INTRODUCTION 



IN undertaking to write a Memoir of the late Sir 

 Victor Brooke, coupled with extracts from his letters 

 and diaries relating to travel and sporting adventures, 

 I have not been actuated by the feeling that I possess 

 any special qualification for the task, except that of 

 an intimate friendship extending over twenty years. 



With the slight literary advantages which I possess, 

 that friendship, close as it had been, would not have 

 been sufficient in itself to have induced me to attempt 

 the onerous work, had not his widow urged me to 

 do so, and expressed, with other relations, her opinion 

 that my knowledge of his life and character, and the 

 personal affection I bore him, would perhaps enable me to 

 do more justice to his memory than any one else could 

 have done, even though armed with better literary 

 credentials. However that may be, I trust those friends 

 and such of the public as read these pages will find 

 much to interest them ; and when interest is found 

 wanting, the fault will lie with the biographer rather 

 than with the subject of these memoirs. 



O. LESLIE STEPHEN. 



M309813 



