'
n
SO
ALFRED LYTTELTON
ALFRED LYTTELTON
AN ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE
BY
EDITH LYTTELTON
*
WITH PHOTOGRAVURE FRONTISPIECE
AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS
SECOND IMPRESSION
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK
BOMBAY, CALCUTTA AND MADRAS
1917
V
CONTENTS
PART I
PAGE
Preface: Address by the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, M.P.,
at the unveiling of a Memorial Tablet to Alfred Lyttelton i
CHAPTER I
HAGLEY
1857-1868
Hagley — Alfred's birth — Death of Lady Lyttelton — The
family circle — Private school — Lord Lyttelton's second
marriage ......... 3
CHAPTER II
ETON
1868-1875
Eton — Lord Lyttelton's letter — Arrival at Evans's — The
library — Cricket — Pop — Trip abroad — May Lyttelton's
death — Cambridge or Oxford — Lord Midleton's account
— Leaving Eton ...... 19
CHAPTER III
CAMBRIDGE
1875-1878
Cambridge — Letter from Edward Talbot — Health — Con-
temporaries — Death of Lord Lyttelton — Dalbreac —
Little-go — Marshal on circuit — Mr. Ruskin — The
Apostles — The Tripos , . , , , 49
PAGE
vi ALFRED LYTTELTON
CHAPTER IV
CRICKET AND TENNIS
Cricket at Eton and Cambridge — Match against Australians
— Jellicoe's catch — Alfred's bowling — Wicket-keeping —
Tennis — Match with Heathcote 80
CHAPTER V
LONDON
1879-1883
Edward's analysis of Alfred's character — Paris — Midlothian
Campaign — The Bar, 1881 — Life in London — Politics —
Murder of Lord Frederick Cavendish — Alfred goes to
live with his sister, Lady Frederick Cavendish — Cricket
— Goes into Sir Henry James's chambers ... 94
CHAPTER VI
LAURA
1884-1886
Laura — First meeting — Visit to The Glen — Engagement —
Keble College— Paris— Marriage, 21st May 1885 — Birth
of child, 16th April 1886 — Laura's death — Her will . 123
CHAPTER VII
ALFRED CHRISTOPHER
1 886- 1 888
Trip to America — Ribblesdales in Brook Street — Hunting
— Death of child — Funeral at The Glen . . . 149
CHAPTER VIII
BAR AND POLITICS
1888-1891
Goes to live in Mount Street — Work at the Bar — Warden
of Merton — Yachting — Mrs. Humphry Ward — Mr.
Gladstone takes office, January 1886 — Defeat of Home
CONTENTS yii
PACK
Rule, 1886 — Conservative Government — Parnell Com-
mission, 1890 — Visit to Hawarden — Arthur and Kath-
leen Lyttelton — Godfrey Webb — Mells . . .164
PART II
Preface 191
CHAPTER I
BORDIGHERA
1892
Engagement — Bordighera — Marriage . . . .193
CHAPTER II
TWO YEARS
1892-1894
Country-house visits — Home Rule Bill, 1892 — Birth of
Oliver — Letters from Reading and Hagley — National
Review article on Golf — Court-martial on loss of Victoria
— Letter from Hagley, 1894 — Recorder of Oxford — Sir
Charles Bowen — Decision to enter Parliament — Italy . 198
CHAPTER III
HAWARDEN
1894
Visit to Hawarden — Interview with Mr. Gladstone — Mrs.
