force by the English under Edward I., surrendering only when its governor, Sir Thomas Maule, had been slain. From the Maule family it descended to the Dalhousies. Its library contains many important MSS., among them Burns’s correspondence with George Thomson, and several cartularies including those of St Andrews and Brechin. In the Vennel (alley or small street) some ruins remain of the maison dieu, or hospitium, founded in 1256 by William of Brechin. Besides these historical buildings the principal public structures include Smith’s school, the municipal buildings, the free library, the episcopal library (founded by Bishop Forbes, who, as well as Bishop Abernethy-Drummond, presented a large number of volumes). The principal industries include manufactures of linen and sailcloth, bleaching, rope-making, brewing, distilling, paper-making, in addition to nurseries and freestone quarries. Brechin—which is controlled by a provost, bailies and council—unites with Arbroath, Forfar, Inverbervie and Montrose to return one member to parliament.
Edzell (pronounced Edyell, and, locally, Aigle) lies about 6 m. north of Brechin, with which it is connected by rail. It is situated on the North Esk and near the West Water, which falls into the Esk 2 m. south-west. Edzell is on the threshold of romantic Highland scenery. The picturesque ruins of Edzell Castle lie a mile to the west of the town. Once the seat of the Lindsays the estate now belongs to the earl of Dalhousie. The church of the parish of Farnell, 312 m. south-east of Brechin, was erected in 1806 after the model, so it is stated, of the famous Holy House (Casa Santa) of Loreto in Italy. It was here that the old sculptured stone giving a version of the Fall was found. Between Farnell and Brechin lies Kinnaird Castle, the seat of the earl of Southesk.
BRECKINRIDGE, JOHN CABELL (1821–1875), American soldier and political leader, was born near Lexington, Kentucky, on the 21st of January 1821. He was a member of a family prominent in the public life of Kentucky and the nation. His grandfather, John Breckinridge (1760–1806), who revised Jefferson’s draft of the “Kentucky Resolutions” of 1798, was a United States senator from Kentucky in 1801–1805 and attorney-general in President Jefferson’s cabinet in 1805–1806. His uncles, John Breckinridge (1797–1841), professor of pastoral theology in the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1836–1838 and for many years after secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, and Robert Jefferson Breckinridge (1800–1871), for several years superintendent of public instruction in Kentucky, an important factor in the organization of the public school system of the state, a professor from 1853 to 1871 in the Danville Presbyterian Theological Seminary at Danville, Kentucky, and the temporary chairman of the national Republican convention of 1864, were both prominent clergymen of the Presbyterian Church. His cousin, William Campbell Preston Breckinridge (1837–1904), was a Democratic representative in Congress from 1885 to 1893. Another cousin, Joseph Cabell Breckinridge (1842– ), served on the Union side in the Civil War, was a major-general of volunteers during the Spanish-American War (1898), became a major-general in the regular United States army in 1903, and was inspector-general of the United States army from 1899 until his retirement from active service in 1904.
John Cabell Breckinridge graduated in 1838 at Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, continued his studies at Princeton, and then studied law at Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky. He practised law in Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1840–1841 and in Burlington, Iowa, from 1841 to 1843, and then returned to Kentucky and followed his profession at Lexington. In 1847 he went to Mexico as major in a volunteer regiment, but arrived too late for service in the field. In 1849 he was elected a Democratic member of the Kentucky legislature, and in 1851–1855 he served in the national House of Representatives. President Pierce offered him the position of minister to Spain, but he declined it. In 1856 he was chosen vice-president of the United States on the Buchanan ticket, and although a strong pro-slavery and states rights man, he presided over the Senate with conspicuous fairness and impartiality during the trying years before the Civil War. In 1860 he was nominated for the presidency by the pro-slavery seceders from the Democratic national convention, and received a total of 72 electoral votes, including those of every Southern state except Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri. As vice-president and presiding officer of the Senate, it was his duty to make the official announcement of the election of his opponent, Lincoln. He succeeded John J. Crittenden as United States senator from Kentucky in March 1861, but having subsequently entered the Confederate service he was expelled from the Senate in December 1861. As brigadier-general he commanded the Confederate reserve at Shiloh, and in August 1862 he became major-general. On the 5th of this month he was repulsed in his attack on Baton Rouge, but he won distinction at Stone River (December 31, 1862–January 2, 1863), where his division lost nearly a third of its number. He took part in the battle of Chickamauga, defeated General Franz Sigel at Newmarket, Virginia, on the 15th of May 1864, and then, joined Lee and took part in the battles of Cold Harbor on the 1st and on the 3rd of June. In the autumn he operated in the Shenandoah Valley, and with Early was defeated by Sheridan at Winchester on the 19th of September. Being transferred to the department of South-west Virginia, he fought a number of minor engagements in eastern Tennessee, and in January 1865 became secretary of war for the Confederate States. At the close of the war he escaped to Cuba, and from there went to Europe. In 1868 he returned to the United States and resumed the practice of law at Lexington, Kentucky, where he died on the 17th of May 1875.
BRECON, or Brecknock, a market town and municipal borough, the capital of Breconshire, Wales, 183 m. from London by rail, picturesquely situated nearly in the centre of the county, at the confluence of the Honddu with the Usk. Half a mile higher up the Tarell also falls into the Usk from the south. The ecclesiastical parish of Brecon consists of the two civil parishes of St John the Evangelist and St Mary, both on the left bank of the Usk, while St David’s in Llanfaes is on the other side of the river, and was wholly outside the town walls. Pop. (1901) 5875. There is only one line of railway, over which several companies, however, have running powers, so that the town may be reached by the Brecon & Merthyr railway from Merthyr, Cardiff and Newport, by the Cambrian from Builth Wells, or by the Midland from Hereford and Swansea respectively. The Great Western railway has also a service of road motors between Abergavenny and Brecon. A canal running past Abergavenny connects Brecon with Merthyr.
The Priory church of St John, a massive cruciform building, originally Norman with Early English and Decorated additions, is the finest parish church in Wales, and even taking into account the cathedrals it is according to E. A. Freeman “indisputably the third church not in a state of ruin in the principality,” its choir furnishing “one of the choicest examples of the Early English style.” Previous to the dissolution, a rood-screen bearing a gigantic rood, the object of many pilgrimages, stood to the west of the tower. The church was restored under Sir Gilbert Scott between 1861 and 1875. St Mary’s, in the centre of the town, and St David’s, beyond the Usk, are now mainly modern, though the former has some of the Norman arches of the original church. There is also a Roman Catholic church (St Michael’s) opened in 1851, and chapels belonging to the Baptists, Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists, and to the Congregationalists. In Llanfaes there was formerly a Dominican priory, but in 1542 Henry VIII. granted it with all its possessions to a collegiate church, which was transferred thither from Abergwili, and was given the name of Christ College. Many of the bishops of St David’s during the 17th century occasionally resided here, and several are also buried here. A small part of the revenues went to the maintenance of a grammar-school, but in 1841 the collegiate body was dissolved, and its revenues, then amounting to about £8000 a year, were transferred to the ecclesiastical commissioners. In 1853 Henry VIII.’s charter was repealed, and under a chancery scheme adopted two years later, £1200 a year was appropriated for the school. New school
