The children’s father was a nervous, irritable, and violent man, who endowed them with a nervous organization easily disturbed, and an indomitable force of volition. The girls, at least, showed both these characteristics. Patrick Branwell must have been a weaker, more brilliant, more violent, less tenacious, less upright copy of his father; and seems to have suffered no modification from the patient and steadfast moral nature of his mother. She was the model that her daughters copied, in different degrees, both in character and in health. Passion and will their father gave them.... On both sides, the children got a Celtic strain; and this is a matter of significance, meaning a predisposition to the superstition, imagination, and horror that is a strand in all their work. Their mother, Maria Branwell, was of a good, middle-class Cornish family, long established as merchants in Penzance. Their father was the son of an Irish peasant, Hugh Prunty, settled in the north of Ireland, but native to the south. A. M. F. ROBINSON: ‘Emily Brontë.’ * * * * * [Sidenote: Patrick Brontë’s career.] [Sidenote: His change of name.] His talents were early recognized by Mr. Tighe, the rector of Drumgooland. This gentleman undertook part, at least, of the cost of his education, which was completed at St. John’s College, Cambridge. As to the change of name from Prunty to Brontë, many fantastic stories have been told. Among them is one which represents the Brontës as having derived their name from that of the Bronterres, an ancient Irish family with which they were connected. The connection may possibly have existed, but there is no doubt upon one point. The incumbent of Haworth in early life bore the name of Prunty, and it was not until very shortly before he left Ireland for England that he changed it at the request of his patron, Mr. Tighe, for the more euphonious appellation of Brontë. [Sidenote: His character.]