The Greville Memoirs, Part 2 (of 3), Volume 1 (of 3): A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1852Greville, Charles
History
The Greville Memoirs, Part 2 (of 3), Volume 1 (of 3): A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1852
Greville, Charles
Great Britain -- History -- Victoria, 1837-1901
excellence without despising or slighting mediocrity; attentive,
affable, and obliging to all, and equally delighting all, because
her agreeableness was inseparable from her character, and was an
habitual and unceasing emanation from it, rather than the
exertion of a latent power only drawn forth by the attraction of
corresponding intellectual energies; perfectly natural both in
manner and character, honest, straightforward, sincere, and true,
but with a genuine benevolence which made her sensitively shrink
from the infliction of pain. Delivered altogether from 'envy,
hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness,' she was ever inclined
to extenuate the faults, to pardon the errors, and to put the
best construction on the motives of others; no mean jealousy ever
entered her mind, no repining at the prosperity, however
unmerited, of other people. She drew pleasure from the purest of
all sources, from the contemplation of the success, the
happiness, and the welfare of her friends and acquaintance. With
an exquisite tact, without the slightest appearance of art, frank
without severity, open without imprudence, always negligent of
self and considerate of others, all her thoughts, impulses, and
actions were regulated by the united influence of the highest
principles, the clearest judgement, and the kindliest feelings.
Thus blessed in her own happy disposition, she was a blessing to
all around her. She was the ornament and delight of society, the
comfort, support, and joy of her own family. The numerous friends
who admired and esteemed her will sincerely deplore her loss; the
world, in which she never made an enemy, will render its tribute
of justice to her merit in a transient but general expression of
regret; but to the grief of her children, the bitterness of which
time alone can assuage, time itself can afford but an imperfect
consolation, for so entirely was she associated with the
interests, the habits, and the pursuits of their existence, that
every passing day and hour will bring something to remind them of
the loss they have sustained. But although it has not been
permitted to them to see her days extended to the ordinary term
of human life, and to be engaged in the tender office of 'rocking
the cradle of her declining age,' for herself it is no unhappy or
unenviable lot to have closed a useful, an honourable, and a
prosperous career in the unimpaired possession of her faculties,
without mental disquietude or bodily pain, and surrounded by all
the dearest objects of her interest and her love.
[4] [Susan, Countess of Harrowby, daughter of Granville,
first Marquis of Stafford, and wife of Dudley Ryder,
first Earl of Harrowby, died the 26th of May, 1838.]
[5] Mr. Luttrell.
June 1st, 1838 {p.097}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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