The Henson Journals

[1]

Saturday, September 27th, 1913.

We left Durham at 8.20 a.m. & travelled easily to London. At King's Cross we met Mary Scott, and drove with her to Westminster. Here we went into Henry VII's chapel, and noted the changes effected there since the inauguration of the Bath. The bright new banners of the knights look rather gaudy: but the removal of dust from the masonry has brought into view the astonishing beauty of the sculptured work. We noted also the new window in the nave placed there by the Civil Engineers to the memory of Lord Kelvin. In the cloisters we fell in with Westlake & his wife, & were shown their newly furnished house. Then we looked at the clearance in Dean's Yard, where the new Choir School is to rise. Here we parted, Ella & Mary going off together to pay some calls, & I making my way to the Athenaeum, where I wrote to Archdeacon Holmes, read the papers, & had tea. Ella & I met again at Waterloo Station, where we took the express to Southampton West. We were the guests for the week end of Mitchell, the Vicar of Highfield. The Bishop of Southampton & Miss Macarthur came to dinner. Sir Louis Dane & his wife were also of the party. At one time he won a R.M. in Ireland.

[2]

We discussed the situation in Ireland. He said that the persistent hostility to the forces of the Crown was beginning to provoke resentment in the soldiers' minds. There was a bitter feeling against the Nationalists in the Army, & English regiments could hardly be trusted to suppress a revolt in Ulster. If the employment of Roman Catholic regiments were attempted, there would be a religious war throughout the island. He said that the Roman Catholic population in Ulster was greatly excited by the near prospect of Home Rule, and no doubt had been threatening their Protestant neighbours with formidable consequences when once the day had come. It is a miserable situation into which the country has been brought. Sir Louis Dane was 'foreign secretary' to Curzon in India, & expressed great admiration for his character. His services to the native population were many & valuable, but gained for him no gratitude, because the tactlessness with which he rebuked the characteristic mendacity of Asiaticks provoked a bitter but not unnatural resentment. His imperiousness was a grave practical weakness, but his devotion to duty, his laboriousness, & his genuine zeal for the public interest were beyond praise. It is a melancholy reflection that merits so considerable, should be outbalanced in the general estimate by personal mannerisms, which argue no moral turpitude, & affect no public interest.

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Issues and controversies: irish home rule