y to know it. I
long to improve in every religious and moral quality, that I may be a
help, and if possible an ornament to you. Oh let us pray much for
wisdom and grace to fill our appointed stations with propriety, that
we may enjoy satisfaction in our own souls, edify others, and bring
glory to the name of Him who has so wonderfully preserved, blessed,
and brought us together.

'If there is anything in the commencement of this which looks like
pettishness, forgive it; my mind is now completely divested of every
feeling of the kind, although I own I am sometimes too apt to be
overcome by this disposition.

'Let me have the pleasure of hearing from you again as soon as
convenient. This writing is uncommonly bad, but I too am in haste.

'Adieu, my dearest.--I am your affectionate and sincere

'MARIA.'

Mr. Bronte was at Hartshead, where he married, for five years, and there
his two eldest children, Maria and Elizabeth, were born. He then moved
to Thornton, near Bradford, where Charlotte was born on the 21st of April
1816, Branwell in 1817, Emily in 1818, and Anne in 1819. In 1820 the
family removed to the parsonage of Haworth, and in 1821 the poor mother
was dead. A year or two later Miss Elizabeth Branwell came from Penzance
to act as a mother to her orphaned nephew and nieces. There is no reason
to accept the theory that Miss Branwell was quite as formidable or
offensive a personage as the Mrs. Read in _Jane Eyre_. That she was a
somewhat rigid and not over demonstrative woman, we may take for granted.
The one letter to her of any importance that I have seen--it is printed
in Mrs. Gaskell's life--was the attempt of Charlotte to obtain her
co-operation in the projected visit to a Brussels school. Miss Branwell
provided the money readily enough it would seem, and one cannot doubt
that in her later years she was on the best of terms with her nieces.
There may have been too much discipline in childhood, but discipline
which would now be considered too severe was common enough at the
beginning of the century. The children, we may be sure, were left
abundantly alone. The writing they accomplished in their early years
would sufficiently demonstrate that. Miss Branwell died in 1842; and
from her will, which I give elsewhere, it will be seen that she behaved
very justly to her three nieces.

Th