One day he was starting out for a sail when his wife came to him in great distress and begged him not to go. He asked the reason, and she, somewhat unwillingly, confessed that she had had a bad dream about him and feared its portent. His only reply was to laugh at her superstitious fears. Saying that he would show her how little occasion she had to be nervous, he got into his boat and sailed away. She never saw him alive again. What happened exactly no one knew. The boat was overturned and Brodie was found dead in the water. The house was put up for sale and bought by the firm of Arbuthnot for the use of the Arbuthnot family. For some time Sir Thomas Strange lived in it.
In 1866 another sad fatality was connected with the house. John Temple, Lieut.-Colonel in the Madras Army, and a brother of the late archbishop, was drowned with three other people while boating. Mr. Henry Cornish, who was then editor of the 'Madras Times,' and afterwards co-editor and part proprietor with Sir Charles Lawson of the 'Madras Mail,' published an account of the accident in the 'Madras Mail' on the death of the archbishop. He said :
At the time of his death the colonel was president of the newly organised Madras Municipality, an outcome of the recommendations of the Army Sanitary Commission, who had strongly condemned the insanitary arrangements in Indian towns. ... A tiffin party had been given by the late Mr. John Mclver, manager of the Bank of Madras, at his house, Brodie Castle. . . . Among the guests were Colonel Temple, Captain Frederick H. Hope, Aide-de-Camp of Lord Napier, the then Governor, and Mr. Bostock, the Peninsular and Oriental Company's agent. About six in the evening these three gentlemen, with two Misses Mclver, daughters of the host, went out for a row on the river in a boat belonging to the
