 | Lady Layard’s Journal Go to a Date Search the Journal |
|
Previous Entry
|
Following Entry
| |
6 August 1901 — Inwood, Henstridge, Somerset | |
Tuesday. 6th [August 1901]. Breakfast 9.30. Wrote letters– Worked, sat in garden. Towards evening Merthyr went to grub up roots of trees in the wood which he usually does for sake of exercise for an hour in the evening in summer. This morning’s paper announce that the beloved Empress Frederic died last night at 6 P.M. Much as I expected it I felt the blow now it has fallen– I telegraphed to the Emperor of Germany my condolences also to Seckendorff for the Princesses & wrote to Princess Victoria. I personally feel I have lost a kind friend. Though so far above me in rank in heart we were equal as women & she was invariably kind & sympathetic to me. Henry used to say that if it were possible for a commoner to be a friend with an Empress—he should say we were really her friends. It is another link with my happy past broken. As she was only 3 years older than myself we might have hoped to have lived on together for some time. I feel that my old friends are melting away fast. I have one consolation in the thought that her terrible sufferings are over & that she is at rest with God– A beautiful chapter in my life is closed—but she has not lived in vain & has left us a noble example to try & imitate—still I cannot but be very very sad. | |
|
Previous Entry
|
Following Entry
| |