Harsh hills had given way to a small outcrop of bleak Millstone Grit houses, which even in the now brightening September sun, still seemed somehow raw and foreboding. My intended destination, like so many who had travelled this path before me, was the Old Vicarage, the one-time home of Patrick Bronte, Minister of the Parish and proud father of the Bronte family and close friend of the Sexton - John Brown.