xious one.

In December, 1846, they both went down for a short holiday to Chorley Wood,
where, on the last night of the year, they held a "grand ball for children
and servants. All very merry. John danced a great deal, and I not a little.
Darling Johnny danced the first country dance, holding his Papa's hand and
mine."

CHAPTER VI

1847-52

On January 1, 1847, Lady John wrote in her diary that the year was
beginning most prosperously for her and those dearest to her. "Within my
own home all is peace and happiness." About a month later she became
dangerously ill in London.

LONDON, _February_ 21, 1847

I have been very ill since I last wrote.... I felt that life was
still dear to me for the sake of those I love and of those who
depend on me.... I saw the look of agony of my dearest husband; I
thought of my heart's treasure--my darling boy; I thought of my
other beloved children; I thought of those still earlier loved--my
dear, dear Papa and Mama, brothers and sisters. But I was calm and
ready to go, if such should be God's will.... Dr. Rigby has been
not only the most skilful doctor, but the kindest friend.

In the spring of this year, 1847, the Queen offered Pembroke Lodge to the
Prime Minister. He accepted with thankfulness, and throughout life both he
and Lady John felt deep gratitude to the Queen for their beautiful home.

Pembroke Lodge is a long, low, irregular white house on the edge of the
high ground which forms the western limit of Richmond Park. Added to and
altered many times, it has no unity of plan, but it has kept a character of
its own, an air of cheerful seclusion and homely eighteenth-century
dignity. On the eastern side it is screened from the road by shrubs and
trees; on the other side, standing as it does upon the top of the steep,
wooded ridge above the Thames Valley, its windows overlook a thousand
fields, through which the placid river winds, now flowing between flat open
banks, now past groups of trees, or by gardens where here and there the
corner of an old brick house shows among cedars. The grounds are long
rather than wide, and comprise the slope towards the valley and the stretch
along the summit of the ridge, where beech, oak, and chestnut shade with
their green and solemn presences a garden of shorn turf and border flowers.
Walking beneath them, you see between their stems part of some slow-sailing
cloud or glimpses of the distant plain; a