. The Brontës in Ireland; or, Facts stranger than fiction. hich he accepted,and by the offer of a baronetcy, which he lived to see the worlds highways improved byhis discovery, and the English language enrichedby his name. The old, unscientific road-makers were too con-servative to engage in the construction of mac-adamised roads ; but the Brontes were shrewdenough to see the value of the new method, andthey tendered for county contracts, and theirtenders were accepted. Then the way to fortunelay open before them. They opened quarries ontheir own land, where they found an inexhaust
. The Brontës in Ireland; or, Facts stranger than fiction. hich he accepted,and by the offer of a baronetcy, which he lived to see the worlds highways improved byhis discovery, and the English language enrichedby his name. The old, unscientific road-makers were too con-servative to engage in the construction of mac-adamised roads ; but the Brontes were shrewdenough to see the value of the new method, andthey tendered for county contracts, and theirtenders were accepted. Then the way to fortunelay open before them. They opened quarries ontheir own land, where they found an inexhaustiblesupply of stones easily broken to the requiredsize. With suitable stone ready to their handsthey had a great advantage over all rivals, and fora generation the macadamising of the roads in theneighbourhood was practically a monopoly in theBronte family. 1 remember the excellent carts and horses THE DAILY ROUND employed by the Brontes on the roads, and I alsodistinctly recollect that the names painted on thecarts were spelled Bronte, the pronunciation. THE BRONTE HOME. being Brunty, never Prunty, as has beenalleged. With the lucrative monopoly of road-making,added to their farm profits, the Brontes grew inwealth. They raised on their farm the oats andfodder required by the horses; and as the brothers 122 THE BRONTES IN IRELAND did a large amount of the work themselves, andhad nothing to purchase, the money received forroad-making wa^j nearly all profit. In those days the Brontes added field to field,until they owned a considerable tract of land,which they held from a model landlord calledSharman. That was the period at which the two-storied house, shown in the picture, was built ; andthere were other houses occupied by the Brontesfrom the two-storied house down to the thatchedcottage. In fact, the house of Red Paddy McClory,in which Alice was born and reared, stood abouthalf-way between the two-storied house and acabin a little to the south of it. The foundationsof the hous
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