I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas: they've gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind.
Emily Bronte
Wuthering Heights

zaterdag 17 november 2012

Message on Twitter: Bracelet of Anne's hair

Bronte Parsonage@BronteParsonage16 november
 
Still preparing for next year's exhibition - this is a bracelet of Anne's hair, given by Charlotte to Ellen Nussey:
 
Click on    and you can see the picture.
 
 

Paintings in the Bronte Parsonage Museum


Winifred Gerin
  • Date painted: c.1960–1981
  • Oil on board, 44.5 x 34.5 cm (estimated)
  • Collection: Brontë Parsonage Museum               
  •  

  • Winifred Gerin (1901–1981) was the Hamburg-born biographer of the Brontë sisters, most famous for her 1967 work, 'Charlotte Brontë: The Evolution of Genius'. The portrait, by Winifred Gerin's sister, is in a 20th-century realistic style.
     
    The First Meeting of Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester
     

    Where to see these and more paintings?

    Brontë Parsonage Museum
    Church Street Haworth, Keighley, West Yorkshire, England, BD22 8DR
    bbc/paintings/located_at/bronte-parsonage-museum
     

    vrijdag 16 november 2012

    Scarf, which belonged to... Patrick Bronte!

     
    Fascinating day so far, choosing items for next year's exhibition, measuring them so that the special cases can be made, and writing the labels. Here's Sarah in the Bonnell Store, unrolling a flowered silk scarf. It belonged to a Bronte, but you'll never guess which...
     
     
    Here's a close-up of the scarf, which belonged to... Patrick Bronte! - reputedly a dry old stick. But his wife referred to him as 'dear, saucy Pat', and he wore this, so he must have had a hidden frivolous side...
     
     
    More preparations for the exhibition for next year: this is the knife-and-fork set Charlotte had to take to school with her at Roehead..facebook/Bronte-Parsonage-Museum

    History bronte Society

    donderdag 15 november 2012

    A whole day of Bronte Events for all ages at West Lane Baptist Church Sat Dec 8th from 1.30 to 10 pm

    Hathaways of Haworth have a whole program of Bronte events is now planned for West Lane Baptist Church.There will be something for all age. (There is likely to be more events included over the next few days but at present these are those definitly a part of the program.)

    From 1.30 onwards there will be a chance to see displays on Haworth and the Brontes handle replica Bronte diary papers and mini books, see Hathaways research and work on rarely seen Bronte artifacts and meet and take your own photos with costumed re enactors children’s activities during the afternoon will include.

    A chance to see some of Hathaways costumes on display and try dressing up in Victorian hats and bonnets. Make your own Victorian hats. Make your own Bronte mini book or diary paper.
    Colouring sheets for the very young and worksheets on the Victorians for kids. Admission is free for any child with an accompanying adult, adult admission is £2. and a free tea, coffee or cold drink is included in the cost.

    Further displays of replica Bronte artifacts and victorian clothing which can both looked at and handled, Hathaways costumes ''A look at Haworth in the Brontes day and” imagine a world without any Brontes a look at how Haworth might be today had the Brontes never published. There will be a chance to talk to Reneactors dressed as the sisters and their brother. Branwell, Charlotte and Emily will be mingling with the guests and have been briefed to “act in character” so you can see the Brontes in a social situation. There will be a chance to speak to our speakers about their work and research.

    Hathaways of Haworths owner Lynn Cunliffe who will be talking about he Bronte work and research, including what Bronte clothing can tell us about the lives of the Brontes and how it can help in identifying or discounting new Bronte portraits or photos such as those sold recently.The main element of the program will be “undressing the Brontes ” a look at what they wore by undressing two mannequins Charlotte and Emily and showing how each sisters clothing and attitudes to clothing can shed new light on “Bronte Myths”. hathawaysofhaworth

    dinsdag 13 november 2012

    Bronte Society expresses disappointment at Ovenden Moor windfarm decision

    The Brontë Society wishes to express its disappointment with the decision by Calderdale Council to grant planning permission to Yorkshire Wind Power for the repowering of the windfarm at Ovenden Moor.
    We feel that this decision demonstrates a lack of consideration for a unique heritage landscape which has internationally renowned cultural associations. It shows, also, an insensitive disregard for the negative impact upon the environment and upon the local economy of Haworth and the area known as Brontë Country.
    The Society has received a huge level of interest and support from all over the world. We would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude and to give an assurance of our continued commitment to Haworth’s cultural and historical significance.
    13 November 2012
    For further information please contact the Bronte Parsonage Museum on 01535 642323 / bronte@bronte.org.uk

