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Both Juliet Barker's monumental book on the Brontes and Tony Tanner's delicately balanced review (Sept. 24) missed a crucial fact about Emily Bronte's masterpiece, "Wuthering Heights": its source in the Bronte family history. Heathcliff was based on Welsh Brunty, Patrick Bronte's adoptive grandfather.
Patrick Bronte's great-grandfather Hugh Brunty was an Irish cattle trader who often made trips to England. Returning from one of these voyages with his wife, he found a dark, ragged street urchin, whom the Bruntys took home and raised as their own son. Named Welsh because they believed him to be of Welsh origin, the boy proved talented at cattle trading and became closer to Hugh Brunty than his own two sons, making Welsh an object of great jealousy on the part of the Brunty brothers.
Welsh Brunty's history prefigures the story of Heathcliff in almost every respect. Driven out of the family home by his jealous brothers after Hugh Brunty's death, he eventually took over the Brunty homestead and married the youngest daughter. They adopted a son (young Hugh) of one of the alienated and penniless Brunty brothers.
Welsh's financial success turned sour, however, and he became mean and abusive. Young Hugh's only consolation was his dog Keeper (for whom Emily's dog Keeper was named). One day a confrontation caused young Hugh to walk away from the farm and never return. He found a job in a limekiln, met the beautiful Alice McClory and married her; Patrick Bronte was their firstborn child.
The elements of this story found in the Gondal saga represent Emily Bronte's early efforts to turn the Welsh Brunty story into literary form. In "Wuthering Heights" she transformed these basic elements into high art.
My ancestor was Patrick's brother William. They remained close even after Patrick moved to England; when Patrick stabilized the spelling of his last name around 1806, in honor of Lord Nelson's being made Duke of Bronte, William followed suit.
LYDIA BRONTE New York
The Story of Hugh Brunty
From "A Brontë Companion" by F B Pinion. This story relates to Emily's grandfather, Hugh Brunty, and may have been told to the Brontë children by their father.Hugh's grandfather had a farm near the banks of the Boyne. He was a cattle-dealer and often crosses the Irish Sea from Drogheda to sell cattle in Liverpool. On one of his return voyages, a strange child was found in the hold. It proved to be a very young boy – dark, dirty and almost naked. There was no doctor on the vessel, and only one woman, Mrs Brunty. As nobody would take care of him, and there was no foundling hospital nearer than Dublin, she decided to adopt him. From his gypsyish complexion, the boy was thought to be Welsh, and called 'Welsh' by the Bruntys. He grew up to be sullen, envious, and cunning, and attached himself to Mr Brunty who took him, instead of his own sons, to fairs and markets to listen to farmers' conversations and gain the information needed to drive hard bargains. Welsh was taken to Liverpool for the same reason, and in time Mr Brunty became prosperous; the more attached he became to Welsh, however, the more his children disliked the interloper. Ultimately, Welsh gained almost complete management in business matters. When his master died suddenly on board ship after selling the largest consignment of cattle that ever crossed the Irish Sea, he professed to know nothing of the proceeds or the documents relating to the sale.
The Bruntys were well-educated, knew very little about farming or dealing, and were unable to support themselves. Welsh arranged a meeting at which he proposed to tell them how they could be rehabilitated. He appeared dressed as he had never been before, in black broadcloth and fine linen, white as his prominent teeth. He would continue dealing and supplying the family needs provided Mary, the youngest sister, married him. The proposal was indignantly rejected. As he left, Welsh shouted "Mary shall be my wife, and I'll scatter the rest of you like chaff from this house, which shall be my home!" The Bruntys had friends and three of the brothers obtained good positions, two in England. They were able to send home enough money to pay the rent of the farm and maintain their mother and sisters.
Welsh did not return to cattle-dealing; he became a sub-agent for an absentee landlord, with responsibility for collecting rents, including the Bruntys'. He could exploit his cunning to the satisfaction of his master and overlord but, as he could never get the better of the Bruntys, who continued to pay their rent regularly even when it had increased, he decided to change his tactics and employed an unprincipled woman to impress on Mary how much he had done and spent to save her family from eviction. Forged receipts were shown. Finally Mary was induced to meet Welsh one night in a plantation in company with the go-between in order that she might express her gratitude. Her fate was sealed. Marriage to Welsh was preferable to scandal. He had no difficulty in bribing his agent into making him the tenant of a farm.
Years later the agent was assassinated after a bout of heartless evictions and Welsh's house was burnt to the ground. He was so poor that he could no longer retain the favour of the new agent and soon lost his sub-agency. As he and Mary were childless, they offered to adopt one of his nephews. So it was that Hugh Brunty, whose father lived in the south of Ireland, was allowed to be taken by the pair from his comfortable home on the condition that his father should never visit or communicate with him, and that he should never be told where his parents lived. Hugh was five or six at the time. Four nights were spent on the road, partly to save the cost of lodgings, more particularly (so the story goes) that the boy should be unable to recall his way home. From the outset he was treated harshly, and even brutally. He received none of the education Welsh had promised his parents but had to work on the farm. Welsh's right-hand man was a tall, gaunt, rather primitive and hypocritical peasant (rather like Joseph in Wuthering Heights); he had a habit of invoking 'the Blessed Virgin and all the saints'. Hugh's best friend was the farm dog, Keeper (the name of Emily's favourite dog). Aunt Mary was sorry for him and told him the story of her husband's villainies. The discovery that his uncle was not a Brunty afforded Hugh great relief.
The story of his escape at the age of fifteen and how he swam naked down the Boyne to a rendezvous with an enemy of Welsh, a neighbouring farmer, who was waiting with a suit of clothes to assist him, is romantic. He settled in the north of Ireland, eventually becoming overseer of some lime kilns. One of his friends was a red-haired youth named McClory. During a Christmas holiday, he stayed at McClory's home and soon fell in love with his beautiful sister Alice. Their marriage was opposed by her family on religious grounds, and preparations were made for her wedding to a Catholic farmer. All was ready for the ceremony when it was discovered that the bride was missing. Soon it was heard that she had been seen galloping with a tall gentleman towards Banbridge; later a boy rode up on his horse to say that she had just been married to Hugh Brunty at the Protestant Church of Magherally (this was 1776). The clergyman who took the service thought the bride the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Their first home was the cottage at Emdale in the parish of Drumballyroney.
