8 SIR VICTOR BROOKE CHAP. 



you see that girl sitting on the sofa ? Mark my words, 

 she will be my wife ! " No case of love at first sight 

 ever ended more happily, and the affection engendered 

 at their first meeting only grew and strengthened 

 throughout their married life. 



The next four years he passed at Colebrooke, 

 interesting himself greatly in the estate whose large 

 extent, 32,000 acres, gave him plenty of occupation. 

 His guardian, Mr. George Brooke, had handed it over 

 to him in the highest order, advantage being taken 

 of his long minority to carry out every improvement 

 and satisfy every reasonable requirement of the 

 numerous tenantry. The Colebrooke estate had never 

 been highly rented, and in after years, when Sir Victor 

 sold the major portion under the Ashbourne Act, no 

 difficulty occurred with the tenants, and after the lands 

 passed out of his hands, they extended to him the same 

 good feeling and affection as when he was still their 

 landlord. 



During these years his love for natural history 

 continued unabated. Winter and summer he gathered 

 fresh stores of information, particularly in all that 

 concerned the deer tribe. From his childhood he had 

 been familiar with the habits, weight, and growth of the 

 fallow deer, with which the Home Park and Deer Park 

 at Largie had been stocked since James I.'s time, and 

 on his return from India he started a herd of red deer, 

 getting some from Lord Hastings and some from Raby 

 and Stoke. The weight and size and noble proportions 

 of the heads of the descendants of these deer struck 

 with admiration every one who visited Colebrooke. 

 In 1870 Brooke purchased five hinds and one stag of 

 Japanese deer, adding later three more stags. In 1891 

 they had increased to three hundred ! In them he took 

 an immense interest, and it was his invariable custom, in 



