en sons, and twenty-five
grandchildren, with other relatives, Gurneys, Buxtons, and Pellys--an
English family scene much enjoyed by the Prussian guest. Other visits
are described in her Journals, to the Queen Dowager, the Duchess of
Kent, the Duchess of Gloucester, and others of the Royal Family; having
interesting conversations about "our dear young Queen, Prince Albert,
and their little ones; about our foreign journey, the King of the
Belgians, and other matters." She often used to say she preferred
visiting prisons to visiting palaces, and going to the poor rather than
the rich, yet she felt it her duty to "drop a word in season" in high
places, and at the same time to be "kept humble, watchful, and faithful
to her Lord."

After the fatigues of the Continental and London season, she was glad in
the summer to occupy the house of her brother-in-law Mr. Hoare at
Cromer, and when there she saw much of the residents at Northrepps Hall,
The Cottage, and other places famed far and wide for their philanthropic
associations.

She got home to Upton Lane, and spent the winter there. The most
noticeable event mentioned is her meeting at dinner Lord Ashley, at her
son's house. "He is a very interesting man; devoted to promoting the
good of mankind, and suppressing evil--quite a Wilberforce, I think."
Such was her opinion of the good Earl of Shaftesbury in his early days.

In the spring of 1843, feeling her health to be somewhat restored, she
surprised her friends by announcing her wish to visit Paris again, to
complete works of usefulness formerly initiated there. More than once
she saw the widowed Duchess of Orleans at the Tuilleries, the only other
person present being her stepmother the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg,
"an eminently devoted pious woman," by whom the Duchess of Orleans had
been brought up from childhood. They spoke much about the children of
the House of Orleans, and "the importance of their education being early
founded in Christian faith;" a desire which may be re-echoed in another
generation. Another important series of interviews was with M. Guizot,
then the chief statesman of France. Altogether the last visit to Paris
was a pleasant and useful expedition.

XIV.

LAST YEARS.

The end was now drawing nigh--the end of her busy, useful life. In June,
1843, Elizabeth Fry attended the Quarterly Meeting at Hertford, the last
time she left home expressly on religious service. She felt it her duty,
she s