ading, showing a well-cultivated mind.
Without having anything of her daughter's rare talents, Mrs. Bronte must
have been, I imagine, that unusual character, a well-balanced and
consistent woman. The style of the letters is easy and good; as is also
that of a paper from the same hand, entitled "The Advantages of Poverty
in Religious Concerns," which was written rather later, with a view to
publication in some periodical.

She was married from her uncle's house in Yorkshire, on the 29th of
December, 1812; the same day was also the wedding-day of her younger
sister, Charlotte Branwell, in distant Penzance. I do not think that
Mrs. Bronte ever revisited Cornwall, but she has left a very pleasant
impression on the minds of those relations who yet survive; they speak of
her as "their favourite aunt, and one to whom they, as well as all the
family, looked up, as a person of talent and great amiability of
disposition;" and, again, as "meek and retiring, while possessing more
than ordinary talents, which she inherited from her father, and her piety
was genuine and unobtrusive."

Mr. Bronte remained for five years at Hartshead, in the parish of
Dewsbury. There he was married, and his two children, Maria and
Elizabeth, were born. At the expiration of that period, he had the
living of Thornton, in Bradford Parish. Some of those great West Riding
parishes are almost like bishoprics for their amount of population and
number of churches. Thornton church is a little episcopal chapel of
ease, rich in Nonconformist monuments, as of Accepted Lister and his
friend Dr. Hall. The neighbourhood is desolate and wild; great tracts of
bleak land, enclosed by stone dykes, sweeping up Clayton heights. The
church itself looks ancient and solitary, and as if left behind by the
great stone mills of a flourishing Independent firm, and the solid square
chapel built by the members of that denomination. Altogether not so
pleasant a place as Hartshead, with its ample outlook over
cloud-shadowed, sun-flecked plain, and hill rising beyond hill to form
the distant horizon.

Here, at Thornton, Charlotte Bronte was born, on the 21st of April, 1816.
Fast on her heels followed Patrick Branwell, Emily Jane, and Anne. After
the birth of this last daughter, Mrs. Bronte's health began to decline.
It is hard work to provide for the little tender wants of many young
children where the means are but limited. The necessaries of food and
clothing are much