Lady Victoria Campbell

14 THE HOUSEHOLD FRIENDS
and they form a beautiful background in their
remembrance of early childhood.
The Argyll children were especially fortunate in
being surrounded by a household whose lives had
been spent in the family service, in some instances
for more than one generation.
Elizabeth Campion was the family nurse for over
twenty years. She was a woman of a striking appear-
ance. Her clean-cut, pale features were framed by
two curls, secured by combs which projected from a
close fitting cap, which she was rarely seen without.
She always wore, when dressed for the afternoon,
a black silk gown, secured by a solid gold brooch,
the pin of which effectually helped her charges to
obey the admonishing word, " Not to untidy me,
there's a dear." Within loose, hanging sleeves, she
wore close-fitting ones of snowy lawn, and in this
costume, which to nursery eyes was part of their
"Nana," she would escort the children, one in her
arms, and a troop around the ample spread of her
skirts, downstairs to regions outside the nursery.
Her rule was a despotic one, and her numerous
nurserymaids did not find their posts a sinecure.
The standard set them was high and strenuous, and
" my girls " were not allowed much repose, nor was
any amusement countenanced. The servants she
trained are scattered far and wide, but in homes of
their own many of them have remembered the
unswerving integrity and deep devotion of the mother-
heart, which was given so, entirely to the children
of her affection.