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THE BRONTES
LIFE AND LETTERS
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THE BRONTES
LIFE AND LETTERS
BEING AX ATTEMPT TO PRESENT A FULL AND FINAL RECORD OF THE LIVES OF THE THREE SISTERS. CHARLOTTE. EMILY AND ANNE BRONTE FROM THE BIOGRA- PHIES OF MRS. GASKELL AND OTHERS. AND FROM NUMEROUS HITHERTO UN- PUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS AND LETTERS
CLEMENT SHORTER
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VOL. I
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HODDER AND STOUGHTON
LONDON : MCMVIII
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First Edition printed September igo8 Second Edition printed Novejnber igo8
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V.
Edinburgh : T. and A. Constablb, Printers to His Majesty
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PREFACE
The Life of Charlotte Bronte has been written, with finality all will agree, by Mrs. Gaskell, but when an author has attained to great fame there is a public, however small, with whom the interest extends beyond a standard biography. It was so with Johnson, and we have not only the incomparable ' Boswell,' but certain volumes of letters edited by Dr. Birkbeck Hill. It was so with Scott, and we have not only the always interesting ' Lockhart,' but four volumes of letters and diaries that every lover of Sir Walter delights in. Thus it is that I have to congratulate myself upon the fact that the widespread interest in the Brontes has secured for my book, Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle, a very large audience, both in v-rreat Britain and the United States. The merits of that ibook were due in no measure to the compiler, but rather \o the happy accident which placed in his hands a great
^ deal of material not known to any previous writer on the subject.
During the eleven years that have passed since I first
; published Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle, correspondents from all parts of the world have forwarded me documents and letters which I am glad to add here, thus making this book, which I call The Brontes : Life and Letters, very largely a new work. Everything that was in the former
vi THE BRONTES
work has been incorporated, and a quantity of extremely valuable new material has been added, including many hitherto unpublished letters. The placing for the first time of the whole of the correspondence in chronological order will, it is hoped, be considered in itself sufficient to justify this publication.
It had always been my ambition to present these letters in chronological order, but I found that no book of the kind could be considered satisfactory that did not include all the letters already published, even those that were familiar to the readers of Mrs. Gaskell's biography. The exhaustion of the copyright of Mrs. Gaskell's book has given me my opportunity. I have every reason to hope that there are many Bronte enthusiasts who will welcome these volumes, which, although avowedly a compilation, will make a sympathetic appeal to those who have come under the glamour of the Bronte story.
I have to offer a word of thanks to Dr. Robertson Nicoll, to i\Ir. C. W, Hatfield of Pershore, and to Mr. Butler Wood of Bradford, for kindly reading my proc 0 sheets, and for valuable suggestions. I have also \i acknowledge indebtedness to Mr. Thomas J. Wise a i^* Islr. H. Buxton Forman for the loan of correspondence.
C. S.
CONTENTS
V V
PRELIMINARY — MRS. GASKELL S BIOGRAPHY,
PAGE
I
CHAPTER I
PATRICK BRONTE AND MARIA HIS WIFE, .
CHAPTER n
THE BRONTES AT THORNTON,
\ Mr'
I j^3 CHAPTER HI
tal^ANCY AT HAWORTH AND COWAN BRIDGE,
; brc
SOI CHAPTER IV
i.ei
■ p CHAPTER V
teCHOOL-DAYS AT ROE HEAD,
LITERARY CHILDHOOD,
50
63
71
79
CHAPTER VI
HAWORTH, 1832-183:
CHAPTER Vn
kj GOVERNESS AT ROE HEAD AND DEWSBURY MOOR,
93
117
\\i CHAPTER Vni
MRS. SIDGWICK'S NURSERY GOVERNESS, .
149
viii THE BRONTES
CHAPTER IX
THE ART OF LOVE, . • . • . 163
CHAPTER X
UPPERWOOD HOUSE, RAWDON — MARCH TO DECEMBER 184I, . 202
CHAPTER XI
THE PENSIONNAT H^ER, BRUSSELS, .... 229
CHAPTER XII
SECOND SOJOURN IN BRUSSELS, . . • .254
CHAPTER XIII
A QUIET YEAR AT HAWORTH, . . . . . ^
ne
CHAPTER XIV p,
CURRER, ELLIS, AND ACTON BELL, ... . jjl^
CHAPTER XV tl
'THE PROFESSOR' AND 'jANE EYRE,' . . . -3-
'a
CHAPTER XVI i
A LITERARY FRIENDSHIP, ..... 380^
CHAPTER XVII
MARY TAYLOR, ....... 428
CHAPTER XVIII
THE DEATH OF BRANWELL BRONTE, . . . . 451
f
PRELIMINARY
MRS. GASKELL'S BIOGRAPHY
There have been few biographies that have secured a more widespread interest than the Life of Charlotte Bronte by ]Mrs. Gaskell. It has held a position of singular popularity for fifty years ; and while biography after bio- graphy has come and gone, it still commands a place side by side with Boswell's Johnson and Lockhart's Scott, although in all essentials it is considerably inferior to these. There were obvious reasons for this success. Mrs. Gaskell was herself a popular novelist, who com- manded a very wide audience, and Cranford, at least, has taken a place among the classics of our literature. She brought to bear upon the biography of Charlotte Bronte some of those literary gifts which had made the charm of her i, eight volumes of romance. And these gifts were employed pupon a romance of real life, not less fascinating than any ^ thing- which imasfination could have furnished. Charlotte 1 Bronte's success as an author turned the eyes of the world . upon her. Thackeray had sent her his Vanity Fair N before he knew her name or sex. The precious volume A lies before me —
\ 4t/r ^ f^Ay^i^ Z^^f^'^ ff U^^^Cc^Vt^Ci^^^t^,
A
And Thackeray did not send many inscribed copies of his books even to successful authors. Speculation concerning the author of Jane Eyre was sufficiendy rife during those
VOL. I. A
\
2 THE BRONTES
seven sad years of literary renown to make a biography imperative when death came to Charlotte Bronte in 1855. All the world had heard something of the three marvellous sisters, daughters of a poor parson in Yorkshire, going one after another to their death with such melancholy swiftness, but leaving — two of them, at least — imperish- able work behind them. The old blind father and the bereaved husband read the confused eulogy and criticism, sometimes with a sad pleasure at the praise, oftener with a sadder pain at the grotesque inaccuracy. Small wonder that it became impressed upon Mr. Bronte's mind that an authoritative biography was desirable. His son-in-law, Mr. Arthur Bell Nicholls, who lived with him in the Haworth parsonage during the six weary years which succeeded Mrs. Nicholls's death, was not so readily won to the unveiling of his wife's inner life ; and although we, who read Mrs. Gaskell's Memoir, have every reason to be thankful for Mr. Bronte's decision, peace of mind would undoubtedly have been more assured to Charlotte Bronte's surviving relatives had the most rigid silence been main- tained. The book, when it appeared in 185 7,^ gave infinite pain to a number of people, including Mr. Bronte and Mr. Nicholls; and Mrs. Gaskell's subsequent experiences had the effect of persuading her that all biographical literature was intolerable and undesirable. She would seem to have given instructions that no biography of herself should be written. Her daughters have respected that wish, and now that forty years have passed since her death we have no substantial record of one of the most fascinating women of her age. The loss to literature has been forcibly brought home to the present writer, who has in his possession a number of letters written by Mrs. , Gaskell to numerous friends of Charlotte Bronte during '
1 Mrs. Gaskell's biography of Charlotte Bronte must be read in the ' Haworth edition,* printed in 1900 by Smith, Elder and Co., in Engl.and, and by Harper Bros., in the United States. In this edition will be found sixty-five letters to her publisher, Mr. George Smith, and to his mother, that are not obtainable elsewhere.
PRELIMINARY 3
the progress of the biography. They serve, all of them, to impress one with the singular charm of the woman, her humanity and breadth of sympathy. They make us think better of Mrs. Gaskell, as Thackeray's letters to Mrs. Brookfield make us think better of the author of Vanity Fair.
Apart from these letters, a journey in the footsteps, as
it were, of Mrs. Gaskell reveals to us the remarkable con-
/ , scientiousness with which she set about her task. It
would have been possible, with so much fame behind her,
to have secured an equal success, and certainly an equal
pecuniary reward, had she merely written a brief mono-
, graph with such material as was voluntarily placed in her
(hands. Mrs. Gaskell possessed a higher ideal of a bio-
j grapher's duties. She spared no pains to find out the
) facts ; she visited every spot associated with the name of
Charlotte Bronte — Thornton, Haworth, Cowan Bridge,
Birstall, Brussels — and she wrote countless letters to the
friends of Charlotte Bronte s earlier days.
But why, it may be asked, was Mrs. Gaskell selected as biographer ? The choice was made by Mr. Bronte, and it would have been difficult to have named any other practised writer with equal qualifications. When Mr. Bronte had once decided that there should be an authori- tative biography — and he alone was active in the matter ' — there could be but little doubt upon whom the task would fall. Among all the friends whom fame had /brought to Charlotte, Mrs. Gaskell stood prominent for i her literary gifts and her large-hearted sympathy. She had made the acquaintance of Miss Bronte when the latter was on a visit to Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth, in 1850; and a letter from Charlotte to her father, and others to >Mr. W. S. Williams, which will be found in due chronolo- i-^ical order, indicate the beginning of a friendship which \\was to leave so striking a record in literary history.
But the friendship, which commenced so late in Char-
4 THE BRONTES
lotte Bronte's life, never reached the stage of downright intimacy. Of this there is abundant evidence in the biography ; and Mrs. Gaskell was forced to rely upon the correspondence of older friends of Charlotte's. Mr. George Smith, the head of the firm of Smith and Elder, furnished some twenty letters. Mr. W. S. Williams, to whom is due the credit of ' discovering ' the author of Jane Eyre, lent others ; and another member of Messrs. Smith and Elder's staff, Mr. James Taylor, furnished half-a-dozen more ; but the best help came from another quarter.
Of the two schoolfellows with whom Charlotte Bronte regularly corresponded from childhood till death, Mary Taylor and Ellen Nussey, the former had destroyed every letter ; and thus it came about that by far the larger part of the correspondence in Mrs. Gaskell's biography was addressed to Miss Ellen Nussey, now as ' My dearest Nell,' now simply as ' E.' The unpublished correspon- dence in my hands, which refers to the biography, opens with a letter from Mrs. Gaskell to Miss Nussey, dated July 6th, 1855.^ It relates how, in accordance with a request from Mr. Bronte, she had undertaken to write the work, and had been over to Haworth. There she had made the acquaintance of Mr. Nicholls for the first time. She told Mr. Bronte how much she felt the difficulty of the task she had undertaken. Nevertheless, she sincerely desired to make his daughter's character known to all who took deep interest in her writings. Both Mr. Bronte and Mr. Nicholls agreed to help to the utmost, although Mrs. Gaskell was struck by the fact that it was Mr. Nicholls, and not Mr. Bronte, who was more intellectually alive to 1 the attraction which such a book would have for the public. His feelings were opposed to any biography at all; buO
* An earlier letter, dated June i6th, 1855, from Mr. Bronte to Mrs. Gaskell, | begging her to undertake the biography of his daughter, is printed in the Haworth j edition of the Life.
\
i
PRELIMINARY 5
he had yielded to Mr. Brontes 'impetuous wish,' and he brought down all the materials he could find, in the shape of about a dozen letters. Mr. Nicholls, moreover, told Mrs. Gaskell that Miss Nussey was the person of all others to apply to ; that she had been the friend of his wife ever since Charlotte was fifteen, and that he was writing to Miss Nussey to beg her to let Mrs Gaskell see some of the correspondence.
But here is Mr. Nicholls's actual letter, as well as earlier letters from and to Miss Nussey, which would seem to indicate that it was really a suggestion from that lady that produced the application to Mrs. Gaskell. She desired that some attempt should be made to furnish a biography of her friend — if only to set at rest, once and for all, the speculations of the gossiping community with whom Charlotte Bronte's personality was still shrouded in mystery.
I TO REV. A. B. NICHOLLS
I Brookroyd,/««^ 6M, 1855.
Dear Mr. Nicholls, — I have been much hurt and pained hy the perusal of an article in Sharpe for this month, entitled ', A Few Words about Jane Eyre' You will be certain to see the ■ rticle, and I am sure both you and Mr. Bronte will feel acutely ..lie misrepresentations and the malignant spirit which characterises L Will you suffer the article to pass current without any efdtations ? The writer merits the contempt of silence, but there ,'ill be readers and believers. Shall such be left to imbibe a
Issue of malignant falsehoods, or shall an attempt be made to do stice to one who so highly deserved justice, whose very name 'I hose who best knew her but speak with reverence and affection? ''j^hould not her aged father be defended from the reproach the •, Iriter coarsely attempts to bring upon him ? \ I wish Mrs. Gaskell, who is every way capable, would under- I ike a reply, and would give a sound castigation to the writer, ^^er personal acquaintance with Haworth, the Parsonage, and its imates, fits her for the task, and if on other subjects she lacked
\
6 THE BRONTES
information I would gladly supply her with facts sufficient to set aside much that is asserted, if you yourself are not provided with all the information that is needed on the subjects produced. Will you ask Mrs. Gaskell to undertake this just and honourable defence? I think she would do it gladly. She valued dear Charlotte, and such an act of friendship, performed with her ability and power, could only add to the laurels she has already won. I hope you and Mr. Bronte are well. My kind regards to both. — Believe me, yours sincerely, E. NUSSEY.
TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY
Haworth, /««e i\th, 1855.
Dear Miss Nussey, — We had not seen the article in Sharpe, and very possibly should not, if you had not directed our attention to it. We ordered a copy, and have now read the ' Few Words about Jmie Eyre! The writer has certainly made many mistakesi but apparently not from any unkind motive, as he professes to be an admirer of Charlotte's works, pays a just tribute to her genius, and in common with thousands deplores her untimely death.. His design seems rather to be to gratify the curiosity of the multitude in reference to one who had made such a sensation in the literary world. But even if the article had been of a less harmless character, we should not have felt inclined to take any notice of it, as by doing so we should have given it an importance which it would not otherwise have obtained. Charlotte herseff would have acted thus ; and her character stands too high : be injured by the statements in a magazine of small circulatic/i and little influence — statements which the writer prefaces with tli'; remark that he does not vouch for their accuracy. The maq ' laudatory notices of Charlotte and her works which appey-iJ since her death may well make us indifferent to the detractii (> of a few envious or malignant persons, as there ever willn | such. I
The remarks respecting Mr. Bronte excited in him only amuf / ment — indeed, I have not seen him laugh as much for sor months as he did while I was reading the article to him. We je , both well in health, but lonely and desolate.
Mr. Bronte unites with me in kind regards. — Yours sincerely,
A. B. NiCHOLLS. '
i
PRELIMINARY
TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY
HAWORTH,/«/y 2i,th, 1855. Dear Miss Nussey, — Some other erroneous notices of Charlotte having appeared, Mr. Bronte has deemed it advisable that some authentic statement should be put forth. He has therefore adopted your suggestion and applied to Mrs. Gaskell, who has undertaken to write a life of Charlotte. Mrs. Gaskell came over yesterday and spent a few hours with us. The greatest difficulty seems to be in obtaining materials to show the develop- ment of Charlotte's character. For this reason Mrs. Gaskell is anxious to see her letters, especially those of any early date. I think I understood you to say that you had some ; if so, we should feel obliged by your letting us have any that you may think I proper, not for publication, but merely to give the writer an ' insight into her mode of thought. Of course they will be returned after a little time.
I confess that the course most consonant with my own feelings would be to take no steps in the matter, but I do not think it right to offer any opposition to Mr. Bronte's wishes.
We have the same object in view, but should differ in our mode of proceeding. Mr. Bronte has not been very well. Excitement on Sunday (our Rush-bearing) and Mrs, Gaskell's visit yesterday have been rather much for him. — Believe me, sincerely yours,
A. B. NiCHOLLS.
Mrs. Gaskell, however, wanted to make Miss Nussey's
j§cquaintance, and asked if she might visit her ; and added
-],hat she would also like to see Miss Wooler, Charlotte's
^^schoolmistress, if that lady were still alive. To this letter
Miss Nussey made the following reply : —
TO MRS. GASKELL, MANCHESTER
iLKLEYj/^/y 26//^, 1855.
My DEAR Madam, — Owing to my absence from home your letter has only just reached me. I had not heard of Mr. Bronte's request, but I am most heartily glad that he has made it. A letter from Mr. Nicholls was forwarded along with yours, which I opened first, and was thus prepared for your communication,
8 THE BRONTES
the subject of which is of the deepest interest to me. I will do everything in my power to aid the righteous work you have undertaken, but I feel my powers very limited, and apprehend that you may experience some disappointment that I cannot contribute more largely the information which you desire. I possess a great many letters (for I have destroyed but a small portion of the correspondence), but I fear the early letters are not such as to unfold the character of the writer except in a few points. You perhaps may discover more than is apparent to me. You will read them with a purpose — I perused them only with interests of affection. I will immediately look over the corre- spondence, and I promise to let you see all that I can confide to your friendly custody. I regret that my absence from home should have made it impossible for me to have the pleasure of seeing you at Brookroyd at the time you propose. I am engaged to stay here till Monday week, and shall be happy to see you any day you name after that date, or, if more convenient to you to come Friday or Saturday in next week, I will gladly return in time to give you the meeting. I am staying with our school- mistress, Miss VVooler, in this place. I wish her very much to give me leave to ask you here, but she does not yield to my wishes ; it would have been pleasanter to me to talk with you among these hills than sitting in my home and thinking of one who had so often been present there. — I am, my dear madam, yours sincerely, Ellen Nussey.
Mrs. Gaskell and Miss Nussey met. and the friendship which ensued was closed only by death ; indeed one of i the most beautiful letters in the collection in my hands u / one signed ' Meta Gaskell,' and dated January 22, i86^J' It tells in detail, with infinite tenderness and pathos, o^ ' her mother's last moments.^ That, however, was ten year^ later than the period with which we are concerned. Ir| \ 1856 Mrs. Gaskell was energetically engaged upon a bio-l graphy of her friend which should lack nothing of thorough- J ness, as she hoped. She claimed to have visited the scene? of all the incidents in Charlotte's life, ' the two little piece^ ,
1 * Mama's last days,' it runs, 'had been full of loving thought and tender help fo: others. She was so sweet and dear and noble beyond words.' l
PRELIMINARY 9
of private governess-ship excepted.' She went one day with Mr. Smith to the Chapter Coffee-House, where the sisters first stayed in London. Another day she is in Yorkshire, where she makes the acquaintance of Miss Wooler, which permitted, as she said, ' a more friendly manner of writing towards Charlotte Bronte's old school- mistress.' Again she is in Brussels, where Madame Heger refused to see her, although M. Heger was kind and communicative, * and very much indeed I both like and respect him.' Her countless questions were exceedingly interesting. They covered many pages of note-paper. ' Did Branwell Bronte know of the publication qf Jane \pyre' she asks, * and how did he receive the news ? ' Mrs. Gaskell was persuaded in her own mind that he had never Jcnown of its publication, and we shall presently see that jshe was right. Charlotte had distinctly informed her, she (said, that Branwell was not in a fit condition at the time to be told. ' Where did the girls get the books which they read so continually ? Did Emily accompany Charlotte as a jpupil when the latter went as a teacher to Roe Head ? \5{.hy did not Branwell go to the Royal Academy in London tLij-earn painting? Did Emily ever go out as a governess ? "^{^'pat were Emily's religious opinions ? Did she ever make f ,jj^nds ? ' Such were the questions which came quick and f f^t to Miss Nussey, and Miss Nussey fortunately kept \\^ replies.
;? TO MRS. GASKELL, MANCHESTER
l^ Brookroyd, Ci:/^(5^r22«</, I856.
\ ' My dear Mrs. Gaskell, — If you go to London pray try Ifhat may be done with regard to a portrait of dear Charlotte. It V^ould greatly enhance the value and interest of the memoir, and ,uch a satisfaction to people to see something that would le their ideas of the personal appearance of the dear departed ■. (.'?. It has been a surprise to every stranger, I think, that she vyds so gentle and lady-like to look upon. ppEmily Bronte went to Roe Head as pupil when Charlotte
s
10 THE BRONT]&S
went as teacher ; she stayed there but two months ; she never settled, and was ill from nothing but home-sickness. Anne took her place and remained about two years. Emily was a teacher for one six months in a ladies' school in Halifax or the neighbour- hood. I do not know whether it was conduct or want of finances that prevented Branwell from going to the Royal Academy. Probably there were impediments of both kinds.
I am afraid if you give me my name I shall feel a prominence in the book that I altogether shrink from. My very last wish would be to appear in the book more than is absolutely neces- sary. If it were possible, I would choose not to be known at all. It is my friend only that I care to see and recognise, though your framing and setting of the picture will very greatly enhance it.s value. — I am, my dear Mrs. Gaskell, yours very sincerely,
Ellen Nussey.
The book was published in tv^o volumes, under the title of The Life of Charlotte Bronte, in the spring of 1857. At first all was well. Mr. Bronte's earliest acknowledgment of the book was one of approbation. Sir James Kay-Shuttle- worth expressed the hope that Mr. Nicholls would 'rejoice that his wife would be known as a Christian heroine who could bear her cross with the firmness of a martyr sai^-r , > Canon Kingsley wrote a charming letter to Mrs. Gask published in his Life, and more than once reprinted sir .
