Miss Bronte left Roe Head in 1832, having won the affectionate regard
both of her teacher and her school-fellows, and having formed there the
two fast friendships which lasted her whole life long; the one with
"Mary," who has not kept her letters; the other with "E.," who has kindly
entrusted me with a large portion of Miss Bronte's correspondence with
her. This she has been induced to do by her knowledge of the urgent
desire on the part of Mr. Bronte that the life of his daughter should be
written, and in compliance with a request from her husband that I should
be permitted to have the use of these letters, without which such a task
could be but very imperfectly executed. In order to shield this friend,
however, from any blame or misconstruction, it is only right to state
that, before granting me this privilege, she throughout most carefully
and completely effaced the names of the persons and places which occurred
in them; and also that such information as I have obtained from her bears
reference solely to Miss Bronte and her sisters, and not to any other
individuals whom I may find it necessary to allude to in connection with
them.
In looking over the earlier portion of this correspondence, I am struck
afresh by the absence of hope, which formed such a strong characteristic
in Charlotte. At an age when girls, in general, look forward to an
eternal duration of such feelings as they or their friends entertain, and
can therefore see no hindrance to the fulfilment of any engagements
dependent on the future state of the affections, she is surprised that
"E." keeps her promise to write. In after-life, I was painfully
impressed with the fact, that Miss Bronte never dared to allow herself to
look forward with hope; that she had no confidence in the future; and I
thought, when I heard of the sorrowful years she had passed through, that
it had been this this pressure of grief which had crushed all buoyancy of
expectation out of her. But it appears from the letters, that it must
have been, so to speak, constitutional; or, perhaps, the deep pang of
losing her two elder sisters combined with a permanent state of bodily
weakness in producing her hopelessness. If her trust in God had been
less strong, she would have given way to unbounded anxiety, at many a
period of her life. As it was, we shall see, she made a great and
successful effort to leave "her times in His hands."
After her return home, she employed herself in teaching her sisters, over
whom she had had superior advantages. She writes thus, July 21st, 1832,
of her course of life at the parsonage:--
"An account of one day is an account of all. In the morning, from nine
o'clock till half-past twelve, I instruct my sisters, and draw; then we
walk till dinner-time. After dinner I sew till tea-time, and after tea I
either write, read, or do a little fancy-work, or draw, as I please.
Thus, in one delightful, though somewhat monotonous course, my life is
passed. I have been only out twice to tea since I came home. We are
expecting company this afternoon, and on Tuesday next we shall have all
the female teachers of the Sunday-school to tea."
I may here introduce a quotation from a letter which I have received from
"Mary" since the publication of the previous editions of this memoir.
"Soon after leaving school she admitted reading something of Cobbett's.
'She did not like him,' she said; 'but all was fish that came to her
net.' At this time she wrote to me that reading and drawing were the
only amusements she had, and that her supply of books was very small in
proportion to her wants. She never spoke of her aunt. When I saw Miss
Branwell she was a very precise person, and looked very odd, because her
dress, &c., was so utterly out of fashion. She corrected one of us once
for using the word 'spit' or 'spitting.' She made a great favourite of
Branwell. She made her nieces sew, with purpose or without, and as far
as possible discouraged any other culture. She used to keep the girls
sewing charity clothing, and maintained to me that it was not for the
good of the recipients, but of the sewers. 'It was proper for them to do
it,' she said. Charlotte never was 'in wild excitement' that I know of.
When in health she used to talk better, and indeed when in low spirits
never spoke at all. She needed her best spirits to say what was in her
heart, for at other times she had not courage. She never gave decided
opinions at such times . . .
"Charlotte said she could get on with any one who had a bump at the top
of their heads (meaning conscientiousness). I found that I seldom
differed from her, except that she was far too tolerant of stupid people,
if they had a grain of kindness in them."
It was about this time that Mr. Bronte provided his children with a
teacher in drawing, who turned out to be a man of considerable talent,
but very little principle. Although they never attained to anything like
proficiency, they took great interest in acquiring this art; evidently,
from an instinctive desire to express their powerful imaginations in
visible forms. Charlotte told me, that at this period of her life,
drawing, and walking out with her sisters, formed the two great pleasures
and relaxations of her day.
