"I am not surprised at your difficulty in authenticating matter-of-fact.
I find this in recalling what I have heard, and the authority on which I
have heard anything. As to the donkey tale, I believe you are right. Mr.
Redhead and Dr. Ramsbotham, his son-in-law, are no strangers to me. Each
of them has a niche in my affections.
"I have asked, this day, two persons who lived in Haworth at the time to
which you allude, the son and daughter of an acting trustee, and each of
them between sixty and seventy years of age, and they assure me that the
donkey was introduced. One of them says it was mounted by a half-witted
man, seated with his face towards the tail of the beast, and having
several hats piled on his head. Neither of my informants was, however,
present at these edifying services. I believe that no movement was made
in the church on either Sunday, until the whole of the authorised reading-
service was gone through, and I am sure that nothing was more remote from
the more respectable party than any personal antagonism toward Mr.
Redhead. He was one of the most amiable and worthy of men, a man to
myself endeared by many ties and obligations. I never heard before your
book that the sweep ascended the pulpit steps. He was present, however,
in the clerical habiliments of his order .
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