Gladstone and her relation with her nephews and
nieces . . . . . . . . . .212
CHAPTER IV
WARWICK AND LEAMINGTON
1895-1897
Warwick and Leamington — Alfred nominated — Alfred
elected — General Election, July 1895 — Mary's birth
— Move to 16 Great College Street . . . ,217
viii ALFRED LYTTELTON
CHAPTER V
CONSTANTINOPLE
1897
PACK
Constantinople — The Selamlik — The Vali of Broussa —
Athens: Sir Edwin Egerton — Letter from Littlestone . 223
CHAPTER VI
'HEAD OF THE POLL'
1899
The poodle ' Head of the Poll ' — His character and death . 228
CHAPTER VII
BOER WAR
1 899- 1 900
South Africa — War — Neville Lyttelton's start — The Black
Week — Birth of Antony — Alfred appointed to Transvaal
Concessions Commission, 1900 ..... 232
CHAPTER VIII
SOUTH AFRICA
1900
Cape Town — Sir Alfred Milner — Paarl — Debate in the
Cape Parliament — Schreiner's speech — Sir Alfred
Milner's proposition that Alfred should succeed him —
General Election, 1900 — Journey up country to
Johannesburg — Sittings of Commission — Evidence about
Netherlands Railway — Dynamite Concession — Lord
Roberts — Arrival of Neville Lyttelton and Christopher
Balfour — Dinner at the Commander-in-Chief's — A
cricket match — The Annexation of the Transvaal —
The Review — Johannesburg — Ladysmith — Tugela River
— Durban — Journey home . . . . . .238
CONTENTS ix
CHAPTER IX
A SPEECH IN THE HOUSE
1901
PAGE
Port of London Commission — Transvaal Concessions Com-
mission attacked in House of Commons — Alfred's speech
— Letter from Mr. Joseph Chamberlain . . . 263
CHAPTER X
ANTONY
1901
Antony: his sudden death — Biarritz .... 267
CHAPTER XI
NEWFOUNDLAND
1902
Alfred offered an arbitration in Newfoundland — High Walls,
Gullane, built, 1902 — Letters from ship — Dispute at
St. John's : Alfred resigns ; gets his way, finishes arbi-
tration — Return home . . . . . . .272
CHAPTER XII
OFFER OF COLONIAL SECRETARYSHIP
1903
Education Act of 1902 — Letters — Penrhyn disputes — Mr.
Joseph Chamberlain goes to South Africa — Letters to
Schwalbach — Offer of Colonial Secretaryship, September
1903 — Bye-election — Alfred's breakdown . . . 279
ALFRED LYTTELTON
PART III
CHAPTER I
COLONIAL OFFICE
1903-1905
PAGE
Alfred offers private secretaryship to Bernard Holland — His
health — Transvaal mines and labour supply — Importa-
tion of Chinese coolies — Ordinance attacked — Letter
from Seely — Chinese Labour Ordinance sanctioned,
12th March 1904 — Speech in 1905 — Representative
government — Lyttelton Constitution — Lord Milner
leaves South Africa — Appointment of Lord Selborne —
Imperial Secretariat — The circular — Lord Grey ap-
pointed to Canada — Speech at Lady Wantage's dinner —
Sir Charles Lucas — Social intercourse — Alfred howled
down in the House of Commons — Caricatures — Tele-
gram to Lord Grey, 26th February 1905 . . . 293
CHAPTER II
GENERAL ELECTION
1906
Mr. Balfour's resignation, 1905 — Election, January 1906 —
Alfred unseated — In June 1906 elected for St. George's,
Hanover Square 319
CHAPTER III
LETTERS
1906
Sale of High Walls — Letters to Ems 324
CONTENTS xi
CHAPTER IV
LOSS
1907
PAGE
Deaths of Arthur and Kathleen Lytteltcn, and of Regie and
Christopher Balfour — Letters — Lady Louisa Egerton's
death . . . . . . . . . .331
CHAPTER V
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
1908-1910
Purchase of Wittersham — Impression of Alfred at this time :
his freshness ; his friendships — Fisc — Letters to his
wife and children . . . . . . . -337
CHAPTER VI
POLITICS
1910-1911
Lord Midleton's account — Letters — Parliament Bill speech
— Scene in House of Lords ...... 349
CHAPTER VII
LETTERS
1910-1911
Fisc's accident — Letters to Schwalbach — Other letters . 359
CHAPTER VIII
LADY RIBBLESDALE
191 1
Charty's illness — Davos — Hope — Death . . . 367
PAGE
xii ALFRED LYTTELTON
CHAPTER IX
PUBLIC WORK
1906-1912
Alfred's public work — Speech on sweated industries —
Criminal Law Amendment Bill — Suffrage question —
Bill for Union of South African States — Contributions
from Bernard Holland, Ian Malcolm, and L. S. Amery —
Hampstead Garden Suburb — National Theatre — Caven-
dish Club 370
CHAPTER X
EAST AFRICA
1913
Ball at Wittersham — Letters — Sudden decision to go to
East Africa — Mombasa — Nairobi — Journey to Uganda
— Ripon Falls — Katanga lion hunt — Alfred gets a lion
— Kiliminjaro — Journey home — Alfred's articles in the
Times . 385
CHAPTER XI
THE END
1913
Cricket match at Bethnal Green — Alfred suddenly taken
ill — Operation — Six days of anguish — His death — The
funeral — Memorial service — Tributes in House of
Commons — Mr. Asquith's speech .... 400
APPENDIX
Appreciation by Lord Curzon 413
Appreciation by Lord Midleton . . . . .418
Memorial Tablet 4 2 °
INDEX 421
ILLUSTRATIONS
PORTRAIT (PHOTOGRAVURE) . . . Frontispiece
{From a Photograph by H. W. Barnett.)
