THE LATE LADY GRANT DUFF. [To 16allorros w sue .Szscravos.")
BM—The announcement of the death of Lady Grant Duff, who had spent the years of her widowhood in a quiet Suffolk village, sends one hack with fresh interest to the early volumes of her husband's Diary. In those pre-Indian days at Hampden, Knebworth, and York House her gracious presence, " divinely tall, and most divinely fair," showed the grand° dame, at one with her husband in all his political aspirations, eminently fitted to aid him, and to adorn any station to which he might have been called. That was a happy time for Liberal states- men and women, when, without being Cobdenites, they really believed that war, at any rate for us on a large scale, would be no more. And happy were the Saturday to Monday parties, where there was always the chance of meeting the most delightful people in the world, where the talk was of the best, and the hostess and her children made every. thing charming. Fortunately for them, nearly all those guests are gone without realizing their mistake—the death- blow to all their hopes. She was not so fortunate ; but though she was not spared the sorrow and loss of the last few months, there was much just pride and revival of political interest to carry her through them. Life did not bring to her all the glitter which might have been expected, but there were compensations. She had another side to her nature, which had ample scope far development in later years. She used to like to hear her husband praised for his most graceful retirement from public life, and the same praise might well have been bestowed on herself. We shall not soon look upon her like again.—I am, Sir, &a.,
AN OLD FRIEND.
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