ROC) 



liberty of parliament. In 1700 he was font with an Englifli 

 fquatlron, in conjunction with a Dutch one, into the Baltic, 

 to preferve the balance ot power in the North, where a con- 

 federacy had been formed againit Charles XII., the young 

 king of Sweden. Rooke bombarded Copenhagen, and a 

 peace being effected in the courfe of the year, he returned. 

 In the following year he acted as commander of the Channel 

 fleet ; and being a fecond time chofen reprefentative for 

 Portfmouth, he continued to act with the oppofition. This 

 line of conduct was coniidered as highly meritorious with the 

 miniitry of queen Anne, who fucceeded to the crown in 1 702 ; 

 and when war with France was declared, he was appointed as 

 vice-admiral of England, to an united Englifh and Dutch 

 fleet, in an expedition againit Cadiz, the duke of Ormond 

 being commander of the land forces. The plan failed, pro- 

 bably for want of a proper degree of cordiality between the 

 fea and land-ferviee. Soon after, fir George obtaining intel- 

 ligence that twenty-two Spanifh galleons, guarded by a 

 fquadron of French men of war, were arrived in the harbour 

 of Vigo, failed thither ; and fending a detachment of his 

 fleet, with fire-fliips, into the harbour, deltroyed all the 

 enemy's men of war, and a number of galleons, and took the 

 red. A valt booty was brought home, and a new coinage 

 of Giver, with the ilamp Vigo, was iflued as a national me- 

 morial of this brilliant fuccefs. On his return home, fir 

 George Rooke was appointed to a feat in the privy council, 

 and an inquiry having been moved in the houfe of lords into 

 his conduct at Cadiz, it was voted that he had honourably 

 difcharged his duty. 



In 1704 he was appointed to the command of the fleet 

 deltincd to convey to Lifbon Charles, at that time com- 

 petitor for the crown of Spain. Having performed that 

 lerviee he proceeded to the Mediterranean, where he cruifed 

 for fome time. On his return through the Straits, he was 

 joined by fir Cloudefley Shovel with a large reinforcement, 

 and feveral fchemes of further fervice being propofed, he 

 determined to make a fudden attempt on Gibraltar. This 

 he carried into execution in July, and the prince of Hefle, 

 with the land forces, being difembarked on the neck, the 

 fhips proceeded to cannonade the fortifications at the mole. 

 The enemy were driven from their guns, and a party 

 of feamen landing, took potfeffion of the batteries. The 

 governor, intimidated by this bold and unexpected action, 

 capitulated ; and that important fortrefs has ever fince re- 

 mained in the hands of the Englifh. Sir George Rooke 

 then proceeded to Malaga, where he encountered the 

 French fleet under the count de Touloufe. The numbers 

 011 each fide were nearly equal in (hips of the line, but the 

 French were fuperior in men and guns. The engagement, 

 which enfued Augult 13th, was undecided, neither party 

 loling a (hip, and each returned to their own ports. 



Factions now ran High in the nation ; and fir George 

 Rooke, perceiving that as he rofe in credit with his country, 

 he loft his filtered with perfons in power, refolved to retire 

 from public bufinefs, and prevent the affairs of the nation 

 from receiving any injury on his account. Thus, almoft 

 immediately after he had taken the important fortrefs of 

 Gibraltar, and beaten the whole naval force of France in the 

 battle of Malaga, he wa< conftrained to quit his command: 

 and as the Tories had before driven the earl of Orford from 

 his poft immediately after the battle of La Hogue, fo the 

 Whigs returned them the compliment, by making ufc of 

 their afcendancy to the like purpole with regard to fir 

 George Rooke. After this return for the important fer- 

 vices ne had done his country, fir George Rooke pafn d 

 the remaiuder of his days as a private gentleman, and, for 

 the molt part, at his (eat in Kent. " His zeal for the 



ROO 



church," fays the difcerning Campbell, " and his drift ad- 

 herence to the Tories', mule him the darling of one fet 

 of people, and expofed him no lefs to the averfion of 

 another, which is the rcafon that an hidorian finds it diffi- 

 cult to obtain his true charafter from the writings of thofe 

 who flourifhed in the fame period of time. For my part, 

 I have ltudied his actions, and his behaviour, and from thence 

 have collected, that he was certainly an officer of great 

 merit ; if either conduct or courage could entitle him to 

 that character." 



In party matters he was perhaps too warm and eager ; 

 but in aCtion he was perfectly cool and temperate, gave his 

 orders with the utmoll ferenity ; and as he was careful in 

 marking the conduct of his principal officers, fo his candour 

 and juftice were always confpicuous in the accounts he gave 

 of them to his fuperiors ; he there knew no party, no 

 private confiderations, but commended merit wherever k 

 appeared. 



In private life he was a good hufband and a kind mafter, 

 lived hofpitably towards his neighbours and left behind him 

 a moderate fortune : fo moderate, that when he came to 

 make his will, it furprifed thofe that were prefent ; but 

 fir George exclaimed, " I do not leave much, but what I 

 have was honeltly gotten ; it never cod a failor a tear, or 

 the nation a farthing." He died in January 1708, in the 

 58th year of his age, and was interred in the cathedral ot 

 Canterbury. He had been thrice married, and left one fon 

 only. Sir George Rooke has merited very highly the re- 

 putation of a brave and able feaman, who maintained the 

 honour of the Britifh flag, at a period when its fuperiority 

 was much lefs decided than it has been during the prefent 

 reign. Stockdale's edition of Campbell's Lives of the 

 Admirals, vol. iv. 



ROOKERY, in Rural Economy, a term applied to a 

 nurfery of rooks, or place where they build their neds, 

 and colleft in large numbers. 



There are every where in many of the northern and other 

 counties of the kingdom, numbers of fuch deteftable nurfe- 

 ries of thefe mifchievous and rapacious vermin, where they 

 are fuffered to breed and multiply in countlefs multitudes, 

 to the great dedruCtion of the hopes of the farmer and the 

 nation at large. If it be neceflary that fuch repolitories 

 of mifchief to the produce of the hufbandman fhould be 

 prefcrved and kept up, for the vernal fport and amufement 

 of their proprietors, certainly fome other more certain and 

 effectual means than thofe of the crofs-bow kind fhould be 

 had rccourfc to for the dedruftion of their young, in order 

 that they may be kept fufficicntly reduced and thinned in 

 their numbers, to obviate, in as great a meafure as poffible, 

 their baneful depredations and effects oh the feeds and pro- 

 duce of the farmer. 



The rooks fly from thefe defpicable abodes, which are 

 the head-quarters or dwellings where they collect and re- 

 pofe themfelves, as well as breed, to very confiderable dis- 

 tances, in order to execute and effeft their different mif- 

 chievous and rapacious attacks on the newly fown or rifing 

 crops of the hufbandman, as they but feldom commit (o 

 much depredation on the fields which an- near home. 



They collect together during the feverity of the winter 

 feafun, efpeeially in the more northern diftricts, from the 

 different neighbouring fmall rookeries to be protected in 

 large ones, and the woods which may happen to be near 

 thein; and thus render thcmlelves fecure at this inclement 

 period, feparating in the early fpring to form their nefts and 

 breed in their particular rookeries. 



In l.ancalhire, the whole track of the Fildes, as well as 



fome others, is befet with thefe dedruftive and impudent 



3 S z birds. 



