THE "SOULS"

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 32, 9 February 1929, Page 9

THE "SOULS"

HALDANE IN SOCIETY

LATE KING- EDWARD

HUMAN PERSONALITY

(No. 4.—Copyright.)

Lord Haldano had many friends and enjoyed social life in spite of his enormous labours. In this article he gives glimpses of his private life.

Continuing his autobiography, of which "The Post" has secured exclusive newspaper rights, he says:

A little later I gained a great friendship which amplified my life and outlook.

I came to see much of Sir John Homer, of Molls, in Somersetshire, and of his wife. He was one of tho most perfect gentlemen I ever know, and also a considerable scholar. He had studied under Freeman the historian, with whom he was intimate, and he was himself an accomplished student of history.

His wife was one of the cleverest women I I) aye seen, and as full of iusight as'she was clover, They moved a good deal in society, and she had been educated under the guidance of Buskin, Eossetti, and Burne-Jones, all of whom were attached to heiv

Lady Homer did much to enlarge my outlook on my fellow human beings, and to diminish the angularity of my views of life and society. Sir John has now passed away, but she remains my great friend, from whom I have learned much that has been of value to me in life. When later on I was attacked and misrepresented over my Army reforms and my efforts after peace with Germany, and finally was driven out of office, she stood staunchly by me through thick and thin, and refused to be moved by clamour of such volume that it at last amounted to a blast such as the majority found irresistible.

What I learned from her was that all sections of society have good as well as bad qualities. These one has to learn aiid understand and to appreciate for what they really arc. In this lesson women are among our best instructors. Goethe discovered that, and he often spoke of it. BRILLIANT COMPANY. I began in 1893 to move a good deal in what is called "London Society." There was a group of well-known people nicknamed the "Souls." They sometimes took ■ themselves much .too soriously, and on the whole it is doubtful whether their influence was on balance good.

But they cared for literature and and their social gifts were so high that people sought much to be admitted int their circle. Among tho men were Arthur Balfour, the late Lord Pembroke, George C'urzon, Harry C'ust, George Wyndhain, and Alfred' Lyttelton.

■ Among the -women wero Lady Ribblesdale, her sister Margot Tonnant (afterwards Mrs. Asquith), Lady Elcbo, Lady Dcsborbugh, and Lady Homer. Week-end parties at which the "Souls" assembled were given at Panshanger, Ashridge, Wilton, and Taplow. Among the hostesses on these occasions were Lady Cowper, Lady Brownlow^ arid Lady Pembroke older but attractive women, who were gratefully but irreverently called the "aunts" of the "Souls." !

One or two outside men were welcomed and were frequently guests on these occasions. Among them were John Morley, Sir Alfred Lyall Asquith, and myself. We were not "Souls/ but they liked our company and ice liked theirs because of fits brilliauee. ' • JOHN MORLEY. I was myself always something of a rebel, and I did not stick to any one social group. I became acquainted with some of the racing set, and although I knew nothing about horses or lacing, was a good deal invited to their week-end gatherings and to their dinners.

Between those and the corresponding gatherings of the 'Souls" thero was a little rivalry, and it was not always easy to be loyal to both. Howy ever,"l had no prejudices.

I remember well going on one occasion for a week-end to stay with Lord and Lady Howe (the latter a Churchill and a sister of Lady Tweedmouth). The typical racing set was at first a little shy of me. But I made myself so sympathetic that nothing would please them but that I should be cordially invited to repeat my visit at a Bimilar party in the following week-end. I said that I was a shy person and would be happier and less solitary if they would include in the invitation some like-minded friend. My hostess said tkat I might bring any man I pleased,' so long as he was not one of the "Souls."

' I named someone whom I did not know, but whom I said I could ask. They recognised the name as that of the secretary of the stern Anti-Gamb-ling League, which had prosecuted various people for offences against the botting laws, and they demurred. But I pressed my point and made it a condition, but of curiosity they assented.

When I got to London I told John Morley that I had found a set as remarkable in a wholly different fashion as the "Souls." Ho was interested, for he knew my hostess of the week-end.

I said that I had promised to go back on the next Saturday, and that I had been authorised to choose a fellow guest of a commanding typo to be with mo. Would ho come? Ho was amused, and said he would.' We went accordingly. Lady Howe I told beforehand that my new guest would be, not as the others supposed tho secretary of the Anti-Gambling League, but no less a person than. Morley. She kept this to herself. A COURAGEOUS WOMAN. • When on our arrival wo were shown in there was much curiosity, and it was not for a little time that tho cqmpany, who did not even know Morley by sight, found out who he was. Ho made himself highly popular. The next afternoon, aB we were all sitting out in th garden, one of the ladies mischievously put a copy of the "Jockey" above Morley's head while another took a Bnapshot with a Kodak. But in a little while Morley led me sut of the gate on to the Common, and v awd. "This very day 25 years ago I tooic a walk with John Mill on BlackieoKh Common, and now boo into what company you have led me." Morley, as alw^s, was on this occasion very human, and ho admired the skill and consistency with which the entertainment was organised, and the concentration with which Mrs. Hwfa Williams, General "Bully" Oliphant, and other guests of distinction in the racing set entered into tho party. Lady Tweedmouth, though the sistor .of Lady Howe, did not cultivate tho racing set or tho "Souls." I became great friends with her: She was a woman, of remarkable character and insight, and of splendid courage. Slto died in 1904 of an' agonising form oi! «ancer. But although she was told by tho doctor of the probable date of the approaching end of her life, sho would.