The three girls used to walk upwards toward the "purple-black" moors, the
sweeping surface of which was broken by here and there a stone-quarry;
and if they had strength and time to go far enough, they reached a
waterfall, where the beck fell over some rocks into the "bottom." They
seldom went downwards through the village. They were shy of meeting even
familiar faces, and were scrupulous about entering the house of the very
poorest uninvited. They were steady teachers at the Sunday-School, a
habit which Charlotte kept up very faithfully, even after she was left
alone; but they never faced their kind voluntary, and always preferred
the solitude and freedom of the moors.
* * * * *
In the September of this year, Charlotte went to pay her first visit to
her friend "E." It took her into the neighbourhood of Roe Head, and
brought her into pleasant contact with many of her old school-fellows.
After this visit she and her friend seem to have agreed to correspond in
French, for the sake of improvement in the language. But this
improvement could not be great, when it could only amount to a greater
familiarity with dictionary words, and when there was no one to explain
to them that a verbal translation of English idioms hardly constituted
French composition; but the effort was laudable, and of itself shows how
willing they both were to carry on the education which they had begun
under Miss W-. I will give an extract which, whatever may be thought of
the language, is graphic enough, and presents us with a happy little
family picture; the eldest sister returning home to the two younger,
after a fortnight's absence.
"J'arrivait a Haworth en parfaite sauvete sans le moindre accident ou
malheur. Mes petites soeurs couraient hors de la maison pour me
rencontrer aussitot que la voiture se fit voir, et elles m'embrassaient
avec autant d'empressement et de plaisir comme si j'avais ete absente
pour plus d'an. Mon Papa, ma Tante, et le monsieur dent men frere avoit
parle, furent tous assembles dans le Salon, et en peu de temps je m'y
rendis aussi. C'est souvent l'ordre du Ciel que quand on a perdu un
plaisir il y en a un autre pret a prendre sa place. Ainsi je venois de
partir de tres-chers amis, mais tout a l'heure je revins a des parens
aussi chers et bon dans le moment. Meme que vous me perdiez (ose-je
croire que mon depart vous etait un chagrin?) vous attendites l'arrivee
de votre frere, et de votre soeur. J'ai donne a mes soeurs les pommes
que vous leur envoyiez avec tant de bonte; elles disent qu'elles sont sur
que Mademoiselle E. est tres-aimable et bonne; l'une et l'autre sont
extremement impatientes de vous voir; j'espere qu'en peu de mois elles
auront ce plaisir."
But it was some time yet before the friends could meet, and meanwhile
they agreed to correspond once a month. There were no events to
chronicle in the Haworth letters. Quiet days, occupied in reaching, and
feminine occupations in the house, did not present much to write about;
and Charlotte was naturally driven to criticise books.
Of these there were many in different plights, and according to their
plight, kept in different places. The well-bound were ranged in the
sanctuary of Mr. Bronte's study; but the purchase of books was a
necessary luxury to him, but as it was often a choice between binding an
old one, or buying a new one, the familiar volume, which had been
hungrily read by all the members of the family, was sometimes in such a
condition that the bedroom shelf was considered its fitting place. Up
and down the house were to be found many standard works of a solid kind.
Sir Walter Scott's writings, Wordsworth's and Southey's poems were among
the lighter literature; while, as having a character of their
own--earnest, wild, and occasionally fanatical--may be named some of the
books which came from the Branwell side of the family--from the Cornish
followers of the saintly John Wesley--and which are touched on in the
account of the works to which Caroline Helstone had access in
"Shirley:"--"Some venerable Lady's Magazines, that had once performed a
voyage with their owner, and undergone a storm"--(possibly part of the
relics of Mrs. Bronte's possessions, contained in the ship wrecked on the
coast of Cornwall)--"and whose pages were stained with salt water; some
mad Methodist Magazines full of miracles and apparitions, and
preternatural warnings, ominous dreams, and frenzied fanaticisms; and the
equally mad letters of Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe from the Dead to the Living."
