Broch

“ No objects of metal or fragments of pottery were discovered in course of the excavations, and of bone there were only two small pointed objects and an awl having a perforation at one end. The majority of the following worked objects of stone, bone, and shell are so remarkable and archaic in character that their presence in a fort, which cannot be placed earlier than the Broch period, and probably long after the departure of the Romans from North Britain, has led some archaeologists to question their genuineness as relics of any phase of Scottish civilisation. ”

“ Lat. brocca, cf. the Latin adjective brochus or broccus, projecting, used of teeth) , a word, of which the doublet “brooch” (q.v.) has a special meaning, for many forms of pointed instruments, such as a bodkin, a wooden needle used in tapestry-making, a spit for roasting meat, and a tool, also called a “rimer,” used with a wrench for enlarging or smoothing holes (see Tool) . From the use of a similar instrument to tap casks, comes “to broach” or “tap” a cask. ”

“ Broche made the curriculum hard and dry enough, and the companions of the lad (“le petit Boiel” they called him then) added to his discomforts by laughing at his shyness and awkward ways.
Naturally enough Boieldieu stood in mortal terror of his brutal taskmaster, and the culmination of his fright came one day when he accidentally upset an ink bottle on one of Broche’s books; expecting nothing less than capital punishment for such a heinous crime, the boy took to his heels, and, at the age of twelve, ran away to Paris. ”

“ F the early inhabitants of Shetland the brochs and earth-houses are not the only memorials which have come down to us. The implements they used in peace or war are from time to time unearthed in field or moor, and their rubbish heaps, consisting chiefly of the shells of shellfish, are often seen by our shores. Their burial mounds, round which fanciful legends cluster, are frequently met with; and many tall, moss-grown standing-stones remain, mute yet eloquent witnesses of the mystery of the past. But of these rude monuments we are left with the poet to ask in vain:
“In what age wast raised? ”

“ No other form of brooch is so huge and massive, with such a length of pin. The Celtic brooch-maker was so much more 93of an artist than the mere silversmith that he flattened the ring of the brooch and broadened its terminal expansions in order to provide space for the elaborate surface decoration in which he delighted. The maker of these bulbous brooches, on the other hand, is so much more of the silversmith than of the artist that the bulk of his work is merely finished with the hammer—the ring and the pin are beaten into form, and the expansions made globular instead of flat. ”

“ The brooch, which is constantly found in these interments in Norway, is a most peculiar ornament. It is always of brass, massive, oval, and bowl-shaped in form, and is distinguished from all other brooches that are known, not only of this, but of every other area and every other time, by the fact that it is an article of personal adornment which (though as capable of being used singly as any other form of fibula might be) , is almost never found singly, but constantly occurs in pairs—the one being usually an almost exact duplicate of the other. ”

“ As she surveyed herself in the little swing mirror surmounting the old-fashioned mahogany bureau she suddenly bent forward and looked closely at the brooch. It seemed to her that something was wrong with it. As she looked she became sure. Instead of the familiar bunch of pearl grapes on the black onyx, she saw a knot of blonde and black hair under glass surrounded by a border of twisted gold. She felt a thrill of horror, though she could not tell why. She unpinned the brooch, and it was her own familiar one, the pearl grapes and the onyx. "How very foolish I am," she thought. ”

“ Bruch (2.) , masculine, neuter, ‘damp meadow, marsh, bog,’ a Franconian-Saxon word from Middle High German bruoch, Old High German bruoh (hh) , neuter masculine, ‘marshy soil, swamp’; compare Low German brôk, Dutch broek, ‘marsh-land,’ Anglo-Saxon brôk, ‘brook, current, river,’ English brook. Similarly Middle High German ouwe combines the meanings of ‘water-stream, watery land, island.’ It is possible that West Teutonic *broka- is allied to brechen, a supposition that has been put forward on account of the Anglo-Saxon meaning ‘torrent’ ”

“ The old world and the new, face to face—a scene for the brush of an impressionist. Brock, tall, fair, big-limbed, a blue-eyed giant, imposing in scarlet coat and blue-white riding trousers, tasselled Hessian boots, and cocked-hat in hand. ”

