page_0002

171
the course of the next morning. At the hotel we found the boarders
anxiously expecting us and fearful lest something had befallen
us. X

Before leaving the city I was taken by
M Necludoff to a reception at the Russian Minister’s whose name
was [Persiani?]. I have already described explained that his ancestor had entered
the Russian diplomatic service by the father having been employed as
a dragoman or interpreter at Constantinople. His name was very un-
Russian in sound. He was an easy mannered gentleman and both
his wife and himself spoke with pleasure and even gratitude of
their reception on board an American war vessel which had been
in the Piraeus a few weeks before when Mr Pryor was there. What
particularly delighted them was that upon reaching the deck
the Russian flag was hoisted to one of the masts and saluted
with a discharge of cannon, all in the sight of the English and French
vessels who could not prevent it. That flag has not been seen in
those waters for over a year, and the ignorant Greeks concluded
that Russia has found an ally in the Americans.

At length after a fortnight’s stay in Athens I bade my friends
adieu and started in another of the Austrian Lloyds for Constantinople
and Syra and Smyrna. Mr Hill gave me before I left a letter of introduct-
ion to Admiral Lyons who commanded the British fleet before Sebastopol.
The way in which he had become sufficiently well acquainted with him
to do this was follows. When young prince Otto of Bavaria had
been chosen to rule over the new kingdom, he embarked in an English
frigate at Trieste on his way to Athens, which was commanded by
Capt Lyons. The Captain made himself very agreeable to the youthful
king, and the latter was so much pleased with him that he requested
the English government to allow him to remain in Greece as their diplo-
matic representative. The government consented to this and during the
many years that Minister Lyons was at Athens Mr Hill and himself
became very intimate, and it was therefore a perfectly natural pro-
ceeding, with no presuming upon an acquaintanship for him to give
me the letter. While Minister Lyons was at Athens, the eldest son of
the then Duke of Norfolk, who was inclined to be dissipated, arrived
then, consigned to his care. He was received in the Minister’s family
and soon after became engaged to one of his daughters whom he
married. It was a brilliant marriage for the young woman for she
in a few years became the duchess of Norfolk herself. Her husband
did not live long however, and she was soon a dowager. The alliance
was an advantageous one for the Lyons family in several ways, for,
although the Duke of Norfolk of today is not the influential nobleman
that his ancestors were, it brought them before the public, and the admi-
ral’s son, who became in time ambassador to Paris, retaining the post
for many years, was probably assisted in his first steps upwards by
the influences of the Howard connection.

It can be seen that Mr Hill as a missionary was quite an exception. When
I knew him he never troubled himself about the kind of work that the
good people at home who provide the money presumed that he was busy
about, and yet he was universally respected and retained the confidence