Page:Wives of the prime ministers, 1844-1906.djvu/148

WIVES OF THE PRIME MINISTERS Ashley and her children, leaving him in town, and her letters to her "dearest love"—she was sixty-four and he was sixty-seven—show how not to see him even for the space of a fortnight was unthinkable. One day she wrote: "Whenever you write me word that you have opened your carpet bags I shall make a bonfire on the Steyne." When he was away from her her letters to him are filled with adjurations to take care of himself, not to go sailing on Luggan Lake, or if he bathes, not to go out of his depth.

She wrote to him nearly every day while she was at Brighton, and the following extracts from her letters are of interest:

"I got down very safely yesterday, but I never was in a more shaky train, however. The Ashleys and I were together, and we got down in an hour and ten minutes, but I think for the future I shall always avoid express trains. There is something so awful in the notion of not stopping anywhere, so that if unfortunately there should occur anything wrong about your carriage you would have to go on fifty miles without any help or the least power of getting your distress 116