Margot Asquith, an Autobiography - Two Volumes in One

's POEM AND DINNER PA

Y OF THE GROUP-TIL

TENNYSON; HIS CONTE

. S. NOT A SOUL-MARG

ONDS; HIS PRAISE O

ther I have already explained: we saw more of one another than we should probably have done had my sister Laura Lyttelton li

for its head-quarters. As far as I could see, there was more exclusiveness in the racing world than I had ever observed among the Souls; and th

rather intellectual and literary after-di

d it was considered an impertinence on our part to make him play pencil- games or be our intellectual guide and critic. Nearly all the young men in my circle were clever and becam

spiring than theirs. "Breaking the news," for instance, was an entertainment that had a certain vogue among the younger generation before the war. It consisted of two people acting together and conveying to their audience various ways in which they would receive the news of the sudden death of a friend or a relation and was considered extraordinarily funny; it would never have amused any of the Souls. The modern habit of pursuing, detecting and exposing what was ridiculous i

on.] also drew the enemy's fire and was probably more dir

orld had called me a prig. He was a remarkably intelligent person in an exceptional generation. He had ambition and-what he claimed for himself in a brilliant description-"middle-class method"; and he added to a kindly feeling for other people a warm corner for himself. Some of my friends thought his contemporaries in the House of Commons, George Wyndham and Harry Cust, would go farther, as the former promised more originality and the latter was a f

howed me and mine a steady and sympathetic love over a long period of years. Even now, if I died, although he belongs to the m

banquet, to which he entertained us in the Bachelors' Club, on the 10th of July, 1889. We found a poem welcoming us on our chairs, when we sat down to dinner, in which

osity and endless discussion. It was followed two years later by another dinner given

the object of much obloquy. I remember dining with Sir Stanley and Lady Clarke to meet Kin

in the world, you know, befor

her nettled

if I alone were responsible for the stupi

the defensive and did not mean to be rude but I was

See footnotes at

JULY,

ist t

t comp

of gallants

hered t

e yea

hat in Hamil

ere where

banque

ing of GEOR

th! 'tis

rrs, that

ble licence

him tha

e'er suc

ed and spiri

hem crit

christened

al link they

spirits,

ither

e temples t

ur imag

irt with

us to linge

seen at

nd, the Hi

t to all hear

y nobo

true Co

s dear ARTHUR

ica

gives whe

es as HARRY

any ma

t HARRY

ittle head o

much-envie

lady wh

what may lif

asure

ty no

philosop

MMOND was

LAWRENCE,

and my Lad

one of

wept at

er can VIOL

TON, who

eet in ou

and his Counte

irit's pr

rled to th

our stay i

N was th

choice o

himself v

RIDGE'S

suffera

rs and mod

h, I wo

East ne

as him and h

RNERS you

man mus

that the Gang

indred

RY to-d

med on a world

ouse debo

man h

o say that

NGY esc

fe, to our

ugh withdrawn f

late she

f spir

oned that fai

humour

iginal

O be ceded

equal

subtle

as far from a

DY has

ll shall

hat a lovely v

o, would sh

do, wer

rsed laryng

distan

LAN disp

hat is found

R in bow

craft, i

te first in

trio

never w

u may wander

at wond

Gallant

TY and LUCY

Y he g

es that

ue of an angel

OT the

wieldi

er the joy

MY is pr

CHARTY

and gifts o

d are th

D, who b

, the hero,

Gosford

JOHN des

or a bag such

th she e

ering h

chantment tha

ar are

rong, sh

the TAPLOV

amed far

ETTY he

ore golden t

LL who has

ords conce

e is a fal

T could d

as many

s as in P

there w

Lord the

n to come and

e one of

pe there

at the biddin

e LITTLE

, and h

the imperial

t odio

WPER knock

o his comfort a

TTY'S e

all are

ss of SIBELL'S

NDHAM can

banquet

is standi

ill can

nse with

nd ill HARRY C

ere, we m

n he ru

of that "d-d

lost LAD

rice har

h and his ap

s! we h

ruinou

the brilliant

got in t

ft of tr

arvellous da

nquered t

n blown b

r us over

is is

hose who

have come to

ll for

irit an

t not one of

st by t

hymester

es in doggr

ow wer

iters,

or consomme

13 The Hon. Mrs. E. Bourke. 14 The Hon. Spencer Lyttelton. 15 The Hon. Alan Charteris. 16 Sir E. Vincent (now Lord D'Abernon). 17 Mrs. Graham Smith. 18 Lady Ribblesdale. 19 Mrs. Asquith. 20 Lord Ribblesdale. 21 The Hon. Alfred Lyttelton. 22 The Hon. St. John Brodrick (now Earl of Midleton) and Lady Hilda Brodrick. 23 Mr. and Mrs. Willy Grenfell (now Lord and Lady Desborough). 24 Mr.

