Delphi Complete Works of the Brontes Charlotte, Emily, Anne Brontë (Illustrated) (577 page)

For some time I have looked upon
25
as a sort of era in my existence
. 
It may prove a true presentiment
,
or it may be only a superstitious fancy
;
the latter seems most likely
,
but time will show
.

Anne Brontë
.

Let us next take up the other two little scraps of paper.  They are dated July the 30th, 1845, or Emily’s twenty-seventh birthday.  Many things have happened, as she says. 
 
She has been to Brussels, and she has settled definitely at home again.  They are still keenly interested in literature, and we still hear of the Gondals.  There is wonderfully little difference in the tone or spirit of the journals.  The concluding ‘best wishes for this whole house till July the 30th, 1848, and as much longer as may be,’ contain no premonition of coming disaster.  Yet July 1848 was to find Branwell Brontë on the verge of the grave, and Emily on her deathbed.  She died on the 14th of December of that year.

Haworth
,
Thursday
,
July
30
th
, 1845.

My birthday
—
showery
,
breezy
,
cool
. 
I am twenty-seven years old to-day
. 
This morning Anne and I opened the papers we wrote four years since
,
on my twenty-third birthday
. 
This paper we intend
,
if all be well
,
to open on my thirtieth
—
three years hence
,
in
1848. 
Since the
1841
paper the following events have taken place
. 
Our school scheme has been abandoned
,
and instead Charlotte and I went to Brussels on the
8
th
of February
1842.

Branwell left his place at Luddenden Foot
. 
C. and I returned from Brussels
,
November
8
th
1842,
in consequence of aunt’s death
.

Branwell went to Thorp Green as a tutor
,
where Anne still continued
,
January
1843.

Charlotte returned to Brussels the same month
,
and
,
after staying a year
,
came back again on New Year’s Day
1844.

Anne left her situation at Thorp Green of her own accord
,
June
1845.

Anne and I went our first long journey by ourselves together
,
leaving home on the
30
th
of June
,
Monday
,
sleeping at York
,
returning to Keighley Tuesday evening
,
sleeping there and walking home on Wednesday morning
. 
Though the weather was broken we enjoyed ourselves very much
,
except during a few hours at Bradford
. 
And during our
 
excursion we were
,
Ronald Macalgin
,
Henry Angora
,
Juliet Augusteena
,
Rosabella Esmaldan
,
Ella and Julian Egremont
,
Catharine Navarre
,
and Cordelia Fitzaphnold
,
escaping from the palaces of instruction to join the Royalists who are hard driven at present by the victorious Republicans
. 
The Gondals still flourish bright as ever
. 
I am at present writing a work on the First War
. 
Anne has been writing some articles on this
,
and a book by Henry Sophona
. 
We intend sticking firm by the rascals as long as they delight us
,
which I am glad to say they do at present
. 
I should have mentioned that last summer the school scheme was revived in full vigour
. 
We had prospectuses printed
,
despatched letters to all acquaintances imparting our plans
,
and did our little all
;
but it was found no go
. 
Now I don’t desire a school at all
,
and none of us have any great longing for it
. 
We have cash enough for our present wants
,
with a prospect of accumulation
. 
We are all in decent health
,
only that papa has a complaint in his eyes
,
and with the exception of B.
,
who
,
I hope
,
will be better and do better hereafter
. 
I am quite contented for myself
:
not as idle as formerly
,
altogether as hearty
,
and having learnt to make the most of the present and long for the future with the fidgetiness that I cannot do all I wish
;
seldom or ever troubled with nothing to do
,
and merely desiring that everybody could be as comfortable as myself and as undesponding
,
and then we should have a very tolerable world of it
.

By mistake I find we have opened the paper on the
31
st
instead of the
30
th
. 
Yesterday was much such a day as this
,
but the morning was divine
.

Tabby
,
who was gone in our last paper
,
is come back
,
and has lived with us two years and a half
;
and is in good health
. 
Martha
,
who also departed
,
is here too
. 
We have got Flossy
;
got and lost Tiger
;
lost the hawk Hero
,
which
,
with the geese
,
was given away
,
and is doubtless dead
,
for when I came back from Brussels I inquired on all hands and could
 
hear nothing of him
. 
Tiger died early last year
. 
Keeper and Flossy are well
,
also the canary acquired four years since
. 
We are now all at home
,
and likely to be there some time
. 
Branwell went to Liverpool on Tuesday to stay a week
. 
Tabby has just been teasing me to turn as formerly to
‘
Pilloputate
.’ 
Anne and I should have picked the black currants if it had been fine and sunshiny
. 
I must hurry off now to my turning and ironing
. 
I have plenty of work on hands
,
and writing
,
and am altogether full of business
. 
With best wishes for the whole house till
1848,
July
30
th
,
and as much longer as may be
, —
I conclude
.

