State Library of NSW
[Page 303]
where there are large parties - Mrs Grote is very clever, & it is pleasant to associate with her, as she often has clever people at her house, & the conversation is worth listening to - some one said of her "She is the most Gentlemanly man one ever meets". She is very like a man in her mode of expression & mind - says such queer things - like all the Lewins - the cleverest men like Gladstone, Dean Stanley, &c. all often calling on her to talk to her & to know her ideas about things. She calls George "the Fossil" - he so astonishes her with his memory. She was talking about Petrarch, & he repeated one of his most beautiful odes immediately. Mrs Grote is 85 & George 84 - they are two rare specimens of a green old age - & it is very interesting & instructive to hear them talk over all the books & political events of the present day - The war I hope is
[George Grote, historian, wrote monumental History of Greece]
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