112 Trouble about Siam [ l &93 



I stay on in North End Grove. The garden here is a constant pleasure 

 to me, because I say to myself, my neighbours are calculating how- 

 much it is worth a foot for building.' And so on and so on, always 

 with a delightful humour and a voice of sweetest calibre. The draw- 

 ing meanwhile got rapidly finished, though it seemed as if he had done 

 nothing but talk. It was a lovely sketch in red chalk. [This drawing 

 was to have been given to Judith, but somehow it never reached her, 

 and must have been sold, we think, with the rest of his drawings after 

 his death. We have been unable to trace it.] He was very compli- 

 mentary about Judith, and was quite affectionate to me at parting. 

 This put us in good spirits, and we rushed away down to Crabbet, 

 Judith's London season being over. She tells me she has enjoyed it 

 immensely. 



" ist July. — Crabbet. Annual meeting of the Crabbet Club. We 

 sat down over twenty to dinner, and did not leave the table till half- 

 past one. The members present were : 



George Curzon. Hubert Howard. 



George Leveson Gore. Godfrey Webb. 



George Wyndham. Percy Wyndham. 



George Peel (the 4 Georges) Loulou Harcourt. 



Morpeth. Theodore Fry. 



Mark Napier. Theobald Mathew. 



Harry Cust. Charles Laprimaudaye, 



Charles Gatty. and Laurence Currie. 



" St. George Lane Fox, and two new men, Esme Howard and Eddy 

 Tennant. 



" George Curzon was, as usual, the most brilliant, he never flags for 

 an instant either in speech or repartee ; after him George Wyndham, 

 Mark Napier, and Webber. The next day, Sunday, Harry Cust won 

 the Tennis Cup, and the Laureateship was adjudged to Curzon. 



' 16th July. — The French have been attacking Siam in a way dan- 

 gerous to the general peace. We were giving a Saturday to Monday 

 party at Crabbet, and George Curzon arrived full of the case. He 

 was to have adjourned the House yesterday, but Rosebery begged 

 him not, as Develle, the French Prime Minister, had explained that he 

 was isolated in his Cabinet in favour of conciliatory measures, all the 

 other Ministers backing up the French Admiral. George asked Rose- 

 bery point blank whether he could say that the English Government 

 would resist all attempt on the part of the French to violate the inde- 

 pendence of Siam west of the river Mekong, and Rosebery assured him 

 that they would do so. I had some talk also with Philip Currie who 

 is here, about it and about Egypt. He condemned Baring's policy of 



