The years spent in Liverpool were striking one, and it impressed Disraeli much. He said to Mr. Stewart, "My idea of greatness would be that a man should receive the applause of such an assemblage as this-that he should be cheered as he came into this room."

enlivened by her intimacy with Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli, who afterwards became her closest friends. Of her first meeting with them she said :—

One day when I was sitting alone in my house at Liverpool, and my husband, who loved hunting and fishing, was away after the grouse, as every Scotchman is, a note of introduction was brought in for me from Mrs. Milner Gibson, whom I had known in London, and the cards of Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli. He was a young man then, all curly and smart, and his wife, though much older than himself, was a very handsome, imperial-looking woman. I told them that I should be delighted to show them every thing in Liverpool, as Mrs. Milner Gibson had asked me.

When I went to see them next day at the hotel, I asked Mrs. Disraeli how she had slept, and she said, "Not at all, for the noise was so great!" Then I said, "Why not move to my house, for my house is very quiet, and I am alone and there is plenty of room." And they came, and a most de

lightful ten days I had. We shut out Liverpool and its people, and we talked and we became great friends, and when we parted, it was with very affectionate regard on both sides. Afterwards they wrote to me every week, and when I went to London my place was always laid every day at their table, and if I did not appear at their dinner, they always asked me why I had not come to

them.

After Lady Beaconsfield died, we drifted apart, he and I, and though I saw him sometimes it was never in the old intimate

way. The last time we met-it was at
Lady Stanhope's-I had a good talk with
him though. It was not until we were
parting that I said, "I hope you are quite
well?" and I shall never forget the hollow
voice in which he answered, ""
Nobody is
quite well."
After that I never saw him
again, but I had a message from him
through William Spottiswoode. "Tell Mrs.
Stewart always to come to talk to me when
she can; it always does me good to see
her."

It was probably on the occasion of the second visit to the Duncan Stewarts at Liverpool, that Disraeli, then comparatively an unknown man, was taken by Mr. Stewart to the Royal Exchange, when the place was thronged with merchants at high noon. The scene is a

At that time Disraeli visited the place unnoticed; but a day came, several years later, when the Disraelis were again on a visit to the Duncan Stewarts, at Liverpool, and when he had attained to a prominent position in politics, and he again visited the same place in company with Mr. Stewart. On this occasion his entrance was noticed, and a into a roar, and ended in a perfect cheer was raised, which soon spread

ovation.

Disraeli was deeply moved. He recalled to Mr. Stewart the remark he had made years before, and admitted, with pride and pleasure, that his ideal test of greatness had been realized.

After many years' residence in Liverpool, a sudden reverse of fortune came upon the Stewarts. The parents went to London, sending their children to the care of an uncle, Mr. David Stewart of Dumfries. This uncle, who soon became as much beloved as he was respected by the young Stewarts, devoted himself entirely to their welfare, though he kept so strictly within their mother's injunctions, that, till six o'clock in the evening, he never uttered a word of anything but French, a rule peculiarly abhorrent to his Scotch nature.

After an interval of eighteen months, their father's affairs being again prosthe children rejoined their parperous, ents in London. They found them established in Wilton Crescent, whence they afterwards moved to a larger house in Seymour Street. Whilst living here many old friends collected round Mrs. Stewart, and she also at this time became increasingly intimate with Mrs. Delane and Mrs. Milner Gibson. It was probably during this period also that she saw much of Leigh Hunt, of whom she was wont to say that she believed him to be the only person who, if he saw something yellow in the distance, and was told it was a buttercup, would be disappointed if he found it was only a guinea. Yet these were Leigh

Hunt's days of greatest privation. Mr. Otto von Klenck, aide-de-camp to King Carlyle was very poor too at this time, Ernest of Hanover and the Duke of yet a friend who knew him very well, Cumberland, though the bond of intiand went often to see him, told Mrs. mate affection between her and her Stewart that one day going to Carlyle mother was never weakened by sepand seeing two golden sovereigns lying aration. In 1862, her younger sister, exposed in a little vase on the chimney- Chrissy (Christina Adelaide Ethel), had piece, he asked what they were for. been married to Mr. James Alexander Carlyle looked, for him, embarrassed, Rogerson, of Wamphray, a near neighand gave no definite answer. "Well, bor of the beloved uncles and aunts of now, my dear fellow," said the visitor, Hillside. "neither you nor I are quite in a posi- It was in 1869, whilst he was staying tion to play ducks and drakes with sov- with his brother Charles at Hillside, ereigns; what are they for?" "Well," that Mr. Duncan Stewart became dansaid Carlyle, "the fact is that Leigh gerously ill. Mrs. Stewart joined him Hunt likes better to find them there, and nursed him with the devotion which than that I should give them to him.”

