The Henson Journals

[80]

Friday, February 21st, 1919.

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The post brought from Carlton a refusal of Thruxton. I wrote forthwith to Nelson offering him the benefice, and indicating my opinion that he ought to accept it. Then we took our departure for London, arriving at Paddington "on time". We proceeded to St Paul's Deanery, where we found that Kitty was still in the nursing home, & that Mrs Spooner was acting hostess.Miss Barlow, a sensible woman, came to dinner. She told this story as illustrating the insensibility of the lower orders to fine feeling, & the character of their humour. Travelling one day in an omnibus she noticed that the conductor & the driver were not on good terms, for whenever the driver turned towards the conductor, the latter seemed to exasperate him by gently swinging his badge, which hung round his neck on a chain. She inquired at length why he did this. "It's to get a rise out of Bill. 'is father was 'ung. 'E ain't got no humour"! Miss Barlow averred that this actually came within her own experience. The materials of humour – the vivid paradoxes of life, & its squalid surprises – are so bound into the use and wont of their life, that the poor are extraordinarily amusing without knowing it. They provide the materials for the amusement of onlookers.

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