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30 April 1881 — 3 Savile Row | |
Saturday. 30th April [1881]. Got up rather late. Mr Otway came in the morning to talk with Henry over the Roman affair and to see a letter which Henry had written to Lord Granville asking for explanations as to the reports abt his getting a mission. After lunch I drove with with Henry & we first went to the F.O. to leave the letter & then to the Grosvenor Gallery to the Private View. There seemed to be some good portraits but there was such a crowd of people that one could hardly see any pictures. We met Watts looking very unkempt in an old sealskin jacket and he introduced an adopted daughter to us—quiet looking girl of abt 18. Met Sir Rd Temple—Sir Hy Thompson, Mr Graham, Mrs Burr, the Tom Hughes & a lot more friends. I took Henry to the Royal Academy where he went to see the pictures & to dine. Mrs Burr, Sir Wm Gregory & Sir Wm Drake came to tea with me. Mildred & Rhuvon and Arthur came & dined with me at 7.30 & then I took them to the Opera. We heard Albani in Rigoletto. Arthur left me to bring the children home. They enjoyed it thoroughly. I found Henry returned from his dinner which he said had been good but the speeches dull all except the Lord Mayor who convulsed them by his observations on art in the city– He said that the Griffin Memento was a very fine thing & that he meant further to protect art by putting coloured statues on Blackfriar’s bridge. Henry said that Genl. Roberts had done a very curious thing. At the end of his speech he asked leave to say one thing which was rather foreign to his subject. That was to express his & the army’s sorrow at the death of Ld Beaconsfield. He said that they had always felt that as long as Ld B. had been Prime Minister the honor of England was safe.” This was a great slap in the face to Gladstone. It is supposed that Roberts said this feeling so sore at the way the Govt had recalled him from the Transvaal by making a peace before he got there. Henry said there was long & loud cheering for abt 10 minutes—but that Gladstone looked very black. | |
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