l anything before his father and sisters of
the pleasures he indulged in; but his tone of thought and conversation
became gradually coarser, and, for a time, his sisters tried to persuade
themselves that such coarseness was a part of manliness, and to blind
themselves by love to the fact that Branwell was worse than other young
men. At present, though he had, they were aware, fallen into some
errors, the exact nature of which they avoided knowing, still he was
their hope and their darling; their pride, who should some time bring
great glory to the name of Bronte.

He and his sister Charlotte were both slight and small of stature, while
the other two were of taller and larger make. I have seen Branwell's
profile; it is what would be generally esteemed very handsome; the
forehead is massive, the eye well set, and the expression of it fine and
intellectual; the nose too is good; but there are coarse lines about the
mouth, and the lips, though of handsome shape, are loose and thick,
indicating self-indulgence, while the slightly retreating chin conveys an
idea of weakness of will. His hair and complexion were sandy. He had
enough of Irish blood in him to make his manners frank and genial, with a
kind of natural gallantry about them. In a fragment of one of his
manuscripts which I have read, there is a justness and felicity of
expression which is very striking. It is the beginning of a tale, and
the actors in it are drawn with much of the grace of characteristic
portrait-painting, in perfectly pure and simple language which
distinguishes so many of Addison's papers in the "Spectator." The
fragment is too short to afford the means of judging whether he had much
dramatic talent, as the persons of the story are not thrown into
conversation. But altogether the elegance and composure of style are
such as one would not have expected from this vehement and ill-fated
young man. He had a stronger desire for literary fame burning in his
heart, than even that which occasionally flashed up in his sisters'. He
tried various outlets for his talents. He wrote and sent poems to
Wordsworth and Coleridge, who both expressed kind and laudatory opinions,
and he frequently contributed verses to the _Leeds Mercury_. In 1840, he
was living at home, employing himself in occasional composition of
various kinds, and waiting till some occupation, for which he might be
fitted without any expensive course of preliminary training, should turn