Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie : by Timothy Holmes. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.
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![there were undoubtedly disadvantages belonging to this kind of life. We had much to learn, says Sir Benjamin, when we came into the world, which others learn as boys at Eton, or Harrow, or Rugby. In my own case one [disadvantage] was a shyness in general society which for a long time was very oppressive, and which it took many years for me to overcome ; and another was that not having sufficient opportunities of comparing myself with others, I formed no right estimate of my own character, over- rating myself in some things, and underrating myself in others. But the whole of this account of his boy- hood at Winterslow shows that it was a round of strenuous industry, of simple pleasures and elevated pursuits—a very fit introduction to a life of honour- able ambition and the active prosecution of a noble calling. The story of Brodie's early days presents him in a character which those who knew him only in his old age would never have anticipated, viz., as a soldier. In that period of excitement and alarm when a French invasion was not only thought probable, but was actually contemplated by the greatest captain of his time, nearly every one took up arms, and amongst these were the three brothers, Peter, William, and Benjamin Brodie; who in 1798 raised a company of Volunteers, which at last attained the number of 140. The second of the three—the captain—was only 18 years old, and Brodie himself who was ensign, only 14. They seem to have worked heartily at their duty ; and they succeeded in obtaining for their corps](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21218468_0029.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
