THE PARSONAGE
Haworth, West Yorkshire.
Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and Agnes Grey were all written here.
'The
parsonage stands at right angles to the road,facing down upon the
church; so that, in fact, parsonage, church and belfried school-house,
form three sides of an irregular oblong, of which the fourth is open to
the fields and moors that lie beyond. The area of this oblong is filled
up by a crowded churchyard and a small garden or court in front of the
clergyman's house. As the entrance to this from the road is at the side,
the path goes round the corner into the little plot of ground.
Underneath the windows is a narrow flower-border, carefuly tended in
days of yore, although only the most hardy plants could be made to grow
there. Within the stone wall, which keeps out the surrounding
churchyard, are bushes of elder and lilac; the rest of the ground is
occupied by a square grass plot and a gravel walk. the house is of grey
stone, two stories high, heavily roofed with flags, in order to resist
the winds that might strip off a lighter covering. It appears to have
been built about a hundred years ago, and to consist of four rooms on
each storey; the two windows on the right (as the visitor stands, with
his back to the church, ready to enter in at the front door) belonging
to Mr. Bronte's study, the two on the left to the family sitting room.
Everything about the place tells of the most dainty order, the most
exquisite cleanliness. The door-steps are spotless; the small
old-fashioned window-panes glitter like looking glass. Inside and
outside of that house cleanliness goes up into its essence, purity.'
Mrs Gaskell - The Life of Charlotte Bronte 1857
Said to have been the inspiration for the location of the Earnshaw family house 'Wuthering Heights' in the novel by Emily Bronte.
'Wuthering Heights is the name of Mr. Heathcliff's dwelling. 'Wuthering' being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather.'
|
|
