The Henson Journals

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4th Sunday after Trinity, July 5th, 1914.

The drowning of Sir Dennis Anson in the Thames is a painful, even tragical, occurrence. A midnight party on the river is not a dignified framework for death: and when one contrasts the scene at Oxford, when his Uncle was buried with unprecedented demonstrations of respect & affection, it is hard to resist the impression that an outrage on an honoured name has been committed. At 26 one can scarcely plead the excuses of youth, & yet the severity of one's censure must needs be arrested when one remembers the gross absurdities & worse, of which one is one's self capable still, though near twice as old! But it surely did not shew good feeling to be able to fling one's self into gaieties within a month of his Uncle's death, to whom he owed not merely his title, but its public fame. The Gospel for this Sunday places an arrest on one's uncharitable thoughts – "Judge not, that ye be not judged". Well it is for all of us that the final verdict on ourselves and our actions is entrusted to the Author of that searching and difficult counsel. It distressed one also that the fatal party should have included a former fellow of the College: Raymond Asquith.

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