Hay

Abstract

The little village of Hay stood at the gates of Thornfield, “half lost in trees.” as the village of Wath stands at the gates of the park of Norton Conyers. The church of Wath contains some interesting monuments, though none which exactly answers to the “ old time-stained marble tomb, where a kneeling angel guarded the remains of Damer de Rochester, slain at Marston Moor in the time of the civil wars; and of Elizabeth his wife.” It was, it will be remembered, in Hay church that the ceremony of marriage between Rochester and Jane Eyre was interrupted by the declaration of the “insuperable impediment” that Rochester's first wife still lived.