' Let me renew our long interrupted acquaintance, ^^^i ^ writes from St. Leonard's, under date May 14th, 1857, '^ \ ^ complimenting you on poor Miss Bronte's Life. r.^ | , have had a delicate and a great work to do, and you ha '^ done it admirably. Be sure that the book will do gooL It will shame literary people into some stronger belief tb/; a simple, virtuous, practical home life is consistent wit; high imaginative genius ; and it will shame, too, tl, prudery of a not over-cleanly though carefully whi*-^ washed age, into believing that purity is now (as in all aj" till now) quite compatible with the knowledge of evil. ^^ confess that the book has made me ashamed of mysj fane Eyre I hardly looked into, very seldom reading.
^-
PRELIMINARY 11
work of fiction — yours, indeed, and Thackeray's, are the only ones I care to open. Shirley disgusted me at the opening, and I gave up the writer and her books with a notion that she was a person who Hked coarseness. How I misjudged her ! and how thankful I am that I never put a word of my misconceptions into print, or recorded my misjudgments of one who is a whole heaven above me.
'Well have you done your work, and given us the picture of a valiant woman made perfect by suffering. I shall now read carefully and lovingly every word she has written, especially those poems, which ought not to have fallen dead as they did, and which seem to be (from a review in the current Eraser) of remarkable strength and purity.'
I It was a short-lived triumph, however, and Mrs. Gaskell jboon found herself, as she expressed it, 'in a veritable hornet's nest.' Mr. Bronte, to begin with, did not care for the references to himself and the suoraestion that he
oo
had treated his wife unkindly, although it is clear from the
correspondence that he did not find anything wrong on his
rst perusal of the book. Mrs. Gaskell had associated
im with numerous eccentricities and ebullitions of temper,
hich during his later years he always asserted, and
ndoubtedly with perfect truth, were, at the best, the
abrications of a dismissed servant. Mr. Nicholls had also
[lis grievance. There was just a suspicion implied that
1e had not been quite the most sympathetic of husbands.
A /The suspicion was absolutely ill-founded, and arose from
j^Mr. Nicholls's intense shyness. But neither Mr. Bronte
/I" nor Mr. Nicholls gave Mrs. Gaskell much trouble. They,
JUt any rate, were silent. Trouble, however, came from
l''if^any quarters. Yorkshire people resented the air of
^J^tronage with which, as it seemed to them, a good
' 4- Lancashire lady had taken their county in hand. They
¥'^ere not quite the backward savages, they retorted, which
'^P'ome of Mrs. Gaskell's descriptions in the beginning of her
12 THE BRONTES
book would seem to suggest. Between Lancashire and Yorkshire there is always a suspicion of jealousy. It was intensified for the moment by these sombre pictures of 'this lawless, yet not unkindly population.'^ A son-in-law of Mr. Redhead wrote to deny the account of that clergy- man's association with Haworth. * He gives another as true,' wrote Mrs. Gaskell, 'in which I don't see any great difference.' Miss Martineau wrote sheet after sheet ex- planatory of her relations with Charlotte Bronte. ' Two separate householders in London each declare that the first interview between Miss Bronte and Miss Martineau took place at her house,' is another of Mrs. Gaskell's despairing cries. In one passage Mrs. Gaskell had spoken of wasteful young servants, and the young servants in question came upon Mr. Bronte for the following testi- monial : —
Haworth, August 17th, 1857. ' I beg leave to state to all whom it may concern, that Nancy and Sarah Garrs, during the time they were in my service, were kind to my children, and honest, and not wasteful, but sufficiently careful in regard to food, and all other articles committed to their charge. P. Bronte, A.B.,
Incumbent of Haworth^ Yorkshire.
Three whole pages were devoted to the dramatic recital of a scandal at Haworth, and this entirely disappears from the third edition. A casual reference to a girl who haid been seduced, and had found a friend in Miss Bronte, gate further trouble, 'I have altered the word "seduced" Jo " betrayed," ' writes Mrs, Gaskell to Martha Brown, ' andil hope that this will satisfy the unhappy girl's friends.' Biit all these were small matters compared with the Cowal- Bridge controversy and the threatened legal proceedi/* •* over Branwell Bronte's suggested love affairs. IVf^ ^
^ ' Some of the West Ridingers are very angry, and declare they are half a centuiy . civilisation before some of the Lancashire folk, and that this neighbourhood is a par« *• compareii with some districts not far from Manchester.' — Ellen Nussey to Mrs. Gas'C . April i6th, 1859. ^
PRELIMINARY 13
Gaskell defended the description in Jane Eyre of Cowan Bridge with peculiar vigour. Mr. Carus Wilson, the Brocklehurst of Jane Eyre, and his friends were furious. They threatened an action. There were letters in the Times and letters in the Daily News. Mr. Nicholls broke silence — the only time that he did so during the forty years that followed his wife's death — with two admirable letters to the Halifax Giiardian} The Cowan Bridge controversy was a drawn battle, in spite of numerous and glowing testi- monials to the virtues of Mr. Carus Wilson. Most people who know anything of the average private schools of half a century ago are satisfied that Charlotte Bronte's descrip- tion was substantially correct. ' I want to show you many letters,' writes Mrs. Gaskell, 'most of them praising the character of our dear friend as she deserves, and from people whose opinion she would have cared for, such as the Duke of Argyll, Kingsley, Greg, etc. Many abusing me. "i should think seven or eight of this kind from the Carus Wilson clique.'
, The Branwell matter was more serious. Here Mrs.
]askell had, indeed, shown a singular recklessness. The
lady referred to by Branwell was Mrs. Robinson, the wife
of the Rev. Edmund Robinson of Thorp Green, and after-
w
rds Lady Scott. Anne Bronte was governess in her faliily for four years, and Branwell tutor to the son for atbut two. Branwell, under the influence of opium, made certain statements about his relations with Mrs. RJbinson which have been effectually disproved, although t.^ ey were implicitly believed by the Bronte girls, who, Unmanlike, were naturally ready to regard a woman as ^) (e ruin of a beloved brother. The recklessness of Mrs. Gj skell in accepting such inadequate testimony can be e;]Dlained only on the assumption that she had a novelist's S' ' isfaction in the romance which the ' bad woman ' theory ^^.iiplied. She wasted a considerable amount of rhetoric upun it. ' When the fatal attack came on,' she says, ' his
I ^ See Appendix VIII.
14 THE BRONTES
pockets were found filled with old letters from the woman to whom he was attached. He died ! she lives still — in Mayfair. I see her name in county papers, as one of those who patronise the Christmas balls ; and I hear of her in London drawing-rooms ' — and so on. There were no love-letters found in Branwell Brontes pockets.^ When Mrs. Gaskell's husband came post-haste to Haworth to ask for proofs of Mrs. Robinson's complicity in Bran- well's downfall, none were obtainable. I was assured by the late Sir Leslie Stephen that his father, Sir James Stephen, was employed at the time to make careful inquiry, and that he and other eminent lawyers came to the conclusion that it was one long tissue of lies or halluci- nations.^ The subject is sufficiently sordid, and indeed almost redundant in any biography of the Brontes ; but it is of moment, because Charlotte Bronte and her sisters were so thoroughly persuaded that a woman was at thp bottom of their brother's ruin ; and this belief Charlotte im^- pressed upon all the friends who were nearest and dearest to her. Her letters at the time of her brother's death ar/ full of censure of the supposed wickedness of anotheV. Here, Mrs. Gaskell did not show the caution which a masculine biographer, less prone to take literally a ma\/s accounts of his amours, would undoubtedly have ctss- played. Indeed she told Miss Nussey that she intenoW to revenge the wrongs of the Brontes upon ' that womaln ' — an admirable piece of chivalry if she had been sure^of her facts. i
Yet, when all is said, Mrs. Gaskell had done her wd
^ 'To this bold statement [i.e. that love-letters were found in Branwell's pocki Martha Brown gave to me a flat contradiction, declaring that she was employed in sick-room at the time, and had personal knowledge that not one letter, nor a ves of one, from the lady in question, was so found.'— Leyland, The Bronte Fan vol. ii. p. 284.
2 Mr. Nicholls believed the story to have had some truth in it, as he could notot wise account for Anne's acceptance of her brother's version of the afi'air, she bein the time in the same family. The probable explanation is that Anne failed to ur stand and to accept at its true worth Mrs. Robinson's irresponsible flirtation with brother. Mrs. Robinson was probably laughing at Branwell all the time.
s) le
I
••st- n
ear
PRELIMINARY 15
as thoroughly and well as the documents before her permitted. Lockhart's Scott and Froude's Carlyle are examples of great biographies which called for abun- dant censure upon their publication ; yet both these books will live as classics of their kind. To be interesting, it is perhaps indispensable that the biographer should be indiscreet, and certainly the Branwell incident — a matter of two or three pages — is the only part of Mrs. Gaskell's biography in which indiscretion becomes indefensible. And for this she suffered cruelly. ' I did so try to tell the truth,' she said to a friend, ' and I believe now I hit as near to the truth as any one could do.' ' I weighed every line with my whole power and heart,' she said on another occasion, ' so that every line should go to its great purpose of making her known and valued, as one who had gone tl^irough such a terrible life with a brave and faithful heart.' And that clearly Mrs. Gaskell succeeded in doing. It is qbite certain that Charlotte Bronte would not stand on so splendid a pedestal to-day but for the single-minded
- (;jpvotion of her accomplished biographer.
vjt has sometimes been implied that the portrait drawn b.w Mrs. Gaskell was far too sombre, that there are passages in Charlotte's letters which show that ofttimes heir heart was merry and her life sufficiently cheerful. That the re were long periods of gaiety for all the three sisters, 9^ ; ely no one ever doubted. To few people, fortunately, i/ t given to have lives wholly without happiness. And / j^vfj when this is acknowledged, how can one say that the pifiture was too gloomy? Taken as a whole, the life of Cliarlotte Bronte was among the saddest in literature. At /. Q (miserable school, where she herself was unhappy, she
';.. ^ wjv her two elder sisters stricken down and carried home boudie. In her home was the narrowest poverty. She g!l^, in the years when that was most essential, no mother's
\ ^10^ ; and perhaps there was a somewhat too rigid disci- V^Vuqarian in the aunt who took the mother's place. Her
16 THE BRONTES
second school brought her, indeed, two kind friends ; but her shyness made that school-Hfe in itself a prolonged tragedy. Of the two experiences as a private governess I shall have more to say. They were periods of torture to her sensitive nature. The ambition of the three girls to start a school on their own account failed ignominiously. The suppressed vitality of childhood and early womanhood made Charlotte unable to enter with sympathy and tolera- tion into the life of a foreign city, and Brussels was for her a further disaster. Then within two years, just as literary fame was bringing its consolation for the trials of the past, she saw her two beloved sisters taken from her. And, finally, when at last a good man won her love, there were left to her only nine months of happy married life. ' I am not going to die. We have been so happy.' These words to her husband on her death-bed are not the least piteously sad in her tragic story. That her life was a tragedy, was the opinion of the woman friend with whom on the intellectual side she had most in common. Miss Mary Taylor wrote to Mrs. Gaskell the following letter froj'n New Zealand upon receipt of the Life : — *■.
Wellington, lothjuly 185I ^ My dear Mrs. Gaskell, — I am unaccountably in receipt )by post of two vols, containing the Life of C. Bronte. I have pleasure in attributing this compliment to you ; I beg, therefore, to thi^nk you for them. The book is a perfect success, in giving a tfue picture of a melancholy life, and you have practically answe ed my puzzle as to how you would give an account of her, not being at liberty to give a true description of those around. Though I ot so gloomy as the truth, it is perhaps as much so as people v accept without calling it exaggerated, and feeling the desire doubt and contradict it. I have seen two reviews of it. One them sums it up as ' a life of poverty and self-suppression,' ^, other has nothing to the purpose at all. Neither of them seem think it a strange or wrong state of things that a woman of ^:i'.: rt rate talents, industry, and integrity should live all her life /n a walking nightmare of 'poverty and self-suppression.' I dpubt whether any of them will.
ill to
PRELIMINARY 17
It must upset most people's notions of beauty to be told that the portrait at the beginning is that of an ugly woman.^ I do not altogether like the idea of publishing a flattered likeness. I had rather the mouth and eyes had been nearer together, and shown the veritable square face and large disproportionate nose.
I had the impression that Cartwright's mill was burnt in 1820, not in 1 81 2. You give much too favourable an account of the black-coated and Tory savages that kept the people down, and provoked excesses in those days. Old Roberson said he ' would wade to the knees in blood rather than the then state of things should be altered/ — a state including Corn law, Test law, and a host of other oppressions.
Once more I thank you for the book — the first copy, I believe, that arrived in New Zealand. — Sincerely yours,
Mary Taylor.
And in another letter, written a little later (28th January 858), Miss Mary Taylor writes to Miss Ellen Nussey in similar strain : —
Your account of Mrs. Gaskell's book was very interesting,' she s^ys. ' She seems a hasty, impulsive person, and the needful dirawing back after her warmth gives her an inconsistent look. Yet I doubt not her book will be of great use. You must be aware that many strange notions as to the kind of person Charlotte reatlly was will be done away with by a knowledge of the true facts of her life. I have heard imperfectly of farther printing on the subject. As to the mutilated edition that is to come, I am sorry for it. Libellous or not, the first edition was all true, and except the declamation all, in my opinion, useful to be published. Of .course I don't know how far necessity may make Mrs. Gaskell giye them up. You know one dare not always say the world mc()ves.'
!
We v^L^ do know the whole story in fullest detail will understand that it was desirable to 'mutilate' the bJok, and that, indeed, truth did in some measure require
Mrs. Gaskell had described Charlotte Bronte's features as 'plain, large, and ill-set,' an'''\ad written of her 'crooked mouth and large nose' — while acknowledging the baGciy of hair and eyes.
V^^L. I. B
18 THE BRONTES
it. But with these letters of Mary Taylor's before us, let us not hear again that the story of Charlotte Bronte's life was not, in its main features, accurately and adequately told by her gifted biographer.
Why then, I am naturally asked, add one further book to the Bronte biographical literature ? The reply is, I hope, sufficient. Fifty years have gone by, and they have been years of growing interest in the subject. In the year 1895 ten thousand people visited the Bronte Museum at Haworth. Interesting books have been written, notably Sir Wemyss Reid's monograph and Mr. Leyland's The Bronte Fainily, but they have gone out of print. Dozens of letters and many new facts have come to light, and details, which seemed too trivial in 1857, are of sufficient importance to-day ; facts which were rightly suppressed then may honestly and honourably be given to the public at an interval of half a century. Added to all this, fortune has been kind to me.
Some thirteen or fourteen years ago the late Miss Ellen Nussey placed in my hands a printed volume of some 400 pages, which bore no publisher's name, but contained upon its title-page the statement that it was The Story of Charlotte Bronte s Life, as told through her Letters. These are the Letters which Miss Nussey had lent to Mrs. Gaskell and to Sir Wemyss Reid. Of these letters Mrs. Gaskell published about 100, and Sir Wemyss Rcid added a few more. It was explained to me that the volume had been privately printed by Mr. J. Horsfall Turner of Idle, Bradford, under a misconception, and that only some dozen copies were extant. Miss Nussey asked me if I would write something around what might remain of the unpublished letters, and if I saw my way to do anything which would add to the public appre- ciation of the friend who from early childhood ur'^'^ then had been the most absorbing interest of her 1 A careful study of the volume made it perfectly cl
PRELIMINARY 19
to me that there were still some letters which might with advantage be added to the Bronte story, although Mr, Augustine Birrell had advised to the contrary, and Mr, John Morley declined, on behalf of Messrs. Macmillan, to accept a book on the subject. At the same time arose the possibility of a veto being placed upon the publication of these letters. An examination of Charlotte Bronte's will, which was proved at York by her husband in 1855, suggested an easy way out of the difficulty. I made up my mind to try and see Mr. Nicholls. I had heard of his disinclination to be in any way associated with the con- troversy which had gathered round his wife for all these years; but I wrote to him nevertheless, and received a cordial invitation to visit him in his Irish home.
It was exactly forty years to a day after Charlotte died ^March 31st, 1895 — when I alighted at the station in the quiet little town of Banagher in Ireland, to receive the cordial handclasp of the man into whose keeping Charlotte Bronte had given her life. ,It was one of many visits, and the beginning of an interesting correspondence. Mr. Nicholls placed all the papers in his possession in my hands. They were more varied and more abundant than I could possibly have anticipated. They included countless manuscripts written in childhood, and bundles of letters. He» e were the letters Charlotte Bronte had written to her faniily during her second sojourn in Brussels — to ' Dear Brai.weir and 'Dear E. J.,' as she calls Emily Jane Brante — letters that even to handle was calculated to give a tiirill to the Bronte enthusiast. Here also were the love- le^iers of Maria Branwell to her lover Patrick Bronte, v/jiich were referred to in Mrs. Gaskell's biography, but ar-id never hitherto been printed.
^ ^The f^^ur small scraps of Emily and Anne's manuscript,' i^t-s Mr. Nicholls, T accidentally found squeezed into the ^^^w, box I send you. They are sad reading, poor girls ! beaiqt Others I found in the bottom of a cupboard tied up in
20 THE BRONTES
a newspaper, where they had lain for nearly thirty years, and where, had it not been for your visit, they must have remained during my lifetime, and most likely afterwards have been destroyed.'
Some slight extracts from Bronte letters in Macniillans Magazine, signed ' E. Baumer Williams.' brought me into communication with a gifted daughter of I\Ir. W. S. Williams, who had first discovered the merit of the novelist. Mrs. Williams and her husband generously placed the whole series of these letters of Charlotte Bronte to their father at my disposal. It was of some of these letters that Mrs. Gaskell wrote in enthusiastic terms when she had read them, and she was only permitted to see a few. Then I have to thank Mr. Joshua Taylor, the nephew of Miss Mary Taylor, for permission to publish his aunt's letters.^ Mr. James Taylor,^ again, who wanted to marry Charlotte Bronte, and who died twenty years afterwards in Bombay, left behind him a bundle of letters which I found in the possession of a relative in the north of London.^ I dis- covered through a letter addressed to Miss Nussey that the ' Brussels friend ' referred to by Mrs. Gaskell was a Miss Lsetitia Wheelwright, and I determined to write to ill the Wheelwrights in the London Directory. My ftVst effort succeeded, and the Miss Wheelwright kindly bent me all the letters that she had preserved. It is scar'-'-ely possible that time will reveal any more unpublished le^^.ers from the author o{ Jane Eyre. Several of those aln ^ady in print are forgeries, and I have already seen a lsl\.ter addressed from Paris, a city which Miss Bronte ne'Ver visited. I have the assurance of Dr. H^ger of Bruss-ds that Miss Bronte's correspondence with his father l^t-) longer exists. ^v
* Some extracts from wliich were printed in my Charlottt Bronte and Htr Ci.\ They are given here in their entirety. .j"
■^ Who was in no way related to Mary Taylor and her family • I '^ '
' Mrs. Lawry of Muswell Hill, to whose courtesy in placing these and othe n- at my disposal I am greatly indebted. These letters were afterwards purchased at .ar Thomas Wise. I
PATRICK AND MARIA BRONTE 21
CHAPTER I
PATRICK BRONTE AND MARIA HIS WIFE
It would seem quite clear to any careful investigator that the Reverend Patrick Bronte, Incumbent of Haworth, and the father of three famous daughters, was a much maligned man. We talk of the fierce light which beats upon a throne, but what is that compared to the fierce light which beats upon any man of some measure of individuality who is destined to live out his life in the quiet of a country village — in the very centre, as it were, of ' personal talk ' arid gossip not always kindly to the stranger within the gite ? The view of Mr. Bronte, presented by Mrs. Gaskell inl the early editions of her biography of Charlotte Bronte, is that of a severe, ill-tempered, and distinctly disagreeable cIVracter. It is the picture of a man who disliked the var ities of life so intensely, that the new shoes of his children and the silk dress of his wife were not spared by hirri: in sudden gusts of passion. A stern old ruffian, one is Jinclined to consider him. His pistol-shooting rings picturesquely, but not agreeably, through Mrs. Gaskell's meinoir. It has been explained already in more than one quarter that this was not the real Patrick Bronte, and that much of the unfavourable gossip was due to the chatter of a dismissed servant, retailed to Mrs. Gaskell on one of her mislsions of inquiry in the neighbourhood. The stories of the burnt shoes and the mutilated dress have been rele- ^aied to the r^ulm of myth, and the pistol-shooting may 1tiow\ be acknowledged as a harmless pastime not more liiqjiitous than the golfing or angling of a latter-day
22 THE BRONTfiS
clerg-yman. It is certain, were the matter of much interest to-day, that Mr. Bronte was fond of the use of firearms. The late Incumbent of Haworth^ pointed out to me, on the old tower of Haworth Church, the marks of pistol bullets, which he had been assured were made by Mr. Bronte. I have myself handled both the gun and the pistols — these latter very ornamental weapons, by the way, manufactured at Bradford — which Mr. Bronte possessed during the later years of his life,^ From them he had obtained much innocent amusement ; but his son-in-law, Mr. Nicholls, who, up to the day of his death, professed a reverent and enthusiastic affection for old Mr. Bronte, informed me that the bullet marks upon Haworth Church were the irresponsible frolic of the curate — Mr. Smith. It does not much matter. All this is trivial enough in any case, and one turns very readily to more important factors in the life of the father of the Brontes.
Patrick Bronte was born in a cottage in Emdale, in the parish of Drumballyroney, County Down, in Ireland, on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1777. He was one of the ten children of Hugh Brunty, farmer, and his nine brothers p^nd sisters seem all of them to have spent their lives in t^ieir Irish home, and most of them to have married and bfeen given in marriage, and to have gone to their graves in pea^ce.^ The mother, Eleanor M'Clory, had been brought u/p a
^ The late Rev. John Wade, who occupied the parsonage at Haworth from the /death of Mr. Bronte in i86l until 1898, when he resigned. !
