BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

25
Women in a sense had been active in the organization from its
conception, already prominent figures in the crowd gathered to honor
the memory of Benjamin Disraeli on 19 April 1883. Lady Dorothy Nevill,
a cousin of Henry Drummond Wolff, frequently entertained members of the
Fourth party: Wolff, Churchill, and Gorst.
It was at her home that
several
place.
early discussions regarding the formation of the League took
Lady Dorothy Nevill and her daughter Meresia came to be
prominent members of the future Ladies Grand Council
(LGC) and were
part of the close circle of acquaintances asked to join in the early
days.
As a next-door neighbor of Disraeli and a personal friend of his
for many years, she had ties to the Disraelian heritage.27
Conservative party leaders had, by the end of the year, already
begun to take notice of the League.
Ashmead Bartlett, M.P., principal
owner and editor of England and a staunch supporter of established
party interests, kept close tabs of dissident and rebellious factions
through his affiliation with the Council of the National Union. In
September, 1883 he had written Northcote advising him of Churchill's
intention to challenge Conservative party leaders by means of the
October Conference of the National Union.28
By December his concerns
had extended to the Primrose League.
Responding to Bartlett's
cautionary warning, Northcote noted in his diary,
27 Lady Dorothy Nevill, Leaves from the Note-Books of Lady
Dorothy Nevill, ed. Ralph Nevill (London: Macmillan and Comp., 1907),
pp. 18-19, 70-74. Idem, The Reminiscences of Lady Dorothy Nevill, ed.
Ralph Nevill (London: Edward Arnold, 1906), pp. 199-203.
28 Northcote's diary, 25 September 1883; typed copy,
Iddesleigh Papers, B.L. Add. MS. 50063 A, vol. 2.