FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50  
51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   >>   >|  
ter, originating and pursuing a purpose in a resolute and independent manner. Here is a youth--a boy of sixteen--separating himself from his family, and determining to maintain himself; and that, not in the hereditary manner by agricultural pursuits, but by the labour of his brain. I suppose, from what I have heard, that Mr. Tighe became strongly interested in his children's tutor, and may have aided him, not only in the direction of his studies, but in the suggestion of an English university education, and in advice as to the mode in which he should obtain entrance there. Mr. Bronte has now no trace of his Irish origin remaining in his speech; he never could have shown his Celtic descent in the straight Greek lines and long oval of his face; but at five-and-twenty, fresh from the only life he had ever known, to present himself at the gates of St. John's proved no little determination of will, and scorn of ridicule. While at Cambridge, he became one of a corps of volunteers, who were then being called out all over the country to resist the apprehended invasion by the French. I have heard him allude, in late years, to Lord Palmerston as one who had often been associated with him then in the mimic military duties which they had to perform. We take him up now settled as a curate at Hartshead, in Yorkshire--far removed from his birth-place and all his Irish connections; with whom, indeed, he cared little to keep up any intercourse, and whom he never, I believe, revisited after becoming a student at Cambridge. Hartshead is a very small village, lying to the east of Huddersfield and Halifax; and, from its high situation--on a mound, as it were, surrounded by a circular basin--commanding a magnificent view. Mr. Bronte resided here for five years; and, while the incumbent of Hartshead, he wooed and married Maria Branwell. She was the third daughter of Mr. Thomas Branwell, merchant, of Penzance. Her mother's maiden name was Carne: and, both on father's and mother's side, the Branwell family were sufficiently well descended to enable them to mix in the best society that Penzance then afforded. Mr. and Mrs. Branwell would be living--their family of four daughters and one son, still children--during the existence of that primitive state of society which is well described by Dr. Davy in the life of his brother. "In the same town, when the population was about 2,000 persons, there was only one carpet, the floors of ro
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50  
51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Branwell

 

family

 
Hartshead
 

Bronte

 

society

 
Cambridge
 

Penzance

 

mother

 

manner

 

children


situation
 

Huddersfield

 
Halifax
 

commanding

 

magnificent

 

circular

 

surrounded

 
population
 

carpet

 

floors


connections

 
intercourse
 

village

 

student

 

persons

 
revisited
 

sufficiently

 
daughters
 
removed
 

father


descended
 

living

 

afforded

 

enable

 

maiden

 

married

 
brother
 

incumbent

 

merchant

 

primitive


existence

 

Thomas

 

daughter

 
resided
 
resist
 

university

 

English

 

education

 

advice

 

suggestion