Whilst the Stewarts were living in Seymour Street, another of the children, Florence, died. Mr. Stewart had again suffered losses in business, and the family moved to Smart's Hill, in Kent, where the mother with inborn facility soon accommodated herself to her change of fortune. After a time they moved again to a villa, the Limes, at Croydon.

an

she always showed in sickness. In November, 1869, he died. Mrs. Duncan Stewart was left with an income reduced to the narrowest limits by her husband's heavy financial losses income which the devotion of her sons delighted to render sufficient for the maintenance of her little home in Sloane Street. Meantime the affection with which her eldest daughter was regarded at the court of Hanover led to her receiving constant marks of consideration and favor from the king and queen, and she was their guest for a considerable time. The blind king delighted in her The conversation, and for many years she would save up every interesting story she heard for him. It is remembered that one day she was telling him a story as they were out driving together. Suddenly the horses started, and the carriage seemed about to upset. "Why do you not go on with your story?" said the king. "Because, sir, the carriage is just going to upset.” "That is the coachman's affair," said the king, “do you go on with your story."

Meantime, a cousin of the Stewarts, Countess Bremer, who had been ladyin-waiting to the Princess of Hanover, had married, and a lady was temporarily required to fill her place. eldest daughter, Harty (Pauline Harriet), went for a time, and was shortly afterwards appointed to a fixed post with the princesses, resigning her place in the home life. It must have been soon after this that her mother wrote to her:

My own dear child, I cannot help saying to you that if you ever pine for home, you must come-even away from those dear people : it is only for just as long as you are quite contented and happy, that we can be at all contented and happy to know you – bear you to be away.

You are well assured of this, I am sure? My own dear child, our hearts are with you, as yours with us, and all in Christ in God I hope and trust.

But remember, whenever your heart tells you to come home, then we want you, and must have you, please God.

But Harty never came back. In 1865 she married a Hanoverian, the Baron

Of the sad and eventful weeks which saw the close of the Hanoverian dynasty, Mrs. Stewart had ever much of interest to tell :

I was for many weeks with my daughter in the palace at Herrenhausen after the king left for Langensalza, where, like a knight, he desired to be placed in the front of his army, so that all his soldiers might see him, and where he was not satisfied till he felt the bullets whizzing round him. The people in Hanover said he had run

away. When the queen heard that, she and the princesses went down to the "place" and walked about there, and, as the people pressed around her, said: "The king is gone with his army to fight for his people, but I am here to stay with you- to stay with you till he comes back." But alas, she did not know!

We used to go out and walk at night, in those great gardens of Herrenhausen, in which the Electress Sophia died. The queen talked then, God bless her, of all her sorrows. We often did not come in till the morning, for the queen could not sleep. But, even in our great sorrow and misery, Nature would assert herself, and, when we

came in, we ate up everything that there

Some one who knew her well, said most truly of Mrs. Stewart, that her life was not a long, uninterrupted course, but, as it were, a chain of separate circles. That part of it which belonged to her residence in Sloane Street, was what the Scotch call the "uptake,' was. Generally I had something in my the making of many friendships so room, and the queen had generally something in hers, though that was only bread infinitely easy to her, one leading to and strawberries, and it was not enough for another, until every day was filled by us, for we were so very hungry. One night affectionate interests. Yet in the new the queen made an aide-de-camp take the connections she formed, old friends of key and we went to the Mausoleum in the former days were never forgotten. grounds. I shall never forget that solemn Two of those she had long known, on walk, Harty carrying a single lanthorn be- finding her surrounded by a brilliant fore us, or the stillness when we reached circle, were once led to say, "Now you the Mausoleum, or the white light shining have so many friends, you will not upon it, and the clanging of the door as it opened. And we all went in, and we knelt care for us, you must find us so stupid and prayed by each of the coffins in turn. and uninteresting." And long will they The queen and princesses knelt in front, remember her cordial answer, "No, no, and my daughter and I knelt behind, and my dear, you are my rocks." One we prayed-oh! so earnestly, out of the secret of the great charm of her condeep anguish of our sorrow-stricken hearts. versation was that she was not merely And then we went to the upper floor where careful to evade ever repeating an illthe statues are, and there lay the beautiful natured story of any one, but, where queen, the Princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, there was positively nothing of good to in her still loveliness, and there lay the old be said, had always some apt line of old king, the Duke of Cumberland, with the moonlight shining on him, wrapped in his poetry or some proverb to bring forward urging mercy, "Mercy, oh, so much military cloak. And when the queen saw The writer him, she, who had been so calm before, grander than justice." sobbed violently, and hid herself against me, for she knew that I also had suffered, and after that we walked or lingered in the gardens till the daylight broke.

vividly remembers how, after once listening with polite self-restraint to a scandalous story about a well-known member of society, she said with characteristic sweetness, "Yes, he was very fallible, yet how capable of becoming that greatest of all things, a good

The queen was always longing to go away to her own house at Marienburg, and at last she went. She never came back, for, as soon as she was gone, the Prussians, who had left her alone while she was there, In her old age, Mrs. Stewart's strong stepped in and took possession of every-interest in the stage was never diminthing.

