Thursday, May 17, 2012

Mr. Newton's Brief About the Brontës

Haworth Parsonage and Cemetery

Only two adventures left on which to report.  Mr. Newton has chosen to visit the Brontës, not once but twice.

His first visit to Haworth parsonage, "a dreary dwelling set in a graveyard," is made not for what he can see there, some books, papers and the odd piece of furniture, but for what he feels there.

"Because it was, a hundred years ago, the home of the greatest number of geniuses that ever lived in one small house, at the same time, anywhere. Father, son, and three daughters. What a family!"

Exhibits were in glass cases, which left him cold. There was a poorly composed inscription thanking Newton's friend Henry H. Bonnell of Philadelphia for the generous donation of the majority of such exhibits. To ease his mild disappointment, a drink was had at the Black Bull where the son Branwell used to regularly get drunk.

So goes the first pilgrimage.

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