The Henson Journals

[50]

Saturday, May 19th, 1917.

1020th day

I finished the Sunderland sermon: attended Mattins: and presided at a meeting of Chapter, where the business was mainly formal, & all over in 25 minutes. Then I wrote to Sir Henry Graham accepting his suggestion that my letter to him shd be shown to Lord Lansdowne with the view of gathering his Lordship's view of my theory as to the decisive effect of Sir John Anson's death on the Warden's career. Then I took Col: Gaisford for a constitutional before lunch, & later attended Evensong. I wrote to Clarence Tait; walked again with Gaisford, & talked till dinner–time. The atmosphere was sultry and thunderous (last night there was a sharp thunderstorm with deluges of rain); & this circumstance may go some way to explain the utter failure to do any adequate work. This, added to the inevitable distraction of a guest, explains a good deal.

I received a cheerful letter from Olaf, who writes rhapsodically about the Viceroy, a fellow–Wykhamist. How potent is the bond which membership of a public school creates! Eton dominated Anson's life, & really coloured his judgment. I doubt if he could quite believe that an Etonian was on a level with other men. The superiority was too evident & too assured. The development of this intense & limited loyalty has been brought to the pitch of a fine art: and it operates powerfully within society. How far is it a genuinely good influence? The affirmative answer is not quite so obvious as one wd like it to be. But public schools are only large, artificial families; and the nepotism of school patriotism is not intrinsically different from the nepotism of family affection. Both hardly make for justice, or, in the long run, for efficiency.

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