Three Pigeons, which was kept for a time by John Lowin, one
of the first actors of Shakespeare's plays, is frequently alluded to by
the dramatists of the period. Falstaff is disguised as the "Fat Woman of
Brentford" in Shakespeare's _Merry Wives of Windsor_, and numerous other
references to the town in literature point, in most cases, to its
reputation for excessive dirt. The "two kings of Brentford" mentioned in
Cowper's _Task_, and elsewhere, seem to owe their mythical existence to
the play, _The Rehearsal_, by George Villiers, second duke of
Buckingham, produced in 1671.

South of Brentford, towards Isleworth, is Sion House, a mansion founded
by Lord Protector Somerset in 1547, and rebuilt and enlarged by the 10th
earl of Northumberland and Sir Hugh Smithson, afterwards duke of
Northumberland, the architects being Inigo Jones and Robert Adam. The
gardens are very beautiful. The site of Sion or Syon House was
previously occupied by a convent of Bridgetine nuns established at
Twickenham by Henry V. in 1415 and removed here in 1431.

BRENTON, SIR JAHLEEL (1770-1844), British admiral, was born in Rhode
Island, U.S.A., on the 22nd of August 1770. He was the son of
Rear-Admiral Jahleel Brenton (1729-1802), who belonged to a loyalist
family which suffered the loss of most of its property in the
insurrection of the American colonies. He was a lieutenant in the
British navy when the war began, and emigrated with his family to the
mother country. Three of the sons entered the navy--Jahleel (the
eldest), Captain Edward Pelham Brenton (1774-1839), and James Wallace
Brenton, who was killed young in 1799 when attacking a Spanish privateer
near Barcelona in the boats of the "Petrel," of which he was lieutenant.
Jahleel went to sea first with his father in 1781, and on the return of
peace was sent to the "maritime school" at Chelsea. He served in the
peace before the beginning of the war in 1793, and passed his
examination as lieutenant, but seeing no chance of employment went with
other English naval officers to serve in the Swedish navy against the
Russians. In 1790 he received his commission and returned home. Till
1799 he served as lieutenant, or acting commander, mostly under Earl St
Vincent, and was present in the battle from which the admiral received
his title. As commander of the "Speedy" brig he won much distinction in
actions with Spanish gunboats in the Straits of Gibraltar. In 1800 he
reached the rank of post-ca