LORD SALISBURY (pointing to his waistcoat): "My figure is not adapted for the narrow seats in your peers' gallery, but I can assure you you are doing me an injustice. I was one of the first to predict, both in private and in public, that Mr. Asquith would have a very great future. I see no one of his generation, or even among the younger men, at all comparable to him. Will you not gratify my curiosity by telling me what he thinks of my son Hugh's speaking?"
I was luckily able to say that my husband considered Lord Hugh Cecil the best speaker in the House of Commons and indeed anywhere, at which Lord Salisbury remarked:
"Do you think he would say so if he heard him speak on subjects other than the Church?"
I assured him that he had heard him on Free Trade and many subjects and that his opinion remained unchanged. He thought that, if they could unknot themselves and cover more ground, both he and his brother, Bob Cecil, had great futures.
I asked Lord Salisbury if he had ever heard Chamberlain speak
(Chamberlain was Secretary of State for the Colonies at the time).
LORD SALISBURY: "It is curious you should ask me this. I heard him for the first time this afternoon."
MARGOT: "Where did you hear him? And what was he speaking about?"
LORD SALISBURY: "I heard him at Grosvenor House. Let me see…what was he speaking about? … (reflectively) Australian washer- women? I think…or some such thing. …"
MARGOT: "What did you think of it?"
LORD SALISBURY: "He seems a good, business-like speaker."