    The Brontes in Brussels

     
    A new book about the Brontës in Brussels has just been published. The author is Helen MacEwan, member of the Brussels Brontë Group:

    Originally published on the Brussels Brontë Blog:
    Down the Belliard Steps: Discovering the Brontës in Brussels
    Helen MacEwan
    ISBN No 978-0-9573772-0-2
    Publisher: Brussels Brontë Editions
    Paperback
    146 pp

    Charlotte and Emily Brontë’s stay in Brussels in 1842-43 to improve their French was to prove a momentous one for Charlotte in particular. She fell in love with her French teacher, Constantin Heger, and her experiences in the Belgian capital inspired two of her four novels, Villette and The Professor. Yet the Brontës’ Brussels episode remains the least-known of their lives.

    When Helen MacEwan moved to Brussels in 2004 she discovered that not many people there seemed to know much about the Brontës’ time in the city. She herself had a lot to find out about their life in the Pensionnat Heger at the bottom of the Belliard steps. In the process of doing so she met other people who were similarly fascinated by the story, and with them formed the Brussels branch of the Brontë Society.

    For all these people, following in Charlotte and Emily's tracks in modern-day Brussels, and setting up a literary group, was a voyage of discovery. In the course of telling their story, Helen finds some odd parallels between the Brussels of their day and ours, and reflects on why the Brontës' time there is so fascinating.
    You can buy it in the English bookstores Waterstones and Sterling Books in Brussels, or from the Brontë Parsonage Museum shop.

    We Wove A Web In Childhood

     
    I received an email about a new e-book about the Brontes.
    You can read all about it on:  bronte-fiction

    We Wove A Web In Childhood is a fictional work concerning the Bronte family. Much of the existing literature tends to focus exclusively on the sisters, but in undertaking a dramatic reconstruction of their lives Ruth Thomas has succeeded in bringing each family member to life, including their brilliant and volatile brother Branwell, and their scholarly and compassionate father, the Reverend Patrick Bronte. The individual lives of the Brontes are as full of interest and drama as any of the novels they produced, and the family continues to exert a fascination right across the spectrum from dedicated Bronte fans to more casual readers. The novel has been written with an attention to detail and historical veracity, and should appeal to anyone with a love of literature and an interest in the peculiar and tortuous mental processes by which it is shaped.

    The opening chapters are set in the period 1828 – 1836 when the children are growing up, and trace their formative years - their precocious interest in politics and literature, and absorption in the vivid inner world they have created - whilst their father Patrick campaigns tirelessly to improve living standards for his parishioners. Superficial life at Haworth parsonage - with its routine of instruction, mundane household chores, and sedate vicarage tea-parties - is brought into sharp collision with the wider world outside. Actual events are frequently mirrored in the “infernal” world of Angria - as the boisterous childhood games in which they enact imaginary battle scenes are set against a backdrop of agitation for political and social reform, of violent electioneering and local riots.

    maandag 12 november 2012

    The George Hotel. Coaches for Scarborough left from here, and this would be a familiar location to Anne from her Scarborough visits with the Robinsons. It was probably the place she and Emily stayed on their two day visit in 1845, and was certainly where she stayed with Charlotte and Ellen en-route to Scarborough on that fateful, final journey.

     
    The picture shows, situated on Coney Street (once known as 'Whip-ma-Whop-ma-Gate) in York wiki/Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate: just right of picture-centre is the main entrance. The photograph under shows the same location ina much modern time. Only the first floor bay-window, and the pillar located centrally beneath it (to the right-of-centre in the old picture - central in the new) remain.  

