Keighley is in process of transformation4 from a populous5, old-fashioned village, into a still more populous and flourishing town. It is evident to the stranger, that as the gable-ended houses, which obtrude6 themselves corner-wise on the widening street, fall vacant, they are pulled down to allow of greater space for traffic, and a more modern style of architecture. The quaint7 and narrow shop-windows of fifty years ago, are giving way to large panes8 and plate-glass. Nearly every dwelling9 seems devoted10 to some branch of commerce. In passing hastily through the town, one hardly perceives where the necessary lawyer and doctor can live, so little appearance is there of any dwellings11 of the professional middle-class, such as abound12 in our old cathedral towns. In fact, nothing can be more opposed than the state of society, the modes of thinking, the standards of reference on all points of morality, manners, and even politics and religion, in such a new manufacturing place as Keighley in the north, and any stately, sleepy, picturesque13 cathedral town in the south. Yet the aspect of Keighley promises well for future stateliness, if not picturesqueness14. Grey stone abounds15; and the rows of houses built of it have a kind of solid grandeur16 connected with their uniform and enduring lines. The frame-work of the doors, and the lintels of the windows, even in the smallest dwellings, are made of blocks of stone. There is no painted wood to require continual beautifying, or else present a shabby aspect; and the stone is kept scrupulously17 clean by the notable Yorkshire housewives. Such glimpses into the interior as a passer-by obtains, reveal a rough abundance of the means of living, and diligent19 and active habits in the women. But the voices of the people are hard, and their tones discordant20, promising21 little of the musical taste that distinguishes the district, and which has already furnished a Carrodus to the musical world. The names over the shops (of which the one just given is a sample) seem strange even to an inhabitant of the neighbouring county, and have a peculiar22 smack23 and flavour of the place.
The town of Keighley never quite melts into country on the road to Haworth, although the houses become more sparse24 as the traveller journeys upwards25 to the grey round hills that seem to bound his journey in a westerly direction. First come some villas26; just sufficiently27 retired28 from the road to show that they can scarcely belong to any one liable to be summoned in a hurry, at the call of suffering or danger, from his comfortable fireside; the lawyer, the doctor, and the clergyman, live at hand, and hardly in the suburbs, with a screen of shrubs29 for concealment30.
In a town one does not look for vivid colouring; what there may be of this is furnished by the wares31 in the shops, not by foliage32 or atmospheric33 effects; but in the country some brilliancy and vividness seems to be instinctively34 expected, and there is consequently a slight feeling of disappointment at the grey neutral tint35 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 workmen’s houses, with here and there an old-fashioned farmhouse36 and out-buildings, it can hardly be called “country” any part of the way. For two miles the road passes over tolerably level ground, distant hills on the left, a “beck” flowing through meadows on the right, and furnishing water power, at certain points, to the factories built on its banks. The air is dim and lightless with the smoke from all these habitations and places of business. The soil in the valley (or “bottom,” to use the local term) is rich; but, as the road begins to ascend37, the vegetation becomes poorer; it does not flourish, it merely exists; and, instead of trees, there are only bushes and shrubs about the dwellings. Stone dykes38 are everywhere used in place of hedges; and what crops there are, on the patches of arable39 land, consist of pale, hungry-looking, grey green oats. Right before the traveller on this road rises Haworth village; he can see it for two miles before he arrives, for it is situated40 on the side of a pretty steep hill, with a back-ground of dun and purple moors41, rising and sweeping42 away yet higher than the church, which is built at the very summit of the long narrow street. All round the horizon there is this same line of sinuous43 wave-like hills; the scoops44 into which they fall only revealing other hills beyond, of similar colour and shape, crowned with wild, bleak45 moors—grand, from the ideas of solitude46 and loneliness which they suggest, or oppressive from the feeling which they give of being pent-up by some monotonous47 and illimitable barrier, according to the mood of mind in which the spectator may be.
