The Henson Journals

[37]

Monday, February 9th, 1920.

Prof. Bacon went off after breakfast, and the car which carried him to the station returned to take me. Hardly had I settled myelf in the carriage & opened the "Times", before my eye fell on the announcement of Raleigh's death. He has been moribund for many months past, so that his actual departure is what men call "a happy release". There is an appreciative notice in the "Times" but his real excellence was unsuspected. He was certainly one of the best Christians I have ever fortuned to meet. My friendship with him began with my election at All Souls in 1884, and lasted up to the end. I wrote to Frank Pember from the Athenaeum saying that I hoped to attend the funeral.

Mr Gilbert Coleridge introduced himself to me in the Club. His wife appears to be some relation of mine. I dined with Sir John & Lady Struthers. They had got two other Scots to meet me – Lord Justice Clerk (?) and Sir William McLaughlin (?). We had a brisk conversation on politics. I encountered Lord Bryce in the Club: he says that he thinks Lord Grey's letter is admirable, but that it is too favourable to the Republican leaders, who are actuated by a bitter personal hatred of Wilson. But Wilson provokes fierce antipathy. He did so at Princeton, where the University was divided into implacable factions.

Harold over the telephone pledged me to dine on Friday.

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