsworth--That Character not a complete Portrait of +Branwell--His Friendships--His Visit to the Keighley Feast--Its +Effect on Branwell's Nerves--The Wrestle--The Lost Spectacles--Fear +of his Father's Displeasure--Mrs. Gaskell's Story of the 'Black +Bull' Incident Questioned--Miss Branwell and her Nephew 81 + +CHAPTER VI. + +The youthful Compositions of the Brontes--Their Character-- +Branwell's Share in them--'The Secret,' a Fragment--The Reading +of the Bronte Children--Branwell's Character at this Period 93 + +CHAPTER VII. + +Charlotte goes to Roe Head--Return Home--Branwell at the Time--The +Companion of his Sisters--Escorts Charlotte on a Visit--He becomes +Interested in Pugilism--His Education--His Love for Music--His +Retentive Memory--His Personal Appearance--His Spirit 109 + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Love of Art in the Youthful Brontes--Their elaborate Drawings-- +J. B. Leyland, Sculptor--Spartacus--Mr. George Hogarth's +Opinion--Art Exhibition at Leeds--Mr. William Robinson, their +Drawing-Master--Branwell aims at Portrait-Painting--J. B. +Leyland in London--Branwell and the Royal Academy--He visits +London 123 + +CHAPTER IX. + +Charlotte returns as a Teacher, with Emily as a Pupil, to Roe +Head--Their Determination to Maintain themselves--Charlotte's +Fears respecting Emily--Charlotte's religious Melancholy--Accuses +herself of Flippancy--She is on the Borders of Despair--Anxiety +to Know more of the World--Emily at Law Hill, Halifax, as a +Teacher--Charlotte's Excitability--She returns Home out of +Health 147 + +CHAPTER X. + +The Light in which Biographers have regarded Branwell-- +Bibliography--Mrs. Gaskell--The Causes which led her into +Error--Resentment of Branwell's Friends--Mr. George Searle +Phillips--Branwell as Depicted by Mr. T. Wemyss Reid--Mr. F. H. +Grundy's Notice of Branwell--Miss A. Mary F. Robinson's Portrait +of Branwell 159 + +CHAPTER XI. + +Branwell becomes a Freemason--His love of Art undiminished--Has +Instruction in Oil-Painting--Commences Portrait-Painting at +Bradford--His Commissions--His Letter to Mr. Thompson, the +Artist--Miss Robinson's Charges of Misconduct--Her Erroneous +Statements--Branwell's true Character and Conduct at Bradford +--Remarks on his alleged Opium-eating there 172 + +CHAPTER XII. + +New Inspiration of Poetry--Wordsworth--Southey, Scott, and +Byron--Southey to Charlotte Bronte--Hartley Coleridge--His +Worthies of Yorkshire--Poets of the West-Riding--Alaric A. +Watts--Branwell's Literary Abilities 184 + +CHAPTER XIII. + +Branwell's Letter to Wordsworth, with Stanzas--Remarks upon +it--No Reply--He Tries Again--His Interest in the Manchester +and Leeds Railway--Branwell's Literary and Artistic Friends +at Bradford and Halifax--Leyland's Works there--Branwell's +great Interest in them--Early Verses--Mrs. Gaskell's Judgment +on his Literary Abilities 193 + +CHAPTER XIV. + +The Poetical bent of Branwell's Genius--'Caroline's Prayer'--'On +Caroline'--'Caroline'--Spirit of these Early Effusions 210 + +CHAPTER XV. + +Charlotte's first Offer of Marriage--Her Remarks concerning it +--A second Offer Declined--Anne a Governess--She Moralizes upon +it--Charlotte obtains a Situation--Unsuited to Her--She Leaves +it--Branwell takes Pleasure in Scenery--He Visits Liverpool with +his Friends--Charlotte goes to Easton--Curates at Haworth--Their +Visits to the Parsonage--Public Meetings on Church Rates-- +Charlotte's Attempt at a Richardsonian Novel--She sends the +Commencement of it to Wordsworth for his Opinion--Branwell +receives an Appointment as Private Tutor 228 + +CHAPTER XVI. + +The District of Black Comb--Branwell's Sonnet--Wordsworth and +Hartley Coleridge--Branwell's Letter to the 'Old Knave of +Trumps'--Its Publication by Miss Robinson in her 'Emily +Bronte'--Branwell's familiar Acquaintance with the People of +Haworth--He could Paint their Characters with Accuracy--His +Knowledge of the Human Passions--Emily's Isolation 249 + +CHAPTER XVII. + +Branwell's Appointment at Ulverston ends--He gets a Situation +on the Railroad at Sowerby Bridge--Branwell at Luddenden Foot-- +His Friends' Reminiscences of him--Charlotte and Emily reading +French Novels--Charlotte obtains a Situation--Anxious about +Anne--School Project of the Sisters--Charlotte's keen Desire +to visit Brussels--Her Letter to her Aunt Branwell 264 + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +Situation of Luddenden Foot--Branwell visits Manchester--The +Sultry Summer--He visits the Picturesque Places adjacent--His +impromptu Verses to Mr. Grundy--He leaves the Railway Company +--Miss Robinson's unjust Comments--His three Sonnets--His +poem, 'The Afghan War'--Branwell's letter to Mr. Grundy--His +Self-depreciation 287 + + + + +THE BRONTE FAMILY. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +EARLY CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE BRONTES. + +Bronte Genius--Patrick Bronte--His Birthplace--His early +Endeavours--Ordained--Presented to Hartshead--High Town--His +Courtship and Marriage--Removes to Thornton--His House--Thornton +Chapel--Mrs. Bronte's failing Health--Mr. Bronte Accepts the Living +of Haworth--Rudeness of the Inhabitants--Local Fights between +Haworth and Heptonstall--Description of Haworth--Mrs. Bronte dies. + + +Not many stories of literary success have attracted so much interest, +and are in themselves so curious and enthralling, as that of the Bronte +sisters. The question has often been asked how it came about that these +children, who were brought up in distant solitude, and cut off, in a +manner, from intellectual life, who had but a partial opportunity of +studying mankind, and scarcely any knowledge of the ways of the outside +world, were enabled, with searching hands, to dissect the finest meshes +of the passions, to hold up in the clearest light the springs of human +action, and to depict, with nervous power, the most masculine and +forcible aspects of character. The solution has been sought in the +initiatory strength and inherent mental disposition of the sisters, +framed and moulded by the weird and rugged surroundings of their youth, +and tinged with lurid light and vivid feeling by the misfortunes and +sins of their unhappy brother. To illustrate these several points, the +biographers of Charlotte and Emily Bronte have explained, as the matter +admitted of explanation, the intellectual beginnings and capability of +the sisters, have painted in sombre colours the story of their +friendless childhood, and lastly, with no lack of honest condemnation, +have told us as much as they knew of the sad history of Patrick +Branwell Bronte, their brother. It is a curious fact that this brother, +who was looked upon by his family as its brightest ornament and hope, +should be named in these days only in connection with his sisters, and +then but with apology, condemnation, or reproach. In the course of this +work, in which Branwell Bronte will be traced from his parentage to his +death, we shall find the explanation of this circumstance; but we shall +find, also, that, despite his failings and his sins, his intellectual +gifts, as they are testified by his literary promise and his remains, +entitle him to a high place as a worthy member of that extraordinary +family. It will be seen, moreover, that his influence upon Charlotte, +Emily, and Anne was not what has been generally supposed, and that +other circumstances, besides their own domestic troubles, inspired them +to write their masterpieces. + +The father of these gifted authors, Patrick Bronte, whose life and +personal characteristics well deserve study, was a native of the county +Down. He was born on St. Patrick's Day, 1777; and, after an infancy +passed at the house of his father, Hugh Bronte, or Brunty, at +Ahaderg--one of the ten children who made a noisy throng in the home of +his parents--he opened, at the age of sixteen, a village school at +Drumgooland, in the same county. In this occupation he continued after +he had attained his majority, and was never a tutor, as Mrs. Gaskell +supposes; but, being ambitious of a clerical life, through the +assistance of his patron, Mr. Tighe, incumbent of Drumgooland and +Drumballyroony, in the county of Down, he was admitted to St. John's +College, Cambridge, on the 1st of October in the year 1802, when he had +attained his twenty-fifth year. At Cambridge we may infer that he led +an active life. It is known that he joined a volunteer corps raised to +be in readiness for the French invasion, threatened at the time. After +a four years' sojourn at his college, having graduated as a bachelor of +arts, in the year 1806, he was ordained, and appointed to a curacy in +Essex, where he is said not to have stayed long. + +The perpetual curacy of Hartshead, in the West-Riding of Yorkshire, +having become vacant, Mr. Bronte received the appointment, on the +presentation of the vicar of Dewsbury. + +The church of St. Peter, at Hartshead--which has extensive remains of +Norman work, and has recently been restored--is situated on an eminence +about a mile from the actual hamlet of that name; and, with its broad, +low, and massive tower, and its grim old yew-tree, forms a conspicuous +object for miles around, commanding on all sides extensive and +magnificent views of the valleys of Calder and Colne, with their wooded +slopes, and pleasant farms, and the busy villages nestling in the +hollows. At the foot of the hill, the deep and sombre woods of Kirklees +hide the almost indistinguishable remains of the convent, founded by +Raynerus Flandrensis, in the reign of Henry II., for nuns of the order +of Citeaux. + +There are interesting circumstances and evidences concerning Kirklees, +its Roman entrenchments being very distinct within the park which +overlooks the Calder at this point. The priory, too, has its curious +history of the events which attended the cloistered life of Elizabeth +de Stainton, one of the prioresses, whose monumental memorial alone +remains of all that marked the graves of the religious of that house; +and there are stories relating to Robin Hood. Here still exists the +chamber in which tradition says the 'noble outlaw' died, and also the +grave, at a cross-bow shot from it, where long generations of men have +averred his dust reposes. The district of Kirklees had an interest for +Charlotte Bronte, and she has celebrated it in 'Shirley,' under the +name of Nunnely, with its old church, its forest, its monastic ruins, +and 'its man of title--its baronet.' It was to the house of the +latter--kind gentleman though he was--that Louis Moore could not go, +where he 'would much sooner have made an appointment with the ghost of +the Earl of Huntingdon to meet him, and a shadowy ring of his merry +men, under the canopy of the thickest, blackest, oldest oak in Nunnely +Forest ... would rather have appointed tryst with a phantom abbess, or +mist-pale nun, among the wet and weedy relics of that ruined sanctuary +of theirs, mouldering in the core of the wood.' + +Mr. Bronte entered upon his ministrations at Hartshead in the year +1811; and there are entries in the churchwarden's book of Easter-dues +paid to him up to 1815. It is curious to note that, in this early +mention of Mr. Bronte, the name is spelled 'Brunty' and 'Bronty.' + +Hartshead being destitute of a glebe house, and no suitable residence +existing either at this place or at the neighbouring village of Clifton +at the time, Mr. Bronte took up his residence at High Town, in a roomy +and pleasant house at the top of Clough Lane, near Liversedge in the +parish of Birstall, and about a mile from the place of his cure. The +house, which commands beautiful views, is entered by a passage of the +ordinary width, on the left of which is the drawing-room, having +cross-beams ornamented with plaster mouldings, as when first finished. +On the right of the passage is the dining-room. The breakfast-room and +kitchen are behind them. The house is three stories in height, and +stands back about two yards from the road, which points direct to the +now populous towns of Liversedge and Cleckheaton, both places of +considerable antiquity, whose inhabitants, employed in various +manufacturies, were increasing in Mr. Bronte's time. + +Finding himself now in possession of a competent income and a goodly +residence, he felt relieved from those anxieties which, in all +probability, had attended his early struggles; and, resting awhile in +his ambition, he turned in peace and contentment to poetical +meditation. His first book was called 'Cottage Poems,' on the +title-page of which he describes himself as the 'Reverend Patrick +Bronte, B.A., minister of Hartshead-cum-Clifton.' This book was +published at Halifax in the year 1811. The following are a few of its +subjects: 'The Happy Cottagers,' 'The Rainbow,' 'Winter Nights' +Meditations,' 'Verses sent to a Lady on her Birthday,' 'The Cottage +Maid,' and 'The Spider and the Fly.' Mr. Bronte thus speaks of himself +and his work: 'When relieved from clerical avocations he was occupied +in writing the "Cottage Poems;" from morning till noon, and from noon +till night, his employment was full of indescribable pleasure, such as +he could wish to taste as long as life lasts. His hours glided +pleasantly and almost imperceptibly by, and when night drew on, and he +retired to rest, ere his eyes closed in sleep with sweet calmness and +serenity of mind, he often reflected that, though the delicate palate +of criticism might be disgusted, the business of the day in the +prosecution of his humble task was well-pleasing in the sight of God, +and by His blessing might be rendered useful to some poor soul who +cared little about critical niceties.' Throughout he professes to be +indifferent to hostile criticism. + +It is pleasant to find that Mr. Bronte, although settled in competence +in a picturesque part of England, was not forgetful of his parents or +of the land of his birth. So long as his mother lived he sent her +twenty pounds a year; and, though we have no record of the occasion, we +may safely infer that he found opportunity to visit Ireland again. He +maintained his connection with the district of his early life; and, in +after-years, he appointed a relative of Mr. Tighe to be his own curate. +One of his 'Cottage Poems' is entitled 'The Irish Cabin,' a verse or +two from which may here be given:-- + + 'Should poverty, modest and clean, + E'er please when presented to view, + Should cabin on brown heath or green, + Disclose aught engaging to you; + Should Erin's wild harp soothe the ear, + When touched by such fingers as mine, + Then kindly attentive draw near, + And candidly ponder each line.' + +He describes a winter-scene on the mountains of Morne--a high range +of hills in the north of Ireland--and thus alludes to his hospitable +reception in the clean and industrious cabin of his verses:-- + + 'Escaped from the pitiless storm, + I entered the humble retreat; + Compact was the building, and warm, + In furniture simple and neat. + And now, gentle reader, approve + The ardour that glowed in each breast, + As kindly our cottagers strove + To cherish and welcome their guest.' + +It is unnecessary to give in this place further extracts from this +book; suffice it to say that, in all probability, Mr. Bronte lived to +see the day when he was pained and surprised that he had ever committed +it to the press. + +Although the poems of Mr. Bronte are inspired by the love of a peaceful +and contented life, free from excitement and care, yet in times of +trouble and emergency, such as those of the Luddite riots which +occurred during the period of his ministration at Hartshead, he showed +again the active and resolute spirit which had prompted and sustained +the efforts of his early ambition; and his ardour in helping to +suppress the turbulent spirit of the neighbourhood would have made him +very unpopular with the disaffected people, had they not learned to +respect the upright and unfailing rectitude of his conduct. In the +energetic character of Mr. Bronte's life in these early times, in his +persistent ambition, and in the literary pursuits which clearly were +dear to him, we may trace those factors of working power and literary +aspiration and taste which made up the characteristic intellectual +force of his children. + +Mrs. Gaskell, in her 'Life of Charlotte Bronte,' has given some of the +particulars of the Reverend Mr. Bronte's courtship and marriage, in +which she appears to have taken a lively interest. + +Mr. Bronte met his future wife, (Miss Maria Branwell--of whose +character I shall speak in the next chapter--the third daughter of Mr. +T. Branwell of Penzance, deceased) for the first time about the summer +of 1812, when she was on a visit to her uncle, the Rev. John Fennel, a +Methodist minister and head-master of the Wesleyan Academy at Woodhouse +Grove, near Bradford, but who became later a clergyman of the +Establishment, and was made incumbent of Cross-stone, in the parish of +Halifax. This meeting was soon followed by an engagement, and, says +Mrs. Gaskell, there were plans for happy picnic-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. + +In the account which Mr. Bronte gives of the aim and scope of the work +from which I have made an extract, and the state of his mind while +engaged upon it, we have a retrospect of the inner life of the father +of the Brontes, during his sojourn at Hartshead as perpetual curate, +prior to his marriage with Miss Branwell. In this period of his life, +he seems to have been perfectly happy, no cloud or anticipation of +future sorrow having obscured or diminished the fulness of his peace. +The marriage was celebrated on the 29th of December, 1812, at Guiseley, +near Bradford, by the Rev. W. Morgan, minister of Bierley, the +gentleman engaged to 'Cousin Jane.' It is a very curious circumstance +that on the same day, and at the same place, Mr. Bronte performed the +marriage ceremony between his wife's cousin, Miss Jane Fennel, only +daughter of the Mr. Fennel alluded to above, and the Rev. W. Morgan, +who had just been, as described, the officiating clergyman at his own +wedding. + +Mr. Fennel would naturally have performed the ceremony for his niece +and Mr. Bronte, had it not fallen to his lot to give the lady away. + +When Mr. Bronte found himself settled in married life at Hartshead, and +with the probability of a young family rising around him, he felt +pleasure in the contemplation of the future. Mrs. Bronte, ever gentle +and affectionate in her household ways, comforted and encouraged him in +his literary pursuits, and, by her acute observation and accurate +judgment, directed and aided his own. It was at this time that Mr. +Bronte wrote a book, entitled 'The Rural Ministry,' which was published +at Halifax, in 1813. The work consisted of a miscellany of descriptive +poems, with the following titles: 'The Sabbath Bells,' 'Kirkstall +Abbey,' 'Extempore Verses,' 'Lines to a Lady on her Birthday,' 'An +Elegy,' 'Reflections by Moonlight,' 'Winter,' 'Rural Happiness,' 'The +Distress and Relief,' 'The Christian's Farewell,' 'The Harper of Erin.' +It cannot be doubted that, in consequence of his two publications while +he was at Hartshead, Mr. Bronte became known in the surrounding +districts as an aspiring man, and one of literary culture and ability. + +Mr. Bronte had taken his bride to his house at High Town, and it was +there that his daughters Maria and Elizabeth were born. Maria was +baptized on April the 23rd, 1814, and is entered in the register as the +'daughter of Patrick Bronte and Maria his wife.' The Rev. Mr. Morgan +was the officiating minister. There is no such entry there relating to +Elizabeth, for she was baptized at Thornton with the other children. + +Mr. Bronte, after having been nearly five years minister of +Hartshead-cum-Clifton, resigned the benefice, and accepted, from the +vicar of Bradford, the incumbency of Thornton, a perpetual curacy in +that parish. This, probably, on the suggestion of Mr. Morgan, who was +then incumbent of Christ's Church at Bradford. + +Thornton is beautifully situated on the northern slope of a valley. +Green and fertile pastures spread over the adjacent hills, and wooded +dells with shady walks beautify and enrich the district. 'The +neighbourhood,' says Mrs. Gaskell, 'is desolate and wild; great tracts +of bleak land, enclosed by stone dykes, sweeping up Clayton Heights.' +This disagreeable picture of the place, painted by the biographer of +Charlotte, is scarcely justified by the actual appearance of the +district. The soil is naturally fertile, and the inhabitants are +notable for industry and enterprise. Hence no barren land, within the +wide range of hill and vale, is now seen obtruding on the cultivated +sweep. + +The town is somewhat regularly built. In the main street is situated +the house where Mr. Bronte took up his abode during his stay at +Thornton. The hall door was reached by several steps. There was a +dining-room on one side of the hall, and a drawing-room on the other. +Over the passage to the front was a dressing-room, at the window of +which the neighbours often saw Mr. Bronte at his toilet. Above the door +of the house, on a stone slab, there are still visible the letters: + + A. + J. S. + 1802 + +These are the initials of John and Sarah Ashworth, former inhabitants +of Thornton; and this residence remained as the parsonage until another +was built below, nearer to the chapel, by the successor of Mr. Bronte. + +The chapel of Thornton is a narrow, contracted, and unsightly building. +The north side is lighted by two rows of square cottage windows--on the +south side, five late perpendicular pointed windows permit the sun to +relieve the gloom of the interior. + +The diminutive communion-table is lighted by a four-mullioned window, +above which, externally, in the wall, appears the date 1620. The +interior is blocked, on the ground floor, with high-backed, unpainted +deal pews. Two galleries hide the windows almost from view, and cast a +gloom over the interior of the edifice. The area under the pews, and in +the aisles, is paved with gravestones, and a fetid, musty smell floats +through the damp and mouldering interior. In this chapel, Mr. Bronte +preached and ministered, and from the pulpit, placed high above the +curate and clerk, whence he delivered his sermons, he could see his +wife and children in a pew just below him. + +The new incumbent of Thornton seems to have taken active interest in +his chapel; for in the western screen, which divides a kind of lobby +from the nave, is painted, on a wooden tablet, an inscription recording +that in the year 1818 this chapel was 'Repaired and Beautified,' the +Rev. Patrick Bronte, B.A., being then minister. + +While at Thornton Mr. Bronte steadily pursued his literary avocations, +one of his books being a small volume entitled, 'The Cottage in the +Wood, or the Art of becoming Rich and Happy.' This is an account of a +pious family, consisting of an aged couple and a virtuous child, whose +appearance and education qualify her for a higher position in the world +than that of a cottager's daughter. Accident brings to their door a +young man in a state of almost helpless drunkenness, whose habits are +the most profligate and dissolute, as the sequel discloses; and the +object of the book is to show the dire consequences of continued +intemperance. The story is told in prose, but Mr. Bronte gives a +poetical version of one event in the narrative. It is entitled, 'The +Nightly Revel,' and possesses a dignity of its own. The following +extract shows considerable improvement, in diction and verse, upon the +style of his small volume published at Halifax, in 1811. For this +reason it is well worth reproducing. + + 'Around the table polish'd goblets shine, + Fill'd with brown ale, or crown'd with ruddy wine; + Each quaffs his glass, and, thirsty, calls for more, + Till maddening mirth, and song, and wild uproar, + And idly fierce dispute, and brutal fight + Break the soft slumbers of the peaceful night. + + 'Without, within, above, beneath, around, + Ungodly jests and deep-mouthed oaths resound; + Pale Reason, trembling, leaves her reeling throne, + Truth, Honour, Virtue, Justice, all are flown; + The sly, dark-glancing harlot's fatal breath + Allures to sin and sorrow, shame and death. + The gaming-table, too, that fatal snare, + Beset with fiercest passions fell is there; + Remorse, despair, revenge, and deadly hate, + With dark design, in bitter durance wait, + Till SCARLET MURDER waves his bloody hand, + Gives in sepulchral tone the dread command; + Then forth they rush, and from the secret sheath + Draw the keen blade and do the work of death.' + +Mr. Bronte also, in 1818, before his appointment to Haworth, published +his 'Maid of Killarney.' He had not been long at Thornton, where he +went about the year 1815, when a considerable increase in his family +added to his parental responsibilities. + +On his acceptance of the living, he probably enjoyed a larger stipend +than at Hartshead, but the demands of a young family, perhaps, on the +whole, made him a poorer man. There Charlotte Bronte was born in April, +1816; Patrick Branwell Bronte in 1817; Emily Jane Bronte in 1818; and +Anne Bronte probably just before Mr. Bronte's removal to Haworth, which +was on February 25th, 1820, as we are told by Mrs. Gaskell. + +Of the life of the Brontes at Thornton we know little. But there were +causes of anxiety pressing on Mr. Bronte at the time. The state of his +wife's health was a real sorrow, and although he derived solace from +his literary pursuits and the society of his clerical friends, his +spirits were damped by the contemplation of the season of bereavement +and affliction that assuredly threatened him at no distant date. + +With six young children, who might soon become motherless, Mr. Bronte's +future was dark and discouraging, and he entertained the idea of +resigning, at no distant day, the then place of his cure. Here, living +within a reasonable distance of Bradford, he had an opportunity of +moving in a larger circle of friends than at Hartshead, and it was here +that his children received their earliest impressions of local life and +character. Old inhabitants of Thornton remembered them playing in the +space opposite their father's residence, in the village street, and had +often seen them carried, or their parents lead them by the hand, in the +lanes of the neighbourhood. They were children only when they left +Thornton; yet, on many grounds, the inhabitants of that village may +feel privileged that it was the birthplace of the authors of 'Jane +Eyre,' 'Wuthering Heights,' and 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.' + +Shortly an opportunity presented itself to Mr. Bronte for leaving +Thornton, a vacancy having taken place at Haworth through the death of +the curate, Mr. Charnock. The situation of this chapelry was blessed +with a more bracing air, and the curate had a somewhat better stipend +than Thornton allowed, and so Mr. Bronte accepted the presentation from +the patron. We are informed, however, that, on visiting the place of +his intended ministrations, he was told that while to him personally +the parishioners had no objection, yet, as the nominee of the vicar of +Bradford, he would not be received. He had no idea that the inhabitants +had a veto in the appointment. + +On Mr. Bronte declaring that, if he had not the good-will of the +inhabitants, his ministrations would be useless, the place was +presented to Mr. Redhead by the patron, and the village seems to have +become the scene of extraordinary proceedings. It appears that, after +the Reformation, the presentation to the curacy of Haworth, which had +been from time immemorial vested in the vicar of Bradford, had become +subject to the control of the freeholders, and of certain trustees who +held possession of the principal funds from which the stipend of the +curate proceeded, which they could withhold, by virtue of an authority +they appear to have been empowered with. In effect, they could at any +time disallow or render void an appointment, if disagreeable to +themselves, by keeping back the stipend. Mr. Bronte, writing later of +Mr. Redhead, says of this: 'My predecessor took the living with the +consent of the vicar of Bradford and certain trustees, in consequence +of which he was so opposed that, after only three weeks' possession, he +was compelled to resign.' What this opposition and its immediate +effects were, we learn from the pages of Mrs. Gaskell's 'Life of +Charlotte Bronte,' and they may be mentioned here as illustrative of +the pre-eminent resolution and force of character which ever +distinguish the inhabitants of the West-Riding and the dwellers on +these rough-hewn and storm-beaten elevations. + +During the long illness which preceded the death of Mr. Charnock, +incumbent of Haworth, his assistant curate, Mr. Redhead, had supplied +his place; who, on Mr. Bronte's withdrawal, was presented, as is stated +above, to the vacant living by the patron, and he seems to have been +determined to hold the chapelry, _vi et armis_, in defiance of the +inhabitants. But the freeholders, conceiving they had been deprived of +their long established prerogative, or an attempt was being made to +interfere with it, protested against Mr. Redhead's appointment. On the +first occasion of this gentleman's preaching in the church, it was +crowded not by worshippers, but by a multitude of people bent on +mischief. These resolved the service should not proceed, or that it +should be rendered inaudible. To secure this object they had put on the +heavy wooden clogs they daily wore, except on Sundays, and, while the +surpliced minister was reading the opening service, the stamping and +clattering of the clogs drowned his voice, and the people left the +church, making all the noise and uproar that was in their power, which +was by no means feeble. The following Sunday witnessed proceedings +still more disgraceful. We are told that at the commencement of the +service, a man rode up the nave of the church on an ass, with his face +to the tail, and with a number of old hats piled on his head. On urging +his beast forward, the screams of delight, the roars of laughter, and +the shouts of the approving conspirators completely drowned the +clergyman's voice; and he left the chapel, but not yet discomfited. + +Mr. Redhead, on the third Sunday, resolved to make a strenuous and +final effort to keep the ecclesiastical citadel of which he had been +formally put in possession. For this purpose he brought with him a body +of cavalry, composed of a number of sympathising gentlemen, with their +horses; and the curate, thus accompanied by his supporters, ascended +the village street and put up at the 'Bull.' But the enemy had been on +the alert: the people were exasperated, and followed the new-comers to +the church, accompanied by a chimney-sweep who had, not long before, +finished his labours at some adjacent chimneys, and whom they had made +half drunk. Him they placed right before the reading-desk, which Mr. +Redhead had already reached, and the drunken, black-faced sweep nodded +assent to the measured utterances of the minister. 'At last,' it is +said, '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 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.'[1] They escaped from the place, and Mr. +Redhead, completely vanquished, retired from the curacy of Haworth. + + [1] 'Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. ii. + +Mr. Bronte, who had made a favourable impression on the inhabitants, +was now accepted by them, and the natural kindness of his disposition +and the urbanity of his manners, secured peace and contentment in the +village. + +His responsibilities as a pastor were not light, though the new scene +of his labours, in moral condition, was, perhaps, no worse than the +generality of similar villages in the north of England. The special +chroniclers of Haworth speak of the population of the barren mountains +west of York as 'rude and arrogant, after the manner of their wild +country.' This is the testimony of James Rither, a Yorkshire esquire. +The celebrated Oliver Haywood, preaching at the house of Jonas Foster, +at Haworth, on June 13th, 1672, broke out into lamentations about the +immorality, corruption, and profanity of the place. Mr. Grimshaw, in +the last century, while curate there, had a conviction that the +majority of the people were going to hell with their eyes open! Mrs. +Gaskell informs us that at Haworth, 'drinking without the head being +affected was considered a manly accomplishment.' A remarkable instance +of the loss of reverence and the increase of profanity, in those days, +is found in the observance of Palm Sunday at Heptonstall, a +neighbouring village, and at Haworth itself this feast was +pre-eminently distinguished in ancient times by the out-door +processions of people going from the church and returning to it, +bearing palm branches and singing the psalms and hymns appointed for +the special festival. + +It is known, indeed, that this feast was attended by the inhabitants of +the surrounding hills and valleys in those times; and, at the period of +which I speak, the attendance of the people was not diminished, but +increased, though they came for another object. It is a singular fact +that local feuds, if we may call them such, were kept up between the +villages of the West-Riding. And thus challenges were given alternately +by Haworth to Heptonstall, and by Heptonstall to Haworth, for struggles +between the champions of the respective villages, to be fought out on +Palm Sunday. The inhabitants of these places, therefore, met to pound +and pummel each other without any civil or religious cause to give +bitterness to the fray: greed of triumph and brutal indifference to +injuries inflicted characterized these hostile meetings. On such +occasions, at Heptonstall, amidst great drunkenness and rioting, there +were 'stand-up' fights from the church-gates to the 'Buttress,' a steep +part of the road, near the bridge which crosses the river at the foot +of Heptonstall Bank--nearly a mile in extent. On one of these feasts, a +Haworth belligerent, unwilling to return home, although night was +drawing on, and looking extremely dissatisfied, when asked by his wife +what ailed him, answered, 'Aw 'annot fawhten wi' onny body yet, an' +aw'll nut gooa whom till aw dun summat.' His affectionate spouse +replied, 'Then gooa, an' get fawhten' an' ha' done wi' it, for we mun +gooa.' The West-Riding police, on their institution, put an end to +these disagraceful proceedings. + +Haworth, the new place of Mr. Bronte's incumbency, which has been well +and very fully described by many writers, is situated on the western +confines of the parish of Bradford, and stands on a somewhat lofty +eminence. It is, however, protected in great measure from the western +storms by still higher ground, which consists of irreclaimable moors +and morasses. + +The church in which he, for the remainder of his life, performed his +religious services, and in which his more gifted children repose, after +their brief but memorable lives, was of ancient date. A chantry was +founded there at the beginning of the reign of Edward III., where a +priest celebrated daily for the repose of the soul of Adam de Battley, +and for the souls of his ancestors, and for all the faithful departed. +The church, which is dedicated to the glory of God, in honour of St. +Michael the archangel, has been recently, to a great extent, +re-edified. The old structure retained traces of one still older, of +the early English style. Invested as it was with the evidences of the +periods of taste good and bad through which it had passed, and with the +associations which attach to old and familiar internal arrangements, it +was endeared to the inhabitants. Of such associations the present +church--though an architectural gain upon its predecessor--is +necessarily destitute, and the world-wide interest with which the +former structure was invested through the genius of the Brontes has +been almost destroyed by the substitution of an edifice in which they +never prayed, and which they never saw; though their remains repose, it +is true, under its pavement, as is indicated by memorial tablets. + +During the existence of the old church, Haworth was visited by +continuous streams of people; but, on its removal, little was left to +attract pilgrims from afar, and there was a manifest diminution of +visitors to the village. + +In the recent alterations, the parsonage also, in which the children of +the Rev. Patrick Bronte lived and won for themselves enduring fame in +the path of literature, has undergone considerable changes. It has been +found necessary to add a new wing to the house, in order to obtain +larger accommodation, and, to beautify the parsonage still further, the +old cottage panes, through which light fell on precious and invaluable +pages of elaborate manuscript, as they passed through delicate and +gifted hands, have given way to plate-glass squares. Altogether the +house, both inside and out, presents a very different appearance from +that which it did in the time of the Brontes. + +The chapelry at Haworth, when Mr. Bronte accepted the perpetual curacy, +was much more populous and important than that of Thornton. The stipend +of L170 per annum, with a fair residence attached, and a sum of L27 +13s. for maintenance, made the change a desirable one on pecuniary +grounds; and, with Mrs. Bronte's annuity of L50 a year, anxiety on this +head was no doubt allayed. + +The population of the district was about four thousand seven hundred, +and, in the first ten years of Mr. Bronte's incumbency, increased by +nearly twelve hundred souls. The chapelry included within its bounds +the townships or hamlets of Stanbury and Near and Far Oxenhope, with +the extensive moors and scattered houses stretching to the borders of +Lancashire. The curacy of Stanbury, a place one mile west of Haworth, +with L100 per annum, was in the gift of Mr. Bronte; and there was also +the interest on L600, with a house, for the maintenance of a free +school at that place, and a sum of L90 per annum for a like purpose at +Haworth. In the year 1849, while Mr. Bronte was still incumbent, the +chapelry of Haworth was divided, a church having been erected at +Oxenhope at a cost of L1,500, the curacy there being valued at L150 per +annum. + +Among the considerations which had weight with Mr. Bronte in his +determination to accept the curacy of Haworth was, in all probability, +the delicate state of his wife's health, and the not over-robust +constitutions of his children. He knew, that though from the +smoke-laden atmosphere of the busy centres of West-Riding industry, +Keighley and Haworth were not wholly exempt, yet the winds which +prevailed from the west and the south-west for a great part of the +year, and swept over the moorlands from whose heights the Irish Channel +itself was visible, would, by their purity, give that invigoration of +which his family stood in need. It is quite possible, indeed, that by +Mr. Bronte's removal to Haworth, which gave an almost illimitable range +of wild, heathery hills for his children to wander over, an extension +of their short lives may have been attained. Mrs. Bronte, however, +derived little or no benefit from the change. She had suffered for some +time under a fatal malady--an internal cancer--of which, about eighteen +months after her arrival at Haworth, she died. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +MRS. BRONTE. + +The Mother of the Brontes--Her Character and Personal Appearance +--Her Literary Taste--Penzance, her Native Place--Description of +Penzance--The Branwell Family--Personal Traits of Maria Branwell +--Her Virtues--Her Letters to Mr. Bronte--Her Domestic Experiences. + + +The mother of the Brontes--whose death, in September, 1821, deprived +her children of the affectionate and tender care which, for the short +period of her married life, she had bestowed upon them--would, had she +been spared, have moulded their characters by her own meek, gentle, and +maternal virtues. Mrs. Bronte is said to have been small in person, but +of graceful and kindly manners; not beautiful, yet comely and +lady-like, and gifted with great discrimination, judgment, and modesty. +Mrs. Gaskell says she 'was very elegant, and always dressed with a +quiet simplicity of taste which accorded well with her general +character, and of which some details call to mind the style of dress +preferred by her daughter for her favourite heroines.' Mrs. Bronte was +also gifted with literary ability and taste. She had written an essay +entitled, 'The Advantages of Poverty in Religious Concerns,' with a +view to publication in some periodical; and her letters were +characterized by elegance and ease. Her relations in Penzance spoke of +her as 'their favourite aunt, and one to whom they, as well as the +family, looked up as a person of talent and great amiability of +disposition;' and again, as 'possessing more than ordinary talents, +which she inherited from her father.' + +Mrs. Bronte, as has been said, was a native of Penzance, a corporate +town in the county of Cornwall, and also a sea-port. Penzance is +situated in the hundred of Penwith, and is the most westerly town in +England. The climate is distinguished by great mildness and salubrity, +and the land is remarkable for its fertility, and the beauty of its +meads and pastures. Its maritime situation, however, had, in former +times, exposed it to the descents of foreign invaders, the last of +which appears to have been that of the Spaniards in the year 1595. The +account given of this event is that the invaders, being masters of +Bretagne, sent four vessels manned with a force sufficient to occupy +the Cornish coast. They landed near Mousehole--a well-known place on +the western side of Mount's Bay--and entered the town, which they set +on fire, the inhabitants fleeing before them. At a later date the town +became very pleasant, and many of the houses were large and +respectable, while the streets were well paved. Generally the people +enjoyed long lives, and some attained the patriarchal age: one of +these--Dolly Pentreath, who died in her one hundred and second year, +and who had made the 'Mousehole' her residence--was known as the last +who spoke Cornish. On account of the gentleness of the climate, many +suffering from pulmonary complaints took up their residence there. + +Penzance was a town surrounded by places of great interest to the +historian and the antiquary, which are fully described by Borlase and +others. The trades carried on at the place were of considerable extent +in tin and the pilchard fishery, as well as in copper, earthenware, +clay, and in other objects of manufacture and merchandise. In one of +the local industries, Mr. Thomas Branwell was engaged. He had married a +lady named Carne, and they had four daughters and one son. Maria was +their third daughter. The families of Mr. and Mrs. Branwell were well +connected, and moved in the best society in Penzance. They were +Wesleyan Methodist in religion, and the children were brought up in +that persuasion. Mr. Branwell relieved the cares of business by the +delights and consolations of music, in the performance of which he is +said to have had considerable ability. He and his wife lived to see +their children grown up; and died, Mr. Branwell in 1808, and his wife +in 1809. + +Maria Branwell visited her uncle, Mr. Fennel, at the beginning of the +summer of 1812, as is stated above, and, for the first time, saw Mr. +Bronte. A feeling of mutual admiration sprang up between them, and +something like the beginning of an engagement took place. When she +returned home, a correspondence opened between the two, and Mr. Bronte +preserved the letters. These have been referred to by the biographer of +his daughter, and we learn that the communications of Miss Branwell +were characterized by singular modesty, thoughtfulness, and piety. She +was surprised to find herself so suddenly engaged, but she accepted +with modest candour the proffer of Mr. Bronte's affection. The future +was determined by mutual acquiescence. On Miss Branwell, nature had +bestowed no great personal attractions, yet, as has been said, she was +comely, and lady-like in her manners; and her innate grace drew +irresistibly to her the esteem of all her acquaintances. Little is +known respecting her beyond the personal traits already mentioned; and +as to the circumstances and events of her life, unmarried or married, +which was one of an extremely even and uneventful kind, little or +nothing can be recorded beyond the ordinary routine of domestic duties +well and affectionately performed, and of obligations in her sphere +religiously observed. Blameless in her conduct, loving in her charge, +and patient in the sufferings she was called upon to endure, she was a +pattern of those excellencies which are the adornments of domestic +life, and make the hearth happy and contented. It cannot be doubted +that she ordered her household with judgment, and expended her +husband's income with frugality and to the best advantage. + +Mrs. Gaskell was enabled to give an extract from one of her letters +written to Mr. Bronte before her marriage, which displays in an +excellent manner her calm sensibility and understanding. 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.'[2] + + [2] 'Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. iii. + +The usual preparations, which Mrs. Gaskell has particularized, were +made for the wedding; but during the arrangements a disaster happened, +to which the following letter to Mr. Bronte refers:-- + + 'I suppose you never expected to be much 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 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 + home.'[3] + + [3] 'Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. iii. + +The wedding took place at Guiseley, on December 29th, 1812, as is +stated in the previous chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE REV. PATRICK BRONTE. + +Character of the Rev. P. Bronte--Charges against Him--Serious +Allegations of Biographers--Injustice of the Charges--Mr. Bronte's +indignant Denial of the Imputations--Testimony of Nancy Garrs--Mrs. +Bronte and the Silk-Dress Episode--Mr. Bronte, the Supposed Prototype +of Mr. Helstone--The Pistol-shots Theory--Mr. Bronte on Science +Knowledge--Miss Branwell. + + +The character of the Rev. Patrick Bronte, who was responsible, after +the death of his wife, for the education of his children, if we may +believe the accounts given of it by those who have admired their +genius, had many deplorable peculiarities. It would be difficult, +indeed, to find anywhere the record of such passionate outbreaks, such +unreasoning prejudices, and such unbending will as are revealed in the +stories which are told of him. But we shall see presently that most of +these charges have no foundation in fact, while others are, probably, +the result of total misconception. + +Mrs. Gaskell gives an account of these peculiarities. On one occasion, +she tells us, after the children had been out on the wet moors, the +nurse had rummaged out certain coloured boots given to them by the Rev. +Mr. Morgan, who had been sponsor for Maria at Hartshead, and had +arranged them before the fire. Mr. Bronte observing this, and thinking +the bright colours might foster pride, heaped the boots upon the coals, +and filled the house with a very strong odour of burnt leather. 'Long +before this,' she says, 'some one had given Mrs. Bronte a silk gown ... +she kept it treasured up in her drawers. One day, however, while in the +kitchen, she remembered that she had left the key in the drawer, and, +hearing Mr. Bronte upstairs, she augured some ill to her dress, and, +running up in haste, she found it cut into shreds.... He did not speak +when he was annoyed or displeased, but worked off his volcanic wrath by +firing pistols out of the back-door in rapid succession.... Now and +then his anger took a different form, but still was speechless. Once he +got the hearth-rug, and, stuffing it up the grate, deliberately set it +on fire, and remained in the room in spite of the stench until it had +smouldered and shrivelled away into uselessness. Another time he took +some chairs, and sawed away at the backs till they were reduced to the +condition of stools.'[4] + + [4] Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. iii, 1st + edition. + +Mr. Wemyss Reid, who implicitly adopts the 'pistol shots' and 'pretty +dress' stories, while paying a high tribute to Mr. Bronte's rectitude, +and to his just pride in the celebrity of his daughters, says of him, +'He appears to have been a strange compound of good and evil. That he +was not without some good is acknowledged by all who knew him. He had +kindly feelings towards most people.... But throughout his whole life +there was but one person with whom he had any real sympathy, and that +person was himself.' He was 'passionate, self-willed, vain, habitually +cold and distant in his demeanour towards those of his own household.' +His wife 'lived in habitual dread of her lordly master.... It would be +a mistake to suppose that violence was one of the weapons to which Mr. +Bronte habitually resorted ... his general policy was to secure his end +by craft rather than by force.'[5] + + [5] 'Charlotte Bronte, a Monograph,' pp. 20, 21, 22. + +Miss Robinson, without hesitation, repeats the censures on Mr. Bronte +published by Mrs. Gaskell and Mr. Reid, asking, 'Who dare say if that +marriage was happy? Mrs. Gaskell, writing in the life and for the eyes +of Mr. Bronte, speaks of his unwearied care, his devotion in the +night-nursing. But, before that fatal illness was declared, she lets +fall many a hint of the young wife's loneliness ... of her patient +suffering, of his violent temper.'[6] + + [6] 'Emily Bronte,' by A. Mary F. Robinson, 1883, p. 16. + +It will thus be seen that the disposition of Mr. Bronte must have been +a sad one indeed, if all these statements are true; and marvellous +that, with 'such a father,' the young and sterling faculties of the +'six small children' should have been so admirably directed and trained +that, of the four who lived to later years, three at least occupy an +exalted and prominent position among women of letters in the present +century. And it would be still more strange that these children were +especially distinguished for the gentleness of their dispositions, and +the refinement of their ideas. It may be hoped that the readers of this +volume, with their additional knowledge of the affectionate, but often +wayward, Branwell, will sympathize with the sentiment which Monsieur +Heger expressed in his letter to Mr. Bronte, that, _en jugeant un +pere de famille par ses enfants on ne risque pas de se tromper_. For +we can scarcely doubt that the characteristics of the children, which I +have named, were due, in fact, in great measure, to Mr. Bronte's +affectionate supervision and education of them. He had graduated at St. +John's College, Cambridge, as we have seen; and the culture and tone of +the university were brought under the roof of his house, where his +children--more especially Branwell--were subjected to its influence. +Moreover, whatever may be thought of Mr. Bronte's intellectual gifts, +or of the talent he displayed in his poems and prose writings, we may +be sure that he possessed, in a marked degree, a deep sympathy with a +higher mental training, and with the truth and simplicity of a pastoral +life. + +After the allegations against Mr. Bronte had appeared in the first +edition of the life of his daughter Charlotte, he never ceased to deny +the scandalous reflections upon his character in that work. 'They +were,' he said to me, 'wholly untrue.' He stated that he had 'fulfilled +every duty of a husband and a father with all the kindness, solicitude, +and affection which could be required of him.' And Mrs. Bronte herself +had said, as quoted by Mrs. Gaskell, 'Ought I not to be thankful that +he never gave me an angry word?' thus openly declaring that, whatever +might have been the peculiarities of Mr. Bronte's temper, his wife, at +least, never suffered the consequences. The children also ever looked +up to their father with reverence, gratitude, and devotion. + +In a conversation I had with Mr. Bronte on the 8th of July, 1857, he +spoke of the unjustifiable reflections upon himself which had been made +public, and he said, 'I did not know that I had an enemy in the world, +much less one who would traduce me before my death, till Mrs. Gaskell's +"Life of Charlotte" appeared. Every thing in that book which relates to +my conduct to my family is either false or distorted. I never did +commit such acts as are there ascribed to me.' At a later interview Mr. +Bronte explained that by the word 'enemies,' he implied, 'false +informants and hostile critics.' He believed that Mrs. Gaskell had +listened to village scandal, and had sought information from some +discarded servant. + +Let us then examine the source of these allegations. Mrs. Gaskell +tells us that her informant was 'a good old woman,' who had been +Mrs. Bronte's nurse in her illness. Now it is known that, whatever +good qualities this person may be supposed to have had, her +conscientiousness and rectitude, at least, were not of the first order, +and she was detected in proceedings which caused Mr. Bronte to dismiss +her at once. With the double effect of explaining her dismissal and +injuring Mr. Bronte, this person gave an account of his temper and +conduct, embellished with the stories which I have quoted from the +first edition of the 'Life of Charlotte,' to a minister of the place; +and it was in this way that Mrs. Gaskell became acquainted with her and +them. Nancy Garrs, a faithful young woman who had been in Mr. Bronte's +service at Thornton, who continued with the family after the removal to +Haworth, and who still survives--a widow, Mrs. Wainwright--at an +advanced age, a well-known inhabitant of Bradford, informs me that the +'silk dress' which Mr. Bronte is said to have torn to shreds was a +print dress, not new, and that Mr. Bronte, disliking its enormous +sleeves, one day, finding the opportunity, cut them off. The whole +thing was a joke, which Mrs. Bronte at once guessed at, and, going +upstairs, she brought the dress down, saying to Nancy, 'Look what he +has done; that falls to your share.' Nancy declares the other stories +to be wholly unfounded. She speaks of Mr. Bronte as a 'most +affectionate husband; there never was a more affectionate father, never +a kinder master;' and 'he was not of a violent temper at all; quite the +reverse.' + +This view of these slanderous stories is fortunately also confirmed out +of the mouth of Charlotte Bronte. In the fourth chapter of 'Shirley,' +speaking of Mr. Helstone--whose character, though not absolutely +founded on that of her father, is yet unquestionably influenced by her +knowledge of his disposition, and of some incidents in which he had +been concerned,--she says that on the death of his wife, 'his dry-eyed +and sober mourning scandalized an old housekeeper, and likewise a +female attendant who had waited upon Mrs. Helstone in her sickness ... +they gossiped together over the corpse, related anecdotes with +embellishments of her lingering decline, and its real or supposed +cause; in short, they worked each other up to some indignation against +the austere little man, who sat examining papers in an adjoining room, +unconscious of what opprobrium he was the object. Mrs. Helstone was +hardly under the sod when rumours began to be rife in the neighbourhood +that she had died of a broken heart; these magnified quickly into +reports of hard usage, and, finally, details of harsh treatment on the +part of her husband: reports grossly untrue, but not less eagerly +received on that account.' It will thus be seen that the character of +Mr. Helstone becomes in part a defence of Mr. Bronte. On the occasion +above referred to, Mr. Bronte went on to say that, 'while duly +acknowledging the obligations he felt himself under to Mrs. Gaskell for +her admirable memoir of his daughter, he could not but regard her +uncalled-for allusions to himself, and the failings of his son +Branwell, as the excrescences of a work otherwise ably carried out.' He +appeared, on this occasion, to be consoled by the thought that, owing +to the remonstrances he had made, the objectionable passages would be +expunged from the subsequent editions of the work, and that he would +ultimately be set right with the public. He concluded with these +words:--'I have long been an abstraction to the world, and it is not +consoling now to be thus dragged before the public; to be represented +as an unkind husband, and charged with acts which I never committed.' + +The story of the pistol-shots admits of ready explanation. It is known +that Mr. Bronte, like Helstone, had a strange fascination in military +affairs, and he seems to have had almost the spirit of Uncle Toby. He +lived, too, in the troublous times of the Luddites, and had kept +pistols, for defence as Mr. Helstone did. That gentleman, it will be +remembered, had two pairs suspended over the mantel-piece of his study, +in cloth cases, kept loaded. As I have reason to know, Mr. Bronte, +having been accustomed to the use of fire-arms, retained the possession +of them for safety in the night; but, fearing they might become +dangerous, occasionally discharged them in the day-time. + +Mr. Bronte's remonstrances and denials, and his refutation of the +scandals attributed to him, had their effect; and the charges +complained of were entirely omitted in the edition of the 'Life of +Charlotte,' published in the year 1860. Mr. Bronte was in his +eighty-fourth year when this tardy act of bare justice was done to him. +It may be added that the people of Haworth, when they saw in print Mrs. +Gaskell's exaggerated and erroneous statements, loudly expressed their +disapprobation. Mr. Wood, late churchwarden of Haworth, also denied the +stories of the cutting up of Mrs. Bronte's dress, and the other charges +just referred to. + +The truth about Mr. Bronte appears to be this: that though, like Mr. +Helstone--many of the _traits_ of whose character were derived +from that of the incumbent of Haworth--he might have missed his +vocation, like him he was 'not diabolical at all,' and that, like him, +also, 'he was a conscientious, hard-headed, hard-handed, brave, stern, +implacable, faithful little man: a man almost without sympathy, +ungentle, prejudiced, and rigid: but a man true to principle--honourable, +sagacious, and sincere.' Possibly we should not be wholly mistaken in +saying that, like the parson in 'Shirley,' Nature never intended him +'to make a very good husband, especially to a quiet wife.' He lacked +the fine sympathy and delicate perception that would have enabled +him to make his family entirely happy; and when brooding over his +politics, his pamphlets, and his sermons, like Mr. Helstone, he +probably locked 'his liveliness in his book-case and study-desk.' +Yet Mr. Helstone is neither brutal nor insane, 'neither tyrannical +nor hypocritical,' but 'simply a man who is rather liberal than +good-natured, rather brilliant than genial, rather scrupulously +equitable than truly just--if you can understand such superfine +distinctions?' + +It would not have been necessary, in this work, to defend at such +length the character of the Rev. Patrick Bronte, had it not happened, +unfortunately, that recent works, which have treated admirably of the +writings of his daughters, have also acquiesced in, and to a great +extent reiterated, the serious charges made against him. Moreover, it +can never be a useless thing to retrieve a character which has been +thoughtlessly taken away. This defence has now been made, and it may be +hoped that the 'six motherless children' had a more amiable and +affectionate father than is generally supposed, and that he paid +careful and anxious attention to their bringing-up and to their +education. Indeed, of this there need be no doubt. The death of his +wife had placed them in his hands, he being their only support on +earth, and it surely is not too much to say that he knew his duty, and +did it well, as the lives of his children prove, on the ground of +natural affection, and, perhaps, of higher motives also. + +The following extract from a letter written by Mr. Bronte a few +years later, in reference to scientific knowledge, is sufficiently +characteristic. He says: 'In this age of innovation and scepticism, it +is the incumbent duty of every man of an enlarged and pious mind to +promote, to the utmost extent of his abilities, every movement in the +variegated, complex system of human affairs, which may have either a +direct, indirect, or collateral tendency to purify and expand the +naturally polluted and circumscribed mind of fallen nature, and to +raise it to that elevation which the Scriptures require, as well as the +best interests of humanity.' + +Upon the death of his wife, Mr. Bronte felt the need of some one to +superintend the affairs of his household, and assist him in this +important charge of the bringing-up of his children; and so, towards +the end of the year 1822, an elder sister of the deceased lady, Miss +Elizabeth Branwell of Penzance, came to reside with him. She is +represented to have been, in personal appearance, of low and slight +proportions; prim and starched in her attire, which was, when prepared +for the reception of visitors, invariably of silk; and she wore, +according to the fashion of the time, a frontal of auburn curls, +gracefully overshadowing her forehead. She took occasionally, through +habit, a pinch from her gold snuff-box, which she had always at hand. +When she had taken up her residence at bleak, wild, and barren Haworth, +she is said to have sighed for the flower-decked meads of sunny +Penzance, her native place. Miss Branwell's affectionate regard for her +dead sister's children caused her to take deep interest in everything +relating to them, their health, the comfort and cleanliness of their +home, and the sedulous culture of their minds. In the management of +Mr. Bronte's household she was materially assisted by the faithful and +trustworthy Tabby, who, in 1825, was added to the family as a domestic +servant. By a long and faithful service of some thirty years in the +Bronte family, Tabby gained the respect and confidence of the +household. She had been born and nurtured in the chapelry of Haworth, +at a time when mills and machinery were not, when railways had not made +the inhabitants of the hills and valleys familiar with the cities and +towns of England; and, moreover, before the ancient dialect, so +interesting philologically to the readers of King Alfred's translations +of Orosius and Bede, and the like, came to be considered rude, vulgar, +and barbarous. Tabby used the dialect rightly, without any attempt to +improve on the language of her childhood and of her fathers; and she +was original and truthful in this, as in all her ways. It was from +Tabby, principally, that the youthful Brontes gained the familiarity +with the Yorkshire Doric, which they afterwards reproduced with such +accuracy in 'Shirley,' 'Wuthering Heights,' and others of their +writings. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE GIRLHOOD OF THE BRONTE SISTERS. + +Girlhood--Gravity of Character--Charlotte's Description of the Elf-land +of Childhood--The Still and Solemn Moors of Haworth influence their +Writings--The Present of Toys--The Plays which they Acted--Mr. +Bronte on a Supposed Earthquake--The Evidence of his Care for his +Children--Grammar School at Haworth--His Children under the Tuition +of the Master--The Character of the School--Cowan Bridge School-- +Charlotte's View of Mr. Carus Wilson's Management--Deaths of +Maria and Elizabeth. + + +The childhood of the Brontes in the parsonage of Haworth has been +pictured to us as a very strange one indeed. We have seen them deprived +in their early youth of that maternal care which they required so much, +and left in the hands of a father unfamiliar with such a charge, who +was filled with Spartan ideas of discipline, and with theories of +education above and beyond the capacity of childhood. There was +probably little room in the house of Mr. Bronte for gaiety and +amusement, very little tolerance for pretty dress, or home beauty, and +small comprehension of childish needs. Rigid formality, silent +chambers, staid attire, frugal fare, and secluded lives fell to the lot +of these thoughtful and gifted children. It was no wonder that they +grew up 'grave and silent beyond their years;' that, when infantine +relaxation failed them, they betook themselves to reading newspapers, +and debating the merits of Hannibal and Caesar, of Buonaparte and +Wellington; or that, when they were deprived of the company of the +village children by the '_Quis ego et quis tu?_' which was forced +too early upon them, they fled for silent companionship with the moors. +Yet this childhood, stern and grim though it was, where we look in vain +for the beautiful simplicity and sunny gladness which should ever +distinguish the features of youth, had a beauty and a joy of its own; +and it had a merit also. Charlotte Bronte herself has left us one of +the most beautiful pictures which can be found in English literature of +the pleasures of childhood, that elf-land which is passed before the +shores of Reality have arisen in front; when they stand afar off, so +blue, soft, and gentle that we long to reach them; when we 'catch +glimpses of silver lines, and imagine the roll of living waters,' +heedless of 'many a wilderness, and often of the flood of Death, or +some stream of sorrow as cold and almost as black as Death' that must +be crossed ere true bliss can be tasted. So the Brontes, trooping +abroad on the moors, revelling in the freedom of Nature, while their +faculties expanded to the noblest ends, lived also in the heroic world +of childhood, 'its inhabitants half-divine or semi-demon; its scenes +dream-scenes; darker woods and stranger hills; brighter skies, more +dangerous waters; sweeter flowers, more tempting fruits; wider plains; +drearier deserts; sunnier fields than are found in Nature.' Can we +doubt that the Bronte children, endowed, as the world was afterwards to +know, with keener perceptions, more exalted sympathies, and nobler +gifts than other children, enjoyed these things more than others could? +And the merit of their childhood was this: that it impressed them in +the strongest form with the influence of locality, with the boundless +expanse of the moors, and with the weird and rugged character of the +people amongst whom they lived, and whom they afterwards drew so well. +Such influences as these are a quality more or less traceable in the +works of every author, but they are very apparent in the productions of +the Brontes. These writers could not have produced 'Jane Eyre,' +'Shirley,' and 'Wuthering Heights' without them, any more than +Goldsmith could have written his 'Vicar of Wakefield' if his early +years had not been passed in the pleasant village of Lissey. The moors, +clothed with purple heather and golden gorse in billowy waves, were +certainly all in all to Emily Bronte; and she and her sisters, and the +youthful Branwell with his ready admiration and brilliant fancy, +escorted by Tabby, enjoyed to the full the free atmosphere of the +heights around Haworth. The rushing sound of their own waterfall, and +the shrill cries of the grouse, which flew up as they came along, were +to them friendly voices of the opening life of Nature whose potent +influence inspired them so well. + +Of other companionship in their early years they had hardly any; and +being unable to associate much with children of their own age and +condition, or to play with their young and immediate neighbours in +childish games, Mr. Bronte's son and daughters grew up amongst their +elders with heads older than their years, and spoke with a knowledge +that might have sprung from actual experience of men and manners. They +were, in fact, 'old-fashioned children.' Their extraordinary cleverness +was soon observed, and the servants were always on their guard lest any +of their remarks might be repeated by the children. Notwithstanding +this, the little Brontes were children still, and took pleasure in the +things of childhood. Up-grown men will not whip a top on the causeways, +nor trundle a hoop through the streets, nor play at 'hide-and-seek' at +dusk as of yore; but the Bronte children in their youthful days did all +these things, and they entered at times with ardour, despite their +precocious gravity, into the simple joys and amusements of childhood, +as is testified by the eager delight with which they regarded the +presents of the toys they received. + +The earliest notice we have of Branwell Bronte is that Charlotte +remembered having seen her mother playing with him during one golden +sunset in the parlour of the parsonage at Haworth. Later, we are +informed that Mr. Bronte brought from Leeds on one occasion a box of +wooden soldiers for him. The children were in bed, but the 'next +morning,' says Charlotte, in one of her juvenile manuscripts, '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."' So Charlotte relates these glad incidents of their +childhood with pleasure, and places on record the joy they inspired. + +Mr. Bronte says, 'When mere children, as soon as they could read and +write, Charlotte and her brother 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 infrequently arise amongst them regarding the comparative merits of +Buonaparte, Hannibal, and Caesar.' + +In acting their early plays, they performed them with childish glee, +and did not fail at times to 'tear a passion to tatters.' They observed +that Tabby did not approve of such extraordinary proceedings; but on +one occasion, with increased energy of action and voice, they so +wrought on her fears that she retreated to her nephew's house, and, as +soon as she could regain her breath, she exclaimed, 'William! yah mun +gooa up to Mr. Bronte's, for aw'm sure yon childer's all gooin mad, and +aw darn't stop 'ith hause ony longer wi' 'em; an' aw'll stay here woll +yah come back!' When the nephew reached the parsonage, 'the childer set +up a great crack o' laughin',' at the wonderful joke they had +perpetrated on faithful Tabby. + +Mr. Bronte--like other parents and friends of precocious and gifted +children, who, in after-life have become celebrated in religion, art, +poetry, literature, politics, or war, and who have given out in +childhood tokens of brilliant and sterling gifts which have been +recorded in their biographies--saw in his own children evidences of +that mental power, fervid imagination, and superior faculty of language +and expression, which were developed in them in after-years. He often +fancied that great powers lay in his children, and it cannot be doubted +that he sometimes looked forward to and hoped for a brilliant future +for his offspring. It was this hope that cheered him, and he gave to +Mrs. Gaskell, for publication, all the evidences of genius in his son +and daughters, as children, which he could remember. But, from the +information he imparted to that writer, we can scarcely gather, I fear, +sufficient to justify the inference he drew, or appears to have drawn, +for the particulars given border too much on the trivial and +unimportant. Perhaps Mr. Bronte failed to remember the special +evidences he had observed of what he intended to convey at the actual +moment of communication. Be this as it may, no doubt remained on his +mind that genius was apparent in his children above and apart from +their eager reading of magazines and newspapers, nor that other schemes +and objects occupied their thoughts than the interests and contentions +of the political parties of the hour. + +'When my children were very young,' says Mr. Bronte,--'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."' In answer to a question as to which were the two best books, +Charlotte said that 'the Bible,' and after it the 'Book of Nature,' +were the best. Mr. Bronte then asked the next daughter, 'What is the +best mode of education for a woman;' she answered, 'That which would +make her rule her house well.' He then asked the eldest, Maria, 'What +is the best mode of spending time;' she answered, 'By laying it out in +preparation for a happy eternity.' He says he may not have given the +exact words, but they were nearly so, and they had made a lasting +impression on his memory.[7] + + [7] Mrs. Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. iii. + +But the intellectual pabulum of Mr. Bronte's children, for some time, +consisted, for the most part, as we are told, of magazines and +newspapers. As these took the place of toy-books and fairy tales, their +young minds were attracted by such moral subjects and entertaining +stories as were treated of in the serials of the day; and their +attention was also largely engaged in the political questions which +were then debated in the Houses of Parliament. Imbibing from their +father their religious and political views and opinions, they became +strong partizans and supporters of the leading Conservatives in the +House of Lords and the House of Commons. They had often heard +conversations between their father and aunt on these subjects; they +listened with interested attention, and obtained information as to the +outer world and its pursuits. By their surroundings their minds were +soon raised above the thoughts, desires, and interests of childhood in +general; and, under the circumstances, though it may seem odd, it is +not extraordinary that wooden soldiers should thus be made, by these +talented children, to represent the two great opposing warriors of the +present age. + +In addition to the general bringing-up of his children at home, and the +formal tasks which Mr. Bronte set them, magazines and other +publications were thrown about, and Maria, being the eldest, was wont +to read the newspapers when she was less than nine years old, and +reported matters of home and foreign interest, as well as those +relating to the public characters and current affairs of the day, to +her young brother and sisters. Indeed, so earnest was her relevancy on +such occasions in these unchildish and grave questions, that she could +talk upon them with discriminating intelligence to her father, whose +interest in his children thus grew, as their faculties expanded. The +young Brontes, though still in childhood's years, were soon no longer +children in intellect: they touched, in fact, the 'Shores of Reality' +at an earlier age than most children; and, though interested sometimes, +perhaps momentarily, in trivial matters, they seem to have turned +almost everything to literary account. Even Branwell's toys, which they +all received so gleefully, gave rise to the 'Young Men's Play.' + +Mr. Bronte, though interested deeply in the gradual development of the +mental gifts of his children, did not fail, after his wife's death, to +promote and protect their health, and he availed himself of the means +which the chapelry of Haworth afforded. For this object he encouraged +recreation on the moors at suitable times, and subjected the young +members of his family to the pure and exhilarating breeze that, +redolent of heather, breathed over them from the sea, during the summer +and autumnal months. + +On Tuesday, September the 2nd, 1824, a severe thunderstorm, and an +almost unprecedented downfall of rain which resembled, in volume, a +waterspout, caused the irruption of an immense bog, at Crow Hill, an +elevation, between Keighley and Colne, and about one thousand feet +above the sea-level. The mud, mingled with stones, many of large size, +rolled down a precipitous and rugged clough that descended from it. +Reaching the hamlet of Pondens, the torrent expanded and overspread the +corn-fields adjoining to the depth of several feet, with many other +devastating consequences. + +Mr. Bronte regarded this as the effect of an earthquake, and he sent a +communication to the 'Leeds Mercury,' in which he says: 'At the time of +the irruption, the clouds were copper-coloured, gloomy, and lowering, +the atmosphere was strongly electrified, and unusually close.' In the +same month--on Sunday, September 12th, 1824--he preached a sermon on +the subject, in Haworth Church, in which he informed his hearers that, +the day of disaster being exceedingly fine, he had sent his little +children, who were indisposed, accompanied by the servants, to take an +airing on the common, and, as they stayed rather longer than he +expected, he went to an upper chamber to look out for their return. The +heavens over the moors were blackening fast; he heard the muttering of +distant thunder, and saw the frequent flashes of lightning. Though, ten +minutes before, there was scarcely a breath of air stirring, the gale +freshened rapidly and carried along with it clouds of dust and stubble. +'My little family,' he continued, 'had escaped to a place of shelter, +but I did not know it.' These were Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and +Anne. Their sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, were then at Cowan Bridge. + +When Mr. Bronte accepted the living of Haworth, he had found existing +there a Grammar School, and he took in it a special and personal +interest, for it was an old institution, was endowed, and had recently +been renovated. It was his policy to show that he took an interest in +it; so that, by adding his support to that of the trustees, he might +possibly confirm their favourable opinion of him, and secure their +continued good feeling. This was essential at the time, as any +appearance of coldness on his part towards their cherished foundation +would have perhaps evoked a spirit akin to that which caused the +compulsory resignation of Mr. Redhead, or have induced an estrangement +between himself and the trustees. It is stated, with regard to this +Grammar School, that one Christopher Scott by will, dated the 4th of +October, 13th of Charles I., gave a school-house which he had built +adjoining the church-way; and ordained that there should be a +school-master who should be a graduate at least, a bachelor, if not a +master of arts, and who should teach Greek and Latin. The school had +been enlarged in 1818, when the Bronte family were still at Thornton, +and a new house was then erected for the master by the trustees. + +As this foundation was designed to provide a classical education for +its students, it was one to which the better classes in the +neighbourhood need not have hesitated to entrust their children for +superior instruction than could possibly be had in the ordinary schools +of the district. The school was situated close to the parsonage, a lane +only intervening, and it was commodious and lightsome. But Mr. Bronte, +on his arrival, found that it had not for some time been maintained as +a regular Grammar School: that there was little or no demand for the +advantages of a classical education for their children among the +inhabitants of the chapelry.