uty. Then the air is so delightfully perfumed with
azalea, hawthorn, and lilac, and the nightingales sing so
beautifully on the opposite banks, that it is difficult to come in
at all.

PUTNEY HOUSE, _April 30, 1840_

Finished my beloved "Sir Samuel Romilly." It is a book that
everybody, especially men, should immediately read and meditate
upon.

It was during the summer of this year, 1840, that she began to see more of
Lord John Russell. She had met him a good many times at "rather solemn
dinner-parties," and he had stayed at Minto. She had known him well enough
to feel distress and the greatest sympathy for him when his wife died,
leaving him with two young families to look after--six children in all,
varying in age from the eldest Lister girl, who was fourteen, to Victoria,
his own little daughter, whose birth in 1838 was followed in little more
than a week by the death of her mother. Lord John was nearly forty-eight.
Hitherto he had been a political hero in her eyes rather than a friend of
her own; but, as the following entries in her diary show, she began now to
realize him from another side.

_June 3, 1840,_ PUTNEY HOUSE

Lord John Russell and Miss Lister [16] came to spend the afternoon
and dine. All the little Listers came. All very merry. Lord John
played with us and the children at trap-ball, shooting, etc.

[16] Miss Harriet Lister was the sister of Lord John's first wife.

The next time they met was at the Admiralty: "Little unexpected Cabinet
meeting after dinner. Lords John Russell and Palmerston, who talked _War
with France_ till bedtime. I hope papa tells the truth as to its
improbability." Two days later she writes: "Lord John Russell again
surprised us by coming in to tea. How much I like him." The next evening
she dined at his house: "Sat between Lord John and Mr. E. Villiers. Utterly
and for ever disgraced myself. Lord John begged me to drink a glass of
wine, and I asked for champagne when there was none!"

On August 13th they left London for Minto:

We had two places to spare in the carriage, which were taken by
Lord John Russell and little Tom [his stepson, Lord Ribblesdale].
We had wished it might be so, though I had some fears of his being
tired of us, and of our being stupefied with shyness. This went off
more than I expected, and our day's journey was very pleasant.

MINTO, _August_ 14, 1840

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