she gave her time and
thoughts to the care of her grandchildren with glad and loving devotion.

[97] The only book Lady Russell published was "Family Worship"; a small
volume of selections from the Bible and prayers for daily use. It was first
published in 1876.

One of her greatest pleasures was to see her own ideals and enthusiasms
reflected in the young; and next to the care of her family the prosperity
of the village school at Petersham was perhaps nearest her heart. It grew
and flourished through her devotion. In 1891 it was generously taken over
by the British and Foreign School Society, but the change made no
difference to her interest nor to the time she gave to it. The warm
affection of the people of Petersham was a great happiness to her; after
long illness and enforced absence from the village she wrote to her
daughter: "You can't think what good it did me to see a village friend
again."

The feeling among the villagers may be gathered from two brief passages in
letters written after her death: a gardener in Petersham alluded to her as
"our much-loved friend, Countess Russell," and another man--who had been
educated at Petersham School--wrote: "She was really like a mother to many
of we 'Old Scholars.'"

Lady Russell's letters will show that her interest in politics remained as
keen as ever to the end; and she eagerly watched the changes which affected
Ireland. To the end of her life she retained the fervour of her youthful
Radicalism, and with advancing years her religious opinions became more and
more broad. To her there was no infallibility in any Bible, any prophet,
any Church. With an ever-deepening reverence for the life and teaching of
Jesus, she yet felt that "The highest Revelation is not made by Christ, but
comes directly from the Universal Mind to our minds." [98] Her last public
appearance in Richmond was at the opening of the new Free Church, on April
16, 1896, which she had joined some years before as being the community
holding views nearer to her own than any other.

[98] Rev. F.W. Robertson, of Brighton. Sermons, 1st Series.

There is a side of Lady Russell's mind which her letters do not adequately
represent. She was a great reader, and in her letters (written off with
surprising rapidity) she does not often say much about the books she was so
fond of discussing in talk. Among novelists, Sir Walter Scott was perhaps
the one she read most often; Jane Austen too was a favourite; but she