A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
NO one, I imagine, however critical of Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, could fail to be attracted by some sides of him. Many were attracted by many sides. I have seen him in a variety of settings over some thirty years—in none, I think, more congenial to him than the library at Chequers. He was widely, if not deeply, read, and he loved books. In old pre-War days you would find him travelling home to Hampstead by a late tube after the House rose, deep in some little leather-bound French classic which he exhibited with the collector's pride as a recent acquisition. As for Chequers, I doubt if any Prime Minister, even Lord Baldwin, appreci- ated it more. He loved it equally inside and out, and one of his first pleasures in 1924 was to entertain his fellow-Premier, M. Herriot, with whom he found himself so closely associated in the Geneva Protocol discussions at Geneva a few weeks later.
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