Great Ones in Retrospect

In response to a general demand from her mother’s friends that some sort of a permanent record of her mother’s life be given to the world, Miss Rachel Weigall has written a book* about Lady Rose Weigall. Lady Rose (who died in 1921) was the daughter of Lord and Lady Burghersh, afterwards the eleventh Earl and Countess of Westmoreland. She married Henry Weigall, D.L., J.P., artist.

The story is culled from notes and letters written and received by Lady Rose; it takes the reader from 1834 to 1920 and presents a maze of interesting characters.

Lady Rose’s father was successively Ambassador to Berlin and Vienna before he decided to retire to his country estates at Apthorpe. In Berlin account is made of King Frederick William IV; the Prussian royal children, with whom Lady Rose used to play; Prince Hohenlohe; Count Halzfeldt; Jenny Lind, singer; Meyerbeer, composer; Mendelssohn, famed pianist. In Vienna reference is made to the Emperor Franz Josef; the Empress Elizabeth; Prince Metternich. Journeys from Berlin to Calais, made by post, entailed crossing Belgian territory, and even here Lord and Lady Westmoreland were received with open arms by the Belgian Royal Family. Mention is made of King Leopold I and of his daughter, Princess Charlotte, later the unhappy Empress of Mexico, now mad and confined in a castle in Belgium (TIME, July 30). In England, glimpses are given of Queen Victoria; Edward VII as the Prince of Wales; the Prince Consort; the Duke of Wellington, grand-uncle of Lady Rose; Gladstone; the great Salisbury, father of Lord Robert Cecil; Robert Browning, poet; Carlyle, brilliant and famous essayist.

The book forms a delightful link with society of the past. The letters of Julian Fane to his sister (Lady Rose) are of great interest and value, especially those written from Russia. The correspondence which passed between H.R.H. the Grand Duchess of Baden and Lady Rose, even during the late War, shows a simple, sincere and human friendliness, which does not fail to awaken a vivid sympathy. The book also gives some idea, superficial it is true, of the German view of the War.

Excerpts:

About the Duke of Wellington. “… provided the Duke could have a rice pudding every day he was indifferent to the rest of the menu.”

About Bismarck. ” Among the young men, one was noted for his great love of dancing and was known as a clever speaker . . . but he was considered so erratic that no one ever dreamed of the future greatness of young Bismarck.”

About Kaiser Wilhelm II. “At Berlin we dined one night with the Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia. The ex-Emperor of Germany was about 18 months old, and his father himself fetched him down after dinner to show him to Mamma (Lady Westmoreland). He was a pretty little fellow, although backward in walking, and with his arm limp and helpless; but they were very proud of him.”

About Franz Josef. “The young Emperor was extremely fond of dancing, and it was one of his few relaxations. Always grave and dignified in manner and even shy, he chose his partners from among the best dancers (of whom my mother—Lady Rose—was one) and evidently it was the exercise that appealed to him rather than the social aspect.”

About the Coronation of Alexander II of Russia. (A letter from Julian Fane, on the staff of the British Embassy, to Lady Rose.) “The Emperor and Empress both went through their parts admirably . . . On entering the Church, both fall on their knees and touch the floor with their foreheads, and afterwards move about to different quarters of the Church to bow before the images and kiss the holy relics—a maneuvre which they both executed with great grace. The ceremony of the Coronation itself is very pretty, the Emperor first putting the crown (which is enormous, and I should think priceless from the mass of jewels it contains) on his own head, and then lifting it off and touching with it the head of the Empress, when he again places it on his own, and then takes the Empress in his arms and kisses her.”

About an Unconscious Prophecy. “I think this (Moscow) is a most beautiful town, more agreeable and I should think more healthy than Petersburg … I should think it infinitely preferable as a capital to St. Petersburg.”

*LADY ROSE WEIGALL—Rachel Weigall —Appleton ($3.00).