The queen is a noble, loving woman, but she can also be queenly. When Count von W., the Prussian commandant, arrived, he desired an interview with her Majesty. He behaved very properly, but, as he was going

man.

ished, and those connected with it were
always amongst her most cherished
visitors, especially Lady Martin, whom,
as Helen Faucit, she regarded as
last representative of the studied phase

66 the

ter Miss Isabel Bateman; Mr. Irving; Mr. and Mrs. Kendal; and, amongst amateurs, the not less gifted Mrs. Greville.

of acting; " Mrs. Crowe and her sis- | dinner at Lady Hampson's led on to a party this afternoon to see the drill of the Fire Brigade- a most interesting sight. Captain Shaw invited me and to bring what friends I chose, and I took three carriages full. Friday, I was all afternoon at Lady Hooker's at Kew. Lovely weather. Lord and Lady Ducie took me down, and it was delightful. Lady Martin, who is as good as every one is to me unworthy, takes me to the Meiningen Company on Saturday to see "The Winter's Tale," so I am well off.

Amongst others whose visits Mrs. Stewart most valued were Mr. William Spottiswoode, Mrs. Grote, Lady Eastlake, Lady Gordon, Mrs. Oliphant, Lady Winford, Lady Hope, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Hill, Mr. Henry James, the American novelist, and her old friend, Mr. Pigott, whom she would describe as being a finished critic, but with all the innocence of a child picking daisies." There was no end to the variety of different persons and characters who met in Mrs. Stewart's little rooms, and the remarkable point was that no one cared in the least whom they met they all went for her. Her constant letters to her daughter Harty show how much she enjoyed this period of her life, and how much interest she found in it. Here are some gleanings from letters of 1880–83, but they are all undated :

Oh, my darling, here are two more days without any writing. I can only rest when people are not here. On Monday Chrissy had a very pleasant luncheon party. At a charming party in the evening at the Felix Moscheles, I fell into a deep admiration of the Berlin actor, Herr Barney, who is come over to give added strength to the Saxe Meiningen company. He has the finest possible figure and head, crisp short curling hair, and a noble face. He acts Marc Antony in the "Julius Cæsar" and seems made for it by nature. Yesterday I went at four to Madame Modjeska's reception, full, and of interesting people; home for visitors, dined at Lord Eustace Cecil's, and at eleven o'clock was at Leonie Blumenthal's, where was a magnificent party, fine company, etc.

My own dearest child, I think that it was this day last week that I despatched my last letter to you, telling of the good success of my last luncheon. Since then, life has been too fast for me. I have had scarcely a minute but for rest during the intervals. At this season one thing leads on to another, which one cannot avoid. It is a chain of links, if one says A, one must say B, and so on, and so on. On Thursday a pleasant

Dear

Dear William Spottiswoode took me down to dinner last night, so it was very pleasant. He told me that Lord Beaconsfield (who meets him every week at a scientific place) had spoken to him of his re-meeting with me, and expressed himself very wishful to see me again. William said I might depend on the pleasure he had had and the wish to see me more. I know how careful and reticent William is, -so this pleased me.

with about thirty persons, all of name and Sunday. I am dining out this evening

note, at the Boughtons not grand fashionable people, but artists, authors, etc. I will write you of it to-morrow.

anist, Dr. Gray-indeed Sir Ughtred Kay- | sweetly and simply on the privates than on Shuttleworth told me I must say the botanist the generals. This, her first public appearof the world. I have also Lady Airlie, Lady Gordon, etc.

nots and Spottiswoodes, I the only inter-grateful messages for me from the queen loper, and they are all as good as gold to me downwards. God knows how I feel them, -to-night a large ball, house and grounds and so do you, I think? You cannot exlighted with electric light!! ceed my feelings.

Chrissy is gone down to friends at Brighton. She is very dear and good and helpful and loving and comfortable to me invariably, and I am very grateful and love her dearly, and am very thankful to have her and lost when she is away.

1882.- We had a most brilliant day at the Camp. Personally to me it was most charming. I took down Mrs. F. Hill, Lady Brownlow was as good as gold to me, and we saw everybody and everything most comfortably. It was a wonderful English sight. The Duchess of Albany gave away the prizes, and I was close to her and Prince Leopold-saw both for the first time in my life. She is pretty enough for anything, and very sweet and simple. She gave away the prizes charmingly, and smiled more