asting.

Mr. Nicholls stayed on at Haworth for the six years that followed his
wife's death. When Mr. Bronte died he returned to Ireland. Some years
later he married again--a cousin, Miss Bell by name. That second
marriage has been one of unmixed blessedness. I found him in a home of
supreme simplicity and charm, esteemed by all who knew him and idolised
in his own household. It was not difficult to understand that Charlotte
Bronte had loved him and had fought down parental opposition in his
behalf. The qualities of gentleness, sincerity, unaffected piety, and
delicacy of mind are his; and he is beautifully jealous, not only for the
fair fame of Currer Bell, but--what she would equally have loved--for her
father, who also has had much undue detraction in the years that are
past. That Mr. Nicholls may long continue to enjoy the kindly calm of
his Irish home will be the wish of all who have read of his own
continuous devotion to a wife who must ever rank among the greatest of
her sex.

FOOTNOTES

{8} Although so stated by Professor A. W. Ward in the _Dictionary of
National Biography_, vol. xxi.

{14} 'Mama's last days,' it runs, 'had been full of loving thought and
tender help for others. She was so sweet and dear and noble beyond
words.'

{17} 'Some of the West Ridingers are very angry, and declare they are
half-a-century in civilisation before some of the Lancashire folk, and
that this neighbourhood is a paradise compared with some districts not
far from Manchester.'--Ellen Nussey to Mrs. Gaskell, April 16th, 1859.

{19} 'To this bold statement (i.e. that love-letters were found in
Branwell's pockets) Martha Brown gave to me a flat contradiction,
declaring that she was employed in the sick room at the time, and had
personal knowledge that not one letter, nor a vestige of one, from the
lady in question, was so found.'--Leyland. _The Bronte Family_, vol. ii.
p. 284.

{22} Mrs. Gaskell had described Charlotte Bronte's features as 'plain,
large, and ill-set,' and had written of her 'crooked mouth and large
nose'--while acknowledging the beauty of hair and eyes.

{25} Mrs. Lawry of Muswell Hill, to whose courtesy in placing these and
other papers at my disposal I am greatly indebted.

{28} '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