Cranford

It must be remembered that Mrs. Gaskell wrote in the great time of
literature, in the earlier part of the century. It remains for readers
of this later time to see how nobly she held her own among the masters
of her craft. ‘She has done what we none of us could do,’ said George
Sand to Lord Houghton; ‘she has written novels which excite the deepest
interest in men of the world, and yet which every girl will be the
better for reading.’

We all know what a friend Mrs. Gaskell proved herself to Charlotte
Brontë, and what happiness this friendship brought to the author of Jane
Eyre. Mrs. Gaskell had the gift of giving out in a very remarkable
degree. Miss Brontë, as we all know, was tortured and imprisoned by
shyness. ‘She does not, and cannot care for me, for she does not know
me, how should she,’ Miss Brontë says, writing of a child of Mrs.
Gaskell, but that child’s mother did Charlotte Brontë justice, and
guessed by happy intuition at the treasure concealed in the unpretending
casket.

Mrs. Gaskell quotes a letter from Miss Brontë in her Life which is very
characteristic of them both. ‘Do you, who have so many friends, so large
a circle of acquaintance, find it easy when you sit down to write to