R,CHARD MONCKTON MILNES was born in the year - OUDL Home

18 The Marquess of Crewetogether with the lettered society attached to that coterie.She was well read, being in particular a devoted studentof Shakespeare, and the few living people who can rememberher would testify to her personal charm. LeighHunt said of her that her smile was like a piece of goodnews, and after the marriage Disraeli wrote to her fatherin-lawan enthusiastic account of his first meeting withher. For a number of her last years she was the victimof a nervous illness, with which modern science mighthave been able to deal more effectively. Her most devotedhusband, while trying every possible cure at foreignwatering-places, was unable to conceive that any remedycould be equal to the agreeable society which she adornedwhen she was in good health, and could not always understandhow much happier she would have been, left withher children, her garden, and her pony carriage, insteadof receiving even the most delightful of house parties.When the end came, he felt that he had lost not only aloving wife, but the most appreciative and comprehendingfriend a man could have.Less than two years later he made an expedition toCanada and the United States. He had many friends inthe latter, and his sympathy with the Northern causeensured a warm welcome from many outside the letteredcircle to which most of them belonged. The journeyafforded just the tonic which he needed after his troubleat home, and his health, in which recurring attacks ofgout had made almost the only breach, stood the longjourney well. A year later a fire at Fryston, by whicha considerable part of the house was destroyed, and hisbeloved library received rough usage, though little wasactually lost, broke another link in the chain of hisexistence. He was able to say that he had ' always likedkeeping open house in one sense, and was now doing itin another'. But the shock was severe. Thinking more