perfectly, to make a descriptive inventory of some of the Soul

and they spent all their holidays at Glen. I never remember the time when Algy West was not getting old and did not say he wanted to die; but, although he is ninety,

out the country with a dog, a gun and a cigar, perfectly independent and self-sufficing, whether engaged in sport, repartee, or literature. He wrote and published for private circulation a small book of poems and made the Souls famous by his proficiency at all our pencil-games. It would be unwise to quote verses or epigrams that depend so much upon the occasion

ith Satan Pickering Phipps, But when for aid h

on the anniversary of Laura's death, whether I was at home or abroad. He was

known as St. John Brodrick-was my first friend of interest; I knew him two years before I met Arth

being made an Earl and asked him in what year it

1920. DEA

istinctions. Indeed, it is the only truly democratic trait about YOU, except a general love of Humanity, which has always put you on the side of the

ng party didn't come in) and filled the room with light, electrified the conversation and made old R-y falter over his marriage vows within ten minutes. From then onwards, you have

ears will se

ss

JO

ruth to tell; others are too agreeable-or too frightened-and lie; but the majority are indifferent: th

corrected. I have had a long experience of inner circles and am constantly reminded of the Spanish proverb, "Remember your friend has a friend." I think you should either leave the room when those you love are abused or

he most persistent of fr

lity." [Footnote: The word malignity was obv

commonly found among friends; but, as long as we are not merely responsible for

e: Miss May Tomlinson, of Rye.], Lady Desborough, Mrs. Montgomery, Lady Wemyss and Lady Bridges [Footnote: J Lady Bridges, wife of General Sir Tom Bridges.]-but ever since we met in 1880 he has taken an interest in me and all that concerns me. He was mu

aw-a dear friend of mine-never understood him and was amazed when I told her that her son-in-law was worth all of her children pu

embroke join in. I had no idea who the splendid stranger was. He told me several years later that he had sent round a note in the middle of that dinner to Blanchie Waterford, asking her what the name of the girl with the red heels was, and that, when he read her answer, "Margot Tennant," it conveyed nothing to him. This occurred in 1881 and was for me an eventful evening. Lord Pembroke was one of the four best-looking men I ever saw: the others, as I have already said, were the late Earl of Wemyss, Mr. Wilfrid Blunt-whose memoirs have been recently published-and Lord D'Abernon [Footnote: Our Ambassador in Berlin.]. He was six foot four, but his face was even more conspicuous than his height. There was Russian blood

er understood the meaning of party government and looks upon it as dishonest for even three people to attempt to modify their opinions suffi

ished called Roots-he was a Conservative. We formed a deep friendship and wrote to one another t

y godmother turns the Prince's footsteps your way he may not, distrusting your nature or his own powers, and only half-guessing

arish flowers" and "wild and careless weeds" describe my lack of pruning; but I a

ation, which though not consciously pretentious, provoked considerable merriment

auty of person and hospitality to foreigners made him the distinguished centre of any company. His first present to me was Butcher and Lang's translation of the Odyssey, in which

d a famous Victorian beauty. Lady Granby-the Violet of verse nine, Gladys Ripon [Footnote: My friend Lady de Grey.] and Lady Windsor (alluded to as Lady Gay in verse twenty-eight), were all women of arresting appearance: Lady Brownlow, a Roman coin; Violet Rutland, a Burne-Jones Medusa; Gladys Ripon, a court lady; Gay Windsor, an Italian Primitive and Milly Sutherland, a Scotch

oes God'

nor was she sporting and she never invested in parlour tricks; yet she created more fun for other people than anybody. She was a woman of genius, who, if subtly and accurately described, either in her mode of life, her charm, wits or character, would have made the fortune of any novelist. To an outsider she might-like all over-agreeable femmes du monde-give an impression of light metal, but this would be misleading. Etty Desborough was fundamentally sound, and the truest friend that ever lived. Possessed of social and moral sang-froid of a high order, she was too elegant to fall into the t

ward Horner, Charles Lister and Raymond Asquith all fell in the war. They haunt my

