Agriculture and the House of Russell. 
145 
Mr. Dent pyrites : " The Duke was a very kind host, wonder- 
fully well informed on many subjects, and with a great deal of 
humour underlying a rather peculiar manner. When he enter- 
tained the foreign visitors at Woburn during the Kilburn week, 
his felicity and facility of expression, in German, French, 
and English, struck every one with surprise." JMons. Jules 
Laverriere, of the Societe Nationale d'Agriculture de France, 
wi'ites to me in the same strain, with a vivid remembrance of 
his Grace's urbanity and hospitality on the occasion referred 
to by Mr. Dent. Similar testimony is forthcoming from those 
who attended the admirably arranged excursion of foreign 
visitors to Woburn during the year of the Indian and Colonial 
Exhibition in 1886. In fact, as the Master of Balliol observes, 
'•it is not too much to say of him that he was one of the 
finest gentlemen in Europe. In his own house he took extra- 
ordinary care of his guests, and they went away delighted 
with him." 
The graceful tribute paid to the memory of the late Duke 
by the Earl of Ravensworth, as President of the Royal Agricul- 
tural Society, at the first meeting of Council held after his 
Grace's decease, is printed in extenso in another part of this 
number ; but room must also be found in the Journal for the final 
sentences of the eloge of Pi'ofessor Jowett, as summing up in a few 
masterly words the leading characteristics of the Duke's character : 
He never gained distinction because be never sought it. He would have 
been the first to ridicule the notion that he would be remembered a century 
hence. He was disinterested and nnambitious, altogether free from the 
prejudices of rank or wealth, not without a considerable touch of genius in 
his nature. But he was a spectator, not an actor, on the theatre of the 
world. He would not have cared to be numbered among famous men. To 
be ignored was what he w^juld have preferred. Yet there are a few persons 
for whom he did care, who will always remember*him, as long as thdy live, 
to have been a highly accomplished man of a singular goodness and kindness 
of heart, and unlike anybody else whom they ever knew. 
Immediately after his ^lecession to the title in January of this 
year, Francis, the lOth Duke of Bedford, with the public spirit 
that has always characterised his House, spontaneously expressed 
his wish to provide for the continuance of the experiments at 
Woburn which had been inaugurated by his father, the late Duke ; 
and the Society is thus happily able by his Grace's munificence 
to contemplate without anxiety the progress of a work not only 
valuable in itself, but of the highest importance to agriculture 
and to the country at large. 
Ernest Clarke. 
VOL. II. T. s. — 5 
