William Browne of Tavistock

William Browne of Tavistock (1590–1645) was an English pastoral poet from Devon, educated at Exeter College, Oxford, and the Inner Temple. A follower of Spenser, he is best known for Britannia's Pastorals (1613–16), a long poem of the Devon countryside, and for The Shepherd's Pipe (1614), to which his friend George Wither also contributed.

He also wrote the masque of the Inner Temple, the sonnet sequences gathered here under Cælia and Visions, and a celebrated epitaph on Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke. His verse is prized for its close, affectionate observation of birds, flowers, rivers and rural customs.