Emily Brontë
.

Finally, I give Anne’s last fragment, concerning which silence is essential.  Interpretation of most of the references would be mere guess-work.

Thursday
,
July the
31
st
, 1845. 
Yesterday was Emily’s birthday
,
and the time when we should have opened our
1845
paper
,
but by mistake we opened it to-day instead
. 
How many things have happened since it was written
—
some pleasant
,
some far otherwise
. 
Yet I was then at Thorp Green
,
and now I am only just escaped from it
. 
I was wishing to leave it then
,
and if I had known that I had four years longer to stay how wretched I should have been
;
but during my stay I have had some very unpleasant and undreamt-of experience of human nature
. 
Others have seen more changes
. 
Charlotte has left Mr. White’s and been twice to Brussels
,
where she stayed each time nearly a year
. 
Emily has been there too
,
and stayed nearly a year
. 
Branwell has left Luddenden Foot
,
and been a tutor at Thorp Green
,
and had much tribulation and ill health
. 
He was very ill on Thursday
,
but he went with John Brown to Liverpool
,
where he now is
,
I suppose
;
and we hope he will be better and do better in future
. 
This is a dismal
,
cloudy
,
wet evening
. 
We have had so far a very cold wet summer
. 
Charlotte has lately been to Hathersage
,
in
 
Derbyshire
,
on a visit of three weeks to Ellen Nussey
. 
She is now sitting sewing in the dining-room
. 
Emily is ironing upstairs
. 
I am sitting in the dining-room in the rocking-chair before the fire with my feet on the fender
. 
Papa is in the parlour
. 
Tabby and Martha are
,
I think
,
in the kitchen
. 
Keeper and Flossy are
,
I do not know where
. 
Little Dick is hopping in his cage
. 
When the last paper was written we were thinking of setting up a school
. 
The scheme has been dropt
,
and long after taken up again and dropt again because we could not get pupils
. 
Charlotte is thinking about getting another situation
. 
She wishes to go to Paris
. 
Will she go
? 
She has let Flossy in
,
by-the-by
,
and he is now lying on the sofa
. 
Emily is engaged in writing the Emperor Julius’s life
. 
She has read some of it
,
and I want very much to hear the rest
. 
She is writing some poetry
,
too
. 
I wonder what it is about
? 
I have begun the third volume of Passages in the Life of an Individual
. 
I wish I had finished it
. 
This afternoon I began to set about making my grey figured silk frock that was dyed at Keighley
. 
What sort of a hand shall I make of it
? 
E. and I have a great deal of work to do
. 
When shall we sensibly diminish it
? 
I want to get a habit of early rising
. 
Shall I succeed
? 
We have not yet finished our Gondal Chronicles that we began three years and a half ago
. 
When will they be done
? 
The Gondals are at present in a sad state
. 
The Republicans are uppermost
,
but the Royalists are not quite overcome
. 
The young sovereigns
,
with their brothers and sisters
,
are still at the Palace of Instruction
. 
The Unique Society
,
above half a year ago
,
were wrecked on a desert island as they were returning from Gaul
. 
They are still there
,
but we have not played at them much yet
. 
The Gondals in general are not in first-rate playing condition
. 
Will they improve
? 
I wonder how we shall all be and where and how situated on the thirtieth of July
1848,
when
,
if we are all alive
,
Emily will be just
30. 
I shall
 
be in my
29th
year
,
Charlotte in her
33rd,
and Branwell in his
32nd;
and what changes shall we have seen and known
;
and shall we be much changed ourselves
? 
I hope not
,
for the worse at least
. 
I for my part cannot well be flatter or older in mind than I am now
. 
Hoping for the best
,
I conclude
.

Anne Brontë
.

Exactly fifty years were to elapse before these pieces of writing saw the light.  The interest which must always centre in Emily Brontë amply justifies my publishing a fragment in facsimile; and it has the greater moment on account of the rough drawing which Emily has made of herself and of her dog Keeper.  Emily’s taste for drawing is a pathetic element in her always pathetic life.  I have seen a number of her sketches.  There is one in the possession of Mr. Nicholls of Keeper and Flossy, the former the bull-dog which followed her to the grave, the latter a little King Charlie which one of the Miss Robinsons gave to Anne.  The sketch, however, like most of Emily’s drawings, is technically full of errors.  She was not a born artist, and possibly she had not the best opportunities of becoming one by hard work.  Another drawing before me is of the hawk mentioned in the above fragment; and yet another is of the dog Growler, a predecessor of Keeper, which is not, however, mentioned in the correspondence.  Upon Emily Brontë, the poet, I do not propose to write here.  She left behind her, and Charlotte preserved, a manuscript volume containing the whole of the poems in the two collections of her verse, and there are other poems not yet published.  Here, for example, are some verses in which the Gondals make a slight reappearance.