1867

AT THE INDIA OFFICE

BELGRAVE SQUARE, June 11, 1861. "DEAR A. WEST,-I did not know that your brother would have mentioned to you what I intended to say myself. I saw him in order that you might not come to any hasty decision on my offer. I fairly say that I have doubts myself as to the prudence of your taking the appointment, as I have no opportunity of doing anything for you, and it seems to me that you may injure your prospects at the Admiralty.

"Your brother says that you have well considered this, and of course you are the best judge of what is best for you to do.

་་

"I must, of course, write to the Duke of Somerset for his sanction to your coming away from the Admiralty.

"Yours truly,

"C. WOOD."

Henry Grenfell, who was leaving him, kindly wrote, strongly dissuading me from accepting it. He argued that Henry Waterfield, the assistant secretary—from working from morning to night, and from knowing, through himself and through his father, everything that had gone on for years could not fail to have the chief business; hence I should not have the same opportunity of making myself necessary to Sir Charles Wood.

I did not take Henry Grenfell's advice, though I found Henry Waterfield all, and more than all, that he had said. He was generously ready at all times to help and teach me; and when illness overtook him, the whole burden fell on my shoulders. It was lucky that I acted as I did, for this gave me an opening which good fortune and good health widened. I was brought into contact with the extraordinarily brilliant staff of the India Office, and many of the great rulers of India; and I had the opportunity of writing a history of Sir Charles Wood's administration of India, which, though never read by any one in England, was very favorably received by the press, and was, as Lord Northbrook, when Governor-General, told

me, adopted as the text-book for examination in some of the Indian colleges.

But what for me was greater than this was that it led hereafter to my being chosen as private secretary to Mr. Gladstone in 1868.

T. G. Baring was Under-Secretary at the India Office, and I was glad again to come into close official contact with him; but he was soon succeeded by Mr. James Stansfeld, Lord Wodehouse, Lord Dufferin, and Lord de Grey, who followed each other in rapid succession.

Early in the year 1861 we took a little cottage near Lady Adelaide Cadogan's, and called it "Wembley Orchard," close to Sudbury Station, on the North-Western Railway, and here we spent many very happy days with our children, and my dear father, who took great interest in it. My dear mother also used to come and see us, and help us to lay out our little garden. Here, on July 18th, our second son, Reginald Jervoise, was born, and christened at Sudbury Church on August 18th by my brother Richard. My father and mother and Harry Keppel were there; Lord Bury and Jervoise Smith stood as godfathers, and Lady Adelaide Cadogan and Mrs. Dawson Damer were his godmothers.

My appointment as private secretary afforded me unmixed pleasure, giving me plenty of hard work, and bringing me into close relations with one of the brightest, sharpest, and most versatile of men. Quick and somewhat intolerant as Sir Charles Wood was of lengthy narrations of purely personal interest often placed before him, no man ever bestowed a more willing or patient hearing on those whose experience or knowledge entitled them to attention. Many were those who, on leaving his room, expressed their astonishment to me at the perfect intimacy he displayed on matters supposed by them to