he ought to have lived in the days of the great King's mistresses. I would have gone to her if I were sad, but never if I were guilty. Most of us have asked ourselves at one time or another whom we would go to if we had done a wicked thing; and the interesting part of this question is that in the answer you

ers of the Souls, my life-long and beloved friends, Lord and Lady Cowper of Panshanger, now,

children when they were young, I would as soon have confided them

a conversational scrap I had at this time with Lady Londonderry,[Footnote: T

lent, with a mind which clung firmly to the obvious. Though her nature was i

ad enemy. No kiss-and-make-

I did then, what the difference

ndowed intellectually

tronger will and was

stful, reflective or

keen and vivid, but

d, a habit which I have never had the temerity to acquire. John Addington Symonds-an intimate f

the author from hearing a casual passage read out aloud from one of their books. I said that some writers would be easy to recognise-such as Meredith, Carlyle, De Quincey or Browning-but that when it came to others-men like Scott or Froude, for instance-I should not be so sure of myself. At this there was an outcry: Froude, having the finest style in the world, ought surely to be easily recognised! I was quite ready to believe that some of the company had made a complete study of Froude's style, but I had not. I said that I could not be sure, because his writing was too smoot

to know, Miss Tennant

ond

g taken on, I repl

sual sort

th the confident air of one who has a litt

hance looked at Es

ulat

s, I've rea

"Really! Do you no

on't know what you me

writing beautiful ..

are all very bad, bu

ds' s

I am afraid you hav

anted with their spokeswoman, but I thought

t her calm

ng those essays. He was rash enough to ask me to read one of them in manuscript and write whatever I thought upon the margin. This I did, but he was offended by something I

not taken on by fashion

reading or study of any kind. She had not the smallest sense of proportion and, if anything went wrong in her entertainments-cold plates, a flat souffle, or some one throwing her over for dinner-she became almost impotent from agitation, only excusable if it had been some great public disaster. She and Mr. Harry Higgins-an exceptionally clever and devoted friend of mine-having revived the opera, Bohemian society became her hobby; but a tenor in the country or a dancer on the lawn are not really wanted; an

tside my own family. I met her when she was Miss Graham and I was fourteen. She was a leader in what

f Liberty velveteen; but it was neither the unusualness of her clothes nor the sight of Burne-Jones at her feet and Ruskin at her

rried our poet-son, Herbert), Lady Betty Balfour[Footnote: Sister of the Earl of Lytton and wife of Mr. Gerald Balfour.] and my daughter Elizabeth. With most wom

the endless discussion whether the brougham fetching one part of the family from one station and a bus fetching another part of it from another interfered with a guest catching a five or a five-to-five train-which could or could not be stopped-if one could have been quite sure that Mary Wemyss needed her friend so much that another opportunity would be given for an intimate interchange of confidences; but plan-weavin

hear of my death from the man behind the counter who

inent of the Souls w

rother of the present

he poet and was an

dy appearance, a black

ongs in a lusty voice

e best. The first was written to me on my twenty-fi

e flower when t

h m

one so rich, a s

ht to one so ri

hts o

pe because I si

h a

u see my gi

re aux yeu

me once

u will, dear girl

e

ned within the f

mo

oet as of one w

o

his thought, th

he

eive his gi

re aux yeu

ks of me

s is th

e from my

e to her c

red, "Call

n her smile

fool, I

y her p

e knew her b

h hour a hea

ould coax

loving, fra

spicion cr

as her p

says "I t

was not co

ly comme i

at she was f

was, poor g

y her pi

ike him to give me for a b

take me down to your father's coun

d; and he and I wen

together

tion, because she was reading with an air of concentration; but, on looking at her, I observed her eyes fixed upon me. I wore a scarlet cloak trimmed with cock's feathers and a black, three- cornered hat. When we arrived at our station, the old lady

creature to look at. He had everything: height, figure, carriage, features and expression. Added to this

lever and spurty as

kind of frontal attack one has to be either saucy or servile; so I said nothing memo

, you know, that I was

ch I r

ou min

d if it was true. Do

ou are ver

ink I am. Very well then, I will dress for dinn

onplace that is apt to overcome one in a first conversation with a man of eminence, "that