[8] Yet the master who received the +appointment from the trustees at the Midsummer of 1826, although not +even a graduate of either of the universities, was stated to be +competent to teach Latin, and was a man of considerable attainments, +instructing both boys and girls in every essential branch of knowledge. +In this the tutor differed nothing from some of his immediate +predecessors. But, though education of this sort was thus immediately +at hand, Mr. Bronte does not appear to have availed himself of it for +his daughters, or his son Branwell, for any great length of time. Mrs. +Gaskell says, indeed, that their regular tasks were given by himself. +Mr. Bronte, however, probably heard his children repeat early lessons +set by the master in order to ascertain with what facility they had +learned them. At a later date, Branwell and his sisters took a larger +interest in the Grammar School, and they became active and willing +teachers in the Sunday-school, which was connected with it. They were, +indeed, often seen, as is yet remembered, in the processions of the +scholars. + + [8] James's 'History of Bradford,' p. 358. + +Although Mr. Bronte had taken vigilant and affectionate care to promote +the health of his children, he was well aware that though he could +strengthen their constitutions in some sort, delicate by nature as they +were, he could not ward off with certainty the diseases and sufferings +incident to childhood, from which his children were, indeed, +unfortunately destined to suffer. Solicitude therefore came upon the +parsonage when Maria and Elizabeth were attacked by measles and +whooping-cough. Recovering partially from these attacks, it was thought +desirable to send them--perhaps partly for change of air--to a school +which had somewhat recently been established at Cowan Bridge, a hamlet +on the coach-road between Leeds and Kendal, which was easily reached +from Haworth, as the coach passed daily. This school was especially +established for the board and education of the daughters of such +clegymen of the Establishment as required it. It was begun, as we know +from Mrs. Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte Bronte,' by the Rev. William +Carus Wilson; and we are aware also that severe and unqualified +censures were passed upon its situation and management by the author of +'Jane Eyre,' in after-years, under the description of Lowood, and that +the Ellen Burns of the story was no other than Maria Bronte. Readers of +'Jane Eyre' became indignant, and the Cowan Bridge School was +execrated, denounced, and condemned by the public, to the utter +distress and pain of its founder and patron. + +In reference to this affair, Charlotte indeed said to her future +biographer 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 analyzing the conduct of those who had the +superintendence of the institution.' Mrs. Gaskell believes Charlotte +'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.'[9] + + [9] Gaskell's 'Charlotte Bronte,' chap. iv. + +But it is only just to Mr. Wilson to say that the low situation of the +premises fixed upon, the arrangement of the school-buildings, and the +inefficient management of the domestic department, do not appear to +have been so fatal to the boarders, even if we admit all the alleged +severities of the regimen. For, when a low fever, or influenza cold, +which was not regarded by Dr. Batty as 'either alarming or dangerous,' +broke out at the school, and some forty of the pupils fell more or less +under its influence, none died of it at Cowan Bridge, and only one, +Mrs. Gaskell informs us, from after consequences at home; and, though +delicate, the Bronte children entirely escaped the attack. Mrs. Gaskell +has, however, entered at considerable length into a detailed account of +the alleged mismanagement of the school, the severities exercised over +the pupils--especially by one of the responsible tutors, 'Miss +Scatcherd,'--the cooking and insufficiency of food, the general neglect +of sanitary regulations in the domestic department, and the utter +unfitness of the place itself for the continued health and comfort of +the inmates. But the biographer of Charlotte Bronte in after-years +considerably modified the severe strictures which her heroine had +thought fit to describe in 'Jane Eyre,'--an admirable work of fiction, +though not necessarily one of fact--and she says, speaking of +Charlotte's account of the Cowan Bridge School: '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 the 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 and conscientious.' It appears also that Mr. Wilson +had 'grand and fine qualities'--which were left unnoticed by +Charlotte--of which the biographer had received 'abundant evidence.'[10] +Of these Mr. Bronte seems to have been aware, as Charlotte and Emily +were sent back to Cowan Bridge after the deaths of Maria and Elizabeth. +Mrs. Gaskell wonders Charlotte did not remonstrate against her father's +decision to send her and Emily back to the place, knowing, as we may +suppose she did, of the alleged infliction which her dead sisters had +endured at the very school to which she and Emily were returning. +Surely such a very miserable state of things as is described in 'Jane +Eyre' could not have existed at the time to impress on Charlotte's mind +such a dread as we are asked to believe she had, and Mr. Bronte could +not be aware that any serious objections to the school existed. Indeed, +the true condition of the institution at the period is apparent from +the testimony of the noble and benevolent Miss Temple of 'Jane Eyre,' +whose husband thus writes: '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.' + + [10] Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. iv. + +While at Cowan Bridge, Maria's health had suddenly given way, and +alarming symptoms declared themselves. Mr. Bronte was sent for. He had +known nothing of her illness, and was terribly shocked when he saw her. +He ascended the Leeds coach with his dying child. Mrs. Gaskell says, +'the girls crowded out into the road to follow her with their eyes, +over the bridge, past the cottages, and then out of sight for ever.' + +The poignancy of Mr. Bronte's grief on this occasion was profound, and +all but insupportable. Here was his first-born, the early joy of his +home at Hartshead, the intelligent and brilliantly gifted companion of +the first few years of his widowed life--dying before him! She, whose +innocent and thoughtful converse had cheered his solitary moments, and +whose merry laugh had often made the hearth glad, whose affectionate +care of her little brother and sisters, disinterested as it was +incessant, supplied for them the offices of their deceased mother--was +fading from his sight! Arriving at Haworth, they were received with +sincere and tearful sympathy by Miss Branwell, and with childish alarm +and dread by Branwell and Anne. Every care which affection could +provide was bestowed on the sinking child, but she died, a few days +after her arrival, on May 6, 1825. + +Elizabeth, too, struck down with the same fatal disease, came home to +die of consumption on June 15 in the same year, but a month and a few +days after her sister. These sorrowful events were never forgotten by +Branwell, and the impressions made upon his mind by the deaths and +funeral rites he had witnessed became the theme of some of his later +and more mournful effusions. + +The early recollection of Maria at Cowan Bridge was that she was +delicate, and unusually clever and thoughtful for her age. Of Elizabeth +Miss Temple writes: '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.... 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,' says Mrs. Gaskell, 'would be Emily. Charlotte was +considered the most talkative of the sisters--a "bright, clever little +child."'[11] + + [11] 'Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. iv. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +BRANWELL'S BOYHOOD. + +Reunion of the Bronte Family--Branwell is the supposed Prototype +of Victor Crimsworth--That Character not a complete Portrait of +Branwell--His Friendships--His Visit to the Keighley Feast--Its Effect +on Branwell's Nerves--The Wrestle--The Lost Spectacles--Fear of his +Father's Displeasure--Mrs. Gaskell's Story of the 'Black Bull' Incident +Questioned--Miss Branwell and her Nephew. + + +Upon the return of Charlotte and Emily from Cowan Bridge, the youthful +Brontes, whom death had spared, were united again; and, for some years +more, followed their pursuits together, until Charlotte went to school +at Roe Head in 1831. Branwell was the constant companion of his sisters +during these childish years, and they all looked upon him with pride +and affection. Charlotte, in those days, was a sympathetic friend to +him; and, in his later years, he felt it a source of deep regret that +she was somewhat estranged. But the gentle Emily--after the death of +Maria--was his chief companion, and a warm affection never lost its +ardour between them. The sisters were quick to perceive the Promethean +spark that burned in their brother, and they looked upon Branwell, as +indeed did all who knew him, as their own superior in mental gifts. In +his childhood even, Branwell Bronte showed great aptitude for acquiring +knowledge, and his perceptive powers were very marked. He was, too, +gifted with a sprightly disposition, tinged at times with great +melancholy, but he acquired early a lively and fascinating address. +There was a fiery ardour and eagerness in his manner which told of +his abundant animal spirits, and he entered with avidity into the +enjoyments of the life that lay before him. Charlotte, who knew well +the treasures of her brother's opening faculties, his ability, his +learning, and his affection, saw also many things that alarmed her in +his disposition. She saw the abnormal and unhealthy flashing of his +intellect, and marked that weakness and want of self-control which left +Branwell, when subjected to temptation, a prey to many destructive +influences, whose effect shall hereafter be traced. There is reason to +believe that Charlotte pictures this period of Branwell's life in 'The +Professor,' where she describes the childhood of Victor Crimsworth; +and, though the extract is rather long, it is given here as valuable, +because it furnishes a full record of the early powers of Branwell, +and of the manner in which his sister--by the light of subsequent +events--looked upon them and upon his failings, and it will be seen +that towards the latter she is somewhat inflexible. + +'Victor,' she makes William Crimsworth say, 'is as little of a pretty +child as I am of a handsome man ... he is pale and spare, with large +eyes.... His shape is symmetrical enough, but slight.... I never saw a +child smile less than he does, nor one who knits such a formidable brow +when sitting over a book that interests him, or while listening to +tales of adventure, peril, or wonder.... But, though still, he is not +unhappy--though serious, not morose; he has a susceptibility to +pleasurable sensations almost too keen, for it amounts to enthusiasm.... +When he could read, he became a glutton of books, and is so still. His +toys have been few, and he has never wanted more. For those he +possesses he seems to have contracted a partiality amounting to +affection; this feeling, directed towards one or two living animals of +the house, strengthens almost to a passion.... I saw in the soil of his +heart healthy and swelling germs of compassion, affection, fidelity. I +discovered in the garden of his intellect a rich growth of wholesome +principles--reason, justice, moral courage, promised, if not blighted, +a fertile bearing.... She (his mother) sees, as I also see, a something +in Victor's temper--a kind of electrical ardour and power--which emits, +now and then, ominous sparks; Hunsden calls it his spirit, and says it +should not be curbed. I call it the leaven of the offending Adam, and +consider that it should be, if not _whipped_ out of him, at least +soundly disciplined; and that he will be cheap of any amount of either +bodily or mental suffering which will ground him radically in the art +of self-control. Frances (his mother) gives this _something_ in her +son's marked character no name; but when it appears in the grinding of +his teeth, in the glittering of his eye, in the fierce revolt of +feeling against disappointment, mischance, sudden sorrow, or supposed +injustice, she folds him to her breast, or takes him to walk with her +alone in the wood; then she reasons with him like any philosopher, and +to reason Victor is ever accessible; then she looks at him with eyes of +love, and by love Victor can be infallibly subjugated. But will reason +or love be the weapons with which in future the world will meet his +violence? Oh, no! for that flash in his black eye--for that cloud on +his bony brow--for that compression of his statuesque lips, the lad +will some day get blows instead of blandishments, kicks instead of +kisses; then for the fit of mute fury which will sicken the body and +madden his soul; then for the ordeal of merited and salutary suffering +out of which he will come (I trust) a wiser and a better man.' + +The natural adornments and defects of Branwell's mind in boyhood, +which may to some extent be traced in Charlotte's picture of Victor +Crimsworth, in 'The Professor,' must not be regarded otherwise than as +possessing a general resemblance to those which are found in that +character. Physically, Branwell and Crimsworth were dissimilar, though +mentally there is a portraiture; but even here, Charlotte, having him +in her mind when she sketched the character of Victor, exaggerated +therein, as she had done in other instances, the actual defects of her +brother. It is true, nevertheless, that those who knew Branwell Bronte +in early life could see in him the original of Victor Crimsworth. + +In the following pages the greatness of Branwell's genius may be +observed,--great, though marred by the errors and misfortunes of his +life,--as well as by the sorrows which his impulsive, kindly, and +affectionate nature brought upon himself, sorrows thus sadly set forth +by his sister as the outcome of his passions, and described by her as +the penalty of his future years. + +In Branwell Bronte, the 'leaven of the offending Adam' might now and +then certainly be observed, but it was largely modified by the +ameliorating influences of his home; and, although, from the failings +common to humanity, the children of Mr. Bronte could not be free, his +early waywardness and petulance were, by the influence of sex, more +forcibly expressed than such failings could be in his sisters. Between +the children of Mr. Bronte, however, there existed even more than the +ordinary affections of childhood. At this period of their lives, they +were ignorant of the wiles of corrupt human nature, and Branwell, with +all the lightsome exuberance of his boyhood, returned without stint the +ardent and deep affection of his sisters. But, when a few years had +rolled on, he awoke to the sunny morning of youth; and, in the absence +of a brother, sought companionship with certain youths of Haworth, and +made them playmates. Amongst them was one, the brother of some friends +of his sisters, who became to him a personal associate, and it was with +this companion that he was wont to sport on the moors, across the +meadows, and, with joyous laugh, along the streets of the village. + +The survivor of these two friends gives me an incident that occurred at +the time of the annual Feast at Keighley, which the youths visited. The +town was, as is usual on such occasions, crowded with booths and shows, +and various places of entertainment. Players and riders,--men and +women,--clothed in gay raiments, rendered brilliant with spangles, +paced backwards and forwards along their platforms to the sound of +drums, organs, and Pandean pipes, cymbals, tambourines, and castanets. +There were stalls, too, weighted with nuts and various confectionaries, +and there were also rocking-boats and merry-go-rounds, with other +amusements. + +As the evening advanced, and the shows were lighted up, Branwell's +excitement, hilarity, and extravagance knew no bounds: he would see +everything and try everything. Into a rocking-boat he and his friend +gaily stepped. The rise of the boat, when it reached its full height, +gave Branwell a pleasant view of the fair beneath; but, when it +descended, he screamed out at the top of his voice, 'Oh! my nerves! my +nerves! Oh! my nerves!' On each descent, every nerve thrilled, tingled, +and vibrated with overwhelming effect through the overwrought and +delicate frame of the boy. Leaving the fair, the two proceeded +homeward; and, reaching a country spot, near a cottage standing among a +thicket of trees, Branwell, still full of exuberant life, proposed a +wrestle with his companion. They engaged in a struggle, when Branwell +was overthrown. It was not until reaching the village, and seeing the +lights in the windows, with considerably enlarged rays, that he became +aware he had lost his spectacles,--for Branwell was, like his sister +Charlotte, very near-sighted. This was, indeed, no little trouble to +him, as he was in great fear lest his father should notice his being +without them, and institute unpleasant inquiries as to what had become +of them. He told his fears to his companion; but, after a sleepless +night for both, Branwell's friend was early on the spot in search of +the missing spectacles, when the woman living in the cottage close by, +seeing a youth looking about, came to him, and, learning for what he +sought, brought out the glasses which she had picked up from the ground +just before he came. M----, glad of the discovery, hastened to the +parsonage, which he reached to find Branwell astir, who was overjoyed +on receiving the missing spectacles, as the danger of his father's +displeasure was avoided. + +Mrs. Gaskell has written an account of the brother of the Bronte +sisters, but from what source I am unable to ascertain. After giving +him credit for those abilities in his boyhood of which evidence is +given in these pages, she says that: '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 to 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.' This account of the landlord being accustomed to send to the +parsonage for Branwell to come down to the 'Bull' at Haworth on these +occasions is denied by those who knew Branwell at the time, as well as +by the landlord. The latter always said that he never ventured to do +anything of the kind. It would have been a vulgar liberty, and an +unpardonable offence to the inmates of the parsonage had he done so. +Besides, the message would, in all probability, have been delivered to +a servant, or perhaps to Mr. Bronte himself, or to one of his +daughters, and Branwell would have been forbidden, for the credit of +the family, to lend himself for such a purpose at the public-house +below. + +Branwell in these early days was not only the beloved of the household, +but the special favourite of his aunt. This good lady was proud of her +family and name, a name which her nephew bore to her infinite +satisfaction, so that his sometimes rough and noisy merriment made his +aunt glad, rather than grieved, because it was the true indication of +health of mind and body. She easily pardoned his boyish defects: and at +times, as she parted his auburn hair, she looked in his face with +fondness and affection, giving him moral advice, consistent with his +age, and showing him how, by sedulously cultivating the abilities with +which God had blessed him, he would attain an excellent position in the +world. It was this gentle and disinterested guide that Providence had +placed in the stead of his mother, to impart to her son the good maxims +she would herself have given him. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE LITERARY TASTES OF THE CHILDREN. + +The youthful Compositions of the Brontes--Their Character--Branwell's +Share in them--'The Secret,' a Fragment--The Reading of the Bronte +Children--Branwell's Character at this Period. + + +Mr. Bronte, perhaps, made use of a slight hyperbole when he said that, +as soon as they could read and write, Charlotte and her brother and +sisters used to invent and act little plays of their own; but it is +certain that, at an early period of their lives, they took pleasure and +pride in seeing their thoughts put down in the manifest form of written +words. Charlotte, indeed, gives a list of the juvenile works she had +composed. They filled twenty-two volumes, and consisted of Tales, +Adventures, Lives, Meditations, Stories, Poems, Songs, &c. Without +repeating all the titles which Mrs. Gaskell and others have published, +it may be said that the productions manifested extraordinary ability +and industry. Branwell, Emily, and Anne partook of the same spirit, and +displayed similar energy according to the leisure they could command. + +Before Charlotte went to Roe Head, in January, 1831, Branwell worked +with his sisters in producing their monthly magazine, with its youthful +stories.[12] Mrs. Gaskell has quoted Charlotte's introduction to the +'Tales of the Islanders,' one of these 'Little Magazines,' dated June, +1829, from which it appears that a remark of Branwell's led to the +composition of the play of that name, and that he chose the Isle of Man +as his territory, and named John Bull, Astley Cooper, and Leigh Hunt +as the chief men in it. Charlotte gives the dates of most of their +productions. She says: '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.'[13] + + [12] 'Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. v. + + [13] Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap v. + +It would be difficult to arrive at a correct understanding of the +literary value of these productions of the youthful Brontes, but it +would be interesting to know what kind of assistance Branwell was able +to give in the work, as well as what was the general merit of these +early compositions. Mrs. Gaskell makes some mention of Branwell's +literary abilities in his youth. It is certain, from all we know, that +his mind was as much occupied in these matters as his sisters', and +that his ambition corresponded with theirs. It has, indeed, been placed +on record by Mrs. Gaskell that he was associated with his sisters in +the compilation of their youthful writings. This author says, also, +that their youthful occupations were 'mostly of a sedentary and +intellectual nature.'[14] + + [14] 'Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. v. + +Among the youthful stories of which Charlotte, as has been already +mentioned, wrote a catalogue or list, there was one, of which Mrs. +Gaskell has published a fragment in fac-simile, written in a small, +elaborate, and cramped hand--so small, indeed, as to be of little use +to the general reader. In the 'Life of Charlotte Bronte,' this was +inserted as a specimen of the hand-writing. It shows truly the literary +ability, dramatic skill, and force of imagination of the children at +the period of their lives of which I speak, and affords an interesting +specimen of the character of these early works. A few extracts from it +may be given here:-- + + THE SECRET. + + CHAPTER I. + + A dead silence had reigned in the Home Office of Verdopolis for + three hours in the morning of a fine summer's day, interrupted only + by such sounds as the scraping of a pen-knife, the dropping of a + ruler, or an occasional cough; or whispered now and then some brief + mandate, uttered by the noble first secretary, in his commanding + tones. At length that sublime personage, after completing some + score or so of despatches, addressing a small slightly-built young + gentleman who occupied the chief situation among the clerks, said: + + 'Mr. Rymer, will you be good enough to tell me what o'clock it is?' + + 'Certainly, my lord!' was the prompt reply as, springing from his + seat, the ready underling, instead of consulting his watch like + other people, hastened to the window in order to mark the sun's + situation; having made his observation, he answered: ''Tis twelve + precisely, my lord.' + + 'Very well,' said the marquis. 'You may all give up then, and see + that all your desks are locked, so that not a scrap of paper is + left to litter the office. Mr. Rymer, I shall expect you to take + care that my directions are fulfilled.' So saying, he assumed his + hat and gloves, and with a stately tread was approaching the + vestibule, when a slight bustle and whispering among the clerks + arrested his steps. + + 'What is the matter?' asked he, turning round. 'I hope these are + not sounds of contention I hear!' + + 'I--and--' said a broad, carrotty-locked young man of a most + pugnacious aspect, 'but--but--your lordship has forgotten + that--that----' + + 'That what?' asked the marquis, rather impatiently. + + 'Oh!--merely that this afternoon is a half-holiday--and--and----' + + 'I understand,' replied his superior, smiling, 'you need not tax + your modesty with further explanation, Flanagan; the truth is, I + suppose, you want your usual largess, and I'm obliged to you for + reminding me--will that do?' he continued, as, opening his + pocket-book, he took out a twenty-pound bank bill and laid it on + the nearest desk. + + 'My lord, you are too generous,' Flanagan answered; but the chief + secretary laughingly laid his gloved hand on his lips, and, with a + condescending nod to the other clerks, sprang down the steps of the + portico and strode hastily away, in order to escape the noisy + expressions of gratitude which now hailed his liberality. + + On the opposite side of the busy and wide street to that on which + the splendid Home Office stands, rises the no less splendid + Colonial Office; and, just as Arthur, Marquis of Douro, left the + former structure, Edward Stanley Sydney departed from the latter: + they met in the centre of the street. + + 'Well, Ned,' said my brother, as they shook hands, 'how are you + to-day? I should think this bright sun and sky ought to enliven + you if anything can.' + + 'Why, my dear Douro,' replied Mr. Sydney, with a faint smile, 'such + lovely, genial weather may, and I have no doubt does, elevate the + spirits of the free and healthy; but for me, whose mind and body + are a continual prey to all the heaviest cares of public and + private life, it signifies little whether sun cheer or rain damp + the atmosphere.' + + 'Edward,' replied Arthur, his features at the same time assuming + that disagreeable expression which my landlord denominates by the + term 'scorney;' 'now don't begin to bore me, Ned, with trash of + that description, I'm tired of it quite: pray have you recollected + that to-day is a half-holiday in all departments of the Treasury?' + + 'Yes; and the circumstance has cost me some money; these silly old + customs ought to be abolished in my opinion--they are ruinous.' + + 'Why, what have you given the poor fellows?' + + 'Two sovereigns;' an emphatic hem formed Arthur's reply to the + communication. + + They had now entered Nokel Street, and were proceeding in silence + past the line of magnificent shops which it contains, when the + sound of wheels was heard behind them, and a smooth-rolling chariot + dashed up and stopped just where they stood. One of the + window-glasses now fell, a white hand was put out and beckoned them + to draw near, while a silvery voice said, + + 'Mr. Sydney, Marquis of Douro, come hither a moment.' + + Both the gentlemen obeyed the summons, Arthur with alacrity, Sydney + with reluctance. + + 'What are your commands, fair ladies?' said the former, bowing + respectfully to the inmates of the carriage, who were Lady Julia + Sydney and Lady Maria Sneaky. + + 'Our commands are principally for your companion, my lord, not for + you,' replied the daughter of Alexander the First; 'now, Mr. + Sydney,' she continued, smiling on the senator, 'you must promise + not to be disobedient.' + + 'Let me first know what I am required to perform,' was the cautious + answer, accompanied by a fearful glance at the shops around. + + 'Nothing of much consequence, Edward,' said his wife, 'but I hope + you'll not refuse to oblige me this once, love. I only want a few + guineas to make out the price of a pair of earrings I have just + seen in Mr. Lapis's shop.' + + 'Not a bit of it,' answered he. 'Not a farthing will I give you: it + is scarce three weeks since you received your quarter's allowance, + and if that is done already you may suffer for it.' + + With this decisive reply, he instinctively thrust his hands into + his breeches' pockets, and marched off with a hurried step. + + 'Stingy little monkey!' exclaimed Lady Julia, sinking back on the + carriage-seat, while the bright flush of anger and disappointment + crimsoned her fair cheek. 'This is the way he always treats me, but + I'll make him suffer for it!' + + 'Do not discompose yourself so much, my dear,' said her companion, + 'my purse is at your service, if you will accept it.' + + 'I am sensible of your goodness, Maria, but of course I shall not + take advantage of it; no, no, I can do without the earrings--it is + only a fancy, though to be sure I would rather have them.' + + 'My pretty cousin,' observed the marquis, who, till now, had + remained a quiet though much-amused spectator of the whole scene, + 'you are certainly one of the most extravagant young ladies I know: + why, what on earth can you possibly want with these trinkets? To my + knowledge you have at least a dozen different sorts of + ear-ornaments.' + + 'That is true; but then these are quite of another kind; they are + so pretty and unique that I could not help wishing for them.' + + 'Well, since your heart is so much set upon the baubles, I will see + whether my purse can compass their price, if you will allow me to + accompany you to Mr. Lapis's.' + + 'Oh! thank you, Arthur, you are very kind,' said Lady Julia, and + both the ladies quickly made room for him as he sprang in and + seated himself between them. + + * * * * * + + In a few minutes they reached the jeweller's shop. Mr. Lapis + received them with an obsequious bow, and proceeded to display his + glittering stores. The pendants which had so fascinated Lady Julia + were in the form of two brilliant little humming-birds, whose + jewelled plumage equalled if not surpassed the bright hues of + nature.... + +This gay and pleasant fragment of a story, in which the characters and +scenes are so freshly drawn, may well be imagined as one of the best, +if not the best, of these productions of the Bronte children. We may, +indeed, regard the spirit and style of these early stories as the +outcome of their eager and observant reading of the magazine and +newspaper articles within their reach--when their plastic minds would +receive indelible impressions, from which they, perhaps without knowing +it, acquired the knowledge and practice of accurate literary +composition, and of how to clothe their thoughts in fitting words. +Their retentive memories, and their intuitive faculty of putting +things, brought them thus early to the threshold of the republic of +letters. Mrs. Gaskell states that these works were principally written +by Charlotte in a hand so small as to be 'almost impossible to decipher +without the aid of a magnifying glass.' The specimen she gives is +written in an upright hand, and was an attempt to represent the stories +in a kind of print, as near as might be to type. If, however, Charlotte +and Emily ever accustomed themselves in these early works to this +diminutive type-like writing, they threw it off completely in +after-years. This, Branwell never did, and Mrs. Gaskell's fac-simile +page is not without some resemblance to one of his ordinary pages of +manuscript reduced in size. + +Mr. T. Wemyss Reid observes that Mrs. Gaskell, in speaking of the +juvenile performances of the Bronte children, 'paid exclusive attention +to Charlotte's productions.' 'All readers of the Bronte story,' he +says, 'will remember the account of the play of "The Islanders," and +other remarkable specimens, showing with what real vigour and +originality Charlotte could handle her pen while she was still in the +first years of her teens.' And he adds that 'those few persons who have +seen the whole of the juvenile library of the family bear testimony to +the fact that Branwell and Emily were at least as industrious and +successful as Charlotte herself.'[15] + + [15] 'Charlotte Bronte, a monograph,' p. 27. + +Even at this early period the youthful Brontes had read industriously. +'Blackwood's Magazine' had, as early as the year 1829, asserted itself +to Charlotte's childish taste as 'the most able periodical there is,' +and ever afterwards the whole family looked with the greatest pleasure +for the brilliant essays of Christopher North and his coterie. Of other +papers they saw 'John Bull' and the 'Leeds Intelligencer,' both +uncompromising Conservatives, and the 'Leeds Mercury,' of the opposite +party. The youthful Brontes were also readers of the 'British +Essayists,' 'The Rambler,' 'The Mirror,' and 'The Lounger,' and they +were great admirers of Scott. + +But the advice which Charlotte afterwards gave to her friend 'E,' with +regard to books for perusal, shows that their reading had been much +wider: Shakespeare, Milton, Thomson, Goldsmith, Pope, Byron, Campbell, +and Wordsworth; Hume, Rollin, and the 'Universal History;' Johnson's +'Poets,' Boswell's 'Johnson,' Southey's 'Nelson,' Lockhart's 'Burns,' +Moore's 'Sheridan,' Moore's 'Byron,' and Wolfe's 'Remains;' and for +natural history, she recommends Bewick, Audubon, White, and, strangely +enough, Goldsmith. Branwell's favourite poets were Wordsworth and the +melancholy Cowper, whose 'Castaway' he was always fond of quoting. The +Brontes, in their young years, obtained much of their intellectual food +from the circulating library at Keighley. + +The extraordinary literary activity which prompted these children never +afterwards left them; and Branwell, along with his sisters, was, as we +have seen, the author of many effusions of remarkable character. But, +as time passed on, and experience was gained, his literary productions +began to acquire more vigour and polish. Yet the tone of his mind, +however joyous it might be at times, recurred, when the immediate +occasion had passed, to that pensive melancholy which, throughout his +life, was his most marked characteristic. + +Mr. Bronte looked with supreme pleasure on the growing talents of his +children; but his principal hope was centred in his son, who, as he +fondly trusted, should add lustre to and perpetuate his name. The boy, +in these years, was precocious and lively, overflowing with humour and +jollity, ready to crack a joke with the rustics he met, and all the +time gathering in, with the quickest perception, impressions, both for +good and ill, of human nature. Mr. Bronte sedulously, to the utmost of +his power, attending to the education of Branwell, did not see the +instability of his son's character, or did not apprehend any mischief +from the acquaintances he had formed. + +The incumbent of Haworth had distinct literary leanings, and it +delighted him to find that his son had manifested literary capacity. It +has been urged as somewhat of a reproach against Mr. Bronte that he did +not send Branwell to a public school, but relied solely upon his own +tutorship for his son's education. Situated as Mr. Bronte was, such a +step as that said to have been recommended to him was unnecessary. The +Grammar School adjoining was under the superintendance of a master who +was well qualified to give a higher education to his pupils, if +required; and Mr. Bronte himself was equally well able to do the same, +but his daily duties within his chapelry left him little or no time to +take upon himself the entire education of his son: all he could do was +to watch and ascertain occasionally how he was progressing. Mr. Bronte, +indeed, might have given the finishing touches to his son's +instruction. Those, however, who knew the brilliant youth in the +ripeness of his early manhood, recognized the extent of the knowledge +he had acquired, and felt, too, that he had been sufficiently +well-trained to know how to put it to good use. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +YOUTH. + +Charlotte goes to Roe Head--Return Home--Branwell at the Time--The +Companion of his Sisters--Escorts Charlotte on a Visit--He becomes +Interested in Pugilism--His Education--His Love for Music--His +Retentive Memory--His Personal Appearance--His Spirit. + + +Little more of interest seems to be known concerning the Brontes prior +to the year 1831, but it is very apparent that Mr. Bronte exercised +a large influence in the formation of his children's habits and +characters. He, for instance, had a study in which he spent a +considerable portion of his time. The children had their study also. +Mr. Bronte had written poems and tales, and was wont to tell strange +stories at the breakfast-table. The children imitated him in these +things. Mr. Bronte took an enthusiastic interest in all political +matters; and here the children followed him also. In short, they copied +him in almost everything. Afterwards, he was accustomed to hold himself +up as an example for their guidance, and to tell them how he had +struggled and worked his way to the position he held; and there is no +doubt that his children had a great admiration for his career. + +Miss Branwell's influence was altogether distinct from that of Mr. +Bronte. While taking pride in the mental ability of her nephew, she +aimed at making his sisters into good housewives and patterns of +domestic and unobtrusive virtue. With this object, turning her +bed-chamber into a school-room, she taught them to sew and to +embroider; and they occupied their time in making charity clothing, a +work which she maintained 'was not for the good of the recipients, but +of the sewers; it was proper for them to do it.' Under Miss Branwell +they likewise learned to clean, to wash, to bake, to cook, to make jams +and jellies, with many other domestic mysteries; and here, as in +everything else, they were apt pupils. + +But, towards the end of the year 1830, it was decided that Charlotte +should seek a wider training elsewhere; and a school, kept by Miss +Wooler, at Roe Head, between Leeds and Huddersfield, was fixed upon. It +was a quaint, old-fashioned house, standing in a pleasant country, +which had an interest for Charlotte, for it lay not far from Hartshead, +where her father's first Yorkshire curacy had been. This circumstance, +together with the proximity of the remains of Kirklees priory--which +had their traditions of Robin Hood--and the strange local stories she +heard from Miss Wooler, led her afterwards to make this district the +scene of her novel of 'Shirley.' Miss Wooler was a kind, motherly lady +who took an interest in each one of her pupils. She had long been a +keen observer, and knew well how to put her knowledge to use in +tuition. In this school, Charlotte, a girl of sixteen, was an +indefatigable student, scarcely resting in her pursuit of knowledge. +She was not exactly sociable, and sat often alone with her book in +play-hours--a thin fragile girl, whose brown hair overshadowed the page +on which her eyes, 'those expressive orbs,' were so intently fixed. Her +companions remarked at that time that she had a great store of +out-of-the-way knowledge, while on some points of general information +she was comparatively ignorant. But when Charlotte left Roe Head, in +June, 1832, she returned to the parsonage at Haworth with more expanded +ideas, and with wider knowledge, and possessing, perhaps, a keener +relish for the delights of the literary world. At Roe Head Charlotte +made the acquaintance of her life-long friend 'E,' and also of Mary and +Martha 'T.' + +The family of Bronte appears, about this time, to have been in perfect +peace. Charlotte had corresponded with Branwell when she was at Roe +Head, as a pupil of Miss Wooler; and Mrs. Gaskell has published +portions of a letter sent from that place to him on May 17th, 1832, +when he was in his fifteenth year, in which she showed her old +political leanings wherein Branwell shared. It runs: 'Lately I had +begun to think that I had lost all 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 the case, as, in +the little wild moorland village where we reside, there would be no +possibility of borrowing a work of this 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.'