1896] Death of J. H. Middlcton 231 



' P.S. I am convinced that the whole of this business was worked in 

 the first instance by Royal personages, including our own, much more 

 than by the various F.O's.' ' x 



" 8th June. — There is news of a ' victory ' in the Soudan at Ferkeh, 

 come, however, just too late to serve as an answer by 'the Government 

 in Parliament. Labouchere rushed this debate on Friday, and it came 

 off most successfully, whereas the battle, which I have little doubt was 

 fought by order from Downing Street, was only fought on Sunday. 



" Coming up 'to London in the morning I stopped at 90, Sloane 

 Street, to see Frank Lascelles. We had some talk about Egypt and 

 the Soudan, and he admitted to me that there had been a conversation 

 between him and the Emperor William, such as I allude to in my 

 ' Nineteenth Cen'tury ' article. But he professed ignorance as to the 

 real reasons of the decision come to, to advance to Dongola, also surprise 

 at its having been made. 



" 10th June. — Mrs. Morris writes that Morris is less well, losing 

 weight daily and growing weaker. But the doctors will have it that i't 

 is nervous exhaustion only, and recommend a sea voyage and rest. I 

 do not believe them. She is to take rooms for him at Folkestone mean- 

 while, a sad prospect. 



" 13th June. — My good friend, J. H. Middleton, is dead. 2 



" i$th June. — An inques't has been held on poor Middleton. The 

 jury have returned a verdict of ' death from misadventure.' What is 

 curious is that it now appears that for twenty years he has been a 

 morphia taker, and his long illness has been entirely due to that cause. 

 I have so often 'talked over with him his friend Rossetti's death from 

 chloral, which he used to deplore ! He is a great loss, or rather, one 

 should say, has been a great loss, for he has been dead to the world 

 and to his friends for something like two years. 



" Margot came to dinner with George Wyndham and Harry Cust, 

 a merry parti de quatrc, and George stayed on talking with me after 

 the others were gone. 



" 16th June. — Lunched with Philip Currie and his wife, just back 

 from Constantinople. There seems little chance now of their being 

 transferred to Paris. Afterwards to Lady Galloway's. 



" 24th June. — Yesterday to Folkestone to the Morrises. He is dis- 

 tinctly better, and I hope may yet come round, as the doctors declare 

 he will. He talked a great deal about his boyhood, said he had read 

 the whole of Scott's novels before he was seven, and had gone through 

 the phase of ' Marmion ' and the ' Lady of the Lake.' At his school, 



1 Compare Dr. Dillon's " Eclipse of Russia." 



2 John Henry Middleton, director of the South Kensington Museum. 



