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In the 1850s No 16 High Street {Bromley} ... was bought by George Sparkes ...{who} renamed the house Neelgherries after the hills of Nilgiris (an alternative spelling used today) in Madras in southern India, where he had worked as a judge for the East India Company. .... He became a director of the Reversionary Society and he expanded his property ... In 1872 we find him writing to Charles Darwin, who lived nearby at Downe, ... to confer about his primula 'crosses'. In 1865 George Sparkes had remarried, as his second wife, his housekeeper Emily Carpenter (1819-1900), the daughter of a local gamekeeper. He is said to have educated the lively and intelligent Emily to share his intellectual and philanthropic interests. .... On his death, George Sparkes left a large fortune (£140,000) and the house and grounds at Neelgherries to Emily, who travelled and remarried, changing her name to Emily Dowling. The second marriage was unsuccessful and she remained loyal to the memory of her first husband. When Emily died in 1900, she left Neelgherries and grounds to the town of Bromley for "education and learning", in accordance with George Sparkes's wishes. In 1906 the Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie donated £7,500 for a new library in Bromley and this was erected on the site of Neelgherries. The gardens became the pleasure grounds...
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