Book Description

Excerpt from Memories of Sixty Years at Eton, Cambridge and Elsewhere, Vol. 5 I have dwelt upon these family details because the name of Browning became famous in the last century, and I frequently discussed with Robert Browning, who made it famous, whether there was any connection be tween Our families. He was fond of tracing his family history, which he did with more zeal than knowledge, and he believed himself to be descended from a legendary Browning who commanded the ship which took Henry V over to France, and from Micaiah Browning, captain of the Mount/by, which broke the boom across the Foyle at the Siege of Londonderry. He, however, never used the Browning arms, but those Of a Roman Catholic family of Bryning, settled in Hampshire - gules two bands wavy or and argent, a most beautiful coat. When I saw Pen Browning's gondoliers at the Palazzo Rezzonico at Venice, with their red tunics and the wavy bands of gold and silver on their arms, I wished that I could display anything so striking. But Dr. F urnivall assures me that it is im possible to trace the pedigree of Robert Browning further than an ancestor who in the middle of the eighteenth century was resident in the family of Mr. Nugent Bankes, Of Corfe Castle, in Dorsetshire. A branch of the Cowley Brownings was settled in Dorsetshire in the Sixteenth century. Melbury belonged to them, and the present Earl of Ilchester holds that property from the marriage Of a Strangways with a Browning. But this is no evidence to Show that the family of Robert Browning was in any way connected with that branch, and I am reluctantly brought to the conclusion that there is probably no con nection between the poet and myself, except the connection of friendship, which is Often stronger than that of blood. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.