...the road to Haworth

In a town one does not look for vivid colouring; what there may be of this is furnished by the wares in the shops, not by foliage or atmospheric effects; but in the country some brilliance and vividness seems to be instinctively expected, and there is consequently a slight feeling of disappointment at the grey neutral tint of every object near or far off, on the way from Keighley to Haworth. The distance is about four miles; and as I have said, what with villas, great worsted factories,

rows of workman's houses,

with here and there an old-fashioned farm-house and outbuildings, it can hardly be called country any part of the way.

...Right before the traveller on this road rises Haworth village; he can see it for two miles before he arrives,

for it is situated on the side of a pretty steep hill, with a background of dun and purple moors, rising and sweeping away yet higher than the church, which is built at the summit of the long narrow street.

... the ascent through the village begins

...The old stone houses are high compared with the width of the street,

...which makes an abrupt turn before reaching the more level ground at the head of the village, so that the steep aspect of the place in one part, is almost like that of a wall. But this surmounted, the church lies a little off the main road on the left;

...hundred yards, or so, and the driver relaxes his care, and the horse breathes more easily, as they pass into the quiet little by street that leads to Haworth Parsonage.

...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 fields and moors. The area of this oblong is filled up with by a crowded church yard...

Elizabeth Gaskell, The Life of Charlotte Bronte, Chapter 1.

Comments

[Jane]

That was fascinating - thanks. I've never seen Haworth before.

[Juliet]

Terrific sequence of words and pictures! It's more than 15 years since I last went there. A visit with the children in tow is well overdue!