d their hands, or think you, or me, or other sane people
in the right. Failures slide off them like July rain off a duck's back
feathers. Jem and his whole family turn out bad, and cheat them one
week, and the next they are doing the same thing for Jack; and when he
goes to the treadmill,[20] and his wife and children to the workhouse,
they will be on the look-out for Bill to take his place.

[17] #Quixotic#: romantic or visionary

[18] #Crotchet#: whim, notion, "hobby."

[19] #Old man with a scythe#: Father Time.

[20] #Treadmill#: a wheel on which prisoners were formerly
compelled to work.

TOM BROWN'S BIRTHPLACE.

However, it is time for us to get from the general to the particular;
so, leaving the great army of Browns, who are scattered over the whole
empire on which the sun never sets, and whose general diffusion I take
to be the chief cause of that empire's stability, let us at once fix
our attention upon the small nest of Browns in which our hero was
hatched, and which dwelt in that portion of the Royal County of
Berks,[21] which is called the Vale of White Horse.

[21] #Berks#: Berkshire, a county west of London. It is called
"Royal" because it is the seat of Windsor Castle. The Vale of
the White Horse gets its name from the gigantic image of a
horse cut through the turf in the side of a chalk hill.
Tradition says it was done over a thousand year ago, to
commemorate a great victory over the Danes by Alfred.

Most of you have probably travelled down the Great Western Railway as
far as Swindon. Those of you who did so with your eyes open have been
aware, soon after leaving the Didcot Station, of a fine range of chalk
hills running parallel with the railway on the left-hand side as you
go down, and distant some two or three miles, more or less, from the
line. The highest point in the range is the White Horse Hill, which
you come in front of just before you stop at the Shrivenham Station.
If you love English scenery and have a few hours to spare, you can't
do better, the next time you pass, than stop at the Farringdon road or
Shrivenham Station, and make your way to that highest point. And those
who care for the vague old stories that haunt country-sides all about
England, will not, if they are wise, be content with only a few hours'
stay; for, glorious as the view is, the neighborhood is yet more
interesting for its relics of by-gone times. I only know two Engl