Mr. Bronte encouraged a taste for reading in his girls; and though Miss
Branwell kept it in due bounds, by the variety of household occupations,
in which she expected them not merely to take a part, but to become
proficients, thereby occupying regularly a good portion of every day,
they were allowed to get books from the circulating library at Keighley;
and many a happy walk, up those long four miles, must they have had,
burdened with some new book, into which they peeped as they hurried home.
Not that the books were what would generally be called new; in the
beginning of 1833, the two friends seem almost simultaneously to have
fallen upon "Kenilworth," and Charlotte writes as follows about it:--
"I am glad you like 'Kenilworth;' it is certainly more resembling a
romance than a novel: in my opinion, one of the most interesting works
that ever emanated from the great Sir Walter's pen. Varney is certainly
the personification of consummate villainy; and in the delineation of his
dark and profoundly artful mind, Scott exhibits a wonderful knowledge of
human nature, as well as a surprising skill in embodying his perceptions,
so as to enable others to become participators in that knowledge."
Commonplace as this extract may seem, it is noteworthy on two or three
accounts: in the first place, instead of discussing the plot or story,
she analyses the character of Varney; and next, she, knowing nothing of
the world, both from her youth and her isolated position, has yet been so
accustomed to hear "human nature" distrusted, as to receive the notion of
intense and artful villainy without surprise.
What was formal and set in her way of writing to "E." diminished as their
personal acquaintance increased, and as each came to know the home of the
other; so that small details concerning people and places had their
interest and their significance. In the summer of 1833, she wrote to
invite her friend to come and pay her a visit. "Aunt thought it would be
better" (she says) "to defer it until about the middle of summer, as the
winter, and even the spring seasons, are remarkably cold and bleak among
our mountains."
The first impression made on the visitor by the sisters of her school-
friend was, that Emily was a tall, long-armed girl, more fully grown than
her elder sister; extremely reserved in manner. I distinguish reserve
from shyness, because I imagine shyness would please, if it knew how;
whereas, reserve is indifferent whether it pleases or not. Anne, like
her eldest sister, was shy; Emily was reserved.
Branwell was rather a handsome boy, with "tawny" hair, to use Miss
Bronte's phrase for a more obnoxious colour. All were very clever,
original, and utterly different to any people or family "E." had ever
seen before. But, on the whole, it was a happy visit to all parties.
Charlotte says, in writing to "E.," just after her return home--"Were I
to tell you of the impression you have made on every one here, you would
accuse me of flattery. Papa and aunt are continually adducing you as an
example for me to shape my actions and behaviour by. Emily and Anne say
'they never saw any one they liked so well as you.' And Tabby, whom you
have absolutely fascinated, talks a great deal more nonsense about your
ladyship than I care to repeat. It is now so dark that, notwithstanding
the singular property of seeing in the night-time, which the young ladies
at Roe Head used to attribute to me, I can scribble no longer."
To a visitor at the parsonage, it was a great thing to have Tabby's good
word. She had a Yorkshire keenness of perception into character, and it
was not everybody she liked.
Haworth is built with an utter disregard of all sanitary conditions: the
great old churchyard lies above all the houses, and it is terrible to
think how the very water-springs of the pumps below must be poisoned. But
this winter of 1833-4 was particularly wet and rainy, and there were an
unusual number of deaths in the village. A dreary season it was to the
family in the parsonage: their usual walks obstructed by the spongy state
of the moors--the passing and funeral bells so frequently tolling, and
filling the heavy air with their mournful sound--and, when they were
still, the "chip, chip," of the mason, as he cut the grave-stones in a
shed close by. In many, living, as it were, in a churchyard, and with
all the sights and sounds connected with the last offices to the dead
things of everyday occurrence, the very familiarity would have bred
indifference. But it was otherwise with Charlotte Bronte. One of her
friends says:--"I have seen her turn pale and feel faint when, in
Hartshead church, some one accidentally remarked that we were walking
over graves. Charlotte was certainly afraid of death. Not only of dead
bodies, or dying people. She dreaded it as something horrible. She
thought we did not know how long the 'moment of dissolution' might really
be, or how terrible. This was just such a terror as only hypochondriacs
can provide for themselves. She told me long ago that a misfortune was
often preceded by the dream frequently repeated which she gives to 'Jane
Eyre,' of carrying a little wailing child, and being unable to still it.
