To Bracknell again on June 1st. Attended Ascot for the last time. The Shah of Persia was in London this year, and was received in state. The Queen lent him Buckingham Palace.
June 25th.—Goschen's fête to the Shah of Persia at Greenwich Hospital. Fine sight. We steamed through the docks after the Shah.
29th.—Met M. de Laveleye at Van de Weyer's.
July 14th.—Dined at Merchant Taylors' Hall; made a speech.
17th.—Dined at Lambeth, to talk over the Judicature Bill with the Archbishop. Met Bishop Wilberforce as I was driving down Constitution Hill. He was killed two days afterwards (on the 19th) by a fall from his horse, riding with Lord Granville.
Count Münster came as German ambassador. I dined with him at Beust's and at
Houghton's.
Lord Westbury died in London on July 20th, 1873; a man whose bitter tongue made him many enemies, and procured for him a reputation as of one without respect or regard for aught human or divine. Those who knew him well told a different tale. He has been described by them as having a most kind and feeling nature. 'He did not make many professions, but had the good of his fellow-creatures at heart. He always found time to give advice and help.' Reeve, who had been thrown into frequent and familiar intercourse with him, was in the habit of speaking of him as one whose real character was very different indeed from that assigned him by popular repute; and the letter of sympathy which he wrote to Lord Westbury's daughter, the Hon. Augusta Bethell,[Footnote: Afterwards Mrs. Parker, and, by a second marriage, Mrs. Nash.] merely expressed his honest opinion.
Rutland Gate, July 23rd.
Dear Miss Bethell,—I should have written sooner if I had had the use of my hand, to express to you my profound sorrow and sympathy in the loss you have sustained.
I look back with unmixed satisfaction on the relations I maintained for so many years with your father. He honoured me with his confidence and friendship. I have the profoundest admiration, not only for his qualities as a lawyer, but for his just and enlarged mind, his vast reading, his memory, and the inexhaustible kindness of his heart. He was one of the greatest men I have known, and one of those whose loss to us all is most irreparable. How much more so to you!