WIVES OF THE PRIME MINISTERS
Thus, while she fully shared the anxieties of her husband's public life, and was his companion and confidante in every sense, Mrs. Peel was, as she says, no politician. It was hers to cast upon the statesman's path "the quiet sunshine of domestic gladness" and to solace by her "beauty's spell" and the "soft kindness" of her "pure affection"
"The life of him, whose deeds shall ever dwell
With a grateful country's recollection !"[1]
With a very short break Peel remained in office from 1822 till 1830, and from 1828 he combined the duties of leader of the House of Commons with those of Home Secretary.
In May 1830 Peel's father died, and he succeeded to the baronetcy, to a large fortune, and to Drayton Manor, the famous residence at Tamworth. He had before this built himself a fine house in Whitehall Gardens, London, with a gallery for the splendid collection of pictures he had formed. These pictures, chiefly of the Dutch and Flemish Schools, are now in the National Gallery. Peel was the friend and patron of Sir Thomas Lawrence, who painted two portraits of Lady Peel. One, a three-quarter length, seated,
- ↑ From lines by Mrs. Abdy. appended to an engraving of Lawrence's portrait of Lady Peel.
54