[16] + + [16] 'Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. vi. + +Charlotte's political principles were strongly Conservative, as were +those of her father, brother, and sisters, and these principles were +intensified in them all by their religious opinions. They held, +consistently enough, the cherished political convictions of their +party, and they looked upon every concession made to liberal clamour as +an inroad on the very vitals of the Constitution. Hence the jubilation +of Charlotte when the Reform Bill was rejected by the House of Lords on +October 7th, 1831. But the march of events, in after-years, modified +their political opinions considerably. + +Branwell at this period, while still under tuition at home, was the +constant companion of his sisters, and frequently accompanied them on +their visits to the moors and picturesque places in the neighbourhood. +'E,' writing in 'Scribner,' says: 'Charlotte's first visit from Haworth +was made about three months after she left school. She travelled in a +two-wheeled gig, the only conveyance to be had in Haworth except the +covered-cart which brought her to school. Mr. Bronte sent Branwell as +an escort; he was _then_ a very dear brother, as dear to Charlotte +as her own soul; they were in perfect accord of taste and feeling, and +it was a mutual delight to be together. Branwell had probably never +been from home before; he was in wild ecstacy with everything. He +walked about in unrestrained boyish enjoyment, taking views in every +direction of the turret-roofed house, the fine chestnut-trees on the +lawn (one tree especially interested him because it was iron-girthed, +having been split by storms, but still flourishing in great majesty), +and a large rookery, which gave to the house a good background--all +these he noted and commented upon with perfect enthusiasm. He told his +sister he was leaving her in Paradise, and if she were not intensely +happy she never would be! Happy, indeed, she then was _in himself_, for +she, with her own enthusiasm, looked forward to what her brother's +great promise and talent might effect. He would be, at this time, +between fifteen and sixteen years of age.[17] + + [17] Scribner, ii., 18, 'Reminiscences of Charlotte Bronte.' + +In the June of 1833, when Branwell was about this age, we learn that he +drove his sisters with great delight in a trap, or dog-cart, to Bolton +Bridge, to meet their friend 'E,' who waited for the young Brontes in a +carriage at the 'Devonshire Arms.'[18] This was a visit to the ancient +abbey and immemorial woods and vales of Bolton. We may well imagine +from the time of the year--the 'leafy month of June,' when all nature +would be glad, and the deep woods gay with varied leaves, while the +Wharfe, of amber hue, foamed and rushed impetuously down its rocky +channel, from the moorland hills above historic Barden, to the peaceful +meads of the ruined abbey--that the hearts of the Brontes rejoiced, +enchanted and impressed by these glorious and stately solitudes. + + [18] Reid's 'Charlotte Bronte, a Monograph,' p. 29. + +It cannot but be regretted that, while his sisters could confer in +confidence and familiarity together, and enjoy a community of interests +in secrecy and affection, Branwell had no brother whose sympathetic +counsel he could embrace; but, thrown back upon himself, was led to +seek the society of appreciative friends, who made him acquainted with +the manners and customs of the world, and the vices of society, before +his time had yet come to know much concerning them. It was, indeed, +unfortunately, no infrequent circumstance to see the plastic, +light-hearted, unsuspecting Branwell listening to the coarse jokes of +the sexton of Haworth--the noted John Brown--while that functionary was +employed in digging the graves so often opened in the churchyard, under +the shadow of the parsonage. + +It was the kind of society in which he sought relaxation at Haworth +that led him to take an interest, which he long retained, in the +pugilistic ring. The interest in pugilism and the 'noble art,' it must, +however, be remembered, had been made fashionable by wealthy, +influential, and titled people, amongst whom was Lord Byron, and by the +fops and dandies of an earlier period. Jackson, the noted professor, +was a great friend of the poet, and, on several occasions, visited him +at Newstead. Early in this century, too, many men about town were +accustomed to assemble for practice at the academy of Angelo and +Jackson. Branwell, also, read with eagerness the columns of 'Bell's +Life in London,' and other sporting papers of the day. The names and +personal appearance of the celebrated pugilists who, at that time, to +the delight of the _elite_ of society, pounded each other till they +were unlike anything human--for the applause of the multitude, and the +honour of wearing the 'Champion's Belt,'--were familiar to him. 'Bell's +Life' was taken in by an innkeeper at Haworth; and the members of the +village boxing-club, one of whom was Branwell, were posted up in all +public matters relating to the 'noble art of self-defence.' They had +sundry boxing-gloves, and, at intervals, amused themselves with +sparring in an upper room of a building at Haworth. These practices, at +the time of which we speak, were but boyish amusements, and were no +doubt congenial to the animal spirits and energetic temperaments of +those who entered into them, and they were so more especially to +Branwell, who had abundance of both. But it may be that here he became +acquainted with young men whose habits and conduct had a deleterious +influence upon him at the very opening of his career. If, however, +Branwell's high spirit allowed him sometimes to be led away by his +companions, his natural goodness of heart brought a ready and vehement +repentance. The respect he felt for his father's calling, magnified, in +his eyes, any fault of his own--who ought to have been more than +ordinarily good--and, exaggerating his failings, he would lament his +'dreadful conduct' in deep distress. Such unmistakable evidences of +sincerity and truthfulness procured him a ready pardon. He was +necessarily his aunt's favourite; but he attached himself to all about +him with so much readiness of affection that it is quite evident, +whatever his youthful faults, they were of a superficial character +only. + +The studies which Branwell pursued in his youth were noticed by his +literary friends, in after-years, to bear a considerable fruit of +classical knowledge. He possessed then a familiar and extensive +acquaintance with the Greek and Latin authors. He knew well the history +and condition of Europe, and of this country, in past and present +times; and his conversational powers on these, and the current +literature of the day, were of the highest order. Mr. Bronte had +obtained musical tuition for his son and daughters, and Branwell was +enthusiastically fond of sacred music, and could play the organ. He was +acquainted with the works of the great composers of recent and former +times; and, although he could not perform their elaborate compositions +well, he was always so excited when they were played for him by his +friends that he would walk about the room with measured footsteps, his +eyes raised to the ceiling, accompanying the music with his voice in an +impassioned manner, and beating time with his hand on the chairs as he +passed to and fro. He was an enthusiastic admirer of the oratorio of +'Samson,' which Handel deemed equal to the 'Messiah,' and of the +Mass-music of Haydn, Mozart, and others. Religion had, indeed, been +deeply implanted in Branwell's breast; but, whenever he heard sacred +music like this, his devotional impressions were deepened, and even in +times of temptation, indulgence, and folly the influence of early piety +was never effaced. Among his minor accomplishments, he had acquired the +practice of writing short-hand with facility, and also of writing with +both hands at the same time with perfect ease, so that he possessed the +extraordinary power of writing two letters at once. His hand-writing +was of an upright character. Branwell, too, had a wonderful power of +observation, and a most retentive memory. It is on record that, before +he visited London, he so mastered its labyrinths, by a diligent study +of maps and books, that he spoke with a perfect knowledge of it, and +astonished inhabitants of the metropolis by his intimate acquaintance +with by-ways and places of which they even had never heard. In person +he was rather below the middle height, but of refined and +gentleman-like appearance, and of graceful manners. His complexion was +fair and his features handsome; his mouth and chin were well-shaped; +his nose was prominent and of the Roman type; his eyes sparkled and +danced with delight, and his fine forehead made up a face of oval form +which gave an irresistible charm to its possessor, and attracted the +admiration of those who knew him. Added to this, his address was simple +and unadorned, yet polished; but, being familiar with the English +language in its highest form of expression, and with the Yorkshire and +Hibernian _patois_ also, he could easily make use of the quaintest +and broadest terms when occasion called for them. It was, indeed, +amazing how suddenly he could pass from the discussion of a grave and +lofty subject, or from a deep disquisition, or some exalted poetical +theme, to one of his light-hearted and amusing Irish or Yorkshire +sallies. He could be sad and joyful almost at the same time, like the +sunshine and gloom of April weather; exhibiting, by anticipation, the +future lights and shadows of his own sad, short, and chequered +existence. In a word, he seemed at times even to be jocular and merry +with gravity itself. + +It is known also that Branwell, at that period of his young life--when +manhood with its hopes and joys, its enterprises and aspirations, its +affections and its responsibilities, stretched before him--was also +busily laying, to the best of his ability, the foundations, as he +trusted, of a brilliant literary or artistic future. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +ART-AIMS OF THE BRONTES. + +Love of Art in the Youthful Brontes--Their elaborate Drawings-- +J. B. Leyland, Sculptor--Spartacus--Mr. George Hogarth's Opinion +--Art Exhibition at Leeds--Mr. William Robinson, their +Drawing-Master--Branwell aims at Portrait-Painting--J. B. + Leyland in London--Branwell and the Royal Academy--He visits +London. + + +The biographers of the Bronte sisters have pointed out especially the +artistic instinct of Charlotte and Emily; and the originality and +fidelity of their written descriptions, and the beauty of the +composition and 'colour' of their word-paintings, have formed an +inexhaustible theme for the various writers on the excellencies of +Bronte genius. The appreciation of art possessed by the members of this +family, whether in drawing, painting, or sculpture, was manifested +early; but, though highly gifted in felicity and aptness of verbal +expression in describing natural scenery, and in the delineation of +personal character, they were not endowed, in like degree, with the +faculty of placing their ideas--weird and wild, or beautiful and joyous +as they might be--in that tangible and fixed shape in which artists +have perpetuated the emanations of their genius. The devotion of +Charlotte and Branwell to art was, nevertheless, so intense, and their +belief was so profound, at one time, that the art-faculty consisted of +little more than mechanical dexterity, and could be obtained by long +study and practice in manipulation, that the sister toiled incessantly +in copying, almost line for line, the grand old engravings of Woollett, +Brown, Fittler, and others till her eyesight was dimmed and blurred by +the sedulous application; and Branwell, with the same belief, eagerly +followed her example. Great talent and perseverance they undoubtedly +had; and, although we are not possessed of any original drawings by +Charlotte of striking character, we know that Branwell drew in +pen-and-ink with much facility, humour, and originality. His +productions, in this manner, will be more particularly noticed in the +course of this work. Charlotte's drawings were said to be +pre-Raphaelite in detail, but they had no approach to the spirit of +that school; and Branwell's pictures, however meritorious they might be +as likenesses of the individuals they represented, lacked, in every +instance, that artistic touch which the hand of genius always gives, +and cannot help giving. While at school at Roe Head, Charlotte had been +noticed by her fellow-pupils to draw better and more quickly than they +had before seen anyone do, and we have been told by one of them that +'she picked up every scrap of information concerning painting, +sculpture, poetry, music, &c., as if it were gold.' The list she drew +up a year or two earlier of the great artists whose works she wished to +see, shows us that her interest in art, even in her thirteenth year, +led her to read of them and their productions. + +On her return home in 1832, Charlotte wrote on the 21st July respecting +her course of life at the parsonage: '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.' +Charlotte also told Mrs. Gaskell 'that, at this period of her life, +drawing, and walking with her sisters, formed the two great pleasures +and relaxations of her day.' + +Mr. Bronte, observing that his son and daughters took pleasure in the +art of drawing, and believing this to be one of their natural gifts +that ought to be cultivated, perhaps as an accomplishment which they +might some time find useful in tuition, obtained for them a +drawing-master. But he also observed that Branwell excelled his sisters +in the art, while he likewise painted in oils, and he may at times have +had some hope that his son would become a distinguished artist. + +It is apparent, indeed, that drawing not only engaged much of +Charlotte's leisure, but that it formed a part of home-education. Her +sisters as well as herself underwent great labour in acquiring the art +in these early years, and Branwell also was not behind them in +industrious pursuit of the same object. Charlotte even thought of art +as a profession for herself; and so strong was this intention, that she +could scarcely be convinced that it was not her true vocation. In +short, her appreciative spirit always dwelt with indescribable pleasure +on works of real art, and she derived, from their contemplation, one of +the chief enjoyments of her life. 'To paint them, in short,' says Jane +Eyre, speaking of the pictures she is showing to Mr. Rochester, 'was to +enjoy one of the keenest pleasures I have ever known.'[19] The love the +Brontes thus cherished for art became, as time passed on, a passion, +and its cultivation a pressing and sensible duty. They were not aware +that their industry in, and devotion to it, as they understood it, were +a misdirection of their genius. How far this love of it, and this +eagerness to acquire a knowledge of the mysteries of composition and +analysis, and to be possessed of art-practice and art-learning, may +have been excited and encouraged by the success that had been achieved +by others with whom they were familiar, in the same direction, may be +surmised. + + [19] 'Jane Eyre,' chap. xiii. + +In the year of Mr. Bronte's appointment to Hartshead, there was born, +at Halifax, an artist, Joseph Bentley Leyland, who was destined to +become the personal friend and inspirer of Mr. Bronte's son, Branwell. +Leyland, in his early boyhood, showed, by the ease and faithfulness +with which he modelled in clay, or sketched with pencil, the objects +that attracted his attention, the direction of his genius. The +sculptor, as he grew in years, treated, with artistic power, classical +subjects which had not hitherto been embodied in sculpture. At the age +of twenty-one he modelled a statue of Spartacus, the Thracian, a +general who, after defeating several Roman armies in succession, was +overthrown with his forces by Crassus the praetor, and slain. The dead +leader was represented at that moment after death before the muscles +have acquired extreme rigidity. The statue, which was of colossal size, +was modelled from living subjects, and was, in all respects, a +production far beyond the sculptor's years. It was the most striking +work of art at the Manchester Exhibition in the year 1832, and was +favourably noticed in the 'Manchester Courier,' on November the 3rd of +that year. Such notices were productive of increased exertion, which +soon became manifest in the creation of other more lofty and successful +works. Among these was a colossal bust of Satan, some six feet in +height, which was pronounced to be 'truly that of Milton's "Arch-angel +ruined."' Mr. George Hogarth, the father-in-law of Charles Dickens--a +gentleman of literary power and knowledge--was the editor of the +'Halifax Guardian' at the time, and visited the artist's small studio, +where he saw, in one corner, under its lean-to roof, for the first +time, the bust of Satan. He was astonished at its merit, and published +his criticism of the work in the paper on May the 24th, 1834. Leyland +was then strongly urged to forward the bust to London, which he did, +with some others he had modelled; and the critics were invited to visit +his studio. The favourable opinion which Mr. Hogarth published, in the +paper of which he was editor, was endorsed, but in more flattering +terms, in the 'Morning Chronicle' of December 2nd, 1834. But there was +held at Leeds, in these years, the Annual Exhibition of the Northern +Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts; and Leyland, before he +sent his work to London, included it in his contributions to the +exhibition at Leeds. + +The oil-paintings and water-colour drawings that were hung there, in +the summer of 1834, appear to have formed a fine and varied collection. +There were beautiful landscapes in water-colour by Copley Fielding, and +in oil by Alexander Nasmyth, John Linnel, Robert Macreth; and others +were well represented, while historical paintings by H. Fradelle, +sea-pieces by Carmichael, and animal paintings by Schwanfelder, always +good, were highly creditable to these well-known names. A number of +fine portraits by William Bewick and William Robinson added interest +and beauty to the galleries. The reader may conceive, if he will, the +Brontes--Charlotte and Branwell, and, it may be, Mr. Bronte and +Emily--enjoying to the full the paintings and sculptures which were +before them. He may fancy the suddenly expressed, 'Look, Charlotte!' as +some newly discovered picture flashed as a keen delight on the eager +fancy of Branwell's appreciative spirit. He may imagine the ready +criticism of Charlotte, and the attempts which she and her brother made +to divine how much thought had gone to make up the composition of a +work. The young Bronte critics, as they looked on the colossal head of +Satan--on the stern and inflexible firmness of the features 'whose +superhuman beauty is yet covered with a cloud of the deepest +melancholy;' on the representation 'of the great and glorious being +sunk in utter despair,'--might ponder, perhaps, whether an ideal has +dawned upon the imagination of the artist, and so been wrought from no +model, but from the vision of his meditations, or whether success is, +after all, but the evidence of painful elaboration. At any rate, it was +just on such an exhibition of paintings and works of art that Charlotte +and Branwell delighted to dwell in intelligent and educated +observation. + +That a new impetus and a new meaning were given to their art-practice +about this time is certain, and it was probably not long after this +date that Mr. Bronte engaged, for the instruction of his son and +daughters, an artist of Leeds, the Mr. William Robinson I have +mentioned as having contributed a number of portraits to the +exhibition. The object of the Brontes was now to practise painting, and +this able instructor was consequently engaged. + +Mr. Robinson was a native of Leeds, who had, by natural talent and +steady perseverance, acquired something more than a local reputation. +His early love of art had been such that the wishes of his friends +failed to divert him from its pursuit, and he received lessons from Mr. +Rhodes, sen., of Leeds, an admirable painter in water-colours. But Mr. +Robinson had a strong predilection for portrait-painting, to which he +had devoted his powers, at the same time availing himself of every +opportunity for improving in its practice. In the year 1820, he visited +the metropolis, taking with him an introduction to Sir Thomas Lawrence, +who received him with great kindness, and he became a pupil of this +eminent artist. Sir Thomas, however, with noble generosity, declined +any remuneration whatever, and Robinson assisted his master in his +work. He was introduced to Fuseli, and gained the privilege of studying +at the Royal Academy, his work being characterized by the requisite +merit. He was stimulated to renewed exertion by this much desired +success. In 1824, he had returned to his native town, where he procured +numerous commissions. He was subsequently introduced to Earl de Grey, +of whom he painted portraits, as also of his family. Mr. Robinson, in +addition, painted four portraits for the United Service Club, one of +which was of the Duke of Wellington, who honoured him with several +sittings. Besides these, amongst his other works, was a portrait of the +Princess Sophia, and a copy of one of the Duke of York for the Duchess +of Gloucester. It was from this gentleman that Branwell Bronte and his +sister received a few lessons in portrait-painting at the time of which +I speak, and a knowledge of the master's career did not a little to +fire the mind of the enthusiastic Branwell with ardour to aim in the +same direction, while the contemporary efforts of others added fuel to +the fire. + +At this time there were certain artists of the neighbourhood who were +trying their fortunes in London, and who were known to Branwell Bronte +by reputation: C. H. Schwanfelder, the animal painter, and John W. +Rhodes, the son of the artist under whom Mr. Robinson had studied. The +father of the latter had endeavoured to dissuade him from making art +his profession, but all to no purpose: the bent of his genius could not +be curbed. He painted in water-colour and oil with great beauty and +fidelity; the green lane, the wild flower hanging from an old wall, +were his subjects. His works met with well-deserved encomiums in the +London press, and with praise wherever they were exhibited; but, when +full of aspiring hopes, he was attacked, like Girtin, Liversedge, and +Bonnington, by inflammation in the eyes, and ill health. He died at the +early age of thirty-three, and a memoir of him appeared in 'The Art +Journal' of March, 1843. The determination of Charlotte and Branwell to +take, as it were, the Temple of Art by forcible possession, was, it may +be conceived, due also, in some measure, to the growing celebrity of +Leyland; for, in literature and art, Halifax was nearer to the Brontes +than any of the surrounding towns. The praise of Leyland's works, +moreover, had been re-published from the London press in all the papers +of his native county, and poetic eulogies appeared in the 'Leeds +Intelligencer' and in the 'Leeds Mercury;' and, therefore, that they +were eager to emulate his works and to equal his success seems very +probable. + +I have felt it necessary to mention these influences, as they alone +serve to explain how it was that Branwell and his sister were led to +think of, and--as regards the brother--to persist for a time in making +a profession of painting for which they had no special aptitude. +Branwell, in fact, designed to become himself a portrait-painter, and +he conceived that a course of instruction at the Royal Academy afforded +the best means of preparation for that profession. + +Being gifted with a keen and distinct observation, combined with the +faculty of retaining impressions once formed, and being an excellent +draughtsman, he could with ease produce admirable representations of +the persons he portrayed on canvas. But it is quite clear that he never +had been instructed either in the right mode of mixing his pigments, or +how to use them when properly prepared, or, perhaps, he had not been an +apt scholar. He was, therefore, unable to obtain the necessary flesh +tints, which require so much delicacy in handling, or the gradations of +light and shade so requisite in the painting of a good portrait or +picture. Had Branwell possessed this knowledge, the portraits he +painted would have been valuable works from his hand; but the colours +he used have all but vanished, and scarcely any tint, beyond that of +the boiled oil with which they appear to have been mixed, remains. Yet, +even if Branwell had been fortunate in his work, he would only have +attained the position, probably, of a moderate portrait-painter. His +ambition, however, took a higher range, and he prepared himself for the +venture, hoping that the desiderata which Haworth could not supply +would be amply provided for him in London, when the long-desired +opportunity arrived. + +At Haworth he had been industrious, for he had painted some portraits +of the members of his family, and of several friends. One of these is +well described by Mrs. Gaskell, and her account is worth giving +here:--'It was a group of his sisters, life-size, three-quarters +length ... the likenesses were, I should think, admirable. I 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 these 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 fate 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.'[20] + + [20] 'Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. vii. + +From Mrs. Gaskell's description of this one picture, it is apparent +that Branwell possessed, not only the faculty, as we have seen, of +obtaining excellent portraits, but that he had the ability to impress +the faces of his sisters with thought, intelligence, and sensibility; +and to invest them with the habitual expressions they wore, of power, +solicitude, and tenderness. The deep reflection which Branwell bestowed +on this picture, and the care he lavished on its mysterious +composition, show unquestionably the aptitude and capacity of his own +mind, which enabled him to obtain these essential expressions; and it +is evident that his peculiarity of thought invested his picture with +that sadness and gloom which, in after times, tinctured the poems he +wrote under the solemn-sounding pseudonym of 'Northangerland.' This +picture is only one among many others he painted in preparing himself +for his intended studies at the Royal Academy; and the old nurse, Nancy +Garrs, tells me that he often wanted to paint her portrait, but she +told him that she did not think herself 'good-looking enough.' + +At a later date Branwell related to Mr. George Searle Phillips the +story of his artistic hopes.[21] He spoke of the great fondness for +drawing manifested by the whole family; and declared that Charlotte, +especially, was well read in art-learning, and knew the lives of the +old masters, whose works she criticized with discrimination and +judgment. But he said that she had ruined her eyesight by making minute +copies of line-engravings, on one of which she was occupied six months. +He also spoke of his own passionate love of art, and of the bright and +confident anticipations with which he had looked forward to his +projected studies at the Royal Academy, which had been the cherished +hope of his family and himself. + + [21] 'The Mirror,' 1872. + +Leyland had visited London in the December of 1833, when he obtained +from Stothard a letter of introduction to Ottley, the curator of the +Elgin Marbles, to allow him to study the marbles in the British Museum. +Permission was readily granted, and the sculptor availed himself of it. +A year later Leyland took up his residence in the metropolis. He was +received in a friendly manner by Chantrey and Westmacott, the latter +inviting him to dinner, and afterwards showing him his foundry at +Pimlico, and his works in progress, among which was the statue of the +Duke of York. He was also introduced to, and enjoyed the friendship of +Nasmyth--the father of the eminent engineer whose story has recently +been given to the world--and of Warley: one a landscape-painter of +celebrity, and the other famed as an artist in water-colour. The +latter, who had considerable faith in astrology, persisted in drawing +the younger sculptor's horoscope. Among others, he became known to +Haydon, under whom he subsequently studied anatomy. This lamented +artist was a genuine friend, and it was under his instructions that +Leyland perfected his natural perception of the grand and beautiful in +art. While here he modelled, in life-size, a figure of 'Kilmeny,' in +illustration of the passage in Hogg's 'Queen's Wake,' where the sinless +maiden is awakened by Elfin music in fairy-land. It was a successful +work, and was favourably noticed by the critics. It was subsequently +purchased for the Literary and Philosophical Society of his native +town. + +It was while Leyland was in the metropolis that Charlotte wrote, on the +6th July, 1835: + +'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.' + +While this project was warmly engaging the attention of the Bronte +family, Leyland was living in London, at the house of Mr. Geller, a +mezzotinto-engraver, who was a native of Bradford; and, at the time, +the sculptor modelled a group of three figures illustrative of a +passage in Maturin's tragedy of 'Bertram,' which represented the +warrior listening to the prior reading. The work was engraved by +Geller. This group was said to be conceived in the 'true spirit of +Maturin,' and met with the favourable notice of the London periodicals +of the year 1835, the year of Branwell's visit to the metropolis. The +reviews were also reproduced in most of the Yorkshire papers. + +The design of putting Branwell forward as an artist, and of giving him +the opportunity and the means of beginning and continuing his studies, +where he might be imbued with the spirit of the great sculptors and +painters who have left imperishable names, and whose works are stored +in the public art-galleries of London, had at last been determined +upon. The sacrifices the Bronte family were prepared to make in order +to secure this object require but a passing notice here. Branwell was a +treasured brother; and they would feel, no doubt, a sincere happiness +in promoting his interests, in furthering his views, and in bringing +his artistic abilities before the world. It would, however, seem +scarcely possible that the difficulties attending Branwell's admission +as a student at the Royal Academy had been duly considered. He could +not be admitted without a preliminary examination of his drawings from +the antique and the skeleton, to ascertain if his ability as a +draughtsman was of such an order as would qualify him for studentship; +and, if successful in this, he would be required to undergo a regular +course of education, and to pass through the various schools where +professors and academicians attended to give instruction. No doubt it +was wished that Branwell should have a regular and prolonged +preparation for his professional artistic career; but it would have +lasted for years, and the pecuniary strain consequent upon it would, +perhaps, have been severely felt, even if Branwell's genius had +justified the outlay. But there is no evidence that he ever subjected +himself to the preliminary test, or made an application even to be +admitted as a probationer. + +It would seem that, so far as Mr. Bronte was concerned, his promotion +of the wishes of his children arose rather from a desire to gratify +them. It does not appear that he had any over-sanguine expectation that +Branwell could carry out his ardent intention of becoming an artist. +Mr. Bronte's own wish was, indeed, that his son should adopt his +profession, but the mercurial youth was probably little attracted by +the functions of the clergyman's office. + +To London Branwell, however, went, where, without doubt, his object was +to draw from the Elgin Marbles, and to study the pictures at the Royal +Academy and other galleries, with a perfectly honest intention. +Whatever impression he may have received of his own powers as an +artist, when he saw those of the great painters of the time, we have no +certain knowledge; but it does not exceed belief that he was +discouraged when he looked upon the brilliant chef d'oeuvres of Sir +Joshua Reynolds, Gainsborough, Sir Thomas Lawrence, and others; and +that, when he reflected on the immeasurable distance between his own +works and theirs, his hopes of a brilliant artistic career were +partially dissipated. Whether it was due to these circumstances, or +that he had become more fully aware of the early struggles that meet +all who attempt art as a profession, or that his courage failed him at +the contemplation of the unhappy lot which falls to those who, either +from lack of talent or through misfortune, fail to make their mark in +the artistic world; or whether it was because his father was unable to +support him in London during the years of preparation and study for the +professional career,--the requirements of which had not been +sufficiently considered,--is not now accurately known. Branwell, during +his short stay in London, visited most of the public institutions; and, +among other places, Westminster Abbey, the western facade of which he +some time afterwards sketched from memory with an accuracy that +astonished his acquaintance, Mr. Grundy. + +Before he left the metropolis, Branwell could not resist a visit to the +Castle Tavern, Holborn, then kept by the veteran prize-fighter, Tom +Spring, a place frequented by the principal sporting characters of the +time. A gentleman named Woolven, who was present through the same +curiosity which led Branwell there, noticed the young man, whose +unusual flow of language and strength of memory had so attracted the +attention of the spectators that they had made him umpire in some +dispute arising about the dates of certain celebrated battles. Branwell +and he became personal friends in after-years. + +Branwell returned to the parsonage a wiser man. His disappointment that +he was not to do as others were doing, whom he wished to emulate, was +very great, but he was not yet finally discouraged. We shall see +subsequently to what purpose Branwell put his artistic knowledge. The +failure of the hopes regarding his academical career in art was keenly +felt by his family. It was grievous as it was humiliating, but it was +borne with exemplary patience and resignation. When these painful +experiences had impressed the Bronte sisters with the hopelessness of +high artistic study for Branwell, and when their eyes were opened to +the consciousness that their large gifts did not include art, Charlotte +wrote, in her novel of 'Villette,' under the character of Lucy Snowe: +'I sat bent over my desk, drawing--that is, copying an elaborate +line-engraving, tediously working up my copy to the finish of the +original, for that was my practical notion of art; and, strange to say, +I took extreme pleasure in the labour, and could even produce curiously +finished fac-similes of steel or mezzotinto plates--things about as +valuable as so many achievements in worsted work, but I thought pretty +well of them in those days.' + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +CHARLOTTE AT ROE HEAD. + +Charlotte returns as a Teacher, with Emily as a Pupil, to Roe +Head--Their Determination to Maintain themselves--Charlotte's Fears +respecting Emily--Charlotte's religious Melancholy--Accuses herself of +Flippancy--She is on the Borders of Despair--Anxiety to Know More of +the World--Emily at Law Hill, Halifax, as a Teacher--Charlotte's +Excitability--She returns Home out of Health. + + +'We are all about to divide, break up, separate,' Charlotte said, when +conveying to her friend the news of the Academy project, and of her +determination to enter upon life as a governess. If Branwell's ambition +had encouraged her own, its failure made no change in her plans. She +was 'sad,' she says, 'very sad,' at the thoughts of leaving home; yet +she was going back to the school of Miss Wooler, whom she both loved +and respected, to live at Roe Head, this time to teach, it is true, +instead of to be taught. But her sister Emily was to accompany her, as +a pupil of the school, and that they would be together was a +consolation to both sisters; and Charlotte, too, would be near the +homes of the friends she had made when she was herself a pupil there. +It was a pleasure to think she would be able to see them sometimes. + +At the end of July, then, the two proceeded to Roe Head. This was the +first of those adventurous moves which the sisters, from time to time, +made. One of the strongest features, indeed, in their lives is the +persistency with which they essayed to maintain themselves, even when +no apparently pressing necessity impelled them. Yet we may not doubt +that one sad reflection sometimes moved them, and it was that their +father's stipend ceased with his life; that they had no other resource +beyond their own endeavours; and that, such was the uncertainty of all +human concerns, they might at any moment be deprived of home, support, +and shelter. It behoved them then to secure by their personal energies, +while they were able, the very means of subsistence. + +When Mr. Bronte saw his young family around him, and when he enjoyed +the comfort of his hearth, the contingency of his death, and the +consequent helplessness of his children, often struck him with +apprehension and sadness. But he had the alleviation that they +inherited, in a marked degree, his own adventurous and energetic +disposition, whose successful career was always before them as an +example and incentive to honourable endeavour. + +Mr. Bronte looked back with just satisfaction on the early sacrifices +he had made to advance himself in the world. His children were familiar +with the story of his exertions. They, however, with far higher +talents, were not possessed of the physical strength and powers of +endurance which had aided his progress; and Charlotte and Emily, when +any unusual strain was cast upon them, soon felt their strength +exhausted, and they suffered depression of spirits as the consequence. +Home-sickness was the great trouble of the younger sister, and, before +she had been long at school, Emily grew pale and ill. Charlotte felt in +her heart that, if she remained, she would die; and, at the end of +three months, she returned to Haworth, where, alone among the moors, +with all the wild things of nature, which had inspired so deep an +interest in her feelings, she could be contented. But the youngest +sister, Anne, came to Roe Head in her place, and she and Charlotte seem +to have been very happy there for some time; but a tendency to +religious melancholy had been developing in the elder sister's mind, +imperceptibly, out of her deep religious feeling, and it increased upon +her. + +So early as the letter to 'E,' July 6th, 1835, she had spoken of 'duty, +necessity, these are stern mistresses,' as controlling her action in +seeking a situation. Her friend Mary went to see her, and in her letter +to Mrs. Gaskell she says: 'I asked her 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.' Some +relaxation was gained by the Midsummer holidays of the year 1836. All +the family were at home, and their friend 'E' visited them, so that a +pleasant period of mental diversion was secured. But, after her return +to her school, despondency came upon her again, and crowded her +thoughts; and she wrote respecting her feelings in religious concerns: +'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 +insure the prospect of reconciliation to God, and a 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.' + +Let us not under-estimate the mental suffering which could dictate this +confession. Happily, this was not constantly present, nor her feelings +always so acutely wrought upon. Even in the same letter from which the +above is taken, she wishes her friends should know the thrill of +delight which she experienced when she saw the packet of her friend +thrown over the wall by the bearer, passing in his gig to Huddersfield +Market. She persevered in her place, the whole tendency of her +exaggerated reasoning forbidding her to seek that ease and relaxation +which she needed so much; but she was not incapacitated for her duties, +and probably her family were quite unaware of her troubles: so she +remained. + +Branwell and Emily were resolved not to be behind their sister in their +endeavours, and they were full of anxiety to know more of the world +than they could meet with at Haworth. Emily obtained a similar +situation to Charlotte's, in a large school at Law Hill, near Halifax, +where she found her duties far from light. Her extreme reserve with +strangers is remembered by one who knew her there, but she was not at +all of an unkindly nature; on the contrary, her disposition was +generous and considerate to those with whom she was on familiar terms: +her stay at Law Hill terminated at the end of six months. The place of +her sojourn is a lofty elevation, overlooking Halifax. Emily would find +the situation of the school agreeable to her taste, and to her delight +in the weird and grand as presented by the solemn heath-grown heights +of the West-Riding: besides, the air was as pure as that of Haworth, +and Law Hill commanded finer views, among which the range of Oxenhope +moors, in her father's chapelry, was visible. In the other direction, +she could overlook the more cultivated district of Hartshead and +Kirklees, and could see Roe Head, where her sisters Charlotte and Anne +resided. Branwell also, emulating his sisters, obtained the situation +of usher in the locality, which he retained for a few months. + +Some adventures with their literary productions interested them at the +close of this year, of which I shall have further to speak. Miss +Wooler's removal of her school to Dewsbury Moor was, in some respects, +unfortunate for the sisters, as the situation was less healthy than the +former one, and, when Charlotte and Anne returned home at Christmas, in +the year 1837, neither was well. Charlotte's nerves were over-strung, +and Anne was suffering from chest affections, which conjured up anew +their recollection of the deaths of Maria and Elizabeth from +consumption. To add to their troubles, Tabby fell on the ice in the +lane, and fractured her leg. The consequence of this was, that they had +to forego the expected pleasure of a visit from their friend 'E,' +through their attendance on the old servant, whom they were unwilling +should be removed to her friends, however desirable this might be on +many grounds. They even went so far as to refuse to eat at all, till +their aunt, who had arranged the matter to the satisfaction of all +concerned, except her nieces, should give up her intention of removing +Tabby. They succeeded, and Tabby remained at the parsonage, where in +time she became convalescent, and Charlotte was enabled to visit her +friends before she resumed her occupation. + +Charlotte again returned to her accustomed duties, her nervousness +increasing, not the less; and Mrs. Gaskell says: 'About this time she +would turn sick and trembling at any sudden noise, and could hardly +repress her screams when startled.' Through Miss Wooler's urgency, she +was induced to consult a medical man, who advised her immediate return +to Haworth, where quiet and rest had become for her imperatively +necessary. Then her father sought for her the companionship of her two +friends, Mary and Martha T----, than whose society Charlotte had never +known a more rousing pleasure. They came to stay at the parsonage, and +their cheerful converse and agreeable manners greatly improved +Charlotte's health and spirits. We obtain an interesting picture of the +young party in the following letter that Charlotte addressed to her +friend 'E,' which Mrs. Gaskell has published: + + 'Haworth, + + 'June 9th, 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. 