By any other arrangement four people w

dined early and after dinner the poet went to bed. At ten o'clock he came down

t night and, placing myself next to him when h

at do you wan

T: "M

s bad enough for me! I was a blackguard, a ruffian and an atheist! You will live t

small copy of Maud, a shilling volume, bound in blue paper. I put i

my beloved friend, Professor Gilbert Murray. When I first heard him at

soul. It was neither singing, nor chanting, nor speaking, but a subtle mixture of the t

ping the next four sections, went on to, "I have led

fallen a s

sion-flower

ing, my do

ing, my li

ies, "She is ne

rose weeps,

listens, "I h

ly whisper

ing, my ow

ver so ai

uld hear he

rth in an

uld hear h

for a cen

nd tremble un

m in purpl

d, he pulled me on

well as that, but nothing

d not

unfortunate experience with a you

e," he said, "as you are d

the high

light wa

aud, Ma

crying a

'A nightingale.' This made me so angry that I nearly

so afraid he was going to stop reading that I quickly ope

ts blue paper cover, out of which he read t

walking at a great pace over rough ground for two hours I regretted my vanity. Except my brother Glenconner I never met su

ge Wyndham.] It would be superfluous to add anything to what has already been p

ss of her literary talent. Although his name will always be associated with the Irish Land Act, he was more

ut and was in some ways the rarest end the most brilliant of them

of it containing any poison, but like many

ister Laura. A few weeks later I found her making a sachet, which was an unusual occupation

7, he walked into our house where we were having supper. He had just ret

d an unplumbed sea of knowledge, quoting with equal ease both poetry and prose. He edited the Pall Mall Gazette brilliantly for several years. With his youth, brains and looks, he might have d

peared anonymously in the O

to us,

the raptur

ght, or love's

igh speech, h

ring

t Thy

e are ta

to us,

the scorn, the s

fe, the loneli

ble sufficien

th Thy

ercest

to us,

unto her be a

fe and earth an

that wealth of

ell a

ent of he

in verse sent to me

ght, made as wo

rnip and head l

ull eyes there s

your writing, du

the life I was th

ing in it made l

of the sores and

s in

better for small b

tell you just tha

o

pleasure of say

o

to tell you and

ou

and I sleep an

s past does the

e British Mu

ing to get in

ch books that I

bi

Charty and swe

dusk of the

happy by talkin

em more than th

the

I know and don'

n'

with your siste

bril

rest of the com

with your aun

Winsloe, a vo

all with a m

awake, and so, bo

o

loving (while s

o

hand and kiss,

ictio

u, I'm your ev

RY

ius. One afternoon he came to see me in Grosvenor Square and, being told by the footman that I was riding in the Row, he a

MAN WHO

ll of us that is, except The Girl who Read It. She never called anything "It." She wasn't that

n is d

nd was brought home more like broken mea

ek It was all over the station. I heard it from Old Bill Buffles at

K

rote a parody of Myers' "St. Paul" for me. I

uce I'm always

and leaves

othing left fo

naught inadeq

igning his na

s si les ver

ois (je l'av

vez un peu t

ut quand

rgo

responsible for the aspi

yards cease

ggards rid

, he was so much interested in me and my frie

ter, Pauline Gordon

Symonds, in 1

ly while I was shown into a wooden room full of charming things. As no one came near me, I presumed every one was out, so I settled down

erulous question that cam

face of John Addington Symonds w

hing for it b

raid she is

he smiled and took my hand; and w

became very

t more in those winter nights at Davos than I had ever learnt in my life. We read The Republic and all the Plato dialogues together; Swift, Voltaire, Browning, Walt Whit

too much of a prima donna and was very deaf and uninterruptable when I knew him, but he was amazingly good even then. Alfred Austin was a friend of his and had just been made Poe

what your friend Alfred Austi

beautiful he

what a bantam is think

ally give the fancy, the epigram, the swiftness and earnestness with which he not only expressed himse

ey were our only interruptions when Mrs. Symonds and the handsome girls went to bed. I have many memories of seeing our peasant friends off from Symonds' fr

lling a blank book with his own poems and translations, which he posted to me in the early

I would show him this manuscript and, if any one could make any thing of it

he would say, "and I valu

one he sent down to our villa at Davos a propos of the essa

d criticism, puzzling to my brain and not easy

e a dress-to see how they fit. Only you must promise to write observations and, most killing rema

you coul

publicatio

e been-to judge by the opinions of the Press. I wanted, when I wrote them, only to say

have uttered truisms in the bal

it seems I had nothing but commonplaces to give forth. In the search for sincerity of style, I reduced every prop

annot conjure, that I cannot draw th

only a somewhat sturdy, highly nervous varlet in the sphere of art, who has sought to wear the robe of the magician-and being now disrob

h of myself upon you, if I had not, unluckily, and in gross miscalculation

e as you can: use it to the best and noblest purpose: do not, when you are old and broken lik

