one or two extracts from them, to show what sort of a person was the mother of Charlotte Bronte:  but first, I must state the circumstances under which this Cornish lady met the scholar from Ahaderg, near Loughbrickland.  In the early summer of 1812, when she would be twenty-nine, she came to visit her uncle, the Reverend John Fennel, who was at that time a clergyman of the Church of England, living near Leeds, but who had previously been a Methodist minister.  Mr. Bronte was the incumbent of Hartshead; and had the reputation in the neighbourhood of being a very handsome fellow, full of Irish enthusiasm, and with something of an Irishman’s capability of falling easily in love.  Miss Branwell was extremely small in person; not pretty, but very elegant, and always dressed with a quiet simplicity of taste, which accorded well with her general character, and of which some of the details call to mind the style of dress preferred by her daughter for her favourite heroines.  Mr. Bronte was soon captivated by the little, gentle creature, and this time declared that it was for life.  In her first letter to him, dated August 26th, she seems almost surprised to find herself engaged, and alludes to the short time which she has known him.  In the rest there are touches reminding one of Juliet’s—­

   “But trust me, gentleman, I’ll prove more true,
   Than those that have more cunning to be strange.”

There are plans for happy pic-nic parties to Kirkstall Abbey, in the glowing September days, when “Uncle, Aunt, and Cousin Jane,”—­the last engaged to a Mr. Morgan, another clergyman—­were of the party; all since dead, except Mr. Bronte.  There was no opposition on the part of any of her friends to her engagement.  Mr. and Mrs. Fennel sanctioned it, and her brother and sisters in far-away Penzance appear fully to have approved of it.  In a letter dated September 18th, she says:—­

“For some years I have been perfectly my own mistress, subject to no control whatever; so far from it, that my sisters, who are many years older than myself, and even my dear mother, used to consult me on every occasion of importance, and scarcely ever doubted the propriety of my opinions and actions:  perhaps you will be ready to accuse me of vanity in mentioning this, but you must consider that I do not boast of it.  I have many times felt it a disadvantage, and although, I thank God, it has never led me into error, yet, in circumstances of uncertainty and doubt, I have deeply felt the want of a guide and instructor.”  In the same letter she tells Mr. Bronte, that she has informed her sisters of her engagement, and that she should not see them again so soon as she had intended.  Mr. Fennel, her uncle, also writes to them by the same post in praise of Mr. Bronte.