HAGLEY HALL Facing page 3
ALFRED AND EDWARD, i860 . 15
CHILDREN OF LORD LYTTELTON, 1863 . „ 17
CARICATURE OF ALFRED ON HIS FIRST
DAY AT ETON WATCHING FOOTBALL . „ 26
(Drawn by Mr. Tarver, 1868.)
ETON ELEVEN, 1872 „ 29
(From a Photograph by Hills 6* Saunders, Eton.)
E. O. P. BOUVERIE AND ALFRED „ 49
(From a Photograph by Hills &-' Saunders.)
CAMBRIDGE ELEVEN, 1878 . 83
(From a Photograph by Hills 6* Saunders, Cambridge.)
ALFRED'S BACK-HAND STROKE AT TENNIS „ 91
LAURA ......-„ 123
(From a Photograph by H. Waller Barnett.)
ALFRED IN WIG AND GOWN, 1892 . . „ 198
(From a Photograph by Barraud.)
ALFRED'S LIBRARY IN GREAT COLLEGE
STREET ....... 220
xiii
xiv ALFRED LYTTELTON
ALFRED AT HIS TABLE IN THE COLONIAL
OFFICE ...... Facing page 293
(From a Photograph by Elliott &• Fry.)
ARTHUR BALFOUR AND ALFRED AT
RANELAGH, APRIL 1905 „ 319
(From a Photograph by Argent Archer.)
GARDEN FRONT OF WITTERSHAM HOUSE
THE LIBRARY, SHOWING ALFRED'S CHAIR
339
ALFRED AND FISC ON THE STOEP AT
GREAT COLLEGE STREET „ 359
SIR H. BELFIELD AND ALFRED START-
ING OUT ON A LION HUNT AT KAT-
ANGA, EAST AFRICA, 1913 . 391
PART I
PREFACE
ADDRESS by the Right Hon. ARTHUR JAMES
BALFOUR, M.P., at the Unveiling of the
Memorial Tablet to Alfred Lyttelton in St.
Margaret's Church, Westminster, on August
the ist, 1916.
I have been asked, as one of Alfred Lyttelton's oldest
friends, to say a few words on this occasion. Many memorials
have been erected in this Church to those who, in their day,
have gained the warm regard of their colleagues in Parlia-
ment : but never perhaps have those colleagues assembled
at the ceremony of unveiling with quite the same feelings
of intimate personal affection for their departed friend as
move us at the present moment.
I will not attempt any analysis of the unique charm which
makes the life of Alfred Lyttelton irreplaceable. Such an
attempt would indeed be vain. We can neither separate
the whole into its parts, nor recompose the parts into the
whole. There was that about him which made immediate
and irresistible appeal to every man and woman whom he
met, and made that appeal to what was best in them.