She described herself as having the most painful sense of pity for the
little thing, lying _inert_, as sick children do, while she walked about
in some gloomy place with it, such as the aisle of Haworth Church. The
misfortunes she mentioned were not always to herself. She thought such
sensitiveness to omens was like the cholera, present to susceptible
people,--some feeling more, some less."
About the beginning of 1834, "E." went to London for the first time. The
idea of her friend's visit seems to have stirred Charlotte strangely. She
appears to have formed her notions of its probable consequences from some
of the papers in the "British Essayists," "The Rambler," "The Mirror," or
"The Lounger," which may have been among the English classics on the
parsonage bookshelves; for she evidently imagines that an entire change
of character for the worse is the usual effect of a visit to "the great
metropolis," and is delighted to find that "E." is "E." still. And, as
her faith in her friend's stability is restored, her own imagination is
deeply moved by the idea of what great wonders are to be seen in that
vast and famous city.
"Haworth, February 20th, 1834.
"Your letter gave me real and heartfelt pleasure, mingled with no
small share of astonishment. Mary had previously informed me of your
departure for London, and I had not ventured to calculate on any
communication from you while surrounded by the splendours and
novelties of that great city, which has been called the mercantile
metropolis of Europe. Judging from human nature, I thought that a
little country girl, for the first time in a situation so well
calculated to excite curiosity, and to distract attention, would lose
all remembrance, for a time at least, of distant and familiar objects,
and give herself up entirely to the fascination of those scenes which
were then presented to her view. Your kind, interesting, and most
welcome epistle showed me, however, that I had been both mistaken and
uncharitable in these suppositions. I was greatly amused at the tone
of nonchalance which you assumed, while treating of London and its
wonders. Did you not feel awed while gazing at St. Paul's and
Westminster Abbey? Had you no feeling of intense and ardent interest,
when in St. James's you saw the palace where so many of England's
kings have held their courts, and beheld the representations of their
persons on the walls? You should not be too much afraid of appearing
_country-bred_; the magnificence of London has drawn exclamations of
astonishment from travelled men, experienced in the world, its wonders
and beauties. Have you yet seen anything of the great personages whom
the sitting of Parliament now detains in London--the Duke of
Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, Earl Grey, Mr. Stanley, Mr. O'Connell? If
I were you, I would not be too anxious to spend my time in reading
whilst in town. Make use of your own eyes for the purposes of
observation now, and, for a time at least, lay aside the spectacles
with which authors would furnish us."
In a postscript she adds:--
"Will you be kind enough to inform me of the number of performers in
the King's military band?"
And in something of the same strain she writes on
"June 19th.
"My own Dear E.,
"I may rightfully and truly call you so now. You _have_ returned or
_are_ returning from London--from the great city which is to me as
apocryphal as Babylon, or Nineveh, or ancient Rome. You are
withdrawing from the world (as it is called), and bringing with you--if
your letters enable me to form a correct judgment--a heart as
unsophisticated, as natural, as true, as that you carried there. I am
slow, _very_ slow, to believe the protestations of another; I know my
own sentiments, I can read my own mind, but the minds of the rest of
man and woman kind are to me sealed volumes, hieroglyphical scrolls,
which I cannot easily either unseal or decipher. Yet time, careful
study, long acquaintance, overcome most difficulties; and, in your
case, I think they have succeeded well in bringing to light and
construing that hidden language, whose turnings, windings,
inconsistencies, and obscurities, so frequently baffle the researches
of the honest observer of human nature . . . I am truly grateful for
your mindfulness of so obscure a person as myself, and I hope the
pleasure is not altogether selfish; I trust it is partly derived from
the consciousness that my friend's character is of a higher, a more
steadfast order than I was once perfectly aware of. Few girls would
have done as you have done--would have beheld the glare, and glitter,
and dazzling display of London with dispositions so unchanged, heart
so uncontaminated. I see no affectation in your letters, no trifling,
no frivolous contempt of plain, and weak admiration of showy persons
and things."
