. Nicholls I believed that Charlotte Bronte's
marriage had been an unhappy one--an opinion gathered partly from Mrs.
Gaskell, partly from current tradition in Yorkshire. Mrs. Gaskell, in
fact, did not like Mr. Nicholls, and there were those with whom she came
in contact while writing Miss Bronte's Life who were eager to fan that
feeling in the usually kindly biographer. Mr. Nicholls himself did not
work in the direction of conciliation. He was, as we shall see, a
Scotchman, and Scottish taciturnity brought to bear upon the genial and
jovial Yorkshire folk did not make for friendliness. Further, he would
not let Mrs. Gaskell 'edit' and change _The Professor_, and here also he
did wisely and well. He hated publicity, and above all things viewed the
attempt to pierce the veil of his married life with almost morbid
detestation. Who shall say that he was not right, and that his
retirement for more than forty years from the whole region of controversy
has not abundantly justified itself? One at least of Miss Bronte's
friends has been known in our day to complain bitterly of all the trouble
to which she has been subjected by the ill-considered zeal of Bronte
enthusiasts. Mr. Nicholls has escaped all this by a judicious silence.
Now that forty years and more have passed since his wife's death, it
cannot be inopportune to tell the public all that they can fairly ask to
know.

Mr. Nicholls was born in Co. Antrim in 1817, but of Scottish parents on
both sides. He was left at the age of seven to the charge of an
uncle--the Rev. Alan Bell--who was headmaster of the Royal School at
Banagher, in King's Co. Mr. Nicholls afterwards entered Trinity College,
Dublin, and it was thence that he went to Haworth, his first curacy. He
succeeded a fellow countryman, Mr. Peter Augustus Smith, in 1844. The
first impression we have of the new curate in Charlotte's letters is
scarcely more favourable than that of his predecessors.

TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

'_October_ 9_th_, 1844.

'DEAR ELLEN,--We are getting on here the same as usual, only that
Branwell has been more than ordinarily troublesome and annoying of
late; he leads papa a wretched life. Mr. Nicholls is returned just
the same. I cannot for my life see those interesting germs of
goodness in him you discovered; his narrowness of mind always strikes
me chiefly. I fear he is i