240 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, xvi 



My mother wrote to Leonard: " You will expect to hear 

 whether we are alive; firstly the coat is a great success, 

 and though F. began by thinking it would never be cold 

 enough for him to wear it, he has begun by wearing it so 

 constantly, that he is afraid it will soon be worn out." 



Sunday, Ap, 4, 1880, 



. . . F. and I are just beginning to find out whether we 

 are on our heads or our heels (politically) 1 but as I am 100 

 times more pleased than you can possibly be sorry, I think 

 you ought to give up being sorry at all. Our mental 

 champagne has had very little sympathy except from Aunt 

 Eliz., as Frank hardly cares and George cares a little the 

 wrong way; though he says now that he hopes the Liberals 

 may be as strong as possible so as not to have to truckle. 

 Seriously I shall be very glad if my opinions and yours 

 gradually converge, as I have felt it rather painful to have 

 them so diametrically opposite to each other. ... I rather 

 hope Gladstone will not take office for his consistency's 

 sai^e. ... 



In the summer of 1880 my parents paid their first visit to 

 their son Horace and his wife at Cambridge. It was ar- 

 ranged that they should go in a through carriage from 

 Bromley, having a special train across London to King's 

 Cross. My mother wrote: "We were shunted backwards 

 and forwards till we were so utterly ' turned round ' that 

 when I called out, ' Why there is St Paul's,' F. calmly 

 assured me that it must be some small church, as St Paul's 

 was three miles from Victoria, where we then were. F.'s 

 comfort was a good deal disturbed by the quantity of 

 trouble the shunting gave, but I was hardened and enjoyed 

 the journey." 



They both did and saw a great deal, my father especially 

 enjoying a lunch in Frank Balfour's rooms. My mother 

 went to Trinity Chapel to hear the organ. She wrote: 

 " I went to the organ-loft and Mr Stanford shewed the 



1 This refers to the General Election after Gladstone's Midlothian 

 campaign. He became Prime Minister, though Lord Hartington, 

 having been the acknowledged leader of the Liberal Opposition, had 

 a right to that position. 