In these days of cheap railway trips, we may smile at the idea of a short
visit to London having any great effect upon the character, whatever it
may have upon the intellect. But her London--her great apocryphal
city--was the "town" of a century before, to which giddy daughters
dragged unwilling papas, or went with injudicious friends, to the
detriment of all their better qualities, and sometimes to the ruin of
their fortunes; it was the Vanity Fair of the "Pilgrim's Progress" to
her.
But see the just and admirable sense with which she can treat a subject
of which she is able to overlook all the bearings.
"Haworth, July 4th, 1834.
"In your last, you request me to tell you of your faults. Now,
really, how can you be so foolish! I _won't_ tell you of your faults,
because I don't know them. What a creature would that be, who, after
receiving an affectionate and kind letter from a beloved friend,
should sit down and write a catalogue of defects by way of answer!
Imagine me doing so, and then consider what epithets you would bestow
on me. Conceited, dogmatical, hypocritical, little humbug, I should
think, would be the mildest. Why, child! I've neither time nor
inclination to reflect on your _faults_ when you are so far from me,
and when, besides, kind letters and presents, and so forth, are
continually bringing forth your goodness in the most prominent light.
Then, too, there are judicious relations always round you, who can
much better discharge that unpleasant office. I have no doubt their
advice is completely at your service; why then should I intrude mine?
If you will not hear them, it will be vain though one should rise from
the dead to instruct you. Let us have no more nonsense, if you love
me. Mr. --- is going to be married, is he? Well, his wife elect
appeared to me to be a clever and amiable lady, as far as I could
judge from the little I saw of her, and from your account. Now to that
flattering sentence must I tack on a list of her faults? You say it
is in contemplation for you to leave ---. I am sorry for it. --- is
a pleasant spot, one of the old family halls of England, surrounded by
lawn and woodland, speaking of past times, and suggesting (to me at
least) happy feelings. M. thought you grown less, did she? I am not
grown a bit, but as short and dumpy as ever. You ask me to recommend
you some books for your perusal. I will do so in as few words as I
can. If you like poetry, let it be first-rate; Milton, Shakspeare,
Thomson, Goldsmith, Pope (if you will, though I don't admire him),
Scott, Byron, Campbell, Wordsworth, and Southey. Now don't be
startled at the names of Shakspeare and Byron. Both these were great
men, and their works are like themselves. You will know how to choose
the good, and to avoid the evil; the finest passages are always the
purest, the bad are invariably revolting; you will never wish to read
them over twice. Omit the comedies of Shakspeare, and the Don Juan,
perhaps the Cain, of Byron, though the latter is a magnificent poem,
and read the rest fearlessly; that must indeed be a depraved mind
which can gather evil from Henry VIII., from Richard III., from
Macbeth, and Hamlet, and Julius Caesar. Scott's sweet, wild, romantic
poetry can do you no harm. Nor can Wordsworth's, nor Campbell's, nor
Southey's--the greatest part at least of his; some is certainly
objectionable. For history, read Hume, Rollin, and the Universal
History, if you can; I never did. For fiction, read Scott alone; all
novels after his are worthless. For biography, read Johnson's Lives
of the Poets, Boswell's Life of Johnson, Southey's Life of Nelson,
Lockhart's Life of Burns, Moore's Life of Sheridan, Moore's Life of
Byron, Wolfe's Remains. For natural history, read Bewick and Audubon,
and Goldsmith and White's history of Selborne. For divinity, your
brother will advise you there. I can only say, adhere to standard
authors, and avoid novelty."
From this list, we see that she must have had a good range of books from
which to choose her own reading. It is evident, that the womanly
consciences of these two correspondents were anxiously alive to many
questions discussed among the stricter religionists. The morality of
Shakspeare needed the confirmation of Charlotte's opinion to the
sensitive "E.;" and a little later, she inquired whether dancing was
objectionable, when indulged in for an hour or two in parties of boys and
girls. Charlotte replies, "I should hesitate to express a difference of
opinion from Mr. ---, or from your excellent sister, but really the
matter seems to me to stand thus. It is allowed on all hands, that the
sin of dancing consists not in the mere action of 'shaking the shanks'
(as the Scotch say), but in the consequences that usually attend it;
namely, frivolity and waste of time; when it is used only, as in the case
you state, for the exercise and amusement of an hour among young people
(who surely may without any breach of God's commandments be allowed a
little light-heartedness), these consequences cannot follow. Ergo
(according to my manner of arguing), the amusement is at such times
perfectly innocent."
