WCP494

[1]

[in ARW’s hand] Ansd

Boddington House

Byfield

Telegrams

Byfield

Jan 9^th/12

My dear Sir

I see in the Westminster Gazette you have reached your 90^th year allow me as the son of Cap^t Brooke¹ late Rajah Muda & unjustly disinherited Rajah of Sarawak to congratulate you. A friend of mine once told me he had been reading a book of yours in which you said you had remonstrated with Sir James Brooke² on his treatment of my father & he [illeg.] to let [2] me have the name of the book but he forgot it. By every moral right I should be the next heir!! There must be something in the Climate of that part of the East that gives long life[.] Sir Charles Brooke³is 84 & strong & nearby Sir William Adamson⁴ is nearly if not quite 80 & you 90[.] I am 54 & as hard as nails[.] I have 10 children, a strong lot, my eldest boy is at Malvern⁵ & the Brooke comes out in him he is [3] is head of his house & his housemaster swears by him! curiously enough he stands in nearly the same relationship to Sir Stamford Raffles⁶ as d do to Sir James ^Brooke his mother being I think a grand niece of that great man[.] The boy sh’ld develop into something useful.

I hope this wont bore you[.]

Again congratulating you on your 90^th birthday.

Yours very faithfully | Hope-Brooke⁷ [signature]