"
Sir Samuel Romilly left behind him, in his Autobiography, a
touching picture of his wife, to whom he attributed no small
measure of the success and happiness that accompanied him through
life. "For the last fifteen years," he said, "my happiness has
been the constant study of the most excellent of wives: a woman in
whom a strong understanding, the noblest and most elevated
sentiments, and the most courageous virtue, are united to the
warmest affection, and to the utmost delicacy of mind and heart;
and all these intellectual perfections are graced by the most
splendid beauty that human eyes ever beheld." (17) Romilly's
affection and admiration for this noble woman endured to the end;
and when she died, the shock proved greater than his sensitive
nature could bear. Sleep left his eyelids, his mind became
unhinged, and three days after her death the sad event occurred
which brought his own valued life to a close. (18)
Sir Francis Burdett, to whom Romilly had been often politically
opposed, fell into such a state of profound melancholy on the
death of his wife, that he persistently refused nourishment of any
kind, and died before the removal of her remains from the house;
and husband and wife were laid side by side in the same grave.
It was grief for the loss of his wife that sent Sir Thomas Graham
into the army at the age of forty-three. Every one knows the
picture of the newly-wedded pair by Gainsborough--one of the most
exquisite of that painter's works.
Pages:
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425