and shut her up in a seclusion from
which she was only removed by death, all the way down through the lonely
childhood of the little motherless children, and on into their no less
lonely and more afflicted womanhood, even to the deaths of all the
gifted group, there is a depth of sombre gloom from which the
sympathetic heart must turn away with a bitter pain and almost a feeling
of hot rebellion against Fate.

The utter loneliness of that part of Yorkshire at the time when Mr.
Bronte settled there can hardly be imagined to-day. In winter all
communication with the outside world was cut off by almost impassable
mud or entirely impassable snow. Travellers whom actual necessity
compelled to start forth were often snowed in for a week or ten days
within a few miles of home, and nobody thought of stirring from that
shelter except through the pressure of absolute necessity. Isolated as
were the little hill villages like Haworth, they were in the world,
compared with the loneliness of the gray ancestral houses to be seen
here and there in the dense hollows of the moors.

The inhabitants of this rough country were themselves of wild, turbulent
nature, much given to deadly feuds and really dangerous in their
enmities. Their amusements were all of the lowest order, and hard riding
and deep drinking were the characteristics of all the male population,
while cock-fighting and bull-baiting were thought refined amusements for
both sexes.

The ministers were not much above their flocks in general culture, and
the incumbents of Haworth had been noted for their eccentricities for
generations. Many of them attended the horse-racings and the games of
football which were played on Sunday afternoons, and took as deep a
part as any of the flock in the drunken carouse which always followed a
funeral. Mr. Bronte was a very different man from his predecessors, but
was many years in subduing his congregation to an even nominal
observance of common moralities. He was, however, a man of high spirit
and imperious will, and, bending himself to the task with all his
powers, made a decided impression upon the life around him. The gentle
mother soon passed away, and Mr. Bronte became a stern and silent man
who kept his children at a distance from himself and allowed them little
intercourse with the outside world. They were allowed to walk out on the
wild heathery moors, but not down in the village street; and they
acquired a passionate love of those