Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Browne, Lyde (d.1787)
BROWNE, LYDE (d. 1787), the elder, virtuoso, was a director of the Bank of England, having a town house in Foster Lane, City, and a country house at Wimbledon. He commenced the antique-art collections for which he was distinguished about 1747. He became F.S.A. on 5 April 1752; he resigned the fellowship in 1772. In April 1768 he was elected director of the Bank of England. By that year he had gathered together at his Wimbledon house as many as eighty-one rare statues and other precious examples of Greek and Roman art. Browne's art treasures were described in a Latin catalogue, 8vo, published in 1768, together with the sources whence some of them were obtained. By 1779 Browne had largely increased his collection. An Italian catalogue of it (4to, Rivingtons) was published in that year, and this speaks of 236 pieces as being the choicest of Browne's possessions, and comprising some said to be 'd' uno stile il più sublime' and in perfect preservation. About 1786 Browne arranged to sell the whole of these treasures (or a portion, it is not clear) to the Empress of Russia, and the price he was to be paid was 22,000l. Choosing a merchant in St. Petersburg, on the recommendation of some friends, to receive and transmit this sum of money, Browne had 10,000l. of it duly forwarded, but the balance was never sent, owing to the merchant's bankruptcy. The loss caused Browne much depression, and he soon afterwards (10 Sept. 1787) died of apoplexy.
His Wimbledon mansion was tenanted after his death by Henry Dundas (Lord Melville), and subsequently by the Earl of Aberdeen and by Lord Lovaine (Lysons, Environs, Supplement, p. 96).
[Gent. Mag. 1787, vol. lvii. pt. ii. p. 840, under 'Brown ;' Bibliotheca Typographica Britannica, x. 64; Catalogus Veteris Ævi varii, &c.; Catalogo dei più scelti e preziosi Marmi, &c.; Lysons's Environs, i. 540, Supplement, 96; private information.]