170 Death of Frederick Locker [ x 895 



" Sir Robert Peel, too, is dead. I met him on Friday at the St. 

 James' Club and had a talk with him about Japan and China. His 

 death was sudden in the night. He was not a wise man, but interest- 

 ing, a very good speaker, full of bonhomie and sometimes of wit. 



" 29th May. — My poor Locker is dead, not other than a worthy end- 

 ing to a happy life. His last day was a cheerful one they all say, and 

 he talked more strongly than for some time past. I had called in 

 the evening at Rowfant and had seen him, and was there till seven, 

 and then took his son Godfrey back riding with me, so that he must 

 have died very shortly afterwards, for the announcement is in the 

 ' Times ' this morning. 



" Later. I called again at Rowfant and found to my surprise the 

 family not in mourning. My friend, instead of being dead, is a trifle 

 better, and talks of outliving some of us. It is a mystery how the 

 thing got into the ' Times,' from which it had been copied into all the 

 evening papers with long obituary notices. [It was not till two days 

 later that he died at the age of seventy-four.] 



" 22nd June. — Yesterday when I was in London I called at half- 

 past five on Margot, who is invalided. While we were talking Sir 

 William Harcourt came in, and their talk turned at once to politics, 

 the Cromwell statue debate, and other interests of the moment, but 

 nothing presaged what at that very hour was happening in the House, 

 namely, the defeat of the Ministry on St. John Broderick's amendment 

 in Supply. Poor Margot, as it happened, was in some measure respon- 

 sible for the Government minority, for as I left her a little after six 

 I found yet another visitor, John Morley, at her door, and she kept 

 him so late giving him good advice that he missed the division ! 

 To-day I see the account of it in the papers. 



" 24tJi June. — Rosebery has resigned, a feeble statesman though a 

 clever man, whom we shall never, I fancy, see Prime Minister again. 

 It seems there is to be a coalition between Lord Salisbury and the 

 Duke of Devonshire, under Lord Salisbury's leadership. I am glad 

 the imposture of Whig Liberalism is defunct. 



" Yesterday was my last day at Crabbet, for Crabbet is let for three 

 years, perhaps for four, and we take up our abode at Newbuildings 

 to-morrow. We have no need, with so small a family as ours is, of 

 so large a house, and Newbuildings is enough for all our wants, and 

 I am in a mood to loathe old things and pine for new ; nevertheless, 

 it was a melancholy day for me in spite of the brave sun. 



"25th June. — The day of Princess Helene's wedding to the Duke 

 of Aosta. The Comtesse de Paris had sent us an invitation, and I drove 

 down to Kingston with Judith, where the wedding was, and then to 

 Orleans House at Twickenham. It was a day of heaven, a brilliant 

 blue sky with a light north wind to freshen the sun's heat. Judith, of 