^ The pistols were sold at Sotheby's Sale Rooms, London, on July 26, 1907. 1 ' William, the second son, was baptized on the i6th March 1779. Hugh, the third son, on the 27th May 1781. James, the fourth son, on the 3rd November 1783. '^ Velsh or Walsh, the fifth son, on the 19th February 17S6. Jane, the eldest daughter andg sixth child, on the ist February 17S9. Mary, the seventh child, on the ist May 1791. . The register containing the names of Patrick, Rose, Sarah and Alice, the remainder o|f the family, was destroyed. — Wright's The Brontes in Ireland. Mr. Horsfall Turner sfhows {^Patrick Bronte's Collected Works) that the name is spelt 'Brunty' in all thesle six entries in Drumgooland Parish Register. James Brunty or Bronte, who died a bac'iielor at the age of t>7, is said to have visited Haworth and to have spoken of his/'iiece Charlotte as 'terrible sharp and inquisitive.' The ultimate destination of P< g Bronte's nine brothers and sisters is carefully traced by Mr. Horsfall Turner in hisD' Patrick Bronte'' s Collected Works. All the brothers died in Ireland. j S^
PATRICK AND MARIA BRONTE 23
Roman Catholic, but became a Protestant at her marriao-e. Patrick alone of the family had ambition, and, one must add, the opportune friend, without whom ambition counts for little in the struggle of life. After a brief period of schooling, he became a weaver, the principal industry of the district, but at sixteen we meet him as a teacher, first at the Glascar Hill Presbyterian School, about a mile from the B runty cottage at Emdale, and later — probably in 1798 — at the school connected with the Parish Church of Drumballyroney, this new post involving a transfer of allegiance to the Episcopal Faith.
It was at Drumballyroney, it is believed, that he saved the hundred pounds or so which enabled him at the age of twenty-five, incited thereto by the vicar of his parish, Mr. Tighe, to leave Ireland for St. John's College, Cambridge. In 1802 Patrick Bronte went to Cambridge, and entered his name in the college books. There, indeed, we find the name, not of Patrick Bronte, but of Patrick Branty,^ and this brings us to an interesting point as to the origin of the name. In the register of baptisms his name is entered, as are those of his brothers and sisters, as * Brunty ' and ' Bruntee ' ; and it can scarcely be doubted that, as Dr. Douglas Hyde has pointed out, the original name was O'Prunty.^ The Irish,
1 ' Patrick Branty ' is written in another handwriting in the list of admissions at St. John's College, Cambridge. Dr. J. A. Erskine Stuart, who has a valuable note on the subject in an article on ' The Bronte Nomenclature ' (Bronte Society's Publications, Pt. III.), has found the name as Brunty, Bruntee, Bronty, and Branty — but never in Patrick Bronte's handwriting. There is, however, no signature of Mr. Bronte's extant prior to 1799. His own signatures showed a gradual evolution, however. His matri- culation signature — the first we have — is ' Patr. Bronte ' without the diaeresis ; at Wethersfield he signed Bronte; at Dewsbury, 'Bronte' or 'Bronte.' Not until he arrived at Haworth do we find his signature as Bronte.
^ 'I translated this' {i.e. an Irish romance) 'from a manuscript in my possession
made by one Patrick O'Prunty, an ancestor probably of Charlotte Bronte, in 1763.*
— Tke Story of Early Gaelic Literature, p. 49. By Douglas Hyde, 1895. It is an
interesting fact that Mr. Bronte was not the first of his own family with an inclination
j.uor writing. Dr. Hyde ^ .s in his possession a manuscript volume in the Irish language,
l\)»'ritten by one Patric' O'Prunty in 1763. Patrick O'Prunty was, I should imagine, an
1 dellt)rother of Mr. Bronte's father. The little book was called The Adventures of the
24 THE BRONTES
at the beginning- of the century, were well-nigh as primitive in such matters as were the EngHsh of a century earlier; and one is not surprised to see variations in the spelling of the Bronte name — it being in the case of his brothers and sisters occasionally spelt ' Brontee.' To me it is clear that for the change of name Lord Nelson was responsible, and that the dukedom of Bronte, which was conferred upon the great sailor in 1799, suggested the more ornamental surname. There were no Irish Brontes in existence before Nelson became Duke of Bronte ; but all Patrick's brothers and sisters, with whom, it must be remembered, he was on terms of correspondence his whole life long, gradually, with a true Celtic sense of the picturesqueness of the thing, seized upon the more attractive surname. For this theory there is, of course, not one scrap of evidence ; we only know that the registers which record the baptism of Patrick's brothers and sisters give us Brunty, and that his own signature through his successive curacies is Bronte, with various modifications of the accent on the final e.
From Cambridge, after taking orders in 1806, Mr. Bronte moved to a curacy at Wethersfield in Essex; and Mr. Augustine Birrell has told us^ how the good-looking Iijish
Son of Ice Counsel, and there is a colophon of which Dr. Hyde sends me the original and a translation ; he also sends me the first quatrain of Patrick O'Prunty's poem :- -
Colophon to the Adventures of the Son of Ice Counsel. Guidhim beannocht gach leightheora a n-anoir na Trionoite agas na h-6ighe ^ uine air an sgribhne6ir Pddruig ua Pronntuidh mhic Neill, mhic Seathain, etc. April y^ 20,
1763- j ,
I pray the blessing of each reader in honour of the Trinity and of the Virgin Mal-y on
the writer, that is Patrick O'Prunty, son of Niall, son of Seathan, etc. April ye^- 20,
1763. , j
First Quatrain of Patrick O'Pinnfy s poem. \
Nochad millean failte fior 1
Uaim do iheachta an dirdriogh '
Thdinic chugainn anois go mbuaidh ,'
Na stiughraighthdir os cionn priomhshluagh. j
Ninety millions of true welcomes L
From me to the coming of the high King ' ^ •
Who is come to us now with victory g.
As a guide over the chief-hosts. > In his Life of Charlotte Bronte, published by Walter Scott in 1887. | "^^
PATRICK AND MARIA BRONTE 25
curate made successful love to a young parishioner — Miss Mary Burder, he having lodged at the house of Miss Burder's aunt, Miss Mildred Davy. Mary Burder would have married him, it seems, but for an obdurate uncle and guardian. She was spirited away from the neighbourhood, and the lovers never met again. Mary Burder, as the wife of a Nonconformist minister named Silree, died in 1866, in her seventy-seventh year. This lady, from whom doubtless either directly or indirectly the story was obtained, may have amplified and exaggerated a very mild flirtation. One would like further evidence for the statement that when Mr. Bronte lost his wife in 182 1 he asked his old sweetheart, Mary Burder, to become the mother of his six children, and that she answered 'no.' In any case, Mr. Bronte left Wethersfield early in 1809 for a curacy at Wellington, in Shropshire, where John Eyton was vicar.^ Near by at Shrewsbury an old friend of St. John's College days, John Nunn, was a curate.^ Hence probably the recommendation. The Wellington curacy lasted only a few months, however, and at the end of this year, 1809, we find Mr. Bronte in Yorkshire — at Dewsbury. His new vicar, Mr. Buckmaster, had some title to fame as a hymn-writer,^ but he will interest the lover of Cowper the poet in that he was the successor to
^ John Eyton's son, Robert William Eyton, the antiquary and county historian, was born in the vicarage at Wellington in 1815.
* A sequel to this friendship belonging to fifty years later is contained in a letter sent to me by Mr. Nunn's niece, who writes :
,'In ijn? I was staging wth Mr. Nunn at Thomdon, in Suffolk, of which place he was rector. The good m Idhad never read a novel in his life, and of course had never heard of the famous Bronte books. I was ijj Jiing Mrs. Gaskell's Life with absorbed interest, and one day my uncle said, " I have heard lately . f ne mentioned with which I was well familiar. What is it all about?" He was told, when he added, \i-'atrick Bronte was once my greatest friend." Next morning my uncle brought out a thick bundle c-'' letters and said. " These were written by Patrick Bronte. They refer to his spiritual state. I have rei^ them once more, and now I destroy them.'"
^ Arrong the contents of Mr. Bronte's library, sold at Sotheby's in 1907, was a book entitle^, :
' A 3. ies of Discourses containing a System of Devotional, Experimental, and Practical Religion, nartic^arly calculated for the Use of Families. Preached at the Parish Church of Dewsbury, York- VuSr \ Ae Rev. J. Buckmaster, A.M., Vicar, Wakefield. Published by E. Waller.' fvritwas inscribed, 'To the Rev. P. Bronte, A. M., A Testimonial of Sincere Esteem 1 dele Author.'
26 THE BRONTES
Cowper's friend and correspondent, Matthew Powley, the husband of Mary Unwin's only daughter.^
What little we know of Mr. Bronte's sojourn in Dews- bury is due to the researches of Mr. W. W. Yates of that town.^ It is practically covered by three incidents. One of them tells of a visit of the curate with the children of the Sunday-school from Dewsbury to Earlsheaton, a neighbouring village. In presence of an offensive bully Mr. Bronte showed great courage, seized the man who blocked the path and threw him on one side. The story was used by Charlotte Bronte in Shirley. A second incident is that of the intervention of Mr. Bronte in coming forward to support a young man named William Nowell, who was wrongfully charged with deserting after taking the King's shilling. He was brought before a magistrate and sentenced to imprisonment. Mr. Bronte and others asfitated with the result that Nowell was released and the man, James Thackeray, who had charged Nowell with enlisting, was tried for perjury and sentenced to seven years' transportation. Mr. Bronte took a considerable part in agitating for the release of Nowell and for bringing his accuser to trial. A letter signed ' Palmerston ' ^ from the War Office is extant, addressed to ]Mr. Bronte in answer to a memorial from him on the subject. Mr. Bronte took up Nowell's case in the Leeds Mercury, where then and afterwards he wrote under the pseudonym of 'Sydney.' A third episode is concerned with Mr. Bronte's leaving Dewsbury. It is recorded that he decl'^^i d to preach again after hearing the remark of a church *c/y'den, that Mr. Buckmaster should not ' keep a dog ai'S bark himself — in other words, that the vicar should not preach
1 The Rev. Matthew Powley died in 1806 as vicar of Dewsbur}' ; his wife, Mary Powley, died in 1835, aged eighty-nine.
2 The Father of the Brontes: His Life and Work at Deutbury and Hartshead, by V/. W. Vates. Leeds : Fred R. Spark and Son, 1S97.
* Palmerston was at St. John's College, Cambridge, from April 1803 to January 1806, but it is improbable that the future Minister of State and Mr. Bronti'i were ever on speaking terms.
PATRICK AND MARIA BRONTE 27
and pay a curate for preaching. He solemnly announced this grievance, it is said, from the pulpit, and departed from Dewsbury, Mr. Buckmaster, however, assisting him to a new curacy at Hartshead.
Mr. Bronte's next curacy was obtained in 1811, by a removal to Hartshead, near Huddersfield. Here, in 181 2, when thirty-five years of age, he married Miss Maria Bran well, of Penzance.^ Miss Branwell had only a few months before left her Cornish home for a visit to an uncle in Yorkshire. This uncle was a Mr. John Fennell, a Methodist Local Preacher, and Governor of Woodhouse Grove Wesleyan Academy.^ To Methodism, indeed, the Cornish Branwells would seem to have been devoted at one time or another, for I have seen a copy of the Iviitaiion inscribed * M. Branwell, July 1807,' '^^'ith the following title-page : —
AN EXTRACT OF THE CHRISTIAN'S PATTERN : OR, A TREATISE ON THE IMITATION OF CHRIST. WRITTEN IN LATIN BY THOMAS A KEMPIS. ABRIDGED AND PUBLISHED IN ENGLISH BY JOHN WESLEY, M.A., LONDON. PRINTED AT THE CONFERENCE OFFICE, NORTH GREEN, FINSBURY SQUARE. G. STORY, AGENT. SOLD BY G. WHIT- FIELD, CITY ROAD. 1803. PRICE BOUND IS.
^ The Branwells. — Maria Branwell's father, Thomas Branwell, was 'Assistant' to the Corporation of Penzance, that is, a Councillor. He married Anne Came, and they and many of their children were buried in a vault in the Churchyard of St. Mary's, Penza/ce. The vault is marked ' T. B., iSoS.' Thomas Branwell was married in Penz- \ ce, November 28, 1768, and died in 1808 ; his wife died in 1S09. They had one son,rii.njamin Came Branwell, born 1775, who became Mayor of Penzance in 1809, ar ' jdaughters — Mrs. Bronte, Miss Elizabeth Branwell, Mrs. Branwell (Charlotte, who nj.lDlIjl her cousin Joseph Branwell, and thus did not change her name), Mrs. Kingston (AgJ^^ whose one daughter, Elizabeth Jane, died in Penzance in 1S78, and two others.
* hodhouse Grove School was opened in 1S12, Mr. John Fennell being appointed its first Governor, the only layman who ever occupied that post. He was also the first Head-rc,aster, and his wife was 'Governess' {i.e. Matron) of the school, their joint salary^, mounting to ;if 100 per annum. Mr. Bronte conducted the first examination of the b s of Woodhouse Grove School. Mr. Fennell was a year there, and after anot^ir twelvemonth's preparation he was ordained a curate, his first curacy being at Bradford Parish Church, where, on the 23rd June 1816, he preached the funeral sermon on the death of Vicar Crosse.— Charles A. Federer in the Yorkshire Daily Observer^ July 30 J 1907.
28 THE BRONTES
The book was evidently brought by Mrs. Bronte from Penzance, and given by her to her husband or left among her effects. The poor little woman had been in her grave for nearly five years when it came into the hands of one of her daughters, as we learn from Charlotte's handwriting on the fly-leaf : —
C. Bronte s book. This book was given to me in July 1826. // is not certainly known who is the author, biit it is generally supposed that Thomas a Kempis is. I saw a reward of iS^ 10,000 o^ered in the Leeds Mercury to any one who could find out for a certainty who is the author.
The conjunction of the names of John Wesley, Maria Branwell, and Charlotte Bronte surely gives this little volume, 'price bound is.,' a singular interest! The intro- duction of Mr. Bronte to Miss Branw^ell doubtless arose from his friendship with the Rev. William Morgan, who, as we shall see, was married on the same day as Mr. Bronte and also performed the ceremony for his friend. Mr. Bronte had met Mr. Morgan as a fellow-curate at Wellington, and Morgan was engaged to Miss Fennell. In Mr. Bronte's scanty library was a book entitled :
' Sermons or Homilies appointed to be read in Churches in the time of Queen Elizabeth of Famous Memory.' Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1802.
It bears the inscription in Mr. Bronte's handwriting : —
The Rev. P. Bronte's Book, presented to him by his Fj^"end W. Morgan, as a Memorial of the pleasant and agreeable fi\j nd- ship which subsisted between them at Wellington — and as a ( , n of the same friendship which, as is hoped, will continue for e ^f
ha'
Here I may refer to the letters which Maria Brariv/ell wrote to her lover during the brief courtship. " Mrs. Gaskell, it will be remembered, makes but one extract from this correspondence, which was handed t(D her by Mr. Bronte as part of the material for her m^^moir. Long years before, the little packet had been taken from
/
PATRICK AND MARIA BRONTE 29
Mr. Brontes desk, for we find Charlotte writing to Miss Nussey on February i6th, 1850: —
A few days since, a little incident happened which curiously touched me. Papa put into my hands a little packet of letters and papers, telling me that they were mamma's, and that I might read them. I did read them, in a frame of mind I cannot describe. The papers were yellow with time, all having been written before I was born. It was strange now to peruse, for the first time, the records of a mind whence my own sprang ; and most strange, and at once sad and sweet, to find that mind of a truly fine, pure, and elevated order. They were written to papa before they were married. There is a rectitude, a refinement, a constancy, a modesty, a sense, a gentleness about them indescribable. I wish she had lived, and that I had known her.
Yet another forty years or so and the little packet came into my possession. Handling, with a full sense of their sacredness, these letters, written more than ninety years ago by a good woman to her lover, one is tempted to hope that there is no breach of the privacy which should, even in our day, guide certain sides of life, in publishing the correspondence in its completeness. With the letters I find a little MS., which is also of pathetic interest. It is entitled 'The Advantages of Poverty in Religious Con- cerns,'and it is endorsed in the handwriting of Mr. Bronte, written, doubtless, many years afterwards : —
The above was ivritten by my dear wife, and is for insertion in one of the periodical publications. Keep it as a 7nemorial of her. \\
Th-^ere is no reason to suppose that the MS. was ever
publii-,(ied ; there is no reason why any editor should have wish^^^ to publish it. It abounds in the obvious/ At the samt^er.ime, one notes that from both father and mother alike|):^harlotte Bronte and her sisters inherited some measu,-e of the literary faculty. It is nothing to say that not oiie line of her father's or mother's would have been
^ Acting upon the desire of the publishers to preserve every possible rotjmorial of the Brontes in these pages, I print the essay in Appendix I.
30 THE BRONTES
preserved had it not been for their gifted children. It is sufficient that the zest for writing was there, and that the intense passion for handling a pen, which seems to have been singularly strong in Charlotte Bronte, must have come to a great extent from a similar passion alike in father and mother. Mr. Bronte, indeed, may be counted a prolific author. He published, in all, four books, three pamphlets, and two sermons. Of his books, two were in verse and two in prose. Cottage Poems^ was published in i8i I ; The Rural Minstrel'^ in 1813 ; The Cottage in the Wood^ in 1815 ; and The Maid of Killarney^ in 18 18. After his wife's death he published no more books, but only occasional sermons and pamphlets.^ Reading over these old-fashioned volumes now, one admits that they
^ Cottage Poems, by the Rev. Patrick Bronte, B.A., Minister of Hartshead-cum- Clifton, near Leeds, Yorkshire. Halifax : Printed and sold by P. K. Holden for the Author. Sold also by B. Crosby and Co., Stationers' Court, London; F. Houlston and Son, Wellington ; and by the Booksellers of Halifax, Leeds, York, etc. 1811.
2 The Rural Minstrel: A Miscellany of Descriptive Poems. By the Rev. P. Bronte, A.B., Minister of Hartshead-cum-Clifton, near Leeds, Yorkshire. Plalifax : Printed and sold by P. K. Holden for the Author. Sold also by B. and R. Crosby and Co., Stationers' Court, London. And by all other Booksellers. 1813.
* The Cottage in the Wood; or , the Art of Becoming Rich and Happy, by the Rev. P. Bronte, A.B. , Minister of Thornton, Bradford, Yorkshire. Bradford, printed and sold by T. Inkersley. Sold also by Sherwood and Co., London; Robinson and Co., Leeds; Holden, Halifax; J. Hurst, Wakefield; and all other Booksellers. 1815.
* The Maid of Killarney ; or, Albion and Flora : A Modern Tale ; in which are interwoven some cursory remarks on Religion and Politics. London, printed by Baldwin, Cradock and Joy, Paternoster Row. Sold also by T. Inkersley, Bradford; Robinson and Co., Leeds ; and all other Booksellers. 1818.
5 Mr. Bronte's other works were:—
1. The Phenomenon ; or. An Accotmt in Verse of the Ext7-aordinary Disruption of a Bog which took Place in the Moors of Haworth on the 12th day of September 1824.- Intended as a Reward Book for the Higher Classes in Sunday-schools. By the Rev. P. Bronte, M.A., Incumbent of Haworth, near Keighley, Bradford. Printed and sold by T. Inkersley, Bridge Street ; and by F. Westley, Stationers' Court, London. 1S24. Price Twopence. /'<?>
2. A Sermon: Preached in the Church of Haworth on Sunday the i^^ day of September 1824, in reference to an Earthquake and Extraordinary Eruptiv', lof Mud and Water that had taken Place ten days before in the Moss of that Chapeli By the Rev. Patrick Bronte, A.B., Incumbent of Haworth, near Keighley, Bradford'^ Printed and sold by T. Inkersley, Bridge Street; and all other Booksellers. iSr4. Price Sixpence.
3. The Signs of the Times ; or, A Familiar Treatise on some Political Indications in the Year 1835. By P. Bronte, A.B., Incumbent of Haworth, near Bradford, Yorkshire.
PATRICK AND MARIA BRONTE 31
possess but little distinction. It has been pointed out, indeed, that one of the strongest lines in Jane Eyre — 'To the finest fibre of my nature, sir.' — is culled from Mr. Bronte's verse. It is the one line of his that will live.
In iSii Vlx. Bronte published at Halifax a volume entitled Cottage Poe7ns. Among its contents is ' An
Epistle to the Rev. J B while journeying for the
recovery of his health' — the Rev. J. B. being, of course, his Vicar. Like his daughter Charlotte, Mr. Bronte is more interesting in his prose than in his poetry. The Cottage in the Wood ; or, the Art of Becoining Rich and Happy, is a kind of religious novel — a spiritual Pamela, in which the reprobate pursuer of an innocent girl ultimately becomes converted and marries her. The Maid of Ki Harney ; or, Albion and Flora, is better worth reading. Under the guise of a story it has something to say on many questions of importance. We know now why Charlotte never learnt to dance until she went to Brussels, and why children's games were unknown to her, for here are many mild diatribes against dancing and card-playing. The British Constitution and the British and Foreign Bible Society receive a considerable amount of criticism. But in spite of this didactic weakness there are one or
Keighley, printed by R. Aked, Bookseller, Low Street ; and sold by W. Crofts, 19 Chancery Lane, London ; and all Booksellers, mdcccxxxv.
4. A Brief Treatise on the Best Time and Mode of Baptism, chiefly in answer to a
Tract of Peter iontifex, also the Rev. M. S , Baptist Minister. By P. Bronte, A.B.,
Incumbent of Haworth, Yorkshire. Price Threepence. Keighley, printed by R. Aked, Bookseller, Low Street, mdcccxxxvi.
