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The Moors
The moorland that Emily Brontë describes is
a combination of areas that she knew such as the moor around Haworth
where she spent most of her life, the Shibden valley where she worked,
and the countryside near Cowan Bridge where she lived briefly as a child.
But it seems likely that Haworth was the intended position for Wuthering
Heights and the Gimmerton valley. In chapter 4, Mr Earnshaw walks sixty
miles to Liverpool from the Heights; according to my route map, the distance
by road from Haworth to Liverpool is 63 miles.
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Gimmerton Valley near Thrushcross Park |
Looking from the valley towards the moors |
Quotations about the Geography of the Moors
Chapter 10
They sat together in a window [of Thrushcross Grange] whose lattice lay back against the wall, and displayed, beyond the garden trees, and the wild green park, the valley of Gimmerton, with a long line of mist winding nearly to its top (for very soon after you pass the chapel, as you may have noticed, the sough that runs from the marshes joins a beck which follows the bend of the glen). Wuthering Heights rose above this silvery vapour; but our old house was invisible; it rather dips down on the other side.
Chapter 11
One time I passed the old gate, going out of my way, on a journey to Gimmerton [from Thrushcross Grange]. ..I came to a stone where the highway branches off on to the moor at your left hand; a rough sand-pillar, with the letters W. H. cut on its north side, on the east, G., and on the south-west, T. G. It serves as a guide-post to the Grange, the Heights, and village.
Chapter 12
There was no moon, and everything beneath lay in misty darkness: not
a light gleamed from any house, far or near all had been extinguished
long ago: and those at Wuthering Heights were never visible [from Thrushcross
Grange]—still she asserted she caught their shining.
'Look!' she cried eagerly, 'that's my room with the candle in it, and
the trees swaying before it; and the other candle is in Joseph's garret.
Joseph sits up late, doesn't he? He's waiting till I come home that he
may lock the gate. Well, he'll wait a while yet. It's a rough journey,
and a sad heart to travel it; and we must pass by Gimmerton Kirk to go
that journey!...'
Chapter 15
Gimmerton chapel bells were still ringing; and the full, mellow flow of the beck in the valley came soothingly on the ear. It was a sweet substitute for the yet absent murmur of the summer foliage, which drowned that music about the Grange when the trees were in leaf. At Wuthering Heights it always sounded on quiet days following a great thaw or a season of steady rain.
Chapter 17
...I bounded, leaped, and flew down the steep road [from Wuthering Heights]; then, quitting its windings, shot direct across the moor, rolling over banks, and wading through marshes: precipitating myself, in fact, towards the beacon-light of the Grange.
Chapter 18
'And what are those golden rocks like when you stand under them?' she
once asked.
The abrupt descent of Penistone Crags particularly attracted her notice;
especially when the setting sun shone on it and the topmost heights,
and the whole extent of landscape besides lay in shadow. I explained
that they were bare masses of stone, with hardly enough earth in their
clefts to nourish a stunted tree.
'And why are they bright so long after it is evening here?' she pursued.
'Because they are a great deal higher up than we are,' replied I; 'you
could not climb them, they are too high and steep. In winter the frost
is always there before it comes to us; and deep into summer I have found
snow under that black hollow on the north-east side!'
Chapter 18
It struck me directly she must have started for Penistone Crags...I walked as if for a wager, mile after mile, till a turn brought me in view of the Heights; but no Catherine could I detect, far or near. The Crags lie about a mile and a half beyond Mr. Heathcliff's place, and that is four from the Grange, so I began to fear night would fall ere I could reach them. 'And what if she should have slipped in clambering among them,' I reflected, 'and been killed, or broken some of her bones?
Chapter 20
'Is Wuthering Heights as pleasant a place as Thrushcross Grange?' he
inquired, turning to take a last glance into the valley, whence a light
mist mounted and formed a fleecy cloud on the skirts of the blue.
'It is not so buried in trees,' I replied, 'and it is not quite so large,
but you can see the country beautifully all round; and the air is healthier
for you—fresher and drier. You will, perhaps, think the building
old and dark at first; though it is a respectable house: the next best
in the neighbourhood.'
Photographs are of Wycoller Valley, near Colne, west of Haworth, and the area around Top Withens.