LORD CHANCELLOR BROUGHAM.

CHAPTER I.

HIS EARLY LIFE IN SCOTLAND, 1778-1805.

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to write this

HAVING lived familiarly with the subject of this Memoir for more than forty years, and having had ample opportunities of observing all his merits and defects, I may be supposed to Qualificabe peculiarly well qualified to be his biographer.* On the tions and disqualificaother hand, as we have often been in collision, and as keen tions of the rivalry has produced private as well as public quarrels betwixt Biographer us, I must have misgivings with respect to my impartiality, Memoir. and the reader may reasonably regard my narrative with suspicion. I am quieted, however, by the consideration that we are now on a friendly footing, and that, from our respective positions, nothing is likely to occur which can again embroil us. I am sure that I entertain no resentment against him for past injuries, and while mindful of kindness occasionally received from him, I trust that I am not in danger of proving too encomiastic, from the dread of being suspected of an inclination to disparage or to censure him.

The chief difficulty to be encountered in this undertaking is to determine the scale upon which the 'Life of Lord Brougham' is to be composed. Volumes to load many camels might be filled with detailed accounts of all the doings, writings, and speeches, by which he has excited the passing interest of his contemporaries. If these were read posterity might consider him a myth, like the Grecian Hercules, to whom the exaggerated exploits of many different

* This memoir was begun in April, 1853, when the author had for two years been Lord Chief Justice of England.-Ed.

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"Brougham of that ilk.'

individuals are ascribed. But notwithstanding the very large space which, while living, he has occupied in the public eye, a considerate man may doubt whether his permanent fame will be great in proportion. By seeking distinction in almost every department of genius, he has failed to establish a great name in any. He accomplished nothing as a statesman; he cannot be said to have extended the bounds of human knowledge by philosophical discovery; his writings, although displaying marvellous fertility, are already falling into neglect; his speeches, which when delivered nearly set the world on fire, when perused in print cause disappointment and weariness; and he must chiefly be remembered by the professional and party struggles in which. he was engaged, and by the juridical improvements which he assisted to introduce. The narrative of his biographer ought to be proportioned to the curiosity respecting him which is likely to be felt in after times. Let me crave indulgence proportioned to the difficulty of the task.

I should much displease Lord Brougham if I did not begin with some account of his descent. He was very desirous of being considered a distinguished statesman, philosopher, orator, fine writer, and lawyer, but much more desirous of being believed to be "Brougham of that ilk," the representative of a great family, who derived their name from the name of the landed estate of which they had immemorially been in possession. His weakness upon this point was almost incredible, and I am afraid to repeat what I have heard him gravely state respecting the antiquity and splendour of his race. He asserts that Broacum, in the Itinerary of Antoninus, is the identical spot which he calls Brougham, and where he now lives, that it was the property of his ancestors when this ancient Handbook for Roman travellers was compiled; and that there they have lived in splendour ever since, except when campaigning in Palestine against the Saracens. He has told me that "Jockey of Norfolk," the democratic and proud Duke who flourished in the reign of George III., used to say when he came to the North of England, “You talk of your Percys and Greys in this country, but the only true gentleman among you is Mr. Brougham of Brougham.

I

We Howards have sprung up only recently; but the
Broughams were at Brougham in the time of Antoninus.
They distinguished themselves in the Holy Wars, and in
some of the most important events of early English History.”

Lord Brougham was likewise in the habit of insisting that
he was entitled to the Barony in fee of VAUX, or DE VAULX,
as heir-general of Ranulph de Vaulx, and William de Vaulx,
who were summoned to sit in Parliament in the reign of
Henry II. Nay, he has gone so far as to say in my hearing,
that this barony formerly gave him great uneasiness, as he
was afraid that, at the death of an old lady, who stood before
him in the pedigree, it would devolve upon him, and dis-
qualify him for practising at the Bar or sitting in the House
of Commons. He alleged that it had come into his family by
an ancestor of his having married the heiress of the de Vaulxes
of Tremayne and Caterlin. The pedigree of the Chancellor
in the popular peerages, of which he must be aware, takes no
notice of the de Vaulxes, but represents that his ancestors were
seated at Brougham in the time of Edward the Confessor,
and that "John Brougham, of Scales Hall, came into pos-
session of the ancient family demesne in the beginning of the
last century." Let us come to History from Romance.

