Читать книгу The Pennine Way - the Path, the People, the Journey онлайн

73 страница из 86

A prominent plaque fixed to one of the walls explained that the building was associated with the Earnshaw home described by Emily Brontë in Wuthering Heights. Erected by the Brontë Society in 1964, the plaque and its carefully chosen wording interested me as much as the dilapidated building. It was a masterclass in non-committal. ‘The buildings, even when complete, bore no resemblance to the house she described. But the situation may have been in her mind when she wrote of the moorland setting of the Heights.’ The notice finishes with the slightly irritable comment: ‘This plaque has been placed here in response to many inquiries’. You can almost hear the author of the notice sighing.

There wasn’t too much to see and I felt slightly out of place among couples in white trainers and sunglasses. I wondered what they expected to find there, and whether they felt their three-mile trek across the moors from Haworth was worth it. I did consider making the reverse trip, perhaps nosing round the Parsonage Museum for an hour; but the sun was shining and I thought I’d really rather be up on the moors on my own than jostling with holiday crowds in a busy tourist village.