124 THE BRIGHTON ROAD 



Purlev Oaks, so called bv the Brighton Railway 

 Company to distinguish it from the older Pnrley station 

 — ex "Caterham Junction" — of the South Eastern line. 



It was here, at Purley House, or Purlev Bury as 

 it is properly styled, close by the few poor scrubby 

 and battered remains of the once noble woodland of 

 Purley Oaks, that John Home Tooke, contentious 

 partisan and stolid begetter of seditious tracts, lived 

 —when, indeed, he was not detained within the four 

 walls of some prison for political offences. 



Tooke, whose real name was Home, was born in 

 1736, the son of a poulterer. At twenty-four years 

 of age he became a clergyman, and was appointed to 

 the living of New Brentford, which he held until 1773, 

 when, clearly seeing how grievously he had missed his 

 vocation, he studied for the Bar. Thereafter his life 

 was one long series of battles, hotly contested in 

 Parliament, in newspapers, books and pamphlets, and 

 on platforms. He was in general a wrong-headed, as 

 well as a hot-headed, politician : but he was sane 

 enough to oppose the American War when King and 

 Government were so mad as to provoke and continue 

 it. Describing the Americans killed and wounded 

 by the troops at Lexington and Concord as " murdered," 

 he was the victim of a Government prosecution for 

 libel, and was imprisoned for twelve months and fined 

 £200. He took — no ! that will not do — he " assumed ' 

 the name of Tooke in 1782. in compliment to his friend 

 William Tooke. who then resided here in this delightful 

 old country house of Purley. The idea seems to have 

 been for them to live together in amity, and that 

 William Tooke, the elder of the two, should leave his 

 property to his friend. But quarrels arose long before 

 that, and Home at his friend's death received onlv 

 1.500. while other disputed points arose, leading to 

 bitter law-suits. 



In 1801 he was Member of Parliament for Old 

 Sarum ; but how he reconciled the representation of 

 that rottenest of rotten boroughs with his profession 

 of reforming Whig does not appear. 