5. A Funeral Sermon for the late Rev. William Weightman, M. A. Preached in the Church of Haworth on Sunday the 2nd of October 1S42, by the Rev. Patrick Bronte, A.B., Incumbent. The Profits, if any, to go in aid of the Sunday-school, Halifax. Printed by J. U. Walker, George Street. 1S42. Price Sixpence.
All the above works have been reprinted under the title of :
' Bronteana, the Rev. Patrick Bronte, A.B. His Collected Works and Life. Edited by J. Horsfall Turner of Idle, Bradford. Bingley, printed for the Editor by T. Harrisons. nd Sons. 1S9S.'
Mr. Horsfall Turner also enumerates the fugitive writings of Mr. Bronte, including contributions to the Leeds Mercury, the Leeds InieUi^enccr, to The Pastoral Visitor — a Magazine issued at Bradford by the Rev. W. Morgan, and to the Cottage Magazine, issued at Dewsbury by the Rev. J. Buckworth.
32 THE BRONTES
two pieces of really picturesque writing, notably a descrip- tion of an Irish wake, and a forcible account of the defence of a house against Whiteboys.
It is true enough that these books are merely of interest to collectors and that they live only by virtue of Patrick Bronte s remarkable children. But many a prolific writer of the day passes muster as a genius among his contem- poraries upon as small a talent ; and Mr. Bronte does not seem to have given himself any airs as an author. Thirty years were to elapse before there were to be any more books from this family of writers ; but Jane Eyve owes something, we may be sure, to The Maid of Ki Harney.
Mr. Bronte married Maria Branwell in 1812 at Guiseley Church, Yorkshire. She was in her thirtieth year, and was one of seven children — one son and six daughters — the father of whom, Mr. Thomas Branwell, had died in 1808. He was a member of the town council, or as it was then called ' Assistant to the Corporation ' of Penzance, and three years before the marriage of Maria Branwell. her brother, Benjamin Carne Branwell, was Mayor of Penzance.^ By a curious coincidence, another sister, Charlotte, was married in Penzance on the same day that Maria was married at Guiseley — the 29th of December 1812.^ Before me are a bundle of samplers worked by four of these Branwell sisters. Maria Branwell 'ended her sampler' April the 15th, 1791, and it is inscribed with
1 Itispointedoulby ' J. H. '^.'' (^Yorkshire Daily Obsa-ver, A\xg\x%\. 13, 1907) that Maria Branwell's brother could not have been at Woodhouse Grove School as sometimes stated.
2 The late Miss Charlotte Branwell of Penzance wrote to me as follows : — 'My Aunt Maria Branwell, after the death of her parents, went to Yorkshire on a visit to her relatives, where she met the Rev. Patrick Bronte. They soon became engaged to be married. Jane Fennell was previously engaged to the Rev. William Morgan. And when the time arrived for their marriage, Mr. Fennell said he should have to give his daughter and niece away, and if so, he could not marry them ; so it was arranged that Mr. Morgan should marry Mr. Bronte and Maria Branwell, and afterwards Mr. Bronte should perform the same kindly office towards Mr. Morgan and Jane Fennell. So the bridegrooms married each other and the brides acted as bridesmaids to each other. My father and mother, Joseph and Charlotte Branwell, were married at Madron, which was then the parish church of Penzance, on the same day and hour. Perhaps a similar case never happened before or since : two sisters and four first cousins being united in holy
PATRICK AND MARIA BRONTE 33
the text, Flee from sin as f^om a serpent, for if thou co?nest too near to it, it zvill bite thee. The teeth thereof are as the teeth of a lion to slay the souls of men. Another sampler is by EHzabeth Branwell ; another by Margaret, and another by Anne. These, some miniatures, and the book and papers to which I have referred, are all that remain to us as a memento of Mrs. Bronte, apart from the children that she bore to her husband. The miniatures were in the possession of Miss Charlotte Branwell, of Penzance, when they came under my notice ; they are of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Branwell — Charlotte Bronte's maternal grandfather and grandmother — and of Mrs. Bronte and her sister Elizabeth Branwell as children.
To return, however, to our bundle of love-letters. Com- ment is needless, if indeed comment or elucidation were possible at this distance of time.
TO REV. PATRICK BRONTE, A.B., HARTSHEAD
Wood House Grove, August 26th, 1812. My dear Friend, — This address is sufficient to convince you that I not only permit, but approve of yours to me — I do indeed consider you as my friend ; yet, when I consider how short a time I have had the pleasure of knowing you, I start at my own rashness, my heart fails, and did I not think that you would be disappointed and grieved at it, I believe I should be ready to spare myself the task of writing. Do not think that I am so wavering as to repent of what I have already said. No, believe me, this will never be the case, unless you give me cause for it. You need not fear that you have been mistaken in my character. If I know anything of myself, I am incapable of making an ungenerous return to the smallest degree of kindness, much less to you whose attentions and conduct have been so particularly
matrimony at one and the same time. And they were all happy marriages. Mr. Bronte was perhaps peculiar, but I have always heard my own dear mother say that he was devotedly fond cf his wife, and she of him. These marriages were solemnised on the 29th of December 1812.'
Mr. Charles A. Federer {Yorkshire Daily Observer, August 5, 1907) notes that Mr. Fennell could not in any case have performed the ceremony, as he was not at the time ordained a priest of the Church of England.
VOL. L C
34 THE BRONTES
obliging. I will frankly confess that your behaviour and what I have seen and heard of your character has excited my warmest esteem and regard, and be assured you shall never have cause to repent of any confidence you may think proper to place in me, and that it will always be my endeavour to deserve the good opinion which you have formed, although human weakness may in some instances cause me to fall short. In giving you these assurances I do not depend upon my own strength, but I look to Him who has been my unerring guide through life, and in whose continued protection and assistance I confidently trust.
I thought on you much on Sunday, and feared you would not escape the rain. I hope you do not feel any bad effects from it ? My cousin wrote you on Monday and expects this afternoon to be favoured with an answer. Your letter has caused me some foolish embarrassment, tho' in pity to my feelings they have been very sparing of their raillery.
I will now candidly answer your questions. The politeness of others can never make me forget your kind attentions, neither can I walk our accustomed rounds without thinking on you, and, why should I be ashamed to add, wishing for your presence. If you knew what were my feelings whilst writing this you would pity me. I wish to write the truth and give you satisfaction, yet fear to go too far, and exceed the bounds of propriety. But whatever I may say or write I will never deceive you, or exceed the truth. If you think I have not placed the utmost confidence in you, con- sider my situation, and ask yourself if I have not confided in you sufficiently, perhaps too much. I am very sorry that you will not have this till after to-morrow, but it was out of my power to write sooner. I rely on your goodness to pardon everything in this which may appear either too free or too stiff, and beg that you will consider me as a warm and faithful friend.
My uncle, aunt, and cousin unite in kind regards.
I must now conclude with again declaring myself to be yours sincerely, Maria Branwell.
TO REV. PATRICK BRONTE, A.B., HARTSHEAD
Wood House Grove, September sth, 1812.
My DEAREST Friend, — I have just received your affectionate
and very welcome letter, and although I shall not be able to send
this until Monday, yet I cannot deny myself the pleasure of
writing a few lines this evening, no longer considering it a task,
PATRICK AND MARIA BRONTE 35
but a pleasure, next to that of reading yours, I had the pleasure of hearing from Mr. Fennell, who was at Bradford on Thursday afternoon, that you had rested there all night. Had you pro- ceeded, I am sure the walk would have been too much for you ; such excessive fatigue, often repeated, must injure the strongest constitution. I am rejoiced to find that our forebodings were without cause. I had yesterday a letter from a very dear friend of mine, and had the satisfaction to learn by it that all at home are well. I feel with you the unspeakable obligations I am under to a merciful Providence — my heart swells with gratitude, and I feel an earnest desire that I may be enabled to make som.e suit- able return to the Author of all my blessings. In general, I think I am enabled to cast my care upon Him, and then I experience a calm and peaceful serenity of mind which few things can destroy. In all my addresses to the throne of grace I never ask a blessing for myself but I beg the same for you, and considering the important station which you are called to fill, my prayers are proportionately fervent that you may be favoured with all the gifts and graces requisite for such a calling. O my dear friend, let us pray much that we may live lives holy and useful to each other and all around us !
Monday morn. — My cousin and I were yesterday at Calverley church, where we heard Mr. Watman preach a very excellent sermon from 'learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart.' He displayed the character of our Saviour in a most affecting and amiable light. I scarcely ever felt more charmed with his excellences, more grateful for his condescension, or more abased at my own unworthiness ; but I lament that my heart is so little retentive of those pleasing and profitable impressions.
I pitied you in your solitude, and felt sorry that it was not in my power to enliven it. Have you not been too hasty in inform- ing your friends of a certain event ? Why did you not leave them to guess a little longer? I shrink from the idea of its being known to everybody. I do, indeed, soinetimes think of you, but I will not say how often, lest I raise your vanity ; and we some- times talk of you and the doctor. But I believe I should seldom mention your name myself were it not now and then introduced by my cousin. I have never mentioned a word of what is past to anybody. Had I thought this necessary I should have requested you to do it. But I think there is no need, as by some means or other they seem to have a pretty correct notion how
86 THE BRONTES
matters stand betwixt us ; and as their hints, etc., meet with no contradiction from me, my silence passes for confirmation. Mr. Fennell has not neglected to give me some serious and encourag- ing advice, and my aunt takes frequent opportunities of dropping little sentences which I may turn to some advantage. I have long had reason to know that the present state of things would give pleasure to all parties. Your ludicrous account of the scene at the Hermitage was highly diverting, we laughed heartily at it; but I fear it will not produce all that compassion in Miss Fennell's breast which you seem to wish. I will now tell you what I was thinking about and doing at the time you mention. I was then toiling up the hill with Jane and Mrs. Clapham to take our tea at Mr, Tatham's, thinking on the evening when I first took the same walk with you, and on the change which had taken place in my circumstances and views since then — not wholly without a wish that I had your arm to assist me, and your conversation to shorten the walk. Indeed, all our walks have now an insipidity in them which I never thought they would have possessed. When I work, if I wish to g&t forward I may be glad that you are at a distance. Jane begs me to assure you of her kind regards. Mr. Morgan is expected to be here this evening. I must assume a bold and steady countenance to meet his attacks !
I have now written a pretty long letter without reserve or caution, and if all the sentiments of my heart are not laid open to you believe me it is not because I wish them to be concealed, for, I hope there is nothing there that would give you pain or dis- pleasure. My most sincere and earnest wishes are for your happiness and welfare, for this includes my own. Pray much for me that I may be made a blessing and not a hindrance to you. Let me not interrupt your studies nor intrude on that time which ought to be dedicated to better purposes. Forgive my freedom, my dearest friend, and rest assured that you are and ever will be dear to MARIA BranWELL.
Write very soon.
TO REV. PATRICK BRONTE, A.B., HARTSHEAD
Wood House Grove, September nth, 1812. My DEAREST Friend, — Having spent the day yesterday at Miry Shay,^ a place near Bradford, I had not got your letter till
^ This fine old Jacobean building slill stands, and is situated in Barkerend Road, about a quarter of a mile from the parish church.
PATRICK AND MARIA BRONTE 37
my return in the evening, and consequently have only a short time this morning to write if I send it by this post. You surely do not think you trouble me by writing? No, I think I may venture to say if such were your opinion you would trouble me no more. Be assured, your letters are and I hope always will be received with extreme pleasure and read with delight. May our Gracious Father mercifully grant the fulfilment of your prayers ! Whilst we depend entirely on Him for happiness, and receive each other and all our blessings as from His hands, what can harm us or make us miserable? Nothing temporal or spiritual.
Jane had a note from Mr. Morgan last evening, and she desires me to tell you that the Methodists' service in church hours is to commence next Sunday week. You may expect frowns and hard words from her when you make your appearance here again, for, if you recollect, she gave you a note to carry to the Doctor, and he has never received it. What have you done with it? If you can give a good account of it you may come to see us as soon as you please and be sure of a hearty welcome from all parties. Next Wednesday we have some thoughts, if the weather be fine, of going to Kirkstall Abbey once more, and I suppose your presence will not make the walk less agreeable to any of us.
The old man is come and waits for my letter. In expectation of seeing you on Monday or Tuesday next, — I remain, yours faithfully and affectionately, M. B.
TO REV. PATRICK BRONTE, A.B., HARTSHEAD
Wood House Grove, Septejuber iSf/i, 1812.
How readily do I comply with my dear Mr. B.'s request ! You see, you have only to express your wishes, and as far as my power extends I hesitate not to fulfil them. My heart tells me that it will always be my pride and pleasure to contribute to your happiness, nor do I fear that this will ever be inconsistent with my duty as a Christian. My esteem for you and my confidence in you is so great, that I firmly believe you will never exact any- thing from me which I could not conscientiously perform. I shall in future look to you for assistance and instruction whenever I may need them, and hope you will never withhold from me any advice or caution you may see necessary.
For some years I have been perfectly my own mistress, subject
38 THE BRONTES
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 in every case 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 never led me into error, yet, in circumstances of perplexity and doubt, I have deeply felt the want of a guide and instructor.
At such times I have seen and felt the necessity of supernatural aid, and by fervent applications to a throne of grace I have experienced that my heavenly Father is able and willing to supply the place of every earthly friend. I shall now no longer feel this want, this sense of helpless weakness, for I believe a kind Provi- dence has intended that I shall find in you every earthly friend united ; nor do I fear to trust myself under your protection, or shrink from your control. It is pleasant to be subject to those we love, especially when they never exert their authority but for the good of the subject. How few would write in this way ! But I do not fear XhdXyou will make a bad use of it. You tell me to write my thoughts, and thus as they occur I freely let my pen run away with them.
Sat. morn. — I do not know whether you dare show your face here again or not after the blunder you have committed. When we got to the house on Thursday evening, even before we were within the doors, we found that Mr. and Mrs. Bedford had been there, and that they had requested you to mention their intention of coming — a single hint of which you never gave! Poor I too came in for a share in the hard words which were bestowed upon you, for they all agreed that I was the cause of it. Mr. Fennell said you were certainly mazed, and talked of sending you to York, etc. And even I begin to think that this, together with the note, bears some marks oi insanity \ However, I shall suspend my judgment until I hear what excuse you can make for yourself. I suppose you will be quite ready to make one of some kind or another.
Yesterday I performed a difficult and yet a pleasing task in writing to my sisters. I thought I never should accomplish the end for which the letter was designed ; but after a good deal of perambulation I gave them to understand the nature of my engagement with you, with the motives and inducements which led me to form such an engagement, and that in consequence of it I should not see them again so soon as I had intended. I con-
PATRICK AND MARIA BRONTE 39
eluded by expressing a hope that they would not be less pleased with the information than were my friends here. I think they will not suspect me to have made a wrong step, their partiality for me is so great. And their affection for me will lead them to rejoice in my welfare, even though it should diminish somewhat of their own. I shall think the time tedious till I hear from you, and must beg you will write as soon as possible. Pardon me, my dear friend, if I again caution you against giving way to a weak- ness of which I have heard you complain. When you find your heart oppressed and your thoughts too much engrossed by one subject let prayer be your refuge — this you no doubt know by experience to be a sure remedy, and a relief from every care and error. Oh, that we had more of the spirit of prayer ! I feel that I need it much.
Breakfast-time is near, I must bid you farewell for the time, but rest assured you will always share in the prayers and heart of your own Maria.
Mr. Fennell has crossed my letter to my sisters. With his usual goodness he has supplied my deficiencies, and spoken of me in terms of commendation of which I wish I were more worthy. Your character he has likewise displayed in the most favourable light; and I am sure they will not fail to love and esteem you though unknown.
All here unite in kind resfards. Adieu.
TO REV. PATRICK BRONTE, A.B., HARTSHEAD
Wood House Grove, Septofiber 2yd, 1812. My dearest Friend, — Accept of my warmest thanks for your kind affectionate letter, in which you have rated mine so highly that I really blush to read my own praises. Pray that God would enable me to deserve all the kindness you manifest towards me, and to act consistently with the good opinion you entertain of me — then 1 shall indeed be a helpmeet for you, and to be this shall at all times be the care and study of my future life. We have had to-day a large party of the Bradford folks — the Rands, Fawcetts, Dobsons, etc. My thoughts often strayed from the company, and I would have gladly left them to follow my present employ- ment. To write to and receive letters from my friends were always among my chief enjoyments, but none ever gave me so
40 THE BRONTES
much pleasure as those which I receive from and write to my newly adopted friend. I am by no means sorry you have given up all thought of the house you mentioned. With my cousin's help I have made known your plans to my uncle and awnt. Mr. Fennell immediately coincided with that which respects your present abode, and observed that it had occurred to him before, but that he had not had an opportunity of mentioning it to you. My aunt did not fall in with it so readily, but her objections did not appear to me to be very weighty. For my own part, I feel all the force of your arguments in favour of it, and the objections are so trifling that they can scarcely be called objections. My cousin is of the same opinion. Indeed, you have such a method of considering and digesting a plan before you make it known to your friends, that you run very little risk of incurring their dis- approbations, or of having your schemes frustrated. I greatly admire your talents this way — may they never be perverted by being used in a bad cause! And whilst they are exerted for good purposes, may they prove irresistible ! If I may judge from your letter, this middle scheme is what would please you best, so that if there should arise no new objection to it, perhaps it will prove the best you can adopt. However, there is yet sufficient time to consider it further. I trust in this and every other circum- stance you will be guided by the wisdom that cometh from above — a portion of which I doubt not has guided you hitherto. A belief of this, added to the complete satisfaction with which I read your reasonings on the subject, made me a ready convert to your opinions. I hope nothing will occur to induce }'OU to change your intention of spending the next week at Bradford. Depend on it you shall have letter for letter ; but may we not hope to see you here during that time, surely you will not think the way more tedious than usual ? I have not heard any particulars respecting the church since you were at Bradford. Mr. Rawson is now there, but Mr. Hardy and his brother are absent, and I understand nothing decisive can be accomplished without them. Jane expects to hear something more to-morrow. Perhaps ere this reaches you, you will have received some intelligence respecting it from Mr. Morgan. If you have no other apology to make for your blunders than that which you have given me, you must not expect to be excused, for I have not mentioned it to any one, so that however it may clear your character in my opinion it is not likely to influence any other person. Little, very little, will induce me to
PATRICK AND MARIA BRONTE 41
cover your faults with a veil of charity, I already feel a kind of participation in all that concerns you. All praises and censures bestowed on you must equally affect me. Your joys and sorrows must be mine. Thus shall the one be increased and the other diminished. While this is the case we shall, I hope, always find 'life's cares' to be 'comforts.' And may we feel every trial and distress, for such must be our lot at times, bind us nearer to God and to each other ! My heart earnestly joins in your compre- hensive prayers. I trust they will unitedly ascend to a throne of grace, and through the Redeemer's merits procure for us peace and happiness here and a life of eternal felicity hereafter. Oh, what sacred pleasure there is in the idea of spending an eternity together in perfect and uninterrupted bliss ! This should encourage us to the utmost exertion and fortitude. But whilst I write, my own words condemn me — I am ashamed of my own indolence and backwardness to duty. May I be more careful, watchful, and active than I have ever yet been !
My uncle, aunt, and Jane request me to send their kind regards, and they will be happy to see you any time next week whenever you can conveniently come down from Bradford. Let me hear from you soon — I shall expect a letter on Monday. Farewell, my dearest friend. That you may be happy in yourself and very useful to all around you is the daily earnest prayer of yours truly,
Maria Branwell.
to rev. patrick bronte, a.b., hartshead
Wood House Grove, Ocfober'^rd, 1812. How could my dear friend so cruelly disappoint me? Had he known how much I had set my heart on having a letter this afternoon, and how greatly I felt the disappointment when the bag arrived and I found there was nothing for me, I am sure he would not have permitted a little matter to hinder him. But whatever was the reason of your not writing, I cannot believe it to have been neglect or unkindness, therefore I do not in the least blame you, I only beg that in future you will judge of my feelings by your own, and if possible never let me expect a letter without receiving one. You know in my last which I sent you at Bradford I said it would not be in my power to write the next day, but begged I might be favoured with hearing from you on
42 THE BRONTES
Saturday, and you will not wonder that I hoped you would have complied with tliis request. It has just occurred to my mind that it is possible this note was not received ; if so, you have felt dis- appointed likewise ; but I think this is not very probable, as the old man is particularly careful, and I never heard of his losing anything committed to his care. The note which I allude to was written on Thursday morning, and you should have received it before you left Bradford. I forget what its contents were, but I know it was written in haste and concluded abruptly. Mr. Fennell talks of visiting Mr. Morgan to-morrow. I cannot lose the opportunity of sending this to the office by him as you will then have it a day sooner, and if you have been daily expecting to hear from me, twenty-four hours are of some importance. I really am concerned to find that this, what many would deem trifling incident, has so much disturbed my mind. I fear I should not have slept in peace to-night if I had been deprived of this opportunity of relieving my mind by scribbling to you, and now I lament that you cannot possibly receive this till Monday. May I hope that there is now some intelligence on the way to me? or must my patience be tried till I see you on Wednesday? But what nonsense am I writing ! Surely after this you can have no doubt that you possess all my heart. Two months ago I could not possibly have believed that you would ever engross so much of my thoughts and affections, and far less could I have thought that I should be so forward as to tell you so. I believe I must forbid you to come here again unless you can assure me that you will not steal any more of my regard. Enough of this ; I must bring my pen to order, for if I were to suffer myself to revise what I have written I should be tempted to throw it in the fire, but I have determined that you shall see my whole heart. I have not yet informed you that I received your serio-comic note on Thursday afternoon, for which accept my thanks.