Although the distance between Haworth and B--- was but seventeen miles,
it was difficult to go straight from the one to the other without hiring
a gig or vehicle of some kind for the journey. Hence a visit from
Charlotte required a good deal of pre-arrangement. _The_ Haworth gig was
not always to be had; and Mr. Bronte was often unwilling to fall into any
arrangement for meeting at Bradford or other places, which would occasion
trouble to others. The whole family had an ample share of that sensitive
pride which led them to dread incurring obligations, and to fear
"outstaying their welcome" when on any visit. I am not sure whether Mr.
Bronte did not consider distrust of others as a part of that knowledge of
human nature on which he piqued himself. His precepts to this effect,
combined with Charlotte's lack of hope, made her always fearful of loving
too much; of wearying the objects of her affection; and thus she was
often trying to restrain her warm feelings, and was ever chary of that
presence so invariably welcome to her true friends. According to this
mode of acting, when she was invited for a month, she stayed but a
fortnight amidst "E.'s" family, to whom every visit only endeared her the
more, and by whom she was received with that kind of quiet gladness with
which they would have greeted a sister.
She still kept up her childish interest in politics. In March, 1835, she
writes: "What do you think of the course politics are taking? I make
this enquiry, because I now think you take a wholesome interest in the
matter; formerly you did not care greatly about it. B., you see, is
triumphant. Wretch! I am a hearty hater, and if there is any one I
thoroughly abhor, it is that man. But the Opposition is divided, Red-
hots, and Luke-warms; and the Duke (par excellence _the_ Duke) and Sir
Robert Peel show no signs of insecurity, though they have been twice
beat; so 'Courage, mon amie,' as the old chevaliers used to say, before
they joined battle."
In the middle of the summer of 1835, a great family plan was mooted at
the parsonage. The question was, to what trade or profession should
Branwell be brought up? He was now nearly eighteen; it was time to
decide. He was very clever, no doubt; perhaps to begin with, the
greatest genius in this rare family. The sisters hardly recognised their
own, or each others' powers, but they knew _his_. The father, ignorant
of many failings in moral conduct, did proud homage to the great gifts of
his son; for Branwell's talents were readily and willingly brought out
for the entertainment of others. Popular admiration was sweet to him.
And this led to his presence being sought at "arvills" and all the great
village gatherings, for the Yorkshiremen have a keen relish for
intellect; and it likewise procured him the undesirable distinction of
having his company recommended by the landlord of the Black Bull to any
chance traveller who might happen to feel solitary or dull over his
liquor. "Do you want some one to help you with your bottle, sir? If you
do, I'll send up for Patrick" (so the villagers called him till the day
of his death, though in his own family he was always "Branwell"). And
while the messenger went, the landlord entertained his guest with
accounts of the wonderful talents of the boy, whose precocious
cleverness, and great conversational powers, were the pride of the
village. The attacks of ill health to which Mr. Bronte had been subject
of late years, rendered it not only necessary that he should take his
dinner alone (for the sake of avoiding temptations to unwholesome diet),
but made it also desirable that he should pass the time directly
succeeding his meals in perfect quiet. And this necessity, combined with
due attention to his parochial duties, made him partially ignorant how
his son employed himself out of lesson-time. His own youth had been
spent among people of the same conventional rank as those into whose
companionship Branwell was now thrown; but he had had a strong will, and
an earnest and persevering ambition, and a resoluteness of purpose which
his weaker son wanted.
It is singular how strong a yearning the whole family had towards the art
of drawing. Mr. Bronte had been very solicitous to get them good
instruction; the girls themselves loved everything connected with it--all
descriptions or engravings of great pictures; and, in default of good
ones, they would take and analyse any print or drawing which came in
their way, and find out how much thought had gone to its composition,
what ideas it was intended to suggest, and what it _did_ suggest. In the
same spirit, they laboured to design imaginations of their own; they
lacked the power of execution, not of conception. At one time, Charlotte
had the notion of making her living as an artist, and wearied her eyes in
drawing with pre-Raphaelite minuteness, but not with pre-Raphaelite
accuracy, for she drew from fancy rather than from nature.
