LONDON (AP) 鈥� With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Bront毛 sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London鈥檚 Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses 鈥� the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots 鈥� which indicate that the name is pronounced 鈥渂rontay鈥� rather than 鈥渂ront鈥� 鈥� were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey鈥檚 Poets鈥� Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Bront毛 historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Bront毛 Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,鈥� Wright said. 鈥淭hese three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.鈥�
It鈥檚 believed the writers鈥� Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte鈥檚 鈥淛ane Eyre,鈥� Emily鈥檚 鈥淲uthering Heights鈥� and Anne鈥檚 鈥淭he Tenant of Wildfell Hall.鈥�
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Bront毛 Society, welcomed the restoration.
鈥淎s the Bront毛s and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it鈥檚 entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,鈥� she said.
The Associated Press
