Gathering all his strength he saw her
Crowned and reigning in her pride,
Looked his last upon her beauty,
Raised his eyes to God—and died."
—A. A. Procter.
CHAPTER XI.
THE AFTERGLOW.
It was at this time that the Prince Consort died, and England was full of mourning. Lord Shaftesbury speaks, in his diary of December 16, 1861, of that national loss, and then alludes to the death of my grandfather in these words:—
"I hear, too, that my valued friend and coadjutor in efforts for the sanitary improvement of England is gone—the learned, warm-hearted, highly-gifted Southwood Smith."
But the work he had set on foot and the principles he had established did not end with his life. They have gone on with an ever-increasing vitality to this day.