Gordon Browne

“ His nonconformity was of an uncompromising type; he was one of the founders in 1844 of the ‘anti-state-church association,’ the parent of the ‘liberation society.’ Though somewhat guarded in intercourse, his friendships were wide and generous. He had a large library. One of his favourite books was Sir Thomas Browne's ‘Religio Medici.’ Having preached for the last time on 5 Feb., he died of erysipelas on 13 Feb. ”

“ He humped up his shoulder, and the barrel of the rifle fell into his left palm. The familiar feel of the metal cleared his mind. Those were real people over there, Dick Ward and Norah Sinclair; real, mortal, vulnerable people. And Norah had lied to him that morning; had come to him with her flesh a-tingle perhaps from Ward's kisses, and had lied to make Ward safe. Well, she shouldn't get away with the lie. Hot fury blazed in Archie's breast, and power of motion returned. ”

“ A PROFESSOR in an American college bewailed the fact that he had sold an essay on Sir Thomas Browne to an English review in the spring of 1914, and that it had never been printed. His words affected his hearers more profoundly than he had anticipated. They glanced back briefly and tragically upon a half-forgotten world in which people really did write about Sir Thomas Browne, and even read Sir Thomas Browne; a world in which literature pleased, and art was safe, and hearts were strangely at peace. ”

“ Nobody need care if they are doing right. Browne has had a good deal of mystery about him, and I have come to the bottom of it. One among us who lives where Browne does, knows the truth. I will not name him; but he had his head slapped by Browne the day before yesterday, though it is well known Dr. Dunstan won't allow our heads to be slapped, owing to the danger of hurting the brain. At any rate Browne slapped his, and in a moment of natural anger, my dear friends, that boy told me the truth. Browne is a tailor's son! ”

“ The writer presents a fac-simile of an admission ticket which was presented to him in Natchez by Mr. Browne:—
ADMIT THE BEARER AND ONE WIFE. YOURS TROOLY, A. WARD. In the spring of 1866, Charles Browne first timidly thought of going to Europe. Turning to Mr. Hingston one day he asked: "What sort of a man is Albert Smith? Do you think the Mormons would be as good a subject to the Londoners as Mont Blanc was?" Then he said: "I should like to go to London and give my lecture in the same place. Can't it be done?"
Mr. Browne sailed for England soon after, taking with him his Panorama. ”

“ I think I never saw so many children before in one morning, and I felt so much moved at the spectacle of such a mass of life collected together and animated by one feeling, and that a joyous one, that I was at a loss to conceive how any woman's sides can bear the beating of so strong a throb as must attend the consciousness of being the object of all that excitement, the centre of attraction to all those eyes. ”

“ Catch me so again!"
"But we came out to cut thatch, not to chase deer and get lost in the woods," suggested Goodman trying to laugh, though his teeth chattered like castanets.
"It will never do for thee to lie down as chilled as thou art," exclaimed Browne anxiously. "I promised thy old mother I'd have an eye to thee, and lo it is I that have led thee into this mischance! What shall I do for thee? I have it, lad! Sith it is too dark and rough to walk farther I'll try a fall with thee; there's naught warms a man's blood like a good wrestling match. ”

“ Two minutes to eleven found Browne standing upon the platform at Charing Cross Station. It was not until he was comfortably installed in the carriage and the train was rolling out of the station, that the full meaning of what he was doing struck him. Why was he leaving England? To follow this girl. And why? For one very good reason—because he loved her! But why should he have loved her, when, with his wealth, he could have married the daughter of almost any peer in England; when, had he so desired, he could have chosen his wife from among the most beautiful or most talented women in Europe? ”

“ The words came jostling each other—Archie was delirious; the doctor was away from Abercorn; the Kasama man would take a week to get here; and anyhow ... She did not complete the sentence. He had never been so bad as this; but the strain of the last week—was it blackwater, did I think? And ... and they had come from the sleeping sickness belt, could it be...?
She refused food, and when I had given my medicine chest to my fundi to carry, we set out along a native path in the direction she had come. Her obvious gratitude to me for coming was surprising. So pretty a woman is rarely grateful. ”