“ Brock was so much pleased with this gift that he said nothing about his swollen hand; and when Sindri asked him to keep his place at the bellows, he willingly agreed.
The smith then threw a lump of gold into the flames; and bidding Brock keep the fire at white heat, he again left the cave. Brock began to work harder than ever at the bellows; and as the fire glowed so that it seemed like daylight in the room, the gadfly flew at him and stung him on the neck. ”

“ He saw the gadfly dart into the forge. He screamed as it flew round and round him, searching out a place where it might sting him most fearfully. It lighted down on his forehead, just between his eyes. The first sting it gave took the sight from his eyes. It stung again and Brock felt the blood flowing down. Darkness filled the cave. Brock tried to keep his hands steady on the bellows, but he did not know whether the fire was blazing up or dying down. He shouted and Sindri hurried up. ”

“ A fine one of these, preserved in the British Museum, is known as the Loch Buy brooch; it is of rock crystal cut in a convex mound, in a circle of ten projecting turrets each topped with a pearl. A noteworthy brooch design is that of the pin with arms: a straight bar down the center, enclosed in two arcs of a circle of beaten gold.
Although most of their gold designs were hammered down into the metal, the early Celts also grew expert in répoussé, a [47] process in which, on a thin sheet of metal, the design is hammered upward from underneath. ”

“ With the introduction of the intricate system of ornament described above, the frog-like animal is gradually superseded by purely decorative lines. The convex bowls are then worked à jour with a perforated upper shell of chased work over an under shell of impure bronze, gilt on the convex side. These outer cases are at last decorated with open crown-like ornament and massive projecting bosses. The geographical distribution of these peculiar brooches indicates the extent of the conquests of the Northmen. They occur in northern Scotland, England, Ireland, Iceland, Normandy and Livonia. ”

“ Brock is from Anglo-Saxon broc, brece, to break forth—the place where the water first breaks through the earth—hence brook, literally water running through the earth. A brock is a little hollow a few feet wide, formed by water breaking through the ground, and washing out a miniature valley. The moors of Weardale and surrounding district abound with these broken places, which are mostly known to shepherds and game-shooters. They exist on the top of the fells, where they are the only natural shelters. Platey Brock, on Chapel Fell, receives its name from an exposed plate or shale bed. ”

“ Our broaches had to be placed in a basket for the thread to be run off as it listed. There was “a scientific way” of running the thread on to the bobbins, which were of corn-husks or thick paper, and placed on the spindle of the wheel for the thread to be run on to form the broach. Any one at all experienced in spinning could so run the thread on the broach that in reeling, the broach being held at the base by the hand, the thread would run smoothly off the apex of the broach without ever a break or tangle to the very last strand. ”

“ In the open were broad orchards bending under their harvest of red and yellow fruit—apples and plums, peaches, nectarines and cherries—and extensive vineyards. Huge sugar maples challenged giant pear trees, whose gnarled trunks had resisted the storms of a century. To the north the floor of the forest was interlaced with trails, which, with the intention of deceiving Hull's spies as to the strength of Brock's forces, had been crossed and recrossed, and countermarched and doubled over, by the soldiers and Tecumseh's half-naked braves. ”

“ In an instant the meadow-born Brook writhed in pain, pressed on by thousands of Mountain-Torrents every way at once. She foamed and fought, and fought and foamed; under and over, up and below she plunged, but no escape; one weary work for ages yet to come! ”

“ Brink, masculine, ‘grassy hillock, green sward,’ from Low German brink, compare Old Icelandic brekka (from *brinkô) , feminine, both meaning ‘hill’; akin to English brink, and Old Icelandic bringa, ‘mead.’
brinnen, see brennen.
Brise, feminine, from the equivalent English breeze (whence also French brise ?) .
Brocke, Brocken, masculine, ‘crumb,’ from the equivalent Middle High German brocke, Old High German broccho, masculine; Gothic *brukka, masculine, for which gabruka, feminine, occurs : formed by gradation from brechen (compare Trotte from treten) ; derivatives bröckeln, bröckelig. ”

“ The east showed signs of approaching day, and Brock, only two miles from Queenston, was treated to a spectacle that quickened his pulses. Shells were bursting on the mountain side above the village. The shadows of the dying night were streaked with the light from an incessant fire of small-arms. ”

