The Greville Memoirs, Part 2 (of 3), Volume 3 (of 3): A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1852 — John Shaqi
The Greville Memoirs, Part 2 (of 3), Volume 3 (of 3): A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1852Greville, Charles
History
The Greville Memoirs, Part 2 (of 3), Volume 3 (of 3): A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1852
Greville, Charles
Great Britain -- History -- Victoria, 1837-1901
compared with her. For many years he was a poor man, and he never became
a rich one till the death of Lord Glastonbury, who left him an estate
and a great deal of money; the estate, which was entailed on his nephew
George Neville, he generously gave up to him at once. He lived
hospitably and handsomely, and was, I am told, very generous and
charitable. His greatest expense was in books; he had collected a
library of extraordinary value, and which for the size of it has always
been reckoned the most complete of any private collection. It continued
to interest and occupy him to the last, and he never ceased to add to it
as occasion offered; he was, indeed, one of the last of the great
collectors, of the bibliomaniacs; he collated every book himself, and
placed in the title-page of each, in his own handwriting, an account of
the book, where purchased, and its history when of any interest. His
society in latter years was restricted, and he was not fond of making
new acquaintances unless he fell in with them by accident, when he was
easily approachable and always disposed to carry them on. He had
constantly dinners and very agreeable ones, and it was wonderful to see
him at ninety years old doing the honours of his table with all the
energy, gaiety, and gallantry of a man in the prime of life. A happier
life and an easier death it would be difficult to discover; his life was
extended to nearly a century without any intermission of bodily health,
any decay of mental faculties, and, what is more extraordinary and more
valuable, without any deadness or coldness of human affections. He was
blessed with affluence, with the love of rational and elevating
pursuits, and with ample leisure and power to enjoy them. He was a
philosopher, a gentleman, and a Christian, and he lived in constant
social intercourse with the relations to whom he was attached, or the
friends of his predilection, to all of whom he was an object of the
deepest respect and affection. A life so tranquil and prosperous was
terminated by a death no less easy and serene; his indisposition was not
such as to interfere with his usual habits; he rose at his accustomed
hour and dressed himself to the last, even on the day of his death. He
had always a book, latterly the Prayer Book, before him, and his mind
was undisturbed and unclouded. He dined and went to sleep in his chair,
and from that sleep he never awoke.
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