The Henson Journals

[81]

Saturday, February 22nd, 1919.

[symbol]

The weather was much warmer, but it was woefully wet all day. I walked to the Athenaeum, & there prepared the address for the service at St Paul's, or rather gave a final revision to what I had already prepared. Then I returned to the Deanery for lunch, & in due course proceeded to the Cathedral where a great congregation of men had assembled for the Memorial Service arranged in honour of the Printers and Journalists who had fallen during the war. Of those there were more than 5000. The service was very impressive. I gave my address, which, as I was afterwards assured, was well heard. Lords Rothermere & Burnham came into the vestry, & thanked me afterwards. After service, Ella & I went to Westminster, & had tea with the Pearces. Then I called on Mrs Clive, & discussed the hapless living of St Devereux. She had a notion of uniting it with Thruxton, which is legally impossible. Finally, I rejoined Ella at dinner with Sir John & Lady Struthers. Lord Shaw was there, & two other guests, whose names I did not catch. We had much vivacious conversation on a higher level than is common at dinner–parties in London: but the company was mainly Scotch, & that circumstance may suffice to explain the surprising fact, that serious conversation was not thought intolerable!

---