At about eleven o'clock we drove under the arched carriage-way of a
mansion externally not very showy in appearance.
When the duchess appeared, I thought she looked handsomer by daylight
than in the evening. She received us with the same warm and simple
kindness which she had shown before. We were presented to the Duke of
Sutherland. He is a tall, slender man, with rather a thin face, light-
brown hair, and a mild blue eye, with an air of gentleness and
dignity.
Among the first that entered were the members of the family, the Duke
and Duchess of Argyll, Lord and Lady Blantyre, the Marquis and
Marchioness of Stafford, and Lady Emma Campbell. Then followed Lord
Shaftesbury with his beautiful lady, and her father and mother, Lord
and Lady Palmerston. Lord Palmerston is of middle height, with a keen
dark eye and black hair streaked with gray. There is something
peculiarly alert and vivacious about all his movements; in short, his
appearance perfectly answers to what we know of him from his public
life. One has a strange, mythological feeling about the existence of
people of whom one hears for many years without ever seeing them.
While talking with Lord Palmerston I could but remember how often I
had heard father and Mr. S. exulting over his foreign dispatches by
our own fireside. There were present, also, Lord John Russell, Mr.
Gladstone, and Lord Granville.
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