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We very much regret to
announce the death of Lady Llanover, which took place somewhat suddenly at
her residence at Llanover on Friday afternoon last, at the advanced age of
95 years.
Down to a few minutes before her dissolution her ladyship bore not the slightest
indication that there was anything the matter with her. She had spent the
day in bed, and at three o'clock Miss Price served her with
luncheon. Suddenly it became apparent that her ladyship had grown
unconscious. Mrs. Evans, her maid, was called and the state of
unconsciousness continued, and the Rev. John Prys was sent for. He
quickly came, but only in time to see the venerable lady pass away. The
Hon. Mrs. Herbert, of Llanarth, her ladyship's only surviving daughter,
arrived on Saturday at noon. The three sons of the last named, namely,
Colonel Ivor Herbert, of the Grenadier Guards; Major Bleiddyn Herbert, of
the 17th Lancers, and Mr. Arthur Herbert, of the Diplomatic Service,
arrived on Saturday with their mother. For the last 20 or 25 years, owing
to her advanced age, she was seldom heard of and much more seldom
seen. To the present generation of Welsh men and women she was
personally an utter stranger, but the mere mention of her name called forth
a host of memories of a past when the lady of Llanover was a personage of
very great importance indeed. As the wife of a great landowner, Sir
Benjamin Hall, once member of Parliament for the county, afterwards Lord
Llanover, Privy Councillor, her position among the gentry of Wales was one
of great distinction and commanding influence, but her fame was a thing
apart from the celebrity of her husband, either as a generous landowner or
a great politician. Lord Llanover was immensely popular for his own
manifold qualities, but his personality, great as it was, did not eclipse
the equally great personality, in Wales at least, of Lady Llanover. So far
back as fifty years ago the name of Lady Hall, "Gwenynen Gwent", [the
Bee of Gwent] as she then was known, was familiar throughout the length
and breadth of Wales, and revered to a point almost of adoration for the
intense sympathy she manifested with all things pertaining to Wales and the
Welsh. At a time when it was fashionable to sneer and snub Wales, its
people, its language, its literature, its traditions, and its customs, she,
although not of Welsh parentage, raised her voice in vigourous protest
against the perpetuation of so suicidal a policy, and carried her protest
to the length of instituting what was practically a crusade in favour of
rehabilitating the national customs of the Cymry in popular estimation, and
of calling forth among the Welsh people themselves fresh enthusiasm for all
their national characteristics. She soon came to be regarded as a kind of
living patron-saint of Welsh literature; with her, enthusiasm for all
things Welsh became a passion, whose ardour continued with but slight
diminution to the day of her death.
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