1901] Wyndham's Letters 9 



dropped into the sea. This from the ex-Liberal Unionist whip is a 

 pretty good conversion. 



" The Ashburnham MSS. have sold for £33,000, the finest of them 

 a French version of Lancelot dn Lac for £1,800, a cheap price for 

 perhaps the most beautiful book in the world. 



" 2jth June. — I have been going over old letters. Of men's letters 

 George Wyndham's are by far the best, and I have a good series 

 of them written at the most interesting period of his life, that of 

 his literary interlude between the days when he was Arthur Balfour's 

 private Secretary, and his taking office as Under Secretary of State. 

 They are all a man's letters to a man can be, in some ways better 

 even than Lytton's, wonderful as those are. 



" 2C)th June. — Hedworth Lambton came over from Portsmouth, 

 where he is in command of the King's yacht. He tells me the Duke 

 of Cornwall's intervention in favour of Arabi's must certainly have 

 been prearranged, probably before he left England, with the King. 

 I took him over to Crabbet where he greatly admired our horses, 

 regretting that his Majesty did not breed Arabs instead of Hackneys. 



" 6th July. — Our annual Arab sale. A great concourse of people 

 from London, including not a few notabilities. We sold twelve lots 

 at an average of over 120 guineas, four (stallions) were bought for 

 the Indian Government, three for New South Wales, two for Java, 

 and one for Germany. 



" 2$th July. — News has come of a conflict at Sheykh Obeyd between 

 some English officers fox hunting, and Mutlak, and our Arab guards. 

 Our people have been arrested, and I went up to London to the 

 Foreign Office for information and to protest. Old Giglamps (Sir 

 Thomas Sanderson) received me with a little official manner, and 

 talked of its being necessary to leave the matter to be settled by law, 

 but I overbore him with a torrent of indignation, which is the best 

 way to break down the official fence, and he became amiable, dis- 

 cussed the question with me, promised to speak about it at once to 

 Cromer and advised me to address Lord Lansdowne formally, stating 

 my view of the case. We parted the best of friends." [This was the 

 beginning of a long correspondence between me and the Foreign Office, 

 which as it is embalmed in a Blue Book of forty-seven pages, I need 

 not here relate in detail. The Blue Book is one of the most amusing 

 ever issued by the Foreign Office.] 



" 26th July. — Lunched with Frank Lascelles at the Travellers Club, 

 and we talked of old days and of present days too. His success as 

 Ambassador at Berlin, where he has captured the friendship of the 

 Emperor William, is the greatest diplomatic achievement of our day, 

 which he attributes modestly to his talent for making small jokes of 

 the kind which royal personages like. He would not hear of Wil- 