“ He took the canteen from one of his men. "Here," he said, handing it back to Pell.
"That's all right. Keep it; you may need it later on," said Pell, as though the jug were his to give away.
"Much obliged," the ranger thanked him, nothing loath. "Come on, Bloke. Good-night. We got him!"
He gave the bandit a shove, and two other rangers grasped him by either arm. In a twinkling they were gone, had mounted their horses and were galloping away in the starlight.
So everything was over and done with! Lucia was heart-broken for Lopez. She came back into the room, murmuring:
"Lopez! Lopez captured!" ”

“ But Uncle Henry was not so sure. "Mebbe they might, by accident."
"Red" turned. "Accidents don't happen in Arizona—leastwise not with guns."
The horses' hoof beats came nearer. Yet in all the excitement, Lucia did not move. She was keeping her silent place by the body of Morgan Pell. She did not even raise her head.
"Here they come!" cried Angela, leaning out the doorway.
"Red" had gone out of the room; but he came back now. "Better get inside," he warned them all, definite fear in his voice. "We're in range. It's pretty dangerous. As I said, accidents don't happen down in this country." ”

“ Browne blankly, “are not Rajahs, dear!”
“No, thank the Lord,” said Mr. Browne, with what struck his wife as unnecessary piety; “and we’ll make ourselves jolly comfortable notwithstanding. Nellums—you’ll see!” George Browne was always over-optimistic. If those two young people had come to me—but it goes without saying that they went to nobody.
Helen desired a garden, a tennis-court, and, if possible, a cocoanut palm-tree in the garden. ”

“ Thomas Browne, best known as Sir Thomas Browne, came of a Cheshire family. He was born in London on 19 October, 1605. Early left fatherless, "he was, according to the common fate of orphans," says Dr. Johnson, "defrauded by one of his guardians," who seems to have lacked opportunity to strip the orphan absolutely bare. Browne was educated at Winchester, [Pg 307] went on to Broadgates Hall, Oxford, graduated (1629) , travelled in Ireland, took a doctor's degree at Leyden; is said to have practised medicine at Halifax, and about 1637 settled at Norwich for the fifty remaining years of his life. ”

“ But Richmond minimus shook his head.
He said—
"Not at all. A word in season often does good, as in the case of Stopford. I want to warn the fellows against the mean nature of Browne. I want to show them what Browne is and how a master may use his power like a beast, as Browne does."
"If it gets back to him, you're cooked," I said. "And you know how you work yourself up when you're preaching. I don't think it's at all wise."
"I've promised," answered Richmond minimus. "I'm going to preach to-morrow evening in the time after tea before prep.; and all Browne's house is coming to hear me." ”

“ The ranch-owner's foreman would fetch them out in a Ford. Not a bad trip at all—only a few miles. It would be better to stop down there. They could comb the country, get acquainted, see how things were, and keep a vigilant eye on everything.
Sturgis had arranged things nicely. "Red" Giddings came over, as planned, and Lucia liked his pleasant face at once. He was full of enthusiasm for the country, loved the outdoor life. "Mr. Jones has had hard luck, though," he said, as they whirled along the road on an afternoon of unbelievable heat. ”

“ Christopher Brooke's 'Ghost of Richard the Third,' 1614, and the later editions of Overbury's 'Wife,' contain poetical tributes by Browne, to whom may be safely assigned the commendatory verses, bearing the signature 'W. B.,' prefixed to Massinger's 'Duke of Millaine' (1623) and ' Bondman ' (1624) . Browne was also a contributor to 'Epithalamia Oxoniensis,' 1625. Like his friend Michael Drayton, whom he resembled in many respects Browne possessed a gentleness and simplicity of character which secured him the affection and admiration of his contemporaries. ”

“ No, what they want is to put into a little bay just out of sight round that headland, where there's good anchorage for the night.'
'I suppose there'll be a village where we can get food,' said Norah.
'In any case,' added Dick, 'there's really no choice. We can do ten miles at the most. I'd better tell them to get on with it.'
Much firewood was shot into the furnace and much steam hissed out into the air, before the engines clanked regretfully into life. Alibaba took his place at the wheel, and, dragging like a wounded buck that has outdistanced the hunter, the Mimi drew inshore. ”

