Page 34 - GB Parliamentary and Other Stories

Transcription of letter dated 25 October 1909

from: Margot Asquith, Easton Grey, Malmesbury

to: Sir (unknown)

TELEGRAPH-EASTON GREY Oc. 25th.
1909
EASTON GREY
MALMESBURY

Dear Sir
It ~s very kind of you to give me & The Prime Minister such a charming present &
we are most grateful.
Do you think
you ed. find me a nice 1st. footman - Looks don't matter at all. Wits do. He will have
a most responsible & interesting place. He will go every where with me & the Prime
Minister

& must have a capital head & quick manners Look out all trains reserve all carriages
go to Windsor Balmoral & at times possibly abroad. He must be good natured & not
think this that or the other is not his work but must

be able to turn his hand to any thing from taking a message to a King to mending my
little boys kite. He will leave without any~haracter or kindness shown to him if he
drinks. I have forgiven a great many drunkards &,never been justified or rewarded
Yrs truly
MAsquith

At the time this letter was written, Margot Asquith (1865-1945) l/'as the second wife of the Prime
Minister, Herbert Henry Asquith (1852-1928), known as H.H. Asquith, and the Liberal Party Prime
Minister from 1908 to 1916. When her husband was raised to the peerage in 1925, Margot became
the Countess of Oxford & Asquith. They lived in retirement at Sutton Courtenay in Oxfordshire,
and are buried in the churchyard there in-a table-top tomb behind the church.

Overlooking the bridge in the village of Easton Grey in Wiltshire is a manor house dating from the
13th century that was a favourite resort of Herbert Asquith during his premiership, and from where
this 1909 letter was written.
=