neither tell her friends nor ilinch, but insisted, her agony notwithstanding, on carrying out all of her engagements aiid facing impending death without putting off one. Her husband and I wore the only people to whom she had confkled her terrible secret, and we kept it by her desire faithfully.

I gave her Emily Bronte's poems to read and she found them a source of strength. At last -she finished the Jist of political and other engagements^sho had undertaken, and took leave of me for her last journey to her home in Chiisachan Forest. "There," she said, "I go to dio like a wounded stag." She never lost courage, and she sent mo messages while she was awaiting the end not to grieve for her, for she had no fear of pain or of death. A noblo- woman who lived her life throughout at a high level! LADY ASQUITH'S FATHEE. Tho "Souls" met often. No. 40, Grosvenor square, the house of Sir Charles Tennant, a well-known- millionaire, was a frequent scene of their dinners together. The old gentleman himself cared for nono of these things. Ho liked to have one or two distinguished men from the city to keep him company. The rest of the party he left to his brilliant daughters, Mrs. Asquith and her sisters, to assemble and to entertain. It was all very weir done. One advantage to myself was that, although ho was of the opposite party, I very often found there and elsewhere among the "Souls" Arthur . Balfour, who was Leader of the Commons and virtually Prime Minister so far as social questions were concerned. . We came together because tho Liberals were -not up to the mark about questions of higher education. I fas ' so. keen about these that I did not mind accepting the opportunity of ' throwing ) myself on Balfour's side in them. KING EDWARD. My visit to King Edward prior to going to Berlin was a very agreeable one. Ho lived 'at the Hotel Weimar. Many people came to see him, and, as I was his Minister, I had to see some of them for him. Among these were Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria, who arrived to see King Edward. But the latter, as he said openly, thought 'it best to shut me, as his responsible Minister, up with the Tsar in a room where we could talk.

,Tho conversation was turned from Balkan affairs on to artillery, of which the Tsar had recently bought a good deal, not from Krupps but from the French firm of Schneider. There was much talk about these guns.

During my visit to King Edward I went about with him much in a very informal way. Tho King's German was remarkably good. I heard him make- a speech to a deputation of Germans, and when I asked him when he hadi found, time to put it together, his reply was:' "I did not put it together. I simply spoke what came into my head, without thinking about the words." He had, among (.other things, an extraordinary command of German slang, which he would use freely when he liked. : .

When 1 was with him at Mavic'nbad he proposed to me one day that we should go in plain clothes, as though we were Austrians, and drive out in a motor into the country, and have coffee somewhere, 'because he. said Austrian coffee was always admirable, and you could tell when you had crossed tho frontier into Germany because of the badness of the coffee.

The first thing he did was to make me buy an Austrian hat, so as to look more like a native, and then with tweed suits and with only a .chauffeur and no footman, and in a very ordinary motor, we, drove a long way into the country. As we were passing a little roadside inn with a wooden table iv front of it, the King stopped and said, "Here I will stand treat." COFFEE FOE TWO. He ordered coffee for two, and then he said, "Now. I am going to pay. I shall take care/ to give only a small tip to the woman who serves the coffee, in case she suspects who I am." We then drove on to a place the King was very fond of—a monastery inhabited by the Abbot of Teppel—where we had a large tea, and where the King enjoy-1 ed himself with the monks very much, gossiping and making himself agreeable., ,

He was full of courage. ■ One morning at Marienbad, just before he was about to take the usual walk along the parade among the crowd to get his glass of water at the fountain tho police who were attending him came to say that several well-known anarchists had arrived the night before, and that it was not safe for him to walk out.

He turned to me and said, "We will take our walk, won't we?" and then, meditatively, "A King, like everyone else, can only die once. Besides which, I do not believe in these nervous police." Wo took the walk, and of course, nothing happened. Ho was very particular about clotheSj and thought rather badly of my costume one clay afterwards in England at a .party in the open air when I arrived in a soft hat, not very new, it is true, but one which I liked very much. "See him," he said in loud tones to the ladies around him. "See him arrive in the hat he inherited from Goethe.?'

At Marienbad he was very,happy. He knew a vast number of people, and he had a personality which greatly impressed Germans and Austrians. After his death some of the German newspapers wrote: '.'lf only Germany had had that man for Emperor." ' (To be continued.)