Social Victorians/People/Asquith

Also Known As

• Family name: Asquith for him, Tennant for her
• H. H. Asquith
• Earl of Oxford and Asquith
  • Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith (9 February 1925 – 15 February 1928)

Acquaintances, Friends and Enemies

Friends

• Lord Beaverbrook helped support Margot Asquith after H. H. Asquith's death.

Organizations

• The Souls
• Liberal Party

Timeline

1877 August 23, Herbert Henry Asquith and Helen Kelsall Melland married.

1881, Margot and her sister Laura entered society together in London.

1885 May 21, Octavia "Laura" Tennant married Alfred Lyttelton.

1886 April 17, in her memoir Margot tells this story about her own appearance, an accident, and Laura's birth of a boy:

"On Saturday, 17th April, 1886, I was riding down a green slope in Gloucestershire while the Beaufort hounds were scattered below vainly trying to pick up the scent; they were on a stale line and the result had been general confusion. It was a hot day and the woods were full of children and primroses.

"The air was humming with birds and insects, nature wore an expectant look and all the hedgerows sparkled with the spangles of the spring. There was a prickly gap under a tree which divided me from my companions. I rode down to jump it, but, whether from breeding, laziness or temper, my horse turned round and refused to move. I took my foot out of the stirrup and gave him a slight kick. I remember nothing after that till I woke up in a cottage with a tremendous headache. They said that the branch was too low, or the horse jumped too big and a withered bough had caught me in the face. In consequence I had concussion of the brain; and my nose and upper lip were badly torn. I was picked up by my early fiancé. He tied my lip to my hair — as it was reposing on my chin — and took me home in a cart. The doctor was sent for, but there was no time to give me chloroform. / I sat very still from vanity while three stitches were put through the most sensitive part of my nose. When it was all over, I looked at myself in the looking-glass and burst into tears. I had never been pretty ("worse than that," as the Marquis de Soveral* said), but I had a straight nose and a look of intelligence; and now my face, like a German student's, would be marked for life. [fn *: At that time Portuguese Minister.]

"The next day a telegram arrived saying:

"'Laura confined — a boy — both doing well.'

"We sent back a message:

"'Hurrah and blessings!'

On Sunday we received a letter from Charty saying Laura was ill and another on Monday telling us to go to London. I was in a state of acute anxiety and said to the doctor I must go and see Laura immediately, but he would not hear of it:

"'Impossible! You'll get erysipelas and die. Most dangerous to move with a face like that,' he said.

"On the occasion of his next visit, I was dressed and walking up and down the room in a fume of nervous excitement, for go I would. Laura was dying (I did not really think she was, but I wanted to be near her). I insisted upon his taking the stitches out of my face and ultimately he had to give in. At 6 p.m. I was in the train for London, watching the telegraph-posts flying past me.

"My mind was going over every possibility. I was sitting near her bed with the baby on my arm, chattering over plans, arranging tea-gowns, laughing at the nurse's anecdotes, talking and whispering over the thousand feminine things that I knew she would be longing to hear. . . . Or perhaps she was dying . . . asking for me and wondering why I did not come . . . thinking I was hunting instead of being with her. Oh, how often the train stopped! Did anyone really live at these stations? No one got out; they did not look like real places; why should the train stop? Should I tell them Laura was dying? . . . We had prayed so often to / die the same day. . . . Surely she was not going to die ... it could not be ... her vitality was too splendid, her youth too great. . . . God would not allow this thing. . . . How stiff my face felt with its bandages; and if I cried they would all come off! [sic ellipsis points]

1886 April 24, Laura Tennant Lyttelton died.

1894 May 10, Margot Tennant and H. H. Asquith married.

1897 July 2, Friday, Mr. and Mrs. Asquith attended the Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball at Devonshire House. (Margot Asquith is #217 in the list of people who were present; H. H. Asquith is #381.)

1902 August 9, just after King Edward VII's coronation ceremony Louise, Duchess of Devonshire tried "to reach the Ladies' before anyone else":

After the long ceremony she tried to hurry out in the wake of the royal procession, but found herself stopped by a line of Grenadier Guards. Leonie [Leonie Leslie] and Jennie [Lady Randolph Churchill], who were descending from the King's special box, heard her upbraiding the officers in front of all the other peeresses, many of whom were themselves most uncomfortable. Then, trying to push her way past them, she missed her footing and fell headlong down a flight of steps to roll over on her back at the feet of the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Michael Hicks Beach), who stared paralyzed at this heap of velvet and ermine. The Marquis de Soveral swiftly took charge of the situation and had her lifted to her feet while Margot Asquith nimbly retrieved the coronet, which was bouncing along the stalls, and placed it back on her head. It was a moment in which younger women naturally had to give precedence to an angry Duchess.

1907 July 25, Raymond Asquith and Katharine Horner (daughter of Sir John Horner) married.

1910 July 28, Herbert Asquith and Lady Cynthia Charteris (daughter of Hugo Richard Charteris, 11th Earl of Wemyss and 7th Earl of March) married.

1915 November 30, Violet Asquith and Sir Maurice Bonham Carter married.

1918 February 12, Cyril Asquith and Anne Pollock (daughter of Sir Adrian Donald Wilde Pollock) married.

1918 April 30, Arthur Asquith and The Honorable Betty Constance Manners (daughter of John Manners-Sutton, 3rd Baron Manners) married.

