LADY 104 YEARS’ OLD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19500, 8 June 1925, Page 11

LADY 104 YEARS’ OLD.

A LONELY CENTENARIAN. VICTORIAN ERA MEMORIES. Miss Elizabeth Underwood Lisle, of George street, Fortman Square, London, who is 104 years old, is at once the most remarkable and the loneliest of London's centenarians. Living in a big house in the heart of the West End, and served by a staff of devoted servants, Miss Lislo has no known descendants to bear her company in the little room from which she has for years watched the ebb and flow of busy London. Miss Lisle’s birthday, which fell in March, found her an invalid. For nine days previously sho was attacked by bronchitis, and her condition has caused some anxiety. But the wonderful old lady proved an ideal patient, and has confidence in her vitality. A Daily Chronicle representative who called at her house on the day before her birthday was told that Miss Lisle had been discussing her symptoms, and in doing so entirely ignored the fact that she was just completing her KMth year. " Although she has been bed-ridden for three months," said a member of the household, ” her memory is at times very clear, and she is always pleasant and patient. Until her illness she has taken the greatest interest ■in the news of the day and in everyday affairs.’ Even when 100 she would go out shopping with the housekeeper.” In early Victorian days, Miss Lisle was a well-known figure in society. She was presented at Court more than 80 years ago, and tells of Princess, afterwards Queen, Victoria, sliding down a staircase on a teatray as a last escapade before her coronation. Miss Lisle met all the giants of the era— Dickens, Cardinal Newman, Disraeli, Browning, and Tennyson, and also Florence Nightingale ; they both were young, vigorous women when the Crimean War was waged. Miss Lisle was an elocutionist of some distinction, and Dickens and Browning at times asked her to read their works to them. Miss Lislo holds strong views on the dross of the modern young woman, and the resort to “beautifying” aids. Her dislike of small talk and scandal was exemplified many decades ago, when, as a society hostess, sho told an indiscreet gueat: “ That door has two sides. Will you please go to the other side and stay there." Telling of this incident, Miss Lislo commented; ” Life is too short to waste any part of it in telling evil tales of other people.” During her long and brilliant life Miss Lisle has ever found Shapespearc her greatest consoler and friend. To this day she can recite practically the whole of I ” Hamlet." 1