_12th_.--Came down to Foxholes. Great heat; no rain from April till August. _To Lord Derby_ 62 Rutland Gate, April 28th. My Dear Lord Derby,--I cannot forbear to express to you our very great and cordial sympathy in the great loss you have sustained.[Footnote: The Dowager Countess of Derby died on April 26th, 1876.] It was Gray, I think, who said that a man can have but one mother, and in losing her one loses the only real witness of the tenderest part of the growth of life. Nobody else has any memory for infancy, childhood and youth, and no one else has the same claims to dutiful affection. The loss is irreparable. I find it so myself every day. Lady Derby had the happiness to see you combine with the most affectionate regard for her the public duties and honours which are almost hereditary in your family. Few women have seen life played out on a nobler scale. She was the link between two generations of statesmen, and lived in the entire intimacy and affection of both. But these considerations cannot alleviate sorrow! With every assurance of sincere regard to yourself and Lady Derby from Mrs. Reeve and myself, believe me, always faithfully yours, H. Reeve. Continuing the Journal:-- _August 12th_.--Disraeli made Earl Beaconsfield. _14th_.--From Southampton to Havre and Rouen with Christine and Hopie. Dined with the Cardinal de Bonnechose; Circourt joined us there. _17th_.--To the Chateau d'Eu; found there the Duc de Montpensier and Infanta Christine, Duc and Duchesse de Chartres, Mme. de Rainneville and Lambert de Sainte-Croix. Drive in forest; very hot. _21st_.--Celebrated our silver wedding at Eu. To Dieppe and back by Havre on the 24th. William Longman came to Foxholes. Saw Lady Charlotte Bacon [Footnote: See _ante_, vol. i. p. 88.] again. Mrs. Reeve gave 'Ianthe,' whom they met at a luncheon party at Bournemouth, a fuller notice. She wrote, 'A bad husband and narrow means kept her out of England for thirty-five years or so, and she is now a corpulent matron of seventy, with no trace of those charms sung by the poet.' All this autumn an immense agitation was kept up, chiefly by Gladstone, on the 'Bulgarian Atrocities.' Meetings were held all over the kingdom. I published an article in the 'Review' in October, which Lord Derby said was the first thing that turned the tide. It soon turned altogether; and in a few months the people were as anxious to attack the Russians as they had been to coerce the Turks. To Mr. Dempster _Foxholes, October 17th._--Can you, who know all the genealogies of Scotland better than the Red Lion himself, tell me what relation Countess Purgstall was to Dugald Stewart? [Footnote: She was his wife's sister.] I know she was a Cranstoun; but was she related to the great Professor? When my father was in Vienna in 1805, she received him very kindly, because he had known Dugald Stewart, and followed his lectures in Edinburgh.