It is difficult to quite absolve the father of this remarkable family for not realizing that his little girls were not living a healthy childhood, mentally or physically, and all we read of Mr. Brontë in Mrs. Gaskell’s book suggests a total want of appreciation of the important elements so woefully lacking in their upbringing. In those days Haworth was extremely isolated, and the few outside influences that reached the neighbourhood came no nearer than the small manufacturing town of Keighley, four miles away. The journey to London was then a vast undertaking, whereas now we can reach the famous old ‘parsonage’ from St. Pancras, by the Midland Railway, in less than four hours.
The purple moors so beloved by the Brontës stretch away to the Calder Valley, and beyond that depression in great sweeping outlines to the Peak of Derbyshire, where they exceed 2,000 feet in
SHEFFIELD AT NIGHT
The picture was made at Brightside, where the great foundries produce armour-plate, cannon, and steel rails. The cherry-coloured flames that crown the shafts are a wonderful sight.
height. Within easy reach of this grand country is Sheffield, perhaps the blackest and ugliest city in England. At night, however, the great iron and steel works become wildly fantastic. The tops of many chimneys emit crimson flames, and glowing shafts of light with a nucleus of dazzling brilliance show between the inky forms of buildings. Ceaseless activity reigns in these industrial infernos, with three shifts of men working during each twenty-four hours; and from the innumerable works come every form of manufactured steel and iron goods, from a pair of scissors or a plated teaspoon to steel rails and armour plate.