The people of Trinity Church had built for their pastor a beautiful home
on Clarendon Street. In one of the closets were kept dolls for his
nieces. This home was the scene of many merry-makings for the children
of his brothers, and for other children.
From Jeypoor he writes to Gertie about the monkeys of India, and the
nose-jewels of the women, and tells her he has got a nose-jewel for her.
He rides on a great elephant, "almost as big as Jumbo."
To Josephine, the little daughter of the Rev. John Cotton Brooks, his
brother, in Springfield, Mass., be sends an amusing poem of his own
composition. From England he writes that he wished the strawberries grew
on trees, as it was difficult for him to pick them, as one might imagine
from his great size,--six feet four inches tall, and large frame in
proportion.
At Badgastein he takes a bath for Gertie, who has rheumatism, back in
America; and from Chamouni, he writes her that she must get well and
strong, "to play with me."
He writes to his brother William interesting accounts of India. Bombay,
with its great hospital for sick and wounded animals, where "they cure
them if they can, or keep them till they die," is very curious. It is to
be hoped that we, with our boasted civilization, will some time be as
kind to animals as they are in India.
He preaches at Delhi. He is extremely interested in Benares, with its
five thousand Hindoo temples, the "very Back Bay of Asia." He sees
thousands of pilgrims bathing in the sacred Ganges to wash their sins
away, or burn their dead upon its banks.
Phillips Brooks preached during his absence at St. Botolph's Church,
Boston, Lincolnshire, England; at the Chapel Royal, Savoy, London; at
St. Paul's Cathedral, the Temple Church, St. Margaret's, at Westminster
Abbey, at Lincoln Cathedral, Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and
elsewhere, always to the great delight of his hearers. He met such men
as Browning and Tennyson. He was the warm friend of the lamented Dean
Stanley.
Of Browning he writes, in "Letters of Travel," "He was one of the men
whom I wanted most to see here; a pleasant gentleman, full of talk about
London and London people, with not a bit of the poet about him
externally."
Again he writes, "I dined with Mr. Forster and Mr. Bright, and had our
great English friend pretty much to myself for two hours. He is a great
talker, especially when he gets onto America; and he knows what he is
talking about. Both he and Forster are friends worth having. Bright,
personally, wins you in a minute by his frankness and cordialness and
manliness of his greeting."
He attended one of Mrs. Gladstone's receptions; met Mr. Gladstone at
dinner at Mr. Bryce's; breakfasted with Matthew Arnold, "and liked him
very much;" met Jean Ingelow, Mrs. Ritchie (Thackeray's daughter),
Hughes, and many others.
Dr. Brooks returned to Boston Sept. 22, and the people received him with
open arms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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