     


    The George Inn was situated at 19 Coney Street. This pub has now been demolished and replaced by a Next store.
    According to a plaque on the wall: 'In Elizabethan times, Ralph Rokeby Esq (d.1575) Secretary of the Council of the North lived in a house on this site. Subsequently for about two and a half centuries there existed here a Hostelry known since 1614 as the George Inn, from which horsedrawn coaches departed to Hull, Manchester and Newcastle. The sisters Charlotte and Anne Bronte stayed here in 1849. Leak & Thorp moved to this site in 1869. 'closedpubs
     

     


     
    In February, Anne seemed somewhat better. In March, Ellen Nussey invited her to Brookroyd, to be nursed by Ellen and her sisters. Anne made a counter-proposal. Through Charlotte, she asked if Ellen would accompany her to Scarborough. Anne had always loved the sea there, and there was some slight hope that the climate might be beneficial. Charlotte chose to ignore Anne's own wishes, and argue against the plan, suggesting that it would be better to wait. Anne feared that she had little time to waste, and wrote to Ellen herself, asking her help and painstakingly refuting counter-arguments. She speaks clearly and calmly of her illness and of death.
    "I have a more serious reason than this for my impatience of delay: the doctors say that change of air or removal to a better climate would hardly ever fail of success in consumptive cases if taken in time, but the reason why there are so many disappointments is, that it is generally deferred till it is too late. Now I would not commit this error; and to say the truth, thouhg I suffer much less from pain and fever than I did when you were with us, I am decidedly weaker and very much thinner my cough still troubles me a good deal, especially in the night, and, what seems worse than all, I am subject to great shortness of breath on going up stairs or any slight exertion. Under these circumstances I think there is no time to be lost... I have no horror of death: if I thought it inevitable I think I could quietly resign myself to the prospect... But I wish it would please God to spare me not only for Papa's and Charlotte's sakes, but because I long to do some good in the world before I leave it. I have many schemes in my head for future practisehumble and limited indeedbut still I should not like them all to come to nothing, and myself to have lived to so little purpose. But God's will be done. " (Barker, p 589)
    Though ill, Anne's strength of will was the equal of Charlotte's. In the end Patrick intervened, removing Charlotte's last defense against the plan by stating his willingness to be left with the servants in Haworth, and requesting that Charlotte accompany Anne. On May 24, 1849, Anne said her good-byes to her father and the servants at Haworth, and set off for Scarborough with Charlotte and Ellen. They stayed overnight in York, gratifying Anne's desire to see her beloved York Minster. Anne found great joy in returning to York and Scarborough, and showing well-loved places to Charlotte and Ellen. However, it was clear that Anne had little strength left. edu/women/bronte/bronte-anne
     

    The Parlour

    The Parlour

    Parsonage

    Parsonage

    Charlotte Bronte

    Presently the door opened, and in came a superannuated mastiff, followed by an old gentleman very like Miss Bronte, who shook hands with us, and then went to call his daughter. A long interval, during which we coaxed the old dog, and looked at a picture of Miss Bronte, by Richmond, the solitary ornament of the room, looking strangely out of place on the bare walls, and at the books on the little shelves, most of them evidently the gift of the authors since Miss Bronte's celebrity. Presently she came in, and welcomed us very kindly, and took me upstairs to take off my bonnet, and herself brought me water and towels. The uncarpeted stone stairs and floors, the old drawers propped on wood, were all scrupulously clean and neat. When we went into the parlour again, we began talking very comfortably, when the door opened and Mr. Bronte looked in; seeing his daughter there, I suppose he thought it was all right, and he retreated to his study on the opposite side of the passage; presently emerging again to bring W---- a country newspaper. This was his last appearance till we went. Miss Bronte spoke with the greatest warmth of Miss Martineau, and of the good she had gained from her. Well! we talked about various things; the character of the people, - about her solitude, etc., till she left the room to help about dinner, I suppose, for she did not return for an age. The old dog had vanished; a fat curly-haired dog honoured us with his company for some time, but finally manifested a wish to get out, so we were left alone. At last she returned, followed by the maid and dinner, which made us all more comfortable; and we had some very pleasant conversation, in the midst of which time passed quicker than we supposed, for at last W---- found that it was half-past three, and we had fourteen or fifteen miles before us. So we hurried off, having obtained from her a promise to pay us a visit in the spring... ------------------- "She cannot see well, and does little beside knitting. The way she weakened her eyesight was this: When she was sixteen or seventeen, she wanted much to draw; and she copied nimini-pimini copper-plate engravings out of annuals, ('stippling,' don't the artists call it?) every little point put in, till at the end of six months she had produced an exquisitely faithful copy of the engraving. She wanted to learn to express her ideas by drawing. After she had tried to draw stories, and not succeeded, she took the better mode of writing; but in so small a hand, that it is almost impossible to decipher what she wrote at this time.

