ct some years ago going through the heart of the City, somewhere
behind Cheapside, to have come upon a courtyard of an antique house, with
grass and flowers and green trees growing as quietly as if it was the
garden of a farm-house in Northumberland. Lady John reminds me of it.

The charm of her company, apart from the kindliness of her manner, lay in
an immediate responsiveness to all that was going on around her, and the
sense her talk and presence conveyed of a life controlled by a homely,
dignified, strenuous tradition. It was the spontaneity of her sympathy
which all her life long drew to her defenders, dispirited or hopeful, of
struggling causes, and so many idealists, confident or resigned, shabby or
admired. Any with a cause at heart, an end to aim at beyond personal ends,
found in her a companion who seemed at once to understand how bitter were
the checks or how important the triumphs they had met, and to them her
company was a singular refreshment and inspiration, amid the polite or
undisguised indifference of the world. She could listen with ardour; and if
this sympathy was there for comparative strangers, still more was it at the
service of those who possessed her affection. She reflected instantaneously
their joys and troubles; indeed, she made both so much her own that those
she loved were often tempted at first to hide their troubles from her. Such
natures cannot usually disguise their emotions, and though she could
conceal her own physical sufferings so as almost to mislead those with whom
she lived, her feelings were plainly legible. If anything was said in her
presence which pained her, her distress was visible in a moment; and as a
beautiful consequence of this transparent expressiveness, her gaiety was
infectious and her affection shone out upon those she loved with tenderest
radiance.

* * * * *

After Lord Russell's death political events can no longer be used as a
thread to connect her letters and other writings together; but the
following passages, chosen over many years, will, it is hoped, give to
those who never knew her some idea of her as she is remembered by those who
did.

On Lady Georgiana Peel's first birthday after the death of her father Lady
Russell sent her the following verses:

To GEORGY

_For her Birthday, February 6, 1879._

TUNE: _"Lochnagar."_

What music so early, so gently awakes me,
And why as I listen these fa