The Brontë Family, with special reference to Patrick Branwell Brontë. Vol. 1 of 2Leyland, Francis A.
History
The Brontë Family, with special reference to Patrick Branwell Brontë. Vol. 1 of 2
Leyland, Francis A.
Authors, English -- 19th century -- Biography; Brontë family; Brontë, Patrick Branwell, 1817-1848
Miss Branwell's influence was altogether distinct from that of Mr.
Brontë. While taking pride in the mental ability of her nephew, she
aimed at making his sisters into good housewives and patterns of
domestic and unobtrusive virtue. With this object, turning her
bed-chamber into a school-room, she taught them to sew and to
embroider; and they occupied their time in making charity clothing, a
work which she maintained 'was not for the good of the recipients, but
of the sewers; it was proper for them to do it.' Under Miss Branwell
they likewise learned to clean, to wash, to bake, to cook, to make jams
and jellies, with many other domestic mysteries; and here, as in
everything else, they were apt pupils.
But, towards the end of the year 1830, it was decided that Charlotte
should seek a wider training elsewhere; and a school, kept by Miss
Wooler, at Roe Head, between Leeds and Huddersfield, was fixed upon. It
was a quaint, old-fashioned house, standing in a pleasant country,
which had an interest for Charlotte, for it lay not far from Hartshead,
where her father's first Yorkshire curacy had been. This circumstance,
together with the proximity of the remains of Kirklees priory--which
had their traditions of Robin Hood--and the strange local stories she
heard from Miss Wooler, led her afterwards to make this district the
scene of her novel of 'Shirley.' Miss Wooler was a kind, motherly lady
who took an interest in each one of her pupils. She had long been a
keen observer, and knew well how to put her knowledge to use in
tuition. In this school, Charlotte, a girl of sixteen, was an
indefatigable student, scarcely resting in her pursuit of knowledge.
She was not exactly sociable, and sat often alone with her book in
play-hours--a thin fragile girl, whose brown hair overshadowed the page
on which her eyes, 'those expressive orbs,' were so intently fixed. Her
companions remarked at that time that she had a great store of
out-of-the-way knowledge, while on some points of general information
she was comparatively ignorant. But when Charlotte left Roe Head, in
June, 1832, she returned to the parsonage at Haworth with more expanded
ideas, and with wider knowledge, and possessing, perhaps, a keener
relish for the delights of the literary world. At Roe Head Charlotte
made the acquaintance of her life-long friend 'E,' and also of Mary and
Martha 'T.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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