The Brontes

THE BRONT&S 6l
to open the Anglian doors, Charlotte was growing
up ; her brother and sisters were growing up.
BranwelTs future was beginning to be in question ;
the future of the girls too, in a lesser degree.
We get a picture, the only one of the family as a
whole, from Ellen Nussey, who paid a return visit
at the Parsonage in the summer of 1833. Char-
lotte had visited Ellen at the Rydings, Birstall, in
the previous September.
Ellen Nussey wrote, in her Reminiscences : " My
first visit to Haworth was full of novelty and fresh-
ness. The scenery for some miles before we
reached Haworth was wild and uncultivated . . .
at last, we came to what seemed a terrific hill,
such a deep declivity no one thought of riding
down it; the horse had to be carefully led. We
no sooner reached the foot of this hill than we had
to begin to mount again, over a narrow, rough,
stonepaved road. . . . When we reached the top
of the village, there was apparently no outlet, but
we were directed to drive into an entry which just
admitted the gig ; we wound round in this entry
and then saw the church close at hand, and we
entered on the short lane which led to the parson-
age gateway. Here Charlotte was waiting, hav-
ing caught the sound of the approaching gig.
When greetings and introductions were over, Miss
Branwell . . . took possession of their guest and
treated her with the care and solicitude due to a
weary traveller. Mr. Bronte, also, was stirred out
of his usual retirement by his own kind consider-
ation, for not only the guest but the man-servant
and the horse were to be made comfortable. . . .