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 + so 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.' + +Branwell, in these days, was well enough, and could be lively enough, +when occasion served. He had his hopes, his enthusiasm yet: but, in +after-years, he was to fall into a yet deeper and more serious +depression than that through which Charlotte had passed. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +BRANWELL BRONTE AND HIS SISTERS' BIOGRAPHERS. + +The Light in which Biographers have regarded Branwell--Bibliography +--Mrs. Gaskell--The Causes which led her into Error--Resentment of +Branwell's Friends--Mr. George Searle Phillips--Branwell as Depicted +by Mr. T. Wemyss Reid--Mr. F. H. Grundy's Notice of Branwell--Miss +A. Mary F. Robinson's Portrait of Branwell. + + +It will be well here--before we reach the periods of Branwell's life +that have been misunderstood--to pause, in our sketch of the Bronte +family, in order to consider certain circumstances regarding him, +which it will be impossible for any future writer on the Brontes to +disregard. It is especially necessary to consider them in a book +which--while dealing with the Bronte sisters, their lives and their +works--proposes, as a special aim, to make Branwell's position clear. +When Derwent Coleridge wrote the short biography of his father, which +is prefixed to the poet's works, he approached the subject in a +somewhat regretful way, asking if the public has a right to inquire as +to that part of a poet's life which does not influence his fellow-men +after death, and declaring that the privacy of the dead is sacred. +He felt too keenly that the sanctity of Coleridge's life had been +broken in upon by those who lacked both accurate knowledge and just +discretion. It is a source of sincere regret to the writer of this +volume that he, too, is compelled by circumstances to treat a part of +his work almost in a deprecatory spirit, and sometimes to assume the +position of defence. For, if the failings of Coleridge have been +discovered and fed upon by those whose curiosity leads them to delight +in such things, what shall we say of Patrick Branwell Bronte, whose +misdeeds have not only been sought out with a persistency worthy of a +better cause, but have also been exaggerated and misrepresented to a +great degree, and whose whole life, moreover, has been contorted by +writers who have endeavoured to find in it some evidence for their own +hypotheses? It has been the misfortune of Branwell that his life has, +to some extent, been already several times written by those who have +had some other object in view, and who, consequently, have not been +studious to acquire a correct view of the circumstances of it. These +writers, it will be seen, have therefore, perhaps unavoidably, fallen +into many grievous errors regarding him, so that his name, at this day, +has come to be held up as a reproach and even as a token of ignominy. +If it be remembered that Mrs. Gaskell, in her 'Life of Charlotte +Bronte,' describes him as a drunkard and an opium-eater, as one who +rendered miserable the lives of his sisters, and might very well have +shot his father; that Mr. T. Wemyss Reid, in his 'Charlotte Bronte, a +Monograph,' has spoken of him as 'this lost and degraded man;' that +Miss Robinson, in her 'Emily Bronte,' has called him a 'poor, +half-demented lonely creature,' and has moralized upon his 'vulgar +weakness,' his 'corrupt and loathsome sentimentality,' and his 'maudlin +Micawber penitence;' and lastly that Mr. Swinburne, in a notice of the +last-named work in the 'Athenaeum,' has said, 'of that lamentable and +contemptible caitiff--contemptible not so much for his common-place +debauchery as for his abject selfishness, his lying pretension, and his +nerveless cowardice--there is far too much in this memoir;' it may well +appear that we have here a strange subject for a biography. + +But, since the publication of Miss Robinson's 'Emily Bronte,'--in which +Branwell is specially degraded,--it has been felt by many admirers of +the Brontes that it was desirable his life should be treated +independently of the theories and necessities of his sisters' +biographers, and in a spirit not unfriendly to him; for there are many +people who believe that Branwell's genius has never been sufficiently +recognized, and there are a few who know that, notwithstanding his many +failings and misdeeds, the charges made against him are, not a few of +them, wholly untrue, while many more are grossly exaggerated, and that +his disposition and character have been wholly misrepresented. Having +in my possession many of his letters and poems, and having been +personally acquainted with him, I have undertaken the task of telling +the story of his life in connection with the lives of his sisters, for +I think that there is much in his strange and sad history that ought to +be known, while sufficient evidence exists of his mental power to prove +that he was a worthy member of the intellectual family to which he +belonged. It may not be amiss here, in order to illustrate +circumstances that will be alluded to in parts of this work, to touch +slightly upon the bibliography of Branwell's life, and endeavour to +discover the causes which have contributed to the ill-repute in which +he is generally held. + +Mrs. Gaskell, who became acquainted with Charlotte Bronte after the +deaths of her brother and sisters, when all that was most sorrowful in +her life had been enacted, saw, or thought she saw, in her the +evidences of a deep dejection, the result of a life passed under +circumstances of misery and depression. In her 'Life of Charlotte +Bronte,' this writer's endeavour to trace the successive influences of +the trials of Charlotte's life upon her, and to find in them the +explanation of what was, perhaps, in some measure, an idiosyncrasy of +character, has led her, in the strength of her own preconception, to +interpret many circumstances to the attestation of her theory. Such, at +all events, is the explanation which Mr. T. Wemyss Reid has offered, in +his 'Charlotte Bronte, a Monograph,' of the partial manner in which +Mrs. Gaskell has dealt with certain of Miss Bronte's letters. If we +conceive Mrs. Gaskell writing with this preconception, tending to give +undue weight to all that was unhappy in the history of her heroine, we +need feel little surprise that her account of the lives of the Brontes +is too often a gloomy one, that their isolation at Haworth, their +poverty, and their struggles have been exaggerated, or that, in order +to throw in a sombre background to her picture, she was unduly +credulous in listening to those unfounded stories with which she made +Mr. Bronte to appear, in act, at least, diabolical, and which have +helped to depict the career of Patrick Branwell Bronte in such dark and +tragic colours. She had heard at Haworth the story of his disgrace, his +subsequent intemperance, and his death. Herein she believed was the +great sorrow of the sisters' minds, the care which had induced a morbid +peculiarity in their writings, and cast a shadow upon their lives. Mrs. +Gaskell seems to have thought it devolved upon her, not merely to +picture beginnings of evil in the brother, and trace them to his ruin; +but, also, to punish the lady whom she held responsible for what has +been termed 'Branwell's fall.' To this end she thought it right to lay +at the lady's door, in part, the premature deaths of the sisters; and, +in sustaining the idea that the effect on them of the brother's +disgrace was what she believed it to be, she was led to employ partial +versions of the letters, and exaggerate the whole course of Branwell's +conduct. Her book was read with astonishment by those whose characters +were made to suffer by it, and she was obliged, in later editions, to +omit the charges against the lady; and also those against Mr. Bronte. +But Mrs. Gaskell still maintained that, whatever the cause, the effect +was the same. + +It was not believed at the time, by some, that, because Mrs. Gaskell +had been obliged to withdraw the statements complained of, in the later +editions of her work, they were necessarily untrue. Mr. Thackeray had +said that the life was 'necessarily incomplete, though most touching +and admirable,' and the original edition was still in circulation, and +was pirated abroad. + +The friends of Branwell Bronte, those who from actual acquaintance knew +his mental power and real disposition, resented greatly the wrong that +had been done to his memory; and several representations were made in +his favour. One of these was in an article entitled: 'A Winter's Day at +Haworth,' published in 'Chambers's Journal,' 1869. Mr. George Searle +Phillips, in the 'Mirror,' of 1872, also published some valuable +reminiscences which tended to show Branwell's true elevation of +character and gentleness of disposition. + +The publication of Mr. Wemyss Reid's 'Charlotte Bronte, a Monograph,' +in the year 1877, while it called attention to the original view of +Branwell's life and character, did not aim to remove it. Mr. Reid +repudiated, with success, the idea that the effect of Branwell's career +upon Charlotte and Emily was what Mrs. Gaskell represented it to have +been, without expressing any dissent from the story itself. This writer +does not, indeed, appear to have suspected that the explanation was to +be found in the fact that Branwell was not so bad as he had been made +to appear, or that Mrs. Gaskell had fallen into other errors besides +those of the letters which he corrected. But, though Mr. Reid carefully +avoided the reproduction of the details of Mrs. Gaskell's account of +Branwell's life, what reference is made to him in the 'Monograph,' +after the period of his youth, is always in terms of reprobation, which +have done nothing to discourage belief in the suppressed scandal. +Moreover, Mr. Reid revived some of the charges against Mr. Bronte, and +painted a sinister portrait of him. + +It was under these circumstances that Mr. F. H. Grundy, C.E., another +friend of Branwell's, in his 'Pictures of the Past' (1879), endeavoured +to do some justice to his memory, and declared, notwithstanding his +great failings, that his abilities were of a very high order, and his +disposition one that should be admired. I have found Mr. Grundy's +materials of use in this work. But, unfortunately, this friend of +Branwell's wrote from recollection, and made such great mistakes in +the chronology of his life that his account did not give a true +interpretation of actual circumstances. Mr. Grundy, too, had evidently +refreshed his memory with a perusal of Mrs. Gaskell's volume, and +so his information was considerably tinctured with that writer's +misconceptions. This notice had the very opposite effect to that which +was intended, and has since been largely used by writers whose purpose +has led them to rank Branwell with the fallen. + +In Miss Robinson's recently published 'Emily Bronte,' the scandal of +Branwell's life, which Mrs. Gaskell laid before the reading world, +has been reproduced, and her evil report of his character greatly +increased. 'Why,' it might well be asked, 'should it be necessary to +publish the records of a brother's misdeeds as a conspicuous feature +in a sister's memoir? Why revive a scandal that has been so long +suppressed?' Miss Robinson has, indeed, given her reason, in that +Branwell's sins had so large a share in determining the bent of his +sister's genius, that 'to have passed them by would have been to ignore +the shock which turned the fantasy of the "poems" into the tragedy of +"Wuthering Heights,"' and here, probably, is the only adequate purpose +that could have been found in doing so; but it is scarcely sufficient +to explain why Miss Robinson has, almost from her first mention of +Branwell Bronte to her remarks on his death, treated every act of his +life with contumely, censure, and contempt, or that she has, in +opposition to every previous opinion, represented his abilities as +almost void. While Mr. Reid suggested that Emily Bronte, in writing her +novel, must have obtained some of her impressions from her brother's +conduct, Mr. Grundy had made a statement tending to show that Branwell +had written a portion of the story himself. If Branwell's abilities +were no better than Miss Robinson says they were, she has disposed of +Mr. Grundy's assertion at once; but not the less does she employ other +reasons for that end, and the degradation she has thought it necessary +to show in Branwell, answers quite as much to prove the impossibility +of his having written the work, as to picture the cause of brooding in +Emily, under which she produced the tragedy of 'Wuthering Heights.' + +With views similar to those with which Mrs. Gaskell wrote, Miss +Robinson, in following the biographer of Charlotte, has fallen into the +same errors. In order to make it clear that the part Branwell had in +the production of 'Wuthering Heights,' by his sister, was subjective, +this writer has found it necessary to show in his life much of what is +worst in the characters of the story. So completely has Miss Robinson +carried out this portion of her work, that Mr. Swinburne was led to +say, in his notice of it, that 'Emily Bronte's tenderness for the +lower animals ... was so vast as to include even her own miserable +brother.'[22] But Miss Robinson has not succeeded so far without much +unfairness to the victim of her theory, in omissions and errors of +fact. I shall have occasion to treat at some length, later, Branwell's +relationship both to 'Wuthering Heights' and 'The Tenant of Wildfell +Hall.' + + [22] 'Athenaeum,' June 16th, 1883, p. 762. + +I hope, indeed, to be able to prove that Branwell was (as all who +personally knew him aver him to have been) a man of great and powerful +intellectual gifts, to relieve his memory of much of the obloquy +that has been heaped upon it, and to clearly show the remarkable +individuality of his character. I shall find it necessary, in doing so, +to take exception to the portions of Mrs. Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte +Bronte' which deal with her brother, as to some extent I had to do to +those which refer to Mr. Bronte. More especially, however, will it be +necessary to deal with the fuller statements in the first edition of +the work, and with their repetition and amplification in the more +recent volumes of Mr. Reid and Miss Robinson. + +I have thought it necessary to introduce these remarks in this place, +in order that the reader, when he comes to the consideration of certain +statements made by previous writers concerning Branwell, and his +relationship with his sisters, may have a clear understanding of the +views with which the works containing these statements have been +written. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +BRANWELL AT BRADFORD. + +Branwell becomes a Freemason--His love of Art undiminished--Has +Instruction in Oil-Painting--Commences Portrait-Painting at +Bradford--His Commissions--His Letter to Mr. Thompson, the Artist +--Miss Robinson's Charges of Misconduct--Her Erroneous Statements +--Branwell's true Character and Conduct at Bradford--Remarks on +his alleged Opium-eating there. + + +When Branwell returned from London it was not without sincere +satisfaction that his acquaintances welcomed their gifted and versatile +friend back to Haworth, certain of whom induced him to become a +freemason. Thus Branwell was brought into closer connection with the +convivial circles of the village. + +There was held at Haworth, at the time, 'The Lodge of the Three +Graces.' In this lodge Branwell was proposed as a brother, and accepted +on the 1st of February, 1836, initiated February the 29th, passed March +the 28th, and raised April the 25th of that year, John Brown being the +'Worshipful Master.' Branwell was present at eleven meetings in 1836, +the minutes of one of these--September the 18th--being fully entered by +him. On December the 20th of the same year, he fulfilled the duties of +'Junior Warden;' and, at seven meetings of the lodge, from January the +16th to December the 11th, 1837, he was secretary, and entered the +minutes. He also, on Christmas Day of the same year, officiated as +organist.[23] In addition to his duties in connection with the Masonic +Lodge, he likewise undertook the secretaryship of the local Temperance +Society, of which he was a member. + + [23] Riley's 'History of the Airedale Lodge,' p. 48. + +Branwell's love of art had been too strong, and his interest in its +practice too intense, to allow even such a check as that which his +aspirations had received in the failure of the Academy project to +finally discourage him. Hence it was, I suppose, when he had +relinquished his place of usher that his passionate desire of becoming +an artist, still cherished under disappointment, revived. He conceived, +as the project of studying at the Royal Academy had not proved +feasible, that, if he had a full course of instruction from Mr. +Robinson, he could, in that way, qualify himself, perhaps as well, to +adopt the profession of a portrait-painter, more valuable in those +days, when photographers were not, than now; and Mr. Bronte, leaning to +his son's wish, was induced to sanction the proposal, as it might +provide Branwell with an alternative occupation to that of tutor, the +only other that seemed open to him. + +Mr. Robinson's charge, on the few occasions of his lessons at Haworth +parsonage, had been two guineas for each visit. But it was now arranged +that Branwell should receive instruction from the artist at his studio +in Leeds. In this way he would not only have better opportunities of +acquiring the art, but the cost would be much less. For this purpose, +he stayed at an inn in Briggate, but occasionally took his master's +pictures to Haworth to copy. Under this kind of tuition he continued +for some months, when, having completed his studies, he resolved upon +turning the instruction he had received, probably through the kindness +of his aunt, to profitable account. With this professional intention, +he engaged private apartments in Bradford, and took up his residence as +a portrait-painter, under the interest of his mother's relative, the +Rev. William Morgan, of Christ Church. Among others, he painted +portraits of this gentleman, and of the Rev. Henry Heap, the vicar. For +some months Branwell was successful in maintaining himself by these +praiseworthy efforts; but it was scarcely to be expected that he could +succeed sufficiently well in competition with the older and more +experienced artists of the neighbourhood. + +Among his other pictures, were portraits of Mrs. Kirby, his landlady, +and her two children. One of these, a beautiful little girl, was his +special favourite. At his frequent request, she dined with him in his +private sitting-room, her pleasant smiles and cheerful prattling always +charming him. + +It may be mentioned here that, when Branwell had entered upon his +studies under Mr. Robinson, he formed an acquaintance with a +fellow-student, Mr. J. H. Thompson, who was a portrait-painter at +Bradford. A close friendship grew up between them; and this artist, +being more experienced than Branwell, gave, now and then, finishing +touches to the productions of his young friend. + +Soon after Branwell gave up his profession as an artist at Bradford, he +wrote to Mr. Thompson, in reference to some misunderstanding which had +arisen between himself and his landlady. The letter is dated from +'Haworth, May the 17th, 1839.' + + 'DEAR SIR, + + 'Your last has made me resolve on a visit to you at Bradford, for + certainly this train of misconceptions and delays must at last be + put a stop to. + + 'I shall (Deo volente) be at the "Bull's Head" at two o'clock this + afternoon (Friday), and _do_ be there, or in Bradford, to give + me your aid when I arrive! + + 'I am astonished at Mrs. Kirby. I have no pictures of hers to + finish. But I said that, if I returned there, I would varnish three + for her; and also I do not understand people who look on a kindness + as a duty. + + 'Once more my heartfelt thanks to you for your consideration for + one who has none for himself. + + 'Yours faithfully, + + 'P. B. BRONTE.' + +Mrs. Kirby had not been quite satisfied with the pictures before +mentioned; but, on hearing Mr. Thompson's favourable opinion, she at +once gave way. Although Branwell ceased his residence at Bradford for +the reasons assigned, he afterwards painted portraits occasionally at +Haworth; but also frequently visited his friends at the former place, +having become acquainted with the poets and artists of the +neighbourhood, as we shall presently see. + +Miss Robinson has undertaken to draw Branwell's portrait at this +juncture of his affairs, when she says he had attained the age of +twenty years, though in fact he was twenty-two; and the following is +the labour of her hands: 'He went to Bradford as a portrait-painter, +and--so impressive is audacity--actually succeeded for some months in +gaining a living there.... His tawny mane, his pose of untaught genius, +his verses in the poet's corner of the paper could not for ever keep +afloat this untaught and thriftless portrait-painter of twenty. Soon +there came an end to his painting there. He disappeared from Bradford +suddenly, heavily in debt, and was lost to sight until, unnerved, a +drunkard, and an opium-eater, he came back to home and Emily at +Haworth.'[24] + + [24] 'Emily Bronte,' p. 64. It may be noted here, to show in + some sort what amount of credibility attaches to these + representations, that Miss Robinson has placed Branwell's + portrait-painting at Bradford subsequent to his tutorship at + Broughton-in-Furness, though really he did not go there until + a year later. + +These statements are simply untrue. I have the positive information of +one who knew Branwell in Leeds, and who resided in Bradford at the time +when he was there, that he did not leave that town in debt; that he +certainly was not a drunkard; and that, if he took anything at all, it +was but occasionally, and then no more than the commonest custom would +permit. I would rather believe--if all other evidence were wanting--the +account of Branwell given by the friends who knew him personally, and +who, at the moment in which I write, are still living on the spot where +he exerted himself to gain a living by the labour of his own hands, +than the unfair, unjust, and exaggerated charges quoted above. But +Branwell's letter to his friend disposes at once of the assertion that +he 'disappeared from Bradford suddenly, heavily in debt, and was lost +to sight.' And, as to the statement that he was unnerved and a +drunkard, one should surely rather accept the evidence of those who +knew him, that he was, on the contrary, as they unhesitatingly say, 'a +quiet, unassuming young man, retiring, and diffident, seeming rather of +a passive nature, and delicate constitution, than otherwise.' And, +moreover, his visits to Bradford, after he had given up his profession +there, were frequent, for his literary tastes, his artistic pursuits, +and his musical abilities had secured him many friends in that town. +Assuredly the biographer of Emily has been very unfortunate, to say the +least, in her account of Branwell's honest, upright, and honourable +endeavour to make his living by the profession of art at Bradford. + +Miss Robinson asserts that Branwell was an opium-eater 'of twenty,' in +addition to the other baneful habits she ascribes to him. There is, +however, no reliable evidence that, at this period of his life, he was +any such thing; and, considering the fact that the biographer of Emily +has assigned Branwell's art-practice at Bradford to a period subsequent +to his tutorship at Broughton-in-Furness, one may, perhaps, be +permitted to suspect that she is equally in error in her assertions as +to his opium-eating so young. Branwell did, indeed, later, fall into +the baneful habit, and suffered at times in consequence; but there is +no reason to believe that he became wholly subject to it, or was +greatly injured by the practice, either in mind or body. We can only +surmise as to the original cause of his use of opium; but, when we +consider the extraordinary fascination which De Quincey's wonderful +book had for the younger generation of literary men of his day, we +shall recognize that Branwell, who read the book, in all probability +fell under its influence. Let us remember, moreover, that the young +man's two sisters had died of consumption, and that De Quincey declares +the use of the drug had saved him from the fate of his father who had +fallen a victim to the same scourge. Lastly, it should not be forgotten +that, in the first half of this century, the use of opium became, in +some sort, fashionable amongst literary men, and that many admirers of +De Quincey and Coleridge deemed that the practice had received a +sufficient sanction. But the former of these writers had used the drug +intermittently, and we have reason to believe that Branwell, who +followed him, did likewise. Let us, then, imagine the young Bronte, +revelling in the realm of the dreamy and impassioned, and hoping fondly +that consumption might be driven away, resolving to try the effect of +the 'dread agent of unimaginable pleasure and pain,' a proceeding from +which many less brave would have shrunk. Branwell had doubtless read, +in the 'Confessions of an English Opium-eater,' that the drug does not +disorder the system; but gives tone, a sort of health, that might be +natural if it were not for the means by which it is procured. He would +believe that--in one under this magic spell, that is--'the diviner part +of his nature is paramount, the moral affections are in a state of +cloudless serenity; and high over all the great light of the majestic +intellect.' Mrs. Gaskell describes the operation of opium upon herself. +She says: 'I asked her' (Charlotte) 'whether she had ever taken opium, +as the description of its effects, given in "Villette," was so exactly +like what I had experienced--vivid and exaggerated presence of objects +of which the outlines were indistinct, or lost in golden mist, etc.'[25] +Branwell could not have tasted these stronger effects of the drug when +he first made use of it; but it should be remembered that he several +times recurred to the practice, and suffered the consequent pains and +penalties. + + [25] 'Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap, xxvii. + +After his portrait-painting at Bradford, he never again resided there, +and it was about the period of his leaving that place that he began to +see the artistic career he had chosen was a mistake, and he determined +to give it up as a profession. Moreover, other influences, as we shall +see, had been, and were still, at work upon him which caused him to +turn once more to literature. From the period of his acquaintance with +the drawing-masters, he had become associated with the literary as well +as the artistic circles of the neighbourhood; and he anticipated the +literary future of his sisters. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +LITERARY INFLUENCES AND ASPIRATIONS. + +New Inspiration of Poetry--Wordsworth--Southey, Scott, and Byron +--Southey to Charlotte Bronte--Hartley Coleridge--His Worthies of +Yorkshire--Poets of the West-Riding--Alaric A. Watts--Branwell's +Literary Abilities. + + +In the early part of the present century, the spirit of poetry began to +make itself felt in quarters where previously it had never been known. +The pedantic affectation of the Della Cruscan school gave place, in the +works of a passionate lover of Nature like Wordsworth, to a fresher and +purer inspiration, that delighted in familiar themes of domestic and +rural beauty, which were often both humble and obscure. It was +Wordsworth, indeed, who 'developed the theory of poetry,'--as Branwell +Bronte well knew--that has worked a greater change in literature than +has, perhaps, been known since the period of the Renaissance. In his +endeavour to solve the difficulty of 'fitting to metrical arrangement a +selection of the real language of men in a state of vivid sensation,' +Wordsworth had prepared the way for a natural outburst of poetic +feeling, occupied with familiar and simple topics. The writers of the +so-called 'Lake School' of poets, and especially Wordsworth, Coleridge, +and Southey, were, in fact, the leaders of the new movement; and, +speedily, responsive to the free note of genius uncurbed, there arose +from many an unknown place in England the sweet sound of poetic voices +not heard before. At the same time, the touch of romanticism, which was +imparted by Scott and Byron, had a great influence on many of the +younger poets of the new school. It is evident, to anyone who has +studied the local literature of that time, that the works produced +under such inspiration were often of great and permanent merit. +Southey, writing to Charlotte Bronte in 1837, indeed says, '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.' + +Nowhere, probably, in England was the influence of the poets of +Westmoreland felt more deeply than in the valleys of the West-Riding +of Yorkshire. Indeed, a young publisher of that district, Mr. F. E. +Bingley, had sufficient appreciation of genius, and enterprise enough, +to bring him to Leeds for the purpose of publishing works from Hartley +Coleridge's hand. The younger Coleridge--besides the prestige of his +fathers name--had already become known as an occasional contributor to +'Blackwood's Magazine,' wherein first appeared his poem of 'Leonard +and Susan,' so much admired. Mr. Bingley entered into an engagement +to enable him to publish two volumes of poems, and a series of +'Biographical notices of the Worthies of Yorkshire and Lancashire,' +which Hartley Coleridge was to write. One of the volumes of poems was +issued from the press in 1833, and was well received. 'The Worthies' +proceeded to the third number, forming an octavo volume of six hundred +and thirty-two pages, when circumstances compelled Mr. Bingley to sell +the remainders to another publisher, who issued a second edition of +this well-known work, with a new title, in the year 1836. From the same +press there came, in 1834, 'Cyril, a Poem in Four Cantos; and Minor +Poems,' by George Wilson. C. F. Edgar, who was editor of the 'Yorkshire +Literary Annual,' the first volume of which appeared in 1831, was also +the author of a volume of poems, published by Mr. Bingley in the +succeeding year; and other poetical works followed from the Leeds +press. + +But, in those days, there was scarcely a locality in the populous +West-Riding of Yorkshire without its poet, and that poet, too, a man of +no mean powers. Nicholson, the Airedale poet, had, previously to the +time of which I speak, published his 'Airedale, and other Poems,' and +his 'Lyre of Ebor.' His poetical talents were really excellent, and his +versatility, and the happy character of his effusions, made Nicholson +very popular in the West-Riding. He died in 1843. The gifted poet of +Gargrave, Robert Story, had published, in earlier years, many songs and +poems in the local papers; and he issued, in 1836, a volume, entitled, +'The Magic Fountain.' This was followed, in 1838, by 'The Outlaw,' and +by 'Love and Literature,' in the year 1842. This poet was an ardent +partizan of the Conservatives, and his lyrical abilities were devoted +with unflagging energy to their cause. His 'Songs and Poems,' and his +'Lyrical, and other Minor Poems,' were subsequently published. His +political songs were vigorous, and his pastoral ones were redolent of +pastures, meadows, and moors, breathing all the freshness of nature in +its happiest time. Thomas Crossley, the 'Bard of Ovenden,' like Story, +possessed of lyrical talents of the highest order, was a frequent +contributor to the county papers; and he published, in 1837, an +admirable and delightful volume, entitled, 'The Flowers of Ebor.' In +the same year, William Dearden, the 'Bard of Caldene,' the possessor of +high gifts, published his 'Star-Seer; a Poem in Five Cantos,' which was +distinguished by great power, originality, and loftiness of conception. +It was largely influenced by the spirit of romanticism, and flowed with +the sweetest diction. + +This also was the age of 'Souvenirs,' 'Keepsakes,' 'Forget-me-nots,' +and 'Annuals,' which sold very largely, and contained much that was +really good. Heath, the proprietor of the 'Keepsake,' as we are told by +Southey, sold fifteen thousand copies in one year, and used four +thousand yards of watered-silk for the next issue; for these volumes +were always resplendent in silk and gold. Alaric A. Watts, who +published, in 1822, his 'Poetical Sketches' (a fourth edition of which, +enlarged and exquisitely illustrated with designs by Stothard and +Nesfield, was required), became, in the same year, editor of the 'Leeds +Intelligencer,' which he conducted with much spirit and ability. He +afterwards established the 'Manchester Courier,' which he for some time +edited, and was well-known in the northern shires. In 1828 and 1829 +appeared his 'Poetical Album,' 'Scenes of Life, and Shades of +Character,' in 1831; and from 1825 to 1834 he produced his 'Literary +Souvenir; a Cabinet of Poetry and Romance,' with great and deserved +success. It is more than likely that the great popularity of his +venture led to the publication of 'The White Rose of York,' a similar +volume, which was brought out at Halifax in the year 1834. This work +was edited by George Hogarth, and, in addition to the authors already +mentioned--who were, with the exception of Nicholson, the Airedale +poet, and the Leeds authors, contributors to it--were F. C. Spencer, +author of 'The Vale of Bolton,' a volume of poems; Henry Ingram, author +of a volume entitled, 'Matilda'; Henry Martin, editor of the 'Halifax +Express'; John Roby, author of 'The Traditions of Lancashire;' and +others. There was also in the work a contribution, entitled 'Morley +Hall,'--treating of a legend of the last-named county--by C. Peters, +the subject of which also exercised the abilities of the author of 'The +Flowers of Ebor'; and subsequently interested Branwell Bronte in a +similar manner--his friend Leyland having modelled a scene from the +story, in clay. + +It is beyond question that these literary influences, which stirred the +depths of feeling in Yorkshire, had a profound effect on the earlier +writings of the Brontes, and probably were their original inspiration. +All the local papers were filled with the news of the literary +movement; and the busy brains in the parsonage of Haworth could not but +be raised to emulation by the tidings. Branwell, especially, who knew +personally many of the workers in the new field whom I have named, and +was never so happy as when he could enjoy their company, was soon +moved, in the midst of his art-aspirations, to partake in their +literary labours. At this time, the tastes of the Brontes in this +direction, and their progress in poetical and prose composition, began +to inspire them with hopes and anticipations of the brightest +character. From childhood their attempts at literary composition had +formed, according to Charlotte herself, the highest stimulus, and one +of the liveliest pleasures they had known. They began to find out that +their genius was not artistic, but literary, and to pursue its bent +with increasing ardour and the warmest interest. + +It cannot be doubted that Branwell, greatly influenced, perhaps, by his +sisters, or they, more probably, by him--for they ever regarded his +genius as greater than their own--was soon employing his pen as often, +and more successfully, than his pencil. Mr. Bronte's daughters were +possessed largely of discriminating and critical powers, sufficient to +enable them to judge accurately of the abilities of their brother; and +Mrs. Gaskell allows that, to begin with, he was perhaps the greatest +genius of this rare family, and this more even in a literary than in an +artistic sense. Their favourable judgment was based on evidence they +had before them. They were not ignorant of his poetical and prose +compositions; and that these showed great beauty of thought and much +felicity of expression, as well as considerable power, originality, and +freshness of treatment, the evidences will appear in the subsequent +pages. