[295] From “Central Italy.”
[296] See vol. iii.
[297] Wife of a north-country baronet.
[298] Mary Howitt, aged 89, fulfilled her heart’s desire by also dying at Rome, Jan. 30, 1888, and, though a Catholic, was permitted to rest by her husband’s side in the Protestant cemetery. She never recovered the fatigue of a visit to the Pope. It was all made as easy as possible for her, on account of her great age, and the Duke of Norfolk was allowed to bring her in separately. “Adieu! we shall meet again in heaven,” said Leo XIII., on taking leave of her: a fortnight after she was dead.
[299] I have not been able to do this, as there is a prohibition in England against wearing foreign orders, dating from Elizabeth, who said, “My dogs shall wear nothing but my own collars.”
[300] I little thought at the time that Frank Crawford would turn out a distinguished and popular novelist: it was at Bombay that he met the original of “Mr. Isaacs.”
[301] The Misses Monk, daughters of the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol.
[302] Miss Clarke.
[303] From “South-Eastern France.”
[304] Of very humble origin himself, to court great personages had been the ruling passion of his life, and it had been a subject of extravagant pride to him that he had occasionally entertained this good-natured Princess at dinner at Pau.