The Henson Journals

[136]

Thursday, January 27th, 1921.

The papers report an appalling railway accident in Wales. No less than 16 persons were killed, including the late Lord Londonderry's brother, Vane Tempest, and two Harrow boys named Onslow. A packet of letters arrived from Auckland. I took it with me to the Club, & spent most of the morning in dealing with it. Then I walked to Hugh Rees, & left my copy of Moule's little book on Auckland Castle with him to be bound. After getting shampooed, I returned to the Athenaeum, & lunched there. Pearce sate with me, & afterwards we walked together to Lambeth, picking up Strong on the way. There was a considerable discussion on the "burning question" of the Central Finance Board, and a great volume of resentment & suspicion was disclosed, but there seems nothing to be done. The Archbishops have pledged themselves to see the Knutsford candidates through their academic career, and they call upon the Church to "honour the bill". It is an odd situation.

I dined in Park Lane. Besides me there was only Lord Haldane, & mine host and hostess. It was a very interesting evening. When we parted at 11 p.m., we were all sorry that it had ended. Our conversation ranged over a wide area. Haldane is a slippery optimist in economical matters. I pressed him hard, but he always evaded the practical issue. We discussed the question of divorce, & I indicated the independent line that I should take if the matter came up again in the House of Lords.

[137] [symbol]

Haldane told some interesting stories about the drinking habits that obtained in the Royal Household at Balmoral under Q. Victoria. Brown, her petted attendant, was wont regularly to steer the royal carriage by the Fife Arms in order that he might stop, & refresh himself. A flask of whiskey was regularly credited to her Majesty who had no other connexion with it than paying its price! Probably the wicked calumny as to her drinking propensities arose from this circumstance. Lord Breadalbane told him that when he took office, he found that a bottle of champagne was regularly provided in every guest's bedroom, it having once happened that a guest had fallen ill in the night, & been relieved with champagne. He spoke of the varying habits of orators in the matter of alcohol. Gladstone equipped himself with a large "pomatum jar" of violent liquids, which he consumed in the course of his speeches. Lord Morley always brought his own champagne. We spoke of prohibition which Haldane seemed to think of more favourably than I wd have expected. But he is deeply immersed in the cant of the latest Radicalism, which includes a vast profession of respect for Prohibition, mainly because the liquor interests are incorrigibly conservative! He promised to give me all the assistance in his power in the matter of my scheme for creating an effective faculty of Theology in the University of Durham. But can one trust him?

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