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +EARLY POEMS. + +Branwell's Letter to Wordsworth, with Stanzas--Remarks upon it--No +Reply--He Tries Again--His Interest in the Manchester and Leeds +Railway--Branwell's Literary and Artistic Friends at Bradford and +Halifax--Leyland's Works there--Branwell's great Interest in +them--Early Verses--Mrs. Gaskell's Judgment on his Literary Abilities. + + +Branwell, even while working at art with great energy, was not, as I +have said, oblivious of his literary power. While, however, the work of +his sisters was to be conducted with great earnestness of purpose, it +was unfortunate that the scintillations of Branwell's genius were too +often fitful, erratic, and uncertain: his mind, indeed, even at this +time, was unstable. + +It may be noted, as characteristic of all Mr. Bronte's children, that, +united with sterling gifts of intellectual power and literary acumen, +there was always some mistrust as to the merit of their _own_ +productions, especially of poetical ones. They seem to have felt +themselves like travellers wandering in mist, or struggling through a +thicket, or toiling on devious paths with no reliable information at +hand, until they arrived at a point where progress looked impossible, +until they had obtained a guide in whom they had confidence. It +appeared, indeed, to the Brontes that, without an opinion on their +work, time might be altogether wasted on what was unprofitable. +Charlotte, therefore, in the December of 1836, determined to submit +some of her poems to the judgment of Southey; and it would seem that +she also consulted Hartley Coleridge. + +Before, however, Southey had answered his sister's letter, Branwell +ventured, in a similar spirit, to address Wordsworth, for whose +writings he had a great admiration. The following is his letter; and, +although it has been previously published, it must not be omitted +here.[26] + + [26] Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. viii. + + 'Haworth, near Bradford, + + 'Yorkshire, January 19th, 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 further 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 old 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 + kind-heartedness--_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.' + +Mrs. Gaskell gives the following six stanzas, which are about a third +of the whole, and declares them not to be the worst part of the +composition:-- + + '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.' + +Branwell's letter to Wordsworth is, for the most part, well written, +and breathes an eager spirit, which shows the anxiety he was under to +know the opinion of a high and competent judge as to how he stood +with the Nine. It tells us the ardour with which he read and wrote, +the ambitious turn of his mind, and the special aims which he then +had in the literary world. But the verses, although imbued with a +fervent spirit of early piety, were such as Wordsworth could not +justly review without giving discouragement, and it seems probable he +preferred to keep silence rather than, by an open avowal, to give +pain--if pain must be given--as the lesser evil of the two. Or, +perhaps, he took amiss the ready frankness and apparent self-esteem +which, notwithstanding the disavowal, would probably seem present to +him in the letter of the young stranger who addressed him, without +sending any evidence of the powers of which he expressed himself so +confidently. But, at any rate, Mrs. Gaskell informs us that the +letter and verses were preserved by the poet till the Brontes became +celebrated, and that he gave the communication to his friend, Mr. +Quillinan, in 1850, when the real name of 'Currer Bell' became known. + +It must not be overlooked that, in the verses which Mrs. Gaskell has +printed, we have no opportunity of studying Branwell's dramatic +powers, which apparently found scope in the poem he had written. In +them is no development of the effect of the passionate feelings which +Branwell describes: 'struggling with a high imagination and acute +feelings,' and ending 'in mental misery and bodily ruin.' + +However, discouraged by long waiting, or assisted by friendly advice +and criticism, he toiled on in silence at his literary work, as he +did at art. The year 1837 turned out an important one for Charlotte. +In March, she at last received the answer from Southey, which she +considered a 'little stringent,' and from which she declared she had +derived good. She says, in her reply to the Laureate, 'I trust I +shall never more feel ambitious to see my name in print.... That +letter is consecrated; no one shall ever see it, but papa, and my +brother and my sisters.' + +It would seem that Branwell, notwithstanding the failure of his first +venture with Wordsworth, tried again, at a later date, with some +other, and more matured, compositions, which he submitted to that +poet and to Hartley Coleridge, 'who both,' says Mrs. Gaskell, +'expressed kind and laudatory opinions.' But, perhaps, the fact that, +to the letter quoted above, Wordsworth sent no answer, and did not +tell him whether he should 'write on, or write no more,' discouraged +Branwell for a time; and he may have been led to suspect that his +productions were worthless, and that time might 'henceforth be too +precious to be wasted upon them.' In this way, perhaps, he was +induced to turn with greater energy to his profession of art, as a +means of getting on, of which I spoke in a former chapter, though we +shall see that he did not abandon his literary work. + +Branwell also now found opportunities of making himself acquainted +with the grand and wild scenery of the mountainous borders of the +counties of York and Lancaster, a wider district than his sisters +could well survey. + +The Manchester and Leeds Railway was, at the time, in course of +construction below Littleborough, passing through the picturesque and +romantic vale of Todmorden. Branwell became greatly interested in the +work; and as stores, and other things for the completion of the line +to Hebden Bridge, were forwarded from Littleborough by canal, having +been previously sent to that place from Manchester by train, he soon +ingratiated himself with the boatmen, and was frequently seen in +their boats. It was on one of these occasions that Mr. Woolven, +previously mentioned, who was officially employed on the works, +recognized at once the clever young man who had surprised the company +at the 'Castle Tavern,' Holborn, and entered into conversation with +him. These incidents led to a friendly intercourse between them, +which continued for some years. + +Among his Bradford acquaintances, Branwell numbered, in addition to +Geller, the mezzotinto-engraver, previously mentioned, Wilson +Anderson, an admirable landscape-painter, whose productions are +valued as truthful pictures of the places they represent, and on +account of the skilfulness of their manipulation and colouring; and +also Richard Waller, a well-known and excellent portrait-painter. To +these may be added Edward Collinson, a local poet; Robert Story; and +John James, the future historian of Bradford. All these were personal +acquaintances of Branwell, as well as of Leyland, and the intercourse +between them was frequent. For more than twenty years a party of +these friends was accustomed to meet, from time to time, at the +'George Hotel,' Bradford, under the auspices of Miss Rennie, who +greatly prided herself on seeing at her house, in their hours of +leisure, the artistic and literary celebrities of the neighbourhood. +Leyland was at Halifax, being there to erect certain monuments, which +he had executed in London for various patrons in his native town. +While there, he modelled, in the upper room of an ancient house, his +colossal group of 'African Bloodhounds,' his model being a living +specimen of the breed; and the group, which was exhibited in London, +was favourably noticed. Landseer regarded it as the 'noblest modern +work of its kind.' It is now in the Salford Museum. The progress of +this group intensely interested Branwell and his Bradford friends; +and they frequently visited Leyland's temporary studio. It also +formed the subject of a poem by Dearden.[27] Finding this studio of +insufficient height for a great work he contemplated--a colossal +group of 'Thracian Falconers'--Leyland afterwards took a suitable +place in another part of the town, which, likewise, became a +meeting-place of the local _literati_. The new work was to consist of +three figures, the centre one being seated, and having upon his right +fore-finger a hawk; while his left hand rested on the shoulder of a +youth just roused, as if by some sudden sound; and, on his right, was +a similar youth, half-recumbent, and also in a listening attitude. The +centre figure was alone completed, and is now in the Salford Museum. + + [27] 'The Death of Leyland's African Bloodhound,' by William + Dearden, author of 'The Star-Seer.' London, 1837. (Longmans.) + +Branwell, on his visits to the artist's studio, often lamented the +dissipation of his high artistic hopes, and confessed that he saw +with pain how misplaced his confidence in his own powers had been. +But the sculptor was a poet also, and thus Branwell and he worked in +the same field. Many of Leyland's poems were published in the +Yorkshire papers, and also in the 'Morning Chronicle,' and were +always considered to be of true poetic excellence. Branwell relied +much on the artist's judgment in literary matters, and often +submitted his productions to him. + +Although Bronte had, as we have seen, abandoned the hope of a high +artistic career, he still clung to the practice of portrait-painting, +and this gave him leisure to court the muse. The following are the +earliest of his poems, of which the MSS. are in my possession; and +these are fragments only. The first is a verse of eleven lines, dated +January 23rd, 1838, which originally concluded a poem of sixty;-- + + 'There's many a grief to shade the scene, + And hide the starry skies; + But all such clouds that intervene + From mortal life arise. + And--may I smile--O God! to see + Their storms of sorrow beat on me, + When I so surely know + That Thou, the while, art shining on; + That I, at last, when they are gone, + Shall see the glories of Thy throne, + So far more bright than now.' + +This fragment, written by Branwell at the age of twenty-one, is +characteristic of the early tone of his mind. His naturally amiable +and susceptible disposition had soon become imbued with the spirit of +Christian piety which surrounded his life. He was, too, at the time, +full of noble impulses and high aspirations; but the shade of +melancholy implanted in his constitution had begun to influence his +writings. The following, which is the beginning of another poem, must +have been written in some such thoughtful mood, though the title is +not borne out in the portion I am able to give. + + DEATH TRIUMPHANT. + + MAY, 1838. + + 'Oh! on this first bright Mayday morn, + That seems to change our earth to Heaven, + May my own bitter thoughts be borne, + With the wild winter it has driven! + Like this earth, may my mind be made + To feel the freshness round me spreading, + No other aid to rouse it needing + Than thy glad light, so long delayed. + Sweet woodland sunshine!--none but thee + Can wake the joys of memory, + Which seemed decaying, as all decayed. + + 'O! may they bud, as thou dost now, + With promise of a summer near! + Nay--let me feel my weary brow-- + Where are the ringlets wreathing there? + Why does the hand that shades it tremble? + Why do these limbs, so languid, shun + Their walk beneath the morning sun? + Ah, mortal Self! couldst thou dissemble + Like Sister-Soul! But forms refuse + The real and unreal to confuse. + But, with caprice of fancy, She + Joins things long past with things to be, + Till even I doubt if I have told + My tale of woes and wonders o'er, + Or think Her magic can unfold + A phantom path of joys before-- + Or, laid beneath this Mayday blaze-- + Ask, "Live I o'er departed days?" + Am I the child by Gambia's side, + Beneath its woodlands waving wide? + Have I the footsteps bounding free, + The happy laugh of infancy?' + +In this beautiful fragment we have the first passionate out-pouring +of the self-imposed woes, which, proceeding from within, were +thereafter to overspread and tincture with darkest colours every +thought of Branwell's mind. We see him here for a moment, standing in +incipient melancholia, in what appears to him to be a desert of +mental despondency; but, turning back with a fond affection for the +past, and recalling, in plaintive words, the joys of 'departed days.' +He seems here, indeed, to seek in the mysteries of the soul those +pleasures and hopes which his mortal self cannot afford him. Branwell +never appears to have forgotten, as I have previously suggested, the +sad circumstances of the death of his sisters; and his solitary +broodings over these visitations gave a morbid tone to his writings. +It was in 1838 that he adopted the pseudonym of 'Northangerland.' His +earlier poems, although occasionally showing some power, were not +sufficiently gifted to add to the lustre of Bronte literature. + +Mrs. Gaskell, alluding to Branwell's literary abilities about this +time, says: '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,' continues Mrs. Gaskell, 'a stronger desire for literary fame +burning in his heart than even that which occasionally flashed up in +his sisters'.' She says also that, 'He tried various outlets for his +talents ... and he frequently contributed verses to the "Leeds +Mercury."' The latter statement, however, is incorrect, for nothing +of Branwell's appears in that journal. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +POEMS ON 'CAROLINE.' + +The Poetical bent of Branwell's Genius--'Caroline's Prayer'--'On +Caroline'--'Caroline'--Spirit of these Early Effusions. + + +While Branwell was occupying his leisure as stated in the last +chapter, and otherwise employing himself in a desultory way, he +pursued the poetic bent of his genius, and sought the improvement of +his diction and verse. Among the earliest of his poetical productions, +the following are, perhaps, the best. They are distinguished by a +similar train of thought and reflection, and by similar sentiments of +piety and devotion, as also by the same gloom and sadness of mood, +which pervade the poems of his sisters. Indeed, without knowing they +were actually Branwell's, we might easily believe them to be from the +pen of Charlotte, Emily, or Anne. + +The three following poetical essays are on 'Caroline,' under which +name Branwell indicates his sister Maria; and, in two of them, he +records his reminiscences of her death and funeral obsequies. The +first of the three, which he has framed in the sentiments and words +of a child, is entitled: + + CAROLINE'S PRAYER, + + OR THE CHANGE FROM CHILDHOOD TO WOMANHOOD. + + 'My Father, and my childhood's guide! + If oft I've wandered far from Thee; + E'en though Thine only Son has died + To save from death a child like me; + + 'O! still--to Thee when turns my heart + In hours of sadness, frequent now-- + Be Thou the God that once Thou wert, + And calm my breast, and clear my brow. + + 'I'm now no more a little child + O'ershadowed by Thy mighty wing; + My very dreams seem now more wild + Than those my slumbers used to bring. + + 'I further see--I deeper feel-- + With hope more warm, but heart less mild; + And former things new shapes reveal, + All strangely brightened or despoiled. + + 'I'm entering on Life's open tide; + So--farewell childhood's shores divine! + And, oh, my Father, deign to guide, + Through these wide waters, Caroline!' + +The second is: + + ON CAROLINE. + + 'The light of thy ancestral hall, + Thy Caroline, no longer smiles: + She has changed her palace for a pall, + Her garden walks for minster aisles: + Eternal sleep has stilled her breast + Where peace and pleasure made their shrine; + Her golden head has sunk to rest-- + Oh, would that rest made calmer mine! + + 'To thee, while watching o'er the bed + Where, mute and motionless, she lay, + How slow the midnight moments sped! + How void of sunlight woke the day! + Nor ope'd her eyes to morning's beam, + Though all around thee woke to her; + Nor broke thy raven-pinioned dream + Of coffin, shroud, and sepulchre. + + 'Why beats thy breast when hers is still? + Why linger'st thou when she is gone? + Hop'st thou to light on good or ill? + To find companionship alone? + Perhaps thou think'st the churchyard stone + Can hide past smiles and bury sighs: + That Memory, with her soul, has flown; + That thou canst leave her where she lies. + + 'No! joy _itself_ is but a shade, + So well may its remembrance die; + But cares, life's conquerors, never fade, + So strong is their reality! + Thou may'st forget the day which gave + That child of beauty to thy side, + But not the moment when the grave + Took back again thy borrowed bride.' + +Here Branwell, though he has changed the form of expression and the +circumstance of the loss, is still occupied with the same theme of +family bereavement, with which Charlotte herself was so much +impressed. + +The following was intended as the first canto of a long poem. It also +is entitled, 'Caroline;' and is the soliloquy of one 'Harriet,' who +mourns for her sister, the subject of the poem, calling to mind her +early recollection of the death and funeral of the departed one. It +is extremely probable that Branwell made 'Harriet' a vehicle of +expression for Charlotte or Emily, as he had adopted the name of +'Caroline' for Maria. + + CAROLINE. + + 'Calm and clear the day declining, + Lends its brightness to the air, + With a slanted sunlight shining, + Mixed with shadows stretching far: + Slow the river pales its glancing, + Soft its waters cease their dancing, + As the hush of eve advancing + Tells our toils that rest is near. + + 'Why is such a silence given + To this summer day's decay? + Does our earth feel aught of Heaven? + Can the voice of Nature pray? + And when daylight's toils are done, + Beneath its mighty Maker's throne. + Can it, for noontide sunshine gone, + Its debt with smiles repay? + + 'Quiet airs of sacred gladness + Breathing through these woodlands wild, + O'er the whirl of mortal madness + Spread the slumbers of a child: + These surrounding sweeps of trees + Swaying to the evening breeze, + With a voice like distant seas, + Making music mild. + + 'Woodchurch Hall above them lowering + Dark against the pearly sky, + With its clustered chimneys towering, + Wakes the wind while passing by: + And in old ancestral glory, + Round that scene of ancient story, + All its oak-trees, huge and hoary, + Wave their boughs on high. + + ''Mid those gables there is one-- + The soonest dark when day is gone-- + Which, when autumn winds are strongest, + Moans the most and echoes longest. + There--with her curls like sunset air, + Like it all balmy, bright, and fair-- + Sits Harriet, with her cheek reclined + On arm as white as mountain snow; + While, with a bursting swell, her mind + Fills with thoughts of "Long Ago." + + 'As from yon spire a funeral bell, + Wafting through heaven its mourning knell, + Warns man that life's uncertain day + Like lifeless Nature's must decay; + And tells her that the warning deep + Speaks where her own forefathers sleep, + And where destruction makes a prey + Of what was once this world to her, + But which--like other gods of clay-- + Has cheated its blind worshipper: + With swelling breast and shining eyes + That seem to chide the thoughtless skies, + She strives in words to find relief + For long-pent thoughts of mellowed grief. + + '"Time's clouds roll back, and memory's light + Bursts suddenly upon my sight; + For thoughts, which words could never tell, + Find utterance in that funeral bell. + My heart, this eve, seemed full of feeling, + Yet nothing clear to me revealing; + Sounding in breathings undefined + AEolian music to my mind: + Then strikes that bell, and all subsides + Into a harmony, which glides + As sweet and solemn as the dream + Of a remembered funeral hymn. + This scene seemed like the magic glass, + Which bore upon its clouded face + Strange shadows that deceived the eye + With forms defined uncertainly; + That Bell is old Agrippa's wand, + Which parts the clouds on either hand, + And shows the pictured forms of doom + Momently brightening through the gloom: + Yes--shows a scene of bygone years-- + Opens a fount of sealed-up tears-- + And wakens memory's pensive thought + To visions sleeping--not forgot. + It brings me back a summer's day, + Shedding like this its parting ray, + With skies as shining and serene, + And hills as blue, and groves as green. + + '"Ah, well I recollect that hour, + When I sat, gazing, just as now, + Toward that ivy-mantled tower + Among these flowers which wave below! + No--not these flowers--they're long since dead, + And flowers have budded, bloomed, and gone, + Since those were plucked which gird the head + Laid underneath yon churchyard stone! + I stooped to pluck a rose that grew + Beside this window, waving then; + But back my little hand withdrew, + From some reproof of inward pain; + For _she who loved it_ was not there + To check me with her dove-like eye, + And something bid my heart forbear + _Her_ favourite rosebud to destroy. + Was it that bell--that funeral bell, + Sullenly sounding on the wind? + Was it that melancholy knell + Which first to sorrow woke my mind? + I looked upon my mourning dress + Till my heart beat with childish fear, + And--frightened at my loneliness-- + I watched, some well-known sound to hear. + But all without lay silent in + The sunny hush of afternoon, + And only muffled steps within + Passed slowly and sedately on. + I well can recollect the awe + With which I hastened to depart; + And, as I ran, the instinctive start + With which my mother's form I saw, + Arrayed in black, with pallid face, + And cheeks and 'kerchief wet with tears, + As down she stooped to kiss my face + And quiet my uncertain fears. + + '"She led me, in her mourning hood, + Through voiceless galleries, to a room, + 'Neath whose black hangings crowded stood, + With downcast eyes and brows of gloom, + My known relations; while--with head + Declining o'er my sister's bed-- + My father's stern eye dropt a tear + Upon the coffin resting there. + My mother lifted me to see + What might within that coffin be; + And, to this moment, I can feel + The voiceless gasp--the sickening chill-- + With which I hid my whitened face + In the dear folds of her embrace; + For hardly dared I turn my head + Lest its wet eyes should view that bed. + 'But, Harriet,' said my mother mild, + 'Look at _your_ sister and my child + One moment, ere her form be hid + For ever 'neath its coffin lid!' + I heard the appeal, and answered too; + For down I bent to bid adieu. + But, as I looked, forgot affright + In mild and magical delight. + + '"There lay she then, as now she lies-- + For not a limb has moved since then-- + In dreamless slumber closed, those eyes + That never more might wake again. + She lay, as I had seen her lie + On many a happy night before, + When I was humbly kneeling by-- + Whom she was teaching to adore: + Oh, just as when by her I prayed, + And she to heaven sent up my prayer, + She lay with flowers about her head-- + Though formal grave-clothes hid her hair! + Still did her lips the smile retain + Which parted them when hope was high, + Still seemed her brow as smoothed from pain + As when all thought she could not die. + And, though her bed looked cramped and strange, + Her _too_ bright cheek all faded now, + My young eyes scarcely saw a change + From hours when moonlight paled her brow. + And yet I felt--and scarce could speak-- + A chilly face, a faltering breath, + When my hand touched the marble cheek + Which lay so passively beneath. + In fright I gasped, 'Speak, Caroline!' + And bade my sister to arise; + But answered not her voice to mine, + Nor ope'd her sleeping eyes. + I turned toward my mother then + And prayed on her to call; + But, though she strove to hide her pain, + It forced her tears to fall. + She pressed me to her aching breast + As if her heart would break, + And bent in silence o'er the rest + Of one she could not wake: + The rest of one, whose vanished years + Her soul had watched in vain; + The end of mother's hopes and fears, + And happiness and pain. + + '"They came--they pressed the coffin lid + Above my Caroline, + And then, I felt, for ever hid + My sister's face from mine! + There was one moment's wildered start-- + One pang remembered well-- + When first from my unhardened heart + The tears of anguish fell: + That swell of thought which seemed to fill + The bursting heart, the gushing eye, + While fades all _present_ good or ill + Before the shades of things gone by. + All else seems blank--the mourning march, + The proud parade of woe, + The passage 'neath the churchyard arch, + The crowd that met the show. + My place or thoughts amid the train + I strive to recollect, in vain-- + I could not think or see: + I cared not whither I was borne: + And only felt that death had torn + My Caroline from me. + + '"Slowly and sadly, o'er her grave, + The organ peals its passing stave, + And, to its last dark dwelling-place, + The corpse attending mourners bear, + While, o'er it bending, many a face + 'Mongst young companions shows a tear. + I think I glanced toward the crowd + That stood in musing silence by, + And even now I hear the sound + Of some one's voice amongst them cry-- + 'I am the Resurrection and the Life-- + He who believes in me shall never die!' + + '"Long years have never worn away + The unnatural strangeness of that day, + When I beheld--upon the plate + Of grim death's mockery of state-- + That well-known word, that long-loved name, + Now but remembered like the dream + Of half-forgotten hymns divine, + My sister's name--my Caroline! + Down, down, they lowered her, sad and slow, + Into her narrow house below: + And deep, indeed, appeared to be + That one glimpse of eternity, + Where, cut from life, corruption lay, + Where beauty soon should turn to clay! + Though scarcely conscious, hotly fell + The drops that spoke my last farewell; + And wild my sob, when hollow rung + The first cold clod above her flung, + When glitter was to turn to rust, + 'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust!' + + '"How bitter seemed that moment when, + Earth's ceremonies o'er, + We from the filled grave turned again + To leave her evermore; + And, when emerging from the cold + Of damp, sepulchral air, + As I turned, listless to behold + The evening fresh and fair, + How sadly seemed to smile the face + Of the descending sun! + How seemed as if his latest race + Were with that evening run! + There sank his orb behind the grove + Of my ancestral home, + With heaven's unbounded vault above + To canopy his tomb. + Yet lingering sadly and serene, + As for his last farewell, + To shine upon those wild woods green + O'er which he'd loved to dwell. + + '"I lost him, and the silent room, + Where soon at rest I lay, + Began to darken, 'neath the gloom + Of twilight's dull decay; + So, sobbing as my heart would break, + And blind with gushing eyes, + Hours seemed whole nights to me awake, + And day as 'twould not rise. + I almost prayed that I might die-- + But then the thought would come + That, if I did, my corpse must lie + In yonder dismal tomb; + Until, methought, I saw its stone, + By moonshine glistening clear, + While Caroline's bright form alone + Kept silent watching there: + All white with angel's wings she seemed, + And indistinct to see; + But when the unclouded moonlight beamed + I saw her beckon me, + And fade, thus beckoning, while the wind + Around that midnight wall, + To me--now lingering years behind-- + Seemed then my sister's call! + + '"And thus it brought me back the hours + When we, at rest together, + Used to lie listening to the showers + Of wild December weather; + Which, when, as oft, they woke in her + The chords of inward thought, + Would fill with pictures that wild air, + From far off memories brought; + So, while I lay, I heard again + Her silver-sounding tongue, + Rehearsing some remembered strain + Of old times long agone! + And, flashed across my spirit's sight, + What she had often told me-- + When, laid awake on Christmas night, + Her sheltering arms would fold me-- + About that midnight-seeming day, + Whose gloom o'er Calvary thrown, + Showed trembling Nature's deep dismay + At what her sons had done: + When sacred Salem's murky air + Was riven with the cry, + Which told the world how mortals dare + The Immortal crucify; + When those who, sorrowing, sat afar, + With aching heart and eye, + Beheld their great Redeemer there, + 'Mid sneers and scoffings die; + When all His earthly vigour fled, + When thirsty faintness bowed His head, + When His pale limbs were moistened o'er + With deathly dews and dripping gore, + When quivered all His worn-out frame, + As Death, triumphant, quenched life's flame, + When upward gazed His glazing eyes + To those tremendous-seeming skies, + When burst His cry of agony-- + 'My God!--my God!--hast Thou forsaken me!' + My youthful feelings startled then, + As if the temple, rent in twain, + Horribly pealing on my ear + With its deep thunder note of fear, + Wrapping the world in general gloom, + As if her God's were Nature's tomb; + While sheeted ghosts before my gaze + Passed, flitting 'mid the dreary maze, + As if rejoicing at the day + When death--their king--o'er Heaven had sway. + In glistening charnel damps arrayed, + They seemed to gibber round my head, + Through night's drear void directing me + Toward still and solemn Calvary, + Where gleamed that cross with steady shine + Around the thorn-crowned head divine-- + A flaming cross--a beacon light + To this world's universal night! + It seemed to shine with such a glow, + And through my spirit piercing so, + That, pantingly, I strove to cry + For her, whom I thought slumbered by, + And hide me from that awful shine + In the embrace of Caroline! + I wakened in the attempt--'twas day; + The troubled dream had fled away; + 'Twas day--and I, alone, was laid + In that great room and stately bed; + No Caroline beside me! Wide + And unrelenting swept the tide + Of death 'twixt her and me!" + There paused + Sweet Harriet's voice, for such thoughts caused--' + + * * * * * + +This poem springs from the deepest feelings, and from sorrows the +most poignant. The respective images, tinctured with grief and +despondency, pass before us with weird and vivid reality; and many of +the passages are imbued with great tenderness, beauty, and pathos. +The painful, and, perhaps, too morbid intensity of some of the +pictures, whether of dreams or realities, is painted here with the +skill of no common artist, whatever youthful defects may be observed +in the composition. The poem is one more notable for tender sweetness +than any other that remains from Branwell; but it lacks in places the +vigour and power of his later compositions, and is, in several parts, +of unequal merit. In the earlier portion of it, where he assumes the +iambic measure, it is not difficult to perceive the influence of +Byron on his diction. In this work Branwell again recurs to the time +when tears of anguish flowed from his yet 'unhardened heart,' whose +present woes are forgotten in the swelling thoughts of 'things gone +by.' We recognize with what pathetic feeling he paints in Caroline +all the qualities of instructress, guardian, and friend, which had +characterized his sister Maria. Long afterwards Charlotte Bronte, +inspired by similar feelings, devoted the first chapters of 'Jane +Eyre' to a delineation, in the character of Helen Burns, of the +disposition of her dead sister, whose death, a few days after her +return from Cowan Bridge, she could scarcely ever either forget or +forgive. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +EVENTS AT THE PARSONAGE. + +Charlotte's first Offer of Marriage--Her Remarks concerning it-- +A second Offer Declined--Anne a Governess--She Moralizes upon +it--Charlotte obtains a Situation--Unsuited to Her--She Leaves +it--Branwell takes Pleasure in Scenery--He Visits Liverpool with his +Friends--Charlotte goes to Easton--Curates at Haworth--Their Visits +to the Parsonage--Public Meetings on Church Rates--Charlotte's +Attempt at a Richardsonian Novel--She sends the Commencement of it +to Wordsworth for his Opinion--Branwell receives an Appointment as +Private Tutor. + + +After the return of Charlotte and Anne from Dewsbury Moor, whither +Miss Wooler had removed her school, the three sisters were at home +together for some months, and, in this happy, unrestrained +intercourse, with their literary relaxations and their plans for the +future, Charlotte's mind expanded, and her strength returned. There +was Branwell, too, to think about; his venture at Bradford and his +progress with his portraits. Then they would have to go and see the +likeness of Mr. Morgan; and, on such occasions, Branwell would have +much to say of art and literature, and, acquaintances. But Branwell +was usually at Haworth on Sundays, and then he would hear of +Charlotte's visits to her friends, and her adventures on these +occasions. It was shortly before the date of Branwell's return from +Bradford, in the spring of 1839, that Charlotte received her first +offer of marriage. A young clergyman, who had, as Mrs. Gaskell +thought, some resemblance to the St. John in the last volume of 'Jane +Eyre,' had evidently been attracted by Charlotte Bronte; but +matrimony does not seem, at the time, to have seriously entered into +her thoughts. In some respects the proposal might have had strong +temptations for her, and she thought how happy her married life might +be. However, it was not the way with Charlotte Bronte to take the +path of smoothness and comfort, and leave the thorny one untrod; and +she asked herself if she loved the clergyman in question as much as a +woman should love her husband, and whether she was the one best +qualified to make him happy. 'Alas!' she says, 'my conscience +answered "No" to both these questions.' She knew very well that she +had a 'kindly leaning' towards him, but this was not enough for her, +for it was impossible that she could ever feel for him such an +intense attachment as would make her sacrifice her life for him. +Short of such a devotion awakened in herself, she would never marry +anyone. Her comment is characteristic: 'Ten to one I shall never have +the chance again; but _n'importe_.' + +Charlotte Bronte felt that there was a want of sympathy between the +young clergyman and herself, for he was a 'grave, quiet young man;' +and she knew that he would be startled, and would think her a wild, +romantic enthusiast, when she showed her character, and laughed, and +satirized, and said whatever came into her head. Nor was her next +offer any more to her taste; for, within a few months, a neighbouring +curate, a young Irishman, fresh from the Dublin University, made her +a proposal. The circumstance amused Charlotte, for it was, on his +part, a case of love at first sight. He came with his vicar to be +introduced to the family, and was speedily struck with Mr. Bronte's +daughter. Charlotte was never troubled at home with the _mauvaise +honte_ that troubled her abroad; and so she talked and jested with +the clergyman, and was much amused at the originality of his +character. A pleasant afternoon was spent, for he made himself at +home, after the fashion of his countrymen, and was witty, lively, +ardent, and clever; but, withal, wanting in the dignity and +discretion of an Englishman. As the evening drew on, Charlotte was +not much pleased with the spice of Hibernian flattery with which he +began to season his discourse, and, as she expresses it, she 'cooled +a little.' The vicar and his curate went away; but what was +Charlotte's astonishment to receive a letter next morning from the +latter containing a proposal of marriage, and filled with ardent +expressions of devotion! 