Lady Wilson's charming introduction to her father's book (Impressions and
Memories, by Lord Ribblesdale, Cassell, 15s.), which she has edited, is of a piece with the book itself. Lord Ribblesdale was exceedingly popular with everyone, for he had a kindly and humorous way with him. His reminiscences show that he was well read and witty ; moreover, he had no little skill as a caricaturist. His father was a stepson of Lord John Russell, whom Lord Ribblesdale regarded as a grand- father. Under Lord John's wing the author saw all the notable mid-Victorians, and especially Dickens, who was " extremely smartly dressed." At Windsor, as Lord-in- Waiting, he heard Gladstone controverting the Queen's belief that she had seen a certain Welsh hill from Eaton Park till " the Queen cut him short with a gentle inclination of the head : "that will do.' " Lord Ribblesdale records that he once happened to vote in the same lobby with Lord Beaconsfield, and to say that the division would go against them. " For a moment he laid his hand on my shoulder. ' Always remember it is something to have belonged to a succession of glorious minorities.' " Lord Salisbury, he says, never used notes even for important speeches, but prepared them carefully, " saturating his mind with what he wished to say and nothing else." Lord Ribblesdale's views of 1895 on the future of the House of Lords seem curiously typical. Writing later, he thought that the present House was much more alive than the House of his youth.
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