For a short distance the road appears to turn away from Haworth, as it winds round the base of the shoulder of a hill; but then it crosses a bridge over the “beck,” and the ascent48 through the village begins. The flag-stones with which it is paved are placed end-ways, in order to give a better hold to the horses’ feet; and, even with this help, they seem to be in constant danger of slipping backwards49. The old stone houses are high compared to the width of the street, which makes an abrupt50 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 surmounted51, the church lies a little off the main road on the left; a hundred yards, or so, and the driver relaxes his care, and the horse breathes more easily, as they pass into the quite little by-street that leads to Haworth Parsonage. The churchyard is on one side of this lane, the school-house and the sexton’s dwelling (where the curates formerly52 lodged) on the other.
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 the fields and moors that lie beyond. The area of this oblong is filled up by a crowded churchyard, and a small garden or court in front of the clergyman’s house. As the entrance to this from the road is at the side, the path goes round the corner into the little plot of ground. Underneath53 the windows is a narrow flower-border, carefully tended in days of yore, although only the most hardy54 plants could be made to grow there. Within the stone wall, which keeps out the surrounding churchyard, are bushes of elder and lilac; the rest of the ground is occupied by a square grass-plot and a gravel55 walk. The house is of grey stone, two stories high, heavily roofed with flags, in order to resist the winds that might strip off a lighter56 covering. It appears to have been built about a hundred years ago, and to consist of four rooms on each story; the two windows on the right (as the visitor stands with his back to the church, ready to enter in at the front door) belonging to Mr. Brontë’s study, the two on the left to the family sitting-room57. Everything about the place tells of the most dainty order, the most exquisite58 cleanliness. The door-steps are spotless; the small old-fashioned window-panes glitter like looking-glass. Inside and outside of that house cleanliness goes up into its essence, purity.
The little church lies, as I mentioned, above most of the houses in the village; and the graveyard59 rises above the church, and is terribly full of upright tombstones. The chapel60 or church claims greater antiquity61 than any other in that part of the kingdom; but there is no appearance of this in the external aspect of the present edifice62, unless it be in the two eastern windows, which remain unmodernized, and in the lower part of the steeple. Inside, the character of the pillars shows that they were constructed before the reign63 of Henry VII. It is probable that there existed on this ground, a “field-kirk,” or oratory64, in the earliest times; and, from the Archbishop’s registry at York, it is ascertained65 that there was a chapel at Haworth in 1317. The inhabitants refer inquirers concerning the date to the following inscription66 on a stone in the church tower:—
“Hic fecit Cænobium Monachorum Auteste fundator. A. D. sexcentissimo.”
That is to say, before the preaching of Christianity in Northumbria. Whitaker says that this mistake originated in the illiterate68 copying out, by some modern stone-cutter, of an inscription in the character of Henry the Eighth’s time on an adjoining stone:—
“Now every antiquary knows that the formula of prayer ‘bono statu’ always refers to the living. I suspect this singular Christian67 name has been mistaken by the stone-cutter for Austet, a contraction69 of Eustatius, but the word Tod, which has been mis-read for the Arabic figures 600, is perfectly70 fair and legible. On the presumption71 of this foolish claim to antiquity, the people would needs set up for independence, and contest the right of the Vicar of Bradford to nominate a curate at Haworth.”
I have given this extract, in order to explain the imaginary groundwork of a commotion72 which took place in Haworth about five and thirty years ago, to which I shall have occasion to allude73 again more particularly.
The interior of the church is commonplace; it is neither old enough nor modern enough to compel notice. The pews are of black oak, with high divisions; and the names of those to whom they belong are painted in white letters on the doors. There are neither brasses74, nor altar-tombs, nor monuments, but there is a mural tablet on the right-hand side of the communion-table, bearing the following inscription:—
HERE
MARIA BRONTË, WIFE
OF THE
HER SOUL
IN THE 39TH YEAR OF HER AGE.
“Be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh.” MATTHEW xxiv. 44.
ALSO HERE LIE THE REMAINS OF
MARIA BRONTË, DAUGHTER OF THE AFORESAID;
SHE DIED ON THE
6TH OF MAY, 1825, IN THE 12TH YEAR OF HER AGE;
AND OF
ELIZABETH BRONTË, HER SISTER,
WHO DIED JUNE 15TH, 1825, IN THE 11TH YEAR OF HER AGE.
“Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”—MATTHEW xviii. 3.
HERE ALSO LIE THE REMAINS OF
PATRICK BRANWELL BRONTË,
AND OF
EMILY JANE BRONTË,
WHO DIED DEC. 19TH, 1848, AGED 29 YEARS,
SON AND DAUGHTER OF THE
MEMORY OF ANNE BRONTË,
YOUNGEST DAUGHTER OF THE REV. P. BRONTË, A.B.
SHE DIED, AGED 27 YEARS, MAY 28TH, 1849,
AND WAS BURIED AT THE OLD CHURCH, SCARBORO.’
At the upper part of this tablet ample space is allowed between the lines of the inscription; when the first memorials were written down, the survivors81, in their fond affection, thought little of the margin82 and verge83 they were leaving for those who were still living. But as one dead member of the household follows another fast to the grave, the lines are pressed together, and the letters become small and cramped84. After the record of Anne’s death, there is room for no other.
But one more of that generation—the last of that nursery of six little motherless children—was yet to follow, before the survivor80, the childless and widowed father, found his rest. On another tablet, below the first, the following record has been added to that mournful list:—
ADJOINING LIE THE REMAINS OF
CHARLOTTE, WIFE
OF THE
REV. ARTHUR BELL NICHOLLS, A.B.,
AND DAUGHTER OF THE REV. P. BRONTË, A.B., INCUMBENT
SHE DIED MARCH 31ST, 1855, IN THE 39TH
YEAR OF HER AGE.
This tablet, which corrects the error in the former tablet as to the age of Anne Brontë, bears the following inscription in Roman letters; the initials, however, being in old English.
该作者的其他作品
《North and South 南方与北方》
《玛丽巴顿 Mary Barton》
该作者的其他作品
《North and South 南方与北方》
《玛丽巴顿 Mary Barton》
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1 sluggish | |
adj.懒惰的,迟钝的,无精打采的 | |
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2 metropolis | |
n.首府;大城市 | |
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3 pro | |
n.赞成,赞成的意见,赞成者 | |
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4 transformation | |
n.变化;改造;转变 | |
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5 populous | |
adj.人口稠密的,人口众多的 | |
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6 obtrude | |
v.闯入;侵入;打扰 | |
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7 quaint | |
adj.古雅的,离奇有趣的,奇怪的 | |
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8 panes | |
窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 ) | |
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9 dwelling | |
n.住宅,住所,寓所 | |
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10 devoted | |
adj.忠诚的,忠实的,热心的,献身于...的 | |
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11 dwellings | |
n.住处,处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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12 abound | |
vi.大量存在;(in,with)充满,富于 | |
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13 picturesque | |
adj.美丽如画的,(语言)生动的,绘声绘色的 | |
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14 picturesqueness | |
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15 abounds | |
v.大量存在,充满,富于( abound的第三人称单数 ) | |
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16 grandeur | |
n.伟大,崇高,宏伟,庄严,豪华 | |
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17 scrupulously | |
adv.一丝不苟地;小心翼翼地,多顾虑地 | |
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18 rev | |
v.发动机旋转,加快速度 | |
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19 diligent | |
adj.勤勉的,勤奋的 | |
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20 discordant | |
adj.不调和的 | |
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21 promising | |
adj.有希望的,有前途的 | |
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22 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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23 smack | |
vt.拍,打,掴;咂嘴;vi.含有…意味;n.拍 | |
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24 sparse | |
adj.稀疏的,稀稀落落的,薄的 | |
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25 upwards | |
adv.向上,在更高处...以上 | |
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26 villas | |
别墅,公馆( villa的名词复数 ); (城郊)住宅 | |
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27 sufficiently | |
adv.足够地,充分地 | |
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28 retired | |
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的 | |
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29 shrubs | |
灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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30 concealment | |
n.隐藏, 掩盖,隐瞒 | |
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31 wares | |
n. 货物, 商品 | |
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32 foliage | |
n.叶子,树叶,簇叶 | |
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33 atmospheric | |
adj.大气的,空气的;大气层的;大气所引起的 | |
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34 instinctively | |
adv.本能地 | |
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35 tint | |
