FOX-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 9 



been very celebrated as a prima donna in London 

 and in many foreign capitals from 1835, when 

 she appeared as Norma at Covent Garden, until 

 the close of her stage career in 1842. Who has 

 not read her charming story, A Week in a French 

 Country House ? Fanny had been the greatest 

 actress of her time, and had played Juliet at the 

 age of seventeen. But is not all this related by 

 her own pen in Records of a Girlhood ? Here 

 also were to be found Leighton, Val Prinsep, 

 Henry Greville, George Barrington, Hamilton 

 Aide, and Miss Thackeray, long before she became 

 Mrs. Ritchie. How well I remember the charm 

 of that society, and those memorable evenings 

 when Adelaide Sartoris would sing with touching 

 expression and a voice still entrancing ; Fanny 

 Kemble would recite in deep, tragic tones ; and 

 Edward Sartoris himself would sometimes relax 

 sufficiently to read (as no one else could read) 

 the plays of Shakespeare which he knew so well. 



Then the Grange, where at that time lived the 

 second Lord and Lady Ashburton. I was often 

 there, and met many celebrities — Landseer, the 

 Carlyles,Sir Roderick Murchison, Charles Kingsley, 

 Venables (of the Saturday Review)^ Laurence 

 Oliphant, the Brookfields, and others. I have 

 a pleasant memory of Kingsley in particular — in 

 complete contrast to Carlyle as a social factor, 



