• Bronte, Charlotte, writer, source: The Life of Charlotte Bronte by E. Gaskell
  

Someone who sent the comment above a long time ago, the book is now on Google books. The only reference we can find is in the 1857 edition:

But there never were such good children. I used to think them spiritless, they were so different to any children I had ever seen. In part, I set it down to a fancy Mr. Bronte had of not letting them have flesh-meat to eat. It was from no wish for saving, for there was plenty and even waste in the house, with young servants and no mistress to see after them ; but he thought that children should be brought up simply and hardily : so they had nothing but potatoes for their dinner; but they never seemed to wish for anything else; they were good little creatures.

- which doesn't really make Charlotte a vegetarian...