I SCIENCE AND ATHLETICS n 



badgers, and for fresh researches in natural history, the 

 love of which had clung to them from childhood ; with 

 the elder brother it was in the following year to become 

 a serious study, owing to his chance meeting with Sir 

 William Flower, and from that time to the year 1879 

 he devoted himself to scientific subjects. Up to that 

 date Lady Brooke had been able to live in Ireland, 

 with occasional winters abroad ; but at last it became 

 imperatively necessary to choose for her some per- 

 manent residence in the south of France, and finding 

 that Pau suited his wife's health better than any other 

 place, he determined to make a home there, ultimately 

 buying the Villa Jouvence, where he resided with his 

 family for the after years of his life only paying visits 

 to Colebrooke in the summer and autumn. But his 

 eldest son, the present baronet, after returning from 

 America in 1885, took over the management of the 

 estate, and on his marriage resided there permanently 

 with his wife. 



Before Brooke went to Pau, his friend, Lord Lilford, 

 had told him of excellent ground for bouquetin 

 (Pyrenean ibex), on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees, 

 at the head of the Val de Broto, above the village of 

 Torla. And to this district and its neighbourhood he 

 made a great many expeditions, accompanied by his 

 brothers, Basil and Harry, and latterly by Mr. Arthur 

 Post, a very popular American gentleman residing at 

 Pau. Mr. Post, to the regret of his numerous friends, 

 died in 1884. It was in May 1878 that Brooke first 

 visited the Valle'e d' Arras, which he describes as of 

 extraordinary beauty and grandeur. It runs out of 

 the Val de Broto, and he returned to it repeatedly in 

 subsequent years with ever-increasing pleasure. 



Throughout his life Brooke took the greatest interest 

 in physical exercises, and up to the time his health 



