The Henson Journals

[42]

Saturday, November 22nd, 1919.

[symbol]

Today I have been "indisposed", and save for a few pages of the article in the morning and a confirmation in the chapel in the afternoon, was unable to do anything. Probably the inoculation yesterday (assisted by my interview with M.) was too much for me. Green, from Tynemouth, called with the news that he had been offered the living of Walford–on–Wye. He seemed disposed to accept it, and, as he has (or says he has) private means, he had better do so.

I finished Trevelyan's Life of Macaulay – a fascinating and informing book. It surprised me to learn that the Whig historian had so rich a vein of humour: that his domestic affections were so ardent: that he was so generous in his private charities. I had not realised the deliberate and sustained devotion implied in his work on the History; nor did I know that he made so considerable a figure in politics. How far we have travelled since his time! Politics then was still an affair of the great families & a ring of professionals: now, with an electorate of 20 millions, what can it be but a gambling business?

---