THE BRITISH PREMIER'S WIFE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 230, 22 June 1908, Page 5

THE BRITISH PREMIER'S WIFE.

_ It need hardly be said that Mrs. Asquith is entirely at homo in tho political world, whero hor husband will now occupy tho commanding place (says an English paper). She has a host of friends in both camps, and her many talents and vivid personality havo made her a place of her own apart from that which She fills as the'wife of a distinguished man.. She has unfortunately suffered much fronr ill-health during the last eighteen months, and this has necessarily withdrawn her from society in London; but she is now on the way to rccovory, and'may be relied ■upon to play her part with ■ distinction and success..

_A'friendship long oxisted between: Mr. Gladstone and Mrs. Asquith's family. It was-to Mr. Gladstone that Sir Charles Tenliant owed ..the baronetcy . bestowed upon him, in 1885, in recognition of his services to the Liberal party; while later .the veteran statesman'not only took tho warmest interest in tho projected marriage between the then. Home Secretary, of his own' appointment, and _Miss Tcnnant, in the spring of ■1894, but himself attended their wedding, at St. George's, Hanover Square. Conspicuous among the presents on that occasion was a book from Mr. Gladstone, inscribed in his own handwriting on tho flyleaf, "To Jlargot Tennant, as she is and is to be."

.Mrs. Asquith was for many years as well known in the East End as in'tho West of London. She and her sisters, Mrs.. Alfred Lytic!ton and Lady Jlibblcsdale, started a creche for. babies at Wapping, which they visited regularly, going down by penny stnnmboat. Mrs. Asquith visited several hospitals, and had a district in Aldorsgate, whero a large number of factory girk were hor deVoted friends. She took them every year to the rountry' for their holiday, and delighted in Mrnng them in every'way possible. Ono of Mrs. Aisqnith's sisters, Mrs. Graham Srnitli, is a very successful amateur artist.