This characteristic, which was true to the hour of his death,
belonged to him through all his life. We have all had
friends of whom one had to say that the man has not kept
the promise of the boy, that darkening clouds gathered
over middle and later life, that charm vanished with youth,
and the declining day did not keep the promise of the
morning. But Alfred Lyttelton's irresistible claim on our
A
2 ALFRED LYTTELTON
affections depended on something other than high health
and high spirits ; it was not touched by years, nor weakened
by care or sorrow ; for it rose from the deepest springs of
his moral nature.
Gaiety of spirit, humorous perception, delight in all things
that were lovely and of good report, he possessed in unique
measure ; and these qualities made him the most charming
of playfellows. But none who knew him well ever lost
the consciousness that his joy in life, and all that life can
give, was more than mere gaiety of temper. It was, in
truth, the fair flower of a pure character drawing its
beauty from profound spiritual roots.
It is just three years since, to our unending loss, he was
taken from among us ; and of those three years two have
been spent in the tremendous struggle which has absorbed
all our thoughts and called forth all our efforts. Much of
what happened before August 1914 seems ancient history,
lost in some illimitable past, scarcely worth recalling in
these strenuous and tragic days. But among those half-
forgotten things must not be counted the memory of Alfred
Lyttelton. To our great sorrow he was taken from us
before the mighty struggle began ; but though we cannot
profit by the personal service which he would have so
lavishly expended in the hour of his country's need, I feel
his spirit still among us, animating us, as of old, with some-
thing of his own high and cheerful courage.
CHAPTER I
HAGLEY
1857-1868
Verily I think,
Such place to me is sometimes like a dream
Or map of the whole world ; thoughts, link by link,
Enter through ears and eyesight, with such gleam
Of all things, that at last in fear I shrink
And leap at once from the delicious stream.
Wordsworth.
Hagley Hall, the Worcestershire home of the
Lyttelton family, is a large square sandstone build-
ing with low towers at each corner, about two and
a half miles from Stourbridge and eleven from
Birmingham. The living rooms are all on the first
floor, and the hall opens on to a wide perron, with
steps leading down on either side to the gravelled
square in front of the house.
A much older house, Frankley, a few miles away,
was burned down in the Rebellion, to keep the
Roundheads out of it. The family home then
became an old timbered house standing on what is
now the cricket ground ; but George, Lord Lyttelton,
the first baron, friend of Pope, brother-in-law to
Chatham, and himself a poet, influenced by eigh-
teenth-century ideas, built the present great pile in
a fine park. He filled it with Chippendale furniture,
collected pictures and tapestry, and added to the
library he already possessed. He made a stately
4 ALFRED LYTTELTON
and dignified house with well-proportioned rooms
opening out of each other. There is a long gallery
hung with gilt-framed mirrors, and candle brackets
designed and carved by Chippendale, a library with
white carved bookcases, and other rooms hung with
family portraits and some good tapestry.
The old parish church — now mostly rebuilt — close
to which the house was placed, stands among the
trees of the park not five minutes' walk away,
and played a great part in the daily life. That it
should be much nearer the house than the gardens
was appropriate enough : a friend might say with a
smile that this was true also of the cricket ground.
It was indeed so near to the church that the north
windows had to be protected from the balls by a
wire netting. The garden, with green swards, stone
vases, and white benches, belongs also to the
eighteenth century ; the park is dotted with temples
and vases, a famous seat on which the poet Thom-
son used to sit, and the correct ruined castle half-
way up Clent hill. Behind lies a stretch of wild
desolate country, a little blackened by the great
coal mines between Stourbridge and Birmingham,
while to the south the fair Midland country spreads
itself out till it reaches the Welsh hills. A spacious
and generous land, with fertile plains and bold hills,
with streams and trees and leafy lanes, leading up
to wild moors : a land of contrasts.
Such was the home into which Alfred Lyttelton, the
youngest of twelve, the eighth son of George, fourth
Lord Lyttelton, was born on the 7th of February
1857. His mother was a daughter of Sir Stephen
HAGLEY, 1857-1868 5
Glynne, the Squire of Havvarden Castle in Flint-
shire. She and her sister Catherine, most devoted of
friends, married on the same day two other great
friends, George Lyttelton and William Gladstone.
