12 SIR VICTOR BROOKE CHAP. 



failed he joined in all sports with a vigour and zeal 

 that seemed to take no account of the passing years. 



The powers that, as a boy of 5 ft. 7 in., enabled him 

 to jump 5 ft. 6^ in. increased in after years, and attained 

 their greatest development in the year 1870, when, in 

 the London Fencing Club at Cleveland Row, he jumped 



5 ft. 10 in., and afterwards cleared the bar put up to 



6 ft, but knocked it down with his hand in de- 

 scending. 



Mr. Godfrey Pearse led the regular athletic class at 

 these rooms, and Brooke took his place in his absence. 

 I have always heard him describe Mr. Pearse as the 

 most graceful athlete he ever saw. Brooke's physical 

 strength was also very great, and his brother, Captain 

 Harry Brooke, witnessed him lift the big dumb-bell 

 (called Burnaby's baby), weighing 120 Ibs., off the floor 

 and put it straight up over his head with one hand and 

 with slow motion without jerk. A wrestling bout gave 

 him the greatest pleasure, and he was always ready to 

 try a fall with any one whose reputation gave promise 

 of an exciting struggle. In his younger days at Cole- 

 brooke he heard there was a noted wrestler, a policeman 

 at Clones, some 20 miles off, who had beaten every one 

 who had tried a fall with him. Brooke promptly sent 

 him a challenge, and after a desperate struggle succeeded 

 in defeating him. It is easy to picture the enthusiasm 

 of the Irish peasantry on the occasion at seeing the 

 local representative of the law measuring his length upon 

 the ground. Though not an extremely fast runner, he 

 was not far behind the best ; and the following perform- 

 ance at the age of thirty-eight showed how little his 

 muscular energies had left him with the lapse of time. 

 The account of it is given in a letter to his brother-in- 

 law, Mr. Wrench, and tallies accurately with the descrip- 

 tion of it given to me by many eye-witnesses. 



