We enter the house, and the door on the right leads
into Mr. Bronte's study, always called the parlour; that on the left into
the dining-room, where the children spent a great portion of their lives.
From childhood to womanhood, indeed, the three girls regularly
breakfasted with their father in his study. In the dining-room--a square
and simple room of a kind common enough in the houses of the poorer
middle-classes--they ate their mid-day dinner, their tea and supper. Mr.
Bronte joined them at tea, although he always dined alone in his study.
The children's dinner-table has been described to me by a visitor to the
house. At one end sat Miss Branwell, at the other, Charlotte, with Emily
and Anne on either side. Branwell was then absent. The living was of
the simplest. A single joint, followed invariably by one kind or another
of milk-pudding. Pastry was unknown in the Bronte household.
Milk-puddings, or food composed of milk and rice, would seem to have made
the principal diet of Emily and Anne Bronte, and to this they added a
breakfast of Scotch porridge, which they shared with their dogs. It is
more interesting, perhaps, to think of all the daydreams in that room, of
the mass of writing which was achieved there, of the conversations and
speculation as to the future. Miss Nussey has given a pleasant picture
of twilight when Charlotte and she walked with arms encircling one
another round and round the table, and Emily and Anne followed in similar
fashion.
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