Costume at the Duchess of Devonshire's 2 July 1897 Fancy-dress Ball

Margot Asquith in costume as an "Oriental" Snake Charmer. ©National Portrait Gallery, London.

Margot Asquith

At the Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball, Margot Asquith was in the Duchess procession and sat at Table 12 in the first seating for supper.

Alexander Bassano's portrait of "Margot Asquith as an Oriental Snake Charmer" in costume is photogravure #275 in the album presented to the Duchess of Devonshire and now in the National Portrait Gallery. The printing on the portrait says, "Mrs Asquith as an Oriental Snake Charmer."

Newspaper Descriptions of Her Costume

• According to the "London Correspondent" of the Dundee Evening Telegraph before the event, "Mrs Asquith is going as a snake charmer, in a dress specially designed by Worth.
• The Westminster Gazette says, "Mrs. Asquith as a 'Snake Charmer' wore a reddish-purple clinging dress, with snakes entwined round the waist, arms, and hair."
• Mrs. Asquith dressed "as a snake charmer in a masterpiece by Worth."
• "There were several snake charmers, Mrs Asquith being perhaps the most noticeable. She wore a beautiful dress with serpents twined round her arms and introduced on the soft many coloured gauze gown."

The Right Hon. H. H. Asquith

John Pettie, The Puritan, 1870

H. H. Asquith is not listed as having been in the first supper seating. He is also not in the album of portraits given as a hostess gift to the Duchess of Devonshire.

John Pettie's 1870 painting The Puritan (right) shows a stern and literate Roundhead, keeping his place in a book with his finger. This painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1870 and in the Royal Academy Winter Exhibition in 1894.

Newspaper Descriptions

• Asquith was "a Roundhead in buff cloth jerkin, brown-baggy breeches, high boots, plain lawn collar, and large, black felt hat with crimson feather."
• "Mr. Asquith was notable as a Roundhead." (The description in the Carlisle Patriot is identical in to the one in the Times.)
• "The Right Hon. H.H. Asquith, as a Roundhead. Light brown cloth jerkin with dark brown cloth sleeves and buttoned up the front. Breeches, dark brown cloth, baggy, buttoned up the side. Boots, heavy cavalier riding boots buff, coming up above the knee. Steel spurs. Large black beaver hat, narrow crowned and broad brim, scarlet feather curling over left side. Buff leathern sword belt worn over right shoulder, steel buckles. Heavy steel hilted sword. Black leather scabbard, Roundhead collar and cuffs. Walking stick."
• "Mr. Asquith, M.P., as a Roundhead, appeared in a light brown cloth jerkin, with dark brown cloth sleeves, and buttoned up the front, the breeches being of dark brown cloth, baggy, and buttoned up the side; heavy cavalier riding boots, coming up above the knee, and steel spurs. The large black beaver hat, narrow crowned and broad brim, had a scarlet feather curling over the left side. A buff leathern sword-belt, worn over the right shoulder, was embellished with steel buckles, and a heavy steel hilted sword was encased in a black leather scabbard."
• "THE RIGHT HONOURABLE H. H. ASQUITH as a Roundhead. — Light brown cloth jerkin, with dark brown cloth sleeves, and buttoned up the front. Breeches — Dark brown cloth, baggy, buttoned up the side. Boots — Heavy cavalier riding boots, buff, coming up above the knee. Steel spurs. Large black beaver hat — Narrow crowned and broad brim, scarlet feather curling over left side. Buff leathern sword belt worn over right shoulder, steel buckles. Heavy steel-hilted sword, black leather scabbard. Roundhead collar and cuffs. Walking stick."
• "Mr. Asquith chose the congenial role of a roundhead."
• "Mr. Asquith [was] a Roundhead (looking the part to perfection)."
• "(Roundhead), light brown cloth jerkin with dark brown cloth sleeves; dark brown cloth breeches, heavy cavalier riding boots, large black beaver hat, scarlet feather curling over left side."
• "MR ASQUITH, as a Roundhead, was in a buff cloth jerkin with brown sleeves and breeches; Puritan collar and cuffs, broad-brimmed hat and feather, end high leather cavalier riding boots."

Demographics

• Nationality: British

Residences

• Cavendish Square, London, for the Asquiths until 1908, when he became Prime Minister, sold in 1920
• 10 Downing Street (1908 – )
• The Wharf, Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire (from 1912)
• 44 Bedford Square (1920 – )
• Savoy Hotel (c. 1928? – )
• Thurloe Place, Kensington, where Margot Asquith died

Family

• Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928)
• Helen Kelsall Melland (1854–1891)

1. Raymond Asquith (6 November 1878 – 15 September 1916)
2. Hon. Herbert Asquith (11 March 1881 – 5 August 1947)
3. Hon. Arthur Melland Asquith ( 24 April 1883 – 25 August 1939)
4. Lady Violet (Helen Violet) Asquith (15 April 1887 – 19 February 1969)
5. Cyril Asquith, Baron Asquith of Bishopstone (5 February 1890 – 24 August 1954)

• Margot (Emma Alice Margaret) Tennant Asquith (2 February 1864 – 28 July 1945)

1. Lady Elizabeth Charlotte Lucy Asquith, Princess Bibesco (1897– 7 April 1945)
2. Hon. Anthony Asquith (9 November 1902 – 21 February 1968)
3. Not sure of sequence, but 3 more children, all of whom died in infancy.

Biographical Materials

1. Margot Asquith, An Autobiography, Oxford, 1920.