My cousin desires me to say that she expects a long poem on her birthday, when she attains the important age of twenty-one. Mr. Fennell joins with us in requesting that you will not fail to be here on Wednesday, as it is decided that on Thursday we are to go to the Abbey if the weather, etc., permits.
Sunday morning. — I am not sure if I do right in adding a few lines to-day, but knowing that it will give you pleasure I wi.sh to finish, that you may have it to-morrow. I will just say that if my feeble prayers can aught avail, you v/ill find your labours this day
PATRICK AND MARIA BRONTE 43
both pleasant and profitable, as they concern your own soul and the souls of those to whom you preach. I trust in your hours of retirement you will not forget to pray for me. I assure you I need every assistance to help me forward ; I feel that my heart is more ready to attach itself to earth than heaven. I sometimes think there never was a mind so dull and inactive as mine is with regard to spiritual things.
I must not forget to thank you for the pamphlets and tracts which you sent us from Bradford. I hope we shall make good use of them. I must now take my leave. I believe I need scarcely assure you that I am yours truly and very affectionately,
Maria Branwell.
TO REV. PATRICK BRONTE, A.B., HARTSHEAD
Wood House Grove, October 2\si, 1812. With the sincerest pleasure do I retire from company to converse with him whom I love beyond all others. Could my beloved friend see my heart he would then be convinced that the affection I bear him is not at all inferior to that which he feels for me — indeed I sometimes think that in truth and constancy it excels. But do not think from this that I entertain any suspicions of your sincerity — no, I firmly believe you to be sincere and generous, and doubt not in the least that you feel all you express. In return, I entreat that you will do me the justice to believe that you have not only a very large portion of my affecttoji and esteem, but all that I am capable of feeling, and from henceforth measure my feelings by your own. Unless my love for you were very great how could I so contentedly give up my home and all my friends — a home I loved so much that I have often thought nothing could bribe me to renounce it for any great length of time together, and friends with whom I have been so long accus- tomed to share all the vicissitudes of joy and sorrow? Yet these have lost their weight, and though I cannot always think of them without a sigh, yet the anticipation of sharing with you all the pleasures and pains, the cares and anxieties of life, of contributing to your comfort and becoming the companion of your pilgrimage, is more delightful to me than any other prospect which this world can possibly present. I expected to have heard from you on Saturday last, and can scarcely refrain from thinking you unkind
44 THE BRONTES
to keep me in suspense two whole days longer than was necessary, but it is well that my patience should be sometimes tried, or I might entirely lose it, and this would be a loss indeed ! Lately I have experienced a considerable increase of hopes and fears, which tend to destroy the calm uniformity of my life. These are not unwelcome, as they enable me to discover more of the evils and errors of my heart, and discovering them I hope through grace to be enabled to correct and amend them. I am sorry to say that my cousin has had a very serious cold, but to-day I think she is better ; her cough seems less, and I hope we shall be able to come to Bradford on Saturday afternoon, where we intend to stop till Tuesday. You may be sure we shall not soon think of taking such another journey as the last. I look forward with pleasure to Monday, when I hope to meet with you, for as we are no longer twain separation is painful, and to meet must ever be attended with joy.
Thursday morning. — I intended to have finished this before breakfast, but unfortunately slept an hour too long. I am every moment in expectation of the old man's arrival. I hope my cousin is still better to-day ; she requests me to say that she is much obliged to you for your kind inquiries and the concern you express for her recovery. I take all possible care of her, but yesterday she was naughty enough to venture into the yard without her bonnet! As you do not say anything of going to Leeds I conclude >ou have not been. We shall most probably hear from the Dr. this afternoon. I am much pleased to bear of his success at Bierley ! O that you may both be zealous and successful in your efforts for the salvation of souls, and may your own lives be holy, and your hearts greatly blessed while you are engaged in administering to the good of others ! I should have been very glad to have had it in my power to lessen your fatigue and cheer your spirits by my exertions on Monday last. I will hope that this pleasure is still reserved for me. In general, I feel a calm confidence in the providential care and continued mercy of God, and when I consider His past deliverances and past favours I am led to wonder and adore. A sense of my small returns of love and gratitude to Him often abases me and makes me think I am little better than those who profess no religion. Pray for me, my dear friend, and rest assured that you possess a very, very large portion of the prayers, thoughts, and heart of yours truly,
M. Branwell.
PATRICK AND MARIA BRONTfi 45
Mr. Fennell requests Mr. Bedford to call on the man who has had orders to make blankets for the Grove and desire him to send them as soon as possible. Mr. Fennell will be greatly obliged to Mr. Bedford if he will take this trouble.
TO REV. PATRICK BRONTE, A.B., HARTSHEAD
Wood House Grove, November iZth, 1812. My dear saucy Pat, — Now don't you think you deserve this epithet far more than I do that which you have given me? I really know not what to make of the beginning of your last ; the winds, waves, and rocks almost stunned me. I thought you were giving me the account of some terrible dream, or that you had had a presentiment of the fate of my poor box, having no idea that your lively imagination could make so much of the slight reproof conveyed in my last. What will you say when you get a real, downright scolding} Since you show such a readiness to atone for your offences after receiving a mild rebuke, I am in- clined to hope you will seldom deserve a severe one. I accept with pleasure your atonement, and send you a free and full forgiveness. But I cannot allow that your affection is more deeply rooted than mine. However, we will dispute no more about this, but rather embrace every opportunity to prove its sincerity and strength by acting in every respect as friends and fellow-pilgrims travelling the same road, actuated by the same motives, and having in view the same end. I think if our lives are spared twenty years hence I shall then pray for you with the same, if not greater, fervour and delight that I do now. I am pleased that you are so fully convinced of my candour, for to know that you suspected me of a deficiency in this virtue would grieve and mortify me beyond expression. I do not derive any merit from the possession of it, for in me it is constitutional. Yet I think where it is possessed it will rarely exist alone, and where it is wanted there is reason to doubt the existence of almost every other virtue. As to the other qualities which your partiality attributes to me, although I rejoice to know that I stand so high in your good opinion, yet I blush to think in how small a degree I possess them. But it shall be the pleasing study of my future life to gain such an increase of grace and wisdom as shall enable me to act up to your highest expectations and prove to you a helpmeet. I firmly believe the Almighty has set us
46 THE BRONTES
apart for each other ; may we, by earnest, frequent prayer, and every possible exertion, endeavour to fulfil His will in all things ! I do not, cannot, doubt your love, and here I freely declare I love you above all the world besides. I feel very, very grateful to the great Author of all our mercies for His unspeakable love and con- descension towards us, and desire 'to show forth my gratitude not only with my lips, but by my life and conversation.' I indulge a hope that our mutual prayers will be answered, and that our intimacy will tend much to promote our temporal and eternal interest.
I suppose you never expected to be much the richer for me, but I am sorry to inform }'ou that I am still poorer than I thought myself I mentioned having sent for my books, clothes, etc. On Saturday evening about the time you were writing the description of your imaginary shipwreck, I was reading and feeling the effects of a real one, having then received a letter from my sister giving me an account of the vessel in which she had sent my box being stranded on the coast of Devonshire, in consequence of which the box was dashed to pieces with the violence of the sea, and all my little property, with the exception of a very few articles, 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 disas- trous circumstance which has occurred since I left my home, and having been so highly favoured it would be highly ungrateful in me were I to suffer this to dwell much on my mind.
Mr. Morgan was here yesterday, indeed he only left this morning. He mentioned having written to invite you to Bierley on Sunday next, and if you complied with his request it is likely that we shall see you both here on Sunday evening. As we intend going to Leeds next v/eek, we should be happy if you would accompany us on Monday or Tuesday. I mention this by desire of Miss Fennell, who begs to be remembered affectionately to you. Notwithstanding Mr. Fennell's complaints and threats, I doubt not but he will give you a cordial reception whenever you think fit to make your appearance at the Grove. Which you may likewise be assured of receiving from your ever truly affectionate
Maria.
Both the doctor and his lady very much wish to know what kind of address we make use of in our letters to each other. I think they would scarcely hit on this ! !
PATRICK AND MARIA BRONTE 47
TO REV. PATRICK BRONTE, A.B., HARTSHEAD
Wood House Grove, December ith, 1812.
My DEAREST Friend, — So you thought that perhaps I might expect to hear from you. As the case was so doubtful, and you were in such great haste, you might as well have deferred writing a few days longer, for you seem to suppose it is a matter of perfect indifference to me whether I hear from you or not. I believe I once requested you to judge of my feelings by your own —am I to think that you are thus indifferent? I feel very unwilling to entertain such an opinion, and am grieved that you should suspect me of such a cold, heartless, attachment. But I am too serious on the subject ; I only meant to rally you a little on the beginning of your last, and to tell you that I fancied there was a coolness in it which none of your former letters had con- tained. If this fancy was groundless, forgive me for having indulged it, and let it serve to convince you of the sincerity and warmth of my affection. Real love is ever apt to suspect that it meets not with an equal return ; you must not wonder then that my fears are sometimes excited. My pride cannot bear the idea of a diminution of your attachment, or to think that it is stronger on my side than on yours. But I must not permit my pen so fully to disclose the feelings of my heart, nor will I tell you whether I am pleased or not at the thought of seeing you on the appointed day.
Miss Fennell desires her kind regards, and, with her father, is extremely obliged to you for the trouble you have taken about the carpet, and has no doubt but it will give full satisfaction. They think there will be no occasion for the green cloth.
We intend to set about making the cakes here next week, but as the fifteen or twenty persons whom you mention live probably somewhere in your neighbourhood, I think it will be most con- venient for Mrs. B. to make a small one for the purpose of distributing there, which will save us the difficulty of sending so far.
You may depend on my learning my lessons as rapidly as they are given me. I am already tolerably perfect in the ABC, etc. I am much obliged to you for the pretty little hymn which I have already got by heart, but cannot promise to sing it scientifically, though I will endeavour to gain a little more assurance.
Since I began this Jane put into my hands Lord Lyttelton's
48 THE BRONTES
Advice to a Lady. When I read those lines, ' Be never cool reserve with passion joined, with caution choose, but then be fondly kind, etc.,' my heart smote me for having in some cases used too much reserve towards you. Do you think you have any cause to com- plain of me ? If you do, let me know it. For were it in my power to prevent it, I would in no instance occasion you the least pain or uneasiness. I am certain no one ever loved you with an affection more pure, constant, tender, and ardent than that which I feel. Surely this is not saying too much ; it is the truth, and I trust you are worthy to know it. I long to improve in every religious and moral quality, that I may be a help, and if possible an ornament to you. Oh let us pray much for wisdom and grace to fill our appointed stations with propriety, that we may enjoy satisfaction in our own souls, edify others, and bring glory to the name of Him who has so wonderfully preserved, blessed, and brought us together.
If there is anything in the commencement of this which looks like pettishness, forgive it ; my mind is now completely divested of every feeling of the kind, although I own I am sometimes too apt to be overcome by this disposition.
Let me have the pleasure of hearing from you again as soon as convenient. This writing is uncommonly bad, but I too am in haste.
Adieu, my dearest. — I am your affectionate and sincere
Maria.
The marriage in Guiseley Church, near Bradford,^ was followed by the setting up house at Hartshead, where Mr. Bronte was curate for four years. Mr. William Morgan, who married Mrs. Bronte's cousin the same day, was curate of the neighbouring village of Bierley. Mr. Morgan per- formed the marriage ceremony, and Mr. Bronte officiated a few minutes later to make his wife's cousin Mrs. Morgan. During his married life at Hartshead, Mr. Bronte lived in a house at the top of Clough Lane,
* Thus reported in the Gentleman's Magazine iox 1813: — ' Lately at Guiseley, near Bradford, by the Revd. W. Morgan, minister of Bierley, Revd. P. Bronte, B.A., minister of Ilartshead-cum-Cliflon, to Maria, third daughter of the late T. Branwell, Esq., of Penzance. At the same time, by the Revd. P. Bronte, Revd. W. Morgan, to the only daughter of Mr. John Fennell, Head- master of the Wesleyan Academy, near Bradford.'
PATRICK AND MARIA BRONTfi 49
Hightown. Here his two eldest children, Maria and Elizabeth, were born/ He then removed to Thornton, near Bradford.
1 Maria Bronte was born in 1813, and christened April 23, 1814. Elizabeth was born Feb. 8, 1815, and was christened at Thornton on August 26 of that year, her aunt Elizabeth Branwell of Penzance, and Elizabeth Firth of Thornton, being her godmothers, and Mr. Firth of Kipping House, Thornton, her godfather.
50 THE BRONTES
CHAPTER I I
THE BRONTES AT THORNTON
Patrick Bronte exchanged the living of Hartshead-cum- Clifton in 1 8 1 5 for that of Thornton. H e was doubtless in- spired thereto by the fact that his wife's cousin, Mrs. William Morgan, and her husband were residinof in Bradford, about four miles distant. It is clear that both Mr. Bronte's entry into Yorkshire and his introduction to the lady who became his wife were due to Mr, Morgan. The friends, as we have seen, first met at Wellington. Through the influence of Mrs. Fletcher of Madeley in the same county, Mr. Morgan came into communication with the Fennells and their friend, Mr. Crosse, Vicar of Brad- ford. Mr. John Fennell was a godson of the famous Wesleyan, the Rev. John Fletcher, Wesley's friend. Mr. Morgan, once a curate at Bradford, it was natural that he should help his new friend to a vacant curacy at Dews- bury ; it was natural further that he should introduce him to the Fennells, and hence the marriage came about. Mr. Morgan was curate under the Rev. John Crosse, and later, in 18 13, became Vicar of Christ Church, Bradford,^
^ Mr. Morgan became a widower and married a second time in 1836, and a third time in very old age. His second wife was Miss Mary Alice Gibson of Bradford. In 1851 he exchanged livings with the Rector of Hulcott, Bucks. He died there in 1858, aged eighty-eight years. His wo^rks included an account of Mr. Crosse, his predecessor at Bradford; The Parish Priest Potirtrayed ; Christian Instructions, consisting of Sermons and Addresses; a tale entitled The iVeish IVeaver ; a Selection of Fsalnn and Hymns ; also a Memoir of his second wife entitled, Simplicity and Godly Sincerity exemplified in the Life and Death of Mrs. Morgan of Hulcott, Buckinghamshire, and
THE BRONTES AT THORNTON 51
supplementing his income for a time, it would seem, by keep- ing a school. The then minister^ at Thornton was the Rev. Thomas Atkinson. Mr. Atkinson was betrothed to a Miss Walker of Lascelles Hall, near Huddersfield, and to be near to this lady, it is said that the young curate desired to exchange with Mr. Bronte. Mr. Atkinson remained in possession of the perpetual curacy of Harts- head until 1866, and he lived there until 1870. He was the godfather of Charlotte Bronte,^ and his wife was her godmother.^ The Atkinsons were not, of course, contented with Mr. Bronte's modest residence. They resided at
late of Bradford, Yorkshire. The second Mrs. Morgan died in 1852. Mr. Morgan also edited a magazine, The Pastoral Visitor, to which Mr. Bronte several times contributed.
^ It was a perpetual curacy, serving as did also Haworth as a chapel-of-ease to Bradford Parish Church. The curate was designed 'minister' until 1855, when the Rev. R. H. Heap became Vicar of Thornton. The value of the livings of Hartshead and Thornton was the same — £'l,'^o per annum.
^ A great-niece, Miss Lucy Ethel Fraser, sends me from the Atkinson Pedigree in her possession the following information concerning Mr. Atkinson and his wife. It will be seen that Mr. Atkinson's mother was a Firth, a family with which we are to become acquainted a little later : —
Thomas Atkinson = P'rances, 3rd d. of
born at Leeds, June Samuel Walker,
loth, 1780, B.A. of Esq., of Lascelles
Magdalene College, Hall, nr. Hudders-
Cambridge, and 7th field, by Esther his
Junior Optime 1802. wife, d. of John
Married at Kirk- Firth, of Kipping,
heaton, December Gent. Born at
23rd, 1817. M.A. Kirkheaton, Janu-
1814. Incumbent of ary 28th, 1793. Hartshead- cum -Clif- ton, Yorkshire.
Mr. Atkinson died February 28, 1870, at the Green House, Mirfield ; his wife died in 1881. Miss Fraser further informs me that her mother was at school at Roe Head when Charlotte Bronte was a teacher there, and that she ' was a pet of Charlotte's, who used to call her "velvet cheeks.'"
^ There is a tradition among the descendants of the Rev. James Clarke Franks, Vicar of Huddersfield, who married Miss Elizabeth Firth, that the pair were Charlotte Bronte's godfather and godmother. It is possible, although there is no direct evidence, that Miss Firth may have been the second godmother with Mrs. Atkinson. She was not married until 1S24.
52 THE BRONTES
Green House, Mirfield, and there Charlotte Bronte fre- quently visited as a girl.^
The historian of Thornton" has clearly presented that town to us as it was when Mr, Bronte with his wife and two children arrived on the scene. His ministrations were conducted in a building that was known as the Old Bell Chapel, which dated from 1612, a building of un- redeemed ugliness. There were only twenty-three houses in the main street of Thornton at that date. The Parson- age, as it appears to have been called, was in Market Street. Many would think it a very mean cottage. But Thornton as it may be seen a century later is a much sadder sight, considered aesthetically, than it was when it presented itself to the eyes of Mr. Bronte. It is now a town with workshops, factories, and stone quarries ; the old chapel has been superseded by a new, but by no means beautiful, church, which stands exactly opposite the ruins, divided only by the road. It is some years since I was there. First I wandered among the chapel ruins and the gravestones which lie around. I found the font, in which the young Brontes were baptized, exposed to wind and weather, apparently cared for by none. It has since been removed into the new church opposite.^ This church also possesses to-day a Bronte organ, built by subscriptions from enthusiasts. A still more precious possession is the register of births, where are recorded the baptisms of all but one of the Bronte children. It will be remembered
1 Mr. W. W. Yates in The Father of the Brontes.
^ Mr. William Scruton, to whose book Thornton and the Brontes I am indebted for many facts in this chapter. It was published in 1898 by John Dale and Co., Ltd., of Bridge Street, Bradford.
* There are now three fonts in the new church at Thornton — a new one and two old ones. The oldest, dating from the seventeenth century, was discovered among the ruins of the Bell Chapel by Mr. Charles Forshaw, and at his suggestion removed into the church. This was the font in use at the time when Mr. Bronte was curate at Thornton. The other font was transferred from the ruins (o the church at the sugges- tion of Mr. W. Brookes. Mr. John J. Stead of Heckmondwike photographed both the old fonts when they were among tlie ruins.
THE BRONTES AT THORNTON
53
that Maria Bronte, the eldest child, was baptized at Hartshead, where she was born. Elizabeth, the second child, although born at Hartshead, was baptized at Thornton.^
It was essentially a nonconformist village, with many Puritan traditions, in which Mr. Bronte came to take up his duties in that historic year 1815. Kipping Chapel at Thornton, the place of worship belonging to the Indepen- dents, had a history more remarkable than any that per- tained to the Established Church so far as that locality was concerned. Oliver Heywood, that famous Royalist and Presbyterian, who suffered for his devotion to royalty under Cromwell and for his Presbyterianism under Charles 11., visited Thornton many times. It was the scene of the ministration of two famous men, Joseph and Accepted Lester, the latter occupying the pulpit of Kipping House from 1702 to 1709. In 1760 a brother of Dr. Priestley was minister. A certain Robinson Pool was pastor during Mr. Bronte's residence at Thornton, and with him the father of certain remarkable children, who alone interest us much, managed to agree very well.
At Thornton, then, Charlotte Bronte was born on the 2ist of April 1816, Branwell in 18 17, Emily in 1818,
* I am indebted to Mr. J. J. Steai of Heckmondwike for the following notes : —
|
From the Register of Baptisms, Hartshead-cum-Clifton, Yorkshire. |
|||||
|
1814 April 23 |
Maria |
daughter of |
Revd. Patrick Bronte William Morgan Minister of this ; officiating Mini- Church, and Maria, ster. his wife. |
||
|
From the Register of Baptisms at Thornton Church. |
|||||
|
181S Augt. |
Elizabeth daughter of |
Patrick and Maria |
Bronte |
Thorn- ton |
J. Fennell officiating Minister. |
54
THE BRONTES
and Anne in 1820.^ In this last year the family removed to Haworth, and in 182 1 the poor mother was dead. The life of the Brontes at Thornton would be an entire blank to us were it not for a slight glimpse of them afforded by the diary of his grandmother, which Professor Moore Smith of Sheffield has kindly permitted me to publish. This lady was Miss Elizabeth Firth, whose father resided at Kipping House, Thornton, and was very kind to Mr. Bronte, and stood godfather to some of his children. Miss Firth kept a diary, unhappily all too brief, and only the Bronte enthusiast will forgive its inclusion in this volume, so meagre are its details.^ But from this document we learn that Mr. Bronte was not, at least in the early years of his married life, an unsocial person. At Haworth he gained that character among the village gossips. But, apart from the fact that he did not enjoy
Baptisms solemnised in the Parish of Bradford and Chapelry of Thornton in the County of York.
|
When Baptized. |
Child's Christian Name. |
Parent's Name. |
Abode. |
Quality, Trade, or Profession. |
By whom the Ceremony was Performed. |
|
|
Christian. |
Surname. |
|||||
|
1S16 29th June |
Charlotte daughter of |
The Rev. Patrick and Maria |
Bronte |
Thornton |
Minister of Thornton |
Win. Morgan Minister of Christ Church Bradford. |
|
18.7 July 23 |
Patrick Branwell son of |
Patrick and Maria |
Bronte |
Thornton |
Minister |
Jno. Fennell officiating Minister. |
|
1818 20th August |
Emily Jane daughter of |
The Rev. Patrick and Maria |
Bronte A.B. |
Thornton Parsonage |
Minister of Thornton |
Wm. Morgan Minister of Christ Church Bradford. |
|
1820 March 25th |
Anne i The Rev. daughter 1 Patrick of and Maria |
Bronte |
Minister of Haworth |
Wm. Morgan Minister of Christ Church in Bradford. |
" See Appendix ll. The Brontes at Thornton.
