Prime ministers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Russell, John Russell, Earl, 1792-1878
History repeats itself at Pembroke Lodge. On May 16, 1895, a party of
Armenian refugees went thither on the ground that 'the name of Lord John
Russell is honoured by every Christian under the rule of the Turk.' It
recalled to Lady Russell the incident just recorded, and the interview,
she states, was 'a heart-breaking one, although gratitude for British
sympathy seemed uppermost in what they wished to express. After they
were gone I thought, as I have often thought before, how right my
husband was in feeling and in saying, as he often did, that Goldsmith
was quite wrong in these two lines in "The Traveller":
'How small of all that human hearts endure
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!
He often recited them with disapproval when any occurrence made him feel
how false they were.'
[Sidenote: KINGLAKE'S DESCRIPTION]
Lord John's manner of life, like his personal tastes, was simple. He
contrived to set the guests who gathered around him at his wife's
receptions perfectly at their ease, by his old-fashioned gallantry,
happy humour, and bright, vigorous talk. One room in Pembroke Lodge,
from the windows of which a glorious view of the wooded valley is
obtained, has been rendered famous by Kinglake's description[44] of a
certain drowsy summer evening in June 1854, when the Aberdeen Cabinet
assembled in it, at the very moment when they were drifting into war.
Other rooms in the house are full of memories of Garibaldi and
Livingstone, of statesmen, ambassadors, authors, and, indeed, of men
distinguished in every walk of life, but chiefly of Lord John himself,
in days of intellectual toil, as well as in hours of friendly
intercourse and happy relaxation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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