'I hope you are laughing heartily,' she says +to her friend. '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 have 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.' + +Although the married state does not appear, from Charlotte's letters +at this time, to have had many attractions for her, we know, from +those she wrote later, and, perhaps, more than all from the +concluding chapters of 'Jane Eyre,' that she could enter into the +joys and sacrifices of domestic life, that she had a correct view of +the affections, and knew how to appreciate conjugal love at its true +value. But, in the present instances--although, at a later period of +her life, when she was on the Continent, she is believed to have felt +the full force of that 'passion of the heart' which those about whom +she wrote had failed to evoke--she declined to sever herself from the +contented circumstances that surrounded her, and in which she was +mistress, for a condition of doubtful peace and certain obedience. +Charlotte's decision was not discordant with the feelings of her +family; for, as she had determined to continue at home, their plans +for the future would not be disconcerted. + +Anne was now resolved on making a trial of the life of a governess +for herself, she having completed her education, and being wishful to +exert herself as her sisters had done. Inquiries were made, and at +length a situation was obtained. Anne continued in this kind of +employment during the next six years, and it was her experience that +suggested to her the subject of her first novel, 'Agnes Grey.' If we +may suppose that she has recounted her own experience at this time, +where her heroine describes the circumstances of her preparation and +departure for her first situation, it would appear that she had some +difficulty in convincing her friends of the wisdom of her purpose. +Agnes Grey says, after she has made the suggestion to her family: + +'I was silenced for that day, and for many succeeding ones; but still +I did not wholly relinquish my darling scheme. Mary got her drawing +materials, and steadily set to work. I got mine too; but, while I +drew, I thought of other things. How delightful it would be to be a +governess! To go out into the world; to enter upon a new life; to act +for myself; to exercise my unused faculties; to try my unknown +powers; to earn my own maintenance, and something to comfort and help +my father, mother, and sister, besides exonerating them from the +provision of my food and clothing; to show papa what his little Agnes +could do; to convince mamma and Mary that I was not quite the +helpless, thoughtless being they supposed. And then, how charming to +be entrusted with the care and education of children! Whatever others +said, I felt I was fully competent to the task: the clear remembrance +of my own thoughts in early childhood would be a surer guide than the +instructions of the most mature adviser. I had but to turn from my +little pupils to myself at their age, and I should know at once how +to win their confidence and affections; how to waken the contrition +of the erring; how to embolden the timid and console the afflicted; +how to make virtue practicable, instruction desirable, and religion +lively and comprehensible.'[28] + + [28] 'Agnes Grey,' chap. i. + +Anne Bronte was of a milder and more cheerful temperament than her +sisters; she had not the fire, the morbid feeling, or the mental +force that characterized Charlotte, yet she had more of the +initiatory faculty than she had hitherto received credit for. But her +gentle nature, her confiding piety, her more equable temper, enabled +her to succeed better in the circumstances she had chosen. She had +her troubles, her timidity, and her diffidence to contend with, but +she made life supportable and even happy. 'Agnes Grey' thus speaks of +her departure, which we cannot doubt is the experience of Anne +Bronte: + +'Some weeks more were yet to be devoted to preparation. How long, how +tedious those weeks appeared to me! Yet they were happy ones in the +main, full of bright hopes and ardent expectations. With what +peculiar pleasure I assisted at the making of my new clothes, and, +subsequently, the packing of my trunks! But there was a feeling of +bitterness mingling with the latter occupation too; and when it was +done--when all was ready for my departure on the morrow, and the last +night at home approached--a sudden anguish seemed to swell my heart. +My dear friends looked sad, and spoke so very kindly, that I could +scarcely keep my heart from overflowing; but I still affected to be +gay. I had taken my last ramble with Mary on the moors, my last walk +in the garden and round the house ... I had played my last tune on +the old piano, and sung my last song to papa, not the last, I hoped, +but the last for what appeared to me a very long time.'[29] + + [29] 'Agnes Grey,' chap. i. + +Charlotte and Emily made themselves busy in assisting Anne with her +preparations for departure, and they were very sad and apprehensive +when she left them on Monday, April 15th, 1839. She went alone, at +her own wish, thinking she could manage better if left to her own +resources, and when her failings were unwitnessed by those whose +hopes she wished to sustain. However, she wrote, expressing +satisfaction with the place she had secured, for the lady of the +house was very kind. She had two of the eldest girls under her +charge, the children being confined to the nursery, with which she +had no concern. + +Charlotte, although remarking in a letter to her friend on the +cleverness and sensibility with which Anne could express herself in +epistolary correspondence, had some fear that, such was the natural +diffidence of her manner, her mistress would sometimes believe her to +have an impediment in her speech. + +Charlotte's eagerness to obtain a situation was now so great that she +does not seem to have considered well the step she was about to take, +and she obtained one that was not satisfactory to her. It was in the +family of a wealthy Yorkshire manufacturer; and we may well believe +that the stylish surroundings of her employers differed materially +from those of the family at Haworth. Here a large quantity of +miscellaneous work was thrown on Charlotte, which displeased her and +destroyed her comfort. In a letter to Emily, she says she is +'overwhelmed with oceans of needlework; yards of cambric to hem, +muslin night-caps to make, etc.' She found the outside attractions of +the house beautiful in 'pleasant woods, white paths, green lawns, and +blue, sunshiny sky;' but these surroundings did not compensate for +the humiliations which her situation imposed upon her, and her +mistress and she did not like each other; so Charlotte did not return +to the place after the July holidays of 1839. + +Branwell was as yet unemployed, and he sought, and took much pleasure +in the scenery, the events and circumstances of the hills and valleys +of the West-Riding of Yorkshire, and was frequently from home. He +went about the country, associating with the people, and revelling in +their ready wit, which enabled him afterwards, by such observations +and experience, to give vivid pictures of life and character. At the +time of the Haworth 'Rushbearing,' of July, 1839, he visited +Liverpool with one or two friends, and, while there, in compliance +with an injunction of his father, made a stenographic report, at St. +Jude's church, of a sermon by the Rev. H. McNeile, the well-known +evangelical preacher. Here, a sudden attack of Tic compelled him to +resort to opium, in some form, as an anodyne, whose soothing effect +in pain he had previously known. Subsequently, passing a music shop, +in one of their rambles through the town, Branwell's attention was +arrested by a copy of the oratorio of 'Samson,' by Handel, displayed +in the window, the performance of which had always excited him to the +highest degree, and he eagerly besought his friend to purchase it, as +well as some Mass, and various oratorio music, which was done. + +On their return from Liverpool, Branwell, being under some obligation +to his friend, proffered to paint his portrait, to which Mr. M---- +agreed. A sitting once a week was decided upon, to be in the room at +the parsonage where Branwell studied and painted. On his visits, Mr. +M---- invariably noticed a row of potatoes, placed on the uppermost +rib of the range to roast, Branwell being very fond of them done in +this way, even as Jane Eyre was in the novel. 'That night,' she says, +'on going to bed, I forgot to prepare, in imagination, the Barmecide +supper of hot roast potatoes ... with which I was wont to amuse my +inward cravings.' When Mr. M---- paid his weekly visits to the +parsonage he always heard some one speaking aloud in the room +adjoining Branwell's studio; and, at last, his curiosity being +excited, he inquired whom it was. Branwell answered that it was his +father committing his Sunday's sermon to memory. When the portrait +was ready for the finishing touches, Mr. M---- discovered that +Branwell had painted the names of Johann Sebastian Bach, Mozart, +Haydn, and Handel at each corner of the canvas respectively. He +remonstrated, but Branwell was firm, maintaining that, as his friend +was an accomplished musician, and could perform the most elaborate +and difficult compositions of these immortal men, with expression and +ease, he was, in every way, worthy of being associated with them in +the manner he designed. Mr. M---- complied. When the portrait was +finished, Branwell pressed his friend to take a glass of wine; and, +while the two were chatting over the affair, Mr. Bronte and his +daughters entered the room to view Branwell's work on its completion. +They were pleased with it, and praised it as a truthful likeness and +an excellent picture. + +We may well imagine the enthusiasm with which Branwell would recount +his experience of Liverpool. How much he would have to tell of the +wonders of the Mersey, the great ships that rode upon its surface, +and its commerce with the new world, out across the ocean! His visit +seems to have originated a proposal that the family should spend a +week or a fortnight at that sea-port, but, almost at the same moment, +Charlotte's friend suggested to her that they should visit +Cleethorpes together, a suggestion that pleased her very much. + +'The idea of seeing the sea,' she says, '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.' + +The visit of Charlotte to the sea-side seems to have been put off +again and again, by often-recurring obstacles. The irresolution of +her family in regard to the Liverpool project, and the manifest +unwillingness that she should leave home on a visit anywhere else, +put off, from time to time, the pleasure she had anticipated for +herself; but at last she decided to go. Her box was packed and +everything prepared, but no conveyance could be procured. Mr. Bronte +objected to her going by coach, and walking part of the way to meet +her friend, and her aunt exclaimed against 'the weather, and the +roads, and the four winds of heaven,' so Charlotte almost gave up +hope. She told her friend that the elders of the house had never +cordially acquiesced in the measure, and that opposition was growing +more open, though her father would willingly have indulged her. Even +he, however, wished her to remain at home. Charlotte was 'provoked' +that her aunt had deferred opposition until arrangements had been +made. In the end 'E' was asked to pay a visit to the parsonage. + +Owing to the circumstances indicated, Charlotte's visit to the +sea-coast was put off until the following September, when an +opportunity occurred favourable to the project, which does not seem +to have been entirely abandoned; and she and her friend visited +Easton where they spent a fortnight. Here for the first time +Charlotte beheld the sea. + +Afterwards she wrote, '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?' The Liverpool journey +appears to have been finally abandoned. + +It was in a letter, written about this time that Mrs. Gaskell found +the first mention of a succession of curates who henceforth revolved +round Haworth Parsonage. Three years earlier Mr. Bronte had sought +aid from the 'Additional Curates' Society,' or some similar +institution, and was provided at once with assistance. The increasing +duties of his chapelry had rendered this step necessary. It would +seem also that a curate was appointed to Stanbury, while another +became master of the National or Grammar School. These gentlemen were +not infrequent in their visits to the parsonage, and they varied the +life of its inmates, sometimes one way and sometimes another. This +circumstance, at the same time, provided Charlotte Bronte with those +living studies which she did not fail afterwards to remember in her +delineation of the three curates in 'Shirley.' Emily, on the other +hand, invariably avoided these gentlemen. + +The arrival of the curates at Haworth was the occasion of increased +activity in the affairs of the chapelry; and, the church-rate +question being uppermost at this juncture, the new-comers entered +into a crusade against the Dissenters who had refused to pay +church-rates. Charlotte wrote a long letter in which she spoke of a +violent public meeting held at Haworth about the affair, and of two +sermons against dissent--one by Mr. W. a 'noble, eloquent, +high-church, apostolical-succession discourse, in which he banged the +Dissenters most fearlessly and unflinchingly;' the other by Mr. C., a +'keener, cleverer, bolder, and more heart-stirring harangue,' than +Charlotte, perhaps, had ever heard from the Haworth pulpit. She, +however, did not entirely agree with either of these gentlemen, and +thought, if she had been a Dissenter, she would have 'taken the first +opportunity of kicking or of horse-whipping both.' + +In the winter of 1839-40, Charlotte employed her leisure in the +composition of a story which she had commenced on a scale +commensurate with one of Richardson's novels of seven or eight +volumes. Mrs. Gaskell saw some fragments of the manuscript, written +in a very small hand: but she was less solicitous to decipher it, as +Charlotte had herself condemned it in the preface to 'The Professor.' +Branwell, to whom she submitted it, seems to have understood, at the +time, that in its florid style of composition she was working in +opposition to her genius, and he told her she was making a mistake. +It appears not unlikely that Branwell was himself similarly engaged +on prose writing when he gave her this opinion. A few months later, +however, Charlotte resolved to send the commencement of her tale to +Wordsworth, and that an unfavourable judgment was the result, for +which she was not altogether unprepared, may be gathered from the +following letter she addressed to the poet:-- + +'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 or 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 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, reading them by stealth with the most exquisite pleasure. +You give a correct description of the patient Grisels of these 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 dressmaker. I will not +help you at all in the discovery....' + +In the midst of their literary endeavours, their efforts were not +relaxed to obtain new places. Charlotte was obliged by circumstances +to give up her subscriptions to the Jews, and she determined to force +herself to take a situation, if one could be found, though she says, +'I hate and abhor the very thoughts of governess-ship.' An +alternative which the sisters talked over in these holidays was the +opening of a school at Haworth, for which an enlargement of the +parsonage would be required. + +Branwell was more successful in his pursuit of employment than +Charlotte, having procured the place of a tutor; and he was to +commence his duties with the new year. Charlotte says of this event, +'One thing, however, will make the daily routine more unvaried than +ever. Branwell, who used to enliven us, is to leave us in a few days, +and enter the situation of a private tutor in the neighbourhood of +Ulverston. How he will like to settle remains yet to be seen. At +present he is full of hope and resolution. I, who know his variable +nature, and his strong turn for active life, dare not be too +sanguine.' + +Branwell seems to have paid a farewell visit to the 'Lodge of the +Three Graces' on the Christmas Day of this year, when he acted as +organist. This is the only occasion on which he is recorded as having +attended at the meetings of the Lodge in 1839, and it is the last on +which his name appears in the minute book of the Haworth masonic +body. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +BRANWELL AT BROUGHTON-IN-FURNESS. + +The District of Black Comb--Branwell's Sonnet--Wordsworth and +Hartley Coleridge--Branwell's Letter to the 'Old Knave of +Trumps'--Its Publication by Miss Robinson in her 'Emily +Bronte'--Branwell's familiar Acquaintance with the People of +Haworth--He could Paint their Characters with Accuracy--His +Knowledge of the Human Passions--Emily's Isolation. + + +Branwell, being as desirous of employment as his sisters, had sought +for, and obtained, a situation as tutor in the family of Mr. +Postlethwaite, of Broughton-in-Furness. He entered upon his new +duties on the 1st of January, 1840. + +Now that he found himself resident near the English lake district, +consecrated as it is by so many poetic memories, and dear to him as +the home of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey he naturally felt an +intense interest in all that surrounded him; and, when he was not +engaged in teaching the sons of his employer, he took occasion to +visit such places as had any attraction for him. On one of his +pedestrian excursions, he had stepped into a wayside inn, and was +seated musing before the parlour fire, when a young gentleman entered +the room. Branwell turned round, and recognized at once a friend of +the name of Ayrton, whose acquaintance he had formed in Leeds. The +surprise and delight at this unexpected meeting was mutual; and +Branwell's friend, who was driving about the country, requested his +company for some distance on the journey, for the purpose of +prolonging the interview, and of continuing the conversation that had +been begun. The young tutor drove some ten miles with his friend, +utterly regardless of the long return walk to Ulverston. + +Branwell delighted in the writings of the 'Lake Poets,' and was much +influenced by Southey's prose works. He read the 'Life of Nelson,' +and was himself moved to write a poem illustrative of the life of +that great naval hero. He also read the 'Colloquies on Society,' and +others of Southey's works. But it was Wordsworth who at this moment, +was the object of Branwell's chief admiration. He revelled in that +poet's fine description of the view from the top of Black Comb, and, +perhaps, knew the lines written by his 'deity of the mind' on a stone +on the side of the mountain, and probably had himself looked from its +summit. But Branwell certainly knew Black Comb from afar. Five miles +away he could see it; and he celebrated it in the following sonnet: + + BLACK COMB. + + 'Far off, and half revealed, 'mid shade and light, + Black Comb half smiles, half frowns; his mighty form + Scarce bending into peace--more formed to fight + A thousand years of struggles with a storm + Than bask one hour, subdued by sunshine warm, + To bright and breezeless rest; yet even his height + Towers not o'er this world's sympathies, he smiles-- + While many a human heart to pleasures' wiles + Can bear to bend, and still forget to rise-- + As though he, huge and heath-clad, on our sight, + Again rejoices in his stormy skies. + Man loses vigour in unstable joys. + Thus tempests find Black Comb invincible, + While we are lost, who should know life so well!' + +It was doubtless while Branwell was living at Ulverston that he +obtained the favourable opinion of Wordsworth on some poems which he +submitted for criticism. Probably he found opportunity to visit the +writer whose works he 'loved most in our literature,' and it would be +on some similar excursion that he obtained an encouraging expression +of opinion from Hartley Coleridge. The author of 'The Northern +Worthies' was not unknown to the circle at 'The George,' at Bradford, +and was acquainted with Branwell Bronte and Leyland. + +The master of the 'Lodge of the Three Graces,' at Haworth, did not, +however, long permit Branwell to forget his old acquaintance there; +for this worthy soon addressed to him a communication which provoked +a reply that Branwell dated from Broughton-in-Furness on the 13th of +the March following his arrival. This unfortunate response, in which +Branwell addressed the masonic sexton of Haworth, with sarcastic +humour, as 'Old Knave of Trumps,' is the one which Miss Robinson has +been so ill advised as to publish in her 'Emily Bronte;' and which +has done not a little to draw down on the head of Branwell the full +and unmitigated volume of Mr. Swinburne's vocabulary of abuse. And, +in fact, if this letter could be taken as the proper and natural +expression of an abject profligate, altogether shameless and +unredeemed, he could find a defender neither here nor elsewhere. But +there are good reasons for hoping that it was otherwise. We have seen +that Branwell had been led to join the rude village society of +Haworth, where, on account of his brilliance, and of his position as +the incumbent's son, he was not a little looked up to. It was +natural, then, that he should be led, foolishly enough, to endeavour +to stand well with the friends he had selected, and his knowledge of +character was sufficiently good to enable him to know what kind of +letter would best suit the tastes and inclinations of many of his +companions of the 'Lodge of the Three Graces.' He assumed in fact, +that bravado of vice, that air of _diablerie_, which was thought +by many people, in those days, and is so yet by not a few, to be the +best proof of manhood, because it betokened a knowledge of the world. +Yet, at the end of the letter,--the passage is not given by Miss +Robinson--Branwell appears to take it as a matter of course that the +sexton will not show it, and he begs him, for 'Heaven's sake,' to +blot out the lines scored in red. Branwell knew the 'Old Knave of +Trumps' well, and he was certain that his letter would cause no +little amusement among his immediate friends to whom the sexton was +sure to read it. He was ashamed of certain passages in it, which is +evidence enough that it was not the outcome of a depraved and +shameless nature, but rather the expression of the _acted_ character +of a vicious and _blase_ worldling. And it is, moreover, inconceivable +that a young man, who was of the sensitive nature betokened by the +contemporary poems we have published, could, at the same time, have +been a hardened and cynical profligate. Indeed, it is evident that the +objectionable allusions were not of his origination, but were called +forth by the remarks of others, for whom Branwell does not fail to +show his contempt. + +It has, however, been the misfortune of Branwell Bronte, that a +letter which he wrote in folly, for the eyes of personal friends +alone, has been published to the world as the token and evidence of +his infamy. One use, at any rate, flows from the publication of it, +for it shows us the quick and vivid grasp of character, and the +incisive mode of composition which now began, in his more vigorous +moods, to distinguish its author. The letter is as follows:-- + + 'Broughton-in-Furness, + + 'March 13, 1840. + + 'OLD KNAVE OF TRUMPS, + + 'Don't think I have forgotten you, though I have delayed so long + in writing to you. It was my purpose to send you a yarn as soon + as I could find materials to spin one with, and it is only just + now that I have had time to turn myself round and know where I + am. If you saw me now, you would not know me, and you would laugh + to hear the character the people give me. Oh, the falsehood and + hypocrisy of this world! I am fixed in a little retired town by + the sea-shore, among wild woody hills that rise round me--huge, + rocky, and capped with clouds. My employer is a retired county + magistrate, a large landowner, and of a right hearty and generous + disposition. His wife is a quiet, silent, and amiable woman, + and his sons are two fine, spirited lads. My landlord is a + respectable surgeon, and six days out of seven is as drunk as a + lord! His wife is a bustling, chattering, kind-hearted soul; and + his daughter!--oh! death and damnation! Well, what am I? That is, + what do they think I am? A most calm, sedate, sober, abstemious, + patient, mild-hearted, virtuous, gentlemanly philosopher,--the + picture of good works, and the treasure-house of righteous + thoughts. Cards are shuffled under the table-cloth, glasses are + thrust into the cupboard, if I enter the room. I take neither + spirits, wine, nor malt liquors. I dress in black, and smile like + a saint or martyr. Everybody says, "What a good young gentleman + is Mr. Postlethwaite's tutor!" This is fact, as I am a living + soul, and right comfortably do I laugh at them. I mean to + continue in their good opinion. I took a half year's farewell of + old friend whisky at Kendal on the night after I left. There was + a party of gentlemen at the Royal Hotel, and I joined them. We + ordered in supper and whisky-toddy as "hot as hell!" They thought + I was a physician, and put me in the chair. I gave sundry toasts, + that were washed down at the same time, till the room spun round + and the candles danced in our eyes. One of the guests was a + respectable old gentleman with powdered head, rosy cheeks, fat + paunch, and ringed fingers. He gave "The Ladies," ... after which + he brayed off with a speech; and in two minutes, in the middle of + a grand sentence, he stopped, wiped his head, looked wildly + round, stammered, coughed, stopped again, and called for his + slippers. The waiter helped him to bed. Next a tall Irish squire + and a native of the land of Israel began to quarrel about their + countries; and, in the warmth of argument, discharged their + glasses, each at his neighbour's throat instead of his own. I + recommended bleeding, purging, and blistering; but they + administered each other a real "Jem Warder," so I flung my + tumbler on the floor, too, and swore I'd join "Old Ireland!" A + regular rumpus ensued, but we were tamed at last. I found myself + in bed next morning, with a bottle of porter, a glass, and a + corkscrew beside me. Since then I have not tasted anything + stronger than milk-and-water, nor, I hope, shall, till I return + at Midsummer; when we will see about it. I am getting as fat as + Prince William at Springhead, and as godly as his friend, Parson + Winterbotham. My hand shakes no longer. I ride to the banker's at + Ulverston with Mr. Postlethwaite, and sit drinking tea and + talking scandal with old ladies. As to the young ones! I have one + sitting by me just now--fair-faced, blue-eyed, dark-haired, sweet + eighteen--she little thinks the devil is so near her! + + 'I was delighted to see thy note, old squire, but I do not + understand one sentence--you will perhaps know what I mean.... + How are all about you? I long to hear and see them again. How is + the "Devil's Thumb," whom men call ---- ----, and the "Devil in + Mourning," whom they call ---- ----? How are ---- ----, and ---- + ----, and the Doctor; and him who will be used as the tongs of + hell--he whose eyes Satan looks out of, as from windows--I mean + ---- ----, esquire? How are little ---- ----, ---- "Longshanks," + ---- ----, and the rest of them? Are they married, buried, + devilled, and damned? When I come I'll give them a good squeeze + of the hand; till then I am too godly for them to think of. That + bow-legged devil used to ask me impertinent questions which I + answered him in kind. Beelzebub will make of him a walking-stick! + Keep to thy teetotalism, old squire, till I return; it will mend + thy old body.... Does "Little Nosey" think I have forgotten him? + No, by Jupiter! nor his clock either.[30] I'll send him a + remembrancer some of these days! But I must talk to some one + prettier than thee; so good-night, old boy, and + + 'Believe me thine, + + 'THE PHILOSOPHER. + + 'Write directly. Of course you won't show this letter; and, for + Heaven's sake, blot out all the lines scored with red ink.' + + [30] The clock mentioned by Branwell was one that stood in a + corner of the 'Snug' at 'The Bull,' inside the door of which + the landlord--'Little Nosey'--used to chalk up the 'shots' of + his guests. + +This letter, as I have intimated, was never intended for more than a +moment's amusement, at most, to a small circle of acquaintances at +Haworth, and was not to exist after having been read. But John +Brown kept the letter, which I saw and copied. It is a curious +circumstance, illustrating the hold which it obtained over the +Haworth circle, that, though the original was lost so long since as +1874, the brother of the sexton knew it by heart, and could repeat it +with considerable accuracy. In this way it has been several times +written down. No allusion would have been made to the letter in the +present work, if Miss Robinson--strange to say--had not thought it a +fitting embellishment for her 'Emily Bronte.' If Branwell had known +its fate at the moment he wrote it, it would never have reached the +'Worshipful Master of the Lodge of the Three Graces,' but would have +been committed to the flames by his own hand; for, as we have seen, +he was ashamed of some expressions scored in red, which he begged +might be obliterated. + +This letter, however, is valuable; inasmuch as it shows what +Branwell, at this young period of his life, knew about human nature, +and the depths to which it can descend. He had penetrated into the +passions, feelings, and dispositions of his acquaintances by frequent +intercourse, by keen perception, and by familiar conversation. He had +heard them, noticed them, and could paint their characters with +unerring precision and vivid colouring. He was acquainted with the +ways of society, and the customs of domestic life. The world was to +him a picture-gallery, and all living things in it were studies of +the deepest interest. His knowledge of men and manners, of the hard, +implacable, and selfish, and also of the soft, tender, and gentle +natures of men and women, enabled him to cast their stories of sorrow +and gladness faithfully and well. + +At the time when he had attained manhood, when his intellects were +reaching their full development, he had already been drawn into +society, and indoctrinated into the mysteries of Haworth life; and +had become acquainted with the excesses of men older and harder than +himself. It cannot be wondered at that, if he had learned more than +is usual in youth, he did not escape the temptations attendant on the +peculiar knowledge he had acquired. But, while _he_ was thus passing +through the crooked ways and reckless deviations of the world, +obtaining a large crop of experiences, good and bad, his _sisters_ +were, for the most part, at home, living like recluses, and, when +away, were still in similar seclusion. Of Emily, Charlotte says, 'I am +bound to avow that she had scarcely more practical knowledge of the +peasantry amongst whom she lived, than a nun has of the country people +who sometimes pass her convent gates. My sister's disposition was not +naturally gregarious; circumstances favoured and fostered her tendency +to seclusion; except to go to church or take a walk on the hills, she +rarely crossed the threshold of home. Though her feeling for the +people round her was benevolent, intercourse with them she never +sought, nor, with very few exceptions, ever experienced. And yet she +knew them, knew their ways, their language, their family histories; +she could hear of them with interest, and talk of them _with_ +detail, minute, graphic, and accurate; but with them she rarely +exchanged a word.'[31] But Branwell walked and held personal +intercourse, as we have seen, with the people whom Emily shunned; and +his personal knowledge, and his unquestionable genius combined, +enabled him to grasp and appreciate, to dissect with penetrating +skill, and to estimate and define the tendency of the strong and +marked character of the people around him. It is, therefore, doubly +unfortunate that, from Branwell, we have little remaining in the way +of graphic description, and that the rich treasures of observation +which he outpoured have, for the most part, left their impressions +only in the memories of those who were privileged to hear him +discourse. + + [31] Charlotte Bronte.--Memoir prefixed to 'Wuthering + Heights.' + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +BRANWELL AT SOWERBY BRIDGE.--CHARLOTTE'S EXERTIONS. + +Branwell's Appointment at Ulverston ends--He gets a Situation on +the Railroad at Sowerby Bridge--Branwell at Luddenden Foot--His +Friends' Reminiscences of him--Charlotte and Emily reading French +Novels--Charlotte obtains a Situation--Anxious about Anne--School +Project of the Sisters--Charlotte's keen Desire to visit Brussels +--Her Letter to her Aunt Branwell. + + +If the performance of the responsible duties of his appointment at +Mr. Postlethwaite's, which ended, at his father's wish, in the June +of 1840, had been felt by Branwell as a banishment from the cheerful +company of his Haworth acquaintances, it had been still greater from +his artistic and literary friends in the neighbourhood of Bradford +and Halifax. Hence he sought, with a perseverance amounting to +anxiety, to obtain a post on the Leeds and Manchester Railway,--to +the opening of which he had looked forward with concern--at some +place in the valley of the Calder, near Halifax; and he received the +appointment of clerk in charge, at the station at Sowerby Bridge. +Charlotte says of Branwell's determination: '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.'[32] Branwell commenced +his new occupation at Sowerby Bridge on the 1st of October, 1840, +just before the opening of the line from Hebden Bridge to Normanton. + + [32] Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. ix. + +As has been already seen, an acquaintance had existed between +Branwell and Leyland; but now that the former had become a resident +in the immediate neighbourhood, after his visits to the artist's +studio had been interrupted for six months, or more, by his stay at +Broughton-in-Furness, a more frequent intercourse followed between +the two. It was on a bright Sunday afternoon in the autumn of 1840, +at the desire of my brother, the sculptor, that I accompanied him to +the station at Sowerby Bridge to see Branwell. The young railway +clerk was of gentleman-like appearance, and seemed to be qualified +for a much better position than the one he had chosen. In stature he +was a little below the middle height; not 'almost insignificantly +small,' as Mr. Grundy states, nor had he 'a downcast look;' neither +was he 'a plain specimen of humanity.'[33] He was slim and agile in +figure, yet of well-formed outline. His complexion was clear and +ruddy, and the expression of his face, at the time, lightsome and +cheerful. His voice had a ringing sweetness, and the utterance and +use of his English were perfect. Branwell appeared to be in excellent +spirits, and showed none of those traces of intemperance with which +some writers have unjustly credited him about this period of his +life. + + [33] 'Pictures of the Past,' by Francis H. Grundy, C.E. (1879) + p. 75. + +My brother had often spoken to me of Branwell's poetical abilities, +his conversational powers, and the polish of his education; and, on a +personal acquaintance, I found nothing to question in this estimate +of his mental gifts, and of his literary attainments. + +Branwell stayed at Sowerby Bridge some months, whence he was +transferred, in 1841, to Luddenden Foot, a place about a mile further +up the valley, where a station had been recently fixed. Mr. Grundy, +who was an assistant-engineer on the line, became acquainted with +Branwell at the latter place; and says of it, 'there was no village +near at hand,' and that, 'had a position been chosen for this strange +creature, for the express purpose of driving him several steps to the +bad, this must have been it.'[34] + + [34] 'Pictures of the Past,' p. 75. + +Mr. Grundy must have spoken from memory only. The ancient village +of Luddenden Foot, within two minutes' walk of the station, with +its population employed in the mills and manufactories of the +neighbourhood, together with its two old hostelries of the 'Red +Lion,' and the 'Shuttle and Anchor,' was surely sufficient to banish +all solitude and wildness from the neighbourhood of Branwell's +sojourn. Yet the change was scarcely a desirable one, and doubtless +helped to disgust Branwell with his employment. It is to be regretted +that the respective occupations of Branwell and Mr. Grundy were of +such a nature as to prevent a regular and continual intercourse, and +that distance of time and place have so far dimmed Mr. Grundy's +reminiscences of his friend, that, valuable though the letters he +has wisely preserved are, many inaccuracies have entered into his +recollections of him, and Mrs. Gaskell's exaggerated account has had +undue weight in the picture he has drawn. + +Mr. William Heaton, author of a minor volume of poems entitled the +'Flowers of Caldervale,' knew Branwell Bronte well when he was at +Luddenden Foot. He wrote to me a letter in which occurred the +following description of his mind and character, and also of his +conversation when at one of the village inns, where they sometimes +met:-- + +'He was,' says Heaton, 'blithe and gay, but at times appeared +downcast and sad; yet, if the subject were some topic that he was +acquainted with, or some author he loved, he would rise from his +seat, and, in beautiful language, describe the author's character, +with a zeal and fluency I had never heard equalled. His talents were +of a very exalted kind. I have heard him quote pieces from the bard +of Avon, from Shelley, Wordsworth, and Byron, as well as from +Butler's "Hudibras," in such a manner as often made me wish I had +been a scholar, as he was. At that time I was just beginning to write +verses. It is true I had written many pieces, but they had never seen +the light; and, on a certain occasion, I showed him one, which he +pronounced very good. He lent me books which I had never seen before, +and was ever ready to give me information. His temper was always mild +towards me. I shall never forget his love for the sublime and +beautiful works of Nature, nor how he would tell of the lovely +flowers and rare plants he had observed by the mountain stream and +woodland rill. All these had excellencies for him; and I have often +heard him dilate on the sweet strains of the nightingale, and on the +thoughts that bewitched him the first time he heard one.' + +During Branwell's twelvemonths' stay at Luddenden Foot, he formed new +acquaintances, but the avocations, tastes, and pursuits of the +well-to-do inhabitants did not accord with his; and he, perhaps, more +frequently than was compatible with his duties, visited Halifax to +seek the intellectual enjoyment which his own narrow occupation and +the society of Luddenden Foot did not afford. + +While he was occupied in the service of the railway company at this +place, we hear nothing relating to him, of moment, in Charlotte's +correspondence. Happy that he was employed, his sisters engaged +eagerly and earnestly in devising schemes for obtaining a livelihood +that might enable them to work together for their mutual assistance +in literary labour. + +Charlotte was still at home with Emily, reading French novels, of +which, we learn, she had got another bale, 'containing upwards of +forty volumes.' 'I have read about half,' she says. '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.' We scarcely recognize, in +this employment, the Charlotte Bronte of three years before, whose +religious mania was driving her to despair, unless, indeed, it be in +the force with which she pursues the new bent of her inclination. She +has read twenty volumes of this, the second, batch, and was proposing +to read twenty more. It was her expectation that, by this process, +she would become sufficiently familiar with the language to enable +her to teach it to others. + +In the letter in which she announced that Branwell had gone to his +post on the railway--written in good spirits, when she saw everything +_couleur-de-rose_, which, however, she attributes to the high +wind blowing over the 'hills of Judea' at Haworth--she says: '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 Wooler to tell her so. +Verily, it is a delightful thing to live 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.' + +Branwell was proving himself no grasshopper, for, if he sang, he was +anxious to exert himself in a practical way at the same time; and, so +far, he was doing well at Luddenden Foot. Charlotte, too, was +resolved to be employed, but the negotiation with Mrs. B---- failed. +The lady expressed herself pleased with the frankness with which +Charlotte stated her qualifications, but she required some one who +could undertake to give instruction in music and singing. This Miss +Bronte could not do. She does not appear to have had the musical +taste which her brother and sisters had inherited from the Branwell +family. She resembled her father, perhaps, more closely than did any +of the other children. At last, however, in March, 1841, she entered +her second situation as a private governess. 