e accounts ever came to be fairly taken--to find how
small their work for England has been by the side of that of the
Browns.

[1] #Doyle#: an English artist noted for his humorous and
satirical designs.

[2] #Matriculating#: entering.

[3] #Yeomen#: small independent farmers. They have generally
constituted the best part of the English army.

[4] #Cloth-yard shaft#: an arrow a yard in length.

[5] #Cressy and Agincourt#: English victories over the French
in 1346 and 1415.

[6] #Bill#: a combined spear and battle-axe.

[7] #Culverin and demi-culverin#: ancient forms of cannon.

[8] #Hand-grenade#: a kind of bomb or shell thrown by hand.

[9] #Rodney#, etc.: famous English naval and military
commanders.

[10] #Talbots#, etc.: noted family names of the English
nobility.

These latter, indeed, have until the present generation rarely been
sung by poet, or chronicled by sage. They have wanted their "sacer
vates,"[11] having been too solid to rise to the top by themselves,
and not having been largely gifted with the talent of catching hold
of, and holding on tight to, whatever good things happened to be
going--the foundation of the fortunes of so many noble families. But
the world goes on its way, and the wheel turns, and the wrongs of the
Browns, like other wrongs, seem in a fair way to get righted. And this
present writer, having for many years of his life been a devout
Brown-worshipper, and moreover having the honor of being nearly
connected with an eminently respectable branch of the great Brown
family, is anxious, so far as in him lies, to help the wheel over,
and throw his stone[12] on to the pile.

[11] #"Sacer vates"#: inspired bard or poet.

[12] #Throw his stone#, etc.: help to build their cairn or
monument.

THE BROWN CHARACTER.

However, gentle reader, or simple reader, whichever you may be, lest
you should be led to waste your precious time upon these pages, I make
so bold as at once to tell you the sort of folk you'll have to meet
and put up with, if you and I are to jog on comfortably together. You
shall hear at once what sort of folk the Browns are, at least my
branch of them; and then if you don't like the sort, why cut the
concern at once, and let you and I cry quits before either of us can
grumble at the other. In the first place, the Browns are a fighting
family. One may question their wisdom, or wit, or beauty,