Lady John Russell Part 39

Thy rosy young cheek to my own thou art pressing, Thy little arms twining around me I feel.

And thy Father in Heaven to thank for each blessing, I see thee beside me in innocence kneel.

When the dread shadow of sickness is o'er me, I see thee, a la.s.sie all brightness and bloom; Still, still through thy tears strewing blossoms before me, Still watching beside me through silence and gloom.

Hushed now is the music! and hushed be my weeping For days that return not and light that hath fled.

No more from their rest may I summon the sleeping, Or linger to gaze on the years that are dead.

Fadeth my dream--and my day is declining, But love lifts the gloamin' and smooths the rough way; And I hail the bright midday o'er thee that is shining, And think of a home that will ne'er pa.s.s away.

[100] The name she was called by in her childhood.

Early in 1879 Lady Russell began again to have more intercourse with her friends in London, and in May she went with her son and daughter to the Alexandra Hotel for a short stay in town. She writes in her Recollections:

In May (1879) we spent ten days at the Alexandra Hotel, in the midst of many kind friends and acquaintances. It was strange to be once more in "the crowd, the hum, the shock of men" as of old--and all so changed, so solitary within.... We there first saw Mr.

Justin McCarthy--he has since become a true friend, and his companionship and conversation are always delightful; as with so warm a heart and so bright an intellect they could not fail to be.

In April, 1880, when Mr. Gladstone's candidature in Midlothian was causing the greatest excitement and enthusiasm, Lady Russell received this letter from Mrs. Gladstone.

120, GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH, _April_ 4, 1880

MY DEAR LADY RUSSELL,--We are so much touched by your letter and all the warmth and kindness you have shown to ourselves and Mary and Herbert. How can I thank you enough? I see in your letter all the memories of the past, and that you can throw your kind heart into the present moment lovingly. The old precious memories only make you more alive to what is going on, as you think of _him_ who had gone before and shown so n.o.ble an example to my husband. No doubt it did not escape you, words of my husband about Lord Russell.... All here goes on splendidly; the enthusiasm continues to increase, and all the returns have thrown us into a wild state of ecstasy and thankfulness. It is, indeed, a blessing pa.s.sing all expectations, and I look back to all the time of anxiety beginning with the Bulgarian horrors, all my husband's anxious hard work of the past three or four years--how he was ridiculed and insulted--and now, thank G.o.d, we are seeing the extraordinary result of the elections, and listening to the goodness and greatness of the policy so shamefully slandered; righteous indignation has burst forth.... I loved to hear him saying aloud some of the beautiful psalms of thanksgiving as his mind became overwhelmed with grat.i.tude and relieved with the great and good news. Thank you again and again for your letter.

Yours affectionately,

CATHERINE GLADSTONE

_Sir Mount Stuart Grant Duff [101] to Lady Russell_

_June_ 8, 1883

As to the public questions at home--alas! I can say nothing but echo what you and some other wise people tell me. One is far too much _out_ of the whole thing. I do not fear the Radical, I greatly fear the Radical, or crotchet-monger.... Your phrase about the division on the Affirmation Bill [102] rises to the dignity of a _mot,_ and will be treasured by me as such. "The triumph of all that is worst in the name of all that is best."

[101] At that time Governor of Madras.

[102] In the April of 1881 Gladstone gave notice of an Affirmation Bill, to enable men like Mr. Bradlaugh to become members of Parliament without taking an oath which implied a belief in a Supreme Being. But it was not till 1883 that the Bill was taken up.

On April 26th Gladstone made one of his most lofty and fervid speeches in support of the Bill, which, however, was lost by a majority of three.

_Lady Russell to Lady Agatha Russell_

PEMBROKE LODGE, _June,_ 1883

... I have been regaling myself on Sydney Smith's Life and Letters--the wisdom and the wit, the large-hearted and wide-minded piety, the love of G.o.d and man set forth in word and deed, and the unlikeness to anybody else, make it delightful companionship.... I long to talk of things deep and high with you, but if I once began I should go on and on, and "of writing of letters there would be no end." That is a grand pa.s.sage of Hinton's [on music]. I always feel that music means much more than just music, born of earth--joy and sorrow, agony and rapture, are so mysteriously blended in its glorious magic.