There certainly is a parish and manor called Brougham or Burgham, near Penrith, in the county of Westmorland, and, for anything I know, this may be the Broacum of Antoninus. Here, but at a distance from the Brougham of Lord Brougham, there stood in very ancient times, and still stands in ruins, a magnificent Norman castle, frowning over the River Eamont, with machicolated gateway, donjon, and towers, called Brougham Castle, the undoubted residence of the knightly family of Brougham or de Burgham. Walter de Burgham flourished here in the reign of Edward the Confessor, and his descendant, Odoard de Burgham, was heavily fined by Henry II. for having surrendered it, with Appleby Castle, to the Scots. In subsequent reigns the De Burghams recovered their reputation by fighting valiantly for the Cross of Christ in the Holy Land; and one of these gallant crusaders reposed in the parish church of Brougham with his effigy

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on his tombstone, representing him in full armour, and a greyhound at his feet.

But in the fourteenth century the Lord of the Manor and Castle of Brougham died without male issue, leaving three daughters. Thenceforth Brougham Castle has been entirely dissevered from the name of Brougham, as in the division of the property among the co-heiresses it fell to the portion of the eldest, and by marriage came to the de Cliffords, Earls of Cumberland. Here Francis, Earl of Cumberland, entertained James I., in the year 1617. Afterwards the castle was inherited by the famous Anne, Countess of Pembroke, who repaired it, and placed the following inscription in capital letters over the principal gate:

"This Brougham Castle was repaired by the Ladie Anne Clifford, Countesse Dowager of Pembroke, Dorsett, and Montgomery, Baronesse Clifford, Westmerland, and Vescie, Lady of the Honour of Skipton in Craven, and High Sheriffesse by inheritance of the countie of Westmerland in the years 1651 and 1652, after it had layen ruinous ever since August, 1617, when King James lay in it for a time in his journie out of Skotland towards London, until this time.

Isa. Chap. 58 Verse 12
God's name be praised."

As sheriffess, carrying her white wand, and attended by her javelin men, she here received the Judges of Assize, and conducted them to Appleby Castle, where their successors continued to be lodged and splendidly entertained by the hereditary sheriffs of Westmorland, till the death of the last Earl of Thanet a few years ago, when the office was abolished by Act of Parliament. Brougham Castle is now the property of Sir Richard Tufton, his natural son and devisee.

Another of the co-heiresses of the last "Brougham of Brougham Castle" was married to a collateral relation of the same name, and in their descendants one-third of the property remained till the fifth year of James I., when the last male of the old family of Brougham died without issue. A family of the name of Bird, who had inherited a portion of the manor as early as the reign of Henry VI., now acquired this third also. Upon a wooded eminence, several miles from the

castle, Mr. Bird built a small quaint dwelling-house in a castellated style, with little turrets at the corners of it, which was familiarly called "The Bird's Nest."*

This is the Brougham from which "Henry, Baron Brougham and Vaux, of Brougham in the county of Westmorland," takes his title, and where he has persuaded himself his forefathers have lived in baronial grandeur since the time of Antoninus.

In sober truth his ancestors, who, during the few generations for which they could be traced, really were called Brougham (a name not rare in Westmorland and Cumberland), were statesmen or small freeholders, being owners of a farm in Cumberland called "SCALES HALL." This farm they cultivated as respectable yeomen, and, by their industry and frugality, became well-to-do in the world. Aspiring to absolute gentility the Chancellor's real ancestor, at an heraldic visitation by Sir William Dugdale, Garter King-atArms, for the county of Cumberland in 1665, not yet venturing to assume the addition of "Esquire," and calling himself only "Henry Brougham, of Scales Hall, Gentleman," presented a claim to be entitled to bear arms-" but it was respited for exhibiting the arms and proofs "-and it does not seem to have been renewed.t†

John Brougham, the next owner of Scales, called "the Commissioner," great grand-uncle of the Chancellor, having accumulated a considerable sum of money by skilful farming and cattle dealing, and by acting as commissioner, or

"The hall, when he came to reside there, obtained the name of Birdnest, which he called it partly on account of his name, and partly from the appearance of the house at the time, which was almost hid by trees, the chimneys only being in view; and even to this day many old people in the neighbourhood know it by no other name."-Hutchinson's Hist. of Westmorland, vol. i. p. 303. It would seem, however, that there had before been some sort of house there called Brougham Hall.

† Nicolson and Barn's History of Westmorland and Cumberland,' vol. i. p. 395. The authors of this work, who were very laborious antiquarians, in speaking of the "Scales Broughams," say: "We have met with no authentic account of the pedigree of this family of Brougham." The pedigree presented to Sir William Dugdale did not go higher than the claimant's grandfather, and did not affect to derive him from Walter, or Odoard, or any of the Broughams, or De Burghams, of Brougham Castle. It was likewise entirely silent about the descent from the De Vaulxes, which, if known, might have encouraged the claimant to style himself Esquire.

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