 At eighteen he joined his brother in St. Petersburg, Russia in a fur-trading business where they were to accumulate the sum of £20,000, only to lose most of it in an unwise speculation in bristles.They returned to England almost penniless, though Brown capitalized on his Russian experience by writing a comic opera, "Narensky, or, The Road to Yaroslaf", which was produced at Drury Lane in January 1814, earning him £300 and free admission for life to this theatre.Brown is best known for his close friendship with the poet John Keats.