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28 March 1884 — 3 Savile Row | |
Friday. 28th March [1884]. I wrote in the half darkness of a yellow green fog which waved backwards & forwards in the E. wind. Mrs Burr came to see me for the last time before she starts abroad on her 6 weeks trip abroad. Mr Clark also came & we congratulated him on the birth of his grandson & he declared it was not a matter of much importance as the child was heir to no title—a very characteristic speech from him! Alice went out to luncheon. Directly after lunch Henry & I went out driving. We called at Hamilton House & saw Ivor & Cornelia—then we went on the Stores which Henry had never seen before to get him a travelling bag– We left cards & went to the Glass shop in St James’s St & on the way home from there we were startled at seeing a newspaper boy with a placard having in large letters “Sudden death of the D. of Albany.” It turned out to be true– We thought at once of the poor Queen—how sad for her to see her children die one after the other– There are as yet no details. Lady Sligo & Miss Barbara Lyall & Mr F. Burton came to tea & Alice returned a little later. Mildred came at 7 to spend the evening with Alice. Henry & I went to dine with Sir B & Lady Brett. Met Sir E. & Lady Antrobus, Mr & Mrs Bischoffsheims, M. & Mme Florian (He is French secy), Sir C. & Lady Bowen, Sir Henry & Lady Vivian. Sir C. Bowen took me to dinner & I sat next Sir Baliol & had a very pleasant evening & Sir B talked of different cases going on– He said Mrs Agar Ellis waylaid him nearly every morng to tell him of her troubles with her husband and he said she had hoped he might judge the case. He said that after so much communications with her he could not do so, so he had put her off by telling her that “he was too fond of her to be able to judge impartially!” He spoke of a case he had once had before him at Chester. A woman was tried for manslaughter. She had prepared for her brutal drunken husband a nice little dinner a roast shoulder of mutton on roast potatoes. Her husband not coming home she went to the public house & dragged him home. He arrived at home in a fury. Took the mutton & flung it in the dust bin potatoes & all! This being more than the poor wife could bear she flung a knife sharpener at him wh unluckily penetrated his temple & he fell dead on the spot. When she was tried Sir Baliol addressed the jury & told them to do their and he would do his. They accordingly returned a verdict of manslaughter—then the judge made a speech to the woman saying the jury had found her guilty & it remained with him to make a convict of her by sentencing her to as long or as short a time of imprisonment that he thought right—but he did not intend to pass any judgment & said he considered that the brutal provocation of throwing away the mutton had been more than any one could bear. I asked him whether he had ever heard more of her. He said that once at his own place he had a gardener who told him that he knew Sir Baliol had been kind to a sister in law of his—his brother’s wife—a woman who had always been respectable before & since– | |
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