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3 February 1882 — 3 Savile Row | |
Friday. 3rd February [1882]. It was a fine sunshiny day. Mrs Burr came to see me & sat some time talking. She brought a china plate for Mama from Mme Castellani. As she was leaving Mrs Willie Hanson came & with her her small boy Bertram who is my godchild & Hilda the Henry Hanson’s girl. They sat & talked some time & the morng was over. Mr & Mrs Hugh MacDonell came to luncheon. She as pretty as ever & very nice. The great talk was abt Rome & the Pagets. Mr MacD. is 1st secy there & is abt to return to his post but his wife will not accompany him on acct of her dislike of Lady Paget. She told me a long story abt Lady Paget & Ouida how the latter wrote last year when there was a talk of the Pagets being removed wrote to Mr MacD. saying as she Ouida was a great friend of Lady P’s she begged Mr MacD. to send her all the particulars of the disagreement between the two ladies that she might put the thing on a true footing. He showed this note to Sir Augustus Paget & told him he was ready to do anything he wished. Sir A. said for God’s sake dont write anything to her—say you dont understand what it means. Sir A. then came off to England to talk over Gladstone. In his absence Lady Paget called Mr MacDonell & told him she knew he had a letter from Ouida & begged as a personal favour he wd answer it. He then wrote to Ouida saying he did not know what she meant; that his wife & Ly P. had parted on good terms. She wrote again & said she wished for a “flat denial” of all the reports of the ladies’ disagreement of wh Mr MacD. took no notice. Mrs MacD. was in London at the time & one day was lunching with the Crown Princess of Germany & Pss Christian & they began talking of Rome &c The Crown Princess abused Lady P. & said that she was very ungrateful as she owed her marriage to her. After what happened to Lady P’s sister our Queen had insisted on Lady P. being dismissed from her Court that she had got her married to Sir Augustus & got him made Minister in order that marriage might take place—after all this when she was in Rome, Lady P. had been most uncivil to her. The Pss Christian then pulled out a letter from her pocket saying it was from Ouida to a lady she knew about Lady Paget & Mrs MacDonell—& they asked her the truth which she then told—how unkind Lady P. had been to her abt refusing to present her to Queen of Italy &c I took Mrs MacD. out with me at 3 & we went to her sister Mrs Napiers & found her in. I left her there after I had paid my visit & went on to call on Gertie Seymer. She was out so I went to 86 Eaton Square to call on Mrs Tennyson. I found the Great Alfred at the door leading out a little old lady whom Hallam told me was a Miss Swanwick a very clever woman who had made translations from Greek plays. I found Mrs Tennyson cordial as ever—& very pretty in her long purple loose gown with a fine white knitted shawl tied round her sweet pale face with her deep set bright eyes. She lay flat on the sofa & I sat on a low chair by her & Alfred & Hallam sat & we had a long talk. They were all very much depressed at the state of things at home & abroad & altho’ a Liberal, he condemned the present government & said he wondered Gladstone cd sleep quietly while he was responsible for much misery in Ireland & elsewhere– Hallam told the story that Mrs Gladstone said she was sure all was going on well “for she heard Willy singing in his bath of a morning!” We talked of Lord Lyttons speeches & his evident desire to take a lead in politics– Tennyson said one could not expect much fm so eccentric a man—& said he had heard that when Ld Lytton was appointed to India & was leaving Knebworth all his servants were drawn up of a line to see him start– He proceeded most gravely to kiss all the women servants– When they were in the carriage Lady Lytton gently rebuked him, at which he said “Was it wrong? I thought that was the right thing to do”! The house the Tennysons had hired till April belongs to an Irish family & there are pictures cabinets & china in it but the Tennysons said that they had had to put away 2 skeletons which were arranged to hold lamps & formerly stood on each side of the doorway in the drawing room. On the chimney piece there also stood china to the value of £600 wh Mrs Tennyson quickly put out of the way for fear of accidents. I left the Tennysons & went home– Arthur came in to tea & sat some time with us. It had been a very fine day & the sun had appeared but when we went out to dinner it was rather foggy. We dined with Mr & Mrs Thomson Hankey at 59 Portland Place & met Mr & Mrs Alexander, Lady Sligo, Sir Erskine May & 2 others whom I dont know—a gentleman & his widowed daughter. Sir Erskine May took me to dinner & I sat betwixt him & our host. Sir Erskine spoke of the anxieties of the coming session. He seemed to think it would be a curious one. He said he much regretted all the fuss abt Bradlaugh taking his seat. He said B. had consulted him & he had given him his opinion as to what he Brad: cd & cd not do but that evidently B. had done so in order to determine what course to pursue to make a fuss. He said that all the scuffle he had with the police when forcibly ejected was acting—& that one of the policemen told Sir Erskine that “we kept his head up sir, we knew he wd try to trip us up so we kept his head up!” When the time came for us to go home we found that the fog had become perfectly dense. We could not see our carriage from the doorstep. However we go into it & then began the tug of war. We crossed the street in total darkness—people screamed & men ran to & fro with torches. Our footman had to get down from the box & lead the horse close to the pavement & steer from one lamp to another. In this way we crept on & arrived in Burlington St we found the fog very much less & it was comparatively light. | |
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