Scathing Facts About Margot Asquith, The Witch Of Downing Street
Margot Asquith was the sharp-tongued and provocative turn-of-the-century British socialite who married (and scandalized) British Prime Minister HH Asquith.
1. She Was Scathing—And Doomed
Margot Asquith was the British socialite whose quick wit and caustic sense of humor burned through Victorian high society with the fury of a scandal through the tabloids.
Even her marriage to the future British Prime Minister HH Asquith couldn’t muzzle her controversial mouth. No amount of wit, however, could save her from a tragic ending.
2. She Had A Charmed Childhood
Emma Margaret Tennant (aka Margot) had a charmed life from the beginning. She was born in Peeblesshire, Scotland in February of 1864 as the sixth daughter and eleventh child of Sir Charles Tennant, 1st Baronet. Growing up in the picturesque family estate, The Glen, her childhood was basically one never-ending party.
3. Her Life Was One Big Party
Margot and her sisters entertained her father’s guests at The Glen in what became epic soirées of the Victorian Era. Famously, writer and socialite Mary Gladstone described the Tennant’s evening parties as “the maddest, merriest whirl from morn til night”. Growing up in that party atmosphere, it’s little wonder that Margot was the troublesome kind of child she was.
4. She Craved Adventure
The Glen was a wild place with sprawling grounds just begging to be explored. And explore them, Margot did. Her contemporaries described her as a “venturesome child” who often set off on her own “roaming the moors” and “
climbing to the top of the roof by moonlight”. She even rode her horse right up the front steps of The Glen.
Sadly, she would have to leave her open-air playground behind.
