In July, 1883, I went with Agatha to see Dunrozel for the first time ...  I was simply enchanted—­it was love at first sight, which only deepened year after year....  We had a good many pleasant neighbours; the Tennysons were more than pleasant, and welcomed us with the utmost cordiality, and we loved them all.

At that time Professor Tyndall and Louisa [103] were almost the only inhabitants of Hindhead.  They were not yet in their house, but till it was built and furnished lived in their “hut,” where they used to receive us with the most cheering, as well as cheerful, friendliness.

[103] Mrs. Tyndall.

    Lady Russell to Miss Lilian Blyth [104] [Mrs. Wilfred
    Praeger]

    DUNROZEL, HASLEMERE, November 16, 1883

Your letter is just like you, and that means all that is dear and good and loving....  Indeed, past years are full of happy memories of you all, not on marked days only, but on all days.  At my age, however, it is better to look forward to the renewal of all earthly ties and all earth’s best joys in an enduring home, than to look back to the past—­to the days before the blanks were left in the earthly home which nothing here below can ever fill, and this it is my prayer and my constant endeavour to do.  We go home to dear Pembroke Lodge next Tuesday ... going there must always be a happiness to us all, yet this lovely little Dunrozel is not a place to leave without many a pang.

[104] Daughter of the Rev. F.C.  Blyth, for many years curate at Petersham.

    Lady Russell to Miss Buehler [105]

    PEMBROKE LODGE, December, 1883

...  I find my head will not bear more than a certain amount of writing without giddiness and dull headache ... and there are so many correspondents who must be answered; friends, relations, business people, that I am often quite bewildered; ... so, please, understand that I shall always write when I can, but not nearly always when I would like to do so.  Go on letting yourself out whether sadly or happily, or in mingled sadness and happiness, and believe how very much I like to see into your thoughts and your heart as much as letters can enable me to do so....  As for Scotland, oh!  Scotland, my own, my bonny Scotland! if you associate that best and dearest of countries with your present ennui and unhappiness, I shall turn my back upon you for good and all and give you up as a bad job!  So make haste and tell me that you entirely separate the two things, and if you don’t admire “mine own romantic town” and feel its beauty thrill through and through you, you must find the cause in anything rather than in Edinburgh itself!  Such are my commands....  In the meantime let it be a consolation and a support to you to remember that it is by trials and difficulties that our characters are raised, developed, strengthened, made more Christ-like....  Good-bye, good-bye.  God bless you.

[105] Miss Buehler (who died some years ago) had been governess to Lady Russell’s grandson Bertrand.  She was Swiss, and only nineteen when she came, and Lady Russell gave her motherly care and affection.