But they all thought there could be no doubt about Branwell's talent for
drawing. I have seen an oil painting of his, done I know not when, but
probably about this time. It was a group of his sisters, life-size,
three-quarters' length; not much better than sign-painting, as to
manipulation; but the likenesses were, I should think, admirable. I
could only judge of the fidelity with which the other two were depicted,
from the striking resemblance which Charlotte, upholding the great frame
of canvas, and consequently standing right behind it, bore to her own
representation, though it must have been ten years and more since the
portraits were taken. The picture was divided, almost in the middle, by
a great pillar. On the side of the column which was lighted by the sun,
stood Charlotte, in the womanly dress of that day of gigot sleeves and
large collars. On the deeply shadowed side, was Emily, with Anne's
gentle face resting on her shoulder. Emily's countenance struck me as
full of power; Charlotte's of solicitude; Anne's of tenderness. The two
younger seemed hardly to have attained their full growth, though Emily
was taller than Charlotte; they had cropped hair, and a more girlish
dress. I remember looking on those two sad, earnest, shadowed faces, and
wondering whether I could trace the mysterious expression which is said
to foretell an early death. I had some fond superstitious hope that the
column divided their fates from hers, who stood apart in the canvas, as
in life she survived. I liked to see that the bright side of the pillar
was towards _her_--that the light in the picture fell on _her_: I might
more truly have sought in her presentment--nay, in her living face--for
the sign of death--in her prime. They were good likenesses, however
badly executed. From thence I should guess his family augured truly that,
if Branwell had but the opportunity, and, alas! had but the moral
qualities, he might turn out a great painter.
The best way of preparing him to become so appeared to be to send him as
a pupil to the Royal Academy. I dare say he longed and yearned to follow
this path, principally because it would lead him to that mysterious
London--that Babylon the great--which seems to have filled the
imaginations and haunted the minds of all the younger members of this
recluse family. To Branwell it was more than a vivid imagination, it was
an impressed reality. By dint of studying maps, he was as well
acquainted with it, even down to its by-ways, as if he had lived there.
Poor misguided fellow! this craving to see and know London, and that
stronger craving after fame, were never to be satisfied. He was to die
at the end of a short and blighted life. But in this year of 1835, all
his home kindred were thinking how they could best forward his views, and
how help him up to the pinnacle where he desired to be. What their plans
were, let Charlotte explain. These are not the first sisters who have
laid their lives as a sacrifice before their brother's idolized wish.
Would to God they might be the last who met with such a miserable return!
"Haworth, July 6th, 1835.
"I had hoped to have had the extreme pleasure of seeing you at Haworth
this summer, but human affairs are mutable, and human resolutions must
bend to the course of events. We are all about to divide, break up,
separate. Emily is going to school, Branwell is going to London, and
I am going to be a governess. This last determination I formed
myself, knowing that I should have to take the step sometime, 'and
better sune as syne,' to use the Scotch proverb; and knowing well that
papa would have enough to do with his limited income, should Branwell
be placed at the Royal Academy, and Emily at Roe Head. Where am I
going to reside? you will ask. Within four miles of you, at a place
neither of us is unacquainted with, being no other than the identical
Roe Head mentioned above. Yes! I am going to teach in the very
school where I was myself taught. Miss W--- made me the offer, and I
preferred it to one or two proposals of private governess-ship, which
I had before received. I am sad--very sad--at the thoughts of leaving
home; but duty--necessity--these are stern mistresses, who will not be
disobeyed. Did I not once say you ought to be thankful for your
independence? I felt what I said at the time, and I repeat it now
with double earnestness; if anything would cheer me, it is the idea of
being so near you. Surely, you and Polly will come and see me; it
would be wrong in me to doubt it; you were never unkind yet. Emily
and I leave home on the 27th of this month; the idea of being together
consoles us both somewhat, and, truth, since I must enter a situation,
'My lines have fallen in pleasant places.' I both love and respect
Miss W-."