B R O 



758 



B R O 



the Earl of Chesterfield, then lord-lieutenant of Ire- 

 land. In 1747, he contributed three pieces to 

 Moore's Fables for the Female Sex, of which The Fe- 

 male Seducers has been peculiarly admired. His 

 tragedy of The Earl of Essex was acted at Dublin 

 in 1749, and at Drury-lane in 1760. It does not ap- 

 pear certain whether any of his other dramatic pieces 

 were ever publicly performed at any theatre. 



Brooke now lived in rural retirement, having uni- 

 ted his family with that of an only brother ; both re- 

 siding together in the most perfect harmony. His 

 mind, which had always been strongly impressed with 

 devotional feelings, became, at length, a prey to the 

 gloomy and withering influence of methodism, which 

 gradually depressed his spirits, and deranged his in- 

 tellects. The embarrased state of his pecuniary cir- 

 cumstances, combined with the loss of his wife, after 

 a happy and affectionate union of nearly 50 years, 

 and the death of a favourite child, must have contri- 

 buted, in no slight degree, to promote his disposition 

 to melancholy and depression. n 1762, he publish- 

 ed a treatise, entitled, The Trial of Ike Roman Ca- 

 tholics ; and, in 1766, his novel, The Foiil iif Quality, 

 a work which attracted considerable attention, and 

 of which the last volumes displayed the prevailing 

 bias of the author's mind. The decay of his facul- 

 ties, however, was still more sensibly indicated by his 

 Juliet Gren-dllc, a novel which he published in 1774. 

 He died in the month of October 1783. His works, 

 exclusive of the novels, were printed together in four 

 volumes octavo, 17t>0, but are now little read. See 

 the life of the author prefixed to his works, (r) 

 BROOKLYN, Battle of. See Vol. I. p. 70. 

 BROOME, WILLIAM, an English poet, was born 

 in Cheshire, of poor parents ; and after being educa- 

 ted upon the foundation at Eton, was, by the con- 

 tribution of his friends, sent to St John's college 

 Cambridge, where he obtained a small exhibition. 

 During his education in that university, he was so 

 fond of writing verses, that, among his companions, 

 he was known by the name of Poet, although his ju- 

 venile pieces by no means entitled him to that appel- 

 lation. He next appeared as a translator of Homer 

 into prose, in conjunction with Ozell and Oldisworth ; 

 but that work has long ago fallen into oblivion. 



Tt, however, paved the way for his introduction to 

 Pope, who employed him to make extracts from 

 Eustathius, for the notes to the translation of the 

 Iliad ; and in the volumes of poetry published by 

 Lintot, commonly called " Pope's Miscellanies," 

 many of his early pieces are inserted. Pope after, 

 wards employed him, in conjunction with Fenton, in 

 translating the Odyssey, and assigned him the 2d, 6th, 

 8th, llth, 12th, 16th,' IStn, and "2Sd books of that 

 poem; together with the task of writing all the notes. 

 For the four books translated by Fenton, Pope paid 

 L. 300 ; while Broome received no more for the 

 whole of his part of the work than L.600. This 

 scanty payment produced a quarrel betwixt him &nd 

 his employer, which ended in a complete breach of 

 their friendship. Broome charged Pope with an ava- 

 ricious spirit; andPope,in revenge, gave him a place in 

 the Dunciiid; quoted him in the Bathos as a proficient 

 "in the art of sinking }" and compared him to a 



" parrot, who repeats another's words in such a Broselcy. 

 hoarse old tone, as to make them seem his own." 



He afterwards published a miscellany of poems ; 

 and, in the latter part of his life, amused himself 

 with translating odes of Anacreon, which appeared in 

 the Gentleman's Magazine, under the name of Ches- 

 ter. In the church, he never rose higher than a rec- 

 tor, and died at Bath in 17*5. 



" Of Broome," says iohnson, " though it cannot 

 be said that he was a great poet, it would be unjust 

 to deny that he was an excellent versifier : his lines 

 are smooth and sonorous, and his diction is select and 

 elegant. He had such power of words and numbers, 

 as fitted him for translation; but, in his original 

 works, recollection seems to have been his business 

 more than invention. His imitations are so appa- 

 rent, that it is part of his readers employment to re- 

 cal the verses of some former poet. 



His assistance was deemed so necessary to Pope, 

 in the translation of the Odyssey, that it gave occa- 

 sion to this humorous distich, 



" Pope came clean off with Homer ; but they say 

 " Broome went before, and kindly avept the way." 



Johnson's Lives of the Poets, vol. iii. (A. F.) 

 BROSELEY, a market town of England, in the 

 county of Salop, is situated on the river Severn, 

 which separates it from Madeley, 146 miles N. W. 

 from London. It possesses considerable iron works, 

 where cannon and all kinds of cast-iron articles are 

 founded ; and also a manufactory for glazed tobacco- 

 pipes. But it is chiefly remarkable lor a curious 

 burning spring in the neighbourhood, which was dis- 

 covered in June 1711. It was first announced by a 

 terrible noise in the night-time, which awaked seve- 

 ral people that lived near it, who, going out to ascer- 

 tain the cause, perceived, about 200 yards from the 

 Severn, a surprising shaking of the earth, and a lit- 

 tle boiling up of water through the grass. Upon 

 digging round the spring, the water spi ung up to a 

 great height, and a candle, which they held in their 

 hand, set it on fire. This circumstance excited great 

 curiosity ; and many persons, from different parts 

 of the country, came to visit the /turning well. To 

 prevent it from being destroyed, an iron cistern was 

 placed upon it, with a small hole in the middle of 

 the cover, through which ike water might tu viewed. 

 When a lighted candle was put into this hole, the 

 water immediately took fire, darting and fl.ishing in 

 a violent manner, much in the same way as spirits in 

 a lamp, but with greater agitation. Its heat exceed- 

 ed that of any other combustible matter. It would 

 sometimes burn for 48 hours together, without any 

 sensible diminution; and an ordinary tea- kettle, full 

 of water, by being placed upon the hole, was made 

 to boil in nine minutes. In 1747, it had been lost 

 for many years ; and the poor man in whose land it 

 was, missing the profit which it brought him by 

 shewing it to strangers, applied his utmost endea- 

 vours to recover it ; and, after many fruitless at- 

 tempts, he happened to hit upon it, about 30 yards 

 nearer the river, by attending to a rumbling noise un- 

 der ground, similar to that by which it was first dis- 

 covered. It, however, completely disappeared in 

 1755, by the sinking of a coal-pit in the neighbour- 



