CHAPTER XIII

LIFE AT HOME

IT has been truly observed that there are some characters which appear to the best advantage when they are seen on distant heights, elevated by intellectual eminence above the range of scrutiny, or shrouded from searching observation by the misty glamour of great station and great affairs. Others excel in the middle distance' of official intercourse, and in the friendly but not intimate relations of professional and public life. But the noblest natures are those which are seen at their best in the close communion of the home. Bearing this truth in mind, I have sought assistance in this portion of my task from some who, through the opportunities of relationship or duty, were enabled to observe at close quarters the private and domestic life of the Lawsons' home at Brayton. One of these writes as follows:

'I have already stated that Sir Wilfrid never cared much for travelling or for going abroad. What he disliked most was being without his daily paper. He had an immense fondness always for a newspaper, and, when he went a railway journey, used to buy nearly every paper under the sun, of all and every shade of opinion, never omitting Tit Bits, which he used always to bring or send back to an old maidservant at Brayton, as she was so fond of it. He hardly ever missed a day or a division in the House of Commons if he could possibly help it, and, when not in London, all the rest of his time was spent at Brayton. Here he

delighted to be surrounded by his grandchildren, and there was no prettier sight than to see him with one on his knee and the others sitting round him, whilst he told them stories. He was always a great lover of children, and all children worshipped him. He would tell them the most wonderful stories, which never had any ending, but would go on being "continued in our next " ad infinitum, and were the perpetual delight and joy of all who heard them. With his own children he was ever the life and soul of all their games. One particular game of "Lions," which consisted in a sort of hideand-seek all over the house, had been invented by him; it never failed in its popularity and was ever entered into with the greatest zest by both old and young. No one was allowed to shirk, and visitors and guests were all alike pressed into the service, until "Lions" became quite a celebrated and recognized institution. There was one celebrated game in which two Canons of the Church, a distinguished Doctor, and several staid and middle-aged Members of Parliament, all took part, and entered into the spirit of the thing with the youngest child there.

'Sir Wilfrid used to play lawn-tennis until quite within a few years of his death, though billiards was ever his chief recreation; of that he was never tired, especially if the player was much better than himself, when he would play game after game, tiring his adversary out, whilst he was as fresh and keen as ever.

'He retained his heart of a little child to the end, and this was one of the secrets of the great love with which he inspired all who came in contact with him. This, and his absolute single-mindedness and honesty of purpose, coupled with his transparent sincerity, were part of the foundation for the high esteem and affection in which he was held by all who knew him or came in any way into touch with him.'

The Rev. Gerald M. L. Reade, Vicar of Alfington, S. Devon, sends me the following sketch, prefixing to it these gracious

words: My only fear is that I cannot do justice to a subject so near my heart.' He then proceeds as follows:

'When the heart is young, the body strong, the brain clear and quick, the life as yet scarcely affected by carking cares, the whole being full of hopes, ambitions, and aspirations-to experience at such a time of life the privilege of meeting on terms of kindly friendship, and coming into close personal contact with, any of the men notable in the public life of the day is an inestimable boon. And the more noble the nature of the notable men, the greater is the boon.

"To have known," says Dean Stanley, " and to have been guided by, the example and the influence of characters or intellects that stand the first in worth as in command, is indeed one of the most precious of human opportunities. We know instinctively the characteristics of such pre-eminence. Wherever we recognize, singly or combined, largeness of mind, or strength of character, or firmness of will, or fire of genius, or devoted loyalty, there is a born leader."

And again, "The heroes of mankind are the mountains, the highlands of the moral world."

"There could be little difficulty on the part of anyone privileged to know the late Sir Wilfrid Lawson personally and in private life, in recognizing in him, and that speedily, several of the aforesaid "characteristics of pre-eminence or in hailing him as "a born leader" in the career he carved out for himself; or in regarding him as one of "the heroes" of political life in this country and of the "moral world" during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, one might say during the last forty years. For in him were unmistakably to be noted "largeness of mind," "strength of character," "firmness of will," the "fire" of an unquenchable enthusiasm amounting to genius, and infecting his followers to dauntless deeds almost comparable with his own, and "devoted loyalty alike to his country, his causes, his family, and his friends.

'A great book is an enduring stimulus; a great speech or lecture may be most inspiring; a sermon by a great preacher may stir many a heart and affect for good many a life; great deeds may by their example beget other great deeds-but assuredly the most helpful stimulus of all is converse with, and the constant example set before one by, a great, an eminent, a noble, a good man. And " eminent," "good," and "noble,” in the very highest senses of these words, without a shadow of a doubt was the late Sir Wilfrid Lawson.

Towards the end of 1876 I was recommended to Sir Wilfrid as a possibly suitable Tutor to his two younger boys, Arthur and Mordaunt. Such a recommendation filled me with high hopes, for to be brought ever so distantly into contact with political life had ever been my greatest ambition, and Sir Wilfrid Lawson's name was widely known in political life.

"A brief interchange of letters-two at most on each side, for Sir Wilfrid was a man of quick decisions—a single, and by no means prolonged, interview with Sir Wilfrid and Lady Lawson at their then town house, 1 Grosvenor Crescent, speedily followed, and I found myself one January morning in 1877 duly accepted as tutor to Arthur and Mordaunt Lawson, then two bright, happy, chubby little boys of about nine and ten years old.

'Little did I think as I walked away from Grosvenor Crescent and up to Hyde Park Corner, that the interview, which had ended so satisfactorily for me, was to be the beginning of a friendship which was destined to last thirty years. Little did I think that Sir Wilfrid and Lady Lawson would prove to be most kind, sympathizing, helpful, and generous friends from that day onwards. Little did I imagine that he, of whom I am bound to say I stood in considerable awe during that first interview, would prove to be not only a kind and generous friend, not only a man full of fun and innocent jollity of heart, but one of the humblest,

the best, the purest, and noblest of men whom it was to be my happy privilege to know in this world. Little did I imagine that a correspondence, completed as I supposed that day by the ratification of my engagement as tutor, was destined to continue off and on till within three weeks of my new employer's death thirty years later.

'Yet so it was. And I often wonder how many of the men eminent in public life, how many employers, or men of fame far beyond the limits of their own land, would thus kindly and generously remember during thirty years the private tutor of their younger sons!

'Yet, to one who learned, as I did, during those long years, to know, to honour, and to love Sir Wilfrid Lawson, the recital of these facts and of some others like them does not seem so surprising now, as the very conception of them would have seemed then.

'For Sir Wilfrid's was a unique personality. The milk of human kindness must have been the chief constituent in the building-up of his whole being. In a life of well nigh sixty years, at Eton, at Oxford, in the world, as a clergyman for over thirty years, partly as a curate in a town, partly as a country incumbent, as a member of various public bodies, committees, conferences, councils, and what not, it has been one's lot to come across many and diverse characters, to know many good men, to meet with many beautiful Christian characters in every rank of life. Again, it has been my own good fortune to be blessed by God with many good and generous friends, and, next to a good wife or husband, there is no greater blessing than a good friend. But I can most honestly say that of all the men I have been privileged to meet and know during my almost threescore years, there have been very few so good, so truly noble, so consistently Christian-according to the highest ideal, in my mind, of Christianity-that is, who so completely carried out in their life and character and conduct the teaching of St. Paul in the thirteenth chapter of the First of Corinthians-as