“ In the tombs of the Frankish and kindred Teutonic tribes between the 5th and 9th centuries the crossbar of the T becomes a yet more elaborately decorated semicircle, often surrounded by radial knobs and a chased surface. The base of the shaft is flattened out, and is no less ornate (fig. 13) . At the beginning of this period the fibula of King Childeric (A.D. 481) has a singularly complicated pin-fastening.
So far we have traced the history of the safety-pin form of brooch. ”

“ The far-famed Brocken is not 4000 ft. high, but rising as these hills do out of the dead-flat North German plain, the Harz have been glorified and magnified by a people accustomed to monotonous levels, and are the setting for innumerable German legends. The Brocken is, of course, the traditional scene of the "Witches Sabbath" on Walpurgis-Nacht, and many of the rock-strewn valleys seem to have pleasant traditions of bloodthirsty ogres and gnomes associated with them. There is no real climbing in the Harz, easy tracks lead to all the local lions. ”

“ I told myself that one day I would make my name of Broxopp famous. I made it famous. My name; Broxopp. Well, that’s all. That’s my point of view. But don’t think I don’t see yours.
(IRIS looks at him wonderingly and then goes over and sits by NANCY’S side.)
IRIS. You must be very, very proud of him.
NANCY. I am, dear; he knows it.
JACK (miserably) . Well, of course, when you talk like that, you only make me feel an utter beast.
IRIS (with a sigh) . The only thing is that the utter beast feeling might pass off. Whereas the feeling about Broxopp’s Beans never will. ”

“ BROXOPP. Jack, are you serious about this?
JACK (surprised) . Serious? Good Lord, yes.
BROXOPP (nervously) . It’s a risk. What do you say, Nancy?
NANCY. I’m used to risks, dear.
JACK (excitedly) . Of course it’s a risk. That’s what makes it such fun. By Jove, to be really doing something at last! Makes Hens Lay! A Poultry Farm in every back-garden! Eggs on every breakfast-table. Chillingham eggs!
IRIS. Chillingham and bacon for breakfast, Daddy Broxopp.
BROXOPP (shaking his head) . It’s a risk. It will want a lot of capital. What do you say, Nancy? ”

“ Manasseh is there, and before servants—even a negro—The white brocade if I may advise; it is fresher than the rose-coloured silk—and the hair combed a trifle higher off the brows. That, with the brocade, will correct your girlishness somewhat. Brocades are for dignity, and it is dignity we chiefly need to-night. ”

“ He is in the next room. If he stirs I can hear him. In this room my baby is sleeping in his little bassinet. It is not the bassinet of my dreams, nor is this the white-enameled nursery, nor am I wearing a delicate lace peignoir. It is all much more beautiful than that, because it is as it is. My baby's name is John Howard Brokenshire Strangways, though we shorten it to Broke, which, in the English fashion, we pronounce Brook.
You will see why I wanted to call him by this name; but for that I must hark back to the night when I returned the ring to dear Hugh Brokenshire and fled. ”

“ This was more than a self-respecting father could possibly endure in his own home and among his own kin, so, with unexpected agility, as he turned in struggling to recover his balance, he gripped Brock by the loose skin of the neck, and held him as in a vice from which there seemed no escape. Brock, doubtless thinking that his right to the bone was being disputed, strove vigorously to get hold of his sire, but the grip of the trap-like jaws was inflexible, and kept him firmly down till his rage had expended itself, and he was cowed by his parent's prompt, easy show of tremendous power. ”

“ Broxopp? (He smiles pleasantly at her.)
NANCY (smiling too) . Indeed, we must.
BROXOPP (flattered) . That’s very good of you, Sir Roger. I need hardly say how delighted I am that Jack and—er—your Iris should have——
TENTERDEN. Quite so, quite so. Well, they’ve fixed it up between themselves without consulting us, Mrs. Broxopp—quite right too, eh, Iris?—eh, Jack?— (he gives them his pleasant smile) —but we old people must come in at the end and have our say. Eh, Broxopp?
BROXOPP. Very glad to talk over anything you like, Sir Roger. ”