    I asked her whether she had ever taken opium, as the description given of its effects in Villette was so exactly like what I had experienced, - vivid and exaggerated presence of objects, of which the outlines were indistinct, or lost in golden mist, etc. She replied, that she had never, to her knowledge, taken a grain of it in any shape, but that she had followed the process she always adopted when she had to describe anything which had not fallen within her own experience; she had thought intently on it for many and many a night before falling to sleep, - wondering what it was like, or how it would be, - till at length, sometimes after the progress of her story had been arrested at this one point for weeks, she wakened up in the morning with all clear before her, as if she had in reality gone through the experience, and then could describe it, word for word, as it had happened. I cannot account for this psychologically; I only am sure that it was so, because she said it. ----------------------She thought much of her duty, and had loftier and clearer notions of it than most people, and held fast to them with more success. It was done, it seems to me, with much more difficulty than people have of stronger nerves, and better fortunes. All her life was but labour and pain; and she never threw down the burden for the sake of present pleasure. I don't know what use you can make of all I have said. I have written it with the strong desire to obtain appreciation for her. Yet, what does it matter? She herself appealed to the world's judgement for her use of some of the faculties she had, - not the best, - but still the only ones she could turn to strangers' benefit. They heartily, greedily enjoyed the fruits of her labours, and then found out she was much to be blamed for possessing such faculties. Why ask for a judgement on her from such a world?" elizabeth gaskell/charlotte bronte



    Poem: No coward soul is mine

    No coward soul is mine,
    No trembler in the worlds storm-troubled sphere:
    I see Heavens glories shine,
    And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.


    O God within my breast.
    Almighty, ever-present Deity!
    Life -- that in me has rest,
    As I -- Undying Life -- have power in Thee!


    Vain are the thousand creeds
    That move mens hearts: unutterably vain;
    Worthless as withered weeds,
    Or idlest froth amid the boundless main,


    To waken doubt in one
    Holding so fast by Thine infinity;
    So surely anchored on
    The steadfast Rock of immortality.


    With wide-embracing love
    Thy Spirit animates eternal years,
    Pervades and broods above,
    Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.


    Though earth and man were gone,
    And suns and universes ceased to be,
    And Thou wert left alone,
    Every existence would exist in Thee.


    There is not room for Death,
    Nor atom that his might could render void:
    Thou -- Thou art Being and Breath,
    And what Thou art may never be destroyed.


    --
    Emily Bronte

    Family tree

    The Bronte Family

    Grandparents - paternal
    Hugh Brunty was born 1755 and died circa 1808. He married Eleanor McClory, known as Alice in 1776.

    Grandparents - maternal
    Thomas Branwell (born 1746 died 5th April 1808) was married in 1768 to Anne Carne (baptised 27th April 1744 and died 19th December 1809).

    Parents
    Father was Patrick Bronte, the eldest of 10 children born to Hugh Brunty and Eleanor (Alice) McClory. He was born 17th March 1777 and died on 7th June 1861. Mother was Maria Branwell, who was born on 15th April 1783 and died on 15th September 1821.

    Maria had a sister, Elizabeth who was known as Aunt Branwell. She was born in 1776 and died on 29th October 1842.

    Patrick Bronte married Maria Branwell on 29th December 1812.

    The Bronte Children
    Patrick and Maria Bronte had six children.
    The first child was Maria, who was born in 1814 and died on 6th June 1825.
    The second daughter, Elizabeth was born on 8th February 1815 and died shortly after Maria on 15th June 1825. Charlotte was the third daughter, born on 21st April 1816.

    Charlotte married Arthur Bell Nicholls (born 1818) on 29th June 1854. Charlotte died on 31st March 1855. Arthur lived until 2nd December 1906.

    The first and only son born to Patrick and Maria was Patrick Branwell, who was born on 26th June 1817 and died on 24th September 1848.

    Emily Jane, the fourth daughter was born on 30th July 1818 and died on 19th December 1848.

    The sixth and last child was Anne, born on 17th January 1820 who died on 28th May 1849.

    Top Withens in the snow.

    Top Withens in the snow.

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