LORD ASQUITH’S LETTERS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19330, 3 November 1932, Page 13

LORD ASQUITH’S LETTERS

DEVOTION FOR HIS WIFE. LONDON, October 18. Fervent letters, described as worthy to rank among the great love-letters of all time, are < those which Herbert Asquith, afterwards Lord Oxford and Asquith, wrote in the early nineties to Margot Tennant, before his marriage to her. The letters are included in the ‘‘Life of the late Lord Asquith,” by Mr J. A. Spender, ex-editor of the “Westminster Gazette,” and -the Hon. Cyril Asquith, fourth son of the late Lord Oxford. An extract from one letter reads: — "Even in the midst of work I am thinking of your darling face and delicious haunting piesence. “This afternoon, as I sat at the Treasury Bench, answering questions, I received your telegram, read it furtively, and then crammed it into my trousers pocket, until I could get out of the House and read it over and over.

“Darling sweetheart, you were a true angel to send it. It makes me strong and brave, and I feel there is nothing I would not do or dare for you.” Another letter reads: “You have been good and sweet beyond words to me to-day. I must tell you what absolute sovereignty you hold over my thoughts, heart and life. I will give you everything that is in me to giveshelter, devotion, unshakeable loyalty, tireless trust and homage.” "I take from you nothing but your love. Your way of life shall be as you determine it, and your choice shall be my law.” Another reads: “Neither angels nor principalities nor powers, neither ambition nor life nor death itself, shall separate me from the best I have ever known.”

Margot, the history adds, was certain she was going to die when their first baby was born, and wrote a farewell letter, which her husband opened three weeks afterwards. He wrote to her: “That was the dearest tribute ever paid me by man or woman. I will carry it with me as a blessing and inspiration until I die.”

The late Earl of Oxford and Asquith, formerly Mr Herbert Asquith, was Liberal Prime Minister of Britain at the outbreak of the Great War in 1914. He resigned in 1916, and was succeeded by Mi’ Lloyd George. He was created a peer after his resignation. He married Margot Tennant, daughter of Sir Charles Tennant, in 1894, and died in 1928.