The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Solution 1:
The 'Tenant' is a young lady who has left her abusive husband. The narrator (a man, if I remember correctly!) calls her fair meaning beautiful, not fair-haired or 'white', and a hermit because she lives alone (with her child and presumably one or two servants) and doesn't mix in society.
'Old associations' refers to what he knows of the history of Wildfell Hall before she came to live there.