CHAPTER III.

THE VILLAGE OF BROOKE IN NORFOLK. THE MANOR-HOUSE IN WHICH SIR ASTLEY COOPER WAS BORN. SIR ASTLEY COOPER'S ATTACHMENT TO IT IN AFTER LIFE. HIS RECOLLECTIONS OF HIS NATIVE VILLAGE, AND REFLECTIONS ON ITS PRESENT ALTERED CONDITION. MY LATE VISIT TO NORFOLK. APPEARANCE OF BROOKE AT THE PRESENT TIME. REMAINS OF THE OLD BROOKE HALL. THE BROOKE OAK. THE CHURCH AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS. MONUMENT TO ONE OF SIR ASTLEY COOPER'S SISTERS.

I CANNOT leave the village of Brooke, of which I have already had so frequently to speak, and around which, to the friends and admirers of Astley Cooper, in future will exist so many interesting associations, without giving some slight description of it, as well as of its old manor-house. The latter, although no longer in existence as the witness of the early days of Astley Cooper, lives in my recollections with a feeling akin to reverence; and, I am assured, that this feeling will be found, in some degree, to exist in all those who regard the memory of the illustrious subject of these Memoirs with the admiration due to his eminent services and estimable character.

The village of Brooke, distant about three miles from Shotisham and seven from Norwich, is one of the prettiest and most retired villages in the county

of Norfolk, but is now very different in character from what it was in the early days of Astley Cooper. The manor-house, in which he was born, was an old building with a spacious hall, and with its outhouses, gardens, and orchards occupied a considerable plot of ground. When Dr. Cooper first went to it in the year 1767, the house and the estate on which it was situated belonged to Mr. Warde, whose heiress married Lord Roseberry; and this nobleman it was who afterwards sold it to the family of the Holmes's, its present possessors. They have since pulled down the old mansion, and in its stead erected the present modern edifice. This circumstance, when it occurred, caused no little concern to Sir Astley Cooper, who had conceived for the old house an almost romantic affection, so that, on hearing of its impending fate, he took pains to procure a sketch of it. Indeed, there was no trait of the character of Sir Astley Cooper more prominently conspicuous, perhaps, than his strong attachment to places, whether remarkable on account of their association with himself, or with those others whom he loved, or whose memory he honoured. With this feeling ever predominant,— even when arrived at the zenith of his professional fame, he always contemplated and spoke of the place of his birth, and the scenes of his childhood, with a sort of filial regard, and delighted to indulge the hope of once more revisiting them. But the cares and numerous engagements which his eminent position and extensive practice brought upon him,

and the attention which he bestowed on his own contiguous estate at Hemel Hempstead, prevented the fulfilment of this desire until a few years before his decease: when, with a realization of delight perhaps far within the amount which he had anticipated, the object of his longing was at last attained, and he again stood amidst those scenes, the memory of which he had so fondly cherished. The notes which he made on this occasion,-rough and hurriedly written down as they are,-are full of tender recollection and the warmest feeling, and we do not hesitate to insert them here; for while they serve to illustrate the feature in Sir Astley Cooper's character, to which we have just alluded, they at the same time present to the reader a more graphic description, perhaps, of the village of Brooke as it appeared some sixty years since, than any ampler account which we could obtain from other sources.

Having given his orders at the village inn, the landlord of which still shows with pride the humble room in which he dined, Sir Astley writes, "I walked down the village, along an enclosed road, dull and shadowed by plantations on either side; instead of those commons and open spaces, ornamented here and there by clean cottages. The little mere* was so much smaller than in my imagination, that I could hardly believe my eyes:-the great mere was half empty, and dwindled also to a paltry pond. On my right were the plantations of Mr. Ketts, overshading the road, and for which numerous

* A common term in Norfolk for an isolated piece of water.

cottages had been sacrificed; on my left,-cottages enclosed in gardens. Still proceeding to the scenes of my early years, on the right was a lodge leading to Mr. Holmes's new house, and water with a boat on it;-a fine mansion, but overlooking the lands of Mr. Ketts. I then walked on to the vicar's, Mr. Castell, but he was out. I looked for the church mere, and it was filled up, planted, and converted into a garden. I looked for the old Brooke Hall, the place of my nativity and the seat of the happiness of my early years-for the road which led to it and its forecourt-its flower gardens and kitchen gardens-its stable-yard and coach-houses-and all were gone. The very place where they once were is forgotten. Here we had our boat, our swimming, our shooting excellent partridge-shooting-in Brooke-wood tolerable pheasant-shooting-woodcocks-in Seething Fen abundance of snipes—a good neighbourhood, seven miles from Norwich, almost another London, where my grandfather lived; we knew everybody, kept a carriage and chaise, saw much company, and were almost allowed to do as we liked; but the blank of all these gratifications now only remains.

"The once beautiful village is swallowed up by two parks-cottages cut down to make land for them-commons enclosed, &c.*"

* On the page of his note-book opposite to that on which the above is written, Sir Astley Cooper has penned a rude but interesting diagram of the village as it was at the period of his childhood, and parallel with this, another of the village as he then found it, in A.D. 1836.

These reminiscences, called forth when standing before the place of his birth-the spot where all his earliest recollections centered-present a truly touching picture, and forcibly recall the similar reflections, familiar to every reader, of Dr. Goldsmith on his own once smiling Auburn. If Sir Astley did not repeat the following lines, which are but slightly altered from the original, it is sufficiently evident that his feelings were to the full in keeping with those of which they are expressive:→→

Sweet village! parent of the blissful hour;

Here, as with solitary step I stray,

Along thy cheerless, once familiar way,
And, many years elapsed, return to view

Where once the cottage stood, the hawthorn grew;
Here, as with doubtful, pensive step I range,
Trace every scene, and wonder at the change,
Remembrance wakes with all her busy train,
Swells at my breast, and turns the past to pain.

Indeed, it seems not a little probable that these very lines did pass through the mind of Sir Astley Cooper, when he made the remarks above quoted; for subsequently, when reflecting on the probable cause of these changes, "the immense capital produced by commerce, enabling individuals to purchase land, &c.," he quotes from the same poem a portion of the paragraph commencing with the well-known lines,

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,

Where wealth accumulates, and men decay,-&c.

This feeling of regret at the altered state of Brooke is not confined to Sir Astley Cooper, for I