social club of the highest class. In February 1858, the month that he first took his seat in parliament, he was elected a member of the 'Cosmopolitan' and of the Athenæum. In 1889 he joined 'The Club,' and for some years before his death was its treasurer—'the only permanent official, and the guardian of its records.' He also belonged to the Literary Society (from 1872) and Grillion's (from 1889), and was in 1865 the founder of the Breakfast Club, and the most assiduous attendant at its meetings. Grant Duff published numerous articles, essays, and memoirs, a volume of original verse (printed privately), and an anthology of the Victorian poets. All of them show learning, cultivation, and style; but the principal literary work he left behind him is his 'Notes from a Diary.' He began a diary in 1851, and from 1873 kept it with the intention that the bulk of it should be published. He published the first two volumes (1851-72) in 1897; further sets of two volumes each followed in 1898, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1904, and 1905. The fourteen volumes bring the record down to 23 Jan. 1901, when Grant Duff kissed hands as a privy councillor on the accession of King Edward VII. He declares in his preface to the first two volumes that his object has been to make it 'the lightest of light reading,' and the most 'good-natured' of books. The 'Notes' contain practically no politics, but are a purely personal record of the people he met, and the things they said. The result is a collection of excellent stories and memorable sayings, which form a valuable contribution to social history.
Grant Duff travelled much. He visited at different times Coburg, Dresden, Russia, Spain, Darmstadt (during the war of 1870), Athens, the Troad, India (seven years before his appointment to Madras), Syria (where he spent a winter at Haifa in a house lent to him by Laurence Oliphant), and Bucharest. In all these places he frequented the society of rulers, ambassadors, authors, and other remarkable people. He received from M. Ollivier a full and confidential account of the political events immediately preceding the Franco-Prussian war. He met Garibaldi in the height of his fame, and was for many years on terms of friendship with the Empress Frederick of Germany. From 1866 to 1872 he filled for two consecutive terms the office of lord rector of Aberdeen University. From 1889 to 1893 he was president of the Royal Geographical Society, and from 1892 to 1899 was president of the Royal Historical Society. He was elected F.R.S. in 1901, and was nominated a Crown trustee of the British Museum in 1903.
In person Grant Duff was slight, delicately made, and habitually gentle in speech and manner, though he would upon occasion express himself with great animation. He suffered through life from indifferent health, and in particular from astigmatic vision to such an extent that it was extremely difficult for him to read or write for himself.
He was the tenant for considerable periods of Hampden House, Berkshire, York House, Twickenham, and Knebworth House. Finally he bought Lexden Park, near Colchester, and in each of these houses he practised a wide hospitality. He died at his London house on Chelsea Embankment on 12 Jan. 1906, and was buried at Elgin cathedral.
Grant Duff married on 13 April 1859 Anna Julia, only daughter of Edward Webster of North Lodge, Ealing. By her he had four sons and four daughters. His elder sons, Arthur and Evelyn, are respectively minister at Dresden and consul-general, with the rank of minister, at Buda-Pest. Grant Duff's portrait in crayons by Henry T. Wells, drawn for reproduction for Grillion's Club, is in the possession of Lady Grant Duff at Earl Soham Grange, Framlingham.
Grant Duff published, besides 'Notes from a Diary':
- 'Studies of European Politics,' 1866.
- 'A Political Survey,' 1868.
- 'Elgin Speeches,' Edinburgh, 1871.
- 'Notes on an Indian Journey,' 1876.
- 'Miscellanies, Political and Literary,' 1878.
- 'Memoir of Sir Henry Maine,' 1892.
- 'Ernest Renan,' 1893-8.
- 'Memoir of Lord De Tabley,' 1899.
- 'A Victorian Anthology,' 1902.
- 'Out of the Past: some Biographical Essays,' 2 vols. 1903.
- 'Gems from a Victorian Anthology,' 1904.
[Notes from a Diary; Banffshire Herald. 16 Jan. 1906; The Times, 13 Jan. 1906; Burke's Landed Gentry; private information; personal knowledge.]
GRANTHAM, Sir WILLIAM (1835–1911), judge, born at Lewes on 23 Oct. 1835, was second son of George Grantham of Barcombe Place, Sussex, by his wife Sarah, daughter of William Verrall of Southower Manor, Lewes. He was educated at King's College School, London, and was entered a student of the Inner Temple on 30 April 1860. A pupil in the chambers of James (afterwards Lord) Hannen [q. v. Suppl. I],
