Rideau Hall, the Government House at Ottawa, stands about two miles out of the town, and is a long, low, unpretentious building, exceedingly comfortable as a dwelling-house, if somewhat inadequate as an official residence for the Governor-General of Canada.  Lord Dufferin added a large and very handsome ball-room, fitted with a stage at one end of it, and a full-sized tennis-court.  This tennis-court, by an ingenious arrangement, can be converted in a few hours into a splendid supper-room.  A red and white tent is lowered bodily from the roof; a carpet is spread over the floor; great white-and-gold electric standards bearing the arms of the different Provinces are placed in position, and the thing is done.  The intense dryness of the Canadian winter climate, especially in houses where furnace-heat intensifies the dryness, produces some unexpected results.  My brother-in-law had brought out a number of old pieces of French inlaid furniture.  The excessive dryness forced out some of the inlaid marqueterie of these pieces, and upon their return to Europe they had to undergo a long and expensive course of treatment.  Some fine Romneys and Gainesboroughs also required the picture-restorer’s attentions before they could return to their Wiltshire home after a five years’ sojourn in the dry air of Canada.  The ivory handles of razors shrink in the dry atmosphere; as the steel frame cannot shrink correspondingly the ivory splits in two.  The thing most surprising to strangers was that it was possible in winter-time to light the gas with one’s finger.  All that was necessary was to shuffle over the carpet in thin shoes, and then on touching any metal object, an electric spark half an inch long would crack out of your finger.  The size and power of the spark depended a great deal on the temperament of the experimenter.  A high-strung person could produce quite a large spark; a stolid, bovine individual could not obtain a glimmer of one.  The late Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, whilst staying at Government House, was told of this, but was inclined to be sceptical.  My sister, Lady Lansdowne, made him shuffle over the carpet, and then and there touch a gas-burner from which she had removed the globe.  Mr. Chamberlain, with his nervous temperament, produced a spark an inch long out of himself, and of course the gas flared up immediately.  I do not think that I had ever seen any one more surprised.  This power of generating static electricity from their own bodies was naturally a source of immense delight to the Lansdowne children.  They loved, after shuffling their feet on the carpet, to creep up to any adult relation and touch them lightly on the ear, a most sensitive spot.  There would be a little spark, a little shock, and a little exclamation of surprise.  Outside the children’s schoolroom there was a lobby warmed by a stove, and the air there was peculiarly dry.  The young people, with a dozen or so of their youthful friends, would join hands, taking, however, care not to complete the circle,