n.淡色,浅色;染发剂;vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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36 farmhouse | |
n.农场住宅(尤指主要住房) | |
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37 ascend | |
vi.渐渐上升,升高;vt.攀登,登上 | |
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38 dykes | |
abbr.diagonal wire cutters 斜线切割机n.堤( dyke的名词复数 );坝;堰;沟 | |
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39 arable | |
adj.可耕的,适合种植的 | |
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40 situated | |
adj.坐落在...的,处于某种境地的 | |
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41 moors | |
v.停泊,系泊(船只)( moor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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42 sweeping | |
adj.范围广大的,一扫无遗的 | |
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43 sinuous | |
adj.蜿蜒的,迂回的 | |
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44 scoops | |
n.小铲( scoop的名词复数 );小勺;一勺[铲]之量;(抢先刊载、播出的)独家新闻v.抢先报道( scoop的第三人称单数 );(敏捷地)抱起;抢先获得;用铲[勺]等挖(洞等) | |
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45 bleak | |
adj.(天气)阴冷的;凄凉的;暗淡的 | |
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46 solitude | |
n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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47 monotonous | |
adj.单调的,一成不变的,使人厌倦的 | |
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48 ascent | |
n.(声望或地位)提高;上升,升高;登高 | |
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49 backwards | |
adv.往回地,向原处,倒,相反,前后倒置地 | |
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50 abrupt | |
adj.突然的,意外的;唐突的,鲁莽的 | |
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51 surmounted | |
战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 ); 克服(困难); 居于…之上; 在…顶上 | |
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52 formerly | |
adv.从前,以前 | |
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53 underneath | |
adj.在...下面,在...底下;adv.在下面 | |
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54 hardy | |
adj.勇敢的,果断的,吃苦的;耐寒的 | |
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55 gravel | |
n.砂跞;砂砾层;结石 | |
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56 lighter | |
n.打火机,点火器;驳船;v.用驳船运送;light的比较级 | |
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57 sitting-room | |
n.(BrE)客厅,起居室 | |
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58 exquisite | |
adj.精美的;敏锐的;剧烈的,感觉强烈的 | |
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59 graveyard | |
n.坟场 | |
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60 chapel | |
n.小教堂,殡仪馆 | |
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61 antiquity | |
n.古老;高龄;古物,古迹 | |
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62 edifice | |
n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿,教室) | |
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63 reign | |
n.统治时期,统治,支配,盛行;v.占优势 | |
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64 oratory | |
n.演讲术;词藻华丽的言辞 | |
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65 ascertained | |
v.弄清,确定,查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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66 inscription | |
n.(尤指石块上的)刻印文字,铭文,碑文 | |
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67 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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68 illiterate | |
adj.文盲的;无知的;n.文盲 | |
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69 contraction | |
n.缩略词,缩写式,害病 | |
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70 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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71 presumption | |
n.推测,可能性,冒昧,放肆,[法律]推定 | |
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72 commotion | |
n.骚动,动乱 | |
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73 allude | |
v.提及,暗指 | |
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74 brasses | |
n.黄铜( brass的名词复数 );铜管乐器;钱;黄铜饰品(尤指马挽具上的黄铜圆片) | |
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75 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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76 saviour | |
n.拯救者,救星 | |
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77 aged | |
adj.年老的,陈年的 | |
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78 incumbent | |
adj.成为责任的,有义务的;现任的,在职的 | |
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79 dedicated | |
adj.一心一意的;献身的;热诚的 | |
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80 survivor | |
n.生存者,残存者,幸存者 | |
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81 survivors | |
幸存者,残存者,生还者( survivor的名词复数 ) | |
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82 margin | |
n.页边空白;差额;余地,余裕;边,边缘 | |
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83 verge | |
n.边,边缘;v.接近,濒临 | |
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84 cramped | |
a.狭窄的 | |
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