Browne was a scholar, and my fellow-students were gentlemen and knew something of life." He next lived for a time with Mr.Joynes, a clergyman, at Sandwich in Kent, and went from thence, in October 1811, to Cambridge.
He entered as a pensioner at St.John's, and although professing to be a reading man, he was not eminently satisfied with the effects of the society into which he fell upon his habits and accomplishments.

"Not," he says, "that I had not really good associates, but somehow it seems not to have been the best and such as I might have had." Another defect was his not having a skilful and effective private tutor at a time when he felt that he stood specially in need of one.

"I could not form my reading habits alone, and I had not sufficient help.

I did enough, however, to show I was not an ass.

I got a scholarship.