THE BRONTES AT THORNTON 55
many months of married life at Haworth, the following letter, which was contributed by Mr. William Dearden of Halifax to the Examijier m July 1857, after reading the first edition of Mrs. Gaskell's book, is a sufficient answer to the charge of moroseness and even savageness that has been made against him. The letter has never up to now been reprinted : —
In a recent review in the Times of the Life of Charlotte Bronte, prominence was given to that portion of the biographer's narrative which exhibits in an unfavourable light the domestic character of the Rev. P. Bronte, the father of the illustrious Yorkshire- woman. As a matter of justice, which it is hoped you will honourably concede, the friends of Mr. Bronte claim the privilege, through the medium of your columns, of correcting the gross misstatements, unscrupulously made, concerning that gentleman in the memoir of his daughter.
The task of a biographer is sacred and responsible. No one should undertake it who does not feel sure that he possesses not only the ability to furnish, but the judgment to select, the best authentic information respecting the personages, living or dead, whom he introduces into his pages. If he lack in these essentials — though his revelations, especially if singular and romantic, may interest a large class of readers — consequences often ensue, mortifying to the unlucky writer, derogatory to the character of the dead, and painfully afflicting to the feelings of the living. Hinc nice lacrymcB in regard to the biographer of Charlotte Bronte.
It will shortly appear that Mrs. Gaskell has relied for most that she has said of Mr. Bronte's conduct towards his family on the partial testimony of a single individual — the 'good old woman' who was the only resident in the parsonage, as a temporary nurse, during the illness of Mrs. Bronte.
That some account should have been given, in the Life of Charlotte Bronte, of her father, was naturally to be expected ; but then care should have been taken that the materials for drawing his domestic portraiture 'should have been selected from undeniably authentic sources ; in other w^ords, that Mr. Bronte should have been allowed to sit for his own picture, and not a simulacrum been introduced in his stead, which no more resembles him than ' I to Hercules.' The long-tried and faithful pastor of
56 THE BRONTES
a flock by whom he is universally revered — the father of a family, all of whom loved and honoured him, and of whom he is now the sole survivor — ought to have been treated with at least common decenc)' and Christian charity. If it were necessary to introduce in the background a gloomy figure to heighten the effect of the ' Three Bronte Sisters,' surely poor Branwell's spectral shadow might have sufficed for such a purpose, without dragging in the ' child -reft father,' tarred and feathered by the malice of an ignorant country gossip. That Mrs. Gaskell did not give the ' counterfeit presentment' of the Rev. gentleman as the 'coinage of her own brain,' the public will readily believe ; but they will not so readily acquit her of having done a great wrong to a venerable old man, ' fourscore and upwards ' (whom, before she became his public accuser, ' the breath of calumny had never tainted '), by credulously listening to and recording the malignant misrepresentations of a covert and distant enemy, without appealing to those who had gathered round his hearth for above a quarter of a century, and who, consequently, were best acquainted with the domestic habits and conduct of the master of the house. Martha Brown, the present housekeeper, an intelligent young woman (who has in her possession several interesting letters of Charlotte Bronte's which have never been published), has lived in Mr. Bronte's family from childhood* Nancy Garrs, now in Bradford, was nurse to Mr. Bronte's children during their residence at Thornton ; she afterwards removed with the family to Haworth parsonage, and became a domestic servant ; there, being joined by her younger sister Sarah, who came to assist her, she remained till very near the time of Mrs. Bronte's death. Sarah continued with Mr. Bronte long after that melancholy event, and is now, I believe, in America. One would have imagined that to two at least of the parties just mentioned — so easily accessible — Mrs. Gaskell would have applied for information respecting the character and conduct of Mr. Bronte, as a husband and a father ; but to neither of these, nor to any respectable person in Haworth, acquainted with that gentleman, has she made application for such a purpose. Had she done so, how different would have been the picture she would have drawn ! Instead of the cold, stern, stoical, unsympathising being she has depicted him — in certain fits of hallucination, acting the tyrant or the madman — she would have represented him as an affectionate and considerate husband, and a kind and indulgent father.
THE BRONTES AT THORNTON 57
Mrs. Gaskell acknowledges that 'the good old woman, Mrs. Bronte's nurse, was her informant,' of what she is pleased to term 'the instances of eccentricity' exemplified by the pastor at Haworth — a knowledge of which ' she holds to be necessary for the right understanding of the life of his daughter.' But if these 'instances,' etc., cannot be proved — nay, are absolutely false — as we shall shortly see — they cannot serve the purpose which Mrs. Gaskell ' holds it to be necessary ' that they should serve. On the authority of this Abigail, the iDiographer ends her curious category of the qualities of the two sisters, Nancy and Sarah Garrs, by designating them ' wasteful ' servants. ' Wasteful ! ' said Mr. Bronte to Nancy: 'had you and your sister been wasteful, I should have found it out ; but I can truly say that no master was ever blessed with two more careful and honest servants.' We now see on whose testimony the greatest dependence can be placed.
The nurse says : ' I used to think them (the children) spiritless, they were so different to any children I had ever seen. In part I set it down to a fancy Mr. Bronte had of not letting them have flesh meat to eat. It was from no wish for saving, for there was plenty and even waste in the house, with young servants, and no mistress to see after them ; but he thought the children should be brought up simply and hardily ; so they had nothing but potatoes for their dinner ; but they never seemed to wish for anything else ; they were good little children.' By way of corollary to this statement, Mrs. Gaskell adds, ' I imagine Mr. Bronte must have formed some of his opinions on the management of children from these two theorists ' (Rousseau and Mr. Day). She gives an example of the evils attending such a mode of treating children, which it is not necessary to repeat. ' Mr. Bronte,' she continues, 'wishes to make his children hardy and indifferent to the pleasures ot eating and dress. In the latter he succeeded as far as regarded his daughters ; but he went at his object with unsparing earnest- ness of purpose.' Nancy Garrs asserts that the children had meat at dinner every day in the week, and as much as they could eat ; the only article of food from the free use of which they were restricted was butter ; but its want was compensated by what is called in Yorkshire, ' spice-cake.'
'Mrs. Bronte's nurse told me,' says Mrs. Gaskell, 'that one day when the children had been out on the moor, and rain had come on, she thought their feet would be wet, and accordingly she
58 THE BRONTES
rummaged out some coloured boots which had been given to them by a friend, the Mr. Morgan, who married "cousin Jane," she believes. The little pairs she ranged round the kitchen fire to warm ; but when the children came back, the boots were nowhere to be found ; only a very strong odour of burnt leather was perceived. Mr. Bronte had come in and seen them ; they were too gay and luxurious for his children, and would foster a love of dress ; so he put them in the fire. He spared nothing that oflfended his antique simplicity.' It is sufficient to say that there is not an atom of truth in this ridiculous story, I make the assertion on the authority of Mr. Bronte himself, and of Nancy, who declares that such a circumstance as burning the boots could not have happened in the kitchen, from which she was rarely absent above five minutes at a time during the day, without her having a knowledge of it.
' Long before this,' Mrs. Gaskell declares (on the authority, it is presumed, of the aforesaid 'good old woman'), 'some one had given Mrs. Bronte a silk gown; either the make, the colour, or the material, was not according to his (Mr. Bronte's) notions of con- sistent propriety, and Mrs. Bronte in consequence never wore it. But for all this she kept it treasured up in her drawers, which were generally locked. One day, however, while in the kitchen, she remembered that she had left the key in her drawer, and hearing Mr. Bronte upstairs, she augured some ill to her dress, and running up in haste, she found it cut to shreds. The following is the true history of this little affair, as given by Nancy : — ' One morning Mr. Bronte perceived that his Mrs. had put on a print gown, which was made in the fashion of that day, with a long waist and what he considered absurd-looking sleeves. In a pleasant humour he bantered her about the dress, and she went upstairs and laid it aside. Some time after, Mr. Bronte entered her room, and cut off the sleeves. In the course of the day, Mrs. .Bronte found the sleeveless gown, and showed it me in the
iicitchen, laughing heartily. Next day, however, he went to tCeighley, and bought the material for a silk gown, which was made to suit Mr. Bronte's taste.'
' His strong, passionate, Irish nature,' observes Mrs. Gaskell (endorsing, of course, the opinion of her favourite informant), 'was, in general, compressed down with resolute stoicism ; but it was there, notwithstanding all his philosophic calm and dignity of demeanour. He did not speak when he was annoyed or dis-
THE BRONTES AT THORNTON 59
pleased, but worked off his volcanic wrath by firing pistols out of the back door in rapid succession. Mrs. Bronte, lying in bed upstairs, would hear the quick explosions, and know that some- thing had gone wrong ; but her sweet nature thought invariably of the bright side, and she would say, " Ought I not to be thankful that he never gave me an angry word?" Now and then his anger took a different form, but still was speechless. Once he got the hearthrug, and stuffing it up the grate, deliberately set it on fire, remained in the room in spite of the stench, until it had mouldered and shrivelled away into uselessness. A?iother time he took some chairs, and sawed away at the backs till they were reduced to the condition of stools' All this about firing the pistols, burning the hearthrug, and sawing away at the chair-backs, I am assured by Mr. Bronte, and by Nancy too, is a tissue of falsehoods.
'Owing to some illness of the digestive organs,' says Mrs. Gaskell, ' Mr. Bronte was obliged to be very careful about his diet; and, in order to avoid the temptation, and possibly to have the necessary quiet for digestion, he had begun, before his wife's death, to take his dinner alone — a habit which he always retained. He did not require companionship, therefore he did not seek it, either in his walks, or in daily life.' Nancy states that she never heard of Mr. Bronte's being troubled with indigestion, but even if he were, it did not prevent him from dining with his family every day. His children were the frequent companions of his walks. I remember having seen him more than once conversing kindly and affably with them in the studio of a clever artist who resided in Keighley ; and many others, both in that town and in Haworth, can bear testimony to the fact of his being often seen accompanied by his young family in his visits to friends, and in his rambles among the hills.
I may remark, in passing, that the sad story of ' a wealthy manufacturer beyond Keighley' — unnecessarily and cruelly intro- duced— has occasioned ■tnore pain among his descendants, whom, Mrs. Gaskell says, ' the strong feeling of the country-side still holds as accursed,' a degree of pain which a whole life's penance by the narrator could not remove.
Mrs. Gaskell speaks truly and well of the good terms on which Charlotte Bronte (and she might have added the father and Branwell too) lived with the servants Nancy and Sarah Garrs, ' who cannot,' she says, ' speak of the family without tears.' To show the estimation in which these two sisters were held, I may
60 THE BRONTES
remark that Mr. Brontci presented them with ten pounds, when the younger finally quitted his service ; and his daughter Charlotte, having heard that the latter, shortly after her arrival at her home in Bradford, had been attacked by a violent fever, went to see her, and in spite of every remonstrance, entered the room of the sick girl, threw herself on the bed beside her, and, with terms of affectionate regard, repeatedly kissed her burning brow. Warmly was this kindly feeling on the part of the Bronte family reciprocated by Nancy and her sister; 'the former of whom,' says Mrs. Gaskell, ' went over from Bradford to Haworth on purpose to see Mr. Bronte, and offer him her true sympathy, when his last child died.' An amusing instance is afforded by Nancy of her appreciation of Mr. Bronte s character as a husband, and of his concern for her welfare. One day he entered the kitchen, apparently in great excitement. ' Nancy/ said he, ' is it true what I have heard that you are going to marry a Pat?' ' Yes, sir, I believe it is,' was her prompt reply ; ' and if he prove but a tenth part as kind a husband to me as you have been to Mrs. Bronte, I shall think myself very happy in having made a Pat my choice.'
Whether another edition of Mrs. Gaskell's book will see the light or not, it is the duty of Mr. Bronte's friends to see to it that they do not suffer his grey hairs to go down to the grave with the injurious aspersions on his character, contained in it, unremoved. 'I did not know,' said the venerable old man, a few weeks ago, ' that I had an enemy in the world ; much less one who would traduce me before my death. Everything in that book (meaning the biography of his daughter) which relates to my conduct to my family is either false or distorted, I never committed such acts as are there ascribed to me. I stated this in a letter which I sent to Mrs. Gaskell, requesting her at the same time to cancel the false statements about me in the next edition of her book. To this I received no other answer than that Mrs. Gaskell was unwell and not able to write.'
I have not the remotest wish to injure Mrs. Gaskell in the estimation of the public by exposing these 'false statements' which she has made concerning Mr. Bronte in her biography of his daughter ; but she has done great injustice to a good and amiable man, and it is but right that both she and the world should see that she has done so. She ought not, for the sake of establishing a theory to account for certain peculiarities in Charlotte Bronte's
THE BRONTES AT THORNTON 61
• character, to have Hmited her inquiries to one particular party —
and that party, as has been shown, not the most impartial and trustworthy. Character, she has found by humiliating experience, is too sacred a thing to be trifled with — even though the truth be spoken of the living and the dead. The terror of the law, like the ancient rack, may extort recantations of former avowed facts and opinions ; but the public cannot respect the pusillanimity that repudiates what an erring judgment revealed to the world. A Branwell's story told with such evident gusto, vanishes into the limbo of fiction, when the Medusa of Law shakes her snaky locks at the trembling narrator — it is a tnytJi imposed upon the credulity of one who wished to make a book; and the writer is deeply sorry that she has given it publicity. It is to be hoped poor Branwell will meet with a more discreet and Spartan biographer than he has found in Mrs. Gaskell. No legal threat from the man of peace, whom she, no doubt, unintentionally wronged, will ever subject her to the painful necessity of making humiliating confes- sions of her culpable credulity. He has justified himself; and he leaves it to the writer of the Life of Charlotte Bronte to speak of him, in future, with candour and truth.
Neither from the biography of Mrs. Gaskell nor from any of the numerous books upon the subject of the Brontes do we really learn anything of the life of the family at Thornton, although that village is rendered so famous by the birth of the Bronte children there. One is the more grateful, therefore, for the meagre diary of Elizabeth Firth, M^ith its records of constant visits, tea-drinkings, and social intercourse. Mr. Bronte appears in it in a quite pleasant light, and we may be quite sure that he was, on the whole, a gentle, considerate husband. Miss Firth was but eighteen years of age when Mr. Bronte removed to Thornton in 1815. She had, it is interesting to note, been a pupil of Miss Richmal Mangnall, the author of the once famous Mangnair s Questions, who for many years kept a school at Wakefield. From her we learn much that we do not obtain elsewhere, as for example the inter- esting fact that when Charlotte was born — the future author oi Jane Eyre was named after an aunt in Cornwall
62 THE BRONTES
— Mrs. Bronte had her sister EHzabeth staying with her, that sister who was to become a second mother to Char- lotte in the coming years. Charlotte was nearly four years of age when her father exchanged the living of Thornton for that of Haworth, six miles away. He had been five years at Thornton. Haworth offered him many attrac- tions— a healthier environment for his delicate wife, a better and more commodious house for his six little children ; no increase of income, it is true, but no material loss and no great separation for so good a walker from his great friends, the Firths of Thornton. Mr. Bronte, it is clear, took the service at Haworth from February 1820, although he did not remove his family to the Haworth parsonage until April of that year. ' There are those yet alive,' wrote Mrs. Gaskell in 1857, 'who remember seven heavily laden carts lumbering slowly up the long stone street' of Haworth 'bearing the new parson's household goods to his future abode.'
INFANCY AT HAWORTH 63
CHAPTER III
INFANCY AT HAWORTH AND COWAN BRIDGE
Haworth, we have been told, has been over-described. Yet nothing could be more pardonable than the attempt to present in word-painting this not particularly pictur- esque mill-town of the north/ The visitor who drives over from Ilkley has glimpses of the glorious moors which must alone have served to give moments of buoyancy and exhilaration to the children who lived the story we have to tell. Approached from Keighley, the little town seems but a dreary, monotonous climb for the pedestrian, unless he recalls the fact that these Bronte children toiled often on foot the self-same journey, bringing back books from the library of the old Mechanics' Institute, and thereby supplementing the scantily furnished book-shelves of their own home. Arriving in the little town, one is still arrested by the sign of the ' Bull,' an inn that appears more than once in the Bronte story. One observes the church — not the building in which Mr. Bronte officiated — and close by, separated by a graveyard, the house in which our story was in the main lived. The original church, built by William Grimshaw Mn 1755, was destroyed in 1879, and
^ Pigot's Yorkshire Directory of 1828 gives the census during the first year of Mr. Bronte's incumbency thus : —
' Haworth, a populous manufacturing village, in the honour of Fontefract, Morley wapentake, and in the parish of Bradford, is four miles south of Keighley, containing, by the census of 182 1, 4668 inhabitants.
'Gentry and Clergy: Bronte, Rev. Patrick, Haworth; Heaton, Robert, gent., Ponden Hall; Miles, Rev. Oddy, Haworth; Saunders, Rev. Moses, Haworth.'
^ William Grimshaw (1708- 1763) was Mr. Bronte's most famous predecessor as perpetual incumbent at Haworth. He was here from 1742 to his death, and struck
(54 THE BRONTES
the present new building was opened two years later. The tower, however, remains ; and the churchyard ; and the house, with all its sad and sacred associations.
For a good view of Haworth we cannot, however, do better than turn to a reference-book of 1848 — Pigot's Yorkshire Directory— and see the place coldly, statistically as it appeared at the moment when the Bronte children were about to become famous : —
Haworth is a chapelry, comprising the hamlets of Haworth, Stanbury, and Near and Far Oxenhope, in the parish of Bradford, and wapentake of Morley, West Riding — Haworth being ten miles from Bradford, about the same distance from Halifax, Colne, and Skipton, three and a half miles S. from Keighley, and eight from Hebden Bridge, at which latter place is a station on the Leeds and Manchester Railway. Haworth is situated on the side of a hill, and consists of one irregularly built street — the habitations in that part called Oxenhope being yet more scattered, and Stanbury still farther distant ; the entire chapelry occupying a wide space. The spinning of worsted, and the manufacture of stuffs, are branches which here prevail extensively.
The church or rather chapel (subject to Bradford), dedicated to St. Michael, was rebuilt in 1755 : the living is a perpetual curacy, in the presentation of the vicar of Bradford and certain trustees ; the present curate is the Rev. Patrick Bronte. The other places of worship are two chapels for Baptists, one each for Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists, and another at Oxenhope for the latter denomination. There are two excellent free schools — one at Stanbury, the other, called the Free Grammar School, near Oxenhope ; besides which there are several neat edifices erected for Sunday teaching. There are three annual fairs : they are held on Easter-Monday, the second Monday after St. Peter's day (old style), and the first Monday after Old Michaelmas day. The chapelry of Haworth, and its dependent hamlets, contained by the returns for 1831, 5835 inhabitants; and by the census taken in June 1841, the population amounted to 6303.
ihe note of revivalism in Yorkshire simultaneously with John Wesley's efforts. He (lied at Hawoith, but was buried in Luddenden church near his wife. John Newton of the OIney Hymns wrote his Lif(. John Wesley preached at Haworth in 1757, 1761, 1766, 1772, 1786, 1788 and 1790; and George WhitefieUl also preachtd here many times.
\
INFANCY AT HAWORTH 65
Then we may turn to Mrs. Gaskell's own description from inquiries made on the spot soon after Charlotte Bronte's death : —
The people in Haworth were none of them very poor. Many of them were employed in the neighbouring worsted mills ; a fev/ were millowners and manufacturers in a small way ; there were also some shopkeepers for the humbler and everyday wants ; but for medical advice, for stationery, books, law, dress, or dainties the inhabitants had to go to Keighley. There were several Sunday- schools ; the Baptists had taken the lead in instituting them, the Wesleyans had followed, the Church of England had brought up the rear. Good Mr. Grimshaw, Wesley's friend, had built a humble Methodist chapel, but it stood close to the road leading on to the moor ; the Baptists then raised a place of worship, with the distinction of being a few yards back from the highway ; and the Methodists have since thought it well to erect another and larger chapel, still more retired from the road. Mr. Bronte was ever on kind and friendly terms with each denomination as a body; but from individuals in the village the family stood aloof, unless some direct service was required, from the first. ' They kept themselves very close,' is the account given by those who remember Mr. and Mrs. Brontes coming amongst them. I believe many of the Yorkshire men would object to the system of parochial visiting; their surly independence would revolt from the idea of any one having the right, from his office, to inquire into their condition, to counsel or to admonish them. The old hill spirit lingers in them which coined the rhyme, inscribed on the under part of one of the seats in the sedilia of Whalley Abbey, not many miles from Haworth :
' Who mells wi' what another does Had best go home and shoe his goose.'
I asked an inhabitant of a district close to Haworth what sort of a clergyman they had at the church which he attended.
'A rare good one,' said he: 'he minds his own business, and 'ne'er troubles himself with ours.'
Haworth needs even to-day no further description, but if the villaoe has been over-described, the house in which
o
Mr. Bronte resided, from 1820 till his death in 1861, has
VOL. I. E
66 THE BRONTES
not been over-described, perhaps because for many years the vicar who succeeded Mr. Bronte did not encourage visitors.