'I told you, some time +since,' she writes to her friend, '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.' + +Charlotte found her residence not very large, but the grounds were +fine and extensive. She had made some sacrifice to secure comfort, as +she says, not good living, but cheerful faces and warm hearts. Her +pupils were two in number, one a girl of eight, and the other a boy +of six. Though always more or less afflicted with home-sickness, +whenever she was at a distance from her father's house, with its +familiar and affectionate ways, she enjoyed, in her new place, +considerable relief from it, owing to the spontaneous generosity and +kindliness of her employers. She says, indeed, '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.' + +Charlotte found matters a little easier after the first month of her +stay, and her home-sickness became less oppressive. Though her time +was much occupied, great kindness was shown towards her, and her +father and her friend were invited to come to see her. + +In June she wrote, in the absence of her employer, '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.'[35] + + [35] 'Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. x. + +The delicate Anne, struggling with all the troubles, the indignities, +of the life of a governess, was a picture that was naturally +distressing enough to Charlotte, ever anxious, ever watchful over the +welfare of her youngest sister, and she would, perhaps, be apt, in +her imagination, to exaggerate her sister's difficulties in the +light of her own. In truth the sisters had qualities of mind and +heart which did much to unfit them for the enjoyment of content or +happiness amongst strangers. Charlotte, in particular, with a nature, +sensitive, observant, and tenacious; an imagination highly wrought, +active, and fertile, but too often morbid; with a will, powerful, yet +constrained by the nervous weakness of an excitable constitution, +could with difficulty conform inclination to the necessities of such +a career; she longed for freedom. It was not surprising, then, that +when Charlotte reached Haworth--which she did before Anne's +return--there was a revival of the project I have before mentioned of +the opening of a school, wherein they could enjoy the liberty of +home. + +Mr. Bronte and Miss Branwell were not unfavourably disposed towards +the project, and they conversed now and then, at the breakfast-table +or in the evenings, as to how they could best help the girls into the +position they so much coveted. The sisters must always have had a +friend in their father in these matters; he could not but be pleased +and interested in struggles and expectations which reproduced so +closely the hopeful days of his own early life, and we learn, as the +result of the deliberations of the elders, that the aunt offered a +loan, or intimated that she would, perhaps, offer one, in case her +nieces could give some assurance of the solidity of their plans in +the shape of a situation decided upon and of pupils promised. The +East-Riding was thought to be not so well provided with schools as +the West, and the favourite idea of the sisters was to open their +projected academy in the neighbourhood of Burlington, where the +health, both of themselves and of their pupils, might be hoped for. +But there was a question how much their aunt would be disposed to +advance them. Charlotte did not think she would sink more than L150 +in such a venture, and she doubted if this would be a sufficient sum +with which to establish a school and commence house-keeping, on +however modest a scale. These were reflections which damped a little +the excitement of hopeful expectation in which the sisters, +especially Charlotte, revolved these plans. She anxiously awaited the +coming of her friend, on the day she was expected to visit them +during their holidays at the parsonage, wearying her eyes with +watching from the window, eye-glass in hand, and, sometimes, +spectacles on nose, eager to talk over her schemes with some one else +than her sisters and to hear a new opinion. But her friend could not +come, and she says, 'a hundred things I had to say to you will now be +forgotten, and never said.' Charlotte began to fear some time must +elapse before her plans could be executed, and she resolved not to +relinquish her situation till something was assured. But this +expectation of keeping a school, cherished through long years, was +never realized by the sisters; ever and anon the shifting sands of +circumstance, the changing currents of life, moved them away, even +while they believed themselves approaching the goal of their hopes. + +Charlotte returned to her situation, and she tells her friend, in a +letter dated August the 7th, 1841, that she 'felt herself' again. Mr. +and Mrs. ---- were from home, and she takes the opportunity of saying +that to be solitary there was to her the happiest part of her time. +She enters into particulars of the household: the children were under +decent control, and the servants were observant and attentive to her; +she says of herself, moreover, that the absence of the master and +mistress relieved her from the duty of always putting on the +appearance of being cheerful and conversable. + +Her friends, Martha and Mary T----, were enjoying great advantages on +the Continent, where they had gone to stay a month with their +brother. Charlotte had had a long letter from Mary, and a packet +enclosing a handsome black silk scarf, and a pair of beautiful kid +gloves bought in Brussels as a present. She was pleased with them, +and that she had been remembered so far off, amidst the excitement of +'one of the most splendid capitals of Europe.' Mary's letters spoke +of 'some of the pictures and cathedrals she had seen--pictures the +most exquisite, cathedrals the most venerable.' Something swelled to +the throat of Charlotte as she read this account. She was seized with +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.' She was tantalized for a time by the +consciousness of faculties unexercised; then all collapsed. She +considered these emotions, momentary as they were, rebellious and +absurd, and they were speedily quelled by the resolute spirit they +had disturbed. She hoped they would not revive, as they had been +acutely painful. The school project, instead of at all fading, was +gaining strength, and the three sisters kept it in view as the +pole-star round which all their other schemes, as of lesser +importance, revolved. To this they looked in their despondency. +Charlotte was haunted, sometimes, and dismayed, at the conviction +that she had no natural knack for her occupation. She says that, if +teaching only were requisite, all would be smooth and easy; and she +adds, '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.' + +It appears that Miss Wooler was about this time intending to give up +her school at Dewsbury Moor, and had offered it to the Misses Bronte. +One or two disadvantages had to be set against the favourable terms +on which they might have the school. The situation could not commend +itself to Charlotte, anxious as she was concerning Anne's health; the +number of pupils had also diminished, and it would be necessary to +offer special advantages in the way of education before they could +hope to have a prosperous establishment--so their friends argued. But +Charlotte had resolved to take the school. The sisters, however, +could not feel confident that their qualifications were such as would +render success certain. Hence, a suggestion that was made to +Charlotte which would provide her with the necessary powers, was at +once taken up with all the energy of her nature; she thus writes to +her aunt, on whom all must depend: + + 'September 29th, 1841. + + 'DEAR AUNT, + + 'I have heard nothing of Miss Wooler 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 L100, which you have been so kind + as to offer us, will, perhaps, not be all required now, as Miss + Wooler 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 L5; living there is 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._, + provided 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, L50 or L100, 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 whoever 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.' + +Charlotte had some time to wait for an answer, but it came at last; +her enthusiasm had carried the day. The answer was favourable: she +and Emily were to go to Brussels. + +At times, during his stay with the railway company, Branwell would +drive over from Luddenden Foot to visit his family at the Haworth +parsonage, having hired a gig for the purpose. Mr. Grundy sometimes +accompanied him, and they would escape to the moors together, or pay +curious visits to the old fortune-teller, with the curates. Then, +says his friend, he was 'at his best, and would be eloquent and +amusing, though, on returning sometimes, he would burst into tears, +and swear he meant to mend.' This last statement is favourable to +Branwell's calm judgment upon himself. Few--and Branwell was one of +the last--drift deliberately into wrong-doing. He was, like most +other men, often placed under influences which a habit of attention +and self-control would have enabled him to resist. He knew, perhaps, +in a desultory way, what he ought to do, and what he ought not; but, +owing to his inattention to consequences, he might, now and then, go +wrong, sometimes yielding to whatever illusion was paramount within, +acting in concert with whatever was most alluring without; yet he +could draw his mental forces together, and review his past actions +with keen and painful accuracy. Hence he was not destitute of the +faculty of analyzing his acts in the light of their moral quality, +and, when his sober judgment enabled him to see them in their true +bearing, he exhibited a due contrition. + +On Branwell's visits home, he learned much of the exertions, the +projects, and the resolves of his sisters. He was aware of their +aims, and how important were the steps being taken to qualify them +the better for teaching others, more especially in perfecting their +knowledge of the French language and of music. He also knew of the +ultimate hope of his sisters--that, were the future secure, they +would have leisure to realize their early dream of one day becoming +authors, never relinquished, even when distance divided, and when +absorbing tasks occupied them. He had the highest appreciation of +their genius; and, although he had his times of hilarity, indulgence, +and enjoyment, he was certainly never forgetful of his own hopes and +aspirations in the same direction. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +BRANWELL'S POETRY, 1842. + +Situation of Luddenden Foot--Branwell visits Manchester--The Sultry +Summer--He visits the Picturesque Places adjacent--His impromptu +Verses to Mr. Grundy--He leaves the Railway Company--Miss Robinson's +unjust Comments--His three Sonnets--His poem 'The Afghan War'-- +Branwell's letter to Mr. Grundy--His Self-depreciation. + + +Luddenden Foot--the second place of Branwell Bronte's appointment as +clerk in charge on the Leeds and Manchester Railway--was a village +about equi-distant between Sowerby Bridge and Mytholmroyd, situated +in a fertile and moderately-wooded valley, on the left bank of +the Calder as it descends from its source in Cliviger Dean. The +cultivated hills rise to a considerable height on both sides of the +river, and are very romantic in character. Among the manufacturers +and gentry of the neighbourhood, Branwell found few to welcome him, +and from these he turned to the artists and literary men he had +previously known at Halifax. + +But Branwell, in addition, made excursions up the valley (Mr. W----, +his fellow-assistant, acting for him in his absence) in the direction +of Hebden Bridge, Heptonstall, the Ridge, Todmorden, and the heights +of Wadsworth. There were, indeed, many places of marvellous beauty +and interest near, that have long been the theme of artists and +poets, with which he did not fail to make himself acquainted. + +The huge, rounded hills, which border this valley, are intersected in +places by lovely cloughs and glens, whose peat-stained streams rush +over their rocky beds, from the elevated grouse-moors around, to pour +their waters into the Calder. From Luddenden Dean, between the +townships of Warley and Midgley, a brook makes its way to Luddenden +Foot, through a glen on whose verdant slopes stand several ancient +houses of architectural and historic interest. Among these are Ewood +Hall, where Bishop Farrer was born, and Kershaw House, a beautiful +Jacobean mansion. Crag Valley, which descends to the Calder on the +opposite bank, a mile or more from Luddenden Foot, is deeper and more +thickly wooded. On one hand lies Sowerby--with Haugh End, the +birthplace of Archbishop Tillotson--and, on the other, Erringden, +which was a royal deer-park in the days of the Plantagenets. But the +loveliest of the valleys through which the confluent streams of +the Calder run, is that of Hebden, a romantic glen, winding between +the wooded and precipitous slopes of Heptonstall--crowned with the +ancient and now ruined church of St. Thomas a Becket--and of +Wadsworth, with its narrow dell of Crimsworth, which gave Charlotte +Bronte a name for the hero of the earliest of her novels. Between +these solemn heights the stream flows beneath the huge crags of +Hardcastle, and roars over many a rocky obstruction in its channel +before it reaches the Calder at Hebden Bridge. This was a district to +which picnic-parties from Haworth often came, there being a direct +road over the hills. + +Branwell also visited Manchester on one occasion; and, on his +return, he gave an account to a young clergyman, then living in the +neighbourhood of Mytholmroyd, who sometimes went to his wooden shanty +at Luddenden Foot to hear his conversation, of how he had been +impressed with the architecture of the parish church at Manchester, +as he stood under the arched portal, and beheld the long lines of +pillars and arches, and the fretted roof, the lightsome details of +which had charmed him. He went forward on that occasion to the choir +of the church, and saw the Lady Chapel--which still retained its +beautiful screen, with its Perpendicular tracery and shafts of that +period--occupied by the gravedigger's implements, which reminded +him of the 'Worshipful Master of the Lodge of the Three Graces,' +consisting of crowbar, mattock, spade, barrow, planks and ropes; for +the Lady Chapel had been made a convenient receptacle for these +dismal chattels. + +The summer of 1841 was a somewhat monotonous time for Branwell and +his friend at the quiet station. Here, in the intervals of the +trains, scarcely anything was heard except the occasional hum of a +bee or a wasp, or the drone of a blue-bottle, while the almost +vertical rays of a summer sun darted down on the roof of the wooden +hut, and made the place unendurable. It was in moments of weary +lassitude, or in hours of drowsy leisure, that Branwell whiled away +the time by sketching carelessly on the margins of the books--for +the amusement of himself and his friend--free-hand portraits of +characters of the neighbourhood, and of the celebrated pugilists of +the day. + +But about Hebden Bridge there were people known to Branwell, and he +did not fail to visit them. His sister, Charlotte, in after-years, +sometimes came to Hanging Royd, Hebden Bridge, the house of my late +friend, the Rev. Sutcliffe Sowden, then incumbent of Mytholm--the +gentleman who afterwards performed the marriage ceremony between the +gifted lady and Mr. Nicholls. The friendship of the latter and Mr. +Sowden dated from earlier years, and to them Branwell was known when +he was at Luddenden Foot. He had, indeed, sometimes clerical visitors +at his 'wooden shanty' to hear his conversation. Mr. Sowden was an +enthusiastic lover of scenery, and the sphere of his duties abounded +in moors, wilds, crags, rivers, brooks, and dells, which he often +visited. Branwell's tastes accorded with his, but these attractions +clearly drew Branwell's attention, too often and too far, from the +imperative duties of his situation, comparatively light though they +were. As might be expected, therefore, the work of this talented but +changeful young man was found unsatisfactory, and explanations were +demanded. About the time of the close of his twelve months' official +duties at Luddenden Foot, an examination of his books was made, and +they were found to be confused and incomplete. The irregularity and +the defects of his returns had also been remarked, and an inquiry was +set on foot respecting them. The officials, in looking over the +books, discovered the pen-and-ink sketches on the margins of the +pages, which I have already mentioned; and these were taken as +conclusive evidence of carelessness and indifference on the part of +the unfortunate Branwell in the performance of his duties and the +keeping of his accounts. + +He had been made aware, by unwelcome inquiries and remonstrances, +that his position with the railway company was precarious, and he +was filled with apprehension as to the ultimate consequences. He +was requested finally to appear at the audit of the company, and +his friend W---- accompanied him. + +It was at the Christmas of 1841, that the Brontes expected to meet +at home together, in anticipation of Charlotte and Emily's journey to +Brussels; but Charlotte had not found her brother there in the January +of 1842, for she writes on the 20th of that month and year: '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.'[36] Branwell certainly returned home, but only when it +had been intimated to him that his services were no longer required by +the railway company. How far he had felt the duties of his post +irksome, and the power of perseverance required inconsistent with his +tastes and pursuits, does not appear, though the inference that they +were so will scarcely be doubted. But the humiliation and sorrow he +felt on the loss of his employment plunged him, for a time, into +despair; and the natural gloom of his disposition, caused him to +magnify the common pleasures and enjoyments of his leisure hours into +crimes and omissions of duty of no ordinary magnitude. But the +erroneous recollections of Mr. Grundy, respecting the situation of the +station at Luddenden Foot, and its supposed deleterious influence on +Branwell's manners and obligations, may justify a doubt as to the +particular accuracy of many of his reminiscences of his friend. + + [36] 'Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. x. + +The following incident of Branwell's stay at that place, which Mr. +Grundy gives, may be regarded as affording a valuable contribution to +his writings; for, although impromptu, the verses show that he could, +even on unexpected occasions, bring into play his innate faculty of +verse with no mean grasp of his subject, and a certain harmony of +rhythmical expression. + +Mr. Grundy says, 'On one occasion he (Branwell) thought I was +disposed to treat him distantly at a party, and he retired in great +dudgeon. When I arrived at my lodgings the same evening, I found the +following, necessarily an impromptu:-- + + '"The man who will not know another, + Whose heart can never sympathize, + Who loves not comrade, friend, or brother, + Unhonoured lives--unnoticed dies: + His frozen eye, his bloodless heart, + Nature, repugnant, bids depart. + + '"O, Grundy! born for nobler aim, + Be thine the task to shun such shame; + And henceforth never think that he + Who gives his hand in courtesy + To one who kindly feels to him, + His gentle birth or name can dim. + + '"However mean a man may be, + Know man _is_ man as well as thee; + However high thy gentle line, + Know he who writes can rank with thine; + And though his frame be worn and dead, + Some light still glitters round his head. + + '"Yes! though his tottering limbs seem old, + His heart and blood are not yet cold. + Ah, Grundy! shun his evil ways, + His restless nights, his troubled days; + But never slight his mind, which flies, + Instinct with noble sympathies, + Afar from spleen and treachery, + To thought, to kindness, and to thee. + + '"P. B. BRONTE."'[37] + + [37] 'Pictures of the Past,' pp. 78-79. + +Branwell's extreme sensibility caused him, indeed, to exaggerate both +the lights and the shadows of his existence. He was gleeful, as I +found, full of fun, jest, and anecdote, in social circles, or where +literature and art were the theme; and then, almost involuntarily, +would rise to his feet, and, with a beaming countenance, treat the +subject with a vivid flow of imagination, displaying the rich stores +of his information with wondrous and enthralling eloquence. But, under +disappointment or misfortune, he fell a prey to gloomy thoughts, and +reached a state often near akin to despair. It was at such moments +that he usually took up his pen to express, in poetry, the fulness of +his feelings and the depth of his sorrow; and it is to this fact that +the pathetic sadness of most of his writings is due. I have had +occasion already to speak of the melancholy tone which characterized +also the minds of his sisters. + +The worth of Branwell's poetic genius about this time,--the year of +1842,--has been unfairly commented upon. Miss Robinson, questioning +the judgment of the Bronte sisters, undertakes to doubt if Branwell's +mental gifts were any better than his moral qualities, and says: 'It +is doubtful, judging from Branwell's letters and his verses, whether +anything much better than his father's "Cottage in the Wood" would +have resulted from his following the advice of James Montgomery. +Fluent ease, often on the verge of twaddle, with here and there a +bright felicitous touch, with here and there a smack of the +conventional hymn-book and pulpit twang--such weak and characterless +effusions are all that is left of the passion-ridden pseudo-genius of +Haworth.'[38] + + [38] 'Emily Bronte,' p. 97. + +Miss Robinson's ignorance of Branwell's more matured poems and +writings has caused her, in company with others, to fall into very +grave errors regarding him; and she,--with extreme bitterness, it must +be said,--has embellished her biography of Emily with elaborate +censures of his misdeeds, and with accounts of his imputed glaring +inferiority to his sisters in intellectual power. It is pitiable, +indeed, that Miss Robinson,--and not she alone,--in the want of +Branwell's true life and remains, with nothing to set against the +primary errors of Mrs. Gaskell,--should have joined the hue and cry +against him, and have essayed, almost as of set purpose, to write down +the gifted brother of the author whose life she was giving to the +world. + +In 1842 Branwell began to feel more perceptibly the development of his +intellectual powers, and to discern more clearly his natural ability +to define, in poetic and felicitous language, his thoughts, feelings, +and emotions. While under the depression and gloom consequent upon his +disgrace, and the recent loss of his employment, he wrote the three +following sonnets. The profound depth of feeling, expressed with +mournful voice, which pervades them, the full consciousness of woe by +which they are informed, leave nothing wanting in their expression of +pathetic beauty; and they are distinguished by much sweetness of +diction. These sonnets favourably show the poetical genius of +Branwell. His soul is carried beyond his frail mortality; but sadness +and sorrow, enshrouding his imagination, bind it to the precincts of +the tomb. Here, with pessimistic and gloomy philosophy, he bids us, +impressed with the slender sum of human happiness, to recognize the +constant recurrence of the misery to which we are born, and to discern +how little there is beneficent in nature or mankind. + + SONNET I. + + ON LANDSEER'S PAINTING. + + _'The Shepherd's Chief Mourner'--A Dog Keeping Watch at Twilight + over its Master's Grave._ + + The beams of Fame dry up affection's tears; + And those who rise forget from whom they spring; + Wealth's golden glories--pleasure's glittering wing-- + All that we follow through our chase of years-- + All that our hope seeks--all our caution fears, + Dim or destroy those holy thoughts which cling + Round where the forms we loved lie slumbering; + But, not with _thee_--our slave--whose joys and cares + We deem so grovelling--power nor pride are thine, + Nor our pursuits, nor ties; yet, o'er this grave, + Where lately crowds the form of mourning gave, + I only hear _thy_ low heart-broken whine-- + I only see _thee_ left long hours to pine + For _him_ whom thou--if love had power--would'st save! + + + SONNET II. + + ON THE CALLOUSNESS PRODUCED BY CARE. + + Why hold young eyes the fullest fount of tears? + And why do youthful hearts the oftenest sigh, + When fancied friends forsake, or lovers fly, + Or fancied woes and dangers wake their fears? + Ah! he who asks has known but spring-tide years, + Or Time's rough voice had long since told him why! + Increase of days increases misery; + And misery brings selfishness, which sears + The heart's first feelings: 'mid the battle's roar, + In Death's dread grasp, the soldier's eyes are blind + To comrades dying, and he whose hopes are o'er + Turns coldest from the sufferings of mankind; + A bleeding spirit oft delights in gore: + A tortured heart oft makes a tyrant mind. + + + SONNET III. + + _On Peaceful Death and Painful Life._ + + Why dost thou sorrow for the happy dead? + For, if their life be lost, their toils are o'er, + And woe and want can trouble them no more; + Nor ever slept they in an earthly bed + So sound as now they sleep, while dreamless laid + In the dark chambers of the unknown shore, + Where Night and Silence guard each sealed door. + So, turn from such as these thy drooping head, + And mourn the _Dead Alive_--whose spirit flies-- + Whose life departs, before his death has come; + Who knows no Heaven beneath Life's gloomy skies, + Who sees no Hope to brighten up that gloom,-- + 'Tis _He_ who feels the worm that never dies,-- + The _real_ death and darkness of the tomb. + +It is painful to find the writer of these sad and beautiful sonnets +spoken of in terms of reprobation, as being, at the time he wrote +them, and when asking Mr. Grundy's aid while seeking a situation, +'sunk and contemptible.' + +'Alas,' says Miss Robinson, 'no helping hand rescued the sinking +wretch from the quicksands of idle sensuality which slowly engulfed +him!'[39] Let us look further. + + [39] 'Emily Bronte,' p. 99. + +The Afghan War, which commenced in 1838, and had secured for the +English arms what seemed at the time a complete conquest, was followed +by the conspiracy of Akbar Khan, the son of Dost Mohammed, which +occurred at the beginning of winter, when help from India was +hopeless. There was an uprising at Cabul, and several officers and men +were slain, which compelled Major Pottinger to submit to humiliating +conditions. The British left Cabul; and the disastrous retreat to +India, through the Khyber Pass, which commenced on January 6th, 1842, +will long be sadly remembered. Of sixteen thousand troops--accompanied +by women and children to the number of ten thousand more--who were +continually harassed by hostile tribes on the way, and benumbed by the +severity of the winter, only one man, Doctor Brydon, survived to tell +the tidings. Branwell, overwhelmed by these horrors, published the +following powerful and impressive poem in the 'Leeds Intelligencer,' +on May the 7th of the same year. + + THE AFGHAN WAR. + + 'Winds within our chimney thunder, + Rain-showers shake each window-pane, + Still--if nought our household sunder-- + We can smile at wind or rain. + Sickness shades a loved one's chamber, + Steps glide gently to and fro, + Still--'mid woe--our hearts remember + _We_ are there to soothe that woe. + + 'Comes at last the hour of mourning, + Solemn tolls the funeral bell; + And we feel that no returning + Fate allows to such farewell: + Still a holy hope shines o'er us; + We wept by the One who died; + And 'neath earth shall death restore us; + As round hearthstone--side by side. + + 'But--when all at eve, together, + Circle round the flickering light, + While December's howling weather + Ushers in a stormy night: + When each ear, scarce conscious, listens + To the outside Winter's war, + When each trembling eyelash glistens + As each thinks of _one_ afar-- + + Man to chilly silence dying, + Ceases story, song, and smile; + Thought asks--"Is the loved one lying + Cold upon some storm-beat isle?" + And with death--when doubtings vanish, + When despair still hopes and fears-- + Though our anguish toil may banish, + Rest brings unavailing tears. + + 'So, Old England--when the warning + Of thy funeral bells I hear-- + Though thy dead a host is mourning, + Friends and kindred watch each bier. + But alas! Atlantic waters + Bear another sound from far! + Unknown woes, uncounted slaughters, + Cruel deaths, inglorious war! + + 'Breasts and banners, crushed and gory, + That seemed once invincible; + England's children--England's glory, + Moslem sabres smite and quell! + Far away their bones are wasting, + But I hear their spirits call-- + "Is our Mighty Mother hasting + To avenge her children's fall?" + + 'England rise! Thine ancient thunder + Humbled mightier foes than these; + Broke a whole world's bonds asunder, + Gave thee empire o'er the seas: + And while yet one rose may blossom, + Emblem of thy former bloom, + Let not age invade thy bosom-- + Brightest shine in darkest gloom! + + 'While one oak thy homes shall shadow, + Stand like it as thou hast stood; + While a Spring greets grove and meadow, + Let not Winter freeze thy blood. + Till this hour St. George's standard + Led the advancing march of time; + England! keep it streaming vanward, + Conqueror over age and clime!' + +In this poem Branwell prefaces his subject with a picture of domestic +suffering--one with which he is familiar--and compares the consolation +which accompanies the affectionate attentions of those present, with +the hopeless fate and untended deaths of such as perish in the storms +and wars of distant places, far away from their homes and friends. In +the true, loyal, and national spirit which animates him, his manly +appeal to England, comprised principally in the last two verses, is +perhaps one of the noblest and most vigorous ever written. + +In the May of 1842, Leyland was commissioned to execute certain +monuments for Haworth and its neighbourhood; and, on the 15th of that +month, Branwell wrote to him, in reference to a design for a monument +which he had sent for submission to a committee of which the Rev. P. +Bronte was chairman, and invited him to the parsonage on the 20th of +the month, being sure his father would be pleased to see him. Leyland +visited Haworth and partook of Mr. Bronte's hospitality; and in the +evening, accompanied by the incumbent and his son, appeared before the +monument committee. + +Branwell also wrote an interesting letter to Mr. Grundy on May 22nd, +1842, which that gentleman erroneously assigns to 1845.[40] In it he +says that he cannot avoid the temptation, while sitting alone, all the +household being at church, and he being the sole occupant of the +parsonage, to scribble a few lines to cheer his spirits. He alludes to +the extreme pain, illness, and mental depression he has endured since +his dismissal. He describes himself, while at Luddenden Foot, as a +'miserable wreck,' as requiring six glasses of whisky to stimulate +him, as almost insane! And he feels his recovery from this last stage +of his condition to be retarded by 'having nothing to listen to except +the wind moaning among old chimneys and older ash trees,--nothing to +look at except heathery hills, walked over when life had all to hope +for, and nothing to regret.' He reproaches himself, in bitter terms, +with seeking indulgence, while at Luddenden Foot, in failings which +formed, he declares, the black spot on his character. His sister +Charlotte's mind appears to have been cast in the same gloomy mould; +for, when suffering under bodily ailment, or the despondency and +hopelessness which overshadowed her soul, she was impelled, as we have +seen, to make confessions to her friend 'E' of her 'stings of +conscience,' her 'visitings of remorse.' She hates her 'former +flippancy and forwardness.' She is in a state of 'horrid, gloomy +uncertainty,' and clouds are 'gathering darker,' and a more depressing +despondency weighs upon her spirits.[41] + + [40] 'Pictures of the Past,' p. 84. + + [41] Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. viii. + +In another letter to her friend, Charlotte says she is 'in a strange +state of mind--still gloomy, but not despairing. I keep trying to do +right.... I abhor myself, I despise myself.' And again, later, she +wonders if the new year will be 'stained as darkly as the last with +all our sins, follies, secret vanities, and uncontrolled passions and +propensities,' saying 'I trust not; but I feel in nothing better, +neither humbler nor purer.'[42] + + [42] 'Unpublished letters of Charlotte Bronte,' _Hours at + Home_, vol. xi. + +Branwell, however, while making, in a like tone, his unnecessarily +exaggerated confession to his friend, sets forth his renovation of +soul and body. He has, at length, acquired health, strength, and +soundness of mind far superior to anything he had known at Luddenden +Foot. He can speak cheerfully, and enjoy the company of another, +without his former stimulus. He can write, think, and act, with some +apparent approach to resolution, and he only wants a motive for +exertion to be happier than he has been for years. He has still +something left in him which might do him service. He thinks he ought +not to live too long in solitude, as the world soon forgets those who +wish it 'Goodbye.' Then, although ashamed of it, he asks for answers +to some inquiries he had made about obtaining a new situation, +evidently thinking Mr. Grundy's influence of importance in the matter. + +This letter must receive a passing notice. It shows Branwell's mind +vigorous and healthy, although it had been disordered by physical +illness accompanied by brooding melancholy. His picture of the lonely +parsonage and the solitude of the surrounding country, combined with +the expression of his own sad emotions, is graphic enough. His sisters +wrote with the same power and the same artistic feeling. The occasion +of his writing this letter to Mr. Grundy was his wish to obtain some +employment in connection with the railway, and he made this overdrawn +confession of his habits and indulgences when at Luddenden Foot, and +contrasted them with the great mental, moral, and bodily improvement +he had acquired since he left. It was his hope that by this contrast +he might make a favourable impression, and that Mr. Grundy's position +with the Messrs. Stephenson might be a means of helping him to some +employment suited to his tastes and abilities. But Mr. Grundy could +not aid him in this object, which he pursued with all the feverish +eagerness of his urgent and impetuous nature. With great vigour of +expression he declares, 'I would rather give my hand than undergo +again the grovelling carelessness, the malignant yet cold debauchery, +the determination to find how far mind could carry body without both +being chucked into hell.' + +But Branwell, at the time of which I speak, was full of energy and +industry; indeed, he could not be idle. He wrote another letter in +reply to one he had received from Mr. Grundy, dated June the 9th, +1842. From this we learn that his friend had either not entertained +his applications, or was unable to further his interests in the +quarter from which employment could come, for he had given +discouraging answers. Branwell felt the disappointment keenly, but +says that it was allayed by Mr. Grundy's kind and considerate tone. +His friend had asked why he did not turn his attention elsewhere. To +this Branwell replies that most of his relations are clergymen, and +others of them, by a private life, removed from the busy world. As for +the church, he declares he has not one mental qualification, 'save, +perhaps, hypocrisy,' which might make him 'cut a figure in its +pulpits.' He informs Mr. Grundy that Mr. James Montgomery and another +literary gentleman, who had lately seen something of his work, wished +him to turn his attention to literature. He declares that he has +little conceit of himself, but that he has a great desire for +activity. He is somewhat changed, yet, although not possessed of the +buoyant spirits of his friend, he might, in dress and appearance, +emulate something like ordinary decency. + +In Leyland's art commissions at Haworth, Branwell took great interest, +and in his correspondence considerable activity and industry appear. +He wrote, on June the 29th, 1842, to the sculptor, a letter, in which +he alludes to the conduct of some gentlemen of the committee at +Haworth, who had acted in an unfair way to his friend on a +professional matter. He says:-- + +'I have not often felt more heartily ashamed than when you left the +committee at Haworth; but I did not like to speak on the subject then, +and I trusted that you would make that allowance, which you have +perhaps often ere now had to do, for gothic ignorance and ill +breeding; and one or two of the persons present afterwards felt that +they had left by no means an enviable impression on your mind. + +'Though it is but a poor compliment,--I long much to see you again at +Haworth, and forget for half-a-day the amiable society in which I am +placed, where I never hear a word more musical than an ass's bray. +When you come over, bring with you Mr. Constable, but leave behind +Father Matthew, as his conversation is too cold and freezing for +comfort among the moors of Yorkshire.' + +At the bottom of the sheet on which this letter is written, Branwell +has drawn a pen-and-ink sketch of rare merit. The weird waste, which +stretches to the horizon, may represent well the lonely wilds of +Haworth, overshadowed by the clouds of approaching night, and +interspersed with streaks of fading day, among which the crescent moon +appears. In the foreground is a group of monuments, one a tomb sunk on +its side; and, of the head-stones, one is inscribed with the word +'Resurgam.' Branwell was no mean draughtsman, and that his hand did +not shake with the excesses he is represented to have gone through at +this period of his life, the delicacy of this elaborate drawing is +sufficient proof. + +Mr. Constable, mentioned in the letter, was an acquaintance of the +sculptor, a gentleman of considerable ability in art and poetry. The +conviviality, which Branwell did not consider altogether a dereliction +of moral duty, led him to make his quiet and humorous allusion to +Father Matthew. + + +END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. + + +LONDON: PRINTED BY DUNCAN MACDONALD, BLENHEIM HOUSE. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bronte Family, Vol. 1 of 2, by +Francis A. 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