This will make me write better. I keep a great many of yours. You wi

. SY

hould not be sorry for you if you broke your neck in the hunting field. But, like the Master, I want you to

f his translation of

Cellini,

; and I am pleased, though I am not interested in its sale. The pu

AR MA

terday, and with some bothering tho

uction to Cellini. I do not rate that piece of writing quite as highly as you do. But you "spot

e, and also with an impulsive enthusiastic way of expressing oneself. This causes young work to seem decorated and laboured, whereas it very often is really spontaneous and hasty, more instructive and straightforward than the work of middle life. I write n

insight, and I wanted to tell you how I analyse the change of style which you point out, a

robably be so commanded. And then his style will appear decorative, florid, mixed, unequal, laboured. It is the sobriety of a satiated or blunted ent

ve only just now foun

n bed with influenza a

(Did ever name so pu

f even Rus

f hearing from your friends how much M

have a grain of truth in them. Of course, the dissimilarities are quite as striking as the likenesses. No two leaves on one linden

episode of Pachay, short as that is, is masterly-above the reach of Balzac; how far above the laborious, beetle-flight of Henry James! Above even G

laurels touched with frost of winter and old age. But I find little to dwell upon in either of them. Browning

been silent for so long. I take you at your word, a

at "heard melodies are sweet, but th

it is: som

y me unfel

, rippling n

g still; wh

sit and s

ard is swe

t expresses what I often feel when, after a long night's work, I light my candl

d certain parts of it are written for good. But a thing of this sort ought

TZ, SWITZERLAND,

AR MA

I do not quite feel with Jowett, who told you, did he not? that you had made him UNDERSTAND Gladstone. But I feel that you have offered an extremely powerful and brilliant conception, which is impressive and convincing because of your obvious sincerity and

eal importance; much better than novels or stories, and more

met Tennyson for the first time? If I had been able to enjoy more of such incidents, I should also have made documents. B

see what you write. I think you have a very penetrative glimpse into character, which comes from perfe

lication in my life. I have only kept a careful and accurate diary, [Footnote: Out of all my diaries I have hardly been able to quote fifty pages, for on re- reading them I find they are not only full of Cabinet secrets but jerky, disjo

ANSIONS, CHE

9th,

MARGOT

le instinct for getting close to your people and things and for squeezing, in the case of the resolute portraits of certain of your eminent characters, especially the last drop of truth and sense out of them-at least as the originals affected YOUR singularly searching vision. Happy, then, those who had, of this essence, the fewest secrets or crooked lives to yield up to you-for the more complicated and unimaginable some of them appear, the more you seem to me to have caught and mastered them. Then I have found myself hanging on your impression in each case with the liveliest suspense and wonder, so thrillingly does the expression keep abreast

vation-and do it by having taken all the right notes, apprehended all the right values and enjoyed all the right reactions-meaning by the right ones, those that must have ministered most to interest and emotion; those that I dimly made you out as getting while I flattened my nose against the shop window and you were there within, eating the tarts, shall I say, or handing them over the counter? It's to-day as if you had taken all the trouble for me and left me at last all the unearned increment or fine psychological gain! I have hovered about two or three of your distinguished persons a bit longingly (in the past); but you open up the abysses, or such like, that I really missed, and the torch you play over them is

Y JA

the 15th of September, 1919, and it was in consequence of this letter that, t

D, WIMBLEDON PARK, S.W.

RS. AS

f you like, you can be as keen and brilliant and penetrating as Madame de Sevigne or the best of them, and if I were a publisher, I would tempt you by high emoluments and certainty of fame. You ask me to leave you a book when I depart this life. If I were your generous well-wisher, I should not leave, but give you, my rather

g how different we were in training, character, tastes, temperament. I was first introduced to him with commendation by Mr. Ar

d hopeful spirits you can imagine. When you return do pay me a v

s, your affec

.

graphy for two months I wrote and told John

ROAD, WIMBLEDON PARK

RS. AS

at all that the publisher knew very well what he was about. The book will be bright in real knowledge of the wor

critics. You need no words to tell you how warmly

oo old for company that would be so new, so don't take it amiss, my best of friends, if I ask to be bidd

affectionate

MOR

ur-one of the few women of outstanding intellect that I have known-sent me from her father, the late Duke

next to him. In the course of our conversation, he quoted the

of opposing hosts, when every man shall be a priest and every priest sh

we discussed religion, preachers and po

ng he wrote to

ODGE, KE

FRA

ask me to m

ffecti