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THOMAS EDWARD BROWN (1830-1897)

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 663 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THOMAS See also:EDWARD See also:BROWN (1830-1897)  , See also:British poet, See also:scholar and divine, was See also:born on the 5th of May 183o, at See also:Douglas, Isle of See also:Man . His See also:father, the Rev . See also:Robert See also:Brown, held the living of St See also:Matthew's—a homely See also:church in a poor See also:district . His See also:mother came of Scottish parentage, though born in the See also:island . See also:Thomas, the See also:sixth of ten See also:children, was but two years old when the See also:family removed to See also:Kirk Braddan vicarage, a See also:short distance from Douglas, where his father (a scholar of no university, but so fastidious about See also:composition that he would have some sentences of an See also:English classic read to him before answering an invitation) took See also:share with the See also:parish schoolmaster in tutoring the See also:clever boy until, at the See also:age of fifteen, he was entered at See also:King See also:William's See also:College . Here his abilities soon declared them-selves, and hence he proceeded to See also:Christ Church, See also:Oxford, where his position (as a servitor) cost him much humiliation, which he remembered to the end of his See also:life . He won a See also:double first, however, and was elected a See also:fellow of See also:Oriel in See also:April 1854, See also:Dean See also:Gaisford having refused to promote him to a See also:senior studentship of his own college, on the ground that no servitor had ever before attained to that See also:honour . Although at that See also:time an Oriel fellow-See also:ship conferred a deserved distinction, Brown never took kindly to the life, but, after a few terms of private pupils, returned to the Isle of Man as See also:vice-See also:principal of his old school . He had been ordained See also:deacon, but did not proceed to See also:priest's orders for many years . In 1857 he married his See also:cousin, See also:Miss See also:Stowell, daughter of Dr Stowell of See also:Ramsey, and soon afterwards See also:left the island once more to become headmaster of the See also:Crypt school, See also:Gloucester —a position which in no See also:long time he found intolerable . From Gloucester he was summoned by the Rev . See also:John See also:Percival (after-wards See also:bishop of See also:Hereford), who had recently been appointed to the struggling See also:young See also:foundation of See also:Clifton College, which he soon raised to be one of the See also:great public See also:schools .

Percival wanted a See also:

master for the See also:modern See also:side, and made an See also:appointment to meet Brown at Oxford; " and there," he writes, " as See also:chance would have it, I met him See also:standing at the corner of St See also:Mary's Entry, in a somewhat Johnsonian attitude, four-square, his hands deep in his pockets to keep himself still, and looking decidedly volcanic . We very soon came to terms, and I left him there under promise to come to Clifton as my colleague at the beginning of the following See also:term." At Clifton Brown remained from See also:September 1863 to See also:July 1892, when he retired—to the great regret of boys and masters alike, who had long since come to regard " T.E.B.'s " See also:genius, and even his eccentricities, with a See also:peculiar See also:pride—to spend the See also:rest of his days upon the island he had worshipped from childhood and often celebrated in See also:song . His poem " Betsy See also:Lee " appeared in See also:Macmillan's See also:Magazine (April and May 1873), and was published separately in the same See also:year . It was included in Fo'c's'le Yarns (1881), which reached a second edition in 1889 . This See also:volume included at least three other notable poems—" Tommy Big-eyes," " See also:Christmas See also:Rose," and " See also:Captain Tom and Captain See also:Hugh." It was followed by The See also:Doctor and other Poems (1887), The See also:Manx See also:Witch and other Poems (1889), and Old John and other Poems—a volume mainly lyrical (1893) . Since his See also:death all these and a few additional lyrics and fragments have been published in one volume by Messrs Macmillan under the See also:title of The Collected Poems of T . E . Brown (1900) . His See also:familiar letters (edited in two volumes by an old friend, Mr S . T . Irwin, in 190o) See also:bear See also:witness to the zest .he carried back to his native See also:country, although his thoughts often reverted to Clifton . In See also:October 1897 he returned to the school on a visit .

He was the See also:

guest of one of the See also:house-masters, and on See also:Friday evening, 29th October, he gave an address to the boys of the house . He had spoken for some minutes with his usual vivacity, when his See also:voice See also:grew thick and he was seen to stagger . He died in less than two See also:hours . Brown's more important poems are narrative, and written in the Manx See also:dialect, with a See also:free use of pauses, and sometimes with daring irregularity of See also:rhythm . A rugged tenderness is their most characteristic See also:note; but the emotion, while almost equally explosive in mirth and in tears, remains an educated emotion, disciplined by a scholar's sense of See also:language . They breathe the fervour of an island patriotism (humorously aware of its limits) and of a See also:simple natural piety . In his lyrics he is happiest when yoking one or the other of these emotions to serve a See also:philosophy of life, often audacious, but always genial . (A . T .

End of Article: THOMAS EDWARD BROWN (1830-1897)
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