ived from the patron Saint of Ireland, with
which the enthusiastic Celt, Romanist and Protestant alike, delights to
disfigure his male child, was speedily banished from the Yorkshire
Parsonage. Branwell was a year younger than Charlotte, and it is clear
that she and her brother were 'chums,' in the same way as Emily and Anne
were 'chums,' in the earlier years, before Charlotte made other friends.
Even until two or three years from Branwell's death, we find Charlotte
writing to him with genuine sisterly affection, and, indeed, the only two
family letters addressed to Branwell which are extant are from her. One
of them, written from Brussels, I have printed elsewhere. The other,
written from Roe Head, when Charlotte, aged sixteen, was at school there,
was partly published by Mrs. Gaskell, but may as well be given here,
copied direct from the original.

[Picture: Patrick Branwell Bronte]

TO BRANWELL BRONTE

'ROE HEAD, _May_ 17_th_, 1832.

'DEAR BRANWELL,--As usual I address my weekly letter to you, because
to you I find the most to say. I feel exceedingly anxious to know
how and in what state you arrived at home after your long and (I
should think) very fatiguing journey. I could perceive when you
arrived at Roe Head that you were very much tired, though you refused
to acknowledge it. After you were gone, many questions and subjects
of conversation recurred to me which I had intended to mention to
you, but quite forgot them in the agitation which I felt at the
totally unexpected pleasure of seeing you. Lately I had begun to
think that I had lost all the interest which I used formerly to take
in politics, but the extreme pleasure I felt at the news of the
Reform Bill's being thrown out by the House of Lords, and of the
expulsion or resignation of Earl Grey, etc., etc., convinced me that
I have not as yet lost _all_ my penchant for politics. I am
extremely glad that aunt has consented to take in _Fraser's
Magazine_, for though I know from your description of its general
contents it will be rather uninteresting when compared with
_Blackwood_, still it will be better than remaining the whole year
without being able to obtain a sight of any periodical publication
whatever; and such would assuredly be our case, as in the little
wild, moorland