Show Lord Broughams Whims The first of Lord Broughams weaknesses was his pedigree He firmly believed himself to be a descendent de-scendent of a certain great family whose seat of Broacum is mentioned in the Itinerary of Antonius This Broacum he insisted to have been the site of the modern Brougham so that he in a sense lived in the halls of his illustrious ancestors of the time of Antonius As a matter of fact Brougham HalLwas built by a Mr Bird > and purchased from him by Mr TohnBroughamJlgreabgrand uncle of the chancellor who had made some money by farming and cattle dealing This gentleman died without issue and the property passed into the hands of the chancellors chan-cellors grandfather The place had hitherto been mown as tile Birds Nest but the new proprietor took great pains to suppress that vulgar appellation substituting the more aristocratic name of Brougham Hall Tim the chancellors grandfather was the first Mr Brougham of Brougham and instead of being the representative of the noble family of Vaux and consequently in perpetual per-petual danger of being disqualified for practicing at the bar or sitting in the House of Commons by inheriting in-heriting that barony or the descendant descen-dant of the gallant De Burghams who fought so valiantly for the cross of Christ in the Holy Land the lord chancellor was in reality the worthy offspring not very many generations removed of a respectable respect-able yeoman who owned farm in Cumberland The time and place of his birth were the I next points upon which his lordship desired to see contentions among men He is said to have sanctioned the most varied and contradictory con-tradictory accounts of the circumstances circum-stances of that memorable event Different memoirs of his life make him born in London Cumberland Westmoreland and Edinburgh some in the year 1778 some in 1779 The truth in the matter was easily found for his birth is entered in the register of the city of Edinburgh Edin-burgh under date the 30th of Sep tember 177S he having been born on the 19th of the same month The chancellors motive in making a mystery of his birthplace it is hard to conjecture Vanity may have been at the root of it but an equally plausible explanation is that he wishes his Scottish upbringing to be forgotten as became the descendant I de-scendant of the loyal De Burghams His lordships name was another tender point Broam and Brooam he could not endure and when Lord Eldon called him Mr Bruffam his indignation knew no bounds He sent the offending chancellor a message mes-sage couched in somewhat angry terms stating that his name was pronounced Broom not Bruffam This remonstrance the chancellor took in good part and at the conclusion con-clusion of the argument observed Every authority upon the question has been brought before usnew Brooms sweep clean Harpers Weekly |