The Henson Journals

[395]

Saturday, September 18th, 1915.

411th day

A wet day, and a depressing newspaper! No foreign news, but the columns filled with gossip about an alleged plot to oust the present Ministry from office. The advocates of compulsory service may, or may not be right on that issue, but it is certain that they include in their number the most reckless politicians, & the most thorough–going partisans in the country. They appear to have captured Lloyd George, who has become for the moment the darling of the 'stern & unbending Tories! Everything really turns on the question of a shifty Welshman's character. Is he capable of lending himself to the betrayal of his chief?

[397]

I travelled to Uppingham without excessive discomfort. Leaving Durham at 10.29 a.m. I arrived (with changes at Darlington and Peterboro) at Manton about 4.30 p.m. where a motor met me & carried me to the school. The rain ceased about noon but the day was overcast & unpleasant to the end. I was kindly received by the headmaster (Mackenzie) and his wife, and after teas was taken for a walk round the buildings & playing fields. At the end of the chapel there is a sitting figure of Thring, the true founder of the modern school. A little Elizabethan grammar school with 35 boys was transformed by the genius & pertinacity of one man into a splendid public school with more than 400. Thring gave a great place to music in the system of education, though not himself musical. But his wife was German, and she carried into the school the German passion for music. There is but a petty endowment – about £800 per annum – but the profits are considerable and the loyalty of 'old boys' is an unfailing resource. Thus the school has been able to equip itself on an ample, and even generous scale with all the plant which the exalted educational standard of our age demands. I was shown an admirable swimming bath and gymnasium. Also a collection of foreign birds in a fine aviary. This was another of Thring's notions. One of the assistant masters – Taylor, a D.Litt. of Oxford for his work in Tamil – came to dinner. He appeared to be both intelligent & agreeable. After house prayers, Mackenzie shewed me the studies and dormitory & then we sate in his study for awhile discussing Durham in the past and in the present. Mackenzie was Budworth's predecessor in the Headmastership of Durham School, & his accounts of men & matters was not only interesting but in many ways valuable.

---