Mr. Brooke, a bachelor of sixty and owner of Tipton Grange, is a justice of the peace. In this capacity, he sentences poor people, without consideration or mercy, who poach illegally because they are starving. In family matters, he is well-meaning, though ineffectual. Mr. Brooke is the guardian of his orphaned nieces, Dorothea and Celia Brooke.
Mr. Brooke is said “to have contracted a too rambling habit of mind”; indeed, his speech is vacuous, filled with phrases which in their recommendation of moderation betray his lack of information and refusal to take a position. He faults Mr. Casaubon for not expressing ideas, but Mr. Brooke himself rarely hits upon one. Still, his claim that scholarship can take one “too far” is valid regarding Casaubon.
Mr. Brooke aspires briefly to a seat in.....
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