“Dear Cha,—Sir Edwin Landseer called on Sunday. He had
taken the doggies to Windsor the day before, and on being introduced told the
Queen that they were in their basket
in the corridor. She instantly ran out and began to open the hamper.
Landseer said, ‘Take care, Madam, they have
been dressed with a little oil and brimstone.’
‘Pooh,’ said she, ‘what signifies
that?’ and so she took them out and caressed both so skilfully that
they began to run about after her, and she went for the children, who joined in
the enjoyment of the new playthings, as did Prince
Albert when he came in by-and-by for luncheon. After that the
Queen said she knew not which to choose, both were so charming, and
Landseer said it was designed to place both at her
feet. She said it was too much,
| 348 | LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART. |
“I have received lately two or three pamphlets about ‘the Holy Oriental Church,’ which made me suspect something like what you mention. But there was a very queer article in the Revue des Deux Mondes a few months ago, ‘On the Ecclesiastical Affairs of the West from a Russian Point of View,’ written by a Sclavon, and asserting the claims of the Eastern Church to supersede the Popes of Rome, and the likelihood of this being ere long acknowledged, in consequence of the feebleness of the Papacy and the death of Anglicanism, and the worse than death of the German schism in all its branches. He says that when, for the first time after so many centuries, ‘an orthodox emperor’ knelt at the shrine of St. Peter, the effect was felt by the Romans of every class so as to prove their sense of Nicholas’s ecclesiastical position and prospects.
| MR. HOPE’S CONVERSION | 349 |
“Did Hope ever see ‘The Forester,’ by the woodman at Arniston? A new edition has just come out, and my copy is much at his service. I fancy it contains the best rules about sale of wood in Scotland, and might be useful to you.—Affectionately yours,
