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250 BRENDEL BRENTFORD BRENDEL, Franz, a German writer on music, born at Stolberg, Nov. 26, 1811, died in Leip- sic, Nov. 25, 1868. He was successively the editor of the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik and teacher at the conservatory of Leipsic, and published Die Musik der Gegenwart (1854), Geschichte der Musik in DeutscJiland, Italian und Frankreich, (4th ed., 2 vols., 1868), and other works. He was a follower of Wagner. BRENNER, a mountain of Austria, in Tyrol, between the Inn, the Aicha, and the Adige, 6,788 ft. high. The railway from Innspruck to Botzen, thence to Trent and Verona, crosses the Brenner pass at the height of 4,775 ft. It was constructed by the Austrian government at a cost of $140,000 a mile, and completed in 1867. There are 23 tunnels on the road, one of which is 2,800 and another 2,200 ft. long. BRENMS. I. The leader of the Senonian Gauls, who defeated the Romans at the Allia, and took Rome, about 390 B. 0. Having quit- ted the city upon receiving a ransom for the capitol, he returned home with his gold. A popular legend, however, relates that a Roman army under Camillus appeared at the moment the gold was being weighed, defeating and slay- ing Brennus and his followers. II. Another warrior of the same name was a leader of the Gauls who made an irruption into Macedonia and Greece, 279 B. 0. Having defeated in the following year Ptolemy Ceraunus, and after- ward Sosthenes, the chief who succeeded the Macedonian king, he crossed the pass of Ther- mopylae, and invaded the heart of Greece, but was repulsed in an attack on Delphi with great loss, and subsequently died by his own hand. By modern historians Brennus is thought to have been, not a proper name, but merely a Gallic title signifying king, chief, or general. BRENTA (anc. Medoacus Major), a river of northern Italy, rises in a small lake about 8 m. S. E. of Trent in Tyrol, flows E. by N. and then E. by S. to a point about 20 m. from its source, where it crosses the boundary of Italy, turns S. near Primolano, and follows a southern course as far as Bassano. Here it emerges from the deep mountain gorges through which it has thus far flowed, and passes S. and S. E. across the level country of the province of Venice. At Limena, and at a point about 6 m. E. of Padua, canals connect it with the Bacchiglione ; and at Dolo, 9 m. E. of Padua, another canal runs S. and S. E. from the Brenta to Brondolo at the southern end of the Venetian lagoon. This last-named channel was cut to break the force of the current at the principal mouth of the river; for the Brenta, continuing its course, flows into the lagoon exactly opposite the city of Venice. But this was found insufficient, and a second canal parallel to the first was cut from La Mira, a few miles further east. The main bed of the Brenta below La Mira was at the same time made into a canal with embank- ments and locks ; this part of the river is called Brenta Morta, and forms the principal means for the transportation of freight between Venice and Padua. The whole length of the river is about 120 m. BRENTANO, Clemens, a German poet and novelist, born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, Sept. 9, 1777, died at Aschaflenburg, July 28, 1842. He studied at the university of Jena, and after- ward taught there as a Privatdocent. While here he married in 1804 Sophie Mereau, the divorced wife of a professor, a woman who shared many of the fantastic theories he had already begun to advance, and had written poems and romances of some merit. She died little more than a year after the marriage, in consequence of which' he fell into a singular misanthropy. After making his home succes- sively at Frankfort, Heidelberg, Vienna, and Berlin, he withdrew entirely from the world in 1818, retiring to the village of Dulmen near Munster. In the last years of his life, however, he again visited the larger towns, living in Rat- isbon, Munich, Frankfort, and Aschaftenburg. His works, the first of which were published under the pseudonyme of Maria, were wild and fantastic. His original and audacious vagaries, together with the peculiarities of his sister Bet- tina von Arnim, his wife, and others connected with him, made the family name almost prover- bial, and " mad as a Brentano " was a not un- common phrase among German wits. Clemens Brentano's principal works are : Satyren und poetische Spiele (Leipsic, 1800); Godwi, oder das steinerne Bild der Mutter (2 vols., Frank- fort, 1801) ; Die lustigen Musibmten (a mu- sical drama, Frankfort, 1803); Ponce de Leon (Gdttingen, 1804) ; Der Goldfaden (Heidelberg, 1809); Die Philister tor, in und nach der Geschichte (Berlin, 1811); Die Grundmig Prags (Pesth, 1815) ; Victoria und ihre Ge- schwister (Berlin, 1817); Scfineegldcl-chen (Ham- burg, 1819) ; Geschichte torn, braven Xttsjtar und dem sclidnen Annerl (2d ed., Berlin, 1851). Brentano also aided his brother-in-law Achim von Arnim in the preparation of the Knaben- wunderhorn. BRENTFORD, a market town of England, and nominal capital of the county of Middlesex, 7 m. W. S. W. of London; pop. in 1871, 20,279. It is situated on the Thames, is connected by a bridge with Kew, and stands on the line of the Great Western railway. Here are the water works of the West London company, with a chimney 150 ft. high. Near by is Sion house, the seat of the duke of Northumberland, and Osterlty park, of the countess of Jersey. Al- though usually considered the county town, the magisterial business of the county is transacted at Clerkenwell. It has some trade, which is facilitated by the Grand Junction canal, con- necting with the Brent river. The town takes its name from the ford, crossed at an early pe- riod by a bridge, in aid of which Edward I. in 1280 granted a toll for three years. In 1016 Edmund Ironsides, after driving the Danes from London, totally defeated them at Brent- ford ; and here in 1642 Prince Rupert defeated the parliamentarians under Col. Hollis.