HORXE TOOKE 125 



He was a many-sided man, of fierce energies and 

 strong prejudices, but a scholar. While his political 

 pamphlets are forgotten, his " EIIEA IITEPOEXTA ; 

 or, the Diversions of Purley," which is not really a 

 book of sports, is still remembered for its philological 

 learning. It is a disquisition on the affinities of 

 prepositions, the relationships of conjunctions, and the 

 intimacies of other parts of speech. His other 

 diversions appear to have been less reputable, for he 

 was the father of one illegitimate son and two daughters. 



His intention was to have been buried in the grounds 

 of Purley House, but when he died, in 1812, at 

 Wimbledon, his mortal coil was laid to rest at Ealing ; 

 and so it chanced that the vault he had constructed 

 in his garden remained, after all. untenanted, with the 

 unfinished epitaph : 



JOHN HORXE TOOKE, 



Late Proprietor and now Occupier 



of this spot, 



was born in June 17 36, 



Died in 



Aged years, 

 Contented and Grateful. 



Purley House is still standing, though considerably 

 altered, and presents few features reminiscent of the 

 eighteenth-century politician, and fewer still of the 

 Puritan Bradshaw. the regicide, who once resided here. 

 It stands in the midst of tall elms, and looks as far 

 removed from political dissensions as may well be 

 imagined, its trim lawn and trellised walls overgrown 

 in summer by a tangle of greenery. 



But suburban expansion has at last reached Tooke's 

 rural retreat from political strife, and the estate is 

 now " developed," with roads driven through and 

 streets of villas planned, leaving only the old house 

 and some few acres of gardens around it. 



