If, exceptionally, he asked a few guests to his house, it was to a
simple dinner or luncheon in a small circle with parlor maids for
service. The week-ends he spent regularly in the country, like his
colleagues, but not at large country house parties. He lives mostly in
his cottage in the New Forest, taking long walks, and is passionately
fond of nature and ornithology. Or he journeyed to his property in the
north and tamed squirrels. In his youth he was a noted cricket and
tennis player. His chief sport is now salmon and trout fishing in the
Scotch lakes with Lord Glenconner, Mr. Asquith's brother-in-law. Once,
when spending his week-ends with Lord Glenconner, he came thirty miles
on a bicycle and returned in the same way. His simple, upright manner
insured him the esteem even of his opponents, who were more easily to be
found in home than in foreign political circles.
Lies and intrigue were foreign to his nature. His wife, whom he loved
and from whom he was never separated, died as the result of an accident
to the carriage driven by him. As is known, one brother was killed by a
lion.
Wordsworth was his favorite poet, and he could quote him by the hour.
His British calm did not lack a sense of humor. When breakfasting with
us and the children and he heard their German conversation, he would
say, "I cannot help admiring the way they talk German," and laughed at
his joke. This is the man who was called "the Liar Grey" and the
"originator of the world war."