Browne was not familiar enough with the national physiognomy, and begged him to go and study O'Connell's 'Tail' in the House of Commons (Lever's Life, i. 225, 228, 237, 295).
In the illustrations to Smedley's 'Frank Fairleigh' and 'Lewis Arundel' the horse frequently plays a part. Browne's power in producing strong effects of black and white are well shown in the illustrations to some of Ainsworth's romances, particularly in 'Old St. Paul's.'
For thirty years Browne laboured with few intervals of rest save the hunting season and occasional travels. His principal recreation was painting, and in 1867 he had just finished on a broad canvas the 'Three Living and the Three Dead,' when he was struck with paralysis, the immediate cause of which was exposure to a strong draught in his bedroom at the seaside. He survived fifteen years, and with characteristic tenacity continued to work at plates. His mind was clear and well stored with anecdotes of the eminent men he had known. But his hand had lost its cunning. For a few of his latter years he received a small pension from the Royal Academy, which had previously been held by George Cruikshank. In 1880 he removed with his family from London to West Brighton, and there died on 8 July 1882. He was buried on the summit of the hill at the north side of the Extramural Cemetery, Brixton.
In person Browne was handsome and strongly built. His disposition was modest and retiring, but he had a fund of quiet humour and was a charming companion with intimates. When he was about to leave his residence at Croydon for another, he made a bonfire of all the letters he had received firom Dickens, Lever, Ainsworth, and others, because they were almost solely about illustrations (Lever's Life, ii. 51 note). He was happily married in 1840 to Miss Reynolds, and at his death left five sons and four daughters.
[Thompson's Life and Labours of H. K. Browne, 1884; Phiz, a Memoir by F. G. Kitton, 1882; Forster's Life of Charles Dickens, iii., 1874; Fitzpatrick's Life of Charles Lever, 1879.]
BROWNE, HENRY (1804–1875), classical and biblical scholar, son of the Rev. Henry John Browne, rector of Crownthorpe, Norfolk, was born in 1804. He was educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he gained Bell's university scholarship in 1823; he graduated B.A. in 1826, and M.A. in 1830. From 1842 to 1847 he was principal of the theological college, Chichester; on 9 Dec. 1842 he was collated to the prebendal stall of Waltham in Chichester cathedral; in 1843 he was appointed examining chaplain to the bishop of Chichester; and in 1854 he was preferred to the rectory of Pevensey in the same diocese. Here he remained till his death, 19 June 1875. Besides editions and translations of the classics, Browne applied himself chiefly to the elucidation of sacred chronology. His published works are numerous:
- 'Ordo Sæclorum, a treatise on the Chronology of Holy Scripture.' The argument, which is subtle, is mainly on the same lines as Clinton's, and the latest contemporary knowledge of oriental archæology is brought to bear on the biblical statements (1844).
- 'Examination of the Ancient Egyptian Chronographies,' commenced in 1852 in Arnold's 'Theological Critic'
- 'Remarks on Mr. Greswell's "Fasti Catholici"' (1852). This is a criticism which aims at completely annihilating the conclusions of Greswell.
- He translated for the 'Library of the Fathers' seventeen short treatises of St. Augustine, in conjunction with C. L. Cornish, and also St. Augustine's Homilies on the Gospel and First Epistle of St. John (1838, &c.)
- Several volumes of Greek and Latin classics for Arnold's 'School and College Series' (1851, &c.)
- ' A translation of Madvig's 'Greek Syntax' (1847).
- 'A Handbook of Hebrew Antiquities' (1851).
- 'An English-Greek Lexicon,' conjointly with Rädersdorf (1856).
- 'Hierogrammata' (1848). The aim is to show that Egyptian discoveries do not invalidate the Mosaic account.
He was also the author of several articles in the last edition (1862-6) of Kitto's ' Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature.'
[Men of the Time, ninth edition ; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy), i. 285; British Museum Catalogue.]
BROWNE, ISAAC HAWKINS, the elder (1705–1760), poet, was born on 21 Jan. 1705 at Burton-on-Trent, of which parish his father — a man of private fortune and the holder of other ecclesiastical preferments—was vicar. Receiving his first education at Lichfield, he passed to Westminster School, and thence in 1721 to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained a scholarship and took the degree of M.A. About 1727 he began the study of law at Lincoln's Inn, but though called to the bar he did not seriously prosecute the practice of his profession. Through the influence of the Forester family he was twice returned (1744, 1747) to the House of Commons for the borough of} {{hyphenated word start|Wen|Wenlock}
