SOCIAL LIFE 193 



point, and the stream after crossing it fell into a pre- 

 cipice, at the bottom of which ran the river Loup. 

 Mrs. MacLennan was walking first, and, owing to 

 some strange accident, missed a stone or tripped, and 

 fell heavily on her side, where she lay motionless in 

 the water as though shot dead. I helped her to rise, 

 but she was in great pain. It was difficult to set her 

 on her feet, for the position was not one to stagger 

 safely in, the precipice being much too near. 



With great pluck, she went a few steps onward to 

 see the fall, and then the long return walk had to be 

 achieved. She was confined for a long time to bed, 

 and far from fit to travel when she left us. The 

 injury was followed by an internal complaint, of which, 

 after much suffering at her own home, she died. 



Few have been more thorough in their friendship 

 to my wife and myself than Sir Rutherford and Lady 

 Alcock and her daughter by a previous marriage, 

 Miss Lowder, now Lady Pelly. I was well acquainted 

 with much of Sir Rutherford's work in China and 

 Japan before I had the pleasure of knowing him 

 personally, because the Foreign Office used to forward 

 those of his dispatches that were of geographical 

 interest to the Royal Geographical Society, where, 

 for want of a better person, they were generally 

 referred to myself. Sir Rutherford's life was event- 

 ful ; first as an army surgeon in Spain under Sir 

 De Lacy Evans, then Consul in China, then our first 

 Minister in Japan, then Ambassador to China. Lady 

 Alcock seconded him in charge of the well - being 

 of his large staff, with a kindliness that was pro- 

 verbial. On their return to England they became 

 social favourites from the highest in rank to the 



