English Lands, Letters and Kings, vol. 4: The Later Georges to VictoriaMitchell, Donald Grant
History
English Lands, Letters and Kings, vol. 4: The Later Georges to Victoria
Mitchell, Donald Grant
English literature -- History and criticism; Great Britain -- Intellectual life
It was not until Macaulay had done his last work upon the book (still
incomplete) which he counted his monument, that he moved away from his
bachelor quarters in the Albany (Piccadilly) and established himself at
Holly Lodge, which, under the new name (he gave it) of Oirlie Lodge, may
be found upon a winding lane in that labyrinth of city roads that lies
between Kensington Gardens and Holland House. There was a bit of green
lawn attached, which he came to love in those last days of his; though he
had been without strong rural proclivities. Like Gibbon, he never hunted,
never fished, rarely rode. But now and then--among the thorn-trees
reddening into bloom and the rhododendrons bursting their buds, the May
mornings were “delicious” to him. He enjoyed, too, overmuch, the modest
hospitalities he could show in a home of his own. There are joyfully
turned notes--in his journal or in his familiar letters--of “a goose for
Michaelmas,” and of “a chine and oysters for Christmas eve,” and
“excellent audit ale” on Lord Mayor’s day. There, too, at Holly Lodge,
comes to him in August, 1857, when he was very sad about India (as all the
world were), an offer of a peerage. He accepts it, as he had accepted all
the good things of life--cheerily and squarely, and was thenceforward
Baron Macaulay of Rothley. He appears from time to time on the benches of
the Upper House, but never spoke there. His speaking days were over. A
little unwonted fluttering of the heart warned him that the end was not
far off.
A visit to the English lakes and to Scotland in 1859 did not--as was
hoped--give him access of strength. He was much disturbed, too (at this
crisis), by the prospect of a long separation from his sister, Lady
Trevelyan--whose husband had just now been appointed Governor of Madras.
“This prolonged parting,” he says, “this slow sipping of the vinegar and
the gall is terrible!” And the parting came earlier than he thought, and
easier; for on a day of December in the same year he died in his library
chair. His nephew and biographer had left him in the morning--sitting with
his head bent forward on his chest--an attitude not unusual for him--in a
languid and drowsy reverie. In the evening, a little before seven, Lady
Trevelyan was summoned, and the biographer says:--“As we drove up to the
porch of my uncle’s house, the maids ran crying into the darkness to meet
us; and we knew that all was over.”
He was not an old man--only fifty-nine. The stone which marks his grave in
Westminster Abbey is very near to the statue of Addison.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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