_Lady Russell's Recollections_

In July, 1883, I went with Agatha to see Dunrozel for the first time ... I was simply enchanted--it was love at first sight, which only deepened year after year.... We had a good many pleasant neighbours; the Tennysons were more than pleasant, and welcomed us with the utmost cordiality, and we loved them all.

At that time Professor Tyndall and Louisa [103] were almost the only inhabitants of Hindhead. They were not yet in their house, but till it was built and furnished lived in their "hut," where they used to receive us with the most cheering, as well as cheerful, friendliness.

[103] Mrs. Tyndall.

_Lady Russell to Miss Lilian Blyth_ [104] _[Mrs. Wilfred Praeger]_

DUNROZEL, HASLEMERE, _November_ 16, 1883

Your letter is just like you, and that means all that is dear and good and loving.... Indeed, past years are full of happy memories of you all, not on marked days only, but on all days. At my age, however, it is better to look forward to the renewal of all earthly ties and all earth's best joys in an enduring home, than to look back to the past--to the days before the blanks were left in the earthly home which nothing here below can ever fill, and this it is my prayer and my constant endeavour to do. We go home to dear Pembroke Lodge next Tuesday ... going there must always be a happiness to us all, yet this lovely little Dunrozel is not a place to leave without many a pang.

[104] Daughter of the Rev. F.C. Blyth, for many years curate at Petersham.

_Lady Russell to Miss Buhler_ [105]

PEMBROKE LODGE, _December_, 1883

... I find my head will not bear more than a certain amount of writing without giddiness and dull headache ... and there are so _many_ correspondents who must be answered; friends, relations, business people, that I am often quite bewildered; ...

so, please, understand that I shall always write _when I can_, but not nearly always when I _would like_ to do so. Go on letting yourself out whether sadly or happily, or in mingled sadness and happiness, and believe how very much I like to see into your thoughts and your heart as much as letters can enable me to do so.... As for Scotland, oh! Scotland, my own, my bonny Scotland! if you a.s.sociate that best and dearest of countries with your present _ennui_ and unhappiness, I shall turn my back upon you for good and all and give you up as a bad job! So make haste and tell me that you entirely separate the two things, and if you don't admire "mine own romantic town" and feel its beauty thrill through and through you, you must find the cause in anything rather than in Edinburgh itself! Such are my commands.... In the meantime let it be a consolation and a support to you to remember that it is by trials and difficulties that our characters are raised, developed, strengthened, made more Christ-like.... Good-bye, good-bye. G.o.d bless you.

[105] Miss Buhler (who died some years ago) had been governess to Lady Russell's grandson Bertrand. She was Swiss, and only nineteen when she came, and Lady Russell gave her motherly care and affection.

_Lady Russell to Sir Henry Taylor_

_February_ 29, 1884

I have just been reading with painful interest "Memoires d'un Protestant cond.a.m.ne aux Galeres" in the days of that terribly little great man Louis XIV. I ask myself at every page, "Did man really so treat his fellow-man? or is it all historical nightmare?"

I never can make the slightest allowance for persecutors on the ground that "they thought it right to persecute." They had no business so to think.

_Mr. Gladstone to Lady Russell_

_December_ 14, 1884

I thank you for and return Dr. Westcott's interesting and weighty letter.... A very clever man, a Bampton lecturer, evidently writing with good and upright intention, sends me a lecture in which he lays down the qualities he thinks necessary to make theological study fruitful. They are courage, patience, and sympathy. He omits one quality, in my opinion even more important than any of them, and that is reverence. Without a great stock of reverence mankind, as I believe, will go to the bad....

During the strife and heat of the controversy on Home Rule, Lady Russell received the following letter from Mr. Gladstone:

10, DOWNING STREET, WHITEHALL,

_June_ 10, 1886

MY DEAR LADY RUSSELL,--I am not less gratified than touched by your most acceptable note. It is most kind in you personally to give me at a critical time the a.s.surance of your sympathy and approval. And I value it as a reflected indication of what would, I believe, have been the course, had he been still among us, of one who was the truest disciple of Mr. Fox, and was like him ever forward in the cause of Ireland, a right handling of which he knew lay at the root of all sound and truly Imperial policy. It was the more kind of you to write at a time when domestic trial has been lying heavily upon you. Believe me,

Very sincerely yours,