Many changes have been made since Mr. Bronte died, but the house still retains its essentially interesting features. In the time of the Brontes, it is true, the front outlook was as desolate as to-day it is attractive. Then there was a little piece of barren ground running down to the walls of the churchyard, with here and there a currant-bush as the sole adornment. Now we see an abundance of trees and a well-kept lawn. Ellen Nussey was wont to recall seeing Emily and Anne Bronte, on a fine summer after- noon, sitting on stools in this bit of garden plucking currants from the poor insignificant bushes. There was no premonition of the time, not so far distant, when the rough doorway separating the churchyard from the garden, which was opened for their mother when they were little children, should be opened again time after time in rapid succession for their own biers to be carried through.^ This gateway is now effectively bricked up. In the days of the Brontes it was reserved for the passage of the dead — a grim arrangement, w^hich, strange to say, finds no place in any one of the sisters' stories. We enter the house, and the door on the right leads into Mr. Bronte's study, always called the parlour ; that on the left into the dining-room, where the children spent a great portion of their lives. From childhood to womanhood, indeed, the three girls regularly breakfasted with their father in his study. In the dining-room — a square and simple room of a kind common enough in the houses of the poorer middle classes
' The graves rise in terraces up to the house. It was a cruel irony, considering the brief lives of Mrs. Bronte and her children, that against the wall of the church was a short headstone recording remarkable instances of longevity of the Murgatroyds of Lee: Susan, wife of John, 1785, aged 86; John, 1789, aged 88; James, their son, 1820, aged 95; Ann, his wife, 1831, aged 85; Sarah, wife of John, 1S46, aged 70; and John (son of James), 1862. aged 85. United ages, 509.— See Haworth—Past and Praeni, by J. llor^fall Turner, for a full account of the Haworth tombstones.
INFANCY AT HAWORTH 67
— they ate their midday dinner, their tea and supper. Mr. Bronte joined them at tea, although he frequently dined alone in his study. The children's dinner-table has been described to me by the late Ellen Nussey, who delighted to recall her memories of her many visits to the house. At one end sat Miss Branwell, at the other, Charlotte, with Emily and Anne on either side. Branwell was then absent. The living was of the simplest. A single joint, followed invariably by one kind or another of milk-pudding. Pastry was unknown in the Bronte household. Milk- puddings, or food composed of milk and rice, would seem to have made the principal diet of Emily and Anne Bronte, and to this they added a breakfast of Scotch porridge, which they shared with their dogs. It is more interesting, perhaps, to think of all the day-dreams in that room, of the mass of writing which was achieved there, of the conversa- tions and speculation as to the future. Miss Nussey has given a pleasant picture of twilight when Charlotte and she walked with arms encircling one another round and round the table, and Emily and Anne followed in similar fashion. There was no lack of cheerfulness and of hope at this period. Behind Mr. Bronte's studio was the kitchen ; and there we may easily picture the Bronte children telling stories to Tabby or Martha, or to what- ever servant reigned at the time, and learning, as all of them did, to become thoroughly domesticated — Emily most of all. Behind the dining-room was a peat-room, which, when Charlotte was married in 1854, was cleared out and converted into a little study for Mr. Nicholls. The staircase with its solid banister remains as it did half a century ago ; and at its foot one is still shown the corner which tradition assigns as the scene of Emily's conflict with her dog Keeper. On the right, at the back, as you mount the staircase, was a small room allotted to Branwell as a studio. On the other side of this staircase, also at the back, was the servants' room. In the front of the
68 THE BRONTES
house, immediately over the dining-room, was Miss Bran- well's room, afterwards the spare bedroom until Charlotte Bronte married. In that room she died. On the left, over Mr. Bronte's study, was Mr, Bronte's bedroom. It was the room which, for many years, he shared with Branwell, and it was in that room that Branwell and his fLither died at an interval of nearly thirteen years. On the staircase, half-way up, was a grandfather's clock, which Mr. Bronte used to wind up every night on his way to bed. He always went to bed at nine o'clock, and Miss Nussey well remembers his stentorian tones as he called out as he left his study and passed the dining-room door — * Don't be up late, children ' — which they usually were. Between these two front rooms upstairs, and immediately over the passage, with a door facing the staircase, was a box room ; This was the children's nursery, where for many years the children slept, and where, I believe, the bulk of their little books were compiled. Later it became Emily's bedroom..
But this is to anticipate. In September 182 1 Mrs. Bronte died after less than eighteen months of Haworth. Maria, the eldest of her six children, was but eight years of age. No wonder that Mr. Bronte sought a stepmother for his little ones. Tradition has it, as we have seen, that he asked Mary Burder and Elizabeth Firth in succession, but that both these ladies refused. In any case, one may count Mr. Bronte fortunate that his wife's sister, Elizabeth Branwell, whom we have seen upon a visit to her brother- in-law in Thornton, consented to come from Penzance to watch over the six little ones. Mrs. Gaskell tells, indeed, of her distaste for Yorkshire and Haworth after her own sunny Cornish home ; but it is clear that she did her duty and was profoundly esteemed by the nieces who sur- vived her. Miss Branwell arrived at Haworth in 1822. Two years later, on July i, 1824, her nieces, Maria and Elizabeth, were taken to the Clergy Daughters' School
INFANCY AT HAWORTH 69
at Cowan Bridge ; Charlotte followed in August of that year and Emily in November. In February of 1825 Maria was taken away in ill-health, Elizabeth left in May, Charlotte and Emily in June.' Thus it will be seen that Charlotte's impressions were of the most transitory kind, but she always believed that the school had practically killed her two elder sisters, both of whom died soon after they arrived back in Haworth. We know how she gibbeted the school in her novel of Jane Eyre, and Mrs. Gaskell's identification of Lowood in that novel caused much wordy discussion in the years following Charlotte Bronte's death. That the school was bad for delicate and sensitive children seems now to be beyond question. Mr. William Carus Wilson, an energetic evangelical clergyman, may have been as well-meaning as his friends asserted, but a study of his writings ^ reveals a temperament which was in no way exaggerated as pre- sented by Charlotte Bronte in her picture of Brocklehurst in Jane Eyre. There pretty well we may leave that threadbare controversy to rest.^
^ T\iQ Journal of Education iox ]zx\\xzx-^ 1900 contained the following extracts from the school register of the Clergy Daughters' School at Casterton : —
'Charlotte Bronte. Entered August 10, 1824. Writes indifferently. Ciphers a little, and works neatly. Knows nothing of grammar, geography, history, or accomplish- ments. Altogether clever of her age, but knows nothing systematically (at eight years old !). Left school June i, 1825. — Governess.'
The following entries may also be of interest : —
'Maria Bronte, aged 10 (daughter of Patrick Bronte, Haworth, near Keighley, Yorks). July I, 1824. Reads tolerably. Writes pretty well. Ciphers a little. Works badly. Very httle of geography or history. Has made some progress in reading French, but knows knothing of the language grammatically. Left February 14, 1S25, in ill-health, and died May 6, 1825.'
(Her father's account of her is : — ' She exhibited during her illness many symptoms of a heart under Divine influence. Died of decline.')
'Elizabeth Bronte, age 9. (Vaccinated. Scarlet fever, whooping-cough.) Reads little. Writes pretty well. Ciphers none (sic). Works very badly. Knows nothing of grammar, geography, history, or accomplishments. Left in ill-health, May 31, 1825. Died June 15, 1825, in decline.'
'Emily Bronte. Entered November 25, 1824, aged 6J. Reads very prettily, and works a little. Left June i, 1825. Subsequent career. — Governess.'
^ See Appendix ill. The Brontes at Cowan Bridge, by the Rev. Angus M. Mackay. Republished from The Bookmati of October 1894.
* At the same time it is worth while quoting from a letter by * A. H.' in August 1S55.
70 THE BRONTES
A. II. was a teacher who was at Cowan Bridge during the time of the residence of the little Brontes there.
' In July 1824 the Rev. Mr. Bronte arrived at Cowan Bridge with two of his daughters, Maria and Elizabeth, 10 and 9 years of age. The children were delicate; both had but recently recovered from the measles and whooping-cough— so recently, indeed, that doubts were entertained whether they could be admitted with safety to the other pupils. They were received, however, and went on so well that in August * their father returned, bringing with him two more of his children — Charlotte, 9 [she was really but S], and Emily, 6 years of age. During both these visits Mr. Bronte lodged at the school, sat at the same table with the children, saw the whole routine of the establishment, and, so far as I have ever known, was satisfied with everything that came under his observation.
"* The two younger children enjoyed uniformly good health." Charlotte was a general favourite. To the best of my recollection she was never under disgrace, how- ever slight ; punishment she certainly did not experience while she was at Cowan Bridge.
' In size, Charlotte was remarkably diminutive ; and if, as has been recently asserted, she never grew an inch after leaving the Clergy Danghters' School, she must have been a literal dwarf, and could not have obtained a situation as teacher in a school at Brussels, or anywhere else ; the idea is absurd. In respect of the treatment of the pupils at Cowan Bridge, I will say that neither Mr. Bronte's daughters nor any other of the children were denied a sufficient quantity of food. Any statement to the contrary is entirely false. The daily dinner consisted of meat, vegetables, and pudding, in abundance ; the children were permitted, and expected, to ask for whatever they desired, and were never limited.
' It has been remarked that the food of the school was such that none but starving children could eat it ; and in support of this statement reference is made to a certain occasion when the medical attendant was consulted about it. In reply to this, let me say that during the spring of 1S25 a low fever, although not an alarming one, prevailed in the school, and the managers, naturally anxious to ascertain whether any local cause occasioned the epidemic, took an opportunity to ask the physician's opinion of the food that happened to be then on the table. I recollect that he spoke rather scornfully of a baked rice pudding ; but as the ingredients of this dish were chiefly rice, sugar, and milk, its effects could hardly have been so serious as have been affirmed. I thus furnish you with the simple fr.ct from which those statements have been manufactured.
' I have not the least hesitation in saying that, upon the whole, the comforts were as many and the privations as few at Cowan Bridge as can well be found in so large an establishment. How far young or delicate children are able to contend with the necessary evils of a public school is, in my opinion, a very grave question, and does not enter into the present discussion.
The younger children in all larger institutions are liable to be oppressed ; but the exposure to this evil at Cowan Bridge was not more than in other schools, but, as I believe, far less. Then, again, thoughtless servants will occasionally spoil food, even in private families ; and in public schools they are likely to be still less particular, unless they are well looked after.
' But in ;his respect the institution in question compares very favourably with other and more expensive schools, as from personal experience I have reason to know. — A.H., August 1855.'— From A Vindication of the Clergy Daughters' School and the Rev. W. Cams Wilson frovi the Remarks in ' The Life of Charlotte Bronte,' by the Rev H. .Shepheard, M.A. London: Seeley, Jackson, a7td Halliday, 1857.
^ Emily did not enter the school until Nov. 25, 1824.
N
A LITERARY CHILDHOOD 71
CHAPTER IV
A LITERARY CHILDPIOOD
From her tenth to her fifteenth year Charlotte Bronte was at home with her brother and two sisters in the Haworth parsonage. We have many gHmpses of her of an indirect character afforded of these early years. There is a copy of The Imziation of Christ extant, given to Charlotte in 1826, and there are other books that we know the children read during this period, including Scott's Tales of a Gra7idfather. They also commenced 'original writing compositions,' as so many children of precocious tendencies do — to the joy of fond and ambitious parents. But I am not sure that children often cultivate the minute hand- writing that was affected by the Bronte prodigies. There are perhaps a hundred little manuscript books in existence, principally the work of Charlotte and Branwell, some few, however, by Emily and Anne. They were compiled in a microscopic handwriting probably from reasons of economy. Pence, we may be sure, were scarce with the little ones. The booklets were stitched and covered, sugar-paper being in most cases used for the wrappers. It is not possible to trace any particular talent in these little books, many of which bear the date 1829. Assuredly hundreds of children who have never come to fame have written quite as well. It is noteworthy, however, that the little Brontes had their heroes, who were also the heroes of the hour. They took the victorious Duke of Wellington to their hearts, and also the duke's sons, the Marquis of Douro and Lord Charles Wellesley, who figure largely in
72 THE HRONTES
their tiny paj^^es. It was a life of dreams, of a kind that children delight in, that indeed makes the life of childhood ever alternately beautiful and terrible. On the wild moors behind the house there must have been in any case much supreme happiness for the little Brontes in the early years that preceded the real schooldays now opening to them.
Of the work of the Bronte children at this period a great deal might be written. Mrs. Gaskell gives a list of some eighteen booklets, but a great many more from the pen of Charlotte are in existence. Branwell was equally prolific; and of him, also, there remains an immense mass of childish effort. That Emily and Anne were in- dustrious in a like measure there is abundant reason to believe ; but very few of their juvenile efforts remain to us, apart from the unpublished fragments of later years, to which reference will be made a little later. Whether Emily and Anne on the eve of their death deliberately destroyed all their treasures, or whether they were de- stroyed by Charlotte in the days of her mourning, will never be known. Meanwhile one turns with interest to the efforts of Charlotte and Branwell. Charlotte's little stories commence in her thirteenth year, and go on until she is twenty-three. From thirteen to eighteen she would seem to have had one absorbing hero — the Duke of Wellington. ^Vhether the stories be fairy tales or dramas of modern life, they all alike introduce the Marquis of Douro, who afterwards became the second Duke of Wellington, and Lord Charles Wellesley, whose son is now the third Duke of Wellington. The length of some of these fragments is indeed incredible. They fill but a few sheets of notepaper in that tiny handwriting ; but when copied by zealous admirers, it is seen that more than one of them is twenty thousand words in length.^
The Fou7id/iiig, by Captain Tree, written in 1833, is a
* See Appendix iv. The Bronte Manuscripts,
A LITERARY CHILDHOOD 73
story of thirty-five thousands words, though the manuscript has only eighteen pages. The Green Dwarf, written in the same year, is even longer, and indeed after her return from Roe Head in 1832, Charlotte must have devoted herself to continuous writing. The Adventures of Ernest Akinbert is a booklet of these years, and Arthttriana, or Odds and Ends: bemg a Miscellaneotis Collection of Pieces in Prose and Verse, by Lord Charles A. F. Wel- lesley, is yet another.
The son of the Iron Duke is made to talk, in these little books, in a way which would have gladdened the heart of a modern interviewer : —
' Lord Charles,' said Mr. Rundle to me one afternoon lately, 'I have an engagement to drink tea with an old college chum this evening, so I shall give you sixty lines of the y^neid to get ready during my absence. If it is not ready by the time I come back you know the consequences.' ' Very v/ell, sir,' said I, bring- ing out the books with a prodigious bustle, and making a show as if I intended to learn a whole book instead of sixty lines of the ^neid. This appearance of industry, however, lasted no longer than until the old gentleman's back was turned. No sooner had he fairly quitted the room than I flung aside the musty tomes, took my cap, and speeding through chamber, hall, and gallery, was soon outside the gates of Waterloo Palace.'
The Secret, another story, of which Mrs. Gaskell gave a facsimile of the first page, was also written in 1833, and indeed in this, her seventeenth year, Charlotte Bronte must have written as much as in any year of her life. When at Roe Head, 183 1-2, she would seem to have worked at her studies, and particularly her drawing ; but in the interval between Cowan Bridge and Roe Head she wrote a great deal. The earliest manuscripts in my pos- session bear date 1829 — that is to say, in Charlotte's thirteenth year. They are her Tales of the Islanders, which extend to four little volumes, in brown paper covers, neatly inscribed ' First Volume,' * Second Volume,' and so
74 THE BRONTES
on. The Duke is of absorbing importance in these • Tales.' ' One evening the Duke of Wellington was writing in his room in Downing Street. He was reposing at his ease in a simple easy-chair, smoking a homely tobacco-pipe, for he disdained all the modern frippery of cigars, . . .' and so on in an abundance of childish imagin- ings. The Search after Happiness and Characters of Great Meji of the Present Time were also written in 1829. Per- haps the only juvenile fragment which is worth anything is also the only one in which she escapes from the Wellington enthusiasm. It has an interest, moreover, in indicating that Charlotte in her girlhood heard something of her father's native land. It is called —
AN ADVENTURE IN IRELAND
During my travels in the south of Ireland the following adven- ture happened to me. One evening in the month of August, after a long walk, I was ascending the mountain which overlooks the village of Cabin, when I suddenly came in sight of a fine old castle. It was built upon a rock, and behind it was a large wood and before it was a river. Over the river was a bridge, which formed the approach to the castle. When I arrived at the bridge I stood still awhile to enjoy the prospect around me: far below was the wide sheet of still water in which the reflection of the pale moon was not disturbed by the smallest wave ; in the valley was the cluster of cabins which is known by the appellation of Cahin, and beyond these were the mountains of Killala. Over all, the grey robe of twilight was now stealing with silent and scarcely perceptible advances. No sound except the hum of the distant village and the sweet song of the nightingale in the wood behind me broke upon the stillness of the scene. While I was contemplating this beautiful prospect, a gentleman, whom I had not before observed, accosted me with 'Good evening, sir; are you a stranger in these parts?' I replied that I was. He then asked me where I was going to stop for the night ; I answered that I intended to sleep somewhere in the village. ' I am afraid you will find very bad accommodation there,' said the gentle- man ; 'but if you will take up your quarters with me at the
A LITERARY CHILDHOOD 75
castle, you are welcome.' I thanked him for his kind offer, and accepted it.
When we arrived at the castle I was shown into a large parlour, in which was an old lady sitting in an arm-chair by the fireside, knitting. On the rug lay a very pretty tortoise-shell cat. As soon as mentioned, the old lady rose ; and when Mr. O'Callaghan (for that, I learned, was his name) told her who I was, she said in the most cordial tone that I was welcome, and asked me to sit down. In the course of conversation I learned that she was Mr. O'Callaghan's mother, and that his father had been dead about a year. We had sat about an hour, when supper was announced, and after supper Mr. O'Callaghan asked me if I should like to retire for the night. I answered in the affirmative, and a little boy was commissioned to show me to my apartment. It was a snug, clean, and comfortable little old-fashioned room at the top of the castle. As soon as we had entered, the boy, who appeared to be a shrewd, good-tempered little fellow, said with a shrug of the shoulder, ' If it was going to bed I was, it shouldn't be here that you 'd catch me.' ' Why ? ' said I. ' Because/ replied the boy, 'they say that the ould masther's ghost has been seen sitting on that there chair.' ' And have you seen him ? ' ' No ; but I 've heard him washing his hands in that basin often and often.* ' What is your name, my little fellow ? ' ' Dennis Mulready, please your honour.' ' Well, good-night to you.' ' Good-night, masther; and may the saints keep you from all fairies and brownies/ said Dennis as he left the room.
As soon as I had laid down I began to think of what the boy had been telling me, and I confess I felt a strange kind of fear, and once or twice I even thought I could discern something white through the darkness which surrounded me. At length, by the help of reason, I succeeded in mastering these, what some would call idle fancies, and fell asleep. I had slept about an hour when a strange sound awoke me, and I saw looking through my curtains a skeleton wrapped in a white sheet. I was overcome with terror and tried to scream, but my tongue was paralysed and my whole frame shook with fear. In a deep hollow voice it said to me, ' Arise, that I may show thee this world's wonders,' and in an instant I found myself encompassed with clouds and darkness. But soon the roar of mighty waters fell upon my ear, and I saw some clouds of spray arising from high falls that rolled in awful majesty down tremendous precipices, and then foamed and thun-
76 THE BRONTES
dcrcd in the gulf beneath as if they had taken up their unquiet abode in some giant's cauldron. But soon the scene changed, and I found myself in the mines of Cracone. There were high pillars and stately arches, whose glittering splendour was never excelled by the brightest fairy palaces. There were not many lamps, only those of a few poor miners, whose rough visages formed a striking contrast to the dazzling figures and grandeur which surrounded them. But in the midst of all this magnificence I felt an indescrib- able sense of fear and terror, for the sea raged above us, and by the awful and tumultuous noises of roaring winds and dashing waves, it seemed as if the storm was violent. And now the mossy pillars groaned beneath the pressure of the ocean, and the glitter- ing arches seemed about to be overwhelmed. When I heard the rushing waters and saw a mighty flood rolling towards me, I gave a loud shriek of terror. The scene vanished, and I found myself in a wide desert full of barren rocks and high mountains. As I was approaching one of the rocks, in which there was a large cave, my foot stumbled and I fell. Just then I heard a deep growl, and saw by the unearthly light of his own fiery eyes a royal lion rousing himself from his kingly slumbers. His terrible eye was fixed upon me, and the desert rang and the rocks echoed with the tremendous roar of fierce delight which he uttered as he sprang towards me. ' Well, masther, it 's been a windy night, though it 's fine now,' said Dennis, as he drew the window-curtain and let the bright rays of the morning sun into the little old-fashioned room at the top of O'Callaghan Castle. C. Bronte.
April the 2Wt, 1829,
Six numbers of The Young Mens Magazine w^ere written in 1829: a very juvenile poem. The Evening Walk, by the Marquis of Douro, in 1830; and another, of greater literary value, The Violet, in the same year. In 1831 we have an unfinished poem. The Trumpet Hath Sounded; and in 1832, a very long poem called The Bridal. Some of them, as for example a poem called Richard Ccetir de Lion and Blondel, are written in penny and twopenny notebooks of the kind used by laundresses. Occasionally her father has purchased a sixpenny book and has written within the cover —
A LITERARY CHILDHOOD 77
All that is written in this book must be in a good, plain, and legible hand. — P. B.
While upon this topic, I may as well carry the record up to the date of publication of Currer Bell's poems. A Leaf from an Unopened Volume was written in 1834, as were also The Death of Darius, and Corner Dishes. Saul: a Poem, was written in 1835, and a number of other still unpublished verses. There is a story called Lord Dour 0, bearing date 1837, and a manuscript book of verses of 1838, but that pretty well exhausts the manu- scripts before me previous to the days of serious literary activity. During the years as private governess (1839- 1841) and the Brussels experiences (1842-1843), Charlotte would seem to have put all literary effort on one side.
