The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1873-10-07 00:00:00

BURTON BR &DS TOME.

'Fits Lars Ma. Jiang Be.owi.—A writer soquainted
with the deceased says he wag one of the most Ilene° -
trio of men. He is undenteed to have been possessed
of great wealth, bat be lived a secluded life, and had
little intercourse with his neighbours. Be wee a man
of what are known as " extreme" views, both in poli-
tics and religion, and he held them with remarkable
tenacity to the last 01d... failed in him case to rnolify
the opinions or 000 l the ardour of youth His religions
views were nearly allied to Chased the Unitarian body,
but he ridiculed the claims of all seats, and declared
that practical Christianity had no existence. It wan a
favourite eaying of his that a Ginietiee amid not live
In this country—that, if suck a being made his appear-
ance, he wonli certainly 100 martyred, as his Master
eras Mr. Brown was an eutbusiastie supporter of the
extremist doctrines of the peso, tarty, and at one
time occasionally gays large donations to the Peace
Society. But, while he was misanthrope, who avoided
the moiety of most of his fellow-men, he wag by so
means conaistent in his misanthropy. His conduit
war, Indeed, icfloaeoed by his pronounce' political
*pinions. He felt that the Irish people had been mis-
governed and oppressed, and at one time of his life he
manifeated his hatred of the injastios of which they
were the viotima by inviting le all house all the wan-
dering Irish within Nadi and entertaining them like
fighting-soaks. The mention of his house reminds us of
the peculiarities of that strange eetablishreent. Most
of the room, which were ever seen by vielton were
papered with tracts and placards relating to politics.,
war, temperance, and religion. The occupier not nn-
frequently entertained stranger, in a room which was
half wood-store and half fowl-bossa without ceiling or
plaster, and with a hare stole Boor. This apartment
was separated from a lobby by a rough, uopainted
wooden partition. It boasted of no grate. The fire
was made no the bane hearth, and fed by the simple
process of kleking into it the wood with which the floor
was half levered. A hedge-Make served as poker, and
was supported in a perpeodieuler position by a gate-
hook driven into the naked mortar that separated the ,
naked bricke. It might happen that, as Mr. Brown
was descanting in this apartment on the cant of the
churches and the wicktelnees of war, • hoc would lir
across from the door to the open window knocking off
In its flight either Mr. Prown's or his visitor's hat—a
sir semitonee which would never disconcert the former,
whatever effect it might have on the latter. For Mr.
Brown was the friend of the bride creation. The place
In his affections to which he refused to 'Omit his
fellow-aniateres was occupied by his dogs, his eats, and
his horses These, as he used to say, were " bettrr
Christians" than men, for they never plerowl eseh other
through with bayonets or blew one another to pisim
with gunpowder. Mr. Brown was generally regardod
as • Oilier, but it was only in a limited sense th.t t•
term was applicable. It I. true that he could have
spent only a small part of his losome, and that In some
matters he was averse, emu to the length of parsimony,
to the escenditnre of money; but in other directions
he sometimes spent freely, not to say recklesely, eve.
call, where him medal "hobbies" were oonaerned. He
was never married. We have not yet heard whether
he left a will. If he has, we shall not be surprised to
hear that he has disposed of the bulk of his property
In a wanner whioh will be regarded as eccentric,. If be
died Intestate, which Is very likely to have been tho
01110, as he was very uneystcmatio and irregular in all
his business doings, and cordially disliked law and
lawyers, we presume that hie property descends to the
children of a late brother, who was is eacentrio as
himself, though in another (I'M m. If all the anec-
dotes illustrative of the dead man's pectillaritiee Which
are told in the neighbourhood were crolleeted, they
would constitute a rointne of 'moderate else. We
should occupy several columns if we were to tell simply
what we know of him. He WU a singular compound
of good and bad qualities. Those who knew 'HU' or
nothing of him mieundentood him, and were unjust in
their ecrtimate of him. On the other hand, his views
of society were distorted by prejudice, and his jadgmeat
of it was conseqoentiy as unjust as a great deal of the
censure which nig neighbours heaped unix' him.