This double friendship was continued all through
their lives, and the families constantly interchanged
visits. Lord Lyttelton was a man of rare attain-
ments ; his nature, like the country that bred him,
was full of sharp contrasts — vigorous — tempestuous
— devout and tender. His son Edward writes of
him that —
He gave his children the abiding impression of a strong
righteous man incessantly busied in useful works for others,
rough and awkward in manner but deeply solicitous for our
true welfare : of commanding intellect and astonishing
accuracy of memory, but totally ignorant of and indifferent
to any subject that did not appeal to him, apparently
careless about money, but a scrupulous keeper of accounts,
painstaking in estate management, but unthrifty by in-
clination and impatient of the time and trouble required for
successful investment ; generous in giving beyond the
limits of prudence ; desirous of intellectual effort in his
children, but incapable of the patience and intellectual
sympathy of a teacher ; a grand classical scholar of the old
Cambridge type, yet deeply abhorrent of all subtleties of
thought, philosophy, speculation and analysis ; a first-rate
platform speaker, but difficult to hear owing to a rapid and
careless articulation ; from tender-heartedness and interest
in other people a writer of thousands of letters in a hand-
writing hardly decipherable ; averse from anything that
smacked of gossip but marvellously tenacious of the facts
of other people's lives ; finally he was deeply and simply
religious, but possessed often by a mercurial roguish spirit of
fun which broke out in the most unexpected moments.
His daughter Meriel, Mrs. John Talbot, completes
6 ALFRED LYTTELTON
the picture by describing the rigour of his self-
discipline.
I never remember his saying he was tired or ' what a
bore ' when some wearisome person wanted to speak to him,
or delaying one single moment getting up to go to some
meeting : and yet he was naturally very indolent, and often
said the men he envied were those lying in the sun on the
grass in St. James's Park with their hats over their faces.
After a long day at Worcester or Birmingham he would
put on goloshes and go to evening service if there was one.
When he gave up teaching in the Sunday School after thirty
years, we found for the first time that he had always hated
it. We often went to Brighton for a month or two, and
the first thing he did (after arranging his writing-table and a
waste-paper basket exactly as at home) was to find out a
church with a daily service, a place where he could play
billiards, and an old woman to read to. (I wonder what she
thought of him and his odd rapid reading.)
Alfred's mother was a lovely woman of a great
gentleness of temperament, and possessed of judg-
ment combined with courage. She shared with
her sister, Mrs. Gladstone, an unconquerable sense
of fun, never damped even by the long task of
bearing her husband twelve children, a process which
gradually sapped her vitality, and finally exhausted
her. The sisters had a vocabulary all their own,
racy and individual, and their comments on passing
events expressed in these original terms were a
constant amusement both to Lord Lyttelton and
Mr. Gladstone. Lord Lyttelton actually compiled
a dictionary called the ' Glynnese Glossary,' full of
humour and throwing many a sidelight on the
family life. Some of their expressions passed into
an extended family currency, some into an even
HAGLEY, 1857-1868 7
wider one. ' Sitting tight ' for an event is an ex-
ample, as was also ' mawkin ' for an unknown person
whose arrival was incongruous, or the word ' wizzy '
applied to some one sallow and shrunken, or ' moth '
for an old lady short, faded, and dowdy. 1
Up to the very end of her life, when she was weak
and ill, Lady Lyttelton retained her power of kindly
rule and racy comment ; almost the last words she
spoke were a request in the Glynnese dialect that
those round her should not all tire themselves by
1 sitting tight ' for her death.
Six months after Alfred was born she died, and
it seemed to those who watched his radiant baby-
hood, as if she had dowered her last child with all
the grace and charm of her nature.
From the beginning he showed the quality, which
perhaps characterised him more than any other
throughout his life, an infectious joyousness. His
was not only the physical exhilaration of life,
common enough in youth ; his joyousness sprang
from the delight of a loving heart. His sister
Lucy (afterwards Lady Frederick Cavendish) kept
a journal full of little references to the baby, and
nearly all speak of his charm. August the 7th,
1861, when he was four : ' His bright generous
1 One or two of Lord Lyttelton's comments may be quoted because the
words will crop up in Alfred's letters : — ' to let down one's leg,' as to which
he says, ' It is held by the Glynnese that a wounded bird flies with one of
its legs dangling : from whence follows the masterly generalisation that
to let down one's leg means to moan, or to make the worst of oneself in
illness — to be sorry for oneself. Lady Lyttelton receiving a tolerably
cheerful letter from X — who is rather given that way — Lady Lyttelton
said 'she only tries to let down her leg in the middle of the letter once.'
