Brontë family Bridge were poured into her depiction of Lowood School in "Jane Eyre": the scanty and at times spoiled food, the lack of heating and adequate clothing, the periodic epidemics of illness such as "low fever" (probably typhus), the severity and arbitrariness of the punishments, and even the harshness of particular teachers (a Miss Andrews who taught at Cowan Bridge is thought to have been Charlotte's model for Miss Scatcherd in "Jane Eyre"). While Elizabeth Gaskell, a personal friend and the first biographer of Charlotte, confirmed that Cowan Bridge was Charlotte's model for Lowood and insisted that conditions there in Charlotte's
Jane Eyre (2011 film) news of which has so shocked his mother, Sarah Reed, that it has brought on a stroke. Apparently, Mrs. Reed has been asking to see Jane. Jane returns to Gateshead, where her dying aunt shows her a letter from Jane's paternal uncle, John Eyre, asking for her to go to live with him in Madeira. He wants to adopt Jane and make her a beneficiary in his will. Jane notices that the letter was dated three years ago. Mrs. Reed admits to telling John Eyre that Jane had died of typhus at Lowood School. Mrs. Reed tells Jane that she