cation 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. The