'Groutle and hydra' meant rubbish left in drawers ; 'to have the cares
of a thing ' meant being anxious and uneasy — and so on.
8 ALFRED LYTTELTON
temper, his amazing winsomeness, his quickness and
noble looks ' ; and much later, on his fourteenth
birthday : ' He is wonderfully nice and dear, only
too perfect in disposition — the sunbeam that he
always was, without a cloud.'
Among the letters from his sons kept by Lord
Lyttelton is a funny little scrawl endorsed by him-
self, ' Alfred, 13th July 1859.' Alfred, aged two
and a half, and several brothers and sisters, had
evidently been left at home in charge of their
grandmother, Lady Lyttelton, who came to live
with her son after his bereavement. But the little
boy wants the rest of his family, so the nurse
' Newmany/ who brought up the whole tribe, guides
his small fist and the letter runs :
My dear Papa, — I write a letter, I 've got a horse,
Edward 's got a horse for his birthday — May and Mif 's x
laughing. Come back Papa, come back Lucy, come back
Meriel. Good-bye Papa, your dutiful son Alfred.
The last sentence is obviously prompted by the
nurse, but the eager appeal to each one by name
is surely characteristic. His father actually writes
a letter in return :
Hawarden, i^thjuly 1859.
Dear little Alfred, — What a clever little pig you
must be to write such a funny letter. I want to see you
very much. I shall keep your letter for you to see when
you are a big boy. — Yr. Aff: Lyttelton.
From babyhood his greatest friend and com-
panion was, of course, the brother next him in age —
Edward; they shared everything and were insepar-
able. Their cousin, Mary Gladstone, afterwards
1 Miss Smith, her governess.
HAGLEY, 1857-1868 9
Mrs. Drew, says that she asked Alfred during his
first school holidays who was his greatest friend.
' Borrow,' he answered gruffly. She then said,
' But who is Edward's ? ' He gave a rapid look
up at her of surprise, 'Why, Borrow, of course.'
1 We 've got a cold,' was a common form with either
of the boys. All through their school and college
days they ran together, and though life parted their
ways the love between them was never dimmed.
Bob, being the elder brother next to them, was
always their immediate chief, while Charles, the
superb cricketer, and Albert and Neville, the next
in age, ruled over the rest — Spencer, Arthur, Bob,
Edward, and Alfred.
But Alfred's sister Lucy, in whose charge his
mother left him, was the great moulding influence
of his youth. As long as she remained at home,
and she did not marry Lord Frederick Cavendish
till Alfred had touched seven, she was everything
to him ; he owed to her influence, continued long
after she had gone to a home of her own, much of
the strength and steadfastness of his character, and
she fostered in him also a reverence for all things
connected with religion.
All through his life, intercourse with his sisters
Meriel, Lucy, and Lavinia was a constant delight
to him, and, if she had lived, May, with her con-
quering charm and passionate temperament, perhaps
the most akin to him of the four, would have been
one of his closest friends.
Edward Lyttelton, in a privately printed memoir
of his brother, gives a graphic account of some
ro ALFRED LYTTELTON
members of the home circle which must be quoted
here:
Lady Lyttelton, our grandmother, whose letters have been
a delight to many, was to us a stately benevolent figure full
of kindness and dignified humour, and of steadfast old-
fashioned piety. Alfred was a young schoolboy when she
died, full of memories, and alert-minded almost to the last ;
but even to the youngest of us her influence was civilizing
and elevating always. I remember her reading the Bible
to us on Sundays but hesitating as to the Book of Esther
being too secular, and better fitted for a week-day. We
overruled her objection and enjoyed the story hugely as she