MEMOIR 



The way was open to him, for his father had repre- 

 sented the County Fermanagh for many years, as had 

 other members of the family before him ; but at the 

 time when it would have been most feasible, he was 

 deeply occupied in his natural history studies, and later 

 on, Lady Brooke's health compelled him to live abroad 

 for the greater part of the year. 



In sport and venery he was one of the greatest 

 authorities, and possessed that finest of all sportsman's 

 instincts, viz. the love of it for the pleasure it gave him 

 in studying the habits of beast and fowl. Few men 

 have known more of the game they pursued than 

 Victor Brooke. In games of all kinds he reached a 

 high proficiency, and at athletic exercises held his own 

 with the best. Another quality he possessed which 

 was known and immensely appreciated by his friends, 

 was his great power of intuitive sound judgment. As a 

 friend of his, a man largely engaged in important political 

 and business matters, once said to me : " I would rather 

 have Brooke's judgment than any one else's ! " 



In that home life in which a man's innermost 

 feelings show themselves most distinctly he proved how 

 capable he was of the tenderest care and sympathy to 

 the beautiful but fragile partner of his life. From the 

 earliest years of their marriage his wife had developed 

 symptoms of delicacy that needed the greatest care 

 and solicitude, and as time went on she was often for 

 months together unable to leave her room. To most 

 men of his intensely active nature this continually 

 recurring ill-health would have been very trying ; with 

 him it only seemed to increase the love and considera- 

 tion he had for her in all the twenty-seven years they 

 passed so happily together. His one regret was the 

 suffering that his love and devotion could not alleviate, 

 and her enforced absence. That, as he so often said, 



B 



