Lady Victoria Campbell

THE HOUSEHOLD FRIENDS 17
put together some notes of her own recollections in
order to aid the writer. They have now a double
interest, as she was one of the group of children to
whom she alludes, and they gather into her own
the recollections of her father the Duke. The tie
between these two friends was a peculiar one. It
extended over the lifetime of both, and in years they
were not far apart. Lizzie, the vigilant caretaker of
the Castle, when she was under twenty, was the same
personality to the end. " Maister George," the slight
lad with the red-gold hair, walking up from the boat,
gun in hand, as he landed for his day's shooting,
had the same individuality to the close of his life.
Happiest when out and about, the student of God's
" fair creation " ; living a life austere in its sim-
plicity, and seeking no other amusement or variety,
save in those brought to him by the changing seasons
and the book of Nature.
His life was to be cast in " the Parliament of man,"
in the tumult of the great City, in the stress of political
conflict. It was not the world of his inner life, and he
was always yearning to be apart in the peace of Nature.
It was ever a rest to him when he could leave the
necessary conditions of his large household and social
duties, and live the simple life of his early youth.
" A barefoot lassie, the best waiter," he would say,
and there was nothing the Duke loved better than to
find himself under conditions where Elizabeth King
would both cook and serve the broth, which she alone
could make, " as none other." That was a time of
old reminiscences, and the happy jokes the Duke