the world, solitary and silent.  This gray, sad-looking parsonage, so close to the still sadder churchyard, is a spot of more than ordinary interest, for it was the home of the Brontes—­that wonderfully gifted and extraordinary family!  Charlotte Bronte shared with her sisters their intense love for the wild, black, purple moors, rising and sweeping away yet higher than the church which is built at the summit of the one long narrow street.  All round the horizon are wave-like hills. Jane Eyre, published in 1847, written with extraordinary power and wonderful genius, astonished the entire reading world.  Little did any one imagine that the authoress lived far away from the busy haunts of men in a quiet northern parsonage, leading a gentle, sad life; for her two sisters, whom Charlotte loved as her own life, were very delicate, and their one brother, in whom they had placed great hopes, had given way to drink.  Charlotte was known to the literary world as Currer Bell, her sisters as Acton and Ellis Bell.  After Jane Eyre came Shirley, written in a period of great sorrow, for her two loved sisters died within a short space of each other, not long after the death of their unhappy brother, and Charlotte was left alone in the quiet, sad parsonage with only her aged father. Villette was well received.  It was her last work.  Charlotte Bronte married, in 1854, the Rev. Arthur Nichols, and after a few brief months of happiness passed away on March 31, 1855, at the early age of thirty-nine.

Haworth has been much influenced by the growth of Keighley.

[Illustration:  W.T.  Stead, Heckmondwike.

THE PARSONAGE AT HAWORTH, FROM THE CHURCHYARD.

Where Charlotte Bronte and her family lived.]

RIEVAULX ABBEY

=How to get there.=—­Train from King’s Cross.  Great Northern Rly. =Nearest Station.=—­Helmsley. =Distance from London.=—­219-1/4 miles. =Average Time.=—­Varies between 3-3/4 to 5 hours.

                     1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=—­Single 31s. 3d. ... 18s. 3-1/2d. 
          Return 62s. 6d. ... 36s. 7d.

=Accommodation Obtainable.=—­“Black Swan” and “Crown” Hotels
  at Helmsley.  There is no inn at Rievaulx.
=Alternative Route.=—­Train from St. Pancras via Sheffield.  Midland.

The little village of Rievaulx—­the name is Norman-French, but is pronounced Rivers—­is situated close to the river Rye, and 2-1/2 miles from Helmsley, on the Thirsk road.  The great point of interest in connection with the village is the fact that close by are the ruins of the once magnificent abbey for monks of the Cistercian order, founded by Sir Walter D’Espec in 1131.  The founder eventually became a monk at Rievaulx, and at his death was buried there.  After the Dissolution the site was granted to the Villiers family, from whom it came to the Duncombes in 1695.