We have descriptions of wild We have descriptions of wild
moor, "tremendous" precipices, moors and precipices, and
and "grand and terrific foaming cataracts. When they
cataracts":--"At last we stopped to rest after a climb
attained the summit of the "the scene was grand and awful
mountain, when, looking down in in the extreme.... The mellow
the chasm beneath, horror and hum of the bee was no longer
immensity were defined with heard.... Above rose tremendous
thrilling truth." precipices, whose vast shadows
blackened all that portion of
the moor [see "Peniston Crags,"
page 59], and deepened the frown
on the face of unpropitious
nature."
Montagu and his guide go to a [A]lembert and his guide go to a
cave--the cave of the Fairy cave. Farther on the guide
Janet. Montagu falling asleep as vanishes, but [A]lembert wakes
it were, a fairy comes to his to find him by his side as a
side and tells him he is in the fairy [Charlotte Brontë, Method
realm of fairies. She promises I., interchange of the sexes],
to induct him into the wonders who addresses [A]lembert as
of faeryland, and "the mellow follows:--
horn of the herald bee" summoned
her attendants. And so on. See "I am a fairy. You have been,
Charlotte Brontë's mention in and still are, in the land of
_Alembert_ of "the mellow hum of fairies. Some wonders you have
the bee." seen; many more you shall see if
you choose to follow me." And so
on in extension.
I have often wondered why no one has ever observed before that the hand
which wrote _The Adventures of Ernest Alembert_ must assuredly have
written every line of _Wuthering Heights_. We may well understand why
Charlotte Brontë in _Wuthering Heights_ wrote of Catherine Linton that
"the mentioning the Fairy Cave quite turned her head" with interest. And
that the original of the Fairy Cave in _Wuthering Heights_ was the Fairy
Cave of Malhamdale Montagu mentions at such length in his Malham
letter, the use of the names Linton and Airton in the connection
irrefutably proves without other appeal: Hareton--that variant of Aire,
cannot be associated with Derbyshire like "Eyre"; and despite the use of
"Eyre," Aire was the name in Charlotte Brontë's mind, just as "Airton"
was when she wrote "Hareton."
Both the "boy-guide" and "Gimmerton's mist" were obviously suggested to
Charlotte Brontë for _Wuthering Heights_ by Montagu, the original, as I
have shown, of Lockwood:--
MONTAGU. _Wuthering Heights._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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