“ Had he held a trump less, and won a kopeck fewer, he would have fallen a moment sooner into the ditch at the side of the road. In that case his prostrate body would not have brought, poor, tired, off-leader Dossie down in a heap, nor sent Driver Evans with a broken leg and concussion to Norah's first dressing station. Neither would the board have been set for the game which was to be played five years later on Lake Tanganyika. ”

“ Gilbert was serious, and gave her an appraising glance. "Human life means little in Mexico. They even kill their prisoners in cold blood."
But still Lucia was not alarmed. "If that's true," she smiled, "I won't go without you, if you wish it that way." She looked knowingly at him.
"It isn't what I wish," Jones answered. "Nothing is what I wish."
"Well," Uncle Henry put in, "you're going to get your wish all right." As he spoke, Morgan Pell came through the alcove from his room, and the old invalid steered his chair so that he faced him. Pell looked anything but engaging to-day. ”

“ Yet it sounded in Browne’s life a note of profound and sinister gloom. It snatched beyond his reach at one fell swoop all that he most loved and enjoyed, destroying a thousand dreams, and painting the future a dull drab colour without hope. He was an idealist at heart, hating the sordid routine of the life he led as a business underling. His dreams were of the open air, of mountains, forests, and great plains, of the sea, and of the lonely places of the world. ”

“ Lucia's eyes were following Uncle Henry's heaving chair; for the yard was full of little stones, and the invalid bumped along, not always able to keep on a smooth track. She smiled as she watched him.
"What was he talking about?" Gilbert asked, kneeling on the floor, and folding one rug that had slipped away.
"Oh, nothing," Lucia Pell answered. "You know how old people babble on sometimes about nothing." She turned and looked at him. Still the same handsome Gilbert! "What are you doing?"
"Nothing. You know how young people go on doing nothing. ”

“ Pity the handy little .303 had been smashed up by that wounded bull! A near shave it had been!
He looked about for a native to carry his gun, but the camp was empty. Resting the heavy rifle on his shrinking shoulder, he walked shakily into the hills.
He looked up at the sun and saw that in under two hours it would be dark. There was not much time. As he walked he searched the ground for spoor. Padded footprints on a stretch of sand showed where one of the smaller cats had stepped in the night. A genet probably; too small for a serval. Norah had had a tame genet on the farm. ”

“ They are free lances, privateers: if they and their men are safe, society can fend for itself. But I did not speak my thoughts, as Norah sat down again and in the low, even voice of one who thinks aloud, resumed her story.
Again she described the last meeting she was to have with Dick on earth, again his arms clutched her immobile body, as Archie and his rifle emerged from the shadow of the ruined tower. So vivid were her words, I felt I was an eyewitness: I saw Dick start up; the barrel of the .420 wavered from Norah's breast to his; he fumbled with his gun.... ”

“ There had entered the breakfast room the wife of John Schuyler. She saw Blake and came forward, hand outstretched, welcome in her eyes. She had come to be very like her child—her child and Schuyler's—had the daughter of Jimmy Blair—she was like her child grown up, glorified into womanhood. Her hair was the same gold-brown, a little unruly, clinging against her temples, nestling at neck-nape. Her eyes were the same deep violet—perhaps a little darker—a little softer—a little less wondering; for years bring knowledge, and when one begins to know, then one must cease, somewhat, to wonder. ”

“ Thus he was in college during the two years that Browne was preaching in and near Cambridge. It is safe to assume that the young scholar, soon to become a licensed preacher, and overflowing with the Puritan zeal of his college, might be drawn either through curiosity or admiration to hear the erratic and almost fanatic preacher. Later, when Browne's writings were being secretly distributed in England, both Barrowe and Greenwood had come in contact with the London congregations to whom Browne had preached. The fact that many men in England were thinking along the same lines as the Separatists ”