There is only one letter of Charlotte Bronte's childhood. It is endorsed by Mr. Bronte on the cover 'Charlotte's First Letter,' possibly for the guidance of Mrs. Gaskell, who may perhaps have thought it of insufficient import- ance. That can scarcely be the opinion of any one to-day. Charlotte, aged thirteen, is staying with the Fennells, her mother's friends of those early love-letters.
Letter i
TO THE REV. P. BRONTE
Parsonage House, Crosstone,^ September 2^rd, 1829. My dear Papa, — At Aunt's request I write these lines to inform you that 'if all be well ' we shall be at home on Friday by dinner-time, when we hope to find you in good health. On account of the bad weather we have not been out much, but notwithstanding we have spent our time very pleasantly, between reading, working, and learning our lessons, which Uncle Fennell has been so kind as to teach us every day. Branwell has taken two sketches from nature, and Emily, Anne, and myself have likewise each of us drawn a piece from some views of the lakes
^ Crosstone is near Todmorden and about twelve miles from Haworth.
78 THE BRONTES
which Mr. Fcnncll brought with him from Westmoreland. The whole of these he intends keeping. Mr. Fennell is sorry he cannot accompany us to Haworth on Friday, for want of room, but hopes to have the pleasure of seeing you soon. All unite in sending their kind love with your affectionate daughter,
Charlotte Bronte.
Mrs. Gaskell gives us an interesting glimpse of the family at this period : —
Miss Branwell instructed the children at regular hours in all she could teach, converting her bedchamber into their schoolroom. Their father was in the habit of relating to them any public news in which he felt an interest ; and from the opinions of his strong and independent mind they would gather much food for thought ; but I do not know whether he gave them any direct instruction. Charlotte's deep, thoughtful spirit appears to have felt almost painfully the tender responsibility which rested upon her with reference to her remaining sisters. She was only two years older than Emily ; but Emily and Anne were simply companions and playmates, while Charlotte was motherly friend and guardian to both ; and this loving assumption of duties beyond her years made her feel considerably older than she really was.
Patrick Branwell, their only brother, was a boy of remarkable promise, and, in some ways, of extraordinary precocity of talent. Mr. Bronte's friends advised him to send his son to school ; but, remembering both the strength of will of his own youth and his mode of employing it, he believed that Patrick was better at home, and that he himself could teach him well, as he had taught others before. So Patrick — or, as his family called him, Branwell — remained at Haworth, working hard for some hours a day with his father ; but, when the time of the latter was taken up with his parochial duties, the boy was thrown into chance companion- ship with the lads of the village — for youth will to youth, and boys will to boys.
SCHOOL-DAYS AT ROE HEAD 79
CHAPTER V
SCHOOL-DAYS AT ROE HEAD
From 1825 to 1831 Charlotte Bronte was at home with her sisters, reading and writing as we have seen, but learning nothing very systematically. In 1831-32 she was a boarder at Miss Wooler's school at Roe Head, some twenty miles from Haworth. Miss Wooler lived to a green old age, dying in the year 1885. She would seem to have been very proud of her famous pupil, and could not have been blind to her capacity in the earlier years. Charlotte was with her as governess at Roe Head, and later at Dewsbury Moor. It is quite clear that Miss Bronte was head of the school in all intellectual pursuits, and she made two firm friends — Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor. A very fair measure of French and some skill in drawing appear to have been the most striking accomplishments which Charlotte carried back from Roe Head to Haworth. There are some twenty drawings of about this date, and a translation into English verse of the first book of Voltaire's Henriade. With Ellen Nussey commenced a friendship which terminated only with the pencilled notes written from Charlotte Bronte's death-bed. The following letter was the first of a correspondence that was to con- tinue without any intermittence to the end of the writer's life. Charlotte entered Miss Wooler's school in January 183 1, and the first letter was written in the hohdays that followed a few months later. It has a note of formality that was to break down very quickly : —
80 THE BRONTES
Letter 2
TO ELLEN NUSSEY
May i\st^ 1831.
Dear Miss Nussey, — I take advantage of the earliest oppor- tunity to thank you for the letter you favoured me with last week, and to apologise for having so long neglected to write to you ; indeed, I believe this will be the first letter or note I have ever
addressed to you. I am extremely obliged to for her kind
invitation, and I assure you that I should have very much liked to
hear Mr. 's Lectures on Galvanism, as they would doubtless
have been amusing and instructive. But we are often compelled to bend our inclination to our duty (as Miss Wooler observed the other day), and since there are so many holidays this half-year, it would have appeared almost unreasonable to ask for an extra holiday; besides, we should perhaps have got behind hand with our lessons, so that everything considered, it is perhaps as well that circumstances have deprived us of this pleasure. — Believe me to remain, your affectionate friend, C. Bronte.
Her other friend, Mary Taylor, was long afterwards to aive Mrs. Gaskell her earliest impression of Charlotte : —
I first saw her coming out of a covered cart, in very old- Mary fashioned clothes, and looking very cold and miserable. Taylor's She was coming to school at Miss Wooler's. When Narrative. _j^g appeared in the schoolroom her dress was changed, but just as old. She looked a little, old woman, so short-sighted that she always appeared to be seeking something, and moving her head from side to side to catch a sight of it. She was very shy and nervous, and spoke with a strong Irish accent. When a book was given her she dropped her head over it till her nose nearly touched it, and when she was told to hold her head up, up went the book after it, still close to her nose, so that it was not possible to help laughing.
We thought her very ignorant, for she had never learnt grammar at all, and very little geography.
She would confound us by knowing things that were out of our range altogether. She was acquainted with most of the short pieces of poetry that we had to learn by heart : would tell us the
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80
THE BRONTES
Letter 2
TO ELLEN NUSSEY
May 3IJ/, 1831.
Dear Miss Nussey, — I take advantage of the earliest oppor- tunity to thank you for the letter you favoured me with last week, and to apologise for having so long neglected to write to yoi ; indeed, I believe this will be the first letter or note I have ever
adJressed to you. I am extremely obliged to for her kind
invitation, and I assure you that I should have very much liked tc
hear Mr. 's Lectures on Galvanism, as they would doubtle.js
have been amusing and instructive. But we are often compelled to bend our inclination to our duty (as Miss Wooler observed the other day), and since there are so many holidays this half-year, it would have appeared almost unreasonable to ask for an extrs holiday; besides, we should perhaps have got behind hand witl- our lessr-ns, so that everything considered, it is perhaps as wel that cif umstances have deprived us of this pleasure. — Believe m< to remain, your affectionate friend, C. BkONTi
lier other friend, Mary Taylor, was long afterwards t aive Mrs. Gaskell her earliest impression of Charlotte : —
I first saw her coming out of a covered cart, in very olc Mary fashioned clothes, and looking very cold and miserabl
Taylors She was coming to school at Miss Wooler's. Whe NuTzUve. ^j^g appeared in the schoolroom her dress was change but just as old. She looked a little, old woman, so short-sightt that she always appeared to be seeking something, and movir hei head from side to side to catch a sight of it. She was ve: shy and nervous, and spoke with a strong Irish accent. Wh< a boolx was given her she dropped her head over it till her no nearly touched it. and when she was told to hold her head up, i. • went the book after it, still close to her nose, so that it was r • possible to help laughing.
Wc thought her very ignorant, for she had never learnt gramn r at all. .-ittd very little geography.
' -n found us by knowing things that were out of < ' r, She was acquainted with most of the sh i piec^ •' that we had to learn by heart : would tell u-
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SCHOOL-DAYS AT ROE HEAD 81
authors, the poems they were taken from, and sometimes repeat a page or two, and tell us the plot. She had a habit of writing in italics (printing characters), and said she had learnt it by writing in their magazine. They brought out a ' magazine ' once a month, and wished it to look as like print as possible. She told us a tale out of it. No one wrote in it, and no one read it, but herself, her brother, and two sisters. She promised to show me some of these magazines, but retracted it afterwards, and would never be per- suaded to do so. In our play hours she sat or stood still, with a book, if possible. Some of us once urged her to be on our side in a game at ball. She said she had never played, and could not play. We made her try, but soon found that she could not see the ball, so we put her out. She took all our proceedings with pliable indifference, and always seemed to need a previous resolu- tion to say ' No ' to anything. She used to go and stand under the trees in the playground, and say it was pleasanter. She endeavoured to explain this, pointing out the shadows, the peeps of sky, etc. We understood but little of it. She said that at Cowan Bridge she used to stand in the burn, on a stone, to watch the water flow by. I told her she should have gone fishing ; she said she never wanted. She always showed physical feebleness in everything. She ate no animal food at school. It was about this time I told her she was very ugly. Some years afterwards I told her I thought I had been very impertinent. She replied, 'You did me a great deal of good, Polly, so don't repent of it' She used to draw much better, and more quickly, than anything we had seen before, and knew much about celebrated pictures and painters. Whenever an opportunity offered of examining a picture or cut of any kind, she went over it piecemeal, with her eyes close to the paper, looking so long that we used to ask her 'what she saw in it.' She could always see plenty, and explained it very well. She made poetry and drawing at least exceedingly interesting to me ; and then I got the habit, which I have yet, of referring mentally to her opinion on all matters of that kind, along with many more, resolving to describe such and such things to her, until I start at the recollection that I never shall.
We used to be furious politicians, as one could hardly help being in 1832, She knew the names of the two Ministers ; the one that resigned, and the one that succeeded and passed the Reform Bill. She worshipped the Duke of Wellington, but said that Sir Robert Peel was not to be trusted ; he did not act from
VOL. I. F
82 THE BRONTES
principle, like the rest, but from expediency. I, being of the furious Radical party, told her, ' How could any of them trust one another ? they were all of thenn rascals ! ' Then she would launch out into praises of the Duke of Wellington, referring to his actions ; which I could not contradict, as I knew nothing about him. She said she had taken interest in politics ever since she was five years old. She did not get her opinions from her father — that is, not directly — but from the papers, etc., he preferred.
She used to speak of her two elder sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, who died at Cowan Bridge. I used to believe them to have been wonders of talent and kindness. She told me, early one morning, that she had just been dreaming : she had been told that she was wanted in the drawing-room, and it was Maria and Elizabeth. I was eager for her to go on, and when she said there was no more, I said, ' But go on ! Make it out ! I know you can.' She said she would not ; she wished she had not dreamed, for it did not go on nicely ; they were changed ; they had forgotten what they used to care for. They were very fashionably dressed, and began criticising the room, etc.
This habit of ' making out ' interests for themselves, that most children get who have none in actual life, was very strong in her. The whole family used to ' make out ' histories, and invent characters and events. I told her sometimes they were like grow- ing potatoes in a cellar. She said, sadly, ' Yes ! I know we are ! '
Some one at school said she ' was always talking about clever people — Johnson, Sheridan,' etc. She said, ' Now you don't know the meaning of clever. Sheridan might be clever ; yes, Sheridan was clever — scamps often are — but Johnson hadn't a spark of cleverality in him.' No one appreciated the opinion ; they made some trivial remark about ' cleverality', and she said no more.
This is the epitome of her life. At our house she had just as little chance of a patient hearing, for though not school-girlish we were more intolerant. We had a rage for practicality, and laughed all poetry to scorn. Neither she nor we had any idea but that our opinions were the opinions of all the sensible people in the world, and we used to astonish each other at every sentence. . . . Charlotte, at school, had no plan of life beyond what circumstances made for her. She knew that she must provide for herself, and chose her trade ; at least chose to begin it once. Her idea of self- improvement ruled her even at school. It was to cultivate her tastes. She always said there was enough of hard practicality and
SCHOOL-DAYS AT ROE HEAD 83
useful knowledge forced on us by necessity, and that the thing most needed was to soften and refine our minds. She picked up every scrap of information concerning painting, sculpture, poetry, music, etc., as if it were gold.^
All that we know of Charlotte Bronte during this year of schooling at Roe Head we learn from her two friends,^ apart from a letter to her brother which I give here : —
Letter 3
TO BRANWELL BRONTE
Roe Head, May xyth, 1831. Dear Branwell, — As usual I address my weekly letter to you, because to you I find the most to say. I feel exceedingly anxious to know how and in what state you arrived at home after your long and (I should think) very fatiguing journey. I could perceive when you arrived at Roe Head that you were very much tired, though you refused to acknowledge it. After you were gone, many questions and subjects of conversation recurred to me which I had intended to mention to you, but quite forgot them in the agitation which I felt at the totally unexpected pleasure of seeing you. Lately I had begun to think that I had lost all the interest which I used formerly to take in politics, but the extreme pleasure I felt at the news of the Reform Bill's being thrown out by the House of Lords, and of the expulsion or resignation of Earl Grey, etc., etc., convinced me that I have not as yet lost all my penchant for politics. I am extremely glad th'at aunt has consented to take in Eraser's Magazine, for though I know from your description of its general contents it will be rather un- interesting when compared with Blackwood, still it will be better than remaining the whole year without being able to obtain a sight of any periodical publication whatever; and such would
^ Letter from Mary Taylor to Mrs. Gaskell, dated January l8, 1856, and written from New Zealand.
* There are only two letters of Charlotte's written at Roe Head that are known to me. One is dated May 1S31, and was written to Mrs. Franks (Miss Elizabeth Firth). It should rightly be Letter 3 of this Collection, but it seems more natural to place it in Appendix 11. with the other material kindly supplied by Professor Moore Smith. The other, to her brother, appears in this chapter.
84 THE BRONTES
assuredly be our case, as in the little wild, moorland village where we reside, there would be no possibility of borrowing or obtaining a work of that description from a circulating library. I hope with you that the present delightful weather may contribute to the perfect restoration of our dear papa's health, and that it may give aunt pleasant reminiscences of the salubrious climate of her native place.
With love to all, — Believe me, dear Branwell, to remain your affectionate sister, Charlotte.
There is absolutely nothing more to add, and so I offer no apology for reproducing Ellen Nussey's narrative, which, unlike Mary Taylor's, has never been reprinted in book form. It first appeared in an American magazine.^ It is thus she writes : —
Arriving at school about a week after the general assembly Ellen of the pupils, I was not expected to accompany them
Nussey's when the time came for their daily exercise, but while Narrative, ^j^^y, ^^^e out, I was led into the schoolroom, and quietly left to make my observations. I had come to the con- clusion that it was very nice and comfortable for a schoolroom, though I had little knowledge of schoolrooms in general, when, turning to the window to observe the look-out, I became aware for the first time that I was not alone ; there was a silent, weeping, dark little figure in the large bay-window; she must, I thought, have risen from the floor. As soon as I had recovered from my surprise, I went from the far end of the room, where the book- shelves were, the contents of which I must have contemplated with a little awe in anticipation of coming studies. A crimson cloth covered the long table down the centre of the room, which helped, no doubt, to hide the shrinking little figure from my view. I was touched and troubled at once to see her so sad and so tearful.
I said shrinking, because her attitude, when I saw her, was that of one who wished to hide both herself and her grief She did not shrink, however, when spoken to, but in very few words con- fessed she was 'homesick.' After a little of such comfort as could be offered, it was suggested to her that there was a possi-
' Scribner's Mat^azine, 'Reminiscences of Charlotte Bronte,' by 'E.,' vol. ii. 1871. Reprinted in the Bronte Society's Transactions, Part x. 1899.
i
SCHOOL-DAYS AT ROE HEAD 85
bility of her too having to comfort the speaker by-and-by for the same cause, A faint quivering smile then lighted her face ; the tear-drops fell ; we silently took each other's hands, and at once we felt that genuine sympathy which always consoles, even though it be unexpressed. We did not talk or stir till we heard the approaching footsteps of other pupils coming in from their play ; it had been a game called ' French and English,' which was always very vigorously played, but in which Charlotte Bronte never could be induced to join. Perhaps the merry voices contesting for victory, which reached our ears in the schoolroom, jarred upon her then sensitive misery, and caused her ever after to dislike the game ; but she was physically unequal to that exercise of muscle, which was keen enjoyment to strong, healthy girls, both older and younger than herself. Miss Wooler's system of education required that a good deal of her pupils' work should be done in classes, and to effect this, new pUpils had generally a season of solitary study ; but Charlotte's fervent application made this period a very short one to her — she was quickly up to the needful standard, and ready for the daily routine and arrangement of studies, and as quickly did she out- strip her companions, rising from the bottom of the classes to the top, a position which, when she had once gained, she never had to regain. She was first in everything but play, yet never was a word heard of envy or jealousy from her companions ; every one felt she had won her laurels by an amount of diligence and hard labour of which they were incapable. She never exulted in her successes or seemed conscious of them ; her mind was so wholly set on attaining knowledge that she apparently forgot all else.
Charlotte's appearance did not strike me at first as it did others. I saw her grief, not herself particularly, till afterwards. She never seemed to me the unattractive little person others designated her, but certainly she was at this time anything but pretty ; even her good points were lost. Her naturally beautiful hair of soft silky brown being then dry and frizzy-looking, screwed up in tight little curls, showing features that were all the plainer from her exceeding thinness and want of complexion, she looked * dried in.' A dark, rusty green stuff dress of old- fashioned make detracted still more from her appearance; but let her wear what she might or do what she would, she had ever the demeanour of a born gentlewoman ; vulgarity was an element
86 THE BRONTES
that never won the shghtest affinity with her nature. Some of the elder girls, who had been years at school, thought her ignor- ant. This was true in one sense ; ignorant she was indeed in the elementary education which is given in schools, but she far surpassed her most advanced school-fellows in knowledge of what was passing in the world at large, and in the literature of her country. She knew a thousand things unknown to them.
She had taught herself a little French before she came to school ; this little knowledge of the language was very useful to her when afterwards she was engaged in translation or dictation. She soon began to make a good figure in French lessons. Music she wished to acquire, for which she had both ear and taste, but her near-sightedness caused her to stoop so dreadfully in order to see her notes, she was dissuaded from persevering in the acquirement, especially as she had at this time an invincible objection to wearing glasses. Her very taper fingers, tipped with the most circular nails, did not seem very suited for instrumental execution ; but when v/ielding the pen or the pencil, they appeared in the very office they were created for.
Her appetite was of the smallest ; for years she had not tasted animal food ; she had the greatest dislike to it ; she always had something specially provided for her at our midday repast. Towards the close of the first half-year she was induced to take, by little and little, meat gravy with vegetable, and in the second half-year she commenced taking a very small portion of animal food daily. She then grew a little bit plumper, looked younger and more animated, though she was never what is called lively at this period. She always seemed to feel that a deep responsibility rested upon her ; that she was an object of expense to those at home, and that she must use every moment to attain the purpose for which she was sent to school, i.e. to fit herself for governess life. She had almost too much opportunity for her conscientious diligence ; we were so little restricted in our doings, the industrious might accomplish the appointed tasks of the day and enjoy a little leisure, but she chose in many things to do double lessons when not prevented by class arrangement or a companion. In two of her studies she was associated with her friend, and great was her distress if her companion failed to be ready, when she was, with the lesson of the day. She liked the stated task to be over, that she might be free to pursue her self-appointed ones. Such, how- ever, was her conscientiousness that she never did what some girls
SCHOOL-DAYS AT ROE HEAD 87
think it generous to do ; generous and unselfish though she was, she never whispered help to a companion in class (as she might have done) to rid herself of the trouble of having to appear again. All her school-fellows regarded her, I believe, as a model of high rectitude, close application, and great abilities. She did not play or amuse herself when others did. When her companions were merry round the fire, or otherwise enjoying themselves during the twilight, which was always a precious time of relaxation, she would be kneeling close to the window busy with her studies, and this would last so long that she was accused of seeing in the dark ; yet though she did not play, as girls style play, she was ever ready to help with suggestions in those plays which required taste or arrangement.
When her companions formed the idea of having a coronation performance on a half-holiday, it was Charlotte Bronte who drew up the programme, arranged the titles to be adopted by her com- panions for the occasion, wrote the invitations to those who were to grace the ceremony, and selected for each a title, either for sound that pleased the ear or for historical association. The preparations for these extra half-holidays (which were very rare occurrences) sometimes occupied spare moments for weeks before the event. On this occasion Charlotte prepared a very elegant little speech for the one who was selected to present the crown. Miss Wooler's younger sister consented after much entreaty to be crowned as our queen (a very noble, stately queen she made), and did her pupils all the honour she could by adapting herself to the role of the moment. The following exquisite little speech shows Charlotte's aptitude, even then, at giving fitting expression to her thoughts : —
' Powerful Queen ! Accept this Crown, the symbol of dominion, from the hands of your faithful and affectionate subjects ! And if their earnest and united wishes have any efficacy, you will long be permitted to reign over this peaceful, though circumscribed, empire.
'(Signed, etc., etc.),
* Your loyal subjects.'
The little fete finished off with what was called a ball ; but for lack of numbers we had to content ourselves with one quadrille and two Scotch reels. Last of all there was a supper, which was considered very recherche, most of it having been coaxed out
88 THE BRONTES
of yielding mammas and elder sisters, in addition to some wise expenditure of pocket-money. The grand feature, however, was the attendance of a mulatto servant. We descended for a moment from our assumed dignities to improvise this distinguish- ing appanage. The liveliest of our party, 'Jessie Yorke,' volun- teered this office, and surpassed our expectations. Charlotte evidently enjoyed the fun, in her own quiet way, as much as any one, and ever after with great zest helped, when with old school- fellows, to recall the performances of the exceptional half-holidays.
About a month after the assembling of the school, one of the pupils had an illness. There was great competition among the girls for permission to sit with the invalid. Charlotte was never of the number, though she was as assiduous in kindness and attention as the rest in spare moments : but to sit with the patient was indulgence and leisure, and these she would not permit herself.
It was shortly