The Henson Journals

[290]

Thursday, October 19th, 1916.

808th day

I received the following in reply to my letter about the Warden's "Life".

My dear Henson,

It will be a good deed, if you can carry this out. It will be very difficult. There is hardly anyone left who can tell about the early days – Eton & so on – thought there is a fragment of autobiography which may do instead. Who now remembers the days of the Oxford Commission, & the All Souls politics of that time? There was little more than a rumour of them left, when I came in & found a Robarts not the same as his reputation in College meetings. What is to be said about Anson's law–work, as a teacher & writer? And who knows his various ways of doing good works as Warden, & who can speak properly about them? His political work, though hard to treat rightly, is not lost beyond recovery.

His own introduction to Doyle's Essays is one of the finest pieces of biographical writing I know anywhere. But Miss Anson, I know, wants something larger.

Raleigh undertook it, & made a beginning – he had the right sort of skill, but he found he was not strong enough some time before his last illness. (This sound funereal, but you know what I mean. I saw him on Sunday, & he is hopeful.)

I hope you will accept, in spite of all the difficulties. You understand how to write history, & with the XVIIth century scale you could do everything possible, in the best way.

[288] [symbol]

I will help, all I can. I know that I never could have written the Life, & now I have very little time to spare. But I promised Miss Anson to do what I could – and it is little enough.

I have spent a good deal of the summer reading Swedish newspapers, & I have not been further North than Lichfield (where in Stowe Ho: you are remembered). It is very remarkable, but I do not remember a summer with happier days in it, & none more sorrowful. With all good wishes, I am always yours truly

W. P. Ker

I went to Rushworth, and bought a present for Ella to mark the 14th anniversary of our wedding, which falls tomorrow. Also, I attended Evensong, and afterwards went to the Masonic Hall, and did my duty at the meeting of the Lodge. I was admitted to be Junior Warden for the year. On my return I found a letter from Cyril Still, saying that news had been received that Reggie was "missing", probably killed. My last letter from him was dated but two days before the offensive in which he was lost. He wrote: "It is perfectly amazing how any human being can live under these circumstances. You at home cannot conceive how awful they are. I pray to God that I come out of the business alive, & if we go into battle, I shall go full of confidence in Him & myself. Good Bye! for now." The words disclose no unworthy mood in which a young soldier girds himself to meet his fate. I had come to care for the lad almost as if he had been my own son.

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