It was during this visit to Nice that he told my father that he intended leaving directions in his will that his heart should be sent at his death to Jerusalem to be buried there.
He was very kind-hearted. When leaving Nice at the end of his visit, he had got into the carriage to drive with us to the yacht, when he remembered that he had not said good-bye to my sister's ugly governess. He insisted on jumping out of the carriage and rushing up to the schoolroom for this purpose.
He was a regular boy, and enjoyed games with us all: one, I remember, was pelting one another with oranges, the little hard ones which had fallen from the trees, he leading one side, and Basil (my schoolboy brother) the other. He was always ready to join in any fun, as long as he had not to meet strangers.
These details, which are wonderfully reminiscent of the childish days at Galloway House eight years before,[[14]] and show how like the young man of twenty-one was to the boy of thirteen, may be supplemented by an extract or two from the diary of another member of the same family:
Christmas Day, 1868.—We had midnight Mass at St. Philip's, the little church in our garden. Mgr. Capel said it, he, Lord Bute, and Basil having arrived from England the day before. We all went to Communion together (Lord Bute had been received into the Church a short time previously). Mgr. Capel said his two Christmas Masses, which we heard, early next morning; and then we went to the cathedral. In the afternoon we went to Notre Dame, where Mgr. Capel preached.
Tuesday, February 2.—After Mass Lord Bute took us all over his yacht, the Ladybird, which had arrived on Saturday. He gave us luncheon, and we had to go a little before 2, as the Prince and Princess Charles of Prussia were going to see it. The cabins are most comfortable, and the saloon beautifully decorated with the arms of the ports she has put in at.
February 3.—-We drove with Lord Bute down to the port, and the Ladybird left at 4 o'clock, with Lord Bute, Lady Loudoun, Mgr. Capel, Miss Eden, and Dr. Bell safely on board.
From Nice Bute and his friends went straight to Rome—his first visit there—where he spent a week, including Ash Wednesday, on which day he received the blessed ashes from the hand of Pius IX. in the Sistine Chapel. Next morning he communicated at the private Mass of the Holy Father, who afterwards administered to him the sacrament of confirmation. Bute made a munificent offering of Peter's Pence to the Pope, who in turn presented him with a magnificent reliquary. On February 23 he wrote to Mrs. Scott Murray from Sicily:
R.Y.S. Ladybird,
Harbour of Messina.
We arrived here safely last night, and are to continue our voyage this afternoon. As we have spent so much time already we are not going to stop at Patmos on the way, but make straight for Jaffa, going north of Crete.