Brownie
a Scotch fairy. In Scotland belief was strong in the existence of benevolent fairies who helped people out by working in the night. Sometimes a troop of brownies would cut or thresh grain, churn, guard the flock, etc. A prosperous farm was reputed to be guarded by the brownies. Brownies were never to be seen or spoken to. Palmer Cox has taken up the idea admirably in his "Brownie" pictures. See Fairy 2026 Editor's Note: Palmer Cox's Brownies, which the entry admires, became the first great licensed cartoon characters in America — and gave their name to something far more consequential. Kodak's Brownie camera of 1900 sold for a dollar, was marketed to children, and put photography into ordinary hands for the first time. The junior Girl Scouts took the name too. (Ed: BR 2026-06-06)
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Browning
ELIZABETH BAR- RETT, an English poet, born in Durham, March 6, 1809. In September, 1846, she married Robert Browning. Her chief poems are "The Seraphim" (1838); "Romaunt of the Fage" (1839); "The Drama of Exile" (1844); "A Vision of Poets" (1844); "The Cry of the Children" (1844); "Casa Guidi Windows" (1851); "Aurora Leigh" (1856). Her "Sonnets from the Portuguese" are among the noblest of love poems. The "Romance of the Swan's Nest," the "Rhyme of the Duchess May," the "Romaunt of Margret," "Bertha in the Lane," and "Isabel's Child," are romantic and original ballads. "Prometheus Bound," a metrical translation of Æschylus, was published in 1850. She died in Florence, June 30, 1861.
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Brownstone
a reddish-brown sand-stone popular shortly after the Civil War as a building material. Block after block of the residence section of New York immediately below Central Park is built largely of brown sandstone from the quarries of Connecticut and New Jersey . Under the action of frost it has shown a tendency to split into layers, and is not so popular as formerly. This is the stone to which Holmes refers as evidence of social standing: Little I ask; my wants are few; I only wish a hut of stone, (A very plain brown stone will do,) That I may call my own;-- And close at hand is such a one, In yonder street that fronts the sun. A similar stone of excellent quality is quarried at several points in the vicinity of Lake Superior in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. The red color is due to an iron stain. The adoption of steel construction and tiling has done much to diminish the demand for this fine building stone. See Sandstone ; Quarry 2026 Editor's Note: The verdict has flipped completely. The stone the entry reports going out of fashion, prone to splitting, now fronts the most desirable housing in New York: a Brooklyn or Manhattan brownstone is a byword for urban wealth, and "brownstone Brooklyn" names whole neighborhoods whose houses sell for many millions. (Ed: BR 2026-07-20)
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Brownsville
city, port of entry, and county-seat of Cameron co., Tex.; on the Rio Grande and the Rio Grande and St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexican railroads, opposite Matamoras, Mexico. It contains the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the Convent and Academy of the Incarnate Word, a United States Government building, and National banks; and has a large trade with Mexico. In the suburbs is Fort Brown, a garrisoned United States post. In May, 1846, Brownsville was occupied and fortified by a small body of United States troops, who maintained their position in the face of a heavy bambardment that lasted for 160 hours; and in November, 1863, it was taken from the Confederates by a Federal army under General Banks. Pop. (1910) 10,517; (1920) 11,791.
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Bruce
a family name distinguished in the history of Scotland .
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Bruce (JAMES an African traveler born)
JAMES, an African traveler, born in Kinnaird , Dec. 14, 1730. He received his education at Harrow and at the University of Edinburgh, and entered the wine trad trade, but having inherited his father's estate in 1758, he soon gave up business. From 1763 to 1765 he held the consulship of Algiers , and in 1765 he visited successively Tunis, Tripoli, Rhodes, Cyprus, Syria, and several parts of Asia Minor, where he made drawings of the ruins of Palmyra , Baalbec, etc. In 1768, he set out for Cairo, navigated the Nile to Syene , crossed the desert to the Red Sea, passed some months in Arabia Felix, reached Gondar, the capital of Abyssinia, in 1770 , and in the same year succeeded in reaching the sources of the Abai, then considered the main stream of the Nile. After visiting France and Italy, he returned to Scotland in 1774. His long-expected "Travels" did not appear until 1790. Bruce lost his life by an accident , April 27, 1794.
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Bruce (MICHAEL a Scottish poet born)
MICHAEL, a Scottish poet, born in Kinnesswood, Kinross-shire, March 27, 1746. At first a herd-boy, he succeeded in attending Edinburgh University, occupying himself in the intervals as a village schoolmaster. His poems, of which the best known is the "Elegy, " on his own approaching death, were published by the Rev. John Logan, in 1770. He died July 5, 1767.
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Bruce (ROBERT Earl of Carrick)
ROBERT, Earl of Carrick, accompanied Edward I. to Palestine in 1269; married, in 1271, Martha Margaret, Countess of Carrick. Like his father, he resigned the Lordship of Annandale to his eldest son to avoid acknowledging the supremacy of Baliol. On the revolt of the latter Bruce fought on the English side, and after the battle of Dunbar made an unsuccessful application to Edward for the crown . He died in 1304.
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Bruce (THOMAS Earl of Elgin)
THOMAS, Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, an English diplomatist and antiquary, born July 27, antiquary, 27, 1766. He was successively Envoy at Brussels, Berlin, and Constantinople, and made a valuable collection of ancient sculptures at Athens, which was purchased by Parliament for the British Museum in 1816, and is known as the Elgin Marbles. He died in Paris, Nov. 14, 1841.
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Brucea
a genus of plants belonging to the order xanthoxylaceæ (xanthoxyls). The green parts of B. sumatrana are intensely bitter. B. antidysenterica contains a poisonous principle called brucia. The bark of another species is bitter, and has qualities like those of quassia simarouba. B. ferruginea is from Abyssinia.
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