SKETCHES FROM THE DIARIES OF ROSE, LADY GRAVES SAWLE.
Sketches from the Diaries of Bose, Lady Graves Sawle. (For private circulation.)—Lady Graves Sawle, who was born in 1818, celebrated her golden wedding in 1896, and in this very readable little volume she gives us extracts from her diaries, together with some earlier recollections. Her early years were spent in Bath. Here she saw Madame Vestris and Edmund Kean, and a less famous person who acquired some local reputation as a "Mrs. Malaprop,"—she spoke of " Pericles and Aspasia " (W. S. Landor's poem) as "Periwinkle and Asparagus." In 1834 the author changed Bath for Italy; at Florence the family made the acquaintance of Lander. Her mother was half-sister to Rose Aylmer, the poet's first love, and the subject of the most beautiful verses that ever came from his pen. Lady Graves Sawle quotes with a pardonable pride some lines which Lander was moved to write to a "Rose" of a younger generation. The winter of 1836-37 was spent in Brussels, and here the diarist often danced with Prince Albert. In 1838
she came to London and saw the great quartet of danseases, Taglioni, Cerito, and the two Elsslors. Here again we have recollections of distinguished persons, Samuel Rogers, Lord Elgin (of the " Marbles "), and others. So the recollections proceed, bringing back an old world in the most pleasing, kindly way. Good stories, strictly so called, scarcely come within the plan of the book. We may quote, however, that which tells the result of a competition of parrots. It was hard to adjudge the prize, which was to be for the " handsomest and most intelligent bird." As the judges were deliberating, a late arrival was brought in, a fine grey bird with a red tail. He looked round, and exclaimed in a